Doofus Of The Day #66

The latest D.O.T.D. award goes unhesitatingly to Michael Seitzman, a blogger on the Huffington Post, for his article piece (of trash) entitled 'Sarah Palin Naked'.

I realized three things tonight. For one, if you are a McCain/Palin/Bush voter, you and I do not have a difference of opinion. We have a difference in brain power. Two, she really is as ignorant as I feared. And, three, she really is kinda hot. Basically, I want to have sex with her on my Barack Obama sheets while my wife reads aloud from the Constitution. (My wife is cool with this if I promise to "first wipe off Palin's tranny makeup." I married well.)

Now, I want to be clear and speak directly to those of you who LOVED that Palin interview. You're an idiot. I mean that. This is not one of those cases where we're going to agree to disagree. This isn't one of those situations where we debate it passionately and then walk away thinking that the other guy is wrong but argued well. I'm not going to think of you as a thoughtful but misguided person with different ideas who still really cares about the country and the world. No, sorry, not this time. This time, if you watched those interview excerpts and weren't scared out of your freakin' mind, then you're mentally ill, mentally disabled, or mentally disturbed. What you are NOT is responsible, informed, curious, thoughtful, mature, educated, empathetic, or remotely serious. I mean it.

But I like to think that anyone can change.

Stop voting for people you want to have a beer with. Stop voting for folksy. Stop voting for people who remind you of your neighbor. Stop voting for the ideologically intransigent, the staggeringly ignorant, and the blazingly incompetent.

Vote for someone smarter than you. Vote for someone who inspires you. Vote for someone who has not only traveled the world but who has also shown a deep understanding and compassion for it. The stakes are real and they're terrifyingly high. This election matters. It matters. It really matters. Let me say that one more time. This. Really. Matters.

Let's tackle his exhortations in turn, shall we?

Vote for someone smarter than you. By what standard do we measure 'smart', Mr. Seitzman? University degrees? I have four. How many do each of the candidates have? How many do you have? How about IQ? I know what mine is, and it's pretty high. I'd lay good odds that it's at least equal to, if not higher than, any of the four candidates. So what? IQ on its own, or university degrees on their own, don't make someone competent or a leader. They may indicate academic 'smarts', but not necessarily street 'smarts' - which is what one needs in the real world. The realm of international power politics is a red-in-tooth-and-claw, dog-eat-dog world in which the devil all too frequently takes the hindmost. One needs toughness, experience and courage for such an environment. 'Smarter' is nice to have, but without the first three, it's worse than useless.

Vote for someone who inspires you. The dictionary definition of 'inspire' is:

1. to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence: His courage inspired his followers.
2. to produce or arouse (a feeling, thought, etc.): to inspire confidence in others.
3. to fill or affect with a specified feeling, thought, etc.: to inspire a person with distrust.
4. to influence or impel: Competition inspired her to greater efforts.
5. to animate, as an influence, feeling, thought, or the like, does: They were inspired by a belief in a better future.

I have yet to see one side in the present political debate display anything resembling 'courage', whereas the other has displayed it the hard way, repeatedly, for years on end. I don't have too much confidence in either Presidential candidate. One side certainly 'inspires' me with distrust, and that 'inspires' me to greater efforts to make sure they don't win the election. So, I may have negative rather than positive 'inspiration', but rest assured, I'm inspired!

Vote for someone who has not only traveled the world but who has also shown a deep understanding and compassion for it. Uh-huh. Tell me, Mr. Seitzman, how many miles has Senator Obama traveled around the world? And Senator McCain? I rather think the latter's tally of miles traveled is a heck of a lot greater than the former's. As for showing 'understanding' and 'compassion', again, let the record speak for itself. Look at Senator McCain's efforts to bring about reconciliation between former enemies . . . and look at Senator Obama's heartfelt efforts (not!) to help and support his poverty-stricken relatives in Kenya. Whose 'understanding' and 'compassion' is greater, on the strength of the factual record?

This idiot presumes to jibe at Governor Palin's "tranny make-up", talk down to Republican supporters as if they were dirt, tell them to their faces that they're idiots - and expects to be given a serious hearing? Furthermore, he presumes to identify himself and his views as everything positive, and write off any other views as everything negative? By whose - or what - authority? When was he anointed as the omniscient Deity - and who made such a ghastly mistake?

Mr. Seitzman, your article reveals one thing very clearly. You haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about . . . and you richly deserve our Doofus Of The Day award.

(Hat-tip to Rachel Lucas for bringing this doofus to my attention.)

Peter