John McCain is still a dick.
My original writeup was total crap. I
realize this now. It was written literally minutes after the
annoucement of Sarah Palin as GOP Vice
Presidential nominee, and consisted of my very first gut reactions to
the announcement. It was very poorly researched, maybe a grand total of
20 minutes on Wikipedia. For this, I am sorry.
Given time to adequately absorb the news and look a little more into
Sarah Palin and the reasoning behind the choice, I have come to a few
conclusions.
First, John McCain is still a dick. The more I look at Palin, the
less I see a Vice President, let alone President. She is nothing but a weak attempt to
pull female voters from Obama. In her own words: "It was
rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million
cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns
out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that
glass ceiling once and for all." Simply put, John McCain wants to women
of this country to vote with their tits, not with their brains.
Secondly, I owe these women an apology. I do still see this
incredibly dickish move pulling a few extra Clintonites to the
Republican side, but the majority of these people are much more
intelligent than that. As time goes on, more and more people will see
Palin for who she really is, look beyond her pretty face and see that
her policies do not match their own. If they still choose to vote
Republican, hold their noses for four years of John McCain, and cross
their fingers for a reinvigorated Clinton campaign in 2012, that is
their choice to make.
Finally, John McCain is extremely irresponsible. He is 72 years old
and has been treated multiple times for skin cancer. He cannot truly
believe that Sarah Palin, former city council member and mayor of a
town of 5000 and governor of the 4th least populous state in the union, is ready to be
President of the United States. Executive experience? Don't make me
laugh. Twenty months governing Alaska is not going to relate to the
United States as a whole.
This may seem like a double standard, given Barack Obama's lack of
experience (though it is, at least, more than Palin has). But Obama was
thrust on the national stage in 2004 when he addressed the Democratic
National Convention, and has been campaigning for President for nearly
18 months. He has had ample time to convince America that he is ready,
willing, and able to be Commander in Chief. Palin has two months.
Besides which, Obama's experience prior to entering politics is at
least applicable to the job. Community organizer on the south side of
Chicago, president of the Harvard Law Review, director of Project
Vote!, teacher of constitutional law at the University of Chicago
Law School. Palin's prior experience consists of local TV
sportscaster and Miss Alaska runner up. And that's pretty much it.
And yet she has the gall to chastise Obama for his lack of experience.