VP Debate IV: One Down...,

Forty-Nine To Go...

Our Faux Hero raises "a white flag of surrender in" Michigan. As FOX even headlines, 'McCain abandons battleground state'.

OK. Discuss:



The McCain Implosion Tour '08 continues to roll across the country.

BTW, watching the woman speaking to the left side of McCain's decision in this video, Julie Menin of The Women's Campaign Forum, I'm struck by how calm, clear-headed and in control of herself and her facts she is; and most importantly, how in control she is of their implications for this race and the greater impact on life in the U.S. Now, THIS is a person I might feel comfortable thinking of for higher office. You listen to her, you trust her. Hopefully, she pursues that path. We need more people like her.

Watching Menin further points out that the Sarah Palin problem for John McCain is not that Palin is a woman, no matter how much the campaign tries to lower expectations of—and for—her and focus their efforts squarely on playing the Woman-as-Victim card. It is a Palin problem, pure and simple. It rests on a strictly individual level, on a person who is clearly and fully unqualified to be vice president of the United States of America—and when McCain croaks—president.

If the gods, Karl Rove and thousands of rigged Diebold electronic voting machines conspire to place John McCain in the White House, it is seriously suggested here that his first act as President be to hire a food taster.

Palin stands as a mixture of enormous ambition and little-to-no intellectual curiosity about the world around her and its problems. She showed again in last night's debate that the job that she's applying for merely affords her the opportunity to gain perks and power. She clearly stated last night that she wants to do Dick Cheney one better and take over the Senate fully and run it for her ends.

Hey, that'd be cool, eh? I was Mayor of the town, and I ran the town; I was governor of Alaska, and I ran Alaska; if I were President of the Senate, I could run the Senate. Way cool.

The closest analogy emerging from her actual performance last night may be her beauty queen experience. You could clearly see her falling back on the skills she learned to compete in that arena. She smiled, she gave direct pluck, tossed out forceful answers that had been fully crammed and had nothing to do with anything, smiled, and then Smile some more! She had those teeth and cheekbones working in full force last night. She appeared the entire time as if she were a contestant who was trying to sway the judges, looking for a final score in her favor (where politics and pageants do, in fact, align), rather than a leader discussing her views on the matters before this country (where politics and pageants diverge). She gave every indication of running for Miss Vice President.

Once again, this clearly shows off her astonishing parallels to George W. Bush. Both of them sought the job merely to sit in The Big Chair and have all the flashing lights and people be deferential to them. There is no semblance of any desire to focus on fixing the deep problems we face.

Motorcades, big crowds, thousands of cameras and teams of handlers are pure crack to any small-town pol. She may or may not have felt herself qualified when they approached her, but she ain't giving it up now. She's hooked. Nor is her Old Man about to give it up. Todd Palin seems to be the true power junkie in the family, given his performance in the Trooper-gate debacle.

Sarah Palin IS George W. Bush. With ambition.

Just what we need.