Time is getting a lot of press over its revelation that Sarah Palin, as mayor, tried to ban some books from the local library and threatened to fire the librarian.

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. “She asked the library how she could go about banning books,” he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. “The librarian was aghast.” The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving “full support” to the mayor.

Stein is, curiously, the LOSER that Palin beat in the mayor’s race. Nothing from the librarian and no cites for the “news reports from the time”.

Just a fact free diatribe from a LOSER and Time presents it as fact.

Palin would not have been the first mayor to be approached by voters and asked about the books that the library stocked. I suspect you could find hundreds if not thousands of similar stories. Even state governments and [gasp] Congress have fallen into that trap. No books were banned.

A small town mayor responded to the concerns of her fellow villagers. Just like mayors all over the world do every single day.

She did not fire the librarian. We do not know what was going on since the “news reports from the time” are not quoted or cited and the librarian was not found for comment.

This isn’t journalism. It’s tabloid trash.

People dismiss the women who participate in beauty pageants as mindless drones enslaved to makeup and plastic surgery.

I beg to differ. I would suggest that the fact that Sarah Palin participated in beauty pageants enhances her qualifications for the office of Vice President.

It’s called a competition for a reason. The girls and women compete. That takes a certain amount of training and “game day” preparation.

You don’t just decide to compete and walk on. You have to study, learn what is expected, and learn how to present yourself in the way the judges expect. And every pageant is different.

It takes drive and determination. It takes adaptability and an ability to think on your feet. You learn a set of skills, practice them and then present them in a public forum where you are judged on that presentation.

I have flatly stated here and in other venues that the things that make a woman successful in beauty pageants are those qualities and traits that make them successful in the military. I have devoted an entire category of posts to those women I have discovered have been both beauty pageant participants and have served in the military.

Several of these women have been awarded medals for their courage under fire. Facing beauty pageant judges might be very similar to surviving an al-Qaeda ambush.

Please do not underestimate Sarah Palin on the basis of her participation in beauty pageants. The character traits she developed during those experiences are exactly those we ought to have in our Vice President and President.

Jay Rosen pointed me to this Talking Points Memo.

Marshall makes a couple of points:

1. Mark Halperin quotes George Stephanopoulos as saying that McCain has sent 10 people to Alaska to do more background work on Sarah Palin. He also says “Democrats say… the McCain campaign didn’t even go through Gov. Palin’s local newspapers.”
2. ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper reports that folks with the Alaskan Independence Party claim Palin was a member in 1994. Tapper describes the party as a “fringe” party even though it managed to get Walter Hickel elected governor in 1990.

Well, let’s see. Noted liberals Marshall, Halperin and Stephanopoulos, as well as “Democrats” have intimate knowledge of the working of the McCain campaign. Sure. [/sarcasm]

And, Palin may have belonged to a political party that was strong enough in Alaska to elect a governor.

Out of all that, one charge that amounts to balderdash, belonging to a political party with some power in her home state. God forbid, she might have joined the Democratic Party.

As for the supposed team of crack McCain operatives sent to Alaska, [giggle]. No, really [giggle].

More content free prose from the left.

Here’s some of the questions the left is raising about Sarah Palin:

Inexperience: What would she do about the War on Terror if President? Could she handle the job? This is just a way of slyly pointing out that Sarah Palin is a woman. And, you know, women can’t fight wars. Other than Margaret Thatcher and Golda Mier. And lots of other patriotic, educated, thoughtful women.

Motherhood: How can she be a good mother and President? Shouldn’t she be home taking care of her baby? Was John Kennedy a good father? He had small children. Another sly reference to Palin’s sex, and denigrating the abilities of working moms.

Foreign policy: She has no foreign policy experience. Just because she’s Governor of a state that borders two foreign countries, she can’t know anything. Barry Obama knows less. He’s never governed a state, or anything for that matter, and he thinks borders is a bookstore. Joe Biden has never governed anything and he favors breaking up sovereign nations without their permission. We have a State Department and a Defense Department for a reason. Sarah Palin is smart enough to look to the experts when she needs to.

If you are easily shocked, cover your eyes. Sarah Palin does not have a penis. That is the sum total of the left’s criticism of her. At 44, she is not a girl but a woman. She is self-made, a wife and mother, comfortable in the outdoors and in the conference room. She represents everything that the left has been battling for with women’s rights for the last forty years. She is success on that issue.

So, since she does not believe as they do, they attack her as a woman, as weak, inexperienced, as incapable of handling the tough job of President. Just as Clarence Thomas is not black, Sarah Palin cannot be a a “real” woman because she is not a man.

Sarah Palin for Vice President.

Everything we could want in a candidate.