...Sitting In Her Nowhere Land, Making All Her Nowhere Plans For Nobody.

     This post's title comes with apologies to Lennon/McCartney...  

     It's only been a week, but I already find Sarah Palin to be insufferable.

     Her stridency, her smugness, and her standard-issue Republicanism don't scream "maverick" to me.

     I see a small-town, small-minded, mean-spirited woman longing to join the "Old Boys' Club".

     Nothing more, nothing less.

     A qualified woman on a major party's presidential ticket--top or bottom--is a welcome occurrence.

     But they should have left Sarah Palin in Alaska.   

     I don't believe her worldview extends beyond her riflescope.

     Her speech in St. Paul fed those famished for red meat, and she's suddenly right-wing America's Sweetheart.

     Truly a shotgun wedding.

     John Seery is Professor of Politics at Pomona College, and a blogger on Huffington Post.

     I've excerpted the following from today's post:

     Palin and McCain want the United States to consume more and more of the planet's energy resources--in the names of God, country, and industry. Palin believes that the Iraq War was God's will, even though she admits that she hasn't been paying close attention to that war (oh my Lord!). She believes that drilling in Alaska's natural splendor is blessed with Providential Approval. She promotes policies based on her unshakable belief that she herself has a direct pipeline (no pun intended) to the Almighty's intentions. What hubris! How dare she hijack and besmirch true belief for the sake of her particular economic predilections.

     She mocks community organizing in Southside Chicago--but has she ever set foot in Chicago? She has no idea what it means to organize on the south side of Chicago--nor, I imagine, does her slickly sarcastic speechwriter. How many African-Americans lived in Wasilla during her tenure as major? She hasn't traveled through this great country of ours. She doesn't know its people, doesn't know its amazing and oftentimes vexing diversity. She hasn't traveled anywhere in the world, except one place. She presents herself as an all-American gal, but does she genuinely understand--beyond her own PTA-to-Juneau story--our country's rich and varied and complex history? She recently confessed that she doesn't even understand what the Vice President of the United States does, and her admirers heartily approve of her perversely willful ignorance.

     Yes, she can bring a bunch of white people to their feet chanting USA, USA, USA. Good for her. But true leadership in these difficult times will require actual knowledge, not just personality. This world of ours, the past hundred years, has too frequently witnessed the dangers--nay, the evils--of compensatory nativism. Citizens in our own country should have learned one of the major lessons of these last eight years, namely that conviction should not serve as a trump card over competence. To me, Sarah Palin's grin looks like the grin of someone who doesn't feel she needs to think twice before pulling the trigger.