VP Debate
After having written four books on the Bush presidency, Bob Woodward summarizes his opinion of George Bush in the latest “The War Within”.
Reading this quotation and agreeing with it wholeheartedly, I found myself thinking not only of Bush, but immediately saw that the conclusion fits both John McCain and Sarah Palin as well.
The split in the country and the campaign seems to be between those people who think a President should be like them (folksy, someone to have a beer with, a Mom – just a regular person) vs. those people who think the President should be smarter, more accomplished, better educated, and much better at applying the judgment needed to govern the country.
In the Vice Presidential debate, Sarah Palin exceeded the extremely low standard that had been set during the Katie Couric interview, but hardly made the case that she has the qualifications to become the President of the United States. She delivered the briefing notes she had learned over the past week in Sedona, rather than answering the questions posed. Most revealing was her statement early in the debate:
She was able therefore to fill up the short time allotted for each of her responses, almost like delivering a speech, and if the response did not always relate to the question, she just continued blithely onward without a second thought. It was a good performance for someone applying for a local news anchor or public relations position, but not one for a potential leader who would be facing new crises, dare I say at three in the morning, without a bevy of briefers available and a week to memorize her lines.
She did demonstrate one of the major attributes that makes her so popular with Republican supporters: the willingness to make assertions that were either outright lies or gross distortions of the truth. Joe Biden got a few of these in as well, but the difference in the degree of distortion was distinctive. Biden’s were based on truth, which at times he somewhat exaggerated. Hers were straight out of the McCain playbook. They were excessively exaggerated, distorted, or just plain wrong.
Palin charged that [the Obama/Biden] “plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that's for sure”. Bush/Cheney couldn’t have said it better. If you don’t agree with me, you are not patriotic and you don’t support the troops. Supporting the troops means keeping them in Iraq, whether it makes sense or not. If you really support the troops, you should want to get them out of harm’s way, unless there is a clear indication that our strategic interests are at stake.
Palin said McCain's proposed health care tax credit is budget neutral. The Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center, however, says the McCain plan could cost $1.3 trillion from 2009 to 2018. The Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimates the McCain plan would cost $141 billion in 2013.
Palin said Obama's tax plan would raise taxes on millions of small business owners. (McCain has actually put the figure at 23 million). This is false, according to factcheck.org. 23 million is an old census number for all businesses -- most of which employ at least hundreds of people. In addition, most people who run small businesses do not file as individuals but as companies. In fact, Obama's plan would only raise taxes on couples making more than $250,000.
Palin tried to burnish her credentials with her executive experience as governor of a huge state, although Alaska’s population is actually smaller than Delaware’s, and presented herself as a struggling middle class Mom. According to the Anchorage Daily News:
Palin’s description of the cause of the current financial crisis:
It is not corruption when for the most part the activities that Wall Street engaged in were permissible in a Republican era that either deregulated or ignored regulations that were in effect. It is the market acting as markets do when they are free to do anything they want.
Palin tried to escape her claim that climate changes are not caused by man.
Biden’s response demonstrated the paucity of her intellectual reasoning:
Palin, trying to distance herself from the Bush albatross stated:
Thankfully, there is something I can agree with her on. Biden responded by referencing McCain’s support of Bush:
Palin sounding like the spawn of Dick Cheney came up with a new interpretation of The Constitution, which describes only two functions for the Vice President – breaking tie votes in the Senate and replacing an incapacitated President:
Palin claimed that Alaska under her guidance is “building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets."
Palin has often touted the pipeline deal as a singular achievement of her administration as Alaska governor. But, as reported by NPR, she talks about it as if it is under construction, when it is still more glimmer than reality. The pipeline project, which dates from the 1970s, is still at least a decade from being built -- if it is built at all.
Not a single section of the pipeline has been laid. And some Alaskan lawmakers have begun to have second thoughts about Palin's approach to the project. When she became governor, she walked away from a deal negotiated by her predecessor with major oil companies, instead opening up the bidding in a way that would commit the state to pay a subsidy to offset costs and expenses. TransCanada Alaska Co. won the bid. Some estimates indicate the state could lose as much as $500 million on the deal pushed by Palin.
For years, time and again, President Bush has displayed impatience, bravado and unsettling personal certainty about his decisions. The result has too often been impulsiveness and carelessness and, perhaps most troubling, a delayed reaction to realities and advice that run counter to his gut.
Reading this quotation and agreeing with it wholeheartedly, I found myself thinking not only of Bush, but immediately saw that the conclusion fits both John McCain and Sarah Palin as well.
The split in the country and the campaign seems to be between those people who think a President should be like them (folksy, someone to have a beer with, a Mom – just a regular person) vs. those people who think the President should be smarter, more accomplished, better educated, and much better at applying the judgment needed to govern the country.
