“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

It’s official, the GOP Vice-Presidential candidate is a first class bimbo who has been foisted on the American voters as a campaign stunt by John McCain in order to show there is absolutely no bar so low that he cannot stoop under it in his attempt to become the next Emperor of the United States. And we need to be afraid€¦very afraid.

We suffered through Palin’s inability to utter anything other than the scripted sound bites with which she had been stuffed in preparation for the interview with Charlie Gibson. Then, the official propaganda arm of the GOP, FOX News, sought to prop her up with an interview so full of cotton candy questions that it was about as challenging as asking Tiger Woods to hit a Whiffle Ball with a Big Bertha driver.

But the final disgrace was her performance with Katie Couric. Listen to the former beauty queen in her own words -

“. . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh — it’s got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.”

Am I missing something??? Did she utter a single coherent thought? How did she manage to tie the bailout of Wall Street to healthcare? And just what the hell does “see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um scary thing” mean?

But wait€¦it gets better when she tries to establish her foreign policy credentials by virtue of her state’s geographical proximity to Russia.

“We have trade missions back and forth,” Palin told Couric. “We, we do, it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to, to our state.”

Somehow, I don’t think I’ll sleep any better knowing that I have Sarah Palin guarding me from Putin who, apparently, is ready to attack the U.S. through Alaska at any moment.

And, in her most embarrassing performance to-date, even worse than the deer-in-the-headlights look with which she responded to Gibson’s question about the Bush Doctrine, when Couric pressed her for examples of what measures McCain, who is now depicting himself as the doctor ready to deliver tough medicine to Wall Street, has pushed in his nearly three decades in Congress, Palin responded with…wait for it€¦

“I’ll try to find some and bring them to you.”

Now, most of the McLiar supporters with whom I have broached the subject of the GOP VP candidate’s qualifications have responded with something akin to, “Well, she’s just running for Vice President.” Wake up folks!!! If McPanderer is elected President and should happen to die while in office, this fount of ignorance would become the Leader of the Free World!!!

And while it may not be politically correct to consider the age of a candidate, it is incredibly important that we consider just how likely it is that this McBush in lipstick might be running our country.

Consider that McCain will be 72 years old if he is sworn into office in January of 2009. Actuarial tables predict there is a 15.7% probability that he will die before the end of his term.

This is not an insignificant probability. While I have not done the research to determine similar probabilities for any earlier presidential candidates, it seems reasonable that the only previous presidential candidate who might have had a probability of not completing his term as high as this would have been FDR in his third and fourth terms. And FDR’s probability would only have been as high as McCain’s because of his weakened condition due to his polio.

John McCain has gone on record as “putting country first.” He broke that pledge when he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate and exposed the citizens of the United States to the very real danger of having this totally unqualified person in the Oval Office.

…And we should be very afraid.