Sarah Palin???

We just got back from our full-fledged family vacation and it was a total blast. Peaches and Popcorn did wonderfully. Peaches is old enough to actually take in what is happening: she loved the guards at Buckingham Palace, the double-decker buses, the boat rides on the Seine, th Eiffel Tower. Popcorn is somewhat more detached. She traveled glued to her backpack and her favorite soft toy, condensed thousands of years of history into one narrative involving a princess with long hair and her castle and applied fake make-up lavishly to herself and her huggy bear.
So after two weeks in a fantasy world, reality really bit when we came back and heard the two words: Sarah Palin. It was like having a bucket of cold water thrown at me. With all the problems facing us today, this is the person John McCain thought most suitable for the job? A person who denies global warming, has no real policy experience, has hardly ever traveled outside the U.S., was barely even known to many of us before last week. Obama, correctly and honorably has asked the media to back of her daughter. It is the decent thing to do. However, when someone touts themselves as a "hockey-mom", their parenting record becomes fair game. Certainly, it is possible to be a good mother and good worker. But parents who remember walking the long, lonely stretches of the night with an inconsolable, or sick baby, who have spent days in a haze of sleep deprivation in what a dad I know memorably called "survival mode" are forced to wonder how alert and effective she will be should that 3 am call come through to her.
This election is unlike any other. Our next president will be faced with complex realities, difficult problems and sometimes, unpleasant decisions. In this endeavour, he needs a capable partner. Sarah Palin does not meet those requirements by any standard. And oh yes, the woman thing. Did John McCain seriously think that those women who were disaffected by Hillary Clinton's defeat in the primaries would simply jump at the chance to vote for another woman, no matter who? I know he is out of touch, but that much??