When asked, local Alaskan government and state officials offered that Sarah Palin “governed from the center.” That sent a chill up their backs as well as waves of fear through the “left wing.”

The cause: the selection of a female vice presidential candidate by John McCain. A fresh face from outside Washington (for a real “change”) and a rather “normal” person without the pomposity inbred in the D.C. kind and certain media types. She’s not an Ivy League type, and [is] a former beauty queen to boot.

Their concern? They have been found out and flushed out! Their response strategy is intended to smoke screen the weakness in their candidate’s resume and the fact that an elected female vice president represents a real change for America. Their answer is blasphemy and character assassination.

Against the somewhat heavier resume of Sarah Palin, despite the fact Barack Obama headlines his ticket and Palin is the second banana on hers, the rabid attack machinery has chosen to highlight its attacks on Palin and in so foolishly doing has drawn a sharper comparison to Obama’s resume. The net result is that Obama loses. The vice presidential debate punctuates that point.

On the front page of the New York Times recently there was an article which offers “McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry of Distortion.” Distortion? Again the attack machine stumbles. Obama has been caught in at least one outright lie, that being that “everyone in America will get a tax rebate” when about 50 million citizens-families pay no taxes which means a direct rebate handout from the Treasury. That’s not a “tax rebate”; that’s “income redistribution.” Now we have the new remark, which tends to confirm same, that his goal is to “spread the wealth.”

There is also the allegation that John McCain can’t hit the “enter” button on the computer, alleging that he is aged or time has passed him by. Maybe the Obama attack machine should have confirmed the reason he can’t before they sicced their attack dogs. McCain’s arms and fingers, according to reliable sources, allegedly were impacted from years of punishing captivity, and the passing years have affected their use. Also, Obama chooses to forget that McCain flew a combat jet, flying better than 600 miles per hour, which takes far more dexterity and skill than a computer. So who is guilty of distortion one may ask? When this fact becomes more widely known, this distortion alone could cost Obama the election. Americans don’t like their war survivors and heroes falsely held up to ridicule.

The “distortions” were initiated by Obama. To wit, the current campaign technique really got its start when Obama played his “race card” by trying to make a pre-emptive strike by calling attention to his race and the fact that he might be identified as a “man of color” to scare the electorate off. Then he leveled a hypothetical charge that “they” may claim, or imply, he looks different than the men on the dollar bill, or the five-dollar bill or the 10-dollar bill. No one but Obama would dare to compare himself to America’s more famous forefathers-heroes. None of that happened, but it does confirm the fact that he knew why he was anointed by the Far Left because defining his candidacy is an Affirmative Action cornerstone.

Further proof, if needed, is in the fact that Obama made an issue of “lipstick on a pig.” Now, let’s understand that was no loose remark. The reaction of the crowd behind him tells you they already “got it” as he had planned. However, if his reference was to the Palin remark, the fact is Palin didn’t use the “pig” description; it was “pit bull.” If Obama had used that, there would be less comparison to grasp, and there would have been little to confront, and his affirmative action handle might have come through unscathed. But by drawing a bead on Palin, Obama drew a bead on himself.

A not so amusing distortion is Obama’s call for all to have the opportunity to reach the “American Dream.” He has little idea what that really means and how you get to the finish line. Having earned a real right to claim that achievement in my life, from an orphan to a CEO, Obama’s reference to his American dream is, from my life’s experience, nothing less than sloganeering.

Putting aside the acknowledged oratory style Obama brings to the campaign, the Far Left and Obama have another problem: His knowledge base and the protection of his “skinny” resume, as well as his somewhat low level of questionable achievements. All this melds together and is why he needs to be propped up by 300 foreign affairs advisers – by his own admission and count (maybe that’s why it took him three shots to answer the Georgian-Russian question, before he got it right).

Obama with all of his other advisers is nothing more than the mannequin for the Far-Left, i.e., Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, as their affirmative action choice that they hope will assuage their long simmering desire of displaying their racial tolerance. That’s no reason to vote for any candidate.

Bottom Line: In the 14 presidential elections in which I voted, Obama is the least qualified, least experienced and most naive of all the prior candidates.

Alan Henry of Northport is a former president and chief operating officer of major public broadcasting companies in several states.