Okay… here goes… breaking my don't blog about politics rule again..

As we watched the world rejoicing at the election of Barak Obama last night* Secondborn, Firstborn and I wondered at the fate of Sarah Palin, who stood behind McCain as he conceded the election with tears in her eyes, apparently gobsmacked to realise she wasn't going to be president… oh, I mean vice president of the USA.

She has left us with a lasting legacy, however. For generations to come, people will be saying things like “I can see a restaurant from my house, so I must be a chef” and other variations on the I can see, so I must be theme. Long after she is forgotten, that joke will be with us, as will the phrase “pallin' around”.

She made an international superstar of Tina Fey. She gave every comedian on the planet so much material they probably all voted for her just to keep her around. And now the election is over, and the journalists following her are no longer trying to keep their seat on the campaign plane, there are other details emerging, like the news that she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a single country. Or that during debate prep Palin was unable to name all the nations in North America.

Even more salacious, is the Newsweek report which describes her $150K wardrobe spending spree, estimating “she spent ‘tens of thousands' more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband…. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books'.”

I doubt the Wasilla hillbilly pitbull mom will just fade away. She's far too telegenic and ambitious to be totally dismissed. I just hope that, for her sake (and the sake of her supporters), before she steps on to the national stage again, she does some homework on basic things like geography. It's going to be hard for her to be taken seriously as a presidential contender in 2012 while pundits are referring to her as “Tickle-Me Elmo” or the “Wasilla hillbilly”.

I'm all for women in politics, but can we just put up the smart ones, please?

Here's a random thought… I wonder what would have happened if McCain had picked Hillary Clinton instead of Sarah Palin as his running mate? Now that would thrown a cat among the pigeoens:)

Ah well… enough of the politics. Those of you who know me well enough to know my political bent, should get a smug laugh out of this post at the very least.

And you can stop smirking, right now, Sonny Whitelaw:)

*sorry to those US readers who supported McCain, but it's hard to explain how unpopular Dubya and his heir apparent are internationally, or the hope of a new world order the rest of the planet has been looking to the US to provide. One that embraces peace rather than pre-emptive strikes on other countries over oil that have nothing to do with the war of terror.