I feel like I’m living in a Twilight Zone script where elections have a new set of criteria.

People are talking about a vice presidential candidate in terms of looking ‘hot’, referring to Sarah Palin as a ‘sexy librarian’. A man I know said he’d sleep with her, but he wouldn’t vote for her.

A celebrity survey asked people what they thought of Palin’s glasses. Should she keep them or get contacts? “I love the sexy librarian look on her, I really think she should keep the glasses,” one person said.

“I would take Sarah and her glasses over Hillary Clinton and her pantsuits any day,” another said. “But yes, I think she should keep the glasses.”

I’ll bet there are few librarians in this country who aren’t better informed than Ms. Palin; better read, more well traveled, more aware of what’s happening in a world we share with people who don’t like us, a rising China, epidemics of AIDS, third world poverty, global warming and economic troubles in the U.S. and dozens of other problems.

Through her ‘hot’ glasses, Sarah Palin views the world with an overconfident smugness that belies her lack of experience. Her interview with Charles Gibson last week revealed a candidate who is smart, not very sophisticated and certainly not well informed. When asked what she knew about Russia, she said she could see Russia from Alaska. Right.

The millions of women who are flocking to their optician for the square frameless glasses say the Palin look is “smart, sophisticated and put together”.

Did we see a run on pantsuits? Style trumps substance again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 7:43 am. Visit the archives for all blog posts.