Really? Are you sure?

Things are getting increasingly weird over here in the run up to the election. I think this must be my third now, so I should be getting used to the lies and stuff that flies about, but I'm not. Maybe it's the four year break in between, or maybe it's just getting a little bit more ridiculous these days.

So, one thing that kinda worries me is that the American people appear to be seriously considering a person who would be VP to the oldest ever elected President (I think anyway), who appears to not only have very little (by which I mean none) foreign policy experience, but has hardly even been out of the country. I realize there are lots of cool things to see in the US, and I've spent plenty of time visiting various wonderful places here in the last 11 years, but I've managed to throw in a couple of foreign trips as well (and that's without counting the trips back home). I would hope that someone who has a decent chance of becoming the President over here (especially in a time of war for goodness sake) would have at least popped over to Europe, or Asia, or maybe China. Shit, even just for a few beers in Oz would do at this point (highly recommended trip if you ever get the chance).

Of course, the Republican party trotted out a list of countries that Palin has visited when someone mentioned her lack of foreign travel (the list was Kuwait, Germany, Ireland, Iraq and Mexico). Not extensive by any means (even my mother has been to more countries than this, and she didn't go abroad for the first time until we all saved up and went to Spain for a family holiday - I was 19 at the time), but at least she had been about a little. And then of course, the real details emerged. Kuwait and Germany - yip, I'll give her these - she went to visit Alaskan troops who were stationed there, both covered in the one trip from what I can tell. Ireland - turns out it was a refuelling stop on the way to Kuwait. That's like me claimining I've lived for 5 years in Chicago just coz of the number of times I've been stuck at O'Hare waiting for United to sort it's shit out. Mexico - family vacation, so not sure how much she really learned about foreign policy on that trip (although there is a chance she realized that other countries use a different currency, but even that is debatable, as the last time I was down there, I used dollars all the time). For the benefit of people back home reading this, Mexico to the US is like Costa Del Sol to the UK - 3 hour flight, cheap beer and food, sun etc etc.

And then there's Iraq. You think, well, at least she's been to Iraq, supporting the troups, finding out about conditions on the ground, learning what's really going on and talking to people who have ideas on the best way forward. Don't get too hasty though - it turns out that her "visit" was actually just her stepping over the border from Kuwait, without actually leaving the checkpoint area. So that's like she was maybe inside Iraq by a couple of feet tops, and 5 minutes?

Anyway, it's all on CNN if you want to read the news coverage of it.

So, that's pretty scary in itself (and if I could vote would be enough to have me running a mile), but I think what is really getting to me is that it doesn't seem like the Republicans have really learned anything in the last 4 or 8 years or whatever. I mean, they've lied about lots of stuff with varying degrees of consequence (even after they decided to recategorize weapons of mass destruction to include other stuff apart from nuclear weapons, they still didn't find any, even after they were "certain", and they "must be in mobile factories moving from city to city"). It's like they find it impossible to learn, either from what works or what doesn't work. They have an agenda, and a mission to get back into the White House, and whatever it takes is what they'll do to get there. I just want someone in control who is actually smart, listens to different opinions, is able to make sensible decisions and learns from the times they screw up, so it doesn't happen again. Oh yeah, and preferably hasn't made a deal with the devil to get in in the first place. Is that really too much to ask for?

OK, politics over. I'm going to take a nap and dream of fast cars.