In the Vice Presidential debate, Sarah Palin exceeded the extremely low standard that had been set during the Katie Couric interview, but hardly made the case that she has the qualifications to become the President of the United States. She delivered the briefing notes she had learned over the past week in Sedona, rather than answering the questions posed. Most revealing was her statement early in the debate:
And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.
She was able therefore to fill up the short time allotted for each of her responses, almost like delivering a speech, and if the response did not always relate to the question, she just continued blithely onward without a second thought. It was a good performance for someone applying for a local news anchor or public relations position, but not one for a potential leader who would be facing new crises, dare I say at three in the morning, without a bevy of briefers available and a week to memorize her lines.
She did demonstrate one of the major attributes that makes her so popular with Republican supporters: the willingness to make assertions that were either outright lies or gross distortions of the truth. Joe Biden got a few of these in as well, but the difference in the degree of distortion was distinctive. Biden’s were based on truth, which at times he somewhat exaggerated. Hers were straight out of the McCain playbook. They were excessively exaggerated, distorted, or just plain wrong.
Palin charged that [the Obama/Biden] “plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that's for sure”. Bush/Cheney couldn’t have said it better. If you don’t agree with me, you are not patriotic and you don’t support the troops. Supporting the troops means keeping them in Iraq, whether it makes sense or not. If you really support the troops, you should want to get them out of harm’s way, unless there is a clear indication that our strategic interests are at stake.
Palin said McCain's proposed health care tax credit is budget neutral. The Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center, however, says the McCain plan could cost $1.3 trillion from 2009 to 2018. The Urban Institute-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimates the McCain plan would cost $141 billion in 2013.
Palin said Obama's tax plan would raise taxes on millions of small business owners. (McCain has actually put the figure at 23 million). This is false, according to factcheck.org. 23 million is an old census number for all businesses -- most of which employ at least hundreds of people. In addition, most people who run small businesses do not file as individuals but as companies. In fact, Obama's plan would only raise taxes on couples making more than $250,000.
Palin tried to burnish her credentials with her executive experience as governor of a huge state, although Alaska’s population is actually smaller than Delaware’s, and presented herself as a struggling middle class Mom. According to the Anchorage Daily News:
Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaskan income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle.
Add up the couple's 2007 income and the estimated value of their property and investments and they appear to be worth at least $1.2 million. That would make the Palin’s, like Democratic vice presidential rival Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, well-off but not nearly as wealthy as multimillionaire couples John and Cindy McCain and, to a lesser extent, Barack and Michelle Obama.
Palin’s description of the cause of the current financial crisis:
Darn right it was the predator lenders, who tried to talk Americans into thinking that it was smart to buy a $300,000 house if we could only afford a $100,000 house. There was deception there, and there was greed and there is corruption on Wall Street. And we need to stop that.
It is not corruption when for the most part the activities that Wall Street engaged in were permissible in a Republican era that either deregulated or ignored regulations that were in effect. It is the market acting as markets do when they are free to do anything they want.
Palin tried to escape her claim that climate changes are not caused by man.
I'm not one to attribute every man -- activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.
Biden’s response demonstrated the paucity of her intellectual reasoning:
If you don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what the cause is. The cause is man made. That's the cause. That's why the polar icecap is melting.
Palin, trying to distance herself from the Bush albatross stated:
There have been huge blunders in the war. There have been huge blunders throughout this administration, as there are with every administration.
Thankfully, there is something I can agree with her on. Biden responded by referencing McCain’s support of Bush:
I haven't heard how his policy is going to be different on Iran than George Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy is going to be different with Israel than George Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy in Afghanistan is going to be different than George Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy in Pakistan is going to be different than George Bush's.
Palin sounding like the spawn of Dick Cheney came up with a new interpretation of The Constitution, which describes only two functions for the Vice President – breaking tie votes in the Senate and replacing an incapacitated President:
Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.
Palin claimed that Alaska under her guidance is “building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets."
Palin has often touted the pipeline deal as a singular achievement of her administration as Alaska governor. But, as reported by NPR, she talks about it as if it is under construction, when it is still more glimmer than reality. The pipeline project, which dates from the 1970s, is still at least a decade from being built -- if it is built at all.
Not a single section of the pipeline has been laid. And some Alaskan lawmakers have begun to have second thoughts about Palin's approach to the project. When she became governor, she walked away from a deal negotiated by her predecessor with major oil companies, instead opening up the bidding in a way that would commit the state to pay a subsidy to offset costs and expenses. TransCanada Alaska Co. won the bid. Some estimates indicate the state could lose as much as $500 million on the deal pushed by Palin.
posted by John Weiss at 4:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home