The Reprobatelican ticket is being mocked for propagating seemingly daffy ideas. That foreign policy expertise accrues from living in a state that borders Canada, or from exchanging small talk at the UN That provincialism, ignorance, superstition, incuriosity, and viciousness are strengths. That lies are truths, cantankerous xenophobia is statesmanlike, crashing airplanes is presidential job training, and the press is pretty much responsible for everything that ails us. But guess what? The Reprobates are right and all the mockery is misplaced.
Take Sarah Palin's contention that because she can see Russia from remote islands in the Bering Straits she's fully qualified to take her place on the global stage as co-leader of the free world. This apparently imbecilic idea is in fact perfectly sensible. Palin is subtly reminding us of a little-known but potentially catastrophic incident in recent world history: the Sino-Indian border war of the 1960's. Foreign policy mavens like Palin recall that China and India bloodily skirmished along their Himalayan border over the course of years. It could easily have flared up into a total war between the world's two most populous nations. Conventional wisdom says that didn't happen for one reason only: the Chinese peered down into the Indus valley, saw nothing but over-population, pollution, starvation, disease, and illiteracy, decided they had plenty of all that themselves, turned around and went home. Cataclysm was averted through simple eye-balling. Only a stateswoman with the foreign policy chops of Palin would have had the insight to make this argument.
Then there's McCain's military record. Much is made of the abuse he suffered in a North Vietnamese prison. Often overlooked is the fact that the plane crash that landed him there was only the last of several plane crashes. As a navy pilot, McCain saved the government much wear and tear on aircraft tires by landing without using his wheels. Like a teenager with the family car, McCain's attitude was "why bother parking when crashing brings you to a stop equally well?" The man McCain wants to succeed is living proof that you can govern for eight years by smashing things up, things like the economy, foreign policy, the rule of law, just about everything else. A man who smashed airplanes time and again and lived to tell the tale is uniquely qualified to take over the presidency under these conditions.
And how about the press? Bush and Cheney have exploited the fourth estate's docility to bring our nation to its knees. Even respected outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post were complicit in furthering the Bush-Cheney policies of national self-destruction. So when McCain campaign officials blame the press for everything that's gone wrong, they're telling maybe not the whole truth, but surely some of it.
It's only logical to presume that a president who tells half or quarter or eighth truths would be a vast improvement over the entirely mendacious incumbent.