TommyWonk on Biden and Palin

The Guardian has posted another of my opinion pieces on its Comment is free website, this on Joe Biden and Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin's understanding of the world is as shallow as Joe Biden's is profound. Is she ready for that 3am phone call?

Unless you think that keeping firearms around the house is qualification for protecting our country, there is no doubt that Biden has the superior understanding of national security:

Palin's understanding of the world is as shallow as Biden's is profound. In her first television interview, Palin betrayed her ignorance of the Bush doctrine, in which our current president declared he would act pre-emptively against state sponsors of terrorism. Charles Gibson of ABC News had to gently explain to her that the doctrine was established by our current president to justify the invasion of Iraq. Palin almost casually mentioned in her interview that she would consider war with Russia as an outcome of the recent conflict with Georgia.
In contrast, Biden needs no coaching in the ways of the world. He discussed the options available to the US after returning from a visit to Georgia after Russia sent troops there, including invoking the terms of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which affects American trade relations with Russia. Biden didn't need a staffer to explain the meaning of this obscure bit of statecraft, which was adopted in 1974, the year Palin celebrated her tenth birthday.

Of course, for some voters, actually knowing the subject isn't so important:

A sign in front of a nearby church recently proclaimed: "God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called." Ours is a religious country. But in our system of government, we don't leave decisions about our governance to the Almighty, but to the citizens. We get to decide who is qualified to govern us.

The coolest thing about being published by a leading British paper? Seeing my prose edited with British spelling, such as "polarisation."