Teleprompter this, notes on hand that... the problem is so much larger than who is the better speaker and who is the lesser of the many evils we must choose to elect. Now, we have Mrs. Palin collecting 100 grand to bad-mouth the sitting president for using the same technology that every president has used since its inception (and that she has used herself), while she scribbles talking points on her hand in order to answer simple questions that she has been given in advance. If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny.
The real problem is much more complex (which is probably why so many seem to be missing it, choosing instead to focus on never-ending inane distractions). We now live in a country where:
* Fox News is apparently considered the most trustworthy news source (I don't even know where to begin with this one - this is more worrisome than N1H1 ever was).
* Palin is still riding the wave of support that had her nearly a heartbeat away from the driver's seat of this once-great nation, and the woman needs crib notes on her hand to remind her to slip in catch-phrases about such hard-to-remember core values as energy and tax cuts. She continues to astound us with her incompetence and holier-than-Obama attitude, and folks still pay attention to her. Why? What if she wasn't so folksy and easy to look at? Would anyone pay attention to her?
* Selfish miscreants committing heinous acts of evil suffer less harsh punishment than many individuals who commit minor crimes (much depends on who is committing the crime, of course) Punishment no longer fits the crime, and this is a major source of our problems. It seems that the only way to keep people civil and law-abiding is to make the punishment greater than the reward.
* The millions spent on beer and snacks to celebrate a football game last week could have provided food, water, and other necessities to an entire third-world country. Never mind the money spent on promoting the game, the prize money for winners and losers, the merchandise sales, etc. Our priorities - in terms of caring for our fellow man and addressing what is really important - seem skewed.
* People expect a single man (or woman) to fix overnight all that has gone wrong with our country, and that simply cannot be done. Where so many are guilty of creating this situation, it will take an equal number to right the ship before it sinks.
My final thought is this: Be careful what you wish for. If we eventually place Palin - or someone of her ilk - in the White House, we will reap what we sow.
