Ian Boyne, Contributor

It is becoming clearer every time Sarah Palin speaks that for John McCain 'maverick' is synonymous with recklessness and foolhardiness. Right-wing gadfly Fred Barnes, writing in his Weekly Standard magazine of October 6, gushes that, unlike Obama, McCain likes "surprises and gambles".

But his selection of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate shows that he has taken that gambling disposition too far.

Utterly reckless and cynical are among the mild ways that one can characterise the US Republican presidential nominee's selection of a woman whose stunning and appalling ignorance of public affairs and foreign policy is a cause for embarrassment among some Republicans. Sarah Palin's disastrous performance on the Katie Couric CBS interview has earned her ridicule all over the world. Even conservative pundits have changed their minds about the Republican ticket as a result of her interviews.

Serious mistake

Some well-known voices in the US conservative community, who had formerly embraced Palin's rock star-like status after her selection, have publicly said McCain's decision has proven to be a serious mistake.

Fareed Zakaria, one of the most learned foreign policy journalists in the US media and host of CNN's GPS on Sunday afternoons, says in a Newsweek article titled, 'Palin is ready? Please': "Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realise that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, to 'spend more time with her family'?"

Don't just dismiss that as disgusting male chauvinism and sexism. Just listen to the woman. She is no Condi Rice, Madeleine Albright or Hillary Clinton; of whom Fareed would never dare say that. The woman is supremely unqualified to be anywhere near the position to which John McCain, in an unforgivable flight of fantasy and irresponsibility, has catapulted her. I agree with Fareed, the author of the recently published book The Post-American World: "She has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start."

If McCain had truly put his country first he would never have put America at risk by choosing someone whose intellectual competence (or even comprehension level) is way below the vice-presidential level; let alone being a heartbeat away from the presidency - a frightening prospect, indeed.

Sarah Palin could not name a Supreme Court decision apart from Roe vs Wade. Many outside of America can name many. When asked what newspapers she reads, she says "all of them"; when pressed, she could not name even one. This is a woman whose foreign policy expertise is bolstered, in her view, by the fact that Alaska is right beside Russia and that she can see Russia from her home! If we did not see the Katie Couric interview we would swear the wicked Democrats were making it all up.

Bush doctrine

First, she could did not have a clue what Charlie Gibson meant when he mentioned the Bush Doctrine in his interview with her. Others have since tried to spin that by saying there was more than one Bush Doctrine, but that cannot dissolve her abysmal ignorance and cluelessness on foreign policy issues.

Romesh Ratnesar, writing on Time magazine's website last Saturday, referred to Palin's "lack of curiosity about current events" and her reliance on "bumper-sticker wisdom over complex thoughts". He advises: "We should stop pretending that she is ready now, or will be any time in the foreseeable future, to be commander-in-chief."

Writing in the September 22 issue of the New Yorker ('The State of Sarah Palin'), Philip Gourevitch, who has interviewed her, says as she talked about Alaska, "she often seemed to skip from slogan to slogan without ever touching solid ground". If you saw her debate Thursday night with Joe Biden you would see that in full flight.

Yet, this is the person whom Mr Maverick, whose good judgment has been touted, has thrust on the American people. Fortunately for the world, not just America, the American people are not lapping it up.

The polls show that many Americans have serious doubts about Palin's readiness for the top job, if it becomes available. An Associated Press poll found that only 25 per cent of likely voters believe Palin has the experience to be president, down from the 41 per cent just after the GOP convention when she was not being asked any question.

The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday says, "When Sarah Palin was introduced five weeks ago as John McCain's running mate, her impact was seismic." The paper then quotes one retiree from Minnesota who said that she thought that Palin was "the perfect woman". But having watcher her interviews she says "she comes off like she really doesn't know what she's talking about". The LA Times says such negative views about Palin "are on the upswing".

The Washington Post on Thursday says "Though she initially transformed the race with her energising presence and a fiery speech, Palin is now a much less positive force." Now, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll, six in 10 voters see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and as much as a third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her.

According to the poll, about half of all voters say they were uncomfortable with McCain's taking office at 72, and some 85 per cent of them say Palin does not have the requisite experience to be president.

And a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that Palin held no particular sway with women either. In fact, among independent voters she is more popular with men. So McCain's gamble that he would be able to attract independent women voters as well as Hillary Clinton supporters has not paid off. His recklessness has been in vain.

Indeed, it has backfired hugely, her less-than-disastrous-debate performance notwithstanding. As the Wall Street crisis has erupted, inducing anger in Main Street at corporate greed and Republican government which did little to stem it, John McCain has been feeling the backlash. Barack Obama has shot up in the polls.

On Thursday an AP-GfK poll showed that Obama had surged ahead of McCain by seven points (48-41) Besides, other polls have shown Obama ahead in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa. With the Republican administration long associated with big business and corporate America - with many Washington lobbyists on McCain's campaign staff, the revulsion towards Wall Street and its fat cats whom McCain would fatten even more, will burn the Republican candidate.

Obama's message of middle and working class advocacy, as opposed to the big corporations for which McCain would provide tax cuts, is resonating with ordinary Americans. The average American wants greater regulation on business, the curtailing of corporate power and a firmer stand against the Washington Establishment. They feel that Obama would be more predisposed towards this than the Washington insider John McCain.

McCain, of course, has been trying to change his tune in light of the financial sector crisis, but the American people are not so foolish as to miss his blatant opportunism and insincerity.

AP reported on Thursday that "several GOP strategists close to McCain campaign privately fret that his chances for victory are starting to slip away".

Obama has gained nationally and in the traditionally GOP states. In addition, the fact that McCain did not gain any points from his debate with Obama, and that he has lost ground as a result of the financial crisis, plus "the deepening public scepticism about his running mate, Sarah Palin", has caused him to slip.

Now, after Palin's transparently shallow performance against the experienced Joe Biden, who totally outclassed her - expectedly - any objective, non-emotional evaluation would indicate that one is comparing cheese to chalk.

For those who were not exposed to Biden's strong debating skills and sharp mind, Thursday night would have exposed them to a master at work. (I have been following him on C-SPAN and on the Sunday morning shows for a long time, especially with my favourite interviewer, the late Tim Russert).

Associated Press on Thursday reported that Palin has posted an enormous loss of confidence among Republicans.

"Three in four had called her experienced enough before but not even half say that now," the report says. AP quotes a Republican woman as saying, "If she was running the helm, she wouldn't know what she's doing." She could not have put it better. Someone, indeed, should put her out of her agony.

The expectations for Palin were so low going into this debate with the highly experienced Biden, that she could hardly disappoint and was guaranteed to elicit praises for her performance. That was a big advantage for her.

Polls show that overwhelmingly people thought she did better than they expected - because the bar was so low for her. But polls indicate that Biden clearly won the debate, as expected. The Republican base breathed a sigh of relief that she had no obvious embarrassing gaffes and did not trip up herself hopelessly, but a dispassionate analysis shows her triteness and over-coaching.

Anyone who listened to the Thursday night's debate - apart from the cosmetics, the gloss,the Joe Six-Pack spin - would have to say that it was a mismatch, a heavyweight versus a lightweight. She quoted John Winthrop's City on a Hill metaphor and attributed it to Ronald Reagan, and she has yet to know how to pronounce nuclear (which probably tells you that she does not listen to much intelligent commentary on foreign policy).

It is easy to talk nonsense about 'sexism' in viscerally attacking men who criticise someone like Sarah Palin. But we have to stop using gender as a fig leaf to cover intellectual incompetence. It's an insult to women. People must be judged by objective criteria, not on gender, race or class. On objective criteria Sarah Palin is way out of her league - and I am putting it politely.

Sarah Palin is just a symptom of the crisis in the Republican party. You should read the lead article in the May 26 issue of the New Yorker titled, 'Is the GOP Brain-Dead?' The GOP needs another Barry Goldwater. But John McCain is no Goldwater. In fact, I think he is dead in the water.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com. Feedback may also be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.