Can’t stand Palin

I’ve been on holiday this week, but I still follow the news, of course. When I do, I’m reminded of how spectacularly unqualified Sarah Palin is to be president, should McCain become president and then die or resign.

Palin only got a passport a year ago, she’s had no involvement in any national issue and can’t even name a newspaper or magazine she gets news from. She also can’t name a single Supreme Court case she disagrees with apart from the obvious, Roe v. Wade. Has she ever even read a newspaper, magazine or book? Her stunning lack of knowledge about the world would suggest she hasn’t, and that ignorance is a frightening prospect for someone who may have her finger on the nuclear button.

She has peculiar ideas about world affairs, and her religious views are part of that; it’s dishonest to claim otherwise. She declared that soldiers in Iraq were doing “God’s work” and her religious beliefs are tied to a belief in “end times” and a final war in the Middle East. Those of us who don’t believe in that are fully justified in being concerned about a Commander-in-Chief who may be looking for a war in that region. Far right christianist extremists have been bullying the rest of us into silence about this, but if they want the religious freedom to hold their beliefs, then I must have the same freedom to question their beliefs and how they might be operationalised.

We’ve already had eight years of a president who arrived at the White House with no foreign policy experience, no deep understanding of public policy or national issues and an itchy trigger finger. We simply cannot risk even one day of another ignorant, ill-prepared and shallow president. There’s a better than average chance that electing McCain would mean getting that again in Palin.

Later today the Vice Presidential Debate will apparently be taking place (much to my surprise, I admit). Apparently, and not surprisingly, the McCain campaign’s tactic will be to have Palin go on the attack and mount a negative assault on Joe Biden. When a candidate and campaign have nothing to offer, the usual strategy is to go negative, as the McCain campaign has already done.

There’s absolutely nothing that Palin can say in that debate that will win me over, but I’ll be watching anyway. Somehow, I suspect she’ll give me plenty to talk about in upcoming blog posts and podcasts.