PEGGY HILL FOR V.P.???

It would be less frightening if Peggy Hill actually were nominated to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Instead, the Grand Old Party has cynically put forth a woman whose only prerequisite for running is, apparently, a pair of X chromosomes. It's literally making me sick enough to discontinue my life long interest in politics--because (if you believe the tracking polls, and you recognize the fact that most of the electorate is easily misled) there's a good chance this woman who looks like Peggy Hill could very well be the next Vice-President of the United States.

It's appalling...and a political master stroke. Pull a good-looking political neophyte out of the snowdrifts of Alaska, fresh from giving birth and/ or field-cleaning a caribou, give her a crash course in stock answers, control her exposure, harass an already cowed national media, and you've got "Sarah-Mania." It's not that the press hasn't done it's job trying to unearth information about this little known woman...they've been trying. They're being out-shouted by the bullet-point pounding talk-shows and pundits from the Right, who are well versed in ignoring truth in favor of ideological uniformity. Because television and radio are commercial enterprises, and are subject to federal review at license renewal time, there may be a lack of testicular fortitude when pressing the point that there's been a fusillade of obfuscation and out right lies tumbling from the top and bottom of the G-O-P ticket.

What is particularly galling, is that fact there are many, many more qualified women from both parties who, if elected, could fearlessly lead this country should Grampy John McCain keel over. It is cynical, I believe, to have made such a choice...to anoint someone green, completely controllable, for the second highest office in the land. It makes me cringe when I hear Chris Matthews, or others equally enmeshed in the world of politics, lose sight of what's right. No, no, no, even if it's what research tells us, Americans should NOT vote for a candidate because they'd enjoy having a goddamned beer with them. Why don't voters in this country want someone intelligent, with the courage to lead? Because they've been convinced that an actually, bright politician might talk down to them?

Would George Washington not have been the Father of our country because folks in the village couldn't imagine having a flagon of ale with him? Repulsed by his withered legs, resting in a wheel chair, would Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public, at the height of the great depression, reject Franklin D. Roosevelt and elect the feckless Alf Landon, because Landon was Kansas salt of the Earth?

Am I making this sound as ridiculous as it is? Those who are manipulated this way, and cast their votes against their own interest, harm the country and themselves. How many people who lustily embraced George Bush for his alleged values have lost their homes in foreclosure, or a loved one in a trumped up war.

Pay attention, America. Don't believe all you are told. Come to your own conclusions. And remember that candidates are packaged like the breakfast cereals that look good but pack enough sugar to put you into insulin shock. Or like the Alka-Seltzer that's supposed to cure your hang-over. In our country, it appears that good people are programmed to believe lies...and vote accordingly.

Note the irony when I say, God help us.