Veeps

Anyone who reads this blog noticed that lately I did some fluff posts on women I like. This was by design. I realized that I was writing all the time about politics and problems I see facing the nation and, frankly, it was getting me down. So I decided to have a little more fun with the blog and just write about something frivolous. I'm going to make an effort to keep doing that but I have to just write one more post about these vice-presidential nominees because it's really bothering me and there are a couple of points that I'm just not hearing from the national media or pundits.

First, the choice of running mate is really the first executive decision the presidential hopefuls make so it is an important decision. Obama correctly identified that he is lacking in experience, both domestic and abroad, so he picked a long-time senator in Joe Biden. It's not a sexy pick. Joe Biden doesn't really excite anyone. But he does compliment Obama in some ways and strengthen experience on the ticket. McCain, after all the early talk about Obama having no track record (read: experience) picks someone with arguably less national experience than Obama. Sarah Palin does not do anything to strengthen the Republican ticket except for the fact that, unlike Biden, she is a sexy pick. She's young, energetic, and relatively well-spoken when properly prepped. More importantly, she's a woman and a mom which is why McCain picked her. This was nothing more than a transparent ploy to grab some Hillary supporters and, to McCain's credit, it's worked. So in their first executive decision, Obama picks someone not as popular but who fills in some gaps in his resume. McCain picks a former beauty queen and sports anchor. Doesn't exactly instill confidence in his ability to fill a cabinet with the best people for the job.

Now, to my second point, Republicans have rallied around the Palin pick and insisted that she is qualified and is a terrific pick. I haven't heard anyone ask this, but if Palin was such a great pick, why wasn't she on anybody's short list before McCain announced her? Why was she a "surprise pick?" Prior to the conventions and announcement of veep selections, I saw a lot of pundits inthe media speculating on the most likely vice-presidential picks of both nominees. Not once did I hear the name Sarah Palin. None of the Republican representatives that I heard mentioned her as even a possible running mate, let alone the leading candidate or the best choice. Now, I obviously don't read every newspaper or watch every news broadcast so it's possible that someone, somewhere, sometime, mentioned Palin as a running mate. Still I do read the local paper daily, almost always watch NBC nightly news, and at least tune into some other news programs off and on throughout the week. I never heard or read a single article that said Sarah Palin was a leading choice for the job.

So if I never heard this, even from Republican strategists, what does that say? To me, it says she wasn't even on the radar of people supposedly knowledgeable about these things. I would further suggest that she wasn't on their radar because none of them considered her qualified, or at least they considered her far, far down on the list of qualified people. Again, her selection was widely reported as a "surprise." How could it be such a surprise if she was so darned qualified? If she truly is the best the Republicans have to offer as the second most powerful person in the world, how come nobody knew?

I think we know the answer. I'm still not enamored with either candidate and the current financial mess we're in is going to make life difficult for whoever gets elected. But this is my last post about the election. I simply can't continue to spend much time thinking about the stupidity of American voters. It's going to make my head explode.