I began preparing for this article by writing a list of adjectives that describe Sarah Palin.?But I?soon realized that Miss Congeniality wouldn’t?know half of them. That’s okay. One doesn’t have to know what “unctuous” means to be president.?

Let’s stop the VP charade. If McCain and Palin are elected, Palin will become president. Or so she hopes. Never has anyone wanted anything more, except maybe when George Jr. told George Sr. he didn’t want to go to Vietnam.

Following four melanomas, one of which reached stage two (possibly stage three) before it was removed in 2000, the probability of a recurrence is high. There also exists the potential for metastasis. In McCain’s case,?because of?the lesion’s location, on the right temple to the brain. It would also be prudent to mention that following the surgery to remove the growth, McCain refused the recommended follow-up?therapies.?And he suffers from recurring tics of the right eye.

Let’s not forget McCain is 72 years old. (Would this be an inopportune time to mention that the word?”senator” comes from the Latin “senex,” or old man.)

Even Chuck Norris, the über-conservative karate man of Texas Ranger fame, who supported Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary, told a reporter recently, “I’m just afraid the vice president will wind up taking over his job within that four-year presidency.”

Back?to President Palin. As I said, it’s okay that the part-time hockey mom and?part-time governor of Alaska not know the definition of unctuous (marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality). It does matter that she probably wouldn’t?even take the time to look it up.??

The next word on my list was?”bilious” (indicative of a peevish ill-natured disposition, sickeningly unpleasant). Trust me, beyond those trendy-ish Lens Crafter eyeglasses and the lip-liner tattoo, nothing beats the cold-blooded heart of a?vulture. ?To say Palin has made it to the top (of the cesspool) by feeding on rotting flesh is an understatement.

During Palin rallies, she has incited her ragtag mob of supporters to yell “traitor” and “kill him”?in response to?remarks directed at Senator Barack Obama. It should surprise no one that Palin rallies attract the worst element of our society: racists, homophobes and, worse, those who hide behind the false veil of religion to defend their putrescent bigotry.

Then there was the Palin supporter who hurled a racial epithet at an African-American journalist and told him to “sit down, boy.” No wonder Palin didn’t mention Plessy v. Ferguson when Katie Couric asked her what Supreme Court case she didn’t agree with. To be fair, I’m sure she doesn’t know Plessy v. Ferguson from Brown v. The Board of Education.

To those who would say, Palin didn’t incite anyone to call Barack Obama a traitor, I can only say you’re as craven as she is. People like Palin know well the toxic attitudes their comments incite. This is, after all, the Palin who?spread a rumor during her mayoral race that her opponent was Jewish (he wasn’t)?knowing she could count on her fellow Wasillans’?anti-Semitism to win the race.?Palin knows the power of demagoguery and hate speech.

Palin wants voters to think that Obama is a Muslim and that all Muslims are terrorists. She and her deranged ilk of pseudo-Christians want white Americans to fear people with dark skin. She wants to reopen the wounds of the Civil Rights struggle. She wants to refight the Civil War. She wants to play Scarlet O’Hara to McCain’s Rhett Butler, while?pretending to be?Melanie, sweet and innocent.

During her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Palin quoted Westbrook Pegler, a neo-Nazi anti-Semite. Everyone in the United States who cares about moving beyond race and bigotry should ask himself why Sarah Palin thought it appropriate to quote an anti-Semite in her acceptance speech.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t wondered, sometimes out loud, what creepy secrets lurked in the Palin clan’s closet. We know her husband belonged to an Alaska secessionist organization headed by?a man who once said, “The fires of hell are frozen glaziers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their flag. I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”

Remember Ruby Ridge? If not, I suggest?you?Google it.?

The fact that Palin’s husband belonged to a group that advocated seceding from the United States should worry everyone – unless you share their view.

What other neo-Nazi, anti-government militia, survivalist, wacko, end-times groups are the Palins associated with?

?To those who say?Palin shouldn’t be found guilty by association, I might agree, if Palin weren’t using the same despicable tactic to win the presidency. During the last week, she has drudged up (literally) every groundless charge she can find in a desperate and indefensible attempt to smear Obama.

Ask yourself, or better yet, ask Palin,?how?she can, in good conscience, stand beneath a banner that boasts “Country First” while initiating smears that play to the worst in human nature? How can she defend her association with a man who is on record declaring his hatred for the United States, and at the same time insinuate in the slimiest and most unctuous way that Barack Obama “isn’t one of us” or that he “palls around with terrorists”?

Then ask yourself: how can McCain, a supposedly honorable man, condone such gutter politics with his silence? Qui tacet consentire videtur.

Country first? Hardly. McCain first. Palin first. Win first. This is war, after all. Because the only thing McCain knows is war. He’s been fighting the Vietnam War for 40 years. Win at all costs. Slash and burn. Divide and conquer. Take no prisoners.

Except maybe your honor, Senator McCain. It’s not too late to rescue what little you have left.

George Henson is a lecturer of foreign languages and literatures. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].