For those of you who’ve been in touch with society, you’ve probably made fun at the many oddities and shortcomings that we know to make up Sarah Palin. I know I have. However, her latest antics make me want a pair of noise-canceling headphones, regardless if they tickle my funny bone.

A few days ago a friend of mine told me to look into the National Tea Party Convention and what it’s all about. No offense to any radicals, but the people representing this political entity seemed completely crazy.

By chance, I tuned into a taping of the convention when Joseph Farah, the founder, editor and CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, was giving what many can call a far-reaching speech. He started off with the usual hello and boring irrelevant joke and then went into a spill on how President Obama was not American. He wanted the president to show his birth certificate to the American people for verification of his citizenry. It’s a little too late to be showing a birth certificate when you already hold the highest office in the world next to the pope. Farah should know better than to make such a suggestion, but I guess his party doesn’t.

When I finally managed to catch a glimpse of Sarah Palin, my first thought was to question why she was there. I hadn’t heard of her affiliation with the Tea Party until now. She was invited to speak at the convention as the keynote orator. I must say she captured exactly what I think the conference was full of: stupidity. She went on a rant about how the current president has no idea what he is doing and how there needs to be a focus on small businesses, not large ones. In the end she was basically saying our current government is an evil and corrupt establishment. I would like to remind some of you Obama voters that she is talking about the government you voted for. What does that say about you?

Palin was quoted saying, ‘Our president spent a year reaching out to hostile regimes, writing personal letters to dangerous dictators and APOLOGIZING FOR AMERICA!’

Earth to Sarah! Our president has just spent the last year cleaning up a financial and public diplomacy mess George W. Bush left behind, so I do believe that involves some apologies to a number of nations. Understanding that my opinion is not supreme on any topic of discussion, I asked a couple of Syracuse students what they thought about the National Tea Party and Sarah Palin.

Daniel Claudio, an economic student in the College of Arts and Sciences, gave the one comment I felt echoed my sentiments: ‘They are a bunch of misguided idiots who want their 15 minutes of fame.’ Bravo! His comment was well placed.

The National Tea Party is trying to push for less governmental control financially but feels that there is not enough control when it comes to national security and war. Just like Sarah Palin in 2008, there is nothing but contradictions all over the place. If this party wants to be taken seriously, it needs to exclude Sarah Palin and come up with a more concrete political platform. If it continues at the rate it’s going now, it will be the biggest party joke of 2010.

John Sumpter is a junior international relations and Middle Eastern studies major. His column appears weekly and he can be reached at jfsumpte@syr.edu.

Published on February 17, 2010 at 12:00 pm