Barack Obama's Mother Was an Unwed Teenager and Other Random Thoughts About Sarah Palin

Okay. Not the greatest launch, but not the worst either. Let's not forget, Barack Obama's mom got pregnant as an unmarried teenager, and look how he turned out.

Passing through airports on my journey home from Denver, and over margaritas on the porch last night, I've had time for further reflection on John McCain's choice of a running mate.

So here's a few more random thoughts about Sarah Palin.

1. In spirit, if not literally, she's the first of the Title IX generation to consider the White House as her work address. Watching the marvelous U.S. women's soccer team over the last decade, I couldn't help wonder when one of these young female athletes, trained for competition and leadership, given the opportunity previously reserved for guys and freed from the stifling strictures of "ladylike" behavior, would make her mark on American politics. I thought it would be an Olympian, but it turned out to be Sarah "Barracuda" Palin, the tough point guard of a state championship basketball team.

2. The First Dude, as her husband is known, is part native Alaskan. That's another historic breakthrough, perhaps, if he's willing to bring that sensibility to the capital.

3. First black. First gal. Oldest ever. Joe Biden must be feeling left out.

4. All politics is local, said Tip O'Neill, and it probably was popular with the locals when Palin's administration went to court to try and stop the federal government from protecting endangered polar bears from the loss of habitat caused by global warming. But what plays in Alaska may not play in the lower 48. I can see a killer Democratic commercial now—with poor little polar bear cubs drowning or starving as the ice cap melts, and an Al Gore voiceover scolding Palin for condemning them to such awful deaths.

5. Finally, can someone please tell me why (aside from rank political opportunism) bright, college-educated folks like Palin and McCain insist on putting Biblical mythology on an equal par with biology, physics, and astronomy? Evolution is science. Genesis is superstition. Casting a vote for the GOP ticket this year is endorsing ignorance.