...there's Sarah Palin. Her shrill,abrasive, and all too often ill-informed rhetoric gives me a migraine, metaphorically speaking.
My late brother-in-law once was mayor of a sleepy little town up the Lehigh Canal. Would I even DREAM of voting for him for Vice President of the United States? Not on your life; although to be a good mayor--which I am afraid he was not--does take certain skills. But even if Sarah Palin had the skills to be elected and to serve reasonably well in her town, I STILL am not convinced that her skill level qualifies her to take over as leader of the Free World. Not at a moment's notice, and not at any time.
Until John McCain made this choice, I briefly bought into his persona as the peerless patriot, and even as a noble human being--this, despite the savage ending of his first marriage and his slippery position-shifting on issues such as immigration. He seems the quintessential flip-flopper, a name Republicans love to stick on others. He and Palin have now pulled the campaign to new lows; and rather than argue forever with anyone who happens to be reading this I refer you to an online blog called Media Matters. This blog is unabashedly liberal and proud of it; and its purpose is to detect and report on distortions of fact in the campaign. It feels reporters should indeed take sides, not for or against particular parties and candidates, but for the truth.
It demonstrates, moreover, that in this campaign reporters often fail to do their duty, under pressure, out of fear, or both. Often they will acknowledge that McCain and Palin are lying about Obama, yet manage to arrange their stories so as to put the blame for the situation on Obama. With a little attention you can hear this happening even on National Public Radio, which I used to admire more than I do now. Months ago,I detected NPR using very similar tactics against Hillary Clinton, who was my candidate and emotionally and intellectually remains so. Obama profited then, so I don't mind if he squrms a little now.
That does not mean I feel the country and the world can afford to have him lose the general election. I am therefore hoping the big media outlets--or their reporters--will do the job they need to do, and tell the people the truth about what's going on. In the campaign and in the world.