sarah palin, also titled: i miss tim russert

um, the hell?

there has been so much on this chick in the last three days, but apparently the "vetters" didn't do a good enough job. apparently she was vetted, but i didn't know about that until after i wrote the following in a closed community in response to some serious flaming:

palin. ugh. i don't pity her, but i am a bit peeved about her for several reasons. firstly, she goes back to work 3 days after having a baby with down's syndrome? um, no. you might call it going negative, but i call that bad judgment. THREE DAYS? she's not picking tea in assam with her pay linked to how much she harvested. second, troopergate. full of fail. even if she didn't make the phone calls herself, she had to have known about them. c'mon, honestly. thirdly, alaska independence party. [that's today's "what's new about palin"] somewhere in this. and fourthly, the whole flying around on planes while about to give birth, etc, etc. and finally, that her teenage daughter is knocked up.

all of those things have happened in the last three years.

and knowing that all of these things are going on in her life, should she even have accepted this nod? um, no. sometimes the desire to be "the first" apparently drowns out everything else. hint: if you want to be "the first" anything, or even run for politics, make sure you have NO dirty laundry. it will be found. CONFESS EVERYTHING UP FRONT BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE HAS A CHANCE TO OUT YOU. that mccain picked palin on the friday before a 3-day weekend with a hurricane bearing down on the gulf coast... it's even worse than bush picking john bolton as a recess appointment to be the ambassador to the united nations under similar congressional conditions. if you have to sneak something in, you really shouldn't be doing it.

but back to palin. she should have DECLINED. full stop. she can still decline tomorrow, and i hope she will. that said, if she does not, can you really trust a candidate to be near the red button who, three years ago, was mayor of a town smaller than hershey? just... no.

being the candidate in this day and age means the press gets free rein on your family. it does. this means that your bizness becomes the nation's business, and if you want your family to have privacy you walk away. many presidents have had hot, torrid affairs while in office. both FDR and his wife had girlfriends on the side while he was president, and the media knew about it, but kept their mouths shut. these days, in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, you don't get the luxury. if palin is too naive to understand this, then, sorry, stay in alaska.

i highly doubt that if a 16 year old sasha obama said she was knocked up, james dobson would be coming to her rescue. hypocrisy to the max.

this woman should not be anywhere NEAR the oval office, shouldn't have even been nominated. which leads me to the republican party in general and john mccain in particular.

WHO THE HECK VETTED THIS WOMAN? the answer: nobody. john mccain just called her and picked her because, if the print rumors are to be believed, he was just mad that he couldn't have lieberman as his runningmate and didn't want to go with huckabee or pawlenty, who were the choices of the RNC.

now, what does this say about mccain? impetuous, ill-tempered, doesn't think things through. if this is the kind of decision-making that he'll make just for a runningmate, do you *really* want this guy near the "red button"?

this man is 72 years old. on paper, he's old enough to be my grandfather. he should be a choosing a runningmate on the very real probability that he will fall over dead while he is in office, not to score points or out of petulance.

john mccain, by the way, is another reason that children of candidates are even fair game. y'all do remember the following joke that he said ten years ago, right?

"why is chelsea clinton so ugly? becuase janet reno is her father."

and the republican party itself went after his family in 2000 when he ran against bush for the nomination. [man, they said all types of mess about bridget, which is one of the reasons mccain doesn't want to be in the same room with bush. to be honest, i don't blame him one bit.]

but now, suddenly, his runningmate's teenage daughter is pregnant and the same people who talked so much smack about bridget are saying, "blah blah blah private matter blah blah blah" um, no. it's not that kind of party.

the only reason that it's even staying tame for now is not because the republican party is saying "calm down" but because barack "remember, my mother was 18 when i was born" obama is taking the VERY high road on this.

[note: i *don't* want to vote for this guy. however, you have to admit he is far more decent than his opponent, who, as you will recall, not only called his wife a c*nt, but does so in public, with cameras rolling. bwuh?]

speaking of running mate choices, obama is aware of the very real possibility that he may not make it out of these four years in office. who does he pick to run with him? someone who has run for president twice before and who considers himself up for the job. logic.

i really can't believe that i have had to explain this all out. but i feel better for having done so.

am i "negative"? no. i present what is put out in front of me.

you know the saddest thing about this election? tim russert is not around. [and, one of the signs of incredulity *within the republican national committee* is that palin HAD NEVER BEEN ON MEET THE PRESS]