Do we need another one "just like us?"

Republicans: “Sarah Palin is one of us; isn’t that great!”

Me: “Are you kidding?”

It reminds me of another time – 1952 – when Dwight Eisenhower selected a little known guy named Richard Nixon as his running mate.

If you live long enough you will be witness to history repeating itself. Politics repeats itself altogether too often, in my view. In 1952, the GOP sold us on the unknown Nixon because he was “just like us.” On any given street in America, you could find families with a pregnant teen, professionals fudging expense reports, job applicants padding resumes, ambitious and insecure people seeking approval by firing their enemies and rewarding their friends. Yes, Nixon was just like us. So is Sarah Palin.

But is that really the person you would choose to help lead this nation?

• She is against federal earmarks – except when she needed them to help her career in Alaska.
• She was for the infamous “bridge to nowhere” – until she discovered it was a boondoggle perpetrated on the taxpayers by Sen. Ted Stevens of the US Senate Appropriations Committee.
• She believes family members ought to be off limits to the media – except when she chooses to parade them in front of the cameras for political effect.
• She believes in free speech – except when it protects books Palin doesn’t want in the local library.
• She wants to protect the reproductive rights of rapists and incest offenders by making ALL abortions off limits BUT is in favor of giving her own daughter the right to choose.
• She believes government officials ought to be held accountable to the taxpayers – except when she asks the State of Alaska to reimburse her for nights she spends in her own home, and her husband for trips he has taken on her behalf.

I repeat: America does not need someone “just like us” and especially not like Richard Nixon -- or Sarah Palin.

America needs an extraordinary individual, gifted of wisdom, judgment and intellect, possessing a vision for America that embraces the long term, a person who has made mistakes and learned from them, who will choose the best and brightest men and women to assist him regardless of party affiliation.

Barack Obama is that man; John McCain is not.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are “reformers” who will be true to the legacy of Karl Rove -- and Richard Nixon.

God bless America.