Much Thunder, Little Rain

Sarah Palin speaks. And says nothing.

Despite the appearance of what is being lauded as a "home-run" speech by Sarah Palin last night, the truth of the matter is that she had little to say about anything that will matter to the American people in her possible role as vice president. Aside from mocking quips and underhanded shots at Senator Obama, Palin gave voters no reason to suggest that she is ready to run the nation in a time of crisis. In fact, for those concerned with her foreign policy record, the message was downright scary.

Political analysts seem to be in agreement about the changing nature of the Vice Presidency itself; and in the last two administrations it has been an office of considerably more influence than perhaps was originally intended. For good or ill, the VP has taken on the role of foreign policy front-person, dealing with crises and often being dispatched to volatile regions on short notice. Able to maintain a schedule that is more flexible than the chief executive's, the Vice President in the twenty-first century may often be the first point of contact for foreign leaders seeking U.S. assistance or shunning U.S. influence. After a speech in which she compared herself to a pitbull, emphasized her fear-stricken love of firearms, and actively embraced her simpleton, down-home Americanism, the prospect of sending Sarah Palin to the Middle East is terrifying.

What we should have learned from 9-11 is that our way of conducting business has brought the ire of millions across the world. Yes, there are extremists who seek only to destroy order. Yes, there are terrorists in the world whose plans are directed against all those who don't share their radical views, and these are not men who are likely to be dissuaded by a lovey-dovey approach to international relations. But to ignore the fact that our actions and patterned behaviors are alienating much of the developing world will only perpetuate the resentment that has been building for years. While I respect Gov. Palin's achievements and find her toughness and candor a refreshing departure from politics as usual, the thought of her brash and unrefined political tact being employed as the voice of American diplomacy is unsettling, to say the least.

Shifting gears to domestic policy, Gov. Palin's message last night was full of the same misleading rhetoric the McCain camp has reverted to since it became obvious they could not win an issues-based campaign. Instead of discussing policies in specific detail and making comparisons to Sen. Obama's proposals, we heard a simple-minded scare tactic approach. "Obama will raise taxes," "Obama will take your jobs," "Obama has no experience." It's the oldest trick in politics, and it amounts to nothing less than a smear campaign that deliberately and knowingly misleads the public. The messages are aimed at those voters who will watch one or two speeches a campaign season, to those whose educational backgrounds prevent them from understanding the complexities beyond these vapid assertions, and to those whose fears about a black President make them ready and willing to latch on to any reason to oppose him. For all her jabs at the opposition candidate (whom she neglected to call by name), Palin failed to explain how her ticket might help the same people she sought to scare.

Yet despite all this low-minded rhetoric and lack of principled speaking points, it was something entirely different that outed Palin as a completely ignorant and downright stupid candidate. Alongside the vomit inducing "drill baby drill" chant that had Rudy Guiliani cackling like the soulless mongrel he is, Palin's promise to expand drilling and open more "clean coal" coal plants by the end of January in a McCain-Palin administration was infuriating for an environmentalist. This is fatalistic talk. Clean coal? Seriously? How can the most polluting and unhealthy of fossil fuels come anywhere close to being called clean? And the assertion that we've "got lots" of oil and natural gas on American soil misses the point entirely. "Lots" is an outright lie - the amount of oil on U.S. soil would be exhausted in less than 20 years at the current rate of consumption. And the thought that it's as easy as drilling a standard well to find it is a gross simplification of the level of exploration necessary to find oil and natural gas that may be nearly impossible to extract. The scale and scope of environmental destruction that goes along with this type of raping and pillaging cannot be underestimated. This is not the talk of a tree-hugging, bird-loving hippie but a practical and pragmatic assessment of cost versus benefit. In classic Republican style, if the costs outweigh the benefits, the course should be abandoned. It seems when Big Oil is involved, however, the equation changes. Drilling in ANWAR and other environmentally sensitive regions is not a surefire way to produce more oil, but is a surefire way to keep enormous profits flowing from government contracts directly into the pockets of oil profiteers. If Americans want to see us stuck in the twentieth century and want their grandchildren to suffer the effects of an administration that continued to destroy our natural environment until it was nearly unliveable, then by all means, they should vote McCain/Palin.

Though it's hard to imagine a presidential campaign lowering itself to the high-school prom committee level the McCain camp now finds itself staring at head on, something tells me we haven't seen the worst. Expect all-out attacks on Sen. Obama, outright lies about his past and experience, and more deriding attacks on his Ivy-League education and ability to talk without using the phrase y'all or stumbling over his own words like a blundering idiot. We have turned to corner on this election, and the homestretch will see the re-emergence of all the tactics of dirty politics. It is my prediction that the Obama camp is preparing itself a suit of fine rhetorical armour, and I can only hope that this time the American people will realize they are being duped by a republican party which has no interest in their most basic needs.