In Defense of Sarah Palin
This will probably be the one and only post where I actually side with Sarah Palin. With the $150,000 wardrobe issue, I actually believe that is a non-factor but one that the GOP should stop trying to defend. Elizabeth Hasselback calling the controversy sexist is stupid and the campaign should not have put her on the stump. Not only does she is an idiot, but the sound of her voice make me cringe. How her husband tolerates her I’ll never know.
But the story behind the story is that Sarah Palin is going rogue. She is not happy with the way McCain handlers have presented her and McCain’s camp is placing the blame for their upcoming defeat on Sarah Palin’s dismal performance. I never believe Gov. Palin was ready for prime-time but come November 5, McCain will have to own the defeat. Sarah Palin has nothing to do with it.
Many on the Right have yet to acknowledge that McCain has run a horrible campaign. After locking up the nomination, he went into hibernation. His “green screen” speech was a hot mess. His campaign had no strategy outside of tarnishing Obama. His now infamous, “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” marked his downfall. Certainly Sarah Palin didn’t help and she has yet to recover from the Katie Couric interview. But that too was McCain’s fault. Rather than allow her the opportunity to get her feet wet with reporters, they tossed her into the deep end.
I don’t blame Palin for going rogue. This is John McCain’s last run at the Oval Office and Palin’s first. She has a future and McCain is the past. It will be interesting to see just how far under the bus the McCain camp toss Palin.
The Future of the GOP
Sarah Palin will be a popular figure in the GOP but I doubt she is a lock for the nomination in 2012. First, she may have money but at some point she will have to up some substance on issues. Her biggest problem is that she will have to learn how to attract independents because right now she is a “base” candidate in the vein of Pat Buchanan and that is too narrow of a window to win a national election. She will also have to compete with other up-and-coming GOP candidates. That is not an easy feat especially with Mitt Romney and John Thune waiting in the wings.
But her major hurdle will be that she must navigate the political scene with very little room for error. Any gaffe that reinforces her intellectual lightweight status will be the nail in the coffin for her political career. Another obstacle is staying on the national scene while residing in Alaska. Out of sight, out of mind and no state is further out of site than Alaska. Being governor will not afford her the opportunity to stay on the circuit.
Despite it all, I believe Sarah Palin will attempt to make a run in 2012 but I believe the Republican Party is in for a major overhaul and Palin’s style of politics may not be in favor by the next election cycle.
2:32 PM Wow. I can't really find anything substantive to disagree with you on. In fact, I'll just add.
The choice of Sarah Palin was to win over a base who (especially in my case) loathe the idea of John McCain as the party's standard bearer. In a large degree she did so because she seems to have the conservative cred we had been seeking.
I was impressed by her initial speech here in the great state of Ohio where she became McCain's running mate, and even more impressed by her convention speech. But then she disappeared, supposedly to get up to speed on everything. Then came the stilted interview with Katie Couric. And while she's getting op to speed fast, between the McCain handlers, the necessity of supporting McCain's global (as in all over the map) policy, and a news media out to feed her to wolves, we haven't really had much of a chance to see what she can do.
And being out of sight didn't hurt Bill Clinton After all, wasn't his time on the national stage before running for President a speech at the previous convention. Oh crap, that sounds too much like Obama. :)
Anyway, on to the rebuilding of the GOP. A part of me hopes the Republicans go down in defeat (not the voting part, though) because they deserve it. Instead of standing firm on principles and trying to lead people to the right, they have tried to get people on the left to follow them by being more like them. Agree or disagree with the party, it saw its greatest victories under Reagan in 1984 ('80 doesn't count as much as a toaster oven could have beat Carter) and Newt Gingrich in Congress in 1994. These two times, the candidates came with a firm conservative message and a promise to lead with it. The results were big victories both of those years. Since 94, the GOP has steadily become the Democrat party with the words 'free market' thrown in to try to be different. That's how we got to where Barack Obama has a very good chance to win.
For the GOP to come back, they need to stop being the party of the middle and become a party of principles again.
6:09 PM James, go back to Dee's blog and read the comment after yours
6:46 AM Then came the stilted interview with Katie Couric.--Patrick
This statement reflects why the conservatives will be out of power and why independents are breaking for the Democrats.
Katie Couric did not do a poor job in that interview--she actually was gentle and deferential to Palin. Palin did poorly because she hasn't got the intellect to get her through a non-scripted interview.
Giving speeches someone else wrote does not mean a person has a grasp of national and international policies.
Palin has neither, and conservatives continue to pretend she does. We've seen the wreckage of electing a shallow thinker who can do nothing but fire up the basest feelings of their base. (q.v. George W. Bush)
and a news media out to feed her to wolves, we haven't really had much of a chance to see what she can do.
Why hasn't she been on the Sunday morning talk shows where she actually has to think for herself and answer questions as every single candidate for vice president has had to do?
You and your right-leaning friends are thoroughly dishonest when you blame everyone else except Palin for her inability to get any other segment of the voting population except the radical right to believe she has nothing but bells and whistles to recommend her.
A closer look at her record as mayor and governor shows that she's not a fiscal conservative. She left the little village of Wasilla in millions of dollars in debt.
7:02 AM James: you may want to save this blog for posterity. Shaw just called you, "right-leaning". LOL!
7:06 AM PS. In her recent speech where she mocked the study of fruit flies, Palin once again revealed her embarrassing ignorance.
In her speech, Palin stressed that “the most valuable thing of all is information” and that early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference.” However, she also criticized certain “pet projects,” such as fruit-fly research, that are funded through earmarks and that, according to her, are utterly pointless:
"Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."
No, she kids us not. In her view, such research is a joke and, needless to say, shouldn’t be funded. It’s all a big waste, government largesse at its worst.
But is she right about the research? No.
Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage and that we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system — precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important.
This is where the Republican party has ended up: supporting an woman who believes in the End Times and speaking in tongues while deriding some of the best and most successful strategies for scientific research. In this next election, we’ve got to choose between the 21st century rationalism and Dark Age inanity. It ought to be an easy choice.
7:07 AM bullfrog, your reading skills are lacking. I was referring to Patrick's comment--as I indicated at the top of my comment.
7:20 AM i don't disagree with anything shaw said. i have always believed that sarah palin is not ready for prime time. it is easy to do a stump speech. heck, i could that and i'd be better at it than joe the plumber.
i don't think sarah palin could handle the sunday morning talk shows or do a press conference where she would have to answer follow up questions.
but i do believe that if mccain loses, it will have little to do with palin but mccain's people are out there setting the stage for palin to take the fall. mccain simply ran a bad campaign. he has no message and his answer for the economy to lower capitol gains tax to 25% is stupid and is more of the trickle down economic theory that we know doesn't work.
12:46 PM Shaw: *sigh*
Then came the stilted interview with Katie Couric.--Patrick
This statement reflects why the conservatives will be out of power and why independents are breaking for the Democrats.
You like to extrapolate a lot, considering conservatives are already out of power thanks to their party. But on to the facts.
Sarah did do badly in that interview, although Katie did like to keep belaboring a point.
However, considering Sarah is not that experienced emoting someone else's opinion (McCain's), she had done okay so far. (Biden, the Human Gaffe Machine, is another matter)
The fact she hasn't shown up on the Sunday shows is a problem and has been a disappointment. But I've come to expect this from the McCain campaign. Were she to get out there and really engage people rather than be managed, I suspect opinions of her (except by the foaming left) would be different.
James: ...his answer for the economy to lower capitol gains tax to 25% is stupid and is more of the trickle down economic theory that we know doesn't work.
So I suppose you favor taxing corporations more as the economy struggles?
Let's see, Barack Obama wants to give tax "cuts" for "businesses that don't ship our jobs overseas."
Now why would he promise something like that? Perhaps it's because a tax cut will encourage businesses to stay here, and leave them with more money to invest.
Now this BS scheme may sound good on paper, but how do you convince companies not to flee the fairness taxes, the "windfall" taxes, and all the other taxes that corporations don't pay? You lower the rate across the board.
12:57 PM Sarah did do badly in that interview, although Katie did like to keep belaboring a point.--Patrick
It's called "follow-up" questioning. Something that all experienced politicians are familiar with. Couric kept asking because Palin either couldn't or wouldn't answer the question.
However, considering Sarah is not that experienced emoting someone else's opinion--Patrick
FAIL. If Sarah is as smart as all of her fans think she is she could have answered the question quite easily about what Supreme Court decision she disagreed with--easy for her--Roe v. Wade (she's a pro-lifer) or the Supreme Court decision regarding Exxon Valdez (That actually affected her state!). She showed she is extremely slow and dense for not being able to answer that softball question. And the one about what newspapers or magazines she reads? WTF? She doesn't know the names of the leading newspapers in Alaska? That was a softball question, too.
You're making excuses for her. A pathetic tactic. You're being dishonest with yourself on this, and you know it.
When they let "Sarah be Sarah" she comes off very badly.
Joe Biden is at times inartful, but don't tell me Sarah knows more about national defense issues than he does. Please.
1:34 PM Patrick, there is a big difference bewteen income tax and capital gains tax. Lowering capital gains tax may help people like warren buffet but it doesn't apply to most small businesses as many are not selling assets, bonds or stocks.
most business gauge their performance based on EBITA (Earning Before Interest, Taxes and Amortization) and it is here where the tax cut that Obama proposes will help most businesses.
There are two other issues regarding taxes that people overlook. The Laffer Curve states that cutting tax rates to the right of the peak rate will increase revenues, cutting taxes to the left of the peak rate will decrease revenue. so not all taxes pay for themselves which is partly why we have deficits now.
Also, when we look at who pay taxes in the aggregate, the top earners do pay more. But the tax burden has been shifted to the middle class. This is the result from the CBO:
The conclusions are stark. The effective federal tax rate of the top 1 percent of taxpayers has fallen from 33.4 percent to 26.7 percent, a 20 percent drop. In contrast, the middle 20 percent of taxpayers -- whose incomes averaged $51,500 in 2001 -- saw their tax rates drop 9.3 percent. The poorest taxpayers saw their taxes fall 16 percent.
So I think Obama is right when he talks about the need for a middle class tax cut.
2:39 PM shawn, can you image Palin being interviewed by the late Tim Russert on MTP?
He would have ripped her to shreds and sent her remains home in a body bag.
Just the other day Palin stated that she was still annoyed at Katie Couric.
LOL. We don’t need another dense idiot in the White House who can’t accept responsibility for her actions.
Even though she is clueless Palin has this egotistical side that is obvious when she is at a rally and did anyone miss the times that she said ‘Palin/McCain ticket’ or when she objected to McCain’s pulling his campaign out of Michigan?
This woman is really full of herself
As far as Palin’s future political prospects outside of Alaska she has to get re-elected governor in 2010 and with all of the scandals including Troopergate, Per Diem Gate, Travelgate and the belief that the same contractors who were awarded the bid to build the sports facility in Wasilla while Palin was mayor also built her family’s house along the lake that is worth $500K
2:51 PM Rod: I think along the same lines. Her political future is still on shakey grounds. The conservative base won't do much good for her in Alaska unless she chooses not to run for re-election with the idea that it would free her up to spend time in the lower-48. It would also save her the risk of losing, thus ending any hope of being president.
But if you recall, we thought Hillary Clinton would be the nomination and look where she is. The same with Rudy.
4:17 PM You're being dishonest with yourself on this, and you know it.
No, I'm trying to figure out about her. All you've said about her since she was announced was that she was an idiot. I still don't have the whole story, and the fact she seems to be hiding from the hard interviews is making it difficult for me to be sure. But I go with my gut.
As for Sarah knowing more on national defense than Biden, do you take me for cracked. I'll even say Obama knows more than Sarah. She was never brought on for her national experience. She brings something conservative to a ticket that was sorely lacking. She brings executive experience to a race full of legislators. She brings a perspective that's as far outside the beltway you can get.
Figure that out and you'll see why we're glad she showed up.
James: Actually, the differences between capital gains tax and income tax are small in their effect on those that pay it. Increasing the amount of either will provide the motivation to either avoid having to pay those taxes or stop doing the work to bring in the revenue to avoid the taxes altogether. Either way, it's the fundamental mistake of taxing success. I'll stop here rather than get my FairTax on.
Obama is full of crap when he goes on with his 95% number. Especially when he includes people not paying income taxes and further shifts the responsibility on people who create the jobs, then conveniently forgets any tax he decides on to 'spread the wealth around' will simply appear in the price of goods and services all those 'poor people' he's trying to 'help' are buying.
I'll give you that McCain's plan may not be the best (I don't care because he's only my candidate by default). But the alternative is shifting the burden on fewer and fewer people.
As for deficits, if we'