Sarah Palin - just another Xian Zionist nut job

I had fun for a week fantasizing about a whistleblowing secessionist just a rage-induced brain aneurysm away from the presidency. But Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com puts Sarah Palin in perspective in Sarah Palin: The Xena of the War Party. ...Prior to being plucked from obscurity by the neocons who run the McCain campaign, Sarah Palin was a complete unknown. Today, she is the object of a burgeoning cult that proclaims her to be the virtual incarnation of the Republican renewal... McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman, the last surviving member of the Scoop Jackson wing of the Democratic party, whose neoconservative credentials, electoral appeal in certain key areas, and ability to provoke the Obama-crats made him the natural choice... McCain and his top advisors are ideologues who care about one thing and one thing only: war. The glory of it, the utility of it, the necessity of it. It's the McCain panacea, like "free silver" was to William Jennings Bryan and socialism was to Eugene Debs. It's his answer to everything: it solves all problems, and, more importantly, stifles all criticism. If you doubt his veracity, question his good intentions, or point out his inconsistencies, you're attacking a war hero, doubting the divine wisdom suffering is supposed to impart. Religion also played an important role in the choice of Palin: she's a member of a dispensationalist sect, within the Pentecostalist tradition, a "born again" Christian who believes in the Rapture and the centrality of Israel in world affairs. This latter belief is a theological verity with the dispensationalists, who make up the rank-and-file of the GOP's electoral machine: after the Rapture, when the anointed are raised up to heaven and the rest of us are left on earth, the church will be represented by the Chosen People of God – the Jews. According to the biblical prophecy, they will gather together in the land of Israel, their historic home, and this signals the coming of the End Times. Israel, for the dispensationalists, is the key issue: its interests must be defended at all costs, even above the national interests of the US. Israel is, in short, a non-negotiable item, and it's easy to see how this fits very neatly into the neoconservative agenda. According to news reports, Palin was diverted away from a fundraiser for a pro-life group headed up by Phyllis Schlafly so she could attend a grilling session conducted jointly by AIPAC and Lieberman, but this hardly seemed necessary. After all, the woman has a little Israeli flag in her office.... The McCainiacs chose Palin out of jealousy: they wanted an Obama of their own, and since they couldn't have one, they settled on Palin – the Bizarro Obama... Sarah, who looks – and acts – an awful lot like Xena, the Warrior Princess, is the perfect messenger for the GOP's credo of unmitigated militarism. Her speech to the Republican convention was, in large part, a continuation of the theme of the previous night: aggressive nationalism rationalized by religious fervor. It's a big gamble, because Palin's unreadiness to be President, in the event of McCain's untimely demise, is all too apparent. Far from injecting a youthful note into the campaign, Palin's physical presence next to the Old Man only underscores his advanced age – and the prospect of President Palin staring us in the face.