Today I was called on in Contracts. During this, my first summons, I ended up on the hook for three different but related cases which focused on the question of whether an offer had been made (versus just implied) for the purpose of determining whether a contract could be enforced. Exciting? …maybe not as viewed from the eyes of a “reasonable person,” but when you are on the spot in front of your classmates the urge to perform emerges. I didn’t have all the answers, but I had the ideas and fact patterns down pretty well.

This, however, is not a self-congratulatory post; rather, I hope to extrapolate from my humble experience today to those challenges faced by Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. While I do not expect Gov. Palin or any other one person to have all the answers regarding how to solve our our country’s ills, I do expect those in positions of power, such as herself, to be able to articulate the basic ideas and fact patterns that lay before us.

A good, I dare say competent, leader knows how to take complex issues and give people an in as to their exploration; that is, the process of distillation helps us understand both what is and what one aspires to do about it. In this regard, Gov. Palin is a complete failure. Not only is she unable to tackle questions that she ought to be able to anticipate, but she also fails to lay out a convincing rationale for her own beliefs.

Perhaps I ought not be surprised, given the fact that Palin has been chosen for the express purpose of pandering to the faith-based community. But to that community, I ask, in what do you intend to place your faith? Since the Bible or a “value” can not serve as our leader we are forced to place our trust in humans, whose fallibility is guaranteed. Obama and Biden are fallible, as are McCain and Palin.

A rabbi who recently gave a lunchtime talk to a group of Jewish students here threw out an interesting point: the interpretation of the word of God by his messengers has itself become an ongoing continuation of that word. While one could argue that such a formula was probably fomenting in the mind of the Unabomber, the basic principle is sound; our being is not static and we must strive to make sense of what we are given from all sources.

After three weeks of legal studies I can say that much of what constitutes this human element in our system of justice can be found in decisions of merit as rendered by judges and juries. The Rules (of which there are many) help guide us in reaching just and equitable conclusions; we who chose are asked to find connections, discern intent and apply facts to that for which we ultimately have no guidance. This process, which occurs both with and without volition, a billion (or 700 billion) times a day, forms the lexicon from which new paradigms are promulgated when the times so demand. We are but the random ball rolling from the table; like the enigmatic neutrino, our rare moments of connection prove our very existence…

Governor Palin, who once struck me as a ballsy fighter, has proven herself to be yet another American who seeks to restrict rather than broaden this fundamental lexicon. As evidenced by current events that, if taken to their logical conclusion, may well precipitate the collapse of our society, the last thing we currently need is to narrow our already myopic focus. I do not elevate Obama and Biden to any sort of mythic status; the Democratic ticket’s humility, as opposed to the folksy opprobrium of its opponents, is emblematic of its embrace of the evolving word. In a world that appears to be getting the better of us (literally,) it’s right time we embrace the both.