OK, I recently confessed to a friend. Maybe I AM just a tad cranky these days. But it’s only because I haven’t slept a full night in more than five years. Sleep aids, home remedies and even new mattresses have failed to do the trick. This friend who knows me – and my politics – well insists the culprit is none other than my deep-rooted ancient Scottish sense of patriotism, which, he only half-jokingly suggests, may at last be assuaged once a new president takes office Jan. 20. Here’s why I’m beginning to believe he may be right…

Sen. John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin lately have begun offering a new refrain aimed at countering those who dare to question Palin’s readiness to serve as president, should the situation so require. It goes something like this: Those who question her readiness simply have never met her. Interesting argument, considering that Palin has never met Obama. Yet since the day she was tapped she has gone into full pit-bull mode in viciously attacking both his professional as well as personal qualifications. By her own logic, maybe she should just meet him and she would feel differently.