I Heard it Downtown

I hate losing. I hate losing to Penn State even more than losing to most teams (but not Michigan).

Be that as it may, I am compelled to talk about something that happened on Thursday. There was an event at the Mershon Center on Neil Avenue that featured Dutch journalists (and a few other Europeans) asking college students, members of the College Democrats and the College Republicans, various quesitons regarding the election.

I am tempermentally unsuited to be involved in these things.

People say nonsensical stuff. Usually, they are Republicans. Some Democrats, too – I think the Fairness Doctrine is awful. But generally, Repubilcans. And boy, did they same some absolutely far out things at this event.

Apparently, Sarah Palin appeals to average people. Well, what about below average people? Or above average people? Is this a dictatorship of the average voter or something? And don’t most political scientists think it’s the median voter, not the average voter, who gets to final say anyway? But I digress. Barack Obama will get more votes this year than John McCain, but John McCain has a slim chance of winning the Electoral College vote and, thus, the presidency. So upon hearing about Sarah Palin’s mythic appeal to average voters – God, I HATE THAT TERM – I exploded.

But so did the College Republicans, none of whom could admit the patently obvious: that their ticket is a joke. That no citizen in their right mind could take it seriously. That the only cause for voting for that abomination of a ticket is that it has a slim chance of advancing conservative principles in an emerging age of liberalism. But, really, who in their right mind would want that?

I calmed down toward the end, deciding instead to dispute the framework most of the College Democrats and Republicans chose to employ when addressing global climate change. They treated it like a contest. I think it will take massive global cooperation to really treat the problem, and that our good friends the Dutch have helped lead the way. Americans can’t be leaders on every issue – perhaps we are better off following Europe’s lead on climate change as we lead the world in combatting terrorism, nuclear proliferation and global poverty. Maybe we’ll see the Doha round pass in the current WTO talks under an Obama administration.

First things first, thoughl, and that’s to get the man elected. We live in a democracy, so not everyone will be on board, fair enough. But College Republicans should look themselves in the mirror and admit that Sarah Palin is a joke who has no business being Vice President of the United States.

This isn’t because she’s from a small town, went to the University of Idaho and is mayor of a small state. It’s because she’s a phony who has shown little curiosity about the major events that shape the world. That and her nefarious ties to the traitorous Alaska Independence Party, whose allegiance is to the ironically named U.S. Constitution Party, who understand as much about the Constitution as I do about quantum mechanics and cosmology.