In the peaceful pastures of Meyrin, Switzerland, the world's largest particle accelerator has begun doing whatever particle accelerators do; presumably accelerating particles. Although most of us could never hope to understand why accelerating particles is important/interesting, there are those in the scientific community who are fearful of creating uncontrollable, matter-sucking, world-destroying black holes. If however, science wishes a practical experience in matter-sucking, they need look no further than American presidential politics.
Our version of the run for the White House has degenerated from a thoughtful discussion of the critical issues of the day (that thoughtful discussion lasted about as long as it takes a particle in the accelerator to circumnavigate the 17 mile track... approximately 186,000 miles per second), to a 2008 version of the school-yard taunt "I'm rubber, you're glue". If Republicans laugh at the rock star status of Barak Obama the Dems return serve with derisive remarks about the "all hair, no head" VP choice, Sarah Palin. If the Democrats deride the fact that Ms. Palin's experience consists mostly of learning the fine points of the up-do, the GOP inquires as to how many years Barak Obama was a prisoner of war, not counting Southside Chicago.
It's a standoff. (We'd call it a Mexican standoff but no one, and I mean no one, wants to discuss immigration). The troubling issue in this mess is that something has been tragically lost...namely John McCain. If you think that's an exaggeration, by all means attend a rally...if you can get in. McCain is the warm-up act. He's the local garage band that opens for Madonna. The crowd can't wait for him to finish his boring recitation about how he was right about the surge, and he's a maverick, blah, blah blah. The dirty little secret here is that if McCain stopped showing up at these events, no one would care. Don't take my word for it. Wait and see how many times in the next 54 days you see them appear separately. Everyone wants to see her. McCain couldn't fill a booth at McDonald's if he promised to pay for the burgers.
When deciding whom to chose as a running mate, McCain had to find someone that wouldn't upstage him. That effectively removed Romney, Thompson, Huckabee, Giuliani and just about everyone else in the free world. Face it, a plaster cast of Chester A. Arthur would put McCain in the background. He needed an unknown politician who would excite the faithful (and the Faithful) while not appearing so dynamic that voters weren't rooting for McCain's 73 years to take a toll. Enter Sarah.
Tragically for McCain, Sarah Palin is the worst of both worlds. She has zero experience so she adds nothing to the substance of McCain's message. She is also a new flavor in the vanilla pantheon of presidential politics. Sarah Palin is the new, if untested, quarterback in a game that seemed all but out of reach. She's the reason to go to a Republican event. Until the hated media can dig up some shady doings in Alaska under all that snow, Sarah is the shiniest penny in sight. (If you want to see how the Sarah Palin choice is going over in the McCain household, look at the facial expressions on Cindy McCain at political events. She looks like Eliot Spitzer's wife at "the" press conference.) McCain has taken to wearing sunglasses to cut down the glare from Sarah Palin's smile.
The dirty rotten scoundrels in the press are just beginning to shake off the pixie dust from Sarah's speech at the convention and unravel her blanket of perfection. So far, no one appears to care that: a) she did not oppose the bridge, although she did take the earmark money; b) she did fire the boss of her ex-brother-in-law for not responding to her pressures and, c) she did not sell the Alaska jet that was used for prisoner shipments as well as transportation for the governor on ebay. However, even a women whose primary talent appears to be the ability to get pregnant, cannot escape her past...what little of it there is.
The role of a free press, like it or not, is to vet public officials (God knows, McCain didn't). It was the press, especially the dreaded New York Times, that outed Bill Clinton's shenanigans in Arkansas. It was a newspaper (OK, maybe The National Enquirer isn't a newspaper) that chased John Edwards to ground in a hotel men's room. Richard Nixon was done in by The Washington Post. For the Republicans to demonize the media does a terrible disservice to the country. We deserve to see our candidates questioned by aggressive, prepared journalists. If Sarah Palin can't stand up to a polite but sharp interview by Tom Brokaw, how in the world will she handle Vladimir Putin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? They won't care if she is a girl or a mom. Neither should we.
Barak Obama has proved that style can draw a crowd but when the applause dies, you better have something more than a recipe for oatmeal cookies. If you want the people of America to elect you to high office you need more than a nice smile and a good wardrobe. If you've changed more diapers than state policies, we want to know before the election, not after. You may still win but not because you hid from the media. Afer all, we knew that George W. Bush was an applehead and we voted for him anyway. We have 54 days to learn who Sarah Palin is. If John McCain reads the papers, he may find out also.
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