Can't Wait To Make The Pros

As this is the first election I've really followed closely, the tone of the rhetoric and exchanges may be standard fare. However, I think the level of "What the hell did (s)he just say?!" is pretty high even for the most weathered politico. The latest fodder: who's pro- and who's anti-America?

And, of course, the majority of the nonsense is coming out of the McCain campaign and its surrogates. Let's start with my favorite: Sarah Palin (as reported by Elizabeth Holmes of the Wall Street Journal):

"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."

She continued: "This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."

Honestly, her point is understandable, although what she says is clearly absurd. Certainly the small, quiet towns scattered throughout the US are crucial to the viability of America...but so are the metropolitan cities. New York doesn't work without Harleysville and visa versa, so there's no point in singling one out as being more "real" or more "pro-America" than the other. Sometimes what you say isn't exactly what you meant (all you Michelle Obama haters should keep that in mind).

For the first time, Palin's comments weren't the worst of the bunch. Here's McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer on MSNBC (Virginians, you may want to sit down for this one):



I wonder if we'll see Pfotenhauer give any more interviews after that humdinger. We'll have to redraw the state lines now: West "Real" Virginia, "Real" Virginia, and Metro DC.

But it gets...much...worse. Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann is probably still picking rubber sole out of her vaselined teeth after this bombshell:



So to recap: small towns are pro-America, southern VA is the "real" Virginia, and some of the elected representatives to the House and Senate may be anti-American. I wonder if all of that made it into the GOP platform?

This drivel is starting to move from amusing and mildly irritating to mind-bogglingly (I think that's a dangling adverb for you grammar buffs) aggravating. I hope that John McCain loses, not just because I think Obama would make a better president, but because I think he really needs to answer for the bulls**t that's coming out of his campaign. In what kind of twisted universe would a surrogate, or a paid staffer, or the freakin' VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE dare to utter such baffling balderdash as this - especially after the incredible backlash Obama met after his Bittergate comments?

Idiots.