A Basic Misunderstanding

Call it another opportunity to dump on the woman who could have been a heartbeat from the Presidency.

First, the cheap shot. In Searchlight, Nevada yesterday, Sarah Palin in her opening remarks yukked it up:

I was going to ask Todd if I could borrow his sunglasses. I would have to take these off and it would make it really tough for me to see the teleprompter. And then I realized, no teleprompter, time to kick in old school. Good thing I remember how to use the poor man's version of the teleprompter.

"The poor man's version of the teleprompter." That would be written notes (not her palm this time), to which Palin periodically referred. I guess we're supposed to believe that is so much more sophisticated than use of a teleprompter.

Now for the substance.

Given that Sarah Palin declared "....That the constitution provides the path to a more perfect union. It's the constitution," it's significant that she also would say

in these volatile times when we are a nation at war, now more than ever is when we need a commander-in- chief, not a constitutional law professor lecturing us from a lectern.

No, "we" do not need a commander-in-chief. The commander-in-chief does not propose legislation; nominate individuals to the cabinet, the federal judiciary, or anywhere else; nor even determine if, when, and where to commit United States combat forces.

According to the document Mrs. Palin purports to revere, the President

shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.

We- by which Palin undoubtedly meant the people of the United States- do not need a commander-in-chief. That would be violative both of the letter, and the spirit, of the Constitution.

Our nation does not have a king. We do not have a ruler who governs by divine right or who exercises unlimited power.

There is a reason that the President is commander-in-chief of the armed forces (when actually called into service) and not of civilians. Palin, who yesterday blustered "we're not going to sit down and shut up," seems not to understand that. But she sometimes appears to be auditioning for Autocrat of the United States and may dream of that power over the populace that only a commander-in-chief of the American people would have. Either that, or she boasts of love for a document she has little understanding of.