If she can make it there....

After a brief setback on my way to the store this morning, errands are done. My setback was that when I went to start my car, Slick's battery was dead! Argh! This is not the first time it's happened, either, so when I take him in for an oil change soon, I'll ask about it. If he sits for over a week, sometimes the rust protection device--it sends a slight electrical charge throughout the body of the car--will run down the battery, but it's been just a few days since I was out. At least I remembered how to hook up the charger without calling Ken at work, and after about 15 minutes, it started. And I didn't blow anything up! Some days that's all you can ask for, right? A No Explosion Day!

 

Well, I was reading a little more about Governor Palin's meetings with heads of state yesterday. Sara Kugler, an Associated Press writer, mentioned that toddlin' town, New York City: "It was shuttle diplomacy, New York-style. At several points, Palin's motorcade got stuck in traffic and New Yorkers, unimpressed with the flashing lights, sirens and police officers in her group, simply walked between the vehicles to get across the street."

 

Hee heeee! I heart New York AND New Yorkers! (I took that picture in March 2007, when we paid a brief visit to the city.) To our pal RaQuel and her fellow citizens, I applaud your "seen-it-all" attitude. You know, when I was growing  up around here, the common thought was that New Yorkers were as rude as they come. When I first went there many years later on a trip for the laboratory, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were actually some of the friendliest people I've ever met. I had made friends with RaQuel online, and Ken and I have had a great time getting to know her--she's such a sweetie, and her love for her city is unrivaled. She considers herself an amateur historian of the city, and it certainly has a rich and fascinating history. So if anyone tries to tell you that all New Yorkers are rude, tell 'em to fuggedaboudit...they don't know what they're talkin' about!

 

But I digress. Ms. Kugler also had this to say about the meetings: "[Afghan President Hamid] Karzai generated light laughter when he told an audience at the Asia Society that, in addition to [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice and Norway's prime minister, he had seen Palin on Tuesday. Thomas Freston, a member of the society's board, drew loud applause and laughter when he responded: 'You're probably the only person in the room who's met Gov. Palin.' "

 

It seemed that when asked, most of the heads of state had nice things to say to reporters about Palin, that she seemed "capable," etc. But when she wasn't around, a joke about her conspicuous lack of availability to press conferences and reporters drew applause and laughter. The saying tells us that Nature abhors a vacuum; so does the press, and the longer this goes on, the more suspicious it looks, and the more jokes will be made about it. Campbell Brown, the CNN anchor, has already come out and said that the McCain campaign's shunning of the press when it comes to Palin is sexist behavior. If they think she's so capable, why are they protecting her and not allowing her a voice? If reporters had been banned from speaking with Senator Biden, or asking questions of him, can you imagine the howls of outrage? If this "You can't talk to her until you treat her with deference" attitude continues, the backlash is only going to get worse, and it could very well get ugly. To paraphrase Tom Hanks's character in "A League of Their Own," "Deference? Did you say deference?! There's no deference in politics!"

 

Remember that made-for-TV movie from the 70's, "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble," starring John Travolta? Ha ha! Wow, that was one of those so-bad-it's-good movies. Anyhoo, Sarah Palin is The Woman in the Plastic Bubble, where nothing gets in, and very little gets out. Until McCain's campaign lets her out of her hermetically-sealed, fortified aerie, those of us who enjoy a good laugh will continue to fill the vacuum.

 

Okay, gotta go for now. Nature calls. No, really, Nature IS calling...I've got a Hairy Woodpecker pecking the hell out of the deck railing--it's not a tree, Harry!--and I just saw Woody, our Pileated Woodpecker, out front. He's a handsome fellow!

 

Tags: Sarah Palin, press restrictions, New York City, Hamid Karzai, Campbell Brown, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble