L'affaire Palin

Whatever borderline rationality I have managed to hang onto when I think about this election campaign, which is now beyond bizarre, has become irrelevant. You can't use reason to understand surrealism. I wrote in this blog several months ago that both candidates were unelectable, and events are proving me correct.

My original tentative approval of Sarah Palin has sent me on another switchback trail. Regardless of any admirable qualities she might have, there is still this question that won't budge: what kind of woman would accept the vice presidential candidacy knowing that her daughter's situation would inevitably become an international news sensation? How could she expose her child to such hell?

As for Juan "Amnesty" McCain, he has sunk lower than the mineral kingdom in my estimation. What scale can measure the cynicism of announcing his choice of Gov. Palin, then waiting several days to reveal her messy personal situation? I can only guess that he and his handlers imagined that the initial burst of approval would cancel out any negative reaction to the delayed news. But this is not going to go away. Bad, bad judgment.

The only person in the controversy I have any sympathy for is Gov. Palin's pregnant daughter, Bristol. At most, she can be charged with the folly of youth. She and her intended husband will be paying for it indefinitely, thanks to her mother's yielding to an infinitely more dangerous lust than a corporeal one — the lust for power.

UPDATE 9/3: It appears that the announcement of her daughter's interesting condition came from Gov. Palin, not McCain. Why announce it at all? The media or the Democrats — same thing, mostly — would have leaped on the news anyway, but in that case McCain and Palin could have dined out on a show of indignation that her personal family life was being infringed for political gain.