Some wise man once said that "No one has ever gone broke by underestimating the stupidity of the masses." Those are words that John McCain must live by as evidenced by his absurd pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate. When the pick was announced - as no fan of McCain - I was gleeful. By making that pick, I thought he had sealed his fate - he had gifted the election to Obama. After all, she is a nobody, from the middle of nowhere, with no national political experience, with limited education, with no advanced degree, with no professional work experience, and hails from a "state" that is closer to the Arctic Circle and Siberia than it is to mainland America. Heck, McCain doesn't even know really this woman, having apparently only met her twice before making the most important decision of the campaign (we lawyers call that grossly reckless conduct). And most importantly, I was sure that American women would be insulted by this pick, transparently aimed to fill the void caused by Hillary Clinton's exit from the race.
Well, it seems that I might have been wrong again (after all I thought Al Gore trounced "W" in every debate) and that McCain might have been right not to overestimate the intelligence and sensibilities of American women. You see, folks, this weekend I was confronted by three otherwise intelligent, college-educated women who liked McCain's pick - or at least were prepared to defend it. Two were smarting by Obama's decision to exclude Hillary (and her baggage) from the ticket. Another thought that her presence on the ticket would limit McCain's misogynistic tendencies (I kid you not). And all three said that Palin is no less inexperienced as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton (when he first ran for President) - an idiotic thing to say. Let's see:
Bill Clinton was a six-term governor of Arkansas and chair of the National Board of governors. He went to Georgetown undergrad and Yale law school and spent some time at Oxford. He was very much involved in national politics for years before he ran for President.
Barack Obama went to Columbia undergrad and was President of Harvard Law Review. He served over seven years in the Illinois Senate (the 5th largest state), taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School for 12 years, and has been a US Senator for the past 4 years - not to mention being a best selling author.
In contrast, Sarah Palin was runner up in the Ms. Alaska pageant and parleyed that success into a semester Hawaii Pacific College, a year at North Idaho College, and then ultimately a communication's degree at the prestigious University of Idaho. She then worked as fisherman with her husband before hitting the the big time with two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska (a town of 7,000) town council, followed by two terms as its Mayor (her mother-in-law lost in a bid to hold onto that job). And for the past 18 months she has served as governor of Alaska (population - 600,000) whose total population would scarcely put it among the top 20 U.S. cities, juggernauts such as Columbus, OH, Fort Worth, TX, San Jose, CA, and Jacksonville, FL surpass it in the population department. In other words, Palin has no advanced degree, never worked in a professional capacity, has never worked or appeared on the national political stage, and, shockingly, doesn't even know what the Vice President of the United States does:
Well, it seems that I might have been wrong again (after all I thought Al Gore trounced "W" in every debate) and that McCain might have been right not to overestimate the intelligence and sensibilities of American women. You see, folks, this weekend I was confronted by three otherwise intelligent, college-educated women who liked McCain's pick - or at least were prepared to defend it. Two were smarting by Obama's decision to exclude Hillary (and her baggage) from the ticket. Another thought that her presence on the ticket would limit McCain's misogynistic tendencies (I kid you not). And all three said that Palin is no less inexperienced as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton (when he first ran for President) - an idiotic thing to say. Let's see:
Bill Clinton was a six-term governor of Arkansas and chair of the National Board of governors. He went to Georgetown undergrad and Yale law school and spent some time at Oxford. He was very much involved in national politics for years before he ran for President.
Barack Obama went to Columbia undergrad and was President of Harvard Law Review. He served over seven years in the Illinois Senate (the 5th largest state), taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School for 12 years, and has been a US Senator for the past 4 years - not to mention being a best selling author.
In contrast, Sarah Palin was runner up in the Ms. Alaska pageant and parleyed that success into a semester Hawaii Pacific College, a year at North Idaho College, and then ultimately a communication's degree at the prestigious University of Idaho. She then worked as fisherman with her husband before hitting the the big time with two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska (a town of 7,000) town council, followed by two terms as its Mayor (her mother-in-law lost in a bid to hold onto that job). And for the past 18 months she has served as governor of Alaska (population - 600,000) whose total population would scarcely put it among the top 20 U.S. cities, juggernauts such as Columbus, OH, Fort Worth, TX, San Jose, CA, and Jacksonville, FL surpass it in the population department. In other words, Palin has no advanced degree, never worked in a professional capacity, has never worked or appeared on the national political stage, and, shockingly, doesn't even know what the Vice President of the United States does:
And perhaps most importantly of all, she sounds like she fell out of the cast of the movie Fargo. Can you imagine being forced to endure that accent for four years?
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