Batshit Crazy Alaska Governor

It seems every blogger’s favourite topic these days is Sarah Palin. Why not? I for one am relieved that John McCain picked her as his running mate. I was afraid the Republicans were going to do something sensible for a change and deprive us all of good comedic material. Stand-ups feasted for eight years on Bush II. It’s nice to see that the Republicans haven’t given up on being batshit crazy Bible thumpers.

But beyond the easy (and valid) criticisms of the McCain/Palin ticket as being retrograde, theocratic, bigoted, anti-woman and so forth, is the very rational bipartisan criticism –voiced best by Andrew Sullivan— that McCain’s choice of a VP he barely knew shows what a poor decision maker he is:

“McCain picked someone he had only met once before. I repeat: he picked someone he had only met once before. His vetting chief sat Palin down for a face-to-face interview the Wednesday before last. It’s very hard to overstate how nutty and irresponsible this is.”

The whole article is worth reading. One of the comments posted afterwards is also quite pithy: “McCain embodies a great deal of the country: too lazy (or afraid) to delve into people and policies and analyze them. It will be George Bush all over again.” (Daniel F. Vojir, San Francisco, USA.)

It really is a remarkable circus, the election south of us. And McCain’s mind-boggling choice is like a brainless, cartoonish twist in a professional wrestling storyline, the choice of a tagteam partner made solely for immediate shock value, but who probably can’t do the flying headbutt off the top rope.

Think about it: Americans are given over a year to meet, vet, dissect and analyze their candidates for Presidency. This is as it should be. Yet John McCain chooses his President in one week, after meeting her only once, days earlier. I say “his President” because that’s what his choice of VP really is. It’s like writing in his will, “in the event of my death, I choose as successor to the Oval Office…. this batshit loony, completely inexperienced woman no one knows anything about.”

Oy vey.

I particularly enjoy the shortsightedness of the RNC’s speechwriters, who gave Palin the line, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” or something like that. They always look for the zinger without thinking about the target it places on them. But I enjoy more this response:

And while we’re being fair, let’s have some face time for Obama: