I AM reluctant to say anything whatsoever about the US presidential election, primarily because this is the time for the quadrennial Euro-sneer at US politics, US life, US culture, and, most toxically of all, at mid-America. Thus the appetite which unites the liberal-left elite of Europe with their more jingoistic fellow countrymen and women, (aided, of course, by tendentious, self-glorifying, deceitful traitors like Michael Moore).

This has been particularly so in Britain, where the media luvvies have been championing Russell Brand for his attacks on President George Bush on US television, and his mockery of a boy-band who intend to stay virginal. (You want to know how that sounds? Imagine an English comedian appearing on RTE, telling jokes about Mary McAleese, and mocking Irish kids half his age because of their sexual continence).

Anyway, the result is a supercilious disdain for an entire continent simply because many of the people there believe in intelligent design, or Christianity, or virginity before marriage; and then these sincerely held beliefs are then yoked with unrelated phenomena, such as little girl beauty contests, and trailer parks, and guns, into a seamless and utterly worthless caricature. But even small societies like Ireland are not composed of a single organism with different bits sticking on them, like a weird fish with gills and legs and teeth and claws and fur. There's absolutely no cultural connection between Old Wesley and the Omagh bomb.

Moreover, the US is a continent, with many different traditions, many subordinate cultures within the all-embracing American one: the Anglo-Hispanic fusion of the rodeo has little in common with the Anglo-Yiddish traditions of Jewish New York, other than their ability to co-exist within the same tolerant, Protestant liberal milieu that was created by the founding fathers, and then subsequently enriched by waves of immigrants from so many countries.

Now there is much to be said for Sarah Palin. She has enraged feminists with her beliefs. She has rejected the culture of female victimhood and ideological egalitarianism which has polluted academic and political life in the western world. And she personifies the individualism which makes Americans so attractive.

But having said that, may I ask: was I alone in being revolted by the sight of Trig Palin being hoisted by his parents around at the Republican convention, like the Jules Rimet trophy at the end of a World Cup Final? It would be bad enough if Trig were just the human blob that all infants are at that age, but, of course, he is more than that: he also has Down syndrome. And was that the semi-subliminal message that we were being given? That not merely is Sarah Palin a fundamentalist Christian, but she is also an anti-abortionist who consciously chose to have what used to be called a Mongoloid baby: and look, here's his little face to prove it?

What's the difference between a pit-bull and a hockey mom? Et cetera. Sarah? Excuse me, Sarah? Hello?

Let me tell you about another little difference.

A pitbull terrier, in all its canine wisdom, doesn't drag its whelp, infirm or otherwise, from its nest to expose it to infection and the elements, and heaven knows what else, in a hall containing thousands of bacteria-exhaling, virus-incubating adults from all around the USA. Which is what the Palins did, smirking insufferably, toting a child whose condition, and all the attendant deficiencies of the auto-immune system, makes it very vulnerable to infection.

The infant did not need to be there to prove its existence: nor did any doubters demand a chromosome test. Do they not have babysitters in Minneapolis? Or maybe, it was more a kind of parent-baby-parent triangulation; trigonometry.

So this little lad became the first-ever infant to assist its mother to launch her campaign to become the vice-president of the USA. And such are the new taboos which now prevail that anyone who had referred to little Trig as a Mongoloid child would probably have been lynched.

No doubt, that is a good taboo: but, meanwhile, another taboo has apparently vanished. It is the one which protected the very young -- never mind the mentally handicapped and physically impaired -- from being publicly exploited by their parents for political gain: so much so that, unless I am gravely mistaken, (which is, indeed, usually the case) I am the first commentator, so far, to refer to the downright depravity of his parents displaying little Trig at the convention.

But maybe that's because Palin has been the beneficiary of the magic wand of her sex: for who would ever have the nerve to suggest that her conduct as a mother provides a terrifying insight into her real moral priorities?

And does that insight not tend to confirm the horrible suspicions some of us had already gained during the public railroading of poor randy, 17-year-old Levi into becoming her son-in-law?

She also believes that Alaska is God's last fortress. And Iraq is God's war. God help us.

So, Palin's a dingbat: just watch those eyes. McCain's good but crocked. Obama's wordy, but out of touch. Biden seems a bit of a lightweight. And I'm not feeling too well myself. Lord, what a pickle.

kmyers@independent.ie

- kevin Myers