But seriously, folks...

I think it was Churchill who said that Americans can always be relied upon to do the right thing, after they've exhausted all the other options. Through the years, I've held onto that notion, that in some difficult-to-elucidate way, we can count on America when the chips are down, and that while they may lead us to the very edge of the abyss, it won't be America that pushes (or drags) us all down. I do, in other words, believe in America, though not entirely without conditions.

To put it simply, if Sarah Palin becomes the vice-president, it will seriously damage that belief. Even Bush II had his moments, rare as they might have been, and I believe that he comes from a clan whose predominant self-interest is informed, albeit not at all enlightened.

However, in the relatively brief time we've had to learn who Sarah Palin is, she's revealed herself to be an almost perfect personification of the worst side of America - Smug in her abject ignorance, insulting in her presumption that a sugary wink will make her audience swallow poisonous rhetoric, reckless in her unthinking indulgence of the moblike quality of her rallies, and most recently, her abusive invocation of the first amendment was so frighteningly ignorant that her very candidacy could arguably be construed as an act of terrorism.

The time has come to do the right thing, America. Believe me, you've definitely exhausted all the other options.