Sarah Palin announced today that she would run for President if it were the "right thing for the U.S. and the Palin family." Ok, let's forget the part about the Palin family. Considering the pieces of information coming out about how the First Dude handled himself in Alaska, I'm not sure there will be a lot of disagreement within the Palin family about a run for the White House. Now, as for the U.S. - I say this being a happy moderate Republican who did not fall to the hype last election and still voted for McCain and am now happier than ever I voted for him. That being said, exactly how many meteors must hit the planet and kill off the remaining eligible candidates for President before Palin running is the "right thing" for the U.S.??? The same day she was filmed with notes written on her hand during an interview, reminding herself to talk about energy and the budget. Seriously? You can't remember those two topics in a 5 minute interview? Given the complete embarrassment that was her foreign policy ability during the election, there wasn't much left for her to impress voters with - and now it's hand notes that the budget and energy are important? Did her other hand have a reminder to eat and use the bathroom? Come on - there was a survey of 5th graders who listed the 4 most important issues as 1) No school on Fridays, 2) Less homework, 3) Stop the war, and 4) Global Warming/Energy. Awesome, our 5th graders remembered one of the two major issues, but our "future president" can't do it for 5 minutes.
I'll bite the bullet and say it. I'm annoyed with how women are doing in politics - no I don't mean that in a chauvinistic way, I mean there are so many OTHER women that would be great Presidents. Palin has no business being in the same sentence as the word "President", much less being pumped up as a potential candidate. She simply can not hold together the concepts long enough, and while she may be a wonderful woman, a devote Christian and dedicated mother, those are not the only credentials needed to be President. Hillary Clinton on the other hand has the intelligence and ability to be President. Now, she's dead wrong on 70% of the stuff that comes out of her mouth and would turn this country into a socialist nightmare, but if you're into that kind of stuff, I'd have to say she would be an intelligent woman you could support. Instead, she loses to what I consider flat-out media hype. Obama is smart and a great speaker, but I see no reason why Hillary wouldn't have been an equally good candidate (again, if you're into that). On the other hand there are women like Christine Todd Whitman who would be great candidates for President, yet we can not get ourselves as a country or a party to focus long enough off of the shiny object to realize it.
But I digress. Palin as President? Boo Radley as Speaker of the House and Scrooge McDuck as our compassionate Secretary of State should about round out that ticket...