In which I talk about politics and alienate all my friends

Dear Senator John McCain --

Look. I like you. I've always had high hopes for you because of your work with Russ Feingold (MY BOY!) and some of your record working with Democrats. I've liked that you've pissed off conservative pundits -- even having them go so far as to say they'd rather play for another team than go with you.

But I have problems with authority in general, so anything like that amuses me.

So it pains me to say this, but Sarah Palin? O RLY? SRSLY?

Now, I'm not even going to get in on experience, because we could argue "Pot. Kettle. Black." with the Obama nomination (or at least when compared to you). What I'm going to get into is the fact that you're trying to paint her as a maverick, when honestly, she's not.

I mean, come on. While she was mayor, she hired a fucking lobbyist and flew to Washington D.C. to ensure that her city got a share of federal funding -- $27 million to be precise. As governor, she asked that Alaska receive $750 million in federal funding. I'm not knocking that mind you, because it is also representing the interests of your constituents. But if you do that, you can't paint yourself as an outsider like Palin did in this quote:

I pledge to all Americans that I will carry myself in this spirit as vice president of the United States. This was the spirit that brought me to the governor's office, when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau ... when I stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies, and the good-ol' boys network.

I know politics is about the art of the compromise, but this is a little bit of bullshit.

And then there's the whole mess of an investigation lovingly named Troopergate, an investigation that is CURRENTLY ONGOING!

All this doesn't smack well of your selection process. Did you just pick her because she matched some of your ideals and thought it would be great demographic-wise to get a woman VP candidate? If that was your handlers' plans, you should kick them in the ass. Hell, I want to kick them in the ass.

The whole thing smacks of condescension -- the assumption that because you've got a vagina on your ticket as VP, I'm going to vote for it. It didn't work with Hilliary, and it's not going to work now.

I think what bothers me more than anything else is that I had high hopes for this election. I was hoping for an election where I honestly had a hard time choosing between the two candidates because they offered interesting, compelling, intelligent and thoughtful discussion and ideas as to how to get out of the current shitpile we're in.

I hoped that you'd take the Republicans away from the scary-ass Christian fundamentalist quagmire that they got themselves into. I was honestly hoping for the same man who pissed off the conservative pundits. I'm now scared that I'm not going to get that.

Maybe it's the art of high politics. The higher up you go, the more you have to trade on the "maverick" credibility. Maybe that's why certain people aren't built for higher office. I know I couldn't do it because there's a certain point where I'd feel ill about the compromises I'd have to make.

I don't know. I guess I expected more. Maybe I should've known better.

Disappointed,

V.