John McCain and Sarah Palin wish that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would just go away. On this we may agree; but our reasons for wanting them to disappear couldn't be more different. We want Bush to go away because his dumb-ass policies and anti-democratic governing style have been a total disaster for the country; McCain and Palin want Der Fratboy to go away because, although they don't offer anything different from Bush in terms of policy or style, they are at least smart enough to see that 80% of the country hates Bush's guts and they are hoping to escape the stench of epic failure.
Unfortunately for McCain/Palin, Bush and Cheney just won't go away:
"She's had executive experience, and that's what it takes to be a capable person in here in Washington, D.C. in the executive branch," President Bush said in an interview to air Tuesdsay on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends."
"John McCain made an inspired pick," Bush added.
Yes, what better judge of "what it takes to be a capable person in Washington" than George W. Bush? Given his record of spectacularly bad judgement (see also: the economy, Iraq, the fact that our allies now hate us), Bush's endorsement alone should disqualify Palin from being within shouting distance of the White House.
So, Bush loves him some Sarah Palin. No surprise, they have a lot in common. We all know that John McCain has backed George W. Bush 90 percent of the time-- evidently Sarah Palin just fills in the missing 10 percent. Why wouldn't he love her?
So, that's Bush. What does Cheney think?
"Each administration is different. And there's no reason why Sarah Palin can't be a successful vice president in a McCain administration," he added. Such a White House, he said, "won't look exactly like the Bush administration or the first Bush administration, the Ford administration. It'll be relatively unique to this president and this time that they're in office."
Translation from Sith/Imperial Newspeak:
Hey, she's no Dick Cheney, but if McCain limits the Veep's role to using governmental power to punish personal and political enemies while hiding from the press and public in an undisclosed location, she's obviously ready on day one.
So, the most incompetent, durably unpopular president in the nation's history and his even less popular surrogate father VP think Palin is the shiznit. Given that the McCain/Palin ticket's only shot at avoiding a smoldering electoral crater on Nov. 4th requires them to run as far away from Bush and Cheney as possible, I call their endorsement of Palin a gift. Let's make sure the country knows just how much George and Dick love John and Sarah.