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maybe sarah palin is just dressing up as a dangerously unqualified politician

So the official word is that Sarah Palin had a good laugh at being parodied by Tina Fey in the opening sketch of Saturday Night Live this past weekend. The Republican’s spokeswoman told CBS News: “She thought it was quite funny, particularly because she once dressed up as Tina Fey for Halloween.”

I know the impact of SNL bits tends to be fleeting – but this could be just the turn of events needed to bring clarity to the presidential race. To take undecideds and make them decideds. To bring the most important issue of the campaign into focus.

Because when it comes right down to it, it seems to me that every American of voting age now has a question to ask himself or herself before casting a ballot.

And that question is: Do I, as a citizen of the United States of America, the most powerful nation on Earth, really want to elect a vice-president who still dresses up for Halloween?

Thomas Jefferson did not dress up for Halloween. LBJ did not dress up for Halloween. Al Gore did not dress up for Halloween (though, to be fair, that didn’t stop him from being constantly mistaken for a hat rack). And it’s not Dick Cheney’s fault that his natural demeanour leads one to the conclusion that he’s The Penguin.

Dressing up for Halloween says something about a person. Usually it says: Hi, I’m seven years old. But it can also say: I welcome each holiday on the calendar with an enthusiasm that unsettles my neighbours and makes even my own children uncomfortable.

So you really have to wonder: If they missed this Halloween-based bombshell, what else did John McCain’s vetters fail to turn up about their VP nominee? Animatronic reindeer on the Palin porch at Christmas? A bunch of soot-covered children strip mining her back yard on Labor Day?

And let’s not overlook the potential for confusion down the road. McCain’s confidence in his memory is already pretty shaky – the last thing he needs as president is to look up from his desk in the Oval Office next Oct. 31 and wonder how Elvira got into the room.

That said, if Palin is as ambitious as she seems and has designs on becoming President sooner rather than later, it’s hard to imagine a political strategy more effective than renting a Grim Reaper costume and mastering the phrase, “Come with meeeeeeeeee…”

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