By Lisa Fary
Could Sarah Palin be our real life Laura Roslin?
Sarah Palin does resemble Laura Roslin, as pointed out all over the web. Doubtless, there are similarities beyond their physical appearance. Prior to the Cylon attack, Roslin was the Secretary of Education, 43rd in line for the presidency, inexperienced and unprepared for her newfound duties as the leader of the Twelve Colonies. With experience as a small town councilwoman, small town mayor, and governor of one of America’s least populous (but one of the most well funded) states, Sarah Palin may be equally as unprepared should she find herself leader of the United States.
But, how similar are Laura Roslin and Sarah Palin, really? Let’s compare.
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On the Issues
Abortion: Palin supports banning abortion including in cases of rape and incest. Roslin has banned abortion in the fleet despite her own support for reproductive rights because humanity’s population is down to about 40,000.
Stem Cell Research: Palin opposes stem cell research. Roslin supports mining a human-Cylon baby’s stem cells to cure her own cancer.
Education: Roslin did little about education during her own presidency and allowed parents to pass on their trades to their kids rather than attempting some semblance of schooling. Palin’s views on education are unknown at this time, but it would be hard for her to do worse than Roslin in this area.
Religion: Roslin believes she is the dying leader meant to lead humanity to Earth, as written in the Book of Pythia (and she never lets us forget it). The pastor of Palin’s church believes her election as governor was the result of a “prophetic call” from another pastor. Palin doesn’t appear to talk about this publicly.
Leaders in Action
Abuse of Power: Roslin shut out the Quorum of Twelve from most administrative decisions, restricted the right of public assembly to curtail religious freedom (only that of Baltar and his Temple of Babes Who Like to Do It), and faked a baby’s death to hide it from its parents. Palin may have fired some people who didn’t support her and/ or were locked in custody battles with her sister.
Military Command: Although Roslin has been engaged in a pissing contest with Admiral Adama since the beginning, she usually goes along with his military decisions. Not due to weakness, but because he understands military tactics. She doesn’t. She’s a teacher/ politician and she knows it, but she does, occasionally, make a decision. Palin, while technically the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard, similarly defers to Major General Craig Campbell, whom she has authorized to act on his own.
Political Honesty: Roslin tried to steal an election. Of course, we all knew that Baltar was an incapable scumbag and inherently trusted her over him. I, for one, was pulling for Roslin’s illegal success against my own democratic knowing better. I hate it when BSG does that to me. Bastards. Palin, while probably not directly responsible for the exaggerations of her experience or the blatant lies in her acceptance speech, is going along with it. When called on it, her campaign response is to trash talk her opponent and cancel interviews. Roslin, at least, owned up to her political dishonesty.
So, best case scenario, in the event that a catastrophe from space reduces the population of the United States to about 40,000 people, Sarah Palin would probably do an OK job as president. With all of civilization pretty much destroyed, there wouldn’t be a lot left to be screwed up. Go Palin Apocalypse!
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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
Roe vs. Wade will never be turned over no matter who gets in office. It is a settled law. I know everyone flips out overv this issue but trust me you don’t need to worry about it.
Roe vs. Wade is a DECISION not a law. The LAW states that abortion is illegal, Roe Vs. Wade overrides that law. Overturn Roe v. Wade and we’re back to the old law. That’s my understanding of it anyway.
It’s not as simple as overturning Roe v. Wade because this country didn’t have one single law on abortion. It’s always been state by state. In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that a specific Texas law was unconstitutional. The laws regarding abortion and access still vary from state to state. SCOTUS justices are appointed by presidents – those presidents want their appointees to follow their legal ideology. As long as a conservative is in the White House, we have to worry.