Prickly Pear Jam (Arizona and the Southwest)

Where did the time go?  

It feels like it was just yesterday when I sent my husband off to one of his football weekends and I frantically called him while enroute to California to tell him about the Sarah Palin pick for vice-president.  We didn't know what to make of all of it.  Weeks earlier we had just learned about the Maverick herself from a PBS show about corruption in Alaska.  After listening to her first speech, in which she mentioned Hilary Clinton's glass ceiling, her first dude and her mavericky-ness, I thought to myself, "I wonder how this is all going to go down?"  

Well, with one week left until the election, I think it's safe to say that Governor Palin moved from her cozy home in Wasilla, Alaska to the national stage.  And, now as the campaign is huffing and puffing toward the end, Palin has made another move to right under the Straight Talk Express bus.  Oh I guess I should mention the food thing here, so I can go on about how Sarah Palin went from the Juliet to the Lady McBeth to the Ophelia of this campaign?  When my husband returned from the football game (after being deprived of constant cable news), he brought me a lovely souvenir from John McCain's adopted state of Arizona--a jar of prickly pear jam.  Hmm...what's the link between John McCain and a fruit that resides in the desert, is extremely thorny and is so desperate it accuses other fruit of outrageous things (oh, wait, I guess the last one doesn't apply to the fruit).  Let's just say that prickly pear jam best represents both McCain and Palin--thorniness, a slightly cloying sweetness, and usually the jars of jam come in bad packaging reminiscent of an earlier time.  But, unlike the jam which goes well with cream cheese and crackers, the McCain-Palin ticket is hard to swallow.  

The past few weeks of the public vetting of Sarah Palin has not been particularly yummy either. Allow me to elaborate:

1) Palin, like many in our current political moment, mistook sarcasm for political analysis.  They are not the same.  No matter how much Colbert Report or Daily Show you watch, you cannot think that being clever or even funny means you are particularly smart.  Palin's address to the RNC embodied the worst in political discourse--smug, politically immature and mocking in its tone.  Yes, the VP is the attack dog, but she was more like a pitbull, not one of Michael Vick's either, but an annoying one in Valentino.

2) Palin should have NEVER been hung out to dry on the clothing thing.  It's absolutely ridiculous.  Readers, a quick tutorial on what is sexist and what is not; please listen Elizabeth Hasselback.  It's not sexist to expose the astronomical cost of dressing her and her family.  It is sexist to portray a woman candidate as if she is Lucy Ricardo pissing off Ricky because she spent too much money at the local department store.  It is not sexist to criticize her judgment or complicity in the makeover.  It is sexist to blame the campaign's incompetence on Sarah Palin because she is one of many poor strategic decisions.  It is not sexist to point out Palin's lack of experience, lack of knowledge on the details of the position she is working tooth and nail for, and her desire to be the newest Republican sex symbol.  It is sexist for the McCain campaign to expect women who supported Hilary Clinton to sign up for her COMPLETE AND TOTAL OPPOSITE because they are both women.  It is a sexist to call Palin a diva because she is trying to salvage her political image.  It is not sexist to call her a whack job.

3) History will ultimately judge McCain's decision to entrust the future of his campaign to someone he barely knew.  Palin saw an opportunity and seized upon it because she, like McCain, have so little faith in the American public that they felt that simple manipulation, red-baiting and wild accusations could help seal the deal for the White House.  Instead their fear mongering, talking down to the working class and inability to maintain the loyalties of their parties and respective staffs, has helped seal their fate and ensure they will be punchlines in the annals of electoral history.  I hope it was all worth it.

So folks, if you are ever in Arizona pick up a jar of prickly pear jam and raise a jar to what America should be about: reasoned responses to crisis, respect for others and the ability to change the nation.