Politico Fab!
I sat on my sofa in my living room and a sudden sense of dread washed over me. "The GOP is going to take the White House in January". I was watching Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin's acceptance speech and I couldn't help but notice how excited the crowd was.
She almost didn't get a word in before the throngs of supporters rose up in a deafening cheer. Here was this middle-aged, somewhat attractive, fresh-faced mother of five throwing punches at the Democratic superstar, Barack Obama.I wanted to vomit.
She mocked his memoirs, his time as a community organizer and she spit on his ambitious tax cut plan aimed at for once-helping the struggling middle class--a class that I know firsthand is carrying this country on its backs.
But it seemed, judging from the audience, the GOP might have employed a fast-acting formula that was working to knock some wind from Obama's campaign.
Palin surely did have the bark of a pitbull-with or without the lipstick. But that's about where it ended for the small town Mayor turned GOP saviour (not).
It was blatantly obvious in Charlie Gibson's first interview with Palin that she was in-fact all bark and no bite. She knew nothing about foreign policy, she stammered her way through the entire interview with catch phrases like "hell-bent on destroying our nation", a rhetoric that rings oddly familiar with that of President Bush after 9/11. What's most startling is that even if as a politician, you were scant on details of say, the Bush doctrine, you should at the very least be able to articulate how this country should move forward in international diplomacy.
I mean honestly, before you accepted McCain's offer you should have really thought long and hard--am I qualified? In what direction do I think this country should move with respect to George and South Ossetia? or Israel and Palestine? or India and Pakistan? or Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
Despite all this--despite a blaring lack of knowledge surrounding foreign policy, despite an archaic view of abortion, despite her reluctance to attribute global warming to mankind, despite her flip flopping and lack of executive experience--the GOP still stands fairly united that this hockey mom is the answer to their swing states and those pesky blue collar voters.
And somewhere in the depths of my mind, I am fully aware that this country no matter how "fair" we make ourselves out to be; we'd never vote for a Harvard-educated, community-organizing, God-fearing, family-loving black man over a former sports anchor, NRA, gun-toting, moose-eating, hockey mom.
You can play the "Palin is down-to-earth" card with me, but if the credentials were reversed do you think America would be standing behind Obama, touting him as a regular-guy with good values who deserves to be in the White House? I think not.
Qualified or not, the GOP found it's star, no matter how dim-witted she might be. They'll protect her, fawn over her and use much more articulate surrogates to speak on her behalf until they're finished cramming her head with years worth of vice-presidential know-how. The kicker is--it doesn't even matter if she pulls it off or not, because she is the GOP's great white hope and I hope I'm wrong.
