This comment in this morning's Bill Maher diary got me thinking about Sarah Palin. Although the thought of her becoming vice-president is truly frightening, the truth is, I don't hate her. It's an unsettling admission. More on the flip.
In my sleepy little Wisconsin subdivision, for example, I know a few of our closer (in proximity) neighbors, while others further away I'll recognize and wave hi to as I'm out and about doing errands. In that superficial, amiable-stranger kind of way --- where you don't know someone well enough to know that they chase wolves from helicopters until they're half-dead from exhaustion and then shoot them --- she seems downright pleasant. That's not to be discounted, either --- speaking only for myself, most of the people I know are in that amiable-stranger kind of way, be it people at work, my not-so-close friends, etc.
Admittedly, her politics can be downright revolting, and her comment earlier this week about being happy to visit a "pro-America" part of the country really had me seething for perhaps the first time in this election. Still, hating Sarah Palin is also hating half the people in my subdivision with the McCain yardsigns, including the 70-something man two doors down with the cute Pomeranian who always says hello when my dog Oscar and I go for a walk by his house. As much as I think that his candidate will set the country back even further...I'll still wave hi. And when my wife and I visit some of our conservative friends up in Appleton, we'll still have a good time, even when I'm not sneakily changing their home page to http://www.my.barackobama.com or trying to bribe their 9-year-old with a dollar to tell her Dad how impressed she is with Joe Biden.
I know it's the crazy political season and all, but I'd be sorely disappointed if working and rooting for our candidate means we have to start disliking those on the other side.