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Only in America: Sarah Palin
by
CHARLES LARSON*
by
CHARLES LARSON*
Yet McCain was ecstatic about his running mate’s managerial skills. Forget that in a state with a population so small (630,000 people) those demands would be less than being mayor of Baltimore, Austin or Memphis -- mid-sized American cities. Republicans were quick to add that as mayor of Wasilla, Palin “oversaw the police department, which had 25 officers, and the city’s public works projects.” Garbage collection, apparently, was outsourced.
You ask yourself -- as millions of Americans already have -- how can this nomination be possible? With the vice presidency always a heartbeat away from the presidency (and if elected, McCain will be the oldest person ever placed in the office), isn’t there any other Republican in the United States more qualified to be nominated for such a demanding position?
Ever since World War II, Republican presidential candidates have regarded their running mates as throw-away candidates. Consequently, their choices have been appalling or worse. Dwight Eisenhower picked Richard Nixon, generally regarded as the worst president of the United States in contemporary times until George W. Bush came along. Nixon picked Spiro Agnew as his vice president, who was forced out of office because of corruption. Then Nixon picked Gerald Ford, who became president when Nixon had to resign. Ford bumbled through the rest of his presidency and lost out in an election to Jimmy Carter.
Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the next election. Reagan picked the first George Bush as his running mate. Subsequently, at the time of the first George Bush’s presidency, few could find anything to admire about him, and even less about his vice president, Dan Quayle. Bush lost to Bill Clinton. Then when the second Bush ran against Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, Bush picked the devil as his running mate: Dick Cheney.
Thus, Palin is no surprise. No national or international experience. Certainly, people around the world (and most Americans) should be worried by her nomination. If McCain’s choice tells us nothing else about the man, it informs us that he has no concern for every major issue confronting the world today: our collapsing economies, the deteriorating environment, the disappearing possibility of peace in an increasingly interconnected but fragile world.
Yet, Palin apparently has what McCain believes America needs. She’s anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-science and the environment.
European leaders, especially, ought to be frightened to death by her. Does she have any clue about what’s happening in the rest of the world? If something should happen to McCain (who has had a string of medical complications), can you see Palin negotiating with Vladimir Putin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? We’ll have to wait and see if she can pass the test that Quayle failed during his campaign -- to identify certain countries as African, Asian or Latin American.
When George Bush II was running for office in 2000, for his first term, I remember a man in Turkey (where I was traveling) telling me that elections for the president of the United States are so important that everyone in the world should be able to vote. I agreed. Yet once again, a Republican presidential candidate has told us that conservative issues (abortion, guns, gay marriage) are more important than a sense of what the rest of the world understands America so badly needs.
* Charles R. Larson is professor of literature at American University in Washington, D.C.
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