Dear Sarah Palin
I hope that you will see this open letter from the United Kingdom – to help you it’s the island just off the west coast of Europe – as it isn’t clear whether you have ever been here. Or anywhere much else outside the US of A for that matter. Maybe you have been able to travel without a Passport – I do hope so because the thought of a prospective President of the United States who at the age of 44 hasn’t felt the need to see the world outside of your national borders is a wee bit scary.
You may say that as a Brit without a vote I should just leave all these things American to you and your fellow citizens. That would be OK if you were standing for election in Bulgaria, or Botswana or even Brazil – and certainly Alaska. But you are not. You are standing to be elected to a position that could really quite likely see you as the leader of the free world. That’s the world that I live in as well.
Is there such a thing as the “world community� Well yes I think that there is – and that community has a diversity that I would hope anyone presumptuous enough to be a heartbeat from the presidency would take seriously and would have studied. We are not some poor relation of Uncle Sam these days you know – even though we know that if Uncle Sam has a head cold we might shiver a bit ourselves. Senator Obama went down well on his recent trip to Europe and though he is a loyal and patriotic American his very parenthood shows that he has a hinterland. Do you?
If you care for America’s place in the world can you put that place into perspective because you have seen a fair bit of the world that provides the context? Or are your reference points purely American reference points? If they are then I am sorry Mrs Palin it just isn’t good enough. Of course any elected official in high office must care first of all for the people that placed them there. But America has always had an international perspective – it comes from the Roosevelts, the Eisenhowers, the Nixons, the Kennedys, the Clintons and the Bush seniors who have travelled and listened and learned. If you have the ambition to lead your nation and indirectly the free world – to combat the dangers of Russia, the threat of the Islamist extremist world, the challenge of Europe and the potential hegemony of China then there is nothing in your life so far that gives me the confidence that you can do it. And with John McCain in office well into his seventies and with faltering health I would worry about that.
Sincerely
Paddy Briggs
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20 users commented in " An open letter to Sarah Palin "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackExcellent points. I’m glad McCain nominated her, I think it will push the undecided in the right direction.
Mr. Briggs assumes everyone should kowtow to the Brits and European elites who run the media and the “multinational institutions”.
How Eurocentric of him.
An Open Letter to Paddy Briggs
Dear Paddy,
Chances are really good that Sarah has been to that little piece of land the Brits own between her state and the mainland of the United States. I’m pretty sure her education alone has helped her be aware that Great Britain is the United States greatest and most treasured alliance. Don’t forget, one of the first things she did was introduce herself as a soccor mom. Now you know she knows who the UK is. Lighten up!
MSP
I think that she said that she was/is a “hockey mom” – a bit different! Not a game we play much over here (the ice variety that is!).
If she has had the odd stopover in Canada I hope that she has learned, unlike you it seems, that the Brits don’t own it but that it is a sovereign state.
Regards
Thank you!
The media over here (in the US) seems more interested in her teenage daughter’s sexual activity than in Palin’s lack of travel. (NPR did try to press the issue, but the campaign spokesperson just ignored the question and answered something completely different.
I’m with you. Her apparent lack of interest in the rest of the world is distressing. But I suspect it’s part of what makes her so attractive to the religious right.
Dear Paddy,
It is clear that you Brits haven’t gotten over the fact that England is no longer a world power.
Any American who has traveled abroad becomes quickly aware that Americans aren’t liked by Europeans and quite frankly…who cares?
In point of fact, anyone who hasn’t traveled to Europe is fortunate because they have avoided becoming infected with whatever it is that you are all afflicted with that impacts memory, clear thinking ability and work ethic.
You made some excellent points. Thanks.
Very interesting Open Letter Paddy – well said!
pathetic, is all I can think of if only I read het name
If you Americans don’t want Governor Palin as your VP, please may we have her here in Britain? We are desparately in need of decent leadership, and she’d be a great Prime Minister.
This comment reminds me of the middle ages tenet that Europe was the center of the universe. I suppose that’s similar to eurocentism? In any case, I know a few in my own family who really weren’t to keen on the going ons in Europe before they were shipped out to that continent (which I know really doesn’t include the British Isles) back in 1943. Although they didn’t know crickett from a frog, they soon figured out how to get the Nazis out of there. I’m sure that Palin really hasn’t paid too much thought to the continental lifestyle and politics for the moment, I’m sure she’ll know what to do when the Islamo-Fascist try to take over you guys this time.
I thought the little island off the west coast of Europe was Ireland?
Thanks Paddy. Is it ok if I cut and paste your loose thoughts and carry them with me today as I register voters to vote? You provide excellent support that obama is an elitist and an extreme kooky leftist. I can show your post along with Rev. Wright’s “G-D Damn America,” and the Obama endorsement from Herr Brown, Hamas, and Qaddafi in which Qaddafi says Obama is a Muslim. My rural community will be enraged by your snide attitude and arrogance. It’s just the thing I needed. Thank you. BTW, I was going to sign up at school to visit Great Britain, but I know now your country has nothing of worth to offer Americans. You see, liberalism is the antithesis of intellectualism, and you demonstrate that truth well. Sarah Palin is an average American. Everything you and other snobs, represented by Obama, say about her you say about me. When this election is over, I’m going to start a grassroots effort in the Republican Party to withdraw the USA from NATO. You’re not worth American lives or the billions of dollars that are taken out of our paychecks to support your defense. Good riddance.
