A Game of Risk

With the choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate, John McCain has done what Democrats could not. This election is now about him and his decision making ability...And how long he can live.

If you want indisputable proof that Republican hacks can lie with a straight face, watch, as they try to make the argument that Palin is qualified and ready to assume the duties of the Vice Presidency, much less Presidency. No thoughtful or rational human being would believe it. That won't stop Republicans.

We are busy learning about Mrs. Palin, who has served as the Mayor of a town slightly smaller than Rockwood, TN and, for less than two years, the Governor of Alaska.

Alaska is a state. It has very few people in it and is widely considered the most corrupt state in the union, which is questionable by those of us who live in Tennessee, and the scandals that are so far associated with Palin are more of the misuse of power variety rather than the normal money stealing corruption we usually associate with Republicans.

Here is a compendium of her record in government. Don't blame me if it seems a bit short.

The Cliff notes version of Palin's record is that she is a tax, borrow, and spend Republican, who doesn't believe in science, think creationism ought to be taught in school, loves big oil, and dislikes polar bears. With only her short time in public office, though, she has developed a penchant for using her power to destroy people she doesn't like or who won't misuse their office to do her bidding, Her heart beats as one with John McCain in the character trait of petty vindictiveness. She's being investigated.

That last link, oddly enough, was removed from Palin's Wikipedia entry, which was apparently scrubbed by an operative named "Young Trigg" the night before her announcement.

A blogger who lived in Wasilla, Alaska complains about Palin's record of decaying public schools and her love for Mal-Wart.

So...What does Karl Rove think about McCain's Veep pick? Here is what Rove said...

I think he's going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice," Rove said. "He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president.

...it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?

Only Karl Rove said that three weeks ago about Governor Tim Kaine, whose credentials were way too light for the job in Rove's view. Kaine had only been governor for twice as long as Palin, and before that mayor of a city with a larger population than the entire state of Alaska. I wonder if Rove's head exploded when he heard McCain picked Palin?

The bottom line on all this is that now America can plainly see that John McCain is erratic, unpredictable, and is in fact the far more risky candidate for president when compared to Barack Obama.

Peace,

Steve