Watching the debate last night between would-be vice-presidents Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, we were struck by Palin's relentless glorification of her man, John McCain, and the high-keyed, almost manic manner in which she presented herself. It was more than a contrast to her dull, ill-informed appearances with CBS's Katie Couric; it was as though she had stepped through a door into another universe and come out as SuperMom.
There is no denying that this woman can cram; there is no denying that she can work a room even from a stage. But the aura of the enterprise had more than a whiff of futility about it. The idea, that someone can go from "hockey mom" to small-time mayor to vice-president in a couple of years and a few short hops is uniquely American and calls to mind - in this instance, at least - the movie "Election" in which Reese Witherspoon exhibits the same relentless drive to get to the top. And it rings alarm bells. All these alarms, as has been expressed in the domestic and international media, concern the possibility that she could become president by default, should McCain die or become incompetent in office.
That she can acquire and regurgitate any number of facts in a short time cannot obscure the fact that a president also requires judgment and tact, must at times keep the cards close to the chest, that at times s/he must dance on knife edge while juggling many balls. And we are not convinced that she is as capable as that. Hollywood aside, the real world is messy, full of loose ends and unsatisfactory conclusions, and even the best-informed, smartest, most sympathetic person can and does make mistakes that can have drastic consequences that don't make themselves felt immediately. And the likelihood of this occurring in a Palin fantasy - we can't bring ourselves to say "Palin presidency", it simply is absurd - is rather higher than an Obama presidency, even if she is livelier and prettier than he is.
In her recent meetings with heads of state, Palin has been guarded and supervised to within an inch of her life, as the saying goes. We would venture to guess that the amount of time she has spent, since being nominated, alone or with just her family, is rather slim. So that the question becomes - who will supervise her if she should by chance be elected?
Ms. Palin spent many minutes throwing out cliches that reminded us of The Simpsons, of all people, specifically Montgomery Burns and his railing against the elected officials and "fat cats" whom he will unseat and eject from "the state house". As pointed out numerous times by Joe Biden, McCain, by his quarter-century presence in Washington, D.C., cannot help but be considered in that same group, cannot help but be called to account for his many votes supporting the organizations, corporations and people that Palin dispatched with obvious distaste. In her need/desire/cool calculation that she present herself as being a true outsider, Palin is overlooking the fact that all politics is compromise, and those who would not compromise should not be there. So that her protestations that she would clean up Washington are hollow and outright silly. What will she use, Miz Clean?
As for calling the sub-prime mortgage mess the consequence of "predatory lenders" (repeated several times) that simply shows the simplistic view of someone who does not know, or appreciate, or understand the complexity of the mess that was kick-started by George W. Bush after 9/11, when he told the American people that salvation and protection from terror would come through shopping. The mess highlights a societal problem: casting borrowing as a sinful or shameful activity that a true American would not deign to undertake also creates an environment in which borrowing, and its consequences, are never properly addressed or analyzed or taught. By subsequently cloaking the spending - which surely would have to be underpinned by lending at some point, for almost everyone - in patriotism, Bush set the average American off on the road to perdition. As with the White Rabbit, Americans merrily followed their leader's advice and now find themselves in freefall down the rabbit hole. "Predatory lenders" - a favorite phrase of Palin's - were just one set of many that contributed to the unwellness of the U.S. banking/credit system, as were the media that extolled the savvy and virtues of "managers" who were taking home, in some cases, a million dollars a week. And whose army of tax experts undoubtedly found a number of ways to reduce that dreaded figure, taxable income.
The thought that someone with such simplistic notions - even if she is a quick study - should have the possibility of stepping into the Oval Office as anything but a visitor is enough to give one full-body shivers.
Her constant repetition of the grand numbers of barrels of "gassanoil", at least some of it "clean and green", underscore the fact that this woman, and the party she represents, have their heads in the sand as far as the real crisis in energy supplies goes. One longs for a true debate, one in which the cliched and rehearsed responses are stripped away to reveal what she actually thinks.
Was the debate structured to require or permit the speakers to address the moderator rather than one another? It seemed more a series of interchanges with PBS's Gwen Ifil than an actual debate between two candidates that ought to be considered equal. This structure gave the advantage to Palin, who looked beyond Ifil, beyond the live audience to the viewers at home. She presented herself as a "hockey mom", a wholesome presence full of gosh darns, and gee whizzes, and dropped endings that fairly screamed "I am one of you!" And she cast herself as loyal follower of the chosen candidate to the extent that we thought she would follow Howdy Doody, had he been selected as the party's candidate.
Palin is a big frog in a little pond who, through circumstances, has been transported to the ocean. We hope that the safety net keeps her from falling into it, as much for the ocean as for the frog.