posted on September 27, 2008 08:45:16 PM new
Very pointed!
Newsweek
Palin Is Ready? Please.
McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, that is simply not true.
Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Oct 6, 2008
Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:
"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state."
There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. "It is from Alaska that we send out those …" What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. ("We mustn't blink." But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.
Couric asked her a smart question about the proposed $700 billion bailout of the American financial sector. It was designed to see if Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and liquidity in the financial system has dried up, and that that's why, in the estimation of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the government needs to step in to buy up Wall Street's most toxic liabilities. Here's the entire exchange:
COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?
PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.
This is nonsense—a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head. Some commentators, like CNN's Campbell Brown, have argued that it's sexist to keep Sarah Palin under wraps, as if she were a delicate flower who might wilt under the bright lights of the modern media. But the more Palin talks, the more we see that it may not be sexism but common sense that's causing the McCain campaign to treat her like a time bomb.
Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.
Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless curtailed, will bankrupt the federal government. Social Security, immigration, collapsing infrastructure and education are all going to get much worse if they are not handled soon.
And the American government is stretched to the limit. Between the Bush tax cuts, homeland-security needs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the bailout, the budget is looking bleak. Plus, within a few years, the retirement of the baby boomers begins with its massive and rising costs (in the trillions).
Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.
posted on September 27, 2008 08:51:52 PM new
I suspect they're wishing they'd picked somebody else about now. Maybe McCain's next subject change will be to announce she's stepping down.
posted on September 27, 2008 09:59:32 PM new
If she IS encouraged to step out of the race, you can bet it'll be because "my family needs me more." (That could well be true, too!)
_____________________
Pixiamom, you write, "Palin is an idiot but McCain is the guy to beat".
It's significant to note that McCain chose this individual that you call an idiot with the knowledge that she is clearly unqualified to serve this country as vice president. McCain also chose her without regard for the welfare of this country, knowing that she might become our president if he should die in office.
posted on September 28, 2008 06:49:16 AM new
I agree Helen, Palin is his choice and is on his ticket. There is also a chance that he may die in office and she would be president...a horrible scenario.
Here is a more cynical estimation of Sarah Palin's candidacy and what it says about America written by Matt Taibbi, a Rolling Stone reporter sometimes critized for his frequently offensive style. He is also a contributor to the HBO series "Real Time with Bill Maher".
Two weeks ago, People magazine was granted an exclusive interview with Senator John McCain’s new running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who spoke about motherhood and career, life in Alaska and the historic nature of her candidacy.
She has not given an interview since, eschewing the traditional television news circuit traveled by a vice-presidential nominee.
Ms. Palin will break that news media blackout on Thursday, when she will begin two days of interviews by the ABC News anchor Charles Gibson.
The sessions could be the first test of Ms. Palin’s ability to parry substantive questions on foreign and domestic policy, and as she flew back to Alaska on Wednesday, she brought with her a squad of Mr. McCain’s top policy advisers to help her prepare. In a broader sense, the interviews will also provide fresh material for what is now an intense war between the campaigns to define Ms. Palin in the public mind, a battle that both campaigns consider potentially critical to the election outcome.
“The fight is over how she is going to be defined in the eyes of the American public,” said Terry Nelson, Mr. McCain’s former campaign manager. “She’s been introduced, but all the information about her has not been introduced, and once that information comes to light people are going to draw conclusions about her, and the campaigns are fighting to shape the conclusions.”
With new reports coming out daily about Ms. Palin’s record in Alaska, and a more aggressive offensive from Senator Barack Obama’s campaign, Mr. McCain’s team has issued a partywide, all-hands-on-deck.
It has hired several veterans from President Bush’s campaigns, making them part of a team dedicated to defending Ms. Palin from unsubstantiated Internet rumors, Democratic attacks and potentially damaging news reports about her record produced by the investigative journalists now in Alaska.
“She’s a dynamic agent for change, the Democrats recognize this, and there is this race now to paint a picture of her which is not true,” said Brian Jones, who resigned as Mr. McCain’s communications director in 2007 but returned this week to help in the effort to bolster Ms. Palin.
Mr. McCain’s campaign released an advertisement on Wednesday accusing Mr. Obama of trying “to destroy” Ms. Palin, and featuring images of scavenging wolves and an assertion that Democratic operatives are researching Ms. Palin in Alaska. (The advertisement cited a report by FactCheck.org that was critical of “completely false” attacks on Ms. Palin, but failed to note that the report was referring to Internet rumors not linked to Mr. Obama’s campaign.)
The McCain campaign is regularly battling reports from news organizations that have the potential to undermine the image that it has presented of Ms. Palin as a reformer.
On Wednesday, a new report on Politico.com detailed Ms. Palin’s requests for federal appropriations as governor, including money for studies on the mating habits of crabs and the DNA of harbor seals, the very sorts of pet spending projects Mr. McCain has lampooned.
Mr. McCain’s campaign has dispatched another team to Alaska to respond more rapidly to such reports. It is headed by Taylor Griffin, who had worked for President Bush’s 2004 campaign. Another former Bush campaign aide, Tracey Schmitt, is now Ms. Palin’s traveling press secretary.
Tucker Eskew, a veteran of Mr. Bush’s primary season campaign against Mr. McCain, has been advising Ms. Palin this week, as she has hopped between S.U.V.s and planes, all the while reading briefing materials or receiving tutorials from policy advisers who have dipped on and off the campaign trail to visit with her.
On Wednesday night, three of them were on the plane to Alaska with Ms. Palin: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain’s economic adviser; Steve Biegun, a former staff member of Mr. Bush’s National Security Council who has taken leave from his Ford Motors job to advise Ms. Palin; and Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser.
Also accompanying Ms. Palin to Alaska as she prepared for her interview was Nicolle Wallace, a communications director for Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign and, later, his White House. Ms. Wallace’s husband, Mark Wallace, Mr. Bush’s deputy campaign manager in 2004, is helping prepare Ms. Palin for the debates.
For now, the preparation for the debate and the sessions with Mr. Gibson are one and the same. Aides have developed a set of presumed questions and answers that they are walking Ms. Palin through.
Aides traveling with Ms. Palin have reported back to associates that she is a fast study — asking few questions of her policy briefers but quickly repeating back their main points — who already has considerable ease and experience before cameras.
A former aide in Alaska who had helped prepare Ms. Palin for her campaign debates there said she had a talent for distilling information into digestible sound bites. The aide said she generally prefers light preparatory materials to heavy briefing books, and prefers walking through potential questions and answers with aides to holding mock sessions.
With all that help will she exceed our lower than low expectations? I doubt it.
posted on September 28, 2008 09:58:00 AM new
Democrats like to point out that like JFK,Obama will grow into his job.
Same can be said of Palin.
PS.
Time not screwing MM or any Hollywood starlets is time learning to serve the country better!
Besides,there is no cure for AIDS,IS THERE?
*
Gulag-a Soviet era concentration camp is now reincarnated as EBAY with 13,000 rules.
[ edited by hwahwa on Sep 28, 2008 09:58 AM ]
posted on September 28, 2008 12:22:35 PM new
Well,there you go,McCain would not need any on the job training!
*
Gulag-a Soviet era concentration camp is now reincarnated as EBAY with 13,000 rules.
posted on September 28, 2008 02:40:49 PM new
hwahwa says Besides,there is no cure for AIDS,IS THERE?
That's an incredibly insensitive comment especially for those, like me, who have lost people they love to a disease that is NEVER to be taken lightly or to be made a joke of.
Cheryl
Whitman said she and McCain share a philosophy of scaling back the role of government. a point of view partly shaped by her EBay experience. "The EBay model is very Republican in its essence -- it's about making a small number of rules and getting out of the way while not overtaxing the community," she said.
But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.
