Country First?

After the presidential debate last Friday, Joe Biden made the TV news rounds for the usual post-debate spin. Following Biden's segment, Brian Williams, with perhaps a trace of annoyance in his voice, said that NBC had invited Sarah Palin to come on too, and she declined. Rudy Giuliani spoke instead.

Huh?

A couple days earlier, journalists had been allowed 29 seconds in the same room with Palin to photograph her, but they weren't allowed to ask her any questions.

I won't get any points for originality with this observation, but especially after that cringe-inducing Katie Couric interview last week, it's increasingly clear that McCain is afraid to let Palin speak, and why. In each of the three interviews she's given since her nomination (for comparison, Biden has done at least 80 in the same period) she's revealed herself to be woefully out of her league. McCain's response has been to hide her. He's even gone so far as to suggest that the VP debate should be canceled.

This is the person into whose hands John McCain would commit the country if anything bad were to happen to him. He obviously doesn't trust her to give an interview, but we're supposed to believe he does trust her to manage multiple wars and a crashing economy? Does that make a lick of sense to you?

How can he run under the slogan of Country First (and actually bash Obama for "putting politics ahead of country"), and do this: look America in the eye and say things like (as he has repeatedly) Palin has foreign policy experience because her state is close to Russia? That's the kind of thing a low-level staffer would say on cable news and then get fired for because it's so patently ridiculous. McCain knows it's ridiculous. Watch how he nervously plays with his hands when Palin gives a speech and tells her Bridge-to-Nowhere lie.

In his defense, I highly doubt he's planning on dying in office. I'm sure he's thinking, "Wow, I really fucked up picking someone I only met once -- but if I can keep it under wraps until after election day, her job will be done." But jeez. The man is 72 years old and has had cancer four times. I have more insurance on my fucking car than John McCain is putting on the United States of America.

This is a man I used to respect. My parents own his book; my dad spent countless hours building McCain a model of his Vietnam plane that was presented to McCain by a mutual friend. Maybe that's why I'm so angry. McCain's campaign has turned into one giant insult. It's a slap in the face to anyone who thought he might make a good president.

He should, by rights, be disqualified from the presidency. He's unfit. His lack of judgment, his willingness to swindle and lie, and his shoot-from-the-hip theatrics (suspension of campaign!) make George Bush look like Abraham Lincoln.

At the very least, he should recognize his poor judgment and ask Palin to withdraw from the race. But that's political suicide and akin to dropping out himself -- there are no do-overs in this game. His future is tied to hers -- he wants this job, and if he has to foist an incompetent potential-president on America to get it, clearly he'll do it. He is doing it. He continues to run, and he continues to hide her; he continues to look you in the face and tell you she's qualified to be president. All under the banner of Country First.

What a mockery.

There once was a man named John McCain who deserved the plane my father made for him. That man is gone -- and by the looks of things, he may only ever have been a myth.