The Palin/Biden debate

Dear friends,

The debate/personality contest, at least to me, proved something that I already knew. It is: There are, literally, a million or more women in this country, from all cultural and economic backgrounds who are more capable and competent than Sarah Palin, in any number of capacities. To be sure, she is unbelievably unskilled, regarding her understanding of leadership. Proof?

When she was speaking about her "experience" in Alaska as an "executive", she spent most of her time talking about "we", never having the confidence to say what "she" actually did. I am not talking about her saying "I" as some kind of narcissistic acknowledgement of herself; but "I" as in "I am I". In other words, as her saying "I" to represent her having a "sense of self" was totally missing from her seemingly pre-recorded spiel.

Additionally, Palin almost never answered Gwen Ifill's questions. Instead, she engaged in grade school-level polemics, repeating platitudes that we have been hearing from the equally unoriginal John McCain for years. Even worse, Palin repeatedly asserted that John McCain knew about "winning wars". What? He got shot down in an airplane, in a conflict that America ended up losing - especially because of failures like McCain, and spent five years (the rest of the war) in a POW camp. What is wrong with this picture? Palin is not even a person of average intelligence, in my opinion.

I will admit, nonetheless, that I was glad that Joe Biden put to rest the notion of John McCain as a "maverick". However, at least to me, it is quite curious that Ifill, the moderator, never asked what actual steps that either side would take, in terms of making the economy one where all citizens can be players. Oh, there were ambitions bandied about, regarding providing educational opportunities and more jobs. However, there was nothing specific said about how and when real jobs, for instance, would be created. In other words, neither had a plan.

Still, Biden's statesmanship overshadowed Palin's lack of it. This is particularly clear to me, because Palin is neither an educated or classy woman. Again, we have, at least, a million or more women in this country (i.e., educated and classy), of various ages and cultures, who fit that bill, so why did McCain pick her?

At any rate, I have never been very appreciative of the views of noted author and commentator Fareed Zakaria - until now. His recent interview, on CNN, shows him insisting that candidates should be placing intelligence over personality, when making choices for running mates. I strongly agree with his comments featured here, on the link below.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/09/29/zakaria.sarah.palin/index.html