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DECONSTRUCTING SARAH PALIN: THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
by Jack Random

Can a party of old white men with ideas as old as the amber waves of grain be rescued by a little lady from Alaska? 

Old Fred Thompson from good old Rocky Top hitched his pants and gave a speech he might have delivered four decades ago. 

Old Joe Lieberman, the whining wonder of Connecticut, who cast aside his own party to keep hold of the reigns of power, gave the same old appeal he might have given for the party of opposition eight years ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever your beliefs or party allegiance, what we heard on the second day of the Republican National Convention was a party of old ideas trying to run away from its eight-year legacy of disasters. 

They want us to remember the courage and heroism of their chosen one back in the days of Vietnam so that we will forget that they have taken the most dominant influential and military power on earth and reduced it to a nation without direction or purpose. 

When the last soldier finally returns from Iraq, what will we have to show?  Was it our intention to make Iran the preeminent power in the region?  Will we own or control the oil for which we swore we would never go to war?  Will we have secured a military foothold in the heart of the Middle East?  Will the seeds of true democracy blossom in the desert sands of Arabia? 

John McCain to the contrary, we will “win” nothing in this god-forsaken war.  We will have lost a great deal in blood and treasure to no end. 

What will we have won in Afghanistan?  After seven years of war and occupation, Al Qaeda is still operative and Osama bin Laden is still at large. 

With our military scattered and overextended, what was our response to Russia when they called our bluff over Georgia? 

They want us to remember the hollow cry of “USA!” against the background of a waving flag so that we will forget that our jobs are being exported, our wages are declining, our costs are rising, our benefits are being slashed, our homes are being foreclosed and our optimism is wearing thin. 

They want us to blame it all on one year of a Democratic congress and to forget seven and a half grueling years of Republican reign. 

So can the young woman Governor of Alaska become the wunderkind that lifts this train wreck of a party and carry it to victory? 

It is a truism of American politics that presidents are chosen among three elite groups:  Governors, Senators and military leaders.  By that simple standard, Sarah Palin is deemed qualified to hold the highest office in the land. 

Of course, we all know by know that John McCain wanted Joe Lieberman.  So in his first test of leadership, McCain folded to the interests of the Republican operatives. 

If Obama’s rise to the top of the Democratic Party was stunning, then what can be said of Sarah Palin? 

Six short years ago she was the mayor of a small town and the losing candidate in a bid to become Lieutenant Governor. 

Only two years ago, in a state turned upside down by corruption scandals, she was elected Governor of one of America’s least populated states and one that is largely immune to the current economic crisis because of its oil wealth. 

It is not my concern that her seventeen-year-old daughter is pregnant.  I do not care what kind of mayor or governor she was.  I only wonder if she is prepared to take the helm if something should happen to the ship’s captain. 

Whenever Republicans challenge Barack Obama on the grounds of experience, every fair-minded citizen must wonder at McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin. 

When Obama has been challenged, his defenders have countered that he is an exceptional individual.  Editor of the Harvard Law Review, a soaring speaker and a mind as sharp as razor, he has not only survived but thrived in the crucible that is the presidential primary campaign. 

Sarah Palin may be an exceptional person but she has not yet been tested. 

Does John McCain know something we do not know?  Does she possess wisdom beyond her years?  Does she have the intellectual curiosity, capacity and drive to learn everything that must be learned before inauguration day? 

Will she face the media and survive the vetting process?  Did she come clean about the investigation she is facing in Alaska or did she pull a Thomas Eagleton?  (When tapped to be George McGovern’s running mate, he withheld the fact that he had been treated for a mental disorder.) 

If Sarah Palin survives this campaign and thrives as Obama has then perhaps she is the exception to the rule that justifies her aged mentor sacrificing his primary case against his younger Democratic opponent:  Experience. 

If she falters – exposed by a frenzied media for her lack of knowledge and understanding – we can only lay blame on the man who chose her. 

The real question behind the selection of Governor Sarah Palin is whether or not it was a politically motivated calculation.  If John McCain placed politics over country then he has reduced his campaign to the cheapest brand of political fraud. 

There is nothing on the record to suggest that Sarah Palin was inclined to national office.  McCain sought her out. 

The question is:  Did he fulfill his obligation to select the best person for the job or did he gamble the future of the nation on a political ploy? 

Sarah Palin did what any loyal party member would do.  She answered the call of her party’s leader.  It is McCain who staked his claim to her exceptionalism. 

Jazz. 

 

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS).  THE CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, BELLACIAO, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH, DISSIDENT VOICE, THE DAILY SCARE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS AND PACIFIC FREE PRESS.  SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM