I'm still following the US elections, even though Canadians are now heading to the polls October 14. Our election feels like a re-run of the last all-too-recent one, and I'll go out and cast my ballot the same way, unless something extremely bizarre happens in the next two weeks.

"Following" the US election means reading on-line mostly left-of-centre political opinion, which, with the Veep debate tomorrow, is refocusing on Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin.

I think most of the pundits are right in their take on her - that she's so far failed to demonstrate much knowledge of national and international issues, is capable of repeating claims which are either bogus (she did fire the Police Chief when Mayor of Wasilla) or true in such a limited, purely technical way that they might as well be bogus (like claiming she canceled the 'bridge to nowhere', but not mentioning keeping all the funds and her previous support), or completely pointless (being able to see Russia from Alaska as a surrogate for foreign policy experience), and is basically unqualified to assume the Presidency, which is the major point of being Vice-President.

What bothers me about Governor Palin is that she keeps repeating herself, fallacies, half-truths and inanities intact, and the crowds listening seem to swallow it all as gospel. She's previously shown herself to be good at presenting herself as 'just one of you folks' and of making media-friendly quotable rejoinders, while at the same time running a hard-ball 'gotcha' campaign against her opponents, which is how she got elected as Governor of Alaska, and as Mayor of Wasilla.

Personally, I couldn't imagine having the gall to label myself the 'first Christian' to be running for the office of Mayor if I knew the current Mayor personally and that he's a church-going Christian. Equally, I can't imagine claiming to be a fiscal conservative if shortly after becoming Mayor I spent $50,000 to redecorate my office. Or after two terms in office, I left my town with $20-million of debt and hiked the sales tax half a percent, which was a 25% increase. The fact that Governor Palin has claimed this without blinking and, in fact, while managing to look charming, isn't scary. What's scary is that people believe her, not reality. That believability, that appearance of sincerity, gives her a huge advantage if voters overlook her gaffes. And, given that gaffes are reported by the media, and the media is notoriously biased, and frequntly wrong, many voters automatically discount what it says.

It also helps that her gaffes so far are largely meaningful only if you are informed about national and international issues. I couldn't name another Supreme court ruling other than Roe vs Wade. I know there have been a bunch, but heck, I'm not a lawyer. I haven't met any international leaders, and funnily enough everyone later figured out that Governor Palin had too met the President of Iceland, so there. I'd probably sound like an idiot being interviewed by national media. I wouldn't vote for Governor Palin if I had the opportunity, but I can understand other voters finding her a nice, fresh, likeable face suddenly appearing at the end of a 2-year old campaign and being more than inclined to support her.

Fundamentally, politics is a popularity contest. She just might win.