A (political) aside

So, I'm still working on the San Francisco posts (I'm actually waiting to see if one of the threads concludes, if you must know), but today has been a banner day and I've got something that's pretty much ready to go.

See, my dad called me today, just to check in, and we got off on some pretty heavy political tangents. Poor Dad had stuff he needed to do, so he indulged me as long as he could, then suggested that I write some of my thoughts down and e-mail them to him. And, right after I got off the phone with him, today erupted into the weirdest political day since sometime in 1972, by my estimation.

Once I got through chronicling the day at the paper, I came home and dashed off an e-mail to my dad, because I had some thoughts and he'd asked me to do that.

So, what follows is a (slightly) edited version of the e-mail I sent Dad, under the subject line…

Er…you did ask me to write some of these thoughts down and stuff…

Hi, Dad,

So, imagine my surprise when I got off the phone with you and our fun political conversation, sat back down at my computer, refreshed my homepage and saw that Sarah Palin's daughter is 17 and pregnant out of wedlock!

Now, the situation itself really is a private matter, as everyone with any common sense is saying. However, it really does bring up some startling questions:

1. If this is a private matter, why did they announce it? Especially why announce it as a counter to the, frankly ridiculous, accusations that Sarah Palin is actually the grandmother of 4-month-old Trig, not the mother? She and her husband have taken their 17-year-old daughter's private matter and made it astonishingly public in order to prove to a bunch of Internet crackpots that Bristol couldn't've been pregnant with Trig, because she was already pregnant with this baby when Trig was born. Is that bad judgment, or what? I mean, c'mon, this is a 17-year-old kid who is about to be thrust into an incredibly adult situation: She's got enough to worry about without being made a pawn in her mother's political ambitions.
2. (Really, something of an aside) When the heck did the presidential election start cribbing its plots from daytime TV?
3. Who the heck does McCain have vetting his VP choices? The Keystone Kops? Not that a daughter pregnant out of wedlock is a dealbreaker (although imagine, if you will, that this was Chelsea Clinton's out-of-wedlock child and Hillary was on a ticket), but there are other realizations coming to light in spite of Gustav not turning the Gulf Coast into a Third World country. Foremost, there's this whole abuse of power issue (Palin's hired a private attorney to deal with that). Next, there's the fact that Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party (which has, as its name implies, occasionally adopted a plank in its platform advocating secession from the U.S.). Third is the "First Dude" of Alaska's arrest on drunken-driving charges 22 years ago (although I'm really inclined to chalk that up to youthful indiscretion…I mean, sheesh, the current president was busted for that as well…and Obama has admitted to using drugs in his youth and was a two-pack a day smoker as little as a year ago, to boot). Finally, though—and most damning—the New York Times is reporting that nobody, not a single soul the Times—THE NEW YORK FREAKIN' TIMES, pinnacle of journalism and paper of record for this great nation of ours—could find in Alaska, from state legislators all the way down to neighbors, can remember talking to ANYONE from McCain's campaign about Palin's past. NOBODY.

Can you believe that? Hell, you remember what you had to go through just to get a security clearance. (Heck, my neighbor while I was living in downtown Aiken was trying to get his clearance renewed, and I—who barely knew the dude—had a little chat with an FBI guy!) Yet here's somebody who could, conceivably, be president of the United States before the year 2012, and the best the McCain campaign could come up with is standard credit- and criminal record-checks?! Sheesh, man! You're not hiring an assistant manager! At least have a P.I. on retainer!

Anyway, I feel like coining a new phrase, so I'm going to: McCain has McGoverned himself: He's picked a running mate with serious issues, and he can't ditch her without looking like an incompetent and doddering dingbat.

And, you know, I'm kind of sad about that. While I wouldn't've voted for him, I've always liked John McCain and thought his heart was in a good place. Maybe not the right place, mind you, but he's a sincere guy trying to do what he thinks is best for his country.

But, man…this kind of impetuousness and shallow thinking? We've had too much of that over the last eight years.

Give my love to (my step-mother), and thanks for inviting me to rant. :)

love,
j

So, there's that. It may be Wednesday night before I get the rest of the San Francisco posts up. Sorry to keep my regular readers in suspense.

But life's like that, on occasion.