McCain Passed ME Over For Sarah Palin???

When John McCain announced his running mate would be the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, I was absolutely mortified. No, make that crushed. Chin-dragging-the-ground, pull-the-covers-over-my-head and shut-the-world-out crushed!

Why oh why didn't he pick me, I wailed!

I'm a nobody! I look great in a skirt! I can read lines from a Tele-Prompter!

Community organizing?

I've done community organizing....

Three neighbors and I organized our town's first ever, city-wide Halloween parade. In three weeks! Not some cheesy parade around the neighborhood, mind you, but the Real Deal - down Main Street, floats and marching bands, scout troops (Boy and Girl), state legislators and other officials in convertibles, a fire truck bringing up the rear with firemen tossing candy to the kiddies, and afterwards a party to award prizes for Best Costume and such. Prizes we gathered from local merchants. The parade became an annual event, for heavens sake! How could McCain possibly have missed that?

Executive experience? I have executive experience....

Granted, I only ran the party's state headquarters for two months while a new director was being chosen, but that's almost as long as Ms. Palin has been governor, right? Not to mention my secretary and I arranged every detail of that year's three-day Fall Convention, right down to making the centerpieces for all the banquet tables.

Alright, so I can't field dress a moose, or any other animal for that matter due to a pathological aversion to seeing the insides of any living (or recently breathing) thing.

But can Ms. Palin do a protocol-perfect seating chart on the fly for a dinner for several hundred people that begins in 90 minutes - in between showering and dressing for that dinner? Moi can.

And my Foreign Policy credentials are hands down better than hers . Living in Kansas, of course I can't see Russia from my backyard, silly! Only our pool...which might as well be the Bering Strait if you're a 3-year-old and jump in before Mom gets the water wings on.

But....are you ready?...my ex-husband is part Russian! When the Bolsheviks took over, his great-grandparents left Vladivostok and fled to San Francisco by way of Harbin, China. I've seen photos, so I can tell you Vladivostok, a seaport on the eastern end of Russia, is very much like San Francisco, only colder. Both Valerian and Nadejda were children of well-to-do merchants, hence the need to flee to avoid being butchered by the peasants. But no trudging across hundreds of miles of snow and frozen tundra a la Doctor Zhivago for these two. Nosirree. When it was time to get out of Dodge, they boarded a rather plush excursion train to Harbin, on the spur line built many years before the Revolution for the convenience of Vlad's upper classes, and checked into Harbin's version of the Ritz, which was originally built for the comfort of visiting Europeans, but at that time catered exclusively to ex-Vlads.

But enough of my intimate knowledge of Russia (and China) and a little more on my foreign policy expertise. I've had a passport since 2003! I saw Ireland from only 20,000 feet up as the plane began the descent to Heathrow! I stood outside the gates to Downing Street and actually saw the door to No. 10! And I sat on a bench in Parliament Square while Parliament was in session!

I can also count to 9 in Spanish! I read the BBC News every morning! I can say the F-word in Italian! I've eaten in a French restaurant! One of my grandmothers was Swedish! And thanks to our own Robie2, I know people in Iceland! (Robie, btw, has had visitors in her home from Iceland and France and Denmark and I forget all where else, but she too was passed over for the VP spot. ??)

Lastly, just like Ms. Palin, I'm the mother of a member of the U.S. armed forces. My middle daughter is a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, just returned from a 6-month cruise on an aircraft carrier. (Picture Mom, hand on heart, waving flag here.) Religion? My eldest daughter married a minister! Energy and environment? My youngest daughter has a PhD in Environmental Engineering !

A regular bunch of dream photo ops we would've been...completely ignored for a card-carrying member of the NRA with long legs and high cheekbones.

Deep sigh.

Oh wait!

Maybe...just maybe ...I was passed over because I'm a Democrat.