Over 4,100 dead soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines. Tens of thousands more returning with shattered in body and mind. An economy that is teetering on the brink of disaster. The loss of our standing in the eyes' and opinions of the rest of the world. The shredding of our Constitution and ergo our individual rights and freedoms. Torture as a government sanctioned practice. The illegal detention of thousands of individuals both guilty and not. An American city left to literally drown and which unbelievably is facing the same disaster again with most likely the same government response or lack thereof. A "president" who lies to the American people with every word he utters. A vice-president who has co-opted the constitutional authority of the Executive branch and endowed it with powers unparalleled in this nation's history. An energy "policy" created by and solely for the benefit of the big oil companies. The waging of aggressive war against a sovereign country. You can add whatever else you like to this litany. If I did it this piece would become a novel.
The United States, it may be argued, has not faced such a challenge to its existence since the Civil War. But this time the threat to our unity is not from without but within our government itself. The nation that gave us leaders like Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton, men who always put country first has been presented by the Republican party with a man so unqualified to lead at this crucial time in history that words fail to express the utter amazement I have for their gall and balls.
Once again we are being sold a bill of goods. There is, to coin a phrase, no there, there. John McCain's self-described "maverick" nature has once and for all been exposed for what he truly is...just another hack politico who will do everything and anything to do what's best for himself. "Country first". That ranks right up there with "Mission Accomplished". Both mere verbiage and both untrue.
If we needed any further proof of the sham that John McCain is, we need look no further than his "choice" yesterday for vice-president, the little known (even with in her own party according to the senator from Texas Kay Bailey Hutchinson) governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. What does this 1 and 1/2 year governor of a state of 670,00 people and lots more caribou offer in experience and knowledge if she be called upon to lead? Nothing. What does she bring to the collapsing and flailing candidacy of McCain. Everything. His "bold" and "dramatic" decision wasn't about putting "Country first". It was about putting John McCain first by shoring up the support of the Republican base which has been lukewarm at best. And which threatened his very election by opting not to vote come November. And it proves that the man who once denounced the intolerance of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson will at the end of the day kowtow to the extreme wing of his party with the best of them. It reeks of the stench of desperation.
But what is even more breath-taking is the level of cynicism. McCain and his Rovian advisers believe that the vast majority of Americans are suckers. Rubes to be mesmerized by and cheated by the world's largest Three Card Monte game. Sheep that can be spooked by the slightest imaginary threat. And all they have to do is sneak up behind us and go "boogabooga".
You have to understand that the reason they believe all this is because they've seen it work. Twice.
But that cynicism reached new heights yesterday. They think that by putting a woman, any woman, and Palin is just about any woman, on the ticket that women by the millions will immediately come running to McCain. they are not only seriously mistaken but grossly insulting to all the women in this country. They're right about one thing though. Sarah Palin is just like Hillary Clinton. In so far as she has breasts and a vagina. But once you get beyond those two likenesses there's no comparison. Palin is the antithesis of Hillary Clinton. The women who were and are her staunchest supporters were so, not simply because she is a woman, but because she believes in the same thing she does and acts upon those beliefs. Palin pales in comparison on every level.
My own personal belief is that McCain's self-serving choice of Palin will be his campaign's Waterloo. I'm trusting in the instinct of my fellow Americans and their realization of America's perilous state. And they will say: "Eight is enough". But the cynic in me says: "We'll see".
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