Michael Palin for President

    Or should I say, Vice President. John McCain's recent announcement that he had chosen Sarah Palin to be his running mate got me thinking about another Palin, Michael Palin. Best known for his work with Monty Python, Palin is a British comedian and television personality. Of course, as a Brit, Palin isn't eligible to legally be the U.S. president; but let's suspend that fact for a brief bit of speculation. First though, pontificate with me if you will... how awesome would it be to have a president that has literally travelled around the world numerous times (both ways too, from Pole-to-Pole and Around the World in 80 Days-style)? Not only that but he's wicked funny and he'd totally have the support of stoners and nerds because he tends to throw out quotes from old Python movies. Truly a uniter...

    Palin is my favorite Monty Python cast member. John Cleese is a close second, but for my money I think Palin has done much more interesting stuff after Monty Python. Most recently, he made the New Europe series which aired a year and a half ago in Britain. Through the course of the series Palin travels from Croatia through the Balkans to Albania and Turkey and then up through all of the former Eastern Bloc countries up to the Baltic coast. Then he goes south through Poland and the Czech Republic before finishing up in Eastern Germany. All along the way he stop and meets with locals to see how life has changed after the fall of communism and get their perspective on the impending integration with the European Union. It's very interesting and very timely stuff. In twenty or thirty years this series will still be pertinent as a record of social and political climates in the region. Not convinced? In the early nineties Palin made a trip from the north pole to the south pole along a route that would take him through the Soviet Union just weeks before it's collapse. Not only that, but he travelled south along the nile and continued through Africa at a time when civil wars were tearing some countries apart and others were just settling down.

    Michael Palin is like the British Anthony Bourdain, only less edgier. And he tends to get naked occasionally in his shows, which isn't all that cool... But other than that he's the coolest Brit on TV with the exception of Jeremy Clarkson. Personally, I think we should amend the constitution to allow for a Clarkson-Palin ticket. They'd totally have my vote.

    Lastly, not to turn this into a political rant but it is funny that Michael Palin's foreign political experience does trump that of Sarah Palin. Here is a list of countries Michael Palin has visited with a few notes about each important stop:

Place	Journey(s)	Highlight(s)
Albania	New Europe	Visited with Edi Rama, the 2004 World Mayor of the Year, in Tirana
Algeria	Sahara	Ventured into the country three times during the journey; one of only three countries (USA and India are the others) that Palin travelled into three times in the same journey
Antarctica	Pole to Pole	End of the journey
Australia	Full Circle	Appeared in a cameo role in the popular soap Home and Away; finished second in a cow race; held a baby crocodile in his hands
Austria	Around the World in 80 Days	Forced to go by coach in Innsbruck to Venice after railway strike
Bangladesh	Himalaya	End of the journey; discussed Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize
Bhutan	Himalaya	Last view of the high Himalayan peaks
Bolivia	Full Circle	Freak train derailment upon entry into La Paz
Bosnia and Herzegovina	New Europe	Chatted with one of the youths that had a vision of the Virgin Mary at Međugorje
Bulgaria	New Europe	Visited with Gypsies in the city of Plovdiv
Canada	Full Circle	Flagged down a train near Vancouver, British Columbia; participated in an outdoorsman festival
Chile	Pole to Pole, Full Circle	Kissed the toe of an Indian on a statue of Ferdinand Magellan in each of his trips to Punta Arenas
China	Around the World in 80 Days, Full Circle, Himalaya	One of only two countries (USA is the other) that Palin visited in three journeys
Colombia	Full Circle	Toured an emerald mine
Croatia	New Europe	Reunited with the captain of a ship he took from Madras to Singapore in 80 Days
Cuba	Hemingway Adventure	Chatted with an old friend of Hemingway's, aged 101
Cyprus	Pole to Pole	Attended a wedding; chatted with British military at the base at Akrotiri
Czech Republic	New Europe	Attended a social gathering with Taťána Kuchařová, Miss World 2006
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)	Full Circle	Crossed the border in a building in the DMZ
Egypt	Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole	Cairo: first city Palin visited twice on his journeys
Estonia	New Europe	Receives hirudotherapy treatment in Tallinn
Ethiopia	Pole to Pole	Palin arrived right after the overthrowing of Mengistu
Finland	Pole to Pole	Relaxed in a sauna outside of Helsinki and sat on Santa Claus' lap on the Arctic Circle
France	Around the World in 80 Days, Hemingway Adventure	Where Palin first travelled outside of the UK in 80 Days (Orient Express transfer across the English Channel; discovered the apartment Hemingway lived at in Paris is occupied by another American
Germany	New Europe	End of the journey Visited many cities in the former  East Germany
Gibraltar	Sahara	Start/end of the journey
Greece	Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole	First country Palin visited in two journeys
Greenland	Pole to Pole	Brief stopover at Nord Base after setting foot on North Pole
Hong Kong	Around the World in 80 Days	Palin visited nine years before the transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China
Hungary	New Europe	Participated in a fashion show in Budapest
India	Around the World in 80 Days, Himalaya	One of three countries (Algeria and USA are the others) Palin ventured into three times in one journey (Himalaya) Chatted with an astrologer in Bombay Was a special guest at a play in a Shimla theater Interviewed the Dalai Lama
Indonesia	Full Circle	Picked tea leaves at a tea plantation
Italy	Around the World in 80 Days, Hemingway Adventure	Served as a spazzino, a temporary helper with the Venetian sanitation department; visited a World War I memorial
Jammu and Kashmir	Himalaya	Spent a night in a boat on Dal Lake and saw a hotel in Srinagar that had been bombed right before their arrival
Japan	Around the World in 80 Days, Full Circle	sang in a karaoke bar; visited with Japan's first loyal Monty Python fan and set a personal record for money won in a horse race
Kenya	Pole to Pole, Hemingway Adventure	gave his inflatable globe from 80 Days to schoolchildren in the village where he filmed The Missionary and went up in a hot-air balloon while on safari; witnessed a circumcision ceremony of the Maasai tribe
Latvia	New Europe	Saw the Ventspils telescope in Riga
Libya	Sahara	visited with World War II veterans at a key battle victory at Tobruk
Liechtenstein	Around the World in 80 Days	passed through on the Orient Express
Lithuania	New Europe	Stayed in the same villa Leonid Brezhnev did at Palanga
Republic of Macedonia	New Europe	Sailed on Lake Ohrid
Malaysia	Full Circle	Visited an orangutan reserve
Mali	Sahara	Visited Toumani Diabate in Bamako; ate with the Dogon people in 134°F temperature
Mauritania	Sahara	Encountered participants in the Paris-Dakar rally
Mexico	Full Circle	Attended a lucha libre match
Moldova	New Europe	Saw a children's play that told of the problem of sex trafficking in the country
Morocco	Sahara	Visited a hammam after injuring himself in a soccer game in Tangier
Myanmar	Himalaya	Crossed the border with India, which ran right though a Konyak hut Palin was staying in; did callisthenic exercises that spanned the countries
Nepal	Himalaya	Trekked up to base camp at Mount Everest
New Zealand	Full Circle	Got in the middle of freshman orientation ritual at the University of Otago in Dunedin and later noted he was the only one "...who didn't have shit all over him."
Niger	Sahara	Visited the Cure Salee nomadic festival in the town of Ingal
Norway	Pole to Pole	Panned for gold in the Karasjoka River
North Pole	Pole to Pole	Start of the journey
Pakistan	Himalaya	Start of the journey Attended a polo match at the Shandur Pass between teams from Chitral and Gilgit
Peru	Full Circle	Traveled the Amazon River
Philippines	Full Circle	Judged the Miss Bella Pacifica pageant in Zamboanga; drove his own jeepney
Poland	New Europe	Interviewed Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa Observed the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau
Qatar	Around the World in 80 Days	Drove to the border whilst trying to meet up with the crew in Dubai
Republic of Korea (South Korea)	Full Circle	Witnessed a wedding in Seoul
Romania	New Europe	Spent a day with lumberjacks in the Maramureş Mountains
Russia	Full Circle, New Europe	Sang with the Pacific Fleet Ensemble; attended National Day festivities in  Kaliningrad
Saudi Arabia	Around the World in 80 Days	Drove from Jeddah to Dubai in one weekend
Senegal	Sahara	Visited Goree Island, where many slaves had their last sight of Africa
Serbia	New Europe	Sailed with a yacht club in Belgrade
Singapore	Around the World in 80 Days	Caught a vessel going to Hong Kong in the night
Slovakia	New Europe	Visited the Tatra Mountains
Slovenia	New Europe	Start of the journey
South Africa	Pole to Pole	Palin visited months after apartheid was abolished
Spain	Hemingway Adventure, Sahara	Attended the Festival of San Fermin and the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona; toured the enclave of Ceuta
Sudan	Pole to Pole	Travelled the distance from London to Oxford in 24 hours while travelling from Khartoum to Gedaref
Switzerland	Around the World in 80 Days	Passed through on the Orient Express
Tanzania	Pole to Pole, Hemingway Adventure	Took the world's oldest ferry from Kigoma down to Mpulungu, Zambia; saw Mount Kilimanjaro
Tibet	Himalaya	Toured Potala Palace in Lhasa
Transnistria	New Europe	Observed National Day festivities in the capital of Tiraspol
Tunisia	Sahara	Revisited the places where he and Monty Python filmed Life of Brian
Turkey	Pole to Pole, New Europe	Stayed in Pera Palas, where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express; stayed at a cave house in Göreme
Uganda	Hemingway Adventure	Saw where Hemingway's planes crashed in 1954
Ukraine	New Europe	Reunited with a man he met on a train in Pole to Pole
USSR (what are now  Estonia,  Russia,  Belarus and  Ukraine)	Pole to Pole	Palin visited right before the collapse of the Soviet Union
United Arab Emirates	Around the World in 80 Days	Caught a dhow across the Arabian Sea to Bombay
United Kingdom	Around the World in 80 Days	Where Palin began/ended his first journey (Reform Club)
United States	Around the World in 80 Days, Full Circle, Hemingway Adventure	Start/end of "Full Circle" and "Hemingway Adventure" One of only two countries (China is the other) that Palin visited in three journeys One of only three countries (Algeria and India are the others) that Palin travelled into three times in the same journey (Full Circle)
Vietnam	Full Circle	Went through the Củ Chi tunnels
Western Sahara	Sahara	Met with a member of the Polisario Front
Zambia	Pole to Pole	Palin visited right after the ouster of Kenneth Kaunda
Zimbabwe	Pole to Pole	Chatted with members of the BBC- the Bulawayo Bowlers Club