Micheal Palin was funny on "Monty Python", but what about Sarah Palin?

My female friend said "I hate it that people will cut Sarah Palin slack because she is a woman." So, I will not take off the gloves but I am going to try to say a few blunt things. What I have heard Ms. Palin say in public tells me that she has no idea what she is talking about. Her recent interview with CBS's Katie Couric is being dribbled out on TV, and as it is we hear a woman drivelling, if not dribbling. Asked about whether global warming had anything to do with human activities, Ms. Palin said something along the lines that we cannot blame all of man's activities on global warming.

The interview was already lampooned this weekend on Saturday Night Live, and is shocking people because it did not need to add humourous material, just use what was actually said.



In the actual interview, Ms. Palin sometimes just repeats certain phrases in a random, unconnected fashion. When asked for some specific examples of Senator McCain's push for more financial regulation, she replies to Ms. Couric, seemingly blinking in disbelief at what she had heard so far: "I'll try to find you some and I'll bring 'em to ya."



Her hands often do the talking, and they seem more coherent than she does more of the time. Wolf Blitzer was stunned on CNN's "The Late Edition" last night when he played the two clips side-by-side. Art imitating life or life imitating art? Judge for yourself if you think this reflects a disastrous choice.



The word going around (see Huffington Post) is that the McCain-Palin camp are happy with the prospects because expectations have been set so low that Ms. Palin's stock can only go up--but like the Dow, will it come crashing down again? But it's clear that Ms. Palin's remarks to Katie Couric "revealed her broad lack of knowledge on many of the issues that one needs to know when you're a heartbeat away from the presidency" to quote Huffington.

Key conservative supporters and commentators this past weekend stated clearly that Ms. Palin was a bad choice and should step down from the vice presidential candidacy: National Review columnist Kathleen Parker said Ms. Palin should step down since she's "out of her league."(see report).

While I am looking forward to the vice presidential debate due this Thursday between Senator Biden and Governor Palin, I fear that it could be a really embarrassing event. If I am not wrong it could even be really humiliating for Ms. Palin. It could turn out that a savaging by Senator Biden leads to many sympathy votes for a person downtrodden.

For a presidential candidate who is supposed to pride himself on his ability to make good judgements, Senator McCain's choice of a poorly vetted VP running mate shows little supporting evidence of good judgement. For a man who puts so much importance on the need for experience and understanding, especially as his age (72) suggests that he may not be around all the time to carry things with his own knowledge, Ms. Palin's choice is just gobsmackingly insane. She has no reverence for the age (66) and political longevity of her opponent, Senator Biden, and emphasised how long he had been a Washington insider, saying: “I’ve been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, second grade.” Hmm. That rings a bell. Dong!

Maybe while Ms. Palin is hunkering down with Republican aides at the Arizona "debate camp" she will see a light or realise that she has more important walruses to catch in Anchorage and just slink away claiming "personal reasons".