Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Seares: Having a Palin for VP By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
MANY Americans think Republican candidate for vice president Sarah Palin is funny.
But when retired general Collin Powell, a Republican, says he won’t vote for John McCain and will vote for Democrat Barack Obama partly because of McCain’s choice of Palin, that must induce tears among Republicans.
Palin isn’t hilarious anymore. She’s a liability—and a reminder of this often devalued truth: The VP is just a heartbeat away from the president.
Collin believes choosing Palin was utterly wrong, which flunks McCain on judgment skill.
What if McCain the president would be disabled in an outburst over, say, North Korean or Iranian war-flirting. That would make VP Palin president, the same Sarah who said her foreign policy credentials were earned by serving as governor of Alaska which, she explains, has foreign countries like Russia as neighbors.
Voting for Noli
Goofs, such as calling Afghanistan America’s neighbors too, don’t draw laughs anymore. A successor to the US president might be someone who can’t name a single newspaper she has read and believes in shotgun marriage.
Is it some relief that under-rating the office of the vice president isn’t just a Filipino affliction?
When Filipinos voted for VP Noli de Castro, whom many still deem inferior presidential material, they thought it was OK, “it’s just VP.”
VP can be the village idiot provided the president is not? I exaggerated (and no offense intended to “Kabayan”), but we do take the VP for granted.
Powell is reminding voters everywhere on the horror of having a Palin for a vice president who might suddenly become president.
