Palin is a Slap in Voters' Faces

I'm back from Denver and almost seething about McCain's pick, because it is confirmation of one of things I hate the most about 2008 McCain.

He has only contempt for the American voter.

How else do you explain picking a VP solely for electoral reasons?

He picked Palin because she's interesting, fresh, personable, young, attractive, and female. Twenty months ago she was mayor of a town of 6,500 residents and now she could be one heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world. Are you serious? This pick does not even pass the laugh test.

Now Republicans might argue the same about Obama, but Obama was state senator for 8 years, has worked with Dick Lugar to secure loose nukes, has worked with Tom Coburn to pass ethics reform, has sat on the Senate Armed Services committee for over 3 years now, and has proven his competence, temperament, communications skills, and ability to act under pressure over the past 19 months of campaigning.

So, yes, I do buy the "experience" argument despite counterexamples such as Abe Lincoln vs. Dick Cheney, and Palin simply does not have the breadth of experience to be the VP. She doesn't even know what a VP does.

I met New York Times columnist David Brooks in the Denver airport today. I said hello and that I was a fan (which is true because I always enjoy reading his columns even if I don't agree with them) and I asked him what he thought of Sarah Palin. He said, "I don't know what to think." I responded, "I don't know what he was thinking" and I walked away.

But now I've figured out what he was thinking, and this is why I think he has nothing but contempt for the average voter. He believes Americans will support this pick because she's a "hockey mom" or a "hunter" or attractive and female. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: "Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton."

I'm from a small town of about 5,000 people, not much smaller than Wasilla, AK. My mayor also happens to be a freeholder in my county government. My county has more people than the entire state of Alaska. Can I imagine my mayor as VP? How about my county executive? Hell no. I can't even imagine the mayor of a city of comparable size to Alaska, like Fort Worth, TX or Memphis, TN being VP.

So Sarah Palin. The pro-life, pro-drilling, pro-creationism bullshit doesn't bother me as much as the total lack of reason you should be any part of this election.

After Americans answer the question, "who the fuck is Sarah Palin?" The next questions will be "Why Sarah Palin?" and "Are you serious?"

For those of you who don't know me well, my parents are swing voters (Gore in 2000, Bush in 2004). My mom told me she won't vote for McCain because of this pick. I hope all independents react the same way.

Joe Biden will wipe the floor with her.

Update: Oh my god. She has only traveled abroad twice, to Ireland, Germany and Kuwait. I hope the analogy will be made to Bush who didn't travel before becoming President and I hope Americans are sick and tired of political leaders who have no intellectual curiosity and aren't students of the world. Sure I'm part of the "intellectual elite" but good lord....