Palin represents just how low our standards have become

I've been shying from commenting too much about the election. I mean, really. Does the world need one more voice crying out in the wind on this subject? I I couldn't add any more original content, what's the use?

I, frankly, am not that impressed with either of the two major candidates, but that's just me. I wrote an op-ed column for a newspaper for about fifteen years, and politics was a big topic of that column. I followed politics closely, but towards the end it was getting hard for even the likes of me to tell a Democrat from a Republican. They all lied and postured and were on the take with Big Business and lobbyists. I guess over time I slowly evolved to a sort of loose Libertarian with rough edges, kind of like now I'm sort of a Catholic-Buddhist. I make it all up as I go along.

I've long realized that anyone who was qualified to live in the White House didn't want the job. The really qualified, good people didn't want to put themselves or their loved ones through that mud-slinging circus. That's one of the few reasons why I'm not that enamored with Barrack Obama. I figure if he wants the job so bad there must be something wrong with him. It just hasn't come out yet.

So, with that, I figured come election day, Obama is going to take Massachusetts, so I can write in any candidate I deem deserves my vote--Al Gore or Colin Powell--and I can leave the voting booth with a clear conscience.

Then Sarah Palin enter the scene.

I had heard of Palin a few months prior to McCain tapping her from Short Shorts. I read that blog just about every day, and back when Becky made Palin out to sound like a real interesting pol. But then we all got to know her for the absolute incompetent that she is, and that's when I realized I better shout out here.

Sarah Palin represents how low our standards have become for what we expect of the leaders of our country. She can't name the newspapers she claims to read. She says, and it seems she honestly believes, that being able to see Russia from her house qualifies her for foreign diplomacy, as if it is some sort of neighborhood watch. She doesn't even know what the job entails, something that anyone who stayed awake in high school civics would know. The choice of Palin for Republican VP gives us a good idea of the kinds of choices and decisions McCain will make. Palin, according to McCain, is the very best he could come up with.

And what's even worse, she's considered a valid candidate is given all the attention appropriated to a valid candidate and there are people who undeniably believe that she deserves the job.

We have sunk to an all-time low here, folks, and it's not even funny any more.



These people actually are allowed to vote for the president of the United States. Listening to these people--and please don't tell me they are entitled to their opinion--reminds me of how much this world has changed because of the Internet. As of this writing, this particular rock on Youtube was picked up and looked under 1,166,454 times. Before the Internet, we'd never know these people existed, much less would they have had an outlet for their vitriol. Now, the Internet and Youtube gives them validity, and instead of them being embarrassed I'm quite certain they probably look at the number of hits they're getting and think that their day has finally come.

Democracy is a responsibility that requires not only that a person keeps up with current events, but you have to exercise more than a little intelligence. That Obama's middle name links him with terrorists is not only idiotic and illogical, it's also very dangerous thinking.

This is the reason why sometimes I've felt we would be better off with a benevolent dictator rather than a democracy. Just as Palin is woefully unqualified to be vice president, some people are woefully unqualified to perform their civic duties, too.