In the middle of this election with so many charges being thrown back and forth every single day, I find myself with a low interest in writing about books. It's odd, because I'm certainly still reading a lot and certainly still reviewing. But all the discussion about Alaska politics and the fact that so much of it is wrong is driving me crazy. It's making me wonder how much of everything else we hear is wrong or misrepresented and we just don't realize it.

It's making me believe that absolutely nothing about this country: science, medicine, energy, foreign policy, jobs and the economy, the environment, and one and on, is going to get better.
As it happens, Alaskans were abundantly aware of Sarah Palin long before last week. We knew she campaigned for the bridge to nowhere because please - any politician trying to get elected in AK was for that stupid bridge. And we know that she never stopped asking for it, but the legislature determined it wasn't going to happen because the whole rest of the country hated the idea. And we knew that AK kept the money.

Yes - we kept that $200+ million for the bridge and are using it on other building projects. The $25 million for the road to connect the bridge was still used for the road because if it wasn't it had to be returned. So now, in Ketchikan, Alaska, there is a "road to nowhere". (And we thank you for the $25 mil.)

We knew about Troopergate and all the sordid mess between Palin, her husband, her sister, the ex-brother-in-law, the AK State Troopers, etc. We knew there were many conversations and most of us agreed that her sister made a bad choice in husband that everyone apparently did not like and that they were then trying to get back at him. The whole shooting a moose out of season thing was particularly lame as Palin's father and sister were apparently with the guy when it happened and they just used the sister's permit for the moose. (He pulled the trigger supposedly but they said she did since she had the permit.) This is so common that it's laughable. The lameness of bringing it up to get a guy fired is beyond belief.

We figured she would get in trouble for an ethics violation and everything would just go away. (A slap on the wrist basically.) If nothing else, the governor clearly had little control over how her husband and staff handled her personal problems - it's amateur hour and she should face a small censure and take responsibility. Now, she's stalling the whole investigation which is really hard for us to take. She said she would do the right thing and be completely open. Clearly, she was lying about that promise.

So yes, my opinion of her has decreased since she was chosen by McCain.

I'm also opposed to drilling in ANWR but not because I think the caribou might be affected. Honestly, no one knows how the Porcupine Caribou herd would be affected (and you can't compare to the North Slope drilling because you are talking about a herd 50 times bigger that must go to certain areas - it's a whole other deal to consider.) My issue is I've been there, I've seen it and it is IN THE BOONIES. You can't imagine how boonie ANWR is. Understand though that Alaskans support drilling in ANWR because it means jobs in Alaska - very high paying jobs. And honestly once the drilling stops, once people start driving cars with better fuel economy and the demand for oil goes down, then Alaska is in trouble. There is already a problem up there because fuel prices are so high, if you take away the oil industry the state would be in serious trouble.

Alaskans love the oil industry - anyone who tells you different doesn't understand Alaska. (And yes, the permanent fund checks are being cut next week - combined with a fuel rebate check that Governor Palin pushed through the legislature, every man, woman, child and baby in the state will be getting a check for $3,269.00. That is all oil money. How do you think Alaskans feel about that industry?)

It's frustrating to see people falling for Palin and deciding to vote for McCain because she is billed as a reformer or someone who took on the oil industry or understands the energy crisis. That is not true in the broadest sense - it is only true when understood in the context of Alaskan politics. Does she understand oil in AK? Yes - but does that translate to issues in Louisiana and the Mississippi River? Does it translate to understand coal mining in Kentucky or wind in Texas or solar in Arizona? I don't see how it could. To understand all of that you would need to research, to study to learn. You would need to have an interest far beyond AK and that is not the Governor's job.

I mean please - it's like suggesting Alaskans understand Russian politics because we are across the Bering Strait from Siberia. (This has to be the craziest thing I've heard in any political discussion ever.)

But beyond all the Palin business, what really bothers me about this election is that it seems now we - as a country - are saying we don't want people with knowledge in positions of power. When did higher education and study become something wrong? When did we decide that researching a problem and learning about it was not something we should do? When did it become something to be discounted? How come going to a top college (even on the east coast) means you didn't know or understand how the "real America" functioned?

When did smart start equaling doesn't care?

Everyone said George W. Bush was the guy you would want to have a beer with - is that what we want? Even now, is it all about who seems most "regular"? Studying is something bad? Why are we even pretending to improve our schools then, why do we care about college or competing in a global economy? If the goal is not to become as highly educated as possible then what is the point?

If people are going to vote for president simply because John McCain picked a regular gal as his running mate (and not because of any understanding of his political position) then what does that say about America?

So many of my students did not understand anything about American history; they could barely name the conflicts we had been in, the countries we had fought, and the reasons why. They sat in front of me with this litany of questions about why America was hated in Somalia and Iraq and Iran and Korea and the Philippines and on and on. They didn't understand why Russia invaded Afghanistan or why the US went to war in Vietnam. They had walked the DMZ between the Koreas and couldn't figure out why the country was split in two. Our possession of Guantanamo was a complete mystery, as was our relationship with Russia and Germany and France. Who the Sandinistas were was a mystery. We talked about all of this, for hours and hours and hours. They didn't know because no one ever taught them. It was hard enough for me to grasp that high school graduates in this country could be so ill-informed on our country's history, especially when the US government was going to send them in harm's way in many of these places - or expect them to interact with the populations there. Am I so wrong to think that the people leading our country should know these things - or exhibit an interest in knowing them?

Am I so wrong to think that America would want to be lead by people who think smart is a good thing?

Sarah Palin understands Alaska - good for her. Alaska is the right place for her to be. John McCain, if he truly cared about America, should have chosen someone who knew more than one very isolated state's idiosyncratic history and economy - he should have chosen someone who has exhibited a long time interest in America and its relationship with the world. His choice was for the election and not for the country and I can't begin to say how very disappointed I am for that.

Regular is not good enough to run America - regular doesn't even come close.