Finally - An Interesting Turn of Events in Politics

This past Friday John McCain picked the Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin to be his Vice President, and I think, turned the tide of the race and made it a whole heck of a lot more interesting.

First to add a caveat and be honest, I hate politics and am very disillusioned by it (thanks to my stellar UVA education). Whether it is broken, needs fixed, etc, etc, doesn't really matter, because in the end the people in power are going to do what they want to do and the little person doesn't really have much say, and that won't change ("Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely").

That being said, I also dislike both candidates for this election. I don't care for either of them and wasn't excited by either candidate. Obama is interesting in the fact that it is historic to have an African-American man run for president (thank you David Palmer). But his message of "change" is just empty to me because I don't really like the kind of change he is proposing AND it's not like he will get half of the things "changed" that he wants to. Universal health care does sound great (with many pitfalls here and there), but I will be shocked if this country ever gets to that point, because of the kind of economic system that we run and exist in (plus, do we really want our government running the health care system?). A complete reduction of American forces in Iraq would be a huge mistake, in my opinion, and further destabilize a region known for its instability. And I don't really think he would help the economy.

I don't know what McCain plans to do either - I didn't want him to be the Republican nominee (I am a Mike Huckabee fan). Plus I didn't think he stood a chance to win when he won the nomination in April, unless he picked the Alaska governor for his VP, this lady who was making waves out there - only then did I think that maybe he would have a chance.

And he flippin' did. Seriously??

That is guts. To pick a pretty unknown candidate who has one of the most dramatic politcal stories in recent history takes guts. She is totally unknown to Washington and the national scene. The media is of course scrambling and looking for every little thing they can find about Palin and her family and stories are popping up every hour, but I don't care. McCain picking Palin as his VP made me interested again in this election and I might actually watch her speech tonight on network TV, something I have not done this entire election. And the fact that people are saying she doesn't have enough experience to be a VP, I find hilarious, since Obama has, until this pick, been touting the fact that he hasn't been taken by Washington because of his "newcomer" status. (And don't people find it funny that now both camps have basically switched attacks, with the Democrats now crying that Palin doesn't have enough experience, while the Republicans say that she does, when just a week before it was the opposite with Republicans saying that Obama doesn't have enough experience and the Democrats saying that he does?)

Anyway, I give McCain credit for a brilliant pick and for making me excited about this election. I am mightily impressed, which is very hard for politicians to do for me these days.