Republicans: Vote AGAINST Sarah

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm quite a few pegs left of politically moderate. Yet, when Senator McCain chose a female VP, I admit that I wanted to like her. Knowing literally nothing about Governor Palin until the big announcement was made, I'd hoped we would have a few issues in common (like I do with McCain) and that, even if I didn't agree with all of her views, I could still respect her.

I held on to that hope for as long as I could. When America found out her 17-year-old was pregnant, I dismissed it. Lots of good girls with good parents end up pregnant because of one poor choice. That news came out the night of the RNC. The next day, my hopes started to die.

When Alaskans expressed their anger at Governor Palin for saying she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere even though she supported it during her campaign as governor and despite the fact that she accepted millions of dollars in Federal support to build it and did NOT return the money when she cancelled the project, I started to get a better glimpse at this woman. A woman who toys with the idea of banning books, who tests her employees' "loyalty" by making unAmerican requests, who "hunts" wolves and bears from a HELICOPTER, who believes human-caused global warming is not real, who believes humans and dinosaurs walked this earth together a mere 6,000 years ago, who's never been outside of North America and who can't talk intelligently about the Bush Doctrine or the proposed $700 billion bailout in a free-form interview.

See, I respect Senator McCain. He's earned the right to run for President. He's been in politics for 30 years and has done some decent work. Sure, he's done some not-so-good-work as far as I'm concerned, but I can understand why he's the Republican candidate for President of these United States.

But Sarah? She's beyond inexperienced. At best, she's naive. At worst, she's dumb. And either way, having her one heartbeat away from being President of our country is dangerous.

If I were Republican, I'd be thinking two thoughts right now:
1. What the fu*k was McCain and his advisers thinking?!
2. I guess I'm voting Democratic, Independent, Libertarian or not at all because there is no way in hell I'm voting for Sarah.

From the left, I suppose Sarah's appearance on the national political stage was a good thing. Perhaps enough moderate-Republicans will be disgusted enough with her to vote non-Republican and ultimately put a leader, rather than a maverick, in office. But, still, I can't help but feel profoundly sad over who Sarah turned out to be. Will her ignorance, her beauty pageant history, her hockey-mom personality undo all of Senator Clinton's hard work in the Democratic primary? Will too many Americans see Sarah not as an incompetent politician who happens to be female but as an incompetent female? These are the questions that make me nauseous as we head into the one and only VP Debate Thursday.

If I were McCain, I'd be giving some serious thought to this Deep Thoughts quotation right about now: If you ever drop your keys [this campaign] into a river of molten lava [Sarah Palin], let'em go, because, man, they're gone.