President Palin?
A quotation from Senator John McCain after September 11:
By selecting Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential choice, he has obviously decided that experience is unnecessary and that his judgment is highly questionable.
The 72 year old McCain spent five and 1/2 excruciating years as a POW in Vietnam, has had melanoma and undergoes a skin examination every three months, followed by a biopsy. As 71 year old, I can attest that, no matter how healthy you are and act at that age, you just don’t feel the way you felt twenty or thirty years ago. If that does not lead to the conclusion that you must select someone capable of being President in the event of your own incapacity, you have seriously abdicated the position of being wise enough to be President.
His choice to be the next President of the US has been the Governor of Alaska for the past one and 1/2 years (hot on the heels of being the mayor of a 7,000 person town 45 minutes outside Anchorage, Alaska), who lacks familiarity with the issues of the other 49 states and at best is learning how to govern her own state.. Alaska’s major interest in Washington is to use it as a source of earmarked funds that equal the most per capita transfers from the Federal Treasury compared to any other state in the Union, obtained by two corrupt politicians currently under indictment. She is a fervent foe of abortion, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage. She believes in ‘intelligent design’ and thinks it (that is, creationism) should be taught as a theory equivalent to evolution.
She has not, by her own admission, had time to concentrate on foreign issues. Cindy McCain in an interview today argued that Alaska is the closest state to Russia and that should be considered when evaluating her national security expertise! Unfortunately for this national-affairs-by-proximity argument, Maine is closer to Iraq than is Alaska so the Republicans erred by not selecting Olympia Snowe.
The question is why and the answer is simple. This was a political decision meant to burnish McCain’s reputation as a risk taker and dice thrower. It is an attempt to garner the disaffected Clinton voters who have yet to embrace Obama. And it solidifies the conservative base, which has not been enthusiastic about McCain.
A man named Sam Clinton, with Hilary Clinton’s credentials, would have been a serious candidate for the Presidency, and certainly the Vice Presidency. A man named Sam Palin, with Sarah Palin’s credentials, would never have gotten a moment’s interest from McCain.
The Republican’s are attempting to equate Palin’s lack of experience with Obama’s. But the difference is stark. He is Harvard Law School graduate, who spent years in Chicago organizing poor people, became an Illinois state legislator, and has been a US Senator for four years. He has just run a strategically brilliant 19 month political campaign and defeated the strongest political organization in the Democratic Party. He was nominated by the votes of over 18 million US Citizens across the country.
Palin was selected by McCain and four of his closest associates. They didn’t even bother to leak her name in advance to allow her to be vetted. This is one case where leaking has a public value as it provides some assurance that you have not made a serious mistake.
McCain has put a hoped for political advantage ahead of a concern for the well-being of the country. Along with his rejection of his previous positions that did not agree with George Bush and the right wing, to his now full throated adoption of their policy, in his first major decision after winning the Republican nomination he has chosen an unqualified person to be his replacement if he does not finish his term. It is a reckless act, and if he is elected, we can expect John McCain to repeat that behavior throughout his administration.
One of Palin’s supporters suggested that she promise not to become President if she has to succeed McCain, but instead name a Vice President who will take over the President’s duties, while she reverts back to the VP job. Sounds like a good idea.
According to Andrew Sullivan today:
I believe voters elect their leaders based on their experience and judgment — their ability to make hard calls, for instance, on matters of war and peace. It’s important to get them right.
By selecting Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential choice, he has obviously decided that experience is unnecessary and that his judgment is highly questionable.
The 72 year old McCain spent five and 1/2 excruciating years as a POW in Vietnam, has had melanoma and undergoes a skin examination every three months, followed by a biopsy. As 71 year old, I can attest that, no matter how healthy you are and act at that age, you just don’t feel the way you felt twenty or thirty years ago. If that does not lead to the conclusion that you must select someone capable of being President in the event of your own incapacity, you have seriously abdicated the position of being wise enough to be President.
His choice to be the next President of the US has been the Governor of Alaska for the past one and 1/2 years (hot on the heels of being the mayor of a 7,000 person town 45 minutes outside Anchorage, Alaska), who lacks familiarity with the issues of the other 49 states and at best is learning how to govern her own state.. Alaska’s major interest in Washington is to use it as a source of earmarked funds that equal the most per capita transfers from the Federal Treasury compared to any other state in the Union, obtained by two corrupt politicians currently under indictment. She is a fervent foe of abortion, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage. She believes in ‘intelligent design’ and thinks it (that is, creationism) should be taught as a theory equivalent to evolution.
She has not, by her own admission, had time to concentrate on foreign issues. Cindy McCain in an interview today argued that Alaska is the closest state to Russia and that should be considered when evaluating her national security expertise! Unfortunately for this national-affairs-by-proximity argument, Maine is closer to Iraq than is Alaska so the Republicans erred by not selecting Olympia Snowe.
The question is why and the answer is simple. This was a political decision meant to burnish McCain’s reputation as a risk taker and dice thrower. It is an attempt to garner the disaffected Clinton voters who have yet to embrace Obama. And it solidifies the conservative base, which has not been enthusiastic about McCain.
A man named Sam Clinton, with Hilary Clinton’s credentials, would have been a serious candidate for the Presidency, and certainly the Vice Presidency. A man named Sam Palin, with Sarah Palin’s credentials, would never have gotten a moment’s interest from McCain.
The Republican’s are attempting to equate Palin’s lack of experience with Obama’s. But the difference is stark. He is Harvard Law School graduate, who spent years in Chicago organizing poor people, became an Illinois state legislator, and has been a US Senator for four years. He has just run a strategically brilliant 19 month political campaign and defeated the strongest political organization in the Democratic Party. He was nominated by the votes of over 18 million US Citizens across the country.
Palin was selected by McCain and four of his closest associates. They didn’t even bother to leak her name in advance to allow her to be vetted. This is one case where leaking has a public value as it provides some assurance that you have not made a serious mistake.
McCain has put a hoped for political advantage ahead of a concern for the well-being of the country. Along with his rejection of his previous positions that did not agree with George Bush and the right wing, to his now full throated adoption of their policy, in his first major decision after winning the Republican nomination he has chosen an unqualified person to be his replacement if he does not finish his term. It is a reckless act, and if he is elected, we can expect John McCain to repeat that behavior throughout his administration.
One of Palin’s supporters suggested that she promise not to become President if she has to succeed McCain, but instead name a Vice President who will take over the President’s duties, while she reverts back to the VP job. Sounds like a good idea.
According to Andrew Sullivan today:
The latest Rasmussen Poll found that among the critical undecided voters, the Palin pick made only 6 percent more likely to vote for McCain; and it made 31 percent less likely to vote for him. 49 percent said it would have no impact, and 15 percent remained unsure. More to the point: among the undecided, 59 percent said Palin was unready to be president. Only 6 percent said she was. If the first criterion for any job is whether you're ready for it, this is a pretty major indictment of the first act of McCain's presidential leadership.
One other striking finding. If McCain thought he could present Palin as a moderate, he was wrong. A whopping 69 percent view her as conservative (37 percent as very conservative), and only 13 percent see her as moderate.
From this first snap-shot (and unsettled) impression, Palin has helped McCain among Republicans, left Democrats unfazed, but moved the undecideds against him quite sharply.
posted by John Weiss at 5:55 PM
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John Weiss for President!
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