McCain's audacity of hopelessness

Your Aug. 31 editorial ended: "The Palin selection and our reactions to it might say as much about us and how far we still have to go than it does about her and McCain."

So, it's not about the candidates now? Then, here is my reaction and what it says about me:

She is a mannequin prop of the party, and he is the puppet he always was.

As a voter, I am too well informed to buy the lie; as a woman, too offended to stand for the ploy; and as an American, too afraid this non-qualified person could actually become president.

I read your Aug. 30 article on Ms. Palin. Her apparent qualifications are:

-Wears power suits (and bling-bling American flag pin).

-Can text message and walk at once.

-Belonged to a Christian athletic club in high school.

-Has a bachelor's in journalism.

-Was a beauty queen contestant.

-Won 2006 gubernatorial upset (670,000 population).

-Is noted on Alaska bumper sticker "Coldest State. Hottest Governor."

-Posed for Vogue but refused to don fur because she only hangs it on her wall.

After Hillary Clinton worked so hard to break those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling for women, are we to applaud this shoo-in and call it historic?

And should we feel good about electing to the presidency a 72-year-old man with recurrent malignant melanoma and a vice president who's come out of nowhere and has done nothing to earn the role of president if he dies?

In contrast to Obama's "Audacity of Hope," McCain shows a shameful audacity of hopelessness.

It is not "how far we still have to go," it is how low we are willing to stoop.

Mary Robertson

Palatine