Follow the Yellow Brick Bridge to 'Nowhere"..

This news week has certainly had a strange, Technicolor movie quality to it. (LOL) Even though I promised myself I would get roped into politics on my blog this year I feel what I have been thinking needs to be said out loud. This is in no way intended to change anyone's mind in this election, I'm pretty clear the battle lines are drawn at this point for just about everyone and most voters I personally know are cemented to their position.

The first question in my mind after the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate was "Why on EARTH this woman?" There are many, many Republican woman that would be far more effective and suitable if this were just a "fill in" for Hillary voters. Just off the top of my head I think of Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas who would have been a really serious asset to this ticket. With all the controversy that immediately swirled around the choice of Sarah Palin, it seems to be clear she was not vetted for this position properly. Or was she?

Purely from the standpoint of my experience in marketing, I have come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin was chosen as a "smoke screen" for this ticket. I believe that she was chosen to do exactly what she is doing, take the full force of attention away from the messages of the respective campaigns and place it on a "shiny new media toy." Focus the "lightening quick video game" attention span of this country squarely on a candidate with more skeletons in her closet than Anna Nicole, and the media will follow suit. There is the very real possibility the news cycle may not be able to investigate all the leads and scandals attached to this woman within the slim eight weeks before this election. It already seems questions considered reasonable to a male candidate will be considered "sexism" if the answer is uncomfortable for Ms. Palin, and she is the only candidate I've witnessed in my voting experience who is taking several weeks during crucial campaign time deliberately shielded from the pesky, guaranteed by the American Constitution, free press. Need I remind anyone...eight weeks until we pull that lever...tick, tick, tick.

As much as I dislike Sarah Palin's politics I do feel some measure of pity for her. I think her blind ambition deludes her into believing she deserves the Vice Presidency at her low level of experience. (I lived in Alaska remember, and know how small and insulted that community is firsthand.) I don't think she was prepared for the media scrutiny she will endure, and I can't believe she actually gave much thought to the scrutiny her so called "normal" family would endure either. But in one stated position, she is the perfect choice for her handlers. BIG OIL and mega corporate interests need a person in office that dismisses warnings from science and will continue the march toward the depletion of the resources of this planet. To select her just proves, they don't care if the person in that position wears a skirt and lipstick. Yay, Girl Power!

Now back to the actual campaign. This time like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I hope we'll all ignore orders and peak behind that smokescreen curtain. The message of "Change" is obviously very effective and so powerful Republicans are attempting to co-opt it. Democrats stay on message, do not react to daily gossip and innuendo as fact. There is clearly a very double standard at work here, as the Republican party would crucify a Democratic candidate with Sarah Palin's problems and sell roasted marshmallows at the event. But if you are given the opportunity to debate her Mr. Biden, just visualize Dick Cheney in a skirt. A true feminist knows the punches come with the position, ask Hillary. Keep to the facts, there are more than enough lies to expose that have nothing to do with her gender to suffice.