The importance of Sarah P

Andrew Sullivan, former editor in chief of the New Republic, who literally destroyed his reputation as he went into the tank for Bush and the rush to war in Iraq in 2003, has seen the scales fall from his eyes over the past five years and admirably called out the McCain campaign for the travesty that it was. He reaches his boiling point in this post where he explains why the nomination of Sarah Palin continues to be a shocking and important thing.

The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months - and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish - is a sign of their total loss of nerve. That the Palin absurdity should follow the two-term presidency of another individual utterly out of his depth in national government is particularly troubling. 46 percent of Americans voted for the possibility of this blank slate as president because she somehow echoed their own sense of religious or cultural "identity". Until we figure out how this happened, we will not be able to prevent it from happening again. And we have to find a way to prevent this from recurring.

There is a bit more piling on that follows, but the post is worth a read. I truly never thought that we as a nation could be more insulted by a candidate than we were by W, but I'll admit that Caribou Barbie took it to a new level. And Sullivan makes a good point, in that we need to understand why this could happen and in particular why a near majority of our electorate would support such a potential President. It is disturbing indeed.