It’s been a long time...

There has been so much going on in the news that I've been busy watching, instead of commenting on it... at least in here. But today, I think I'll take a couple of moments to say... What the heck???

Sarah Palin is getting worse by the day in my opinion. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for her. Maybe if McCain thought she was really smart enough to be the next VP of the United States and was qualified to do so, he'd also think she's qualified enough to speak... and even for herself every now and again. The interviews she's "been allowed" to give so far, are laughable. But the thought that they blame the press for "gotcha" when it was an average joe voter that asked a question, is crazy. Then instead of letting her even answer that, McCain sits in on the interview and interrupts her. Is he really that frightened of what she'll say on her own. Even his campaign is saying that the boot camp is because she hasn't been exposed to all this foreign policy stuff and needs to get up to speed before the debates. Shouldn't our VP have at the very least dabbled in this stuff before excepting a nomination.

Back to that "average Joe" thing. McCain and Palin mocked the "average joe" voter in the instance at the philly cheesestake restaurant, but then last night Palin goes on a radio interview and dubs herself as the "average joe six-pack" american that happens to be running for office. There is a lot wrong with that... not the least of which is that I DON'T WANT AVERAGE in the White House. Didn't we get that with Bush. He ran on the "I'm just an average american living on a ranch..." Oh yeah...I hear he bought that ranch just before that and now that he's leaving office, he's selling it. Guess it worked out for those great photo ops though. But, I digress...

So... Palin is just an "average joe six-pack" and that makes her understand our woes over the economy. After all, she has lost $20K in her own 401K because of it. Not sure there are too many "average joe six-packs" americans that have enough in their 401K (if they even have one) to have lost that much. Also, she says this one day after an article comes out that explains her net worth (just a clarifying point on that... they had to dig because she still hasn't released her records that all other candidates were forced to release). Anyway, based on that net worth, she's clearly NOT average by any means, and completely wealthy in comparison to all others in her home town.

But all that aside... I want a smart person in the Pres and VP positions. Whether the American public thinks that's Obama or McCain, it's clearly not Palin. I'm routing for her to do well in the debate because I believe the whole world will be watching and we are already pretty laughable to most of the rest of the world. If she tanks and can't put a sentence together like on these interviews, we'll only look worse because so many people actually believe she's qualified for this. What will that say about the intelligence of Americans to the rest of the world.

One notion that keeps popping into my mind is the crisis between Russia and Georgia. Days after Palin was picked as VP, President Bush dispatched VP Cheney to Russia and Georgia to try to help negotiate peace. If that crisis were to happen in January of 09 (if McCain/Palin wins) would McCain dispatch Palin to try to negotiate with those foreign leaders. And if so... could I please be a fly on the wall? I can't imagine how that would go.

So, everyone seems very happy that the bar is so low for the debate tomorrow night. For me, I cringe when I hear those words. I don't want the bar to be low for something like this... I want the bar to be extremely high as I believe they should ALL be able to acheive that to be in line for these jobs. I'm not saying by any means that I believe any of these people are the best our country has to offer... but lets at least be honest about who's even capable in the running field that we have in front of us. We range from someone who spent 6 years in 5 colleges to get a 4 year degree in jounalism and still can't form coherent sentences (Palin) , to Senators who've been around for very long periods of time and have morphed into people they are not in the last 6 months just to get the nomination (McCain), to Military schooling finishing almost last in his class (McCain), to Senator with wide foreign policy credentials that makes mistakes in some comments but has the issues right (Biden) to Senator with less time to be that experienced but Political Science/Harvard Law graduate and professor (Obama). It's a wide range, but this time around, I have to go with intelligence and the ability to think things thru vs. gut reactions that force them to change their minds every other day. Look where that lack of intelligence and the "fight at all costs mentality" has gotten us in the most recent years for our country.

All of our prayers should be made that the people of America become honest with themselves and vote based on real issues, not who they want to have a cup of coffee with. And also, it wouldn't hurt to pray for whomever gets elected. They're gonna need all the help they can get.