I hate politics, and delving into politics, and discussing politics, much less letting it keep me up at night, but the 2008 presidential campaign over in the good ole’ U.S. of A. is getting disturbing. I refer to the candidate for VP over in the Republican camp.

And the only way I can really deal with it all is through anime metaphors. Because then I’m not really being serious. (And on the other hand, ah….)

So let me vent… Last Airbender style.

There’s a lot of material over at Making Light here, here, and also here. But there’s even more over at The Daily Dish, and Andrew Sullivan is decidedly not liberal. And yet he’s very much NOT supporting the McCain/Palin ticket; witness here and here and there and yes, there’s far more, ending with

Whatever few doubts I may once have still had about this election, they are resolved now. Obama has to win. The alternative is unthinkable.

And there are a great many links in those articles and comment threads (in the case of Making Light) above leading to even more anti-Palin essays, editorials, posts, blogs, etc.

But the bonus link really has to be this very, very interesting letter. These are but small choice quotes:

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

Hmmmmm.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

What.

Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

WHAT?

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

WHAT?!

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

OMG.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

And all I could think of about halfway through the letter was Azula from The Last Airbender.

You know, that Azula: she of the outwardly calm and charmingly ruthless personality.

Extremely smart, ambitious, and power-hungry.

A little shaky on the judgement and diplomatic sides.

When she did get into power, presiding over the entire Fire Nation, she had the same executive abilities with regards to staff and policies as Sarah Palin did, right down to firing everybody experienced and having no clue about how anything ran.

And she wasn’t even taking over from a hostile ex-party-in-office. She was taking over from her father, who had abdicated for her (granted, he was heading out to Conquer the World, but still).

Also, she was crazy.

Palin is not necessarily crazy—yet—but I think, given how she handled being Governor of Alaska, actually becoming president should McCain die would drive her completely over the edge.

For anyone who’s going to start spazzing out on how all them accusations can’t possibly be true, Andrew Sullivan says it best:

I’ve aired many defenses of Palin on this blog and made a point of reminding readers that many sources in Alaska have longstanding enmity for her. But I think her record is very underwhelming when you look at it, and the record is now clear that she has lied – even being forced to admit it – in public office. I also think it is simply insane that a person who could be president next January and is a total unknown to the world should somehow require being shielded from a press conference.

So remember—the Republican ticket is really

McCain / Azula 2008

We now return you to our regular Kindle/eBookery/SF/F/Wodehouse blogfoolery. Because the only time we’re getting involved again in all this is in the first week of November.

And even so, we’re mailing in our vote.