Uhhh, Hi Folks ...

I've been offline for a long time due to a number of reasons (ill parent, Disneyland vacation, work), none of which has to do with the fact that there isn't a *ton* of politic things to comment upon. I missed so much over the past 3 weeks that there's no way to really catch up.

Of course, the Sarah Palin announcement has dominated the headlines recently. Like most people, I have experience an array of emotions: shock, bemusement, disbelief, relief, glee. More than anything else, I am deeply offended that Republicans actually think (or think that we are stupid enough to believe) that she is a surrogate for Hillary Clinton in an effort to reach out to her disgruntled political base. Really? It reminds me when G.H.W. Bush nominated the Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace the late Thurgood Marshall. While they were quick to point out that the appointment preserved the existing racial composition of the court ("Hey, look, we got another colore..., uhh, African American judge"), they failed to point out that Thomas was undistinguished and thought to be unqualified for the job, and an ideological opposite of the legendary Marshall.

Palin is no Hillary. Not by a fucking longshot. The fact that Republicans are trying to proffer this political trainwreck as a replacement for Clinton is insulting. It's also a political "fuck you" to all the other qualified Republican politicians who are far more qualified than Palin.

I imagine that the Republican VP selection team process went a little something like this:

Staffer: "Okay, let's run through your potential running mates."
McCain: "I want a cookie."
Staffer: "We'll get you that right away, sir, but first the candidates."
McCain: "I was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton."
Staffer: "I am well aware, sir. Let's save that for the speech."
McCain:
Staffer (ignoring McCain): "Okay, candidate #1 is 4 term senator with substantial economic and foreign policy experience and who has a track recor ..."
McCain: "Next."
Staffer: "Alrighty, candidate #2 is a popular governor of a major swing state who has very high approval ratings and who..."
McCain: "Yawn."
Staffer: "Uhh, the third candidate is a former beauty queen but has limited .."
McCain: "Ding, ding, ding .... we have a winner!"

It's not McCain, it's you ....