Doin' The Sarah Happy Dance

I can’t believe I’m beating Ryan to the punch with a blog post! I figured he would be up all night writing about the VP debate. Let me just say- THANK YOU SARAH for redeeming yourself from the recent press disasters, and being well-prepared. Yes, we still saw some issue-evading, but isn’t that part of the mantle of politics? My favorite part was when she said (paraphrased) “I’m not from Washington and I may not answer questions the way you want me to” I loved it!Quite frankly, I was a bit nervous going in- nervous in her behalf, for surely she knew the stakes were much higher and her “performance” at this debate could be a deal breaker. Do I believe she is ready to become President should the unthinkable befall McCain? Absolutely not. But you know what does impress me? Her ability to learn as much as she has learned in the past five weeks. I am not saying that the office of President is one that should offer on-the-job training. That concerns me a little bit. To her advantage, is the “new face in Washington” line of thinking. She doesn’t owe anyone anything, and she is strong enough to avoid those who would try to mold her into what they want. I am still more comfortable with a McCain-Palin White House than I am an Obama-Biden White House. I’m still voting for McCain (sorry Ryan!) but I’m also willing to concede that there things about his platform that concern me. The prospects of a McCain-Palen White House are growing dimmer, I am afraid, and I’m trying to prepare myself for a disappointment. I think I can suffer an Obama presidency with Biden as his wing man. Though I don’t know much about him, his 30+ years of experience will do well for Obama’s on-the-job training. I guess this morning I’m just breathing a sigh of relief that Sarah survived the debate without imploding the entire campaign. Now I’ll just watch McCain and Obama duke it out two more times, and hope the same thing can be said of him.

Did this debate change the minds of the undecided voters? Perhaps not. It’s hard for me to say, though, because I don’t fall into that category; I’m not among the undecided. However, we must recognize that the average, Main-Street American Dick and Jane are not politically savvy, policy-aware citizens. There are folks like me, who have been intrigued by this election year, and folks who are so apathetic that they won’t even vote. Somewhere in the middle lies the population of people who will vote for someone because they “like” or “trust” them. To that end, I think Sarah has an advantage. Caution tells us that she is without national/international expertise, but our hearts tell us that she is likeable and she can be trusted to be a strong, new force in Washington. Granted, electoral votes will be the deciding factor, but I think it is the very attitude that “enough is enough” of the same-old-same-old thing, that will give Sarah an advantage with the everyday folks who take minimal interest in the election.

On a lighter note, I want to add that apparently I am not the only person who sees all math as Fuzzy Math. Yesterday I went to the websites of my state officials and my US Senators & representatives. There are feedback forums on these websites, and I was amazed at some of the comments I read there. I have to admit that I totally laughed out loud when I saw over and over again where people had posted the very same bailout alternative that I had posted on my blog. The very same post that my daughter pointed out was a mathematical impossibility. Someone even changed the formula to use the 700B figure and suggested that every American should be given 1M. I forget how many zeros that ended up, but it was in the trillions of dollars. So. I feel somewhat relieved (or should I be WORRIED) that I’m not the only one who fell for that without checking the math. But at least I posted it on my blog, where only a handful of people might see it, as opposed to on the website of an elected official for all the world to see. Right???