Posted by
Rickey Braddam on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:37:29 PM
Recent events have caused me to re-evaluate my position. I had decided to vote for Charles Baldwin of the Constitution Party, not as a protest vote against the Republican Party but because the CP subscribes to the principles I believe in and the Republican Party had clearly abandoned those principles.
McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for his Vice-President changed my mind. It doesn't make up for his getting even with the Republican Party (for eight years) for not selecting him to be the Presidential candidate in 2000. It doesn't make up for his ignoring established law and sponsoring legislation to amnesty millions who are in violation of the law. It doesn't make up for his sponsoring legislation which infringes on free speech. It doesn't make up for... well, you get the idea.
All it does is give us the opportunity to steer the Republican Party toward Constitutional principles in the future. Sara Palin will not be the savior of the country by her own actions, but the attention she draws to the political parties and processes can be. Sara may be able to awaken the "sleeping giant" of the "silent majority" and motivate them to become active in the political process. If they are motivated we can educate them about the "directions" each party wants the country to take and the possible consequences of going in those directions.
Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while. McCain got lucky, not by choosing Sarah, but by the fact that she was there to choose. I'm sure he considered his choices long and hard and made the choice he thought would be most effective at getting him elected. I doubt he had any idea of how enthusiasticly the citizens of the United States would respond to his choice.
As you may have guessed, I'm going to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket. Not for McCain, I still consider him a traitor to the Constitution, but for Palin. You may think I believe she can go to DC and clean out the corruption there. There's practically zero chance of that, she doesn't have the authority or power to do it as VP. She may be able to influence him to omit the amnesty paragraph in his next attempt to get a Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (Comprehensive Illegal Alien Amnesty Act) passed, but the chance of that is slim.
The VP has only two responsibilities assigned by the Constitution: act as or replace the President when necessary and serve as the President of the Senate.
Go ahead, look it up for yourself. You won't find anything in the Constitution or any of the amendments that assigns other duties or responsibilities to the VP! I find that very interesting, I think I'll write another essay to discuss it.
I haven't forgotten that the President can delegate any authority to the VP he wishes but the responsibility for the VPs actions in that case remains with the President. All it takes to delegate authority is (I believe until corrected) an Executive Order. You can't delegate responsibility.