When the legendary Thurgood Marshall retired from the Supreme Court, George H.W. Bush had an idea - try to woo people by picking another African American to sit on the court. Of course, it didn't matter much that Clarence Thomas was a completely inept guy, who represented a view completely at odds with everything Marshall stood for.
When Sandra Day O'Connor retired, George W. Bush had an idea - replace her with another woman, to woo women. Of course, it didn't matter that Harriet Miers had no business sitting on the Supreme Court, and had been a complete disaster as the White House Counsel.
And now, John McCain has shown the same kind of judgment - trying to woo those who feel jilted because Hillary Clinton isn't on the ticket, by picking Sarah Palin. But, Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton.
I'll be bluntly honest. Sarah Palin is a lying, classless, two-bit inept hack, who isn't worthy of being in the same sentence. As Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Sure, you'd never know this from the wonderful facade Sarah Palin has created for herself. But, then again, creating a facade comes natural to a former beauty queen who majored in communications in school. Much of her adult life has centered around hiding what's inside and behind closed doors, to create a persona that dazzled the pageant judges first, and the voters next.
Problem is, the persona doesn't match the record.
In her first speech to the world, Sarah Palin, the hard-core Christian promptly broke one of the commandments by lying.
To back up the perception that she's a maverick against government largess, she brought up the "Bridge to Nowhere," saying she boldly opposed the project that brought pork to her state.
Problem is, it wasn't true at all.
But, lying isn't anything new to Sarah Palin. In Alaska, she used the power of her office to pressure the Public Safety Commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law. Questioned about it, she flat out denied it was true.
Problem is, it was true, and she was forced to admit to the lie.
Then, in what became known as Troopergate up there, she sacked the Public Safety Commissioner for not doing her bidding. She says she did so to go in another direction, because Walt Monegan, the guy she fired, wasn't doing his job well and wasn't the guy she thought should hold the job.
So who did she pick to hold this position, which would be akin to who she would appoint Secretary of Homeland Security, if she was President?
A guy who was forced to resign after two weeks because of sexual harassment issues.
It's not like the Governor didn't KNOW that this guy had issues. Her office was warned:
The complainant in the Kenai sexual harassment case, a former assistant to Kopp, e-mailed the governor's office on July 13 that:
"My employment at Kenai Police Department ended after my sexual harassment complaint against Chief Kopp was acknowledged, validated, but ultimately dealt with ineffectively by the City of Kenai."
She offered to show her files.
No one from the governor's office contacted the woman, though, and Palin announced Kopp got the job the next day. Several days later, the woman called the governor's office asking officials again to look into it, she said.
It's not just that behind Palin's facade of an effective reformer there's a dirty underbelly of complete and absolute ineptitude. It's also that behind the facade of the all-American hockey mom, there's a completely classless woman.
As detailed by a top diary on here, Palin sat and laughed as a radio host mocked a cancer survivor as a "cancer on the state" and a "bitch" and made fun of the survivor's weight.
This led an opinion piece in the top state paper to conclude it was "one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I've ever seen from a politician."
Surely there is more there that hasn't come out. But based on just this, is America really comfortable putting such an inept lying hack one heart-beat away from taking over as leader of the free world from a 72 year old with a history of cancer?
Haven't we had enough of that already as President over the last eight years?
And what does it say about the "maverick" John McCain that he's comfortable handing the keys to the White House to someone who isn't just a Clarence Thomas/Harriet Miers pick, but someone who has only proven herself to be a lesser version of George W. Bush?