Hurricanes & Beauty Queens

After the Democrats rode the mile high love train in Denver and Oprah “cried my eyelashes off” I guess John McCain figured he needed to lively up his show and he has. He chose Sarah Palin, the totally unqualified moose-huntin’, oil-drillin’, bible-thumpin’ runner-up beauty queen Alaskan governor for his VP. Asked on Fox news if she was really the best choice McCain replied, "Oh, yeah. She's a partner and a soulmate."

McCain & Palin (Now That is a Flag Pin)

OnSanJuanIsland.com Reader Nalton cautions, “This woman is a real threat, because the right-wing will identify with her values and her persona. It won't go any deeper than that, and she'll motivate and energize the wingnuts to go en masse to the polls.”

I agree. Heck, she’s prudy and she kin shoot. Some folks don’t need more than that. Barack Obama said, “She has a compelling story.” And so she does, Arianna Huffington warned Democrats, “Picking Sarah Palin was clearly a Hail Mary pass. But the McCain campaign is tapping into an archetype that resonates deep in the human psyche.” Maureen Dowd, called it, “a Cinderella story so preposterous it’s hard to believe it’s not premiering on Lifetime.”

Governor Palin on Vogue Cover

Add to this unfolding drama a class 3 hurricane spinning toward the Gulf Coast. Conveniently it is suppose to hit on Monday somewhere between eastern Texas and western Mississippi just when George Bush and Dick Cheney were scheduled to be at the Republican Convention. McCain now is spared their appearance. McCain may even deliver his acceptance speech Thursday from the devastation zone if the storm hits the U.S. coast with the ferocity feared by forecasters.

Democrats can take nothing for granted.

Hurricane Gustav