Sara Palin talked a tough talk. She looked good, and she energized the crowd. If I did not know the issues or care about the issues and wanted to take someone solely on their face, then she would be appealing to me. However, on energy and environmental issues she fails. As a result, if she fails on those key issues then she fails on national security too.

In her speech, she claimed that we need to produce our own energy, and there is plenty of oil and gas in the north slope of Alaska. However, there isn’t enough to sustain American consumption, and since oil is sold on the international market, there isn’t enough for China or India as well. In her speech, she subscribed to the all of the above energy approach, and she listed nonrenewable energy before renewable energy solutions as her remedy to our energy problems. She claimed that American needs to lay more pipelines, nuclear plants, and develop “clean” coal. Afterwards, she mentioned solar, wind and geothermal energy. Honestly, I am suspicious of her approach to our energy needs, and I believe the all of the above approach is wrong, since the approach doesn’t solve unsustainable consumption or climate change. We need more renewable energy. The all of the above energy approach is political pandering and an attempt at voter appeal.

Sarah Palin also mocked Obama for attempting to “heal the planet.” Republicans like to attack environmentalists for “doom and gloom.” However, she advocated the republican style of doom and gloom by playing the terrorism card. She is too shortsighted to handle the bigger issue, which breeds terrorism and discontent, and if solved could do more to fight terrorism than any republican remedy – environmental degradation. She spoke nothing of providing clean water, food, medicine, and education to the world. Certainly, sex education was off the list, and universal health care for Americans wasn’t mentioned either.

Undoubtedly, this would be another war administration, and this administration will not put America on a sustainable path. We can’t afford another aggressive, reckless, and ignorant republican administration that refuses to accept that resources are finite. We don’t have the blood or treasure. The Bush Administration has made the planet unsafe, and so would a McCain Administration. In my opinion, neither John McCain or Sarah Palin are qualified to be an American president, because the world has changed so much, and its too diverse. We need progressive leadership like Obama, who will listen.