Letters to the Editor
anonny
Published Letters: 124 Editor's Choice: 13
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@sonofloud
[Read the article: Obama's perfect pitch on Palin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you lie like that naturally, or did you have to practice?
Palin has a long history of run-ins with the Alaska GOP hierarchy, giving her genuine maverick status and reformer credentials that could complement McCain's image.
Yep, she hated Sen. Stevens so much that she ran his 527 organization for him. She also has a long track record of sending requests for Congressionsal earmarks to him and to Rep. Young.
Two years ago, she ousted the state's Republican incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski in the primary, despite having little money and little establishment backing. (Unlike Obama)
She had extensive backing from state Republicans, who were afraid that a Murkowski victory in the primaries would give the governorship to a Democrat. Steven's ad endorsing her was on her website until last Friday.
The big difference is that Palin would be #2 and follows Mccain, Obama would be #1 and has the final decision.
Okay, this is where your logic falls flat on its back.
In American history, 9 Vice Presidents have succeeded their President -- a ratio of 9/43. The VP succession is not like the President's succession. The President takes over in an orderly transition usually during a time without an a major crisis. The President picks his/her own staff who implement his/her vision and agenda, and has some time to grow into the office.
The VP, on the other hand, has to be ready to step in with no notice and run the state. Typically it will be at a time of crisis. The VP will inherit his/her predecessor's staff, with their own agenda, and will have to immediately address the critical issues of that moment.
The VP should therefore be someone with a deep knowledge of the ways of Washington and of current international relations. A strong network of connections in both areas is extremely helpful, and may be a necessity.
In this way, although many of us may disagree with Joe Biden's politics on various issues, he is ideally suited for a VP should he have to succeed Obama. There are many Republicans (Colin Powell comes immediately to mind as an example) who would be similarly qualified. NOTE: This isn't about politics -- were talking about the ability to take over leadership in a moment of crisis without warning or preparation.
Sarah Palin is basically the opposite of what you need in a VP. She has zero knowledge of Washington, except what she may have gleaned being the recipient of all those earmarks. She frankly has little knowledge of the US outside Alaska, having made very few trips outside Alaska-Washington-Idaho in her life. She got her first passport in 2007 to visit the Alaskan National Guard in Iraq -- and has a history of having ZERO interest in foreign affairs. Having lived in a small, isolated, homogenous town for all her live except for her time in a small, isolated, homogenous city while at college in Idaho (and a brief stint as an Anchorage sports news reader) she has phenomenally little world experience.
In fact, her experience as Governor is exactly what you would expect with someone with small-town-only experience. As a fresh face she initially had a big honeymoon period, especially as she made news standing up to unpopular entities. However, two problems have come up. Frst, her lack of experience with running large organizations has meant that the Alaska state government machinery is starting to rust under her watch. Things that used to run well have started to fall apart. There are bipartisan complaints about her in the legislature regarding her failure to address budget and schedule issues, not even assigning staff to address these things. Second, there is a bit of rule breaking that you can get away with in a small down -- little "cheats" or "favors" -- that are more likely to get scrutinized at the state level. She's been caught many times overstepping her authority, and the troopergate thing is only the most visible of them.
Her current trend is such that if she'd not been picked as VP she'd like be unseated in the next primary election. Her own party in Juneau is livid with her -- and not because of the anti-corruption grandstanding, but because she acts like a monarch rather than the head of a consensus-based government.
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Consider the source
[Read the article: The stable map]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Real Clear Politics should be named Real Conservative Politics. Check their track record.
Soemthing that is a real worry, given that Lieberman may well vote for his old buddy McCain which gives the tie breaker to Big Dick Cheney.
Nope -- electoral votes are officially counted after the new Congress is sworn in. Barring major electoral cheating the Democrats will have enough of a majority at that point to safely eject Benedict Lieberman from the caucus.
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1964
[Read the article: McCain camp now refusing to discuss Palin vetting]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This behavior is extremely similar to the behavior the Republicans exhibited at their convention in 1964. Literally kicking reporters off the floor and blaming the press for their frequent faux pas.
In all the modern history telling Goldwater's image has improved tremendously. He is now both credited with starting the conservative revolution and credited with resisting the worst parts of the conservative movement. His problems with racism are understated or hidden altogether.
But there is a reason he was trounced in 1964 by the conservative Democrat, Johnson, despite Johnson losing a large part of the then-Democratic based due to the racist reaction to treating blacks equally. Goldwater, like Nixon and now McCain, hated the free press. They hated undergoing scrutiny and having the contradictory and/or unpopular aspects of their policies exposed for all to see. They much prefer hiding their dirty secrets behind double talk (like calling unrestrained resource exploitation "wise use").
After Goldwater and Nixon the Republicans took a different approach with the media, and until now it has paid off. But the Palin pick has apparently resurrected the investigative journalistic instincts of the press, and McCain can't handle it.