This should be fun...

Knowing that politics, like the economy, runs in cycles, I pretty much wrote off the upcoming election as being a redux of 1976. People like soaring rhetoric, and while I'll be damned if I can tell you what Obama stands for, he does have soaring rhetoric. McCain, on the other hand, comes off sounding like the old guy telling the kids to stay off his lawn. He did, that is, until he discovered Palin. Zowie for a number of reasons... ahem, all political reasons, of course. ;)

Once the media got over its shock at the novelty of the selection, the attacks began. Some were ridiculous, like her family issues, while some were reasonable in context, like her supposed lack of experience, though equally ridiculous when the charges come from Obama. The New York Times raised the issue in an August 30, 2008 editorial when it said:

Governor Palin’s lack of experience, especially in national security and foreign affairs, raises immediate questions about how prepared she is to potentially succeed to the presidency. That really is the only criterion for judging a candidate for vice president.

But contrast that to what The New York Times said on July 3, 1984:

Where is it written that only senators are qualified to become President? . . . Or where is it written that mere representatives aren’t qualified? . . . Where is it written that governors and mayors . . . are too local, too provincial? . . . Presidential candidates have always chosen their running mates for reasons of practical demography, not idealized democracy. . . . What a splendid system, we say to ourselves, that takes little-known men, tests them in high office and permits them to grow into statesmen. . . . Why shouldn’t a little-known woman have the same opportunity to grow?

That, of course, was written in support of Geraldine Ferraro. So which is it? I don't really care, since I find the NYT to be substandard medium upon which to potty train a puppy, let alone read, but it does amuse me to see the left-wing media flip-flopping to lash out at a threat to the Obamessiah. It's gonna be an interesting race to November.