Friday, August 29, 2008

'Hockey Mom' for VP

I can't get over the cynicism of today's political announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's presidential running mate. First of all, it is made less than a day after the Democratic convention wrapped up (hell, they were droping hints about it during Obama's acceptance speech) in a clear effort to steal thunder from the convention. Secondly, the crass move of choosing a woman, in the hopes of winning over disgruntled HIllary supporters, shows just what Republicans think of woman - that they can be bought very easily. Sure, they're angry that Clinton lost out to Obama, so they won't mind voting for an essentially unknown woman who believes that victims should be forced to have the offspring of the men who have raped them. She also believes creationism should be taught in school and that global warming "isn't man-made". Oh, and McCain has only met her once.

The bulk of Palin's experience comes from being mayor of an Alaskan town of less than seven thousand people. I've lived on city blocks with larger populations. Given that their campaign is all about painting Obama as inexperienced, this seems a strange choice for second-in-command. If the Republicans take the White House in the fall, the US could go from having their oldest president, to having their youngest, in a single (failed) heartbeat.

I suppose today was no worse than eight years ago when Dick Cheney was selected to head Bush's vice presidential selection process, and he chose himself.

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