McCain and the hockey mom

A week from now it will all be over. After two years of campaigning, some billion dollars spent and quite a few egoes crushed, the next American president will be chosen. Initially I hoped for Mitt Romney, a good old fashion fiscal conservative. His mormon background was perhaps not perfect, but he had shown pragmatism earlier and seemed like the best of the bunch. When it finally came down to McCain vs Obama, the choice for me was easy. Usually an Ivy league liberal elitist would knock out an ex-fighter pilot, but had I been American I would have voted for the Arizona senator. On the one side was an Illinois junior senator with only a very few years in national politics. He talked about change, but as a cynic I found it hard to believe him. He preaches bipartisanship but has the most left-wing voting track record in the Senate. I simply can't believe him. On the other side was the Republican mavrick. The Straight Talk Express. A long time senator how had demonstrated the need for international cooperation, who from his own experience knew torture and therefor strongly opposed it, who had shown a realistic and responsible view on US foreign policy and who was known for his bipartisanship in the US Senate. Easy choice. Easy choice until either McCain (A) showed a complete lack of judgement or(/and) (B) gave in to the fundamentalist Christian right in his party and chose the novice Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. There's a Facebook group called I have more Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin and it has currently over 250.000 members. Although I have some doubts with regards to all 250.000 being more experienced with foreign policy than Ms Palin, I doubt it would be hard to find 250.000 who actually does.
As I said in the beguinning, the choice was simple at first, but the thought of the Alaskan born-again hockey mom as leader of the Free World has led me to reconsider.