Palin: Much worse than a faceplant into cement at high velocity

I've maintained since the nomination of Sarah Palin that America hasn't reached the astounding level of political cynicism and superficiality necessary to elect a woman this abhorrently unqualified. The bad thing about voicing these predictive political theories, however, is that I can brag about being right in November if she loses, but I'll have no choice but to throw myself off a building if I'm wrong. Indeed, every time I read a story about Palin's political history or core belief system, that tall building gets a little bit higher:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Los Angeles Times) -- Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, a local music teacher said, she startled him during a casual conversation by insisting that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth only 6,000 years old -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct.

After conducting a college band and watching Palin deliver a commencement address to a small group of home-schooled students, Wasilla resident Philip Munger said he questioned the young mayor about her religious beliefs during a June 1997 encounter.

Munger said Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time." When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska inAnchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on a liberal political blog.

Although in her race for governor she clamored for faith-based "intelligent design" to counter the teaching of evolution in Alaska's classrooms, Gov. Palin has not sought to require it in state schools, Alaska educators say.

As governor and in her formative role as mayor of Wasilla, Palin has tread carefully between her evangelical faith and public policy.

In issues ranging from abortion to library books, she has pressed the envelope as far as Alaska's live-and-let-live culture will allow. But she has not always bolstered her strongly held beliefs with government action and has at times retreated when her moves sparked controversy or proved politically impractical.

She has harnessed the political muscle of social conservatives and antiabortion groups, yet did not push hard for a special legislative session on abortion and reluctantly did not challenge a court ruling that allowed health insurance for same-sex partners of state workers.

Palin has repeatedly attended prayer sessions with Christian pastors and has quietly sought their guidance -- but she is often mum on matters of faith in high-profile public forums.

Her aides say Palin's caution at the intersection of religion and governance is a studied effort to share her beliefs without imposing them on Alaska's fiercely independent political culture.

"She's obviously an intensively religious person," said Bill McAllister, Palin's chief spokesman as governor. "She understands that she's the governor and not preacher-in-chief. Religion informs her decisions, but she is not out to impose her views on Alaska."

McAllister said he has never heard Palin reprise those 1997 remarks about dinosaurs and that Palin has preferred not to discuss her views on evolution publicly -- though a former campaign aide said that Palin privately made a similar reference during her 2006 race for Alaska governor. "I've never had a conversation like that with her or been apprised of anything like that," he said. McAllister added that "the only bigotry that's still safe is against Christians who believe in their faith." The thought that dinosaurs and men coexisted early on in a world newly created by God is a popular strain in creationist belief.

Critics say she holds back from trying to codify her fervent faith-based views when she senses that she'll have a political price to pay.

"She's got a fine-tuned sense of how far to push," said John Stein, who was toppled as mayor of Wasilla by Palin after he guided her into her political career.
Stein said Palin displayed only vague hints of her fundamentalist Assembly of God upbringing when he first backed her for a nonpartisan run for Wasilla City Council in the early 1990s. But in 1996, when Palin ousted Stein with the aid of pink-colored antiabortion mailers and busloads of Christian grass-roots activists, she grew more overt about her plans, he said.

She combined her staff meetings with prayer sessions, Stein said, and upset the town's chief librarian by asking about how to ban books that she considered offensive. The move was never carried out, Stein said, only because "the library director was horrified and stood up to her."

"Sarah brought it up because she knew there was a moral majority in Wasilla who needed their voices heard," counters Geri McCann, who ran Wasilla's town museum under Palin.