Obama, McCain made bad choices

Editor:

Republicans believe Senator Barack Obama doesn't have the expertise to be president of the United States. "He's just a celebrity," they say. Apparently this is a good thing because they invented a celebrity of their own.

"Hockey Mom," "Marvelous mother of five," and "Pit bull with lipstick, Sarah," energized the Republican Party like no other woman ever has - except for, maybe, Monica Lewinsky. Could "Pistol-packing Sarah" be the female version of Ronald Reagan? Wow! Might she be the next Messiah?

Let's get serious. Compared to Senator Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sarah Palin is a mere novice. Expertise-wise she ranks below ex-presidential Republican hopefuls Rudolph Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Tom Ridge. But for vice president of the USA, she's inexplicably at the very top. Go figure.

McCain picked Sarah because Obama didn't pick Hillary and her 18 million votes. McCain figures his female pawn can capture some of those millions of votes and - wait a minute - am I missing something here? Did voters vote for Hillary just because she is a woman? If McCain wins and this insulting thought is true, Democrats are not the only ones in trouble here.

I don't know much about politics, but I do know that I want somebody in office who does. Senator Obama missed his opportunity, and so did McCain. Had Obama chosen "the woman," Hillary Clinton for his running mate, and had McCain chosen not just "a woman" but "the black woman" Dr. Condoleezza Rice, they would have assured us that the now tarnished, tattered and polluted White House would once again be white.

Hoo-boy, Ralph Nader and Ron Paul are beginning to look pretty good to me. Just kidding. We still have Senator Joe Biden reveling in the mixture. One sensible public servant out of four is sad, but it's better than nothing.

Italo J. Zarate

Brownsville

Via the Internet