"McPalin" & new school year

Sorry about the influx of political posts. I assure you I will be talking about something else later in this post. So how about McCain's surprising pick for VP? Like many people, my initial reaction was: "Who the hell is she?" Gradually, we're starting to learn more about her. Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is 44 years old, has been Governor since December 2006, and before that, she was mayor of Wasilla, a town of 7,000 outside of Anchorage. She is married with 5 children, the oldest of which will be heading to Iraq shortly, and the youngest born with down syndrome in April. Supporters say Gov. Palin has brought a lot of reform to Alaska and has defied "politics as usual". Also, she can easily connect to ordinary working-class Americans. Opponents say she's too inexperienced and lacks the political credentials to be vice president. Because of this, she has no foreign policy experience and is so far removed from the ways of Washington, which obviously concerns many voters. Needless to say, it's an interesting choice, and as always, some people are nodding in agreement, while others are shaking their heads. We are now a little more than 2 months away from Election Day, so the drama will definitely kick up a notch. There will be the debates and the candidates' final push in the battleground states. Bad news for the RNC: the convention will be very low-key due to the ongoing situation with Hurricane Gustav. Many politicians will not be attending, including Bush and Cheney. They will be touring the Gulf Coast to survey the damage these next few days. The hurricane is the big news story today. So far, the news reports are saying the damage is not as bad as expected, which is a relief. Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina 3 years ago have helped the Gulf Coast be better prepared for this.
For me, school started on Thursday. It was an OK first day, just OK. Unfortunately, none of my friends are in my lunch period, and I either don't get along with or don't really know the people in my classes. Figures, since I'm not like the typical teenager, which always impedes in getting along with people at school. Blerg...but I'm used to it. As usual, the new freshmen are obnoxious, but we were probably like that back then. All my teachers seem reasonable so far, but it's only been 2 days. No stress yet, but with college on the horizon, plus a heavy workload of honors classes and extracurricular activities, it's going to be a tough year once again. I'm enjoying the 3-day weekend. I finally got around to watching Atonement the other day. It was a good, but not spectacular, movie in my opinion. The things that truly stood out were the stunning tracking shot when Robbie (James McAvoy, who is very attractive, I must admit) arrives at Dunkirk amongst all the soldiers on the beach and the haunting score. The story was good, and I'm interested in reading the novel.
Random: Michael Phelps is hosting SNL's season premiere on September 13! Looking forward to the new season. Sorry this post is so jumbled; I guess I just have a lot to talk about, partly due to the fact that I'm interested in so many things.