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My parents would weep

They were life-long, devoted Democrats. Either would prefer to be skinned alive then ever cast a vote for someone with an (R) next to their name. My father once said that Ronald Reagan, as governor of California, was Satan on earth. My mother espoused burning bras, bombing banks, and putting reactionaries up against the wall. There's no doubt they'd vote for Senator Barrack Obama.

There's also no doubt they'd be wearing gas masks as they did so, the mere holding of their noses being insufficient.

I've been voting in presidential elections since 1976. Never have I seen any party, major or otherwise, put forth a less qualified candidate than The One. Never. He's even worse than Jimmy Carter. The sheer scope of his inexperience is breathtaking, matched only by his colossal ignorance. (Or is that arrogance?)

Stupid is defined as "lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity".

In contrast, ignorance is "the lack of knowledge or education".

So I am not saying that Obama is stupid; his successful career at law school belies any accusation of stupidity.

On the other hand, his ignorance, especially of history, is staggering. He reminded us Kennedy went to Vienna and talked to Khruschev when we were on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Only when Kennedy made that trip, we weren't on the brink. That would come over a year later, during the Cuban missile crisis. And history shows that after Khruschev met Kennedy, the Soviet dictator was emboldened enough to put missiles in Cuba. He came away from the meeting convinced that Kennedy was an empty suit.

In other words, not only did Obama get the basic history wrong, he missed that history proves precisely the opposite point he was trying to make.

Obama isn't sure what relative of his might (or might not) have liberated (or at least helped liberate) Auchwitz (or some other Nazi concentration camp).

He was shocked (shocked, I say) to discover that the church he professes to have been a member of for 20 years is a hotbed of racist rhetoric and victim politics. He claims he was never there during any of Reverend Wright's now-infamous diatribes, yet he used the title of one of those diatribes as the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope.

And more recently, his knee-jerk reaction to Russia's invasion of Georgia was to say we should bring a resolution before the United Nations' Security Council. Uh, Senator, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and therefore can prohibit such a resolution from even being discussed. Oh, and even if discussed Russia has veto power, and would kill any condemnation.

Are we really supposed to ignore all of this?

He's probably giving a real pretty speech right about now. I'll find out later because I'm not going to watch. Political conventions lost all their charm when the days of the floor fight went away. Instead, I'm going to make myself a margarita, Kat something with rum, and reheat Chinese food for the two of us.

Damn, this presidential season doth suck.

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