Does it make me an elitist if I don't think the ‘average person' should be the vice president of the United States? 

The Palin interview with Charlie Gibson felt like watching a bright undergraduate accidentally show up for a PhD thesis defense: confident posturing, thoroughly rehearsed responses and an overwhelming sense that she has no idea what she is talking about. You can't blame the average citizen for not knowing what is described by the "Bush Doctrine" - but Palin's ignorance was and is astonishing. This is not a spell potato(e?) sized gaffe, it's a dangerous insult to the nation.

And what of the torturous reverse engineering that went into her Abraham Lincoln based explanation of  the  Youtube sermon: "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God, that's what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." ?

 Lincoln referred  to the tragic brother versus brother, cousin versus cousin nature of our Civil War when he said:

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

Palin claims to have intended this same sentiment in her sermon. The inference would then be that she feels our current enemy might also be on God's side; that Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Sunni terrorists, Shia terrorists and any other IED planting insurgents might also be doing "God's will." I would never presume to know God's will," she told Charlie Gibson. But at about 2.45 into the Youtube video Palin  seems to have a different  philosophy regarding the will of God when she says: "We can work together to make sure God's will is done."

Palin has every right to believe the War in Iraq proceeds according to her God's plan or that like Bush believes, the war is a Crusade of sorts. But swallowing the revisionist, disingenuous gloss she put on the "God has a plan" sermon goes down like a horse pill. I just wish she had the strength to stand honestly by her convictions, to let the American people know that she would be a Commander in Chief who would rely more heavily on God's plan than on a knowledge of foreign affairs and that her faith sometimes allows her to know God's will. It must be a great comfort and source of confidence to her - of the sort that gives rise to Bush Doctrines.

One of the most annoying aspects of talking to self-proclaimed conservatives is their relentless propensity to retreat to jingoism.

Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy." It refers to sections of the general public who advocate the use of threats of or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as their country's national interests, and to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others. 

It is nearly impossible to have a meaningful debate with someone who reverts to somewhat subjective concepts like "liberty" and "freedom" as the justification for everything.  Whose liberty?  Whose freedom?  Who and what exactly are they referring to? How is sending our children to fight for control of Iraq’s oil serving our freedom or liberty?   How free are returning soldiers going to be without arms or legs or frontal lobes?  How exactly will the presence of Blackwater serve our freedom? (One of the first requirements of a totalitarian government is the creation of a private army.)  And finally, how is illegal wiretapping serving our freedom?

It has long been my experience that the biggest hawks are often those who have sacrificed the least.  Growing up, as I did, on Naval Air Stations, I learned first hand, on a daily basis, the enormous price the "warrior class" pays so the rest of the country can have their "freedom."  And there is no question that there is a need for military might, and it’s good to be the strongest fighting force in the world if you are part of the country that has it.  But having that force does not give us the right to abuse it to fulfill any agenda held by the Bush regime.  We, as human beings, must have moral boundaries.  When do we stand behind our government and when do we stand behind our humanity and say,  "Stop the insanity." How many slaughtered children are we willing to sacrifice?

 - Candace Suerstedt is a filmmaker and a mother of three who lives in Coronado.