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Originally Posted by Cacophony
1) you're an idiot, get out of my room.
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Made me spit out my breakfast!
I was thinking last night about how shockingly fast has been the rise of Sarah Palin - I'm struggling to think of anyone else who has gone from nobody to household name (known even to people here outside the US) in such a short space of time - and not just a household name, but elevated to a position of such significance. I mean, most of us knew of Obama a while before he announced he was standing as a Presidential candidate. But Palin's emergence has been more sudden than anything I've seen.
Last night on Question Time (UK's most popular political discussion show), there was the usual 'balanced' selection on the panel - male Conservative politician, female Labour politician, female Liberal politician, the male CEO of one of the biggest retail chains, and a male Jon Stewart-style satirist. Towards the end, the question of Sarah Palin came up. And you know what? ALL the panel were united in agreement at how scary this woman's views are. Everyone from the audience who spoke was the same. No disagreement, which is very unusual. Harriet Harman, the Labour minister, spoke of her admiration for what Palin had achieved as a woman, and everyone accepted that she has certainly re-energized McCain's campaign (though not necessarily for the right reasons!) But beyond that, there was unanimous agreement - this scary woman must not get in!!
A couple of other vehemently conservative Brits I speak to on the internet have also wasted no time in expressing their horror at the prospect that this person could become the 2nd - or god forbid, 1st - most powerful person on the planet. These are staunch conservative party supporters, horrified at how America could end up not only with someone like that so close to the reins of power, but with such support.
The sense I'm getting is that the reasons for this collective horror (at least to us in this country) seem to be firmly rooted in the following: her abortion stance, her support of creationism, the sheer level of ignorance she displays, and the suspicion - from a couple of things she's said - that she may turn out to be an unhinged warmonger. (Not heard too many citing her lack of experience, funnily enough - seems those other concerns trump that)
The more I think about this, the more I see John McCain as the utterly reprehensible one in all this. Sure, John strikes me as a thoroughly decent jovial guy in interviews, I actually kind of warm to him. But there's no getting away from how stupidly irresponsible this choice of running mate was, and I can only speculate what on earth was going on in his head.