Now

Anonymous: I don’t know if you are Anonymous 1, or 2, or still another one: In any case, obviously you do not recognize hyperbole when you see it. Of course my son is not fit (yet) to be President. The point is, neither is Sarah Palin. There is nothing in her background or experience that qualifies her for the most important job on the planet, including her brief and controversial stint (so far) as Governor of a small (in population), remote state. All this contrived talk about executive experience being better than legislative experience is just plain blather. Making decisions by itself means nothing. George W. Bush makes decisions all the time, mostly bad ones if not actually disastrous ones. Senators and Congresspersons make decisions regularly, that’s what they are there for. You may be right that not much will happen no matter who is elected, but at the moment I prefer hope to cynicism (this could well change in the future)

How, that is, can a person who is demonstrably unfit for the Presidency prove that he/she is, no matter how ably they reads a speech from the teleprompter? I certainly don’t envy Palin this evening. The pressure on her to perform is immense. I do not wish her any bad luck even though I think she is just not Presidential material. John McCain has unfortunately led her along to apparently believe she is. She must be aware she is being rather cynically used by McCain for his own political gain. If she is not she must be kind of slow-witted (which I don’t believe), and if she knows, she obviously doesn’t care and is enjoying her new-found fame. What I found particularly repulsive was McCain embracing not only Bristol, but also her boyfriend. They should not be involved in this business at all, just another example of McCain’s hypocrisy and selfish maneuvering for the Presidency. He has already done everything possible, no matter how sleazy and hypocritical, to attain his goal, short of literally selling his soul (he may even have done this so far as I know).

Sarah Palin, having now gone with Lieberman to dutifully pay her respects to AIPAC and swear her fealty to Israel, can now go on to give the biggest speech of her career. For me, it doesn’t matter what she says, or how articulate or eloquent she is, she cannot convince me she is prepared for the Presidency, or even the Vice-Presidency. This is the biggest con job by the Brafia yet. It literally smells of Karl Rove. If she succeeds and does well, everything will just proceed as scheduled (if they win she can be exiled somewhere in the White House never to be heard from again). If she falters she can be thrown under the bus and the Brafia will bring in someone like (ta da!) Jeb Bush, at the last moment. It’s heads they win and tails their opponents lose. I have not decided yet whether I can risk watching her speech or not. The party members who are not themselves members of The Churches of the Altogether Bonkers, are doing a pretty good job of faked enthusiasm and following the party line.

Well, I watched. I couldn’t help myself. Curiosity got the better of me. I now understand better the concept of mob mentality. The (obviously partisan) crowd even cheered when she announced that her cousin and her husband (maybe her sister?) had built a gas station. It wasn’t, in my opinion, much of a speech, but the crowd ate it up. She began with her family and how wonderful they were. I thought for a while she was thanking everyone for her having won a beauty contest. Then she gave a worshipful account of McCain, followed by an account of her accomplishments as Governor. This was then followed by a series of absolutely outrageous lies about Obama’s tax plans, with some snide remarks about his beliefs about the middle class and religion. There were some remarks about oil drilling and energy in general, followed by another even longer worshipful account of how absolutely wonderful John McCain is, not forgetting to mention his time as a POW. There was nothing whatsoever about Hillary or breaking the ceiling or etc. At first I found it almost excruciatingly embarrassing, and when she got to the end I again thought it was rather embarrassing. But I guess it did the job. The mob loved it. I thought all in all it was rather pedestrian – Russia bad, Iran bad, Iraq victory, Obama bad, small towns good, religion good, and so on. As far as what she might do as Vice-President the only thing she mentioned was she would champion the rights of the handicapped.

What she neglected to mention entirely, of course, was her belief that creationism should be taught in the public schools, that she opposes abortion even in cases of incest and rape, she doesn’t believe global warming is the result of any human activity. She managed to avoid saying anything that might have been controversial in any way (at least in that context). Her party seems to be pleased with her, at least the mindless extremists are. For me there are some very good reasons why she should not be elected (to any significant public office at all); She doesn’t believe in any human responsibility for global warming in spite of the scientific evidence, she doesn’t believe in stem cell research in spite of the scientific evidence, she apparently doesn’t believe in evolution in spite of the scientific evidence, and she is indifferent to the endangered species act in spite of the scientific evidence. In short, she doesn’t seem to believe in science. This is the 21st century, not the Dark Ages. Instead of worrying so much about her qualifications, people should spend more time thinking about her disqualifications. She and McCain certainly do represent another four years of born again ignorance. That McCain would have picked such a person to be Vice-President (and possibly President) reveals not only his terribly bad judgment, but also his apparent contempt for the future of our nation.

Favorite (short) poems:

Mama

Mama
you samba so well
that your sensuality infuses all
who come close.
The whole room moves to
the sway of your hips,
beats to the pulse of your dance,
and blazes from the radiance of your body.
Oh, come to me
Mama!
Take my hands and
guide them with your rhythm,
so that I, too,
can learn how to shake an entire room.

Linda Langness