I wanted an image of Sarah Palin that captures my apprehension about her candidacy and her fitness for high public office at the national level, and this has to be it. Thanks to my friend Cathleen Vella for sending it. Notice that she is larger than life and has a pleasantly vacant expression. Notice too that she is wielding both an axe and a harpoon. Also, notice that she is the center of attention, to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. Finally, is it just me or is the moose looking up her skirt?I think if she were to topple over, among the contents that would spill out would be that weasel husband of hers, Todd. Does anyone besides me have the sinking feeling that Todd is perhaps more involved in his wife's governance duties than he should be, and that this is a modus operandi they worked out long ago? She is his Trojan Horse, and they now have their sights set on Washington. Look out. Hockey Mom and Little League Dad are headed your way!
Not that this was their original plan. A couple of weeks ago, they were sitting around their living room looking at Russia on the horizon and wondering what they were going to do about that naughty Bristol. Was there something in "abstinence only" that she didn't understand? Maybe she could best her mom, and manage to hide that bun in the oven for a full nine-month term. She could be whisked off to boarding school, like people used to do when faced with this kind of mishap, or be sent off for a year of home-schooling in eastern Washington State somewhere. Then THIS happened. Sarah Palin got the call from the McCain people and, as she tells it, she did not blink. Okay, so she didn't blink. But would it have been too much to ask her to think? And what about McCain? What was he thinking? And I don't mean what were his political motivations. They seem patently obvious.
Apparently, he was thinking that he would do anything -- anything -- to be elected President. Show that fucking Republican Party a thing or two. Damn right! Country first, my ass. Me first. And in Sarah Palin, he found his soulmate, not to mention the political world's idea of a playmate. She too has mastered the country first rhetoric while putting self and self glory above every other consideration. She also knows how to use Old Glory, as a recent photo in a Newsweek cover story demonstrated. For the record, I only saw this because my dentist kept me waiting. It made me feel so numb I did not need novocaine.
But boy can she talk politics:
"Bush Doctrine? Never heard of it, why?"
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? It is time to take these two motherfuckers off the back of the US taxpayers. What? The government is giving each of them 100 billion dollars? Really? Well, never mind then."
"Do I think it was okay for the US to bomb Pakistan without consulting its leaders first? Well, sure, why not? Where is Pakistan, by the way?"
For just a moment, let's set aside the issue of experience, but not before noting that the Republican team vying for office has to its collective credit 26 years of national-level legislative experience (him) and less than two years of experience in state-level politics, plus a stint as mayor of a small town in Alaska. Everybody knows that. If you look at the Democratic team, you can make a similar collective tally that would add up to something at least slightly better. But I don't think experience is the problem. Or rather, I think it is everyone's problem in this race or no one's problem. It is a sterile debate. Un partout, bal au centre, if you know what I mean.
Personally, what I look for in a leader is wisdom. And that is what is totally lacking on the McCain-Palin ticket. Even if you grant McCain a few points for being a POW and a state Senator (who has supported the current Idiot in the White House 90% of the time, including throughout his disastrous first term of office), I question the wisdom (not to mention the compassion) of a man who cannot control his anger, who has called his wife an overly made-up c*nt in front of others (no wonder she allegedly has drug problems) -- presumably because his anger got the better of him -- and who showed reckless disregard for the welfare of this country by naming a running mate who has no wisdom whatsoever. I am sure she is a great hockey mom. However, I don't want to be governed by a hockey mom.
Trust me on this: I sat through her excruciating series of interviews on ABC, where she occasionally had to break with the vapid script and talk. It was heavily edited and, given the remarkably low caliber of the discussion, I had to wonder what was lying on the cutting room floor. What was left, with or without the script, was robotic nonsense. Pure gibberish. It was scary. It was like seeing George Bush in drag. She even had the same blank expression of angry bewilderment he often wears. I just made up a great joke, which I have posted on a PI blog about how Sarah's favorability ratings are falling:
Question: What is the difference between Sarah Palin and George W. Bush?
Answer: Lipstick.
I don't know about you, but I find that more scary than amusing. We have already tried this kind of executive leadership team, only in reverse --twice in a row in fact. And as a result, our country is more divided than ever; it is more hated than ever by other nations; our economy is a mess thanks to our dependence on foreign oil (and the price per barrel for crude), crazy credit and a war that is costing us 20 billion dollars a month. As those of you who have been paying attention will remember, Donald Rumsfeld told the nation in March 2003 that this war would be over in a couple of weeks at most. I guess toppling over that statue of Saddam Hussein was not enough. Oops!
The biggest joke of all is that we now have two ambitious clowns trying desperately to get into the White House by distancing themselves from their own party and painting themselves as mavericks. Give me a break! They're going to save us from the Republican Party? S.A. Maverick, the Texas engineer who inspired the term, is surely having a good laugh. Lucky for him that his death in 1870 spares him from having to see what gets passed off as maverick these days.
