"Politics," or, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore"

The realm of national politics is extremely puzzling to me; not because I don't understand the process, but because the shit stuff that happens doesn't make any sense.

Honestly, I don't identify particularly strongly with either of the two major political parties, but I find that my values most often coincide with those of the Democratic Party. That, and people in leadership positions within that party appear to be less batshit insane than those in the Republican Party. Notice that everything I've said in this paragraph so far has been qualified with what amounts to a "maybe" in front of each statement.

I don't know too much about Biden, the Dems' nominee for VP, or really Palin, the GOP VP nominee. However, I've come across some information about Palin over the past few days, and just about all of it sets off the "wtf" alarm in my head.

She's a woman. Great, good for her. However, she has been quoted as saying something about breaking through the "glass ceiling," claiming that it's more than Hillary Clinton could do. Stop. Being appointed by a man to the second-highest office in the country isn't breaking through any ceiling. If anything it's reinforcing them.

Also, I found this AP article about claims made during the RNC. Here's a good one:

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

In a city of about 5,000 at the time of these elections, she was elected mayor with relatively fewer votes than I had when I was elected as a class council representative at Columbia (~110 out of 350 eligible voters). Seriously?

I also don't really understand why people are so keen on having the Presidential and/or Vice-Presidential candidates similar to a "typical" American. This was a major selling point pushed by the Bush campaign in 2000 -- "He's the kind of guy you could go to the bar and throw back a beer with." I would insist that a President be better than me, and I'm almost positive I wouldn't want to have a beer with him or her, mostly because I think that as President, they should have something better to do.

Also, since when have conservatives been in favor and supportive of women (and teenagers, even) having children out of wedlock? I really don't understand this one.