Do Pit Bulls Belong on Your Team?

It’s interesting watching the media and public react to the Pit Bulls with Lipstick line that VP candidate Sarah Palin threw out at the GOP convention last week. 

There is nothing charming or funny about a Pit Bull with Lipstick–they are destructive in their paths; they are bullies who prey on those they believe to be less confident and insecure and knowledgeable; and they are ruthless in their targeting.

Because of the pending election, the # of calls and emails that I’ve gotten from others who wanted to to know what my take on Ms. Palin is, I’ve spent a great deal of time this past week trying to figure out who she is.  Surely, many of my writers and callers said, I would be excited about the possibility of having such a dynamic woman heading to the White House.

Indeed, I would be excited about the possibility of having a dynamic woman (as I would be of having a dynamic man) heading toward the White House.  But, and it’s a huge but,  is she or he qualified and the right person?

Initially, I was appalled that a smart guy like John McCain would select someone like Sarah Palin as a VP with what appeared to be within such a short timeframe–how could he really know if she was the right partner for him… and for our country?

Frankly, I felt insulted, as a woman, as a citizen, and as someone who has raised many thousands of dollars for female candidates running for state and national office over the years.  How could he ignore some of the women in office who appeared at first glance to have so much more on the ball and experience than Ms. Palin… women like Hawaii’s Gov. Linda Lingle or Maine’s two Senators, Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins?

So, this past week, I’ve been Googling, Wikepediaing, YouTubing, talking to others, etc.  What I read, heard, see is not pretty.

There is no question that Ms. Palin has helped John McCain… at least for now. He can be the good guy, she can be bad guy–the Pit Bull. But, do you want a Pit Bull in the form of Ms. Palin on your team, running your country?

My conclusion is NO, NO and NO.  There’s a letter from an Alaskan resident, Anne Kilkenney, that has been verified as true on Snopes.com, the Internet fact checker for all things rumored. It begins to open up Ms. Palin’s scrapbook. I suggest that each of you go to it and read–it’s more of “this is the Sarah I knew before she was elected, this is what happened in Wasilla when she was elected, and this is what has happened since she left. “

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/sarahpalin.asp

 

For women, and men, to let their common sense slide and embrace Ms. Palin because she looks good, can deliver one-liners and is a Mom is ridiculous.

Let’s start with the Mom title… yep, she’s one.  Is she a good one?  I don’t know… I do know that with my healthcare background, a good Mom on her 5th pregnancy would NEVER put her unborn special needs child at risk by flying on an 8 hour flight to a conference 8 months pregnant, have her water start to “leak” at the conference (which any woman who’s had a baby and any healthcare professional know…labor has begun), get back on a plane, fly 8 hours back home for delivery of a now, premature special needs infant.  What would a good Mom do?… she would get her tush and its surrounding body parts to the closest hospital that deals with high risk pregnancies to make sure that her baby, and she, get the best of care. Period.

Would a good Mom want to expose her pregrant daughter to the national stage?  Most likely, no… that is unless the good Mom thought it would benefit her daughter… and her.  The news from the GOP camps says that the 17-year old and 18-year old will marry soon.  Is this happily ever after?  Probably not, we now have two high school kids… the odds in their favor aren’t high.  Let’s hope they both finish school and learn a trade that will support them and their family and let’s hope they beat the odds and aren’t divorced within a few years.

Since Ms. Palin is against sex education in schools and her track record as Gov. shows that she has veoted funds for such education in the Alaskan schools, it sounds to me like Ms. Palin didn’t do such a good job of educating her own daughter … or for that matter, chaperoning her during the many months she was off school “recovering” from mono and got pregnant.

The absurb statement that Ms. Palin has extensive executive experience is a slap in the face to millions.  She was a mayor of a small town–at the time she went on the town council, the population of Wasilla was approximately 5,000 and debt free.  The city budget was under $13,000,000 a year. Ms. Palin  championed the building of big box stores and a sports complex.  The revenues that were projected to come in from the complex haven’t materialized and the city now has millions of dollars in debt.

Let’s compare that to Barack Obama.  The complaints focus on his executive and leaderhip experience saying that he’s had none. Leaders need vision.  Ms. Palin had a vision of a sports complex for a small community of a few thousand people.  She got it passed and the city now has debt it never had in the past. 

Mr. Obama had a vision that involved a change in Washington DC–Ms. Palin’s vision wasn’t in that direction, nor anything along the size of Mr. Obama’s. For a leader to support their vision, they need a team to support and implement it. I’m sure Ms. Palin’s team went to bat to get the required percentage of the population to vote for the sports complex.  Mr. Obama built a team that grew to thousands of paid, as well as nonpaid volunteers. The operating budget grew to over $200,000,000. No debt.

Now, you do the math.  I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to comprehend that Barack Obama’s vision and leadership is on a tad higher level than Sarah Palin’s.

Pit Bulls are bullies.  Ms. Palin tried to bully her small town’s Librarian to censor several books that weren’t too her liking.  I haven’t seen the list of books that she wanted banned… I’m going to assume that it parallels the one that many of the churches want out of the public’s hands … such as The Color Purple, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Go Tell Alice, Catch 22, Catcher in the Rye, even Harry Potter.

Many of the townspeople rallied against Ms. Palin and supported Wasilla’s Librarian.  As an author and publisher, I support the right of authors and their words.  I may not like their words, but our Constitution guarantees the right to say and write them. I don’t have to read them and I can choose to or not to. I don’t need a Pit Bull telling me what I should be reading.

Ms. Palin and her supporters say she’s an outsider.  Complaints about Mr. Obama circle around the limited time he’s been a US Senator–not enough experience, he’s too green.  So, Ms. Palin gets credit for having no Washington DC contact/influence/experience and Mr. Obama gets complaints because he hasn’t been a Senator as long as Mr. McCain/that he doesn’t have enough influence? 

I said it before …There is nothing charming or funny about a Pit Bull with Lipstick–they are destructive in their paths; they are bullies who prey on those they believe to be less confident and insecure and knowledgeable; and they are ruthless in their targeting.

Pit Bulls can be male or female.  The can come in all kinds of size and shapes. When they have a “charm” factor to them, they can be toxic and lethal. Looks are often deceiving.

As a consultant to organizations that have operating budgets of multi-millions of dollars, my advice is to get rid of the Pit Bulls as soon as possible. Whatever documentation is needed to do the job, do it and then take action.  If not done, an organization will end up keeping their Losers and losing their Keepers. Morale drops, productivity dives, teams are splintered, stress increases–organizations loses big bucks. It’s no different in politics.

Tags: bullies, mccain, obama, pit bulls, pit bulls with lipstick, pitbulls, polotics, sarah palin