Andrew Sullivan on "the Palin nightmare"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

With the election now over, pretty much, I really don't want to waste much time on as loathsome a creature as Sarah Palin. I wrote about her extensively during the campaign, but what I may not have expressed explicitly -- though it was certainly there implicitly -- was my utter contempt for her. There are few political figures I despise as much as I came to despise her. She is, as I put it, an ignorant thug and an arrogant twit. Simply put, she was, given her place on the presidential ticket of a major party, an embarrassment to the United States. And nothing has changed since the election. She is still utterly clueless yet still thinks she has some sort of God-given right to impose herself on the American people.

Along these lines, our must-read of the day comes from one of Palin's harshest and most determined critics -- for which I admire him -- Andrew Sullivan, whose post "Why Palin Still Matters" is an excellent recapitulation of what was, and is, wrong with Palin and the man who elevated her to unwarranted prominence, John McCain. As always, make sure to read it in full. Here are a few key passages:

Let's be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history.

*****

It happened because John McCain is an incompetent and a cynic and reckless beyond measure. To have picked someone he'd only met once before, without any serious vetting procedure, revealed McCain as an utterly unserious character, a man whose devotion to the shallowest form of political gamesmanship trumped concern for his country's or his party's interest.

*****

This deluded and delusional woman still doesn't understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her - but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her.

Her candidacy, in short, was indefensible. It remains indefensible.

Keep at it, Andrew. Because, as I put it repeatedly during the campaign, Americans deserve to know the truth about Sarah Palin. They still do. We all still do.

Especially with Palin "claiming vindication" and being "touted as a future leader of the GOP."