Wednesday, September 10, 2008

"Gosh, Mom!...Putin is On The Hotline and Our Goalie Just Got Knocked Out Of The Game!..."


Something has been mildly bugging me since the whole Sarah Palin thing started.

And I think I may have figured it out

First, though, I wanted to share something I found both funny and thought provoking this afternoon online.

And I never really thought I would consider Matt Damon's take on things to be spot on, but, credit where due, he made me laugh and he made me focus.


(CNN) – Admirers say Sarah Palin's compelling narrative and working-mom credentials helped land her a spot on the Republican presidential ticket, but Hollywood star and Obama supporter Matt Damon said Monday the Alaska governor's story more resembles a "really bad Disney movie."

In a blunt interview with the Associated Press, the star of the Jason Bourne film series also said there was a good chance John McCain would die in his first term in office and the thought of a President Palin is "terrifying."

“It’s like a really bad Disney movie — the hockey mom…from Alaska, and she’s the president, and it’s like she’s facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. And it’s absurd, it’s totally absurd, and I don't understand why people aren’t talking about how absurd it is," Damon said.

"You do the actuary tables, there's a 1-3 chance if not more, that McCain doesn't survive his first term and it will be President Palin," Damon also said, adding later "I think there's a really good chance Sarah Palin could be president, and I think that's a really scary thing, because I don't know anything about her, and I don't think in eight weeks I am going to know anything about her.”


So, what's been bugging me?

I think I've been overthinking it.

We've all been dazzled by the "electrifying" choice of this Disney mom because it is, admittedly, about as far outside the box as any of us could have imagined. And when you're dazzled, you are also very often blinded.

And blinded we have been and blinded we are.

If we open our eyes and look at this thing fairly, I think it really boils down to a gender thing.

And not whether a woman is qualified to be president.

It's not about a woman.

It's about this woman.

Here's the thing.

If John McCain had chosen a 44 year old former mayor turned first term governor with no discernible foreign policy knowledge, let alone chops, hockey DAD to be his running mate, would any of us have hesitated for a second to wonder if McCain was a couple of bricks shy of a full load?

Party lines aside, hand to God, I cant imgaine anybody really taking that seriously.

It would have made Dan Quayle look like Lyndon Johnson.

So my two cents to hardcore McCain supporters would go something like this:

If this is the Senator's brand of exercising good judgement and making the best, most prudent, NON POLITICAL decision in a pressure situation, then he is not the man we want working in the Oval for the next four or eight years.

Assuming, of course, that Damon's 1-3 odds get beaten.




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