While many people were going ga-ga over Sarah Palin being able to read, with feeling, the Bush team's talking points off the teleprompter on Wednesday night, the most telling prompt about her was being made by the man who chose her.
When Cindy McCain responded to George Stephanopoulos's statement on This Week last Sunday that Sarah Palin "has no national security experience" with the jaw-drop-inducing declaration, "Remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia, so it's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here," most of us assumed it was just the foolish comment of a non-candidate who couldn't think of anything else to say about Gov. Palin's national security experience (for the good reason that there isn't anything to say).
But on Wednesday evening it became clear that this seeming gaffe must actually be a Republican "talking point." On ABC World News Tonight, Charles Gibson asked Sen. John McCain, "Can you look the country straight in the eye and say Sarah Palin has the qualities and has enough experience to be commander in chief?"
McCain responded, "Alaska is right next to Russia. She understands that."
Well, that's a relief! The would-be president understands that Alaska is right next to Russia!
"I mean, please," Sen. McCain continued. "So, she is experienced."
Right. Gov. Palin's foreign policy/national security experience is living less than a thousand miles from Siberia. What more does one need to be commander-in-chief?
If that's all it takes, why not just cancel the election and draw the name of any Alaskan out of a hat and make him or her president?
Is ANYONE in the United States stupid enough to fall for that??
That, "my friends," is not straight talk. It is pure, unadulterated, crooked bulls**t.
At least McCain was accurate when he said in the ABC interview, "I mean, she's got an incredible resume."
She certainly does.
{Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America 
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