Fembot from Alaska

What was that?

I hope to never see the likes of it again in my lifetime, but in this age of diminished expectations I’m certain I will.

We will.

No thinking person could have watched last night’s debate between the Vice Presidential candidates and come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin acquitted herself with distinction. She was like an outclassed prizefighter, ducking and dodging, throwing ineffectual jabs, backing up, and clinching at every opportunity in order to survive to the final bell of the last round.

But that’s really all anyone expected. The bar for Palin wasn’t merely lowered by the McCain campaign and the pundits – it was dropped on the floor.

Mired in two wars and an economic collapse, Palin spouted shopworn clichés, folksy “darn right’s, heckuva’s and Joe Six-Packs,” and for good measure (though in bad taste) even winked in the camera. I lost track of how many times she said “maverick” when referring to her running mate. Trying to sound a populist theme, a near impossibility after the policies her party slavishly followed the past eight years, the policies that dug the trench we find ourselves wallowing in, Palin ended up espousing the exact opposite.

Incredible. Handlers drilled talking points into Palin and she dutifully repeated them, whether appropriate to the question at hand or not. In some cases it seemed that Palin has spent the past eight years living in total isolation, without access to television, newspapers or the Internet. She promised greater oversight of the financial system and in the next breath urged government to get out of the way of the people; she repeated the shibboleth that tax cuts equal job creation, when the fact is that the Bush junta tried that trickle down idea and it failed, miserably.

What did Governor Palin mean when she said we had to “grow” our military? Does she not know that the United States spends more of its annual budget on defense than the rest of the planet, combined?

Even after five weeks on a national ticket and numerous cram sessions, Governor Palin doesn’t grasp the essential constitutional functions of the office of Vice President.

Quick study she is not.

And it was painful to watch Palin compare what she has done in Alaska to what she might do in Washington D.C., because there is no comparison; Alaska is a unique state, isolated, sparsely populated, energy rich. Oil and natural gas revenue fill Alaska’s coffers at a time when most states are drowning in red ink and making very difficult decisions about essential human services. Of course Alaska’s state taxes are low, but not because of Sarah Palin.

I learned last night that John McCain “knows what evil is.” George W. Bush also claims to have a deep understanding of evil, an understanding that prompted his Administration to invade and occupy a country that posed no threat to the United States. We will pay penalties for that decision for the next fifty years.

Sarah Palin is an unfortunate pawn in a cynical, deceitful Republican electoral strategy that rests on two pillars: endless repetition of half-truths, fabrications and outright lies, and the gullibility of American voters.

What was that? A disgrace.