She may not be talking, but her record is out there for public scrutiny:
ACLU Rating:
As a governor with no legislative experience, Palin does not have an ACLU rating. It is worth noting that
her relative youth and lack of a legislative record also makes it difficult at times to assess her position on some civil liberties issues.
Abortion and Reproductive Rights - Supports Full Ban
Death Penalty - Expansionist
The First Amendment - Book Banning, Church-State Problems:
When she took office as mayor of Wasilla, Palin began her tenure by proposing
bans on certain books in local public libraries (it's not clear exactly which books she was trying to ban). She fired a librarian who refused to cooperate, though it's not clear whether or not this was the reason the librarian was fired. Palin has also advocated the teaching of creationism in public school biology classes.
Immigrants' Rights - Opposes Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Lesbian and Gay Rights - Opposes Same-Sex Marriage and Domestic Partner BenefitsThe Second Amendment - Strongly Pro-Gun Rights
Tom's Take:
Sarah Palin is something of an enigma, as her experience has been strictly executive--as mayor of a small Alaska town, and then (for two years) as governor of the state. My primary sources of information on her civil liberties platform are news reports detailing the 2006 Alaska governor's race--campaign promises, in other words.
That said, she is
conspicuously socially conservative by Alaska standards. Her complete commitment to
outlawing abortion (even in cases of health, rape, and incest, where McCain would make exceptions), banning same-sex marriage and state employee domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, and promoting the teaching of creationism in public schools mark her as a candidate of the Religious Right, even though her views are not very different from those of McCain in practical terms.
If your main issue of concern is gun rights, then she's the best of any candidate on either major-party ticket--her A+ NRA rating contrasts with McCain's C and the F shared by both Obama and Biden. The only presidential primary candidate of either party who scored an A+ NRA rating, it should be noted, was Bill Richardson. Her views on gun rights are a Second Amendment advocate's dream.
But on most other civil liberties issues, she is discernibly more authoritarian than McCain. We don't know much about Sarah Palin yet, but one thing we do know is that civil liberties aren't her strong suit.
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/profiles/p/sarah_palin.htm(emphasis mine)
