Wearing Out a Point

Today, NPR's "Morning Edition" included tape from a McCain/Palin appearance, and during it, a woman gave Palin a chance to explain her foreign policy bona fides. I'm paraphrasing the answer - but not that much - and said she's ready because she believes you have to be ready and we have that readiness. If I, a writer by trade who last took science classes in Grade 11, argued that I'm ready to remove your appendix because I believe I am and I have to be ready when I put scalpel to skin, would you let me cut?

One of the more insidious ways that the Bush White House has injected spirituality into public policy is to reduce everything to a matter of belief - the central tenet of Christianity. Facts are the things he believes; the things he doesn't believe are subject to debate, and Palin is more of the same in so many ways. Thankfully, every time Palin opens her mouth on foreign policy, the emptiness of that approach becomes evident.