Hold up, Jesse Ventura just made a great point

I've been pretty much disgusted with John McCain and his VP choice in Sarah Palin since he announced her as his choice last Friday. Initially, I was insulted by the clear assumption that women voters will vote for a woman--any woman--regardless of her politics, but the issues since then just keep compounding. I have a hard time championing a white, married, upper-middle class mother of four for not aborting her baby with Down Syndrome, as though she's the only woman in America (pro-life or not) to do so, and as though any pro-choice woman, in contrast, would have immediately run off to the abortion clinic upon learning of their child's condition in the same situation.

Please.

I'm also growing tired of the "She's just like me" and the "She's just a regular soccer mom" and "She is Everywoman" talk. Am I really the only person in the world who thinks that the office of the presidency and the vice presidency demand more than "regular" and "normal"? I don't want a normal vice-president. I want an exceptional vice-president. I want someone who really is beyond reproach. I want the person, as the Obama campaign so aptly put it, who is a heartbeat away from the highest office in the country to be better than a regular old soccer mom. I want her to kick ass. Palin just doesn't. The only thing I've agreed with the Republican delegates about are their comments about her normalcy and her relatability. Yep, she's pretty average. Yep, she's a mom. So let's make her Vice President? Let's not.

And while I find it lovely that the Obama campaign is taking the high road on their "children are off limits" rhetoric with regard to the "Oh yeah, and by the way, my unwed 17 year old daughter is five months pregnant" story, I've been lapping up news coverage on that any chance I get.

In that light, when I heard Larry King announce that he was having Jesse Ventura on as a guest, I immediately thought, "YES! If there's a person in the world who will spout off about Palin, it'll be Jesse."

The thing about Jesse Ventura is this: if Jesse Ventura weren't so crazy, he'd be pretty great. He also took the high road on the 17 year old pregnancy story and talked about what a difficult situation it is for the Palin family, though also pointed out that it's certainly not a situation that's unique to them--that lots of American families deal with that sort of situation every day.

But that wasn't Ventura's good point.

Larry King, like me, wasn't entirely satisfied with that answer.

When pressed a bit further, Jesse made the winning point that perhaps what we should learn most from the Palin teenage pregnancy is that the abstinence only sex education that the GOP loves to endorse doesn't seem to be very effective, particularly so close to home.

Um, yeah. Good point Jesse. And why hasn't anyone else thrown that in the ring?

So, this one's for you Jesse. Somehow, amazingly, you made a point that nobody else had yet, and dammit, I liked it.