When average isn’t good enough (Sam Harris on Palin)

[struggle4progress]

She’s not qualified to be president, and in picking her, McCain shows that he has little respect for the presidency

By Sam Harris
September 03, 2008 in print edition A-21

So let us ask the question that should be on the mind of every thinking person in the world at this moment: If John McCain becomes the 44th president of the United States, what are the odds that a blood clot or falling object will make Sarah Palin the 45th?

The actuarial tables on the Social Security Administration website suggest that there is a better than 10% chance that McCain will die during his first term in office. Needless to say, the Reaper’s scything only grows more insistent thereafter. Should President McCain survive his first term and get elected to a second, there is a 27% chance that Palin will become the first female U.S. president by 2015. If we take into account McCain’s medical history and the pressures of the presidency, the odds probably increase considerably that this bright-eyed Alaskan will become the most powerful woman in history.

As many people have noted, placing Palin on the ticket has made these final months of the already overlong 2008 campaign much more interesting. Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that’s precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don’t look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan! ...

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/03/opinion/oe-harris3

[bananas]

1. Sam Harris is a fucking idiot

He pissed me off with his right-wing rant about "head in the sand liberals",
when I saw this article I hoped that his years of meditation would have afforded him at least a semblance of reflection and depth,
instead he comes out with this piece of right-wing authoritarian crap:

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the “Who would you like to have a beer with?” poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages – and loses – both necessary and unnecessary wars.

edit to add:
People don't want an "average" neurosurgeon, what they want is the best, someone who has risen up above the fold.
And conservatives see that in Palin, but not in Obama.
We (liberals/progressives) see that in Obama, but not in Palin.