Palin

Ok, let me say some good things about Sarah Palin now. There are some good thigns to say.

Apparently, she is a pretty good governor, even my democrat friends in Alaska say so.

She knows how to filed dress a moose.

She is hot. I mean very hot. A real G-Milf.

She represents a segment of the American electorate that is too often belittled and overlooked by us in the media, us academics, and us in New York--an iconic America that includes Andy Hardy, Homer Price, Norman Rockwell Paintings, my mother's whole side of the family, Superman's home town, John Melencamp songs, Mayberry North Carolina, NASCAR, most Kevin Kostner movies, A Christmas Story, and Pogo. In other words, all those icons that represented America when I was growing up. I have got to say that in my mind as a youth, that is what represented America, not Times Square or 5th Avenue or Brooklyn.

She just appeared on Saturday Night Live and was pretty funny. Mostly she was funny because of Tina Fey, Loren Michaels, Mark Whalberg, and Alec Baldwin surrounding her, but she was still good in her own right.

She really did take on corruption in her own party and Big Oil up in Alaska and won both times.

She is funny, charming, and has a sense of humor.

That bit about field dressing a moose (digression coming) is actaully very important. I will admit it: one reason I was supporting Bill Richardson at the beginning of the primaries is because he hunts. He's a sportsman. I am not a hunter. I have walked through the woods with a shotgun a couple of times, and I will be out on stand on the opening day of rifle/deer season next month hoping to put Bambi on the table, but I ahve yet to actually shoot anything, so I'm not really a hunter yet. But as longtime readers know, I am a pretty staunch supporter of the 2nd amendment and of sportsmen's rights. Richardson was not only the most qualifed candidate politically in my mind, but he was also the one on both sides who would be best for hunters (Like Dean he'd been endorsed by the NRA as governor--another reason I like Dean). I was hoping that if we had a real sportsman in the White House that it would give sportsmen's issues a boost and maybe even spur a rebirth in the popularity of hunting. While this is not as big an issue for me as civil liberties, foreign relations, the economy, the war, or health care, it is still an issue I care deeply about. Sarah Palin with her popularity has the potential to prompt people, especialy women, to take up hunting as well (Cheney's been a disaster in that department). That's why, as funny as I sometimes find it, it bothers me when comedians portray her as some dumb moose-killing redneck. but even if she doesn't win, she might help the cause. She is very popular among certain segments of the electorate, after all--and not just the extreme Christian right.

So here's to Sarah! Somebody I'd love to have a drink with or spend a week at a deer camp with. I'm hoping she can inspire more people to take hunter safety courses and take responsibility for their place in the food chain. I just don't want her to be Vice President.