Palin

The selection of Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP is the most depressing development I’ve seen in politics in a long, long time. I’m depressed, not as an Obama supporter, but as an American. The fact that this decision by McCain is not seen by every thinking person as a cynical, dangerous and hypocritical move by McCain just makes me very sad. I fear that it is further evidence of our ultimate decline as a country. Democracy reveals both the best and worst in a society. In this time of global crisis, a time that McCain call one of transcendant threat, the fact that the thought of “President Sarah Palin” doesn’t terrify every thinking American is deeply, deeply depressing.

I though Richard Cohen got it right:

Probably the most depressing thing about Palin is not her selection but the defense of it. It has produced a parade of GOP spokesmen intent on spiking the needle on a polygraph. Looking right into the camera, they offer statement after statement that they hope the voters will swallow but that history will forget. The sum effect on the diligent news consumer is a feeling of consummate contempt for the intelligence of the American people — a contempt that will be justified should Palin be the factor that makes McCain a winner in November.

The best example of an outright lie offered by a Republican in defense of Palin is Governor Pawlenty saying on NRP that the fact that she is a woman had nothing to do with her selection.