Back to School

As Governor Sarah Palin moves full throttle in to being VP candidate Sarah Palin, there is still one thing we are waiting for her to do:

Be interviewed on any of the network news shows. It is one thing to thrill the hometown crowds, it is another to be drilled by the news people at the networks. This is where I will miss Tim Russert the most.

She holds her child, Trig, in her arms at rallies and the Republican-spin meisters and radio right-wing talking heads chatter on about how her family life should be private. Her daughter is pregnant at 17, but Palin opposes real sex education in schools, preferring 'abstinence only' education. Now she opposes 'earmarks' or pork barrel spending, but when she was mayor, she spent millions on lobbyists for 'earmarks' for her town of Wasilla.

These are minor points. The real questions will come on whether she can name the current president of Geoegia [Mikheil Saakashvili]; knows what the trade deficit is with China [117, 462,900,000 dollars in deficit trade imbalance as of June of this year]; or know what has been spent, for example, by the state of New Jersey on the Iraq War [$25,229,435,556, as of this writing].

And these questions will come not from the fellow Republican fans at the Convention, but from Charles Gibson, George Stephanopoulos or Katie Couric et al.

I am sure that all this week, the Governor is being grilled by the best tutors that the Republicans have to offer on a wide range of international issues. Thus far, her answers to questions about international issues have had little smore ubstance than the standard beauty contest refrain of "I want world peace."

Oh, boy how I will miss Tim Russert grilling the candidates on Sunday morning this campaign season.