"Well . . . I'd Like to Bring about World War, Charlie."

Watching Sarah Palin attempt to answer some of Charlie Gibson's questions was reminiscent of the responses given by contestants in beauty pageants.

I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, inasmuch as she is a pageant veteran, having been the runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant in 1984.

But Governor Palin isn't like most beauty contest contestants.

As Sandra Bullock said in Miss Congeniality, "Hey! It is not a beauty pageant. It is a scholarship program."

So contestants have to demonstrate their scholarly credentials by answering questions, much as Sarah Palin did on Thursday and Friday.

We're all familiar with the standard response to such pageant questions as "What is the one most important thing our society needs?" or "What would you seek to accomplish as 'Miss [Wherever]'?"

"Well . . . I'd like to bring about world peace," the smiling beauty responds.

Not John McCain's beauty. Time and again when Gibson asked her about Russia, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, or just about anywhere, the candidate from whose state it is possible to see Russia answered that she's ready to go to war. (After all, she knows how close Georgia is to Alabama.)

This smiling beauty contestant has a different answer to the standard pageant question:

Well . . . I'd like to bring about world war, Charlie.

Finally - a beauty contestant who doesn't want to bring about world peace!

For this 1984 beauty, WAR IS PEACE.

Now, there's change we can believe in!

Big Sister.

Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America .}

Comments

[nikz]

What a great ad that would make!!!!!

[realpolitic]

I guess Sarah Palin feels that it is ok to bring about another world war as long as you do it with a bubbly personality, smile often, and then call your interviewer by his first name repeatedly. A warmonger such as Palin could not be more stylish.

[Fairfloss]

And so another left-wing rumor starts. There will be those who are going to swear it is true by Monday morning around the water cooler. Is that what it takes the Dems to win?

[ed3541]

Pro Life = Pro War to the Hypocritical "Christian" Evangelical Fundamentalists.
Blessed are the Peacemakers.
Damned are the War-Mongers.

[YenNguyen]

Thank YOU! What a wonderful piece of truth and intelligent satire.

To be sure, the McCain-Palin campaign would be very funny if only it weren't reality. George Orwell, your 1984 has become reality.

Seems like all of us need to go and review the Articles of Impeachment before catastrophe hits us.

[fairwitness]

The ignominious fact is, Palin and McCain are the result of Pelosi's refusal to consider impeachment. The scoundrels realized that they could do ANYTHING and get away with it, even cause tens of thousands of deaths, uncountable injuies and inconceivable destruction--not to mention shred the Constitutution and subvert our entire system of government.