Matt Damon on Sarah Palin

I've really resisted giving a laundry list or rant about all the reasons I think that Sarah Palin is a bad V.P. pick and would be an even worse de-facto President in the *hopefully* unlikely event that McCain wins and in the sad event of his passing during his first term in office (which I would say unlikely, but the truth of the matter is, while I certainly in no way wish Senator McCain's early demise, it is not an unlikely scenario that he may die while in office given his age and his health history with cancer). The truth is, this race isn't about Sarah Palin. It's about choosing between Barack Obama and John McCain. Or more abstractly, it's between making a choice about who you think our country would be in better hands, governance wise. Who seems to be the best leader to take us solidly into the 21st century? Who has the best ideas about tackling the complex problems that face people living in the U.S. and around the globe? Who has a vision of leadership that can give back some moral authority to the U.S. as a global leader while still attending to the many domestic problems facing our country?

But really, thinking about McCain's running mate is valid because any President, regardless of age or health, runs the risk of dying in office, through natural causes of assassinations (and we know Barack Obama has received numerous death threats already). So critiquing the V.P. picks for both candidates seems to be a logical thing to do. And I think Matt Damon has some smart things to say about this. You can think of his opinions below as the "average educated" citizen's perspective (if by average you discount the millions of dollars he makes in his profession). This isn't about politics (although in some ways it's always about politics). It's about governance. And on a global scale. While I wouldn't want to see McCain in the White House in any incarnation, picking Romney or Ridge or Huckabee would at least have ensured picking someone whom you could envision as president--someone you could at least feel was capable of handling the difficult task of transitioning from Vice President into President of the biggest and most powerful nation on the planet.*

So listen to Mr. Damon. Aside from the comment about book banning at the end (which Fact Check.org has discredited--scroll down for the "book banning" section) I think he raises some good points. And one he doesn't raise that I'm most concerned about is her environmental record, ie: being someone who does NOT believe that humans are responsible for global climate change and who doesn't put certain animals on the endangered species list for fear it will interfere with oil interests.



*I put an asterisk next to this sentence because I do think that there is going to be a global fight over the top dog spot, with China being one of the nations in contention for "richest" and "most powerful." Which is even MORE reason you want to have the strongest and dare I say SMARTEST political team put together to tackle MAJOR international issues in the most innovative and creative and confident way possible.