I think these two videos really drive home where McCain is today in terms of his fitness for office.
hardcore trancer
quote:
Originally posted by LazFX
let all the Yippy a woman calm down...
this woman will get owned in the debates with Biden.
I CANT IN WAIT to see this seriously!!he will make her cry during the debates!!!!!seriously this is a joke,Americans really want to have someone with no experience to be VP?but then again they did vote for Bush twice so it is no surprise.:o
mndeg
quote:
Originally posted by Capitalizt
I think these two videos really drive home where McCain is today in terms of his fitness for office.
wow, ron paul asks mccain about the plunge protection team
mndeg
quote:
Originally posted by Capitalizt
Guys...It doesn't matter how she does in the debates. It doesnt even matter how Mccain does. She is a WOMAN and she will be one heartbeat away from the Presidency. This is a very powerful idea, and like it or not..MILLIONS of uninformed ladies out there are going to get out in droves just to vote for her. Even if they loathe Mccain, they will still vote for him..hoping to see him win because of the symbolism of having a woman in such a high office for the first time ever..
This was a brilliant political move by Mccain. I wouldn't be surprised if he picks up 40%+ of former Hillary supporters along with 90% of the "undecided" women voters out there. He's going to take this election in a landslide because of Palin.
popular vote doesn't matter
and I think you're over estimating the stupidity of women
LazFX
This pretty much sums it up for me:
quote:
John McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls "a checkup from the neck up."
In choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he is not thinking "outside the box," as some have said. More like out of his mind.
Palin a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.
In choosing this featherweight, McCain passed over Tom Ridge, a decorated combat hero, a Cabinet secretary and the former two-term governor of the large, complex state of Pennsylvania. iReport.com: 'McCain pick might be a gimmick'
He passed over Mitt Romney, who ran a big state, Massachusetts; a big company, Bain Capital; and a big event, the Olympics.
He passed over Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator who is knowledgeable about the military, good on television and -- obviously -- a woman.
He passed over Joe Lieberman, his best friend in the Senate and fellow Iraq Kool-Aid drinker.
He passed over former congressman, trade negotiator and budget director Rob Portman.
And he also passed over Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas.
For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown that he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.
jerZ07002
quote:
Originally posted by mndeg
popular vote doesn't matter
and I think you're over estimating the stupidity of women
i think you read his comments incorrectly. he didn't suggest woman are stupid, rather, his suggestion was that woman who are uniformed about John McCain's policies may vote for McCain simply because a woman could be the VP.
I disagree with that statement, but it's a valid point.
Lebezniatnikov
After seeing Kay Bailey Hutchison on tv again today, I'm still perplexed as to how he passed her over (based on the criteria that he seemingly used to select Palin). And to be honest, she seemed even more confused than me.
At least Kay Bailey isn't embroiled in two scandals back home in Texas. And at least she's like, you know, knowledgeable on more than one issue important in this election.
Lebezniatnikov
hahahahaha john mccain is going nuts.
quote:
Yes, we knew McCain had an ego. We never quite appreciated how vast it was. Yes, Obama is inexperienced in foreign policy. But at least he has thought seriously about it. Do you really believe that Sarah Palin understands the distinctions between Shia and Sunni, has an opinion about the future of Pakistan, has a view of how to exploit rifts within Tehran's leadership, knows about the tricky task of securing loose nuclear weapons? Does anyone even know if she has ever expressed a view on these matters? Here's a bleg: can anyone direct me to any statement she has ever made about foreign policy?
The biggest secret of the Bush administration is that they were never serious about national security. Serious leaders do not fabricate intelligence through torture methods borrowed from the Communist Chinese. Serious leaders do not invade foreign countries on dubious intelligence with no plan for an occupation. Serious leaders do not try to manipulate detainee policy for electroal purposes. Serious leaders do not engage in moronic talk of victory or surrender five years after removing a regime.
And now we know something about McCain's promise: he takes all this even less seriously than Bush.
Could Sarah Palin conceivably manage this task? Her tenure as a small-town mayor and Alaska governor has given her no foreign policy experience whatsoever. True, Obama has little foreign policy experience either, as McCain and others have pointed out again and again. But during his time in national office he has demonstrated a clear commitment to the most pressing issues in American foreign policy. Take nuclear proliferation. Early in his tenure on the Foreign Relations Committee, Obama joined Richard Lugar's efforts to secure weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. Obama's first trip abroad as senator was to Russia and Ukraine to learn more about those efforts firsthand. In 2007, he cosponsored legislation with Senator Chuck Hagel calling for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and negotiation of a fissile material cut-off treaty. And he was the first major presidential candidate to embrace the steps laid out in 2007 by Sam Nunn, Bill Perry, George Shultz, and Henry Kissinger through which the United States would fight nuclear terrorism, reinvigorate the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons.
Perhaps more important than the experience they embodied, these efforts demonstrate that Obama has a worldview. Obama recognizes the greatness and uniqueness of the United States, but he does not translate that exceptionalism into dominance or isolationism as conservatives often have. Instead, he sees it as the basis for U.S. leadership. He has laid out that worldview in myriad speeches and articles, and he has surrounded himself with pragmatists who have a record of translating that understanding of America's role into concrete gains for our national security. By contrast, there is no indication that Palin has even shades of a foreign policy worldview; a Nexis search doesn't turn up a single article that she has written on international affairs.
McCain undoubtedly thinks he has his national security bases covered; picking Palin shows that, unlike Obama, he doesn't need an eminence grise like Biden to add heft to his ticket. But surely McCain recognizes that Palin may have to fill his shoes someday. By choosing her anyway, he has demonstrated hubris well beyond anything Obama has displayed on his most arrogant day: a belief that he can master unforeseen circumstances, physical and otherwise, that are well beyond his control. This is insulting and dangerous and suggests that McCain may want to think twice before accusing Obama of putting his personal ambition ahead of the national interest.
Alaska Business Monthly: We've lost a lot of Alaska's military members to the war in Iraq. How do you feel about sending more troops into battle, as President Bush is suggesting?
Palin: I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.
lol
quote:
Think about what the Palin pick really says about how McCain views this campaign and how he views his potential responsibilities in national security.
Think about what it says about the sincerity of McCain's own central criticism of Obama these past two months in foreign affairs.
Think about how he picked a woman to be a heartbeat away from a war presidency who hadn't even thought much, by her own admission, about the Iraq war as late as 2007.
Think about how he made this decision barely knowing the woman.
Think about the fact that the most McCain could say about his potential war-time vice-president in foreign affairs and national security when selecting her is that she commanded Alaska's National Guard as governor and has a son in the military.
Think about the men and women serving this country who have every right to trust that their potential commander-in-chief, whatever their party, would have some record of even interest in foreign policy before assuming office.
Think about how the key factor in this decision was not who could defend this country were something dreadful happen to McCain in office but how to tread as much on Obama's convention bounce and use women's equality as a wedge issue among Democrats because it might secure a few points here or there. Oh, and everyone would be surprised. And even Rove would be annoyed.
This is his sense of honor and judgment. This is his sense of responsibility and service.
Here's the real slogan the McCain campaign should now adopt:
The Post's James Grimaldi got an exclusive interview with Walter Monegan, the canned Alaska Public Safety Commissioner at the center of Palin trooper-gate scandal. And he basically says Palin is lying in her assertion that while some of her aides contacting Monegan about firing her brother-in-law, that she herself did not.
The key passage ...
Monegan, 57, a respected former chief of the Anchorage Police Department, said in an interview with The Washington Post's James V. Grimaldi on Friday that the governor repeatedly brought up the topic of her ex-brother-in-law, Michael Wooten, after Monegan became the state's commissioner of public safety in December 2006. Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan and presented a dossier of information about Wooten, who was going through a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly. Monegan also said Sarah Palin sent him e-mails on the subject, but Monegan declined to disclose them, saying he planned to give them to a legislative investigator looking into the matter.
Palin initially denied that she or anyone in her administration had ever pressured Monegan to fire the trooper, but this summer acknowledged more than a half a dozen contacts over the matter, including one phone call from a Palin administration official to a state police lieutenant. The call was recorded and was released by Palin's office this month. Todd Palin told a television reporter in Alaska that he did meet with Monegan, but said he was just "informing" Monegan about the issue, not exerting pressure.
"She never directly asked me to fire him," Monegan said.
The wiggle-room here, as you can see, is what it means to 'pressure' as opposed to 'inform'. But look at how Palin described what happened (from an August 14th article in the ADN) ...
Palin, who has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.
"I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said.
...
The majority of the calls came from Palin's chief of staff at the time, Mike Tibbles, according to information gathered by the state attorney general's office. Attorney General Talis Colberg and Palin's husband, Todd, also contacted Monegan about the trooper.
Palin said she'd only known about some of the contacts and never asked anyone on her staff to get in touch with state public safety officials about Wooten.
"Many of these inquiries were completely appropriate. However, the serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction," she said.
Okay, so first Palin claims there was no pressure. Then she learns of these calls. And while many of them are entirely appropriate, some are not. And she can see that the "serial nature of the contacts could be perceived as some kind of pressure, presumably at my direction."
And yet, according to Monegan, she herself was doing exactly the same thing she later professed to be so shocked that others were doing. So how credible is it that she wasn't directing her staff to pressure Monegan when she was doing the same thing herself? And what difference does it even make? It seems quite clear that all of this emanated from Pallin and that she was actively in it. So she abused her power as governor and then almost certainly lied about her involvement. Why did McCain pick her?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/211524.php
This is one day that the blogs are a lot of fun to peruse.
This is one day that the blogs are a lot of fun to peruse.
To add to all that, this is the one thing that does have me a bit worried:
quote:
Let's traffic in some gender/political stereotypes for a moment: Obviously, Palin is a risky pick for McCain because she is approximately as qualified to serve as commander-in-chief as my Great Aunt Ruby (who has, full disclosure, been dead for several years now.) Indeed, I just finished listening to Linda Wertheimer on NPR grouchily voicing complete befuddlement over how McCain could pick someone so clearly unprepared in light of the senator's advanced age and questionable health. The contrast with Joe Biden is particularly stark. In a debate with Biden over--well, just about anything that doesn't directly involve the state of Alaska--Palin is almost certain to get her clock cleaned.
But! Biden nonetheless needs to tread carefully and show more self-control and finesse than he is normally known for. Palin may be a varmint-hunting, moose-stew-guzzling NRA lifer, but she is still a woman--and an exceedingly delicate, feminine looking one at that. (A former Miss Wasilla no less!) And as irrational as they may be, the laws of politics forbid any man from behaving in a condescending, bullying, dismissive, mocking, or otherwise disrespectful fashion toward candidates of the fairer sex. Just ask poor Rick Lazio.
The fact that Palin looks to be a far more fragile flower than Lazio's former opponent makes Biden's job all the tougher. In head-to-head match ups, he will need to dismantle Palin completely, yet avoid triggering all those stupid, gut-level, subconscious, knee-jerk instincts that would lead voters to feel protective of her. This is particularly important in light of the remaining Hillary Issue. God forbid a meaningful chunk of Hillary dead-enders got it into their heads that, not only had Obama disrepected their gal, but now his number-two was dissing another sister.
Whine all you want about how all candidates should be viewed and treated the same regardless of gender. The research and history of our politics show they aren't. Just something for Biden to think about when he's strapping on the gloves.
Originally posted by Capitalizt
I think these two videos really drive home where McCain is today in terms of his fitness for office.
My statement to Americans: Please watch the video of McCain outright LYING and CONTRADICTING himself on several occasions. Barack might sound "professorial" (tell me again why a highly educated middle aged man as President is a bad thing? oh wait...most people who vote Republican are really uneducated from religious and rural states? Yes that's right), but show me a video where he has ed up royally like McCain has been doing since his campaign began.
The guy is ing past it. Political parties do NOT change their direction under a new leader that dramatically. George Bush senior was basically another four years of Reagan. What else makes approximately half of the electorate in the US believe that McCain is so different from Bush?
If you're fed up with one party which has weakened the United States and ruined the American economy and reputation around the world, usually you VOTE out that party even if it has a new face.
Last 8 years = bad. Solution? Elect the other party, which will do things much differently.
Lebezniatnikov
quote:
Originally posted by Dj Smitty20
Political parties do NOT change their direction under a new leader that dramatically. George Bush senior was basically another four years of Reagan.
Not that I disagree with your conclusion, but I do take issue with this premise - Reagan was a horrible President, and George Bush Sr. wasn't half bad. In fact, he was probably the best Republican president since Eisenhower.
