There are two excellent columns about Sarah Palin in the Washington Post today, both of which I recommend. First, Eugene Robinson writes that Palin is "A Starter, Not a Finisher". Among other things, Robinson blasts Palin for ridiculing "boring things such as responsibility or duty" and for using "fear...of being painted as elitist and sexist" to intimidate, bully, and hopefully (from her perspective) silence her critics. Robinson's harshest words are reserved for John McCain, however:
...John McCain should publicly apologize for putting the nation he loves at risk by choosing Palin as his running mate. Imagining Palin within a heartbeat of the presidency should be enough to make even die-hard Republicans shudder.So why did McCain select this extremist, know-nothing, nasty nincompoop? Ultimately, we may never truly know, but
[...]
... Palin's unsuitability for high public office has been obvious all along. Tina Fey got it right; the rest of us were far too reluctant to state plainly that the emperor, or empress, has no clothes.
here's Richard Cohen on the potentially disastrous "alternate history" consequences if - god forbid - Sarah Palin had come anywhere near the presidency.
It would behoove us, though, to consider how close we all came to utter disaster -- the "counterfactual" suggested above. A recent Vanity Fair article clarifies just how awful a vice president (or president) Palin would have made. During the campaign, she proved allergic to briefings and remained determined to stay uncorrupted by knowledge. More recently, she explained her decision to -- permit me some GOP talk -- cut and run as Alaska governor by lapsing into no known language, explaining herself afterward in a burst of Tweets that only raised more questions. One question, though, has been settled: She is unfit for office.I would go a bit further and argue that anyone - Republican, Independent, Democrat - who thought for one minute that Sarah Palin was Vice Presidential material (let alone Presidential) has completely lost their mind (or, to paraphrase Dan Quayle - who Palin makes look like Albert Einstein - "never had a mind at all"). Speaking of which, Irving Kristol must be rolling around in his grave at the depths to which his son has sunk, just as William F. Buckley, Jr. must be tossing violently about in his tomb, thinking about how low his beloved Republican Party has sunk intellectually, morally, and every other way. You betcha!
Naming Palin to the GOP ticket -- a top-down choice by McCain -- was the most reckless decision any national politician has made in the longest time, and while it certainly says something about McCain, it says even more about his party. It has lost its mind.
UPDATE: This is funny.
