Greetings. An amazing and rather frightening report has appeared on the ABC News site, that appears to illustrate what a near miss this country just suffered with Sarah Palin.

With the election over, McCain staffers are spilling their guts about the would-have-been Vice President.

Their revelations include the accusation that when tapped for the V.P. role, Palin didn't know that Africa is a continent. It is also claimed that she didn't know the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (OK children, let's name the three countries in North America! All together now ...)

Stunning.

But it's also reported that the $150,000 spent on Sarah's clothing and accessories wasn't even the entire tab, and that the GOP was flabbergasted when they learned where Sarah had done her shopping and the total she rang up for herself, plus (surprise!) her "First Dude" husband Todd.

This is now all somewhat academic to everyone but the GOP bean counters, except that Sarah may have future national office aspirations.

To think that Palin came as close as she did to becoming "one heartbeat away" from a potential U.S. President (who would have been the oldest one ever sworn into office) is nothing short of scary. And what it tells us about John McCain's judgment during the campaign is simply depressing.

But Sarah should be back in Alaska by now. And if she seriously wants to run for higher office in the future, at least she has time to work her way up to a Middle School level of geographic and global affairs knowledge.

It's time to quote "Eros" in Plan Nine From Outer Space yet again: That was too close!

--Lauren--