If there was concrete evidence that the real challenges that America faces were as amenable to pull-string responses, folksy you-betchas, and suggestive winks as leading conservatives seem to be, I for one would drop my own impassioned resistance in a second.

But the fact is that the next president will need a steady hand to navigate the matters of extreme socio-political complexity that will occupy the first post-Bush term. This is indisputed, and was in fact one of the primary platforms of Senator McCain’s campaign prior to his selection of the governor of Alaska as his running mate.

… and that McCain was so quick to so repudiate, rather than merely abandon, that line of attack with his untested VP choice speaks to either the core motivators for his campaign or the steadiness of his *own* hand. And it doesn’t say anything flattering about either.

Everyone:

I’m truly sorry to keep with the politics in seeming defiance of Mr. Vercher’s mandate, but inasmuch as Razor X’s quoting and outright dismissal of my argument may have indicated a perceived weakness in it I felt obligated to address it.

In getting back to the music (which, absent current circumstances, I’d be far happier to discuss *anyway*) I noted that Stormy reached as far back as Toby’s Dream Walkin’ CD to come up with an allusion to the track ‘Tired’.

The title track to that CD, which was Toby’s final pre-Dreamworks release, is one of my favorite Toby tracks, and (along with Diamond Rio’s ‘How Your Love Makes Me Feel’ and a few select others) among my favorite songs from that era in the genre. Its subject matter makes it less saccharine than “Me Too”, the most prominent release from his previous album, and it’s far less vocally demanding than “We Were In Love”, which requires so much vocal range that it’s impossible to convince myself that I sound good while belting it in the shower. :-)

Anyway, the single Dream Walkin’ was released with one of the more technically inventive country music videos of the era, shot and cut to suggest a setting in which normal rules of time and place do not apply – a dreamscape, in other words, in keeping with the title and theme of the song.

Lay off the Kool Aid, why don’t you?

http://grandrants.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/the-sad-state-of-popular-music-in-the-21st-century/

And on the music side of things, I’ll admit to a definite fondness for much of what Toby Keith releases as singles… with the most notable exception of that execrable “I Wanna Talk About Me” that he released a few albums back. T’was a horrible song, and it was not improved by its subsequent use in a commercial jingle. I still have nights when I awake in a cold sweat with faint echoes of the chorus ringing in my ears.

Nice

(The presidency *is* what we’re talking about here; given McCain’s advanced age and possible undisclosed medical conditions, there’s a distinct possibility that she would finish any term that he starts. And even if McCain was both younger and healthier, the VP candidate should be capable of immediately executing the duties of President as a matter of course.)

And before you attempt to argue the equivalency of Palin and Barack Hussein Obama’s qualifications and experience, and claim that two years as governor of one of the union’s most unique states (which *pays* its citizens from oil revenue instead of extracting sales or income taxes) is as qualifying as two years spent in the United States Senate, let me elaborate on what I mean by “qualifications”.

In a perfect world, a candidate would have an established record of impeccable judgment in every subject that an administration must confront. Such a candidate, once elected, would have no need of a Cabinet to delegate executive authority or provide counsel. Such perfection doesn’t exist, of course; even George Washington, who managed a far smaller administration than any modern president, did so with the help of a four-member cabinet in addition to his VP.

I’ll admit that Obama shares, to some extent, Palin’s lack of qualifications when held to the personal experience standard. I’ll even entertain for the purposes of my larger argument the notion that they are thus similarly unqualified by this standard, although the bulk of evidence indicates otherwise.

Failing this first criteria, you would hope for a candidate with enough sense to surround himself with people who have established a record of good judgment in these areas of personal weakness. Like many, I was specifically concerned by Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience. His choice of Biden, one of the most distinguished Democratic voices on the subject, as his running mate suggests that he is both cognizant of his failings and willing to compensate for them with a similarly distinguished Cabinet.

Palin, on the other hand, has a history of using primarily a Monica Goodling-like litmus test for sycophancy when hiring and firing subordinates, both as mayor of Wasilla and (more notoriously) as governor of Alaska. The latter incident allegedly involved the firing of a popular and competent Public Safety Commissioner after he refused to impose special discipline on a state trooper to further a family grudge against the individual. And while these allegations remain unproven, recent attempts by the McCain/Palin campaign to stop an investigation by the Alaska legislature that Palin previously pledged so support speak volumes.

The final means by which one might qualify for the presidency in the absence of personal experience or astute selection of subordinates is a sort of curiosity about the workings of this country and our world. It’s the sort of curiosity that would lead a governor who aspires to national office to learn a bit about the doctrines of unilateralism and preemption that constitute the Bush Doctrine.

… or learn enough about the history of the Supreme Court to cite more than just Roe v. Wade when asked to list cases she disagreed with.

… or know enough about the legal (rather than moral) arguments that underpin the conservative opposition to Roe v. Wade to understand that denial of a right to privacy is crucial to them.

… or be able to cite some examples when asked what newspapers she read. With this question, I’d have even been satisfied if she mentioned a few news *websites*.

… or take steps, however limited, to interact meaningfully with her foreign counterparts. I’m not expecting her to have met with Putin, but has there even been any contact with her counterpart on the Russian side of the Bering Strait?

(To be clear, each example above refers to moments in her recent interviews with Gibson and Couric that illuminate what appears to be a total lack of curiosity regarding matters of national significance.)

This curiosity, and the quick accrual of knowledge resulting, could give a president the resources necessary to extrapolate an acceptable response in the absence of specific personal experience or good advice from those things he *does* know.

Barack Obama has proven himself a very curious individual, and his curiosity has borne fruit in knowledge, as exemplified by his better-than-even performance in the foreign policy debate with John McCain.

After seeing Palin’s recent interviews, conducted in the absence of notes or a teleprompter, I do not believe that she has any such curiosity, and consequently have no confidence that she will acquire sufficient relevant knowledge to guide the country through crisis if she were to be “called up”, so to speak, in the first term of a McCain administration.

Having said that, I have as little respect for Toby Keith’s political views as anybody here. He was, he claimed, opposed to the Iraq war from the start, but still felt free to exploit the general animosity toward the Dixie Chicks’ in the wake of their admittedly injudicious remarks, even though he now claims they shared the same “core” position regarding the appropriateness of the war in Iraq.

I wanted to write this for people who are truly swayed toward the Republican ticket by the left’s ferocious opposition to the Palin selection. I’m not defending any particular line of attack; I’ve seen some pretty indefensible ones since she was announced. Instead, I wanted to make the reasons for our opposition and its vigor clear. The stakes could hardly be any greater.