July 8: Palin Is Qualified For Drama Queen

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin truly missed her calling. After her beauty pageants, she should have headed for Hollywood.

Instead, she's in politics. After a year-and-a-half of apparently solid governing of Alaska by her, Sen. John McCain made the mistake of picking Palin as his running mate. She was not - is still not - ready to be either vice president or president of the United States. In terms of policy, her knowledge is nowhere near the level of a respected world leader. Worse, she has seemed unwilling to learn, so far.

What she is perfectly willing to do is act like a reality-show contestant in front of the whole country. Whenever there's a personal crisis - generally self-inflicted - or a reporter, blogger or comedian exercises their First Amendment rights to comment on her, she whines, she threatens, she blames everyone else - and generally refuses to take responsibility for anything. That's not the way a stateswoman acts.

Her decision to resign from office and the press conference were just more of the same. It is interesting to note that everyone seems to have the same reaction to her decision that they had to her presence on the Republican ticket last fall - Democrats, Independents and many Republicans in a decision-making position don't like her.

In the case of the Republicans, they're going to ride the horse, though, probably to the 2012 presidential nomination, unless something else unforseen happens, because she seems to have support among the party's rank and file. Sympathies to Republicans who want a more sober - and prepared - nominee who knows how to deal with the responsibilities that come with being a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

There are Republican women who fit that profile - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas comes to mind - but at the moment, at least, Sarah Palin isn't one of them. She's qualified for drama queen, not president.