Palin's reflection of herself? Yeah, don't stare too long...

Kathleen Parker wrote in her syndicated column yesterday wondering how the mainstream media can improve their image. Other than actually acting like most journalists used to, I can't think of a more solid, or to the point answer.

Worrying about Barack Obama's so-called connection with former 60's radical William Ayers, but nary touching a stone about the governor of Alaska not only addressing the convention of a secessionist group (of which her husband was, and may yet still be a member of) and letting the group know to "keep up the good work" could be a good starting point. That the sitting governor of a state apparently agrees with the stances of a group that wants the very state he or she runs should be more of a focus than that of a charity board, on whom both Democrats and Republicans have served in the past.

Wringing hands over Barack Obama's attendance of a church whose pastor has occasionally made what could be considered inflammatory remarks in the past should pale slightly in comparison with Palin's one-time (or current, I keep losing the scorecard) pastor, who flat honestly believes in witchcraft, or John McCain's past endorsements from some the most half-baked elements of intolerance disguised as representatives of Christianity. If anything, credit could be extended to Palin for somehow making the case that we might be able to accept a Wiccan or Pagan practitioner in the White House. After all, witchcraft is as witchcraft does, I suppose.

The concept that Sarah Palin knows very little about important policy areas such as foreign policy may be brushed off, in comparison with presidents and vice-presidents past, although to the best of my knowledge, none of the previous ever used "well, I have heard of them before" as an answer to questions of capability. I have heard of base jumping, but you'll never get my pale white behind on the ledge of a skyscraper, parachute or otherwise, so I hardly think my mere knowledge qualifies me to run a base jump association. Rather, it is her more-than-apparent flexibility with the nutcases who attend her rallies yelling "kill him!" in reference to one of her opponents. It would be far less disconcerting if Palin were simply just in favor of succession from the nation by Alaska than in trying her level-headed best to get a presidential candidate shot.

It is Parker's opinion that Palin's supporters see themselves in her, and ultimately, how frightening could that wind up being, given the people that Palin herself has been palling around with? Parker asserts that Palin's "lack of polish and knowledge feels like an absence of slickness and glibness" to her supporters.

That's just flat wrong. After eight years of an administration utterly void of slickness, that perpetuation cannot be allowed to continue unchecked. Glibness? That might be great fodder for a cocktail party, but hardly in relation to the White House. Palin's got polish, folks, but let's not kid ourselves here. She's been polished with a dangerously crazy rag, and we are already seeing more than enough evidence of how the fumes have gotten to her.

McCain's search for comprehension

I wonder when the epiphany is going to strike...I truly wonder when that day between now and the first Tuesday of November arrives, and the light bulb fires up over John McCain's head, and the realization finally sets in.

"I couldn't have done a better job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory if I was the 'B' fighter in a Don King pay-per-view main event."

Granted, that may not be what the Senator from Arizona has flash through his head verbatim, but it probably won't be that far from the truth. As the 2008 presidential election winds down, do you think McCain is starting to compile his mental laundry list of what went wrong? I mean, let's not kid ourselves here, we're talking about a guy who went from being a Republican candidate I would have potentially voted for in 2000 to just another poorly sewn-together Dubya knock-off...a flip-flopping, rambling, clueless man stuck firmly in the grasp of denial.

Was it hiring an all-star team of utter douchebags to run your campaign? Was it picking the original Desperate Housewife as your running mate? Was it briefly (or still, I can't keep track of my scorecard) running the dirtiest campaign of the televised political era? What will be the one thing McCain chalks up as the reason he finds himself sitting in whichever the hell house it will be on November 5, drinking Ovaltine and bottom shelf vodka and celebrating a second-place finish?

Was it letting his wife give stump speeches when she was not busy swiping recipes from every other website she could get her hands on? Was it his running mate setting back the cause of women in politics for decades to come? Was it the leading conservatives, from George Will to Bill Kristol to Kathleen Parker to even Newt friggin' Gingrich falling all over themselves to proclaim that, in fact, this shit is bananas? I guess we'll have to wait until November 5, cause if I tried to individually list all the possible causes, that's how long I'd be sitting here typing.