While the Republican party
continues to experience the world's longest orgasm over St. John the
Insane's "inspired"..."brilliant"..."game-changing"..."maverick"
selection of little Sarah Palin, those of us not immediately privy to
that political conjugal scene have begun to explore who this gift from
the Republican God really is. And naturally the Rovian army of
blond-haired, blue-eyed media muggers has been dispatched to eliminate
all forms of dissent and opposition.

Following the Karl Rove
Handbook of Poisoned Politics (now in its 3rd edition!), they dismiss
with impunity any and all inquiries concerning her light-weight
political history and instead choose to trumpet her experience as
governor. They compare and contrast her 1.75 years of experience as a
chief executive and a "commander-in-chief" with the political record of
Senator Obama. And in their judgment, Sister Sarah wins that battle
hands down. However, that line of argument may not be the best one for
the Republicans to pursue. Why? Maybe because of the results of the
last governor they foisted on the country eight years ago...George W.
Bush.

When "W" was anointed to be the leader of the free world
by the Republican party, he came to the job with 5 years of governing
experience under his belt. Gee, that's almost three times as much as
Sister Sarah! And just like now, the nattering nabobs of negativism
(Sidebar: Why is Safire
writing a column again in the NY Times?) raised the very same questions
about George as they are raising with Sister Sarah...She's too
young...She's too inexperienced...She has no foreign relations
experience or knowledge (To be fair though, she lives next door to
Russia and he lived next door to Mexico)...blahblahblah. What
nit-picking! And she's even more experienced than "W" 'cause she's the
governor of the largest state in the Union (only in acreage, mind)
while he was governor of the second largest. So there.

Why don't
we take a look at how well a president who was a governor untutored and
inexperienced in the ways of the world has worked out so far?

Let's
see...In August of 2001 while on his first of dozens of "working
vacations" at his "ranch" in Crawford, W was given specific
intelligence that Al Qaeda was planning an attack on the United States
and it would probably involve the use of aircraft. Response? Zippo.
Result? September 11, 2001.

Seizing upon the attacks of 9/11,
W's neocon puppet masters managed to manipulate him into believing Iraq
was behind it and needed to be punished. Response? He launched the
first war of aggression in United States history. Result(s)? Over 4,100
dead American combat forces, over 30,000 more permanently maimed both
physically and mentally, many more times that number of Iraq civilians
dead; the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars in the cost of
executing this catastrophe; the loss of world-wide respect and honor
for the United States; the alienation of our allies; the destruction of
the American economy. And at the same time, W allowed the real
perpetrators of 9/11 to scurry off into the hills of our great ally
Pakistan whose military dictator W deemed to be a "good man". That
certainly worked out well for Governor President Bush, didn't it? Oh yeah, he also brought us to the brink of nuclear (nucular) war with North Korea. What a guy!

Moving
from one disaster to another, this one not Bush-made, at least not in a
causal sense, we come to Hurricane Katrina and the nearly total
destruction of a major American city. Once again, Bush heaved himself
up from his Lazy-Boy recliner in his den at the ranch and took some
time to do a fly-over in Air Force One. There's leadership for you. And
Katrina managed to show the American people that not only was he an
inept bungler when it came to foreign affairs but he could just as
easily fuck up things here at home. And it also high-lighted Bush's
unique ability to pick the wrong man or woman for the job every time.
Quite a talent. You remember "Heckuva job, Brownie" right?

But
poor Brownie was just the part of the iceberg visible to the naked eye.
Below him were legions of unqualified political appointees who made up
the Bush administration's well-oiled machine of government. And what a
stellar array of talent Bush brought with him not only from his days as
governor of Texas but the nearly-dead from his father's administration.
Ah yes, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Myers, Gonzalez, and so many others who have
helped to make America what it is today. And let's not neglect to
mention his brilliant appointees to the Supreme Court, John Roberts and
Samuel Alito. It finally gave Scalia and Thomas a foursome for bridge.

And
how has the former governor of Texas done for the American economy?
Well just look around. You might even be one of those Americans who has
a lot of unexpected free time having lost your job. Or maybe one of the
newly homeless. Or someone so deep in credit card debt that suicide is
a daily consideration. Or one of those who has to choose between
filling the gas tank or filling your kids stomachs. Heckuva job, Bushie!

I
guess we should be troubled by the fact that Governor Palin has had
less experience than our current president before taking office. But
you know, experience isn't everything.