Political Quandry

The race for president is heating up with the conclusion of the Democratic Convention and the onset of the Republican convention. Both candidates have chosen their running mates. And now, I start to weigh heavily the pro's and con's of each team of candidates. After all, if #2 is supposed to be able to take over for #1 shouldn't we be evaluating both members of the team, not just the "aggregate" characteristics of the team?

I'm a huge family value supporter. No, I do not believe in abortion but I would call myself pro-choice rather than anti-abortion. I don't feel I need to impose my moral values on others who may not share the same value -- I wish they would, but that's beside the point and there are a ton of factors that effect each person's decision on that issue. Yes, I believe that we ought to do something proactive to assist families in being stronger families whether that assistance comes from education, medical care, affordable housing - lots of temporal things affect our families. But I don't believe that in offering assistance we should be creating families who are solely dependant upon government aide and not using their own resources (time, talent, hard work) to help themselves as well. And yes, I believe in what some might call antiquated notions of family responsibilities.

So, imagine my surprise when the Republican candidate selects for himself a young, inexperienced, anti-abortion, mother of a 4 month old with special needs. You mean to tell me that running for vice-president and all that will entail over the next several months, that performing the duties of vice-president and all that will entail over the next several months... that with all of the travel and hoopla and circus that woman will have the opportunity to provide that little baby with the care it deserves from its mother? And just what does that say for her family values? [I can raise the same question about the Democratic candidate hauling his young children around as well]

I also wonder if she has any idea that the Republican machine has just selected her to be their "balancing" agent and could care less about her family values. She's everything their candidate is not: young, inexperienced, small children at home... and the biggest balancer of all, she's a woman. I wonder how many commercials/cartoons/editorials we're now going to see about how those democrats who were undecided about getting behind the Democratic candidate who isn't a woman will finally have a woman to support.

Yes, I know... sounds very judgemental of me when I look at what I've written. Even I can see that. But this is my initial reaction.

I'm not saying that women shouldn't run for office and that mothers make horrible candidates, but I do wonder about their priorities when news like this comes out.

Perhaps I'll be more pleasantly suprised in the weeks to come and we get to know this woman better.