I think the reason that a significant portion of Americans still believe Sarah Palin is qualified to be president if something happens to McCain is simply that they do not realize the depth of her ignorance. That is because they share it.
If you personally cannot name a Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade, then you do not realize that it is a big deal that she cannot, either.
If you do not know the name of a single foreign leader (many Americans can't name a single one), then you do not realize that the president needs to know them, as well as the structure of their governments, the timing and methods of their transfers of power (e.g., elections or successions), the names of the leading opposition figures, and their lead diplomats such as foreign ministers and ambassadors.
If you do not know the difference between Sunni and Shia, Hamas and Hesbollah, or even the difference between Muslim and Arab, then you do not even know the basic information that is required to understand our foreign policy in the Middle East, let alone create it.
If you do not understand how a short position works in a stock trade, or that sub-prime mortgages were bundled and re-sold as stock-like securities, then you are unable to understand the basics the current financial crisis, let alone find a solution.
If you think that we can pay for two wars, a huge financial emergency package or two, buy up billions of dollars of bad mortgages, pay for medicaid for the growing number of poor American families, as well as cover social security and medicare for the aging Boomer population WITHOUT RAISING TAXES, then you don't even understand basic math. That's just addition and subtraction; you don't even need to think about multiplication or fractions to understand!
Furthermore, if you think that increasing our national debt is an acceptable way to avoid that tax increase,then you don't understand that, in a very short time, PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD WILL STOP BUYING DOLLARS, because the dollar will not seem a safe and reliable currency. We've been spending more than we've been taking in in taxes for nearly a decade now, and the difference is made up by selling Treasury Bills, which are LOANS to the US government. If people think that the currency will be worth less in a few years, they will stop buying them, because they want thewir investment to be worth more. They will invest in the Euro or the British Pound or just hold on to a lot of gold. My fellow Americans, we currently owe more than 10 trillion dollars! That's:
$10,000,000,000,000.00
That's more than $33,000.00 for each citizen! The portion of the debt for my family of five (myself, my husband, and our three children) is more than $160,000.00.
WHO DOES THESE BOOKS!?!?!
Anyway, I started this post with the idea of sharing a funny video clip, but now I just feel like punching a few elected representatives.
Here it is anyway. Enjoy it, if you still can:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1831461