Thank you, Paddy, for your excellent letter.
Sarah Palin reminds me of the spanish inquisition. I think that by choosing her, they did the democrats a great favour.
Yeah, the last thing we need is an American in the White House.
Thank you, dearest bloggers. Yessss, I feel better. My work here is done. Now I must hit the road to register as many Republicans to vote as possible. Fellow Christians are my first choice, which includes just about every one of my neighbors if they are home and not in jail.
I’m underwhelmed by your letter, Paddy. I’m voting for McCain/Palin. And I can thank you for helping me make up my mind.
You should, perhaps, do a lot more research on Obama. If it is not too much trouble for you. Then you will see how totally inexperienced and unsuitable he is. As his VP choice quipped in a 2007 debate that the presidency is not something that lends itself to on the job training.
Palin has been a mayor and is currently the Governor of Alaska.
Obama has been a “community organizer” and, after being a senator for all of 120 days, begin campaigning for the POTUS.
Hmmm, tough choice.
Let those flatter, who fear: it is not an American art. To give praise where it is not due, might well be from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of human nature.–Thomas Jefferson
1) Obama ad takes heat for McCain cyber shot. Insensitivity to war injuries cited
By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff / September 14, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/14/obama_ad_takes_heat_for_mccain_cyber_shot/
2) EDITORIAL: A debate Obama cannot win
Sunday, September 14, 2008
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/14/a-debate-obama-cannot-win/
3) Barack Obama the speechmaker is being rumbled. There is a yawning gulf between what the Democratic candidate says and how he has acted. That’s why the race is so close…Gerard Baker http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4735295.ece
4) My personal experience: Last spring, I wrote a school paper comparing all the candidates on NAFTA. When I started my paper, I had to update twice while O kept changing his positions. He matched Hillary’s position at the end. First, he was adamantly opposed to any free trade agreement and wanted to withdraw from the WTO. He changed in a matter of days to fully supporting NAFTA and the WTO, but added Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should renegotiate (with Mexico, which we already do anyway).
Now, he’s running in the general election, and O’s position on NAFTA matches McCain’s to the letter. O has had three positions on NAFTA since March, and that is only ONE example of his shifting on the issues. Come on…pick any issue, and I’ll show you the ultimate politician who offers the strength and trustworthiness of shifting sand. You can’t name a single issue that he hasn’t radically altered from one extreme position clear to the opposite side, sometimes within a 24 hour period as he did on dividing Jerusalem.
The last time I argued an O issue with a liberal online, O changed to my position during the online debate, abandoning the liberal on other side. I believe O has done that with one constituency group after another; his campaign leaves a trail behind it of brokenhearted and leaderless wrecks.
FYI: Europe represents a sorta constituency. If the past is ANY indicator of the future, O would throw Europe under the bus faster than he screwed the 18 million people who voted for Hillary.
He is, dear Virginia/Paddy, the product of Chicago thug politics, where the object is to eliminate your competition and win by default, rather than by competition of substance and ideas. He holds no loyalty to any group or any high ideal–except for himself. He is consistent only in that he wants to be President. O has never had to compete in an election to the finish–ever. He won the senate seat by publishing the opponents divorce records. Then his competitor had to withdraw. He won the seat by default, just as he was selected, not elected, in the Democratic primary. And that’s why O has dropped thirty dirt-investigators into Wassilla looking for anything to spin as gossip on Palin…politics as usual for a Chicago thug who can’t compete on ideas or substance. O wants Palin to withdraw so he can win.
McCain, on the other hand, has repeatedly shown honor, fairness, and virtue throughout his life; he can be counted on to reach out his enemies because his entire life has been built around harmony and standing in the broken places until dreams meet reality, to the chagrin of pragmatic Conservatives everywhere. Oh, you didn’t hear about that? Of course not.
Check out Obama’s income taxes, which all candidates have to publish. I know people, living close to poverty, who gave more to charity in 2007 than the Obamas did.
Good Luck Paddy and liberal bloggers. You need it if you cling to an earthbound star. Meanwhile, Americans will continue to battle against Obama and his minions for the preservation of freedom. Obama is a grave threat because he is a socialist. Who supports and launched him is an entire separate post.
An Open Letter to Sarah Palin:
http://www.aish.com/family/mensch/An_Open_Letter_to_Sarah_Palin.asp
From one parent of a child with Down syndrome to another.
by Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith
Sarah Palin is a very brave woman.
Shooting down a moose is very dangerous. We have lots of these animals in our neighbour country Sweden. A moose is a very large, slow and totally harmless animall. You just cannot miss it.
Well done Sarah
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