Sarah Palin

I cannot believe that John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. How stupid does the Republican Party think Americans are? A more serious question: are they right? Based on the polling numbers, they are. Now, I know not to put too much stock in the polls (they got a typical post convention bounce which will fade, the polls don't account for people with cell phones, etc.), but it's hard not to get depressed when I read them incessantly. We are talking about somebody who had to return to Alaska after her selection to cram for three weeks before anybody was allowed to speak to her in even the most controlled sense. Let's forget for a moment that she's a bible thumping creationist who slashed funding for unwed teenage mothers (of which her daughter is one); tried to ban a library book and then get the librarian who refused fired; made the victims of rape pay for their own rape kits; supported the Bridge to Nowhere and then kept the money that was left when the project was decried and abandoned for being a complete waste, all while claiming, even in the light of massive evidence to the contrary, that she was against it; left the town she was mayor of almost $20 million in debt; has requested and received $450 million in the earmarks she supposedly despises; and that she shoots wolves from a helicopter. (See Sarah Palin, by the Numbers for substantiation)

In her first interview with Charlie Gibson, he asked her what her opinion of the Bush Doctrine was and she didn't know what he meant. Even after Gibson explained to her that it was the doctrine of preventive war, she still didn't get it and went on to articulate the long standing policy of preemptive war. We have always accepted that if a country is about to attack us, there is no need to wait for the first bomb to fall before defending ourselves. What is controversial is the notion that we can attack a country that could, maybe, hypothetically, be preparing weapons that might, at some point, because we've pissed them off so much, be pointed at us.

Now, I've read people on the Internets (even though I've seen only one so far) who say 'who cares, the average person doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is either.' However, the average person should not be running our country. I thought we learned that lesson from eight years of the Bush administration, when Americans decided to 'elect somebody they wanted to have a beer with.'

For God's sake people! Her claim to foreign policy experience is being able to see Russia from Alaska! Does that mean I am qualified to be Secretary of State because I have a map?