Enough about Sarah Palin. We've let John McCain divert us from the issues about which voters really care. This election isn't about whether Palin opposed the "bridge to nowhere," or whether she loves guns, thinks we should drill in Alaska, or opposes reproductive choice for women. It certainly isn't about her pregnant daughter, her hair, or who will play her in the movie version of election 2008. She's John McCain's running mate. Her opinions on the issues are the same as his, and he has already told us that he wants to overturn Roe. v. Wade, that we should drill everywhere on American soil we can, that he is against any restrictions on gun ownership, and that he will appoint conservative Supreme Court justices. John Paul Stevens is eighty-eight years old. Are we really worried that McCain is going to die before Stevens retires and that Palin will appoint someone worse than McCain will?
We need to turn the focus back onto the issues that really matter. This election isn't about Sarah Palin -- it's about me. And you. Will the sub-prime housing crisis deplete the value of our parents' retirements accounts? Will we lose our homes? How will we find a job if we don't have one or keep ours if we do? Will we be able to afford our prescriptions, medical care for our children, gasoline? How will we pay for college for our children? How do we regain our moral standing with the rest of the world? We do this by electing Barack Obama.
If the election were about which party has played the game the best, the Republicans would win hands down. They've made us pay more attention to Sarah Palin's fashion sense than to rising unemployment, escalating health care costs and a federal budget deficit in excess of $9.5 trillion dollars. We laughed about McCain's VP pick, but now we see the genius of it. She's much more interesting than either McCain or Obama, but contrary to the press coverage, she isn't running for president. If we continue to let ourselves be distracted by the Republicans' antics, we can look forward to unaffordable health care, further cuts in government services, and more of us lost in the economic cracks. So let's stop hanging on her every word and giving her the lion's share of the headlines. As Bill Clinton famously said, it's the economy, stupid.
The econo-me.