I Knew She Reminded Me of Someone

My first reaction to the idea of Palin as Republican VP choice was "Monty Python?"

After hearing her speak, a colleague suggested, no - Gilda Radner as Roseanneroseannadanna, and then another suggested Tina Fey.

For several days I had been planning to write about the insanity of politicians and political commentators alike proclaiming, "This is no ordinary election." I was going to say that 'no there isn't anything special about it since we have had elections every four years for quite some time now and, Bush, notwithstanding, we probably will have another one in another eight weeks or so.'

I had been prepared to postulate, the only extraordinary elections might have been Washington's (the first) and Lincoln's (which preserved the union.)

Except this is now a very extraordinary election. First of all, a senator has not been elected since I can't remember when. More important, there will either be a black president or a female vice president. I am betting on the former, but would not be surprised at the latter.

I think John McCain is nuts--have thought so for a while--and Sarah Palin is his attempt to either prove it or fool the rest of us into thinking he is a genius. If for no other reason to oppose her, Palin wants more endangered polar bears to die to oil companies can prosper.

To quote Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a strong Hillary Clinton supporter and now a strong Barack Obama supporter, ''Women don't want a candidate on the ballot just because of the parts that she has."

Besides "no ordinary election," another phrase that irks the sensibilities is, "This will be the speech of his/her life." NO IT WON'T.

There have been so many "lifetime" speeches I have heard that changed nothing, I would vote to ban those words from the political lexicon. In fact, most speeches of consequence are little regarded at the time of their delivery (Churchill's "Iron Curtain" and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address come to mind immediately.) But the offense to logic comes from the fact that for a politician, the speech of his or her life is always the next one. And for everyone else, their last one.