Sarah Palin and "Country First"

John McCain keeps insisting on how he puts his country first. I’m not quite certain how he does this with a straight face, but I guess once you are accustomed to lying that may come easily to you. Consider his choice of a running mate, Sarah Palin. Most everyone seems to agree that the very first prerequisite for picking a Vice President has to be that they are capable of stepping into the Presidency should anything untoward happen to their President. There cannot be anyone, outside of the true loony tunes of the “base,” that believes Sarah Palin meets that test. She was obviously picked for purely political reasons, namely, to consolidate the base, which she seems to have done. Everyone knows she was picked only for this reason or other purely political reasons (she might appeal to Hillary voters, the middle class, etc.). Thus it would appear that McCain did not truly think of country first when he picked her. Indeed, given her rather severe religious beliefs, and lack of experience, I should think he showed nothing but contempt for our country.

Mary Matalan, political whore if ever there was one, when interviewed by David Gregory today, said that Palin was just an ordinary Christian woman and not like the media was trying to portray her. Really? Do most ordinary Christian women believe abortion is wrong even in cases of incest or rape? Do they attend churches where some of the parishoners speak in tongues? Do they believe the “war” in Iraq is “God’s war?” Do most of them believe in the “Rapture?” If so, we are in much bigger trouble than I thought. Of course in addition to her bizarre religious beliefs, Palin is an obvious liar. She has certainly lied about “the bridge to nowhere” and firing her cook. This is slowly becoming more and more obvious, and she most probably has other problems as well that are also slowly coming to light. She has no Foreign Policy experience to speak of. This hardly makes her suitable to step right in to the Presidency should something happen to Calamity John (which is not at all a far-fetched scenario). He picked her having met her only once and then talked with her on the telephone. She clearly was not thoroughly vetted which the press is trying to do now, and the McCain campaign is doing whatever they can to prevent it, interfering apparently in unprecedented ways and shielding her from the press (why?). She’s supposed to be Vice President but she can’t even speak to the press? This whole sordid business makes a mockery of McCain’s claim to put country first. Palin is such a terrible choice you might well think McCain is trying to destroy our country. A woman who believes in the literal truth of the bible now in the 21st century, who presumably could be in charge of the most dangerous weapons in the world, and who may actually believe in the Rapture (I don’t know if she believes in it or not but she did suggest that Alaska would be a refuge). I should think this pick is more in the way of a bad joke than serious but, alas, it doesn’t seem to be just another of McCain’s bad jokes.

There has been a 20 point swing towards McCain by white women since the convention. I find this truly puzzling. Matalan seems to think these are independent suburban women who are interested in jobs and women’s rights. This makes no sense at all to me, why would women switch to McCain who has voted against equal pay, is opposed to choice, and is a known sexist. If these are disaffected Hillary supporters they are certainly not being true t Hillary who has repeatedly asked them to vote for Obama. Could they have really switched because he added Palin to the ticket (she being a woman)? Do they identify with her because she is a “working soccer mom?” This doesn’t seem right to me. I suspect maybe there is an element of racism involved which is now bubbling slowly to the surface. As I cannot see why any woman, outside of the Churches of the Altogether Bonkers, would vote for McCain, I find this most mysterious. Maybe Matalan is right, maybe most Christian women are like Palin. Anyway, look for the McCain/Palin bump to start to lessen.

Elk are threatening to take over Longview, Washington. The animal revolution spreads.

Favorite (short) poems:

In the dusk the path
You used to come to me
is overgrown and indistinguishable,
Except for the spider webs
That hang across it
Like threads of sorrow.

Izumi Shikibu