SARAH PALIN: You Say Trainwreck, I Say Disaster

I am not a brain genius, but I can tell you at least one newspaper or news source I read for my news. I am not a Rhodes Scholar, but I can offer a basic outline of the Bush Doctrine. I am not running for the second highest position in American politics, but I can tell you more about world history and the current issues than Sarah Palin.

The emergence of Sarah Palin to the mainstream American political arena has created a very interesting diversion from the two presidential candidates in the race, which for media and entertainment purposes may be a blessing. Barring any remarkable ongoings in the days leading up to the election the existence of Sarah Palin will be the one persistent memory we have of the 08′ elections. In 1992 it was the emergence of a short, jabbering Texan presidential candidate named Ross Perot. In 1988 it was Dan Quayle instructing a small boy to spell potato with an ‘e’ at the end during a spelling bee photo op. This year it is Sarah Palin and her deer-skinning humor and sugar-coated charm.

Sarah Palin has her admirable points.  She’s popular enough to win the governorship of Alaska and she’s certainly a capable mother and markswoman.   But then, through all the American flag bunting and the sugary “you betcha”s we get that sobering reminder that Sarah Palin could be the leader of our country in a short while.  That is scary on many fronts.

Sarah Palin is remarkably unfit to run our country.  Her knowledge of the issues, beyond what she is spoon fed at cram sessions with McCain’s people prior to public speaking events, is laughable.  She uses the desolate far eastern coast of Russia and its proximity to Alaska as her international affairs experience, which at the height of the Red Scare might have made a nervous Joe McCarthy perhaps raise an eyebrow, but then again in his warped mind the Boston Red Sox were a undercover Communist institution disguised as a hapless baseball team.

Palin emerged in Minneapolis for the Republican convention and sounded fairly articulate and energized the fledgling Republicans.  She spoke about bulldogs and lipstick and the need for change in the person of John McCain.  During the debates she sounded like a person who was carefully instructed to dodge the questions and instead perform a diatribe on the issue that the question entailed.  It reminded me of someone who was told to “remember your health care speech. Now when it comes time for energy here’s what you say…”  She doesn’t know the issues and she’s new to the game so that is what you do.  Fair enough.  We have witnessed that before.

Now, as for one on one interviews that she has done, the true Sarah Palin and her vast insufficient knowledge of the global affairs was on display.  You can say that the interviews were liberal media attacks all you want but interviews are also far more genuine conversation in which you do not have a script to recall or henchmen telling you what to say, as in speeches and debates.  You are on your own, answering questions to the best of your ability.  Governor Palin’s performance genuinely answering questions only highlights her complete lack of knowledge about some of the most imoortant issues in our country and around the globe.

What is so aggressive or out of line about asking someone about their foreign affairs record?  Then, when that person make up vague and seemingly baseless connections about Alaskan-Russian affairs and the host asks her for specifics–is that attacking?  Is it too offensive to ask a vice presidential candidate who nobody south of Ketchikan has ever heard of where she gets her national and global affairs information?  And then when this vice presidential hopeful cannot name one newspaper that she reads for her information and then revises her answer to “all of them”, perhaps the interviewer wants some clarification–is that too aggressive?  Wow, all of them?  Really?  So, that means they ship up to Alaska the Omaha Reader and The Oklahoman?

Now, people will say that you don’t need to be able to name one newspaper that they read to be a leader.  You can say that someone doesn’t need to be able to list more than only one supreme court case that they do not agree with.  You can argue (I suppose) that to be president or vice president that you do not need to know the basic tenets of the doctrine of the previous president.  But it is now blatantly obvious to people who want a well informed leader who has a sound concept of national and global affairs that Sarah Palin, down home cooking and all, is thoroughly ill qualified for the vice president position.