To start this out, I want to direct you to my good friend Jess' weblog, where he posted an email exchange with a family member and pretty much nailed down many of my own thoughts and observations about Palin. I could not have said it better. Slower, perhaps. But not better. And off he seems to be, with a few other political posts as he takes his place in the election-race starting blocks, awaiting the starting gun (and the confirmation that it wasn't aimed at Obama from a passing pickup truck) and racing towards a hopefully safe and sane outcome.
Meanwhile, I've been perusing web resources for election related information that's not partisan and actually tells the straight story. Something balanced, neutral and objective. Something that'll give me facts, not conjecture, and allow me to make an educated instead of an emotional decision. Scanning through Fox, CNN, NPR, MSNBC and other sources is completely futile. Anybody that actually believes that the major networks and publications, both conservative and liberal, don't have a bias and provide honest, neutral stories without an agenda needs to think again. Really hard.
There is a website that I am pretty comfortable recommending as a very neutral site. FactCheck.org. I've dug around for some time and looked for any ties or indications that they're other than neutral. Beyond the occasional irate blogger's nit-picky disagreement, I find no reason to think otherwise. These guys tear down both sides, and point out the fallacies, lies and manipulations of both parties.
And it's stunning, absolutely stunning, to step outside the 'receptor' role of seeing a political ad, speech or statement, and instead, peel back the layers of the onion and see just how manipulative both parties can and are being in their efforts to sway votes.
It's also sad, really, when you realize that the political process and who ends up in office is all about who 'sells themselves' while discrediting the other, and less about people making well informed, intelligent decisions based on more than just what they heard in a 15 second slam campaign TV spot, blindly following their supposed 'party affiliation', or apathetically doing what their local church or news organization spoon feeds them as the right choice.
When you look at things in that context, regardless of how McCain/Palin seems like such a wrong, weak and damaging choice to make in my opinion, I can't say I'm not scared that they actually have a chance as succeeding. When you look a the map on Jess's post, there's an awful lot of red. It seems inconceivable, but then so does Bush having served 2 terms. I find this all terribly discouraging. Putting a slight spin on a Woody Allen line from Hannah and Her Sisters, "If our founding fathers were alive today and saw our political system they could not stop throwing up."
