Judy Bachrach: What's Not to Like About Sarah Palin?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Judy Bachrach writes for Vanity Fair, and is the creator of thecheckoutline.org, an online advice column for friends and relatives of the terminally ill.

What’s not to like about Sarah Palin, John McCain’s amazingly original choice as vice presidential material? That’s what I want to know. My husband tells me he likes her a lot because “She looks just like a girl I used to know with lots of great hair and good cheekbones, named Amber.” Which I think says it all.

For instance, when asked whether public school children should learn evolution or what is known in certain circles as “intelligent design,” meaning Darwin was a complete phony, Palin, who is the daughter of a science teacher, replied, “Teach both…and let kids debate both sides.”
I love that line, and not just because I flunked biology sophomore year, and would have appreciated the advocate from Wasilla defending my constitutional right to ignore amoebae.

I think Palin has it exactly right , and am not in the least surprised that back in her days as a Miss Wasilla beauty contestant she won the title of “Miss Congeniality.” In the educational arena, she is certainly very affable. Teach students that doing their homework every night is obligatory – and also that it’s optional – and let kids debate both sides. Tell them that if you divide a number by zero, you’re entitled to come up with all sorts of results. Explain in grammar 101 that the word “class” is a collective noun – or that maybe it isn’t – and let kids debate both sides.

In other words, in her view school is the home of untrammeled democracy. She is educationally pro-choice.

Well perhaps not entirely untrammeled. Perhaps not wholly pro-choice. In the personal arena, as it turns out, Palin is anti-choice. So if a condom breaks, then no, kids shouldn’t be permitted “to debate both sides.”

I don’t know what to say about John McCain and his decision-making abilities. Not long ago, I had to redo my will, and you wouldn’t believe the time spent trying to decide who would be the guardian of our kids in the event we died. Longtime friends, close relatives, lawyers – all these were examined, sifted, rejected, and then re-examined before we made a final selection.

And then there’s John McCain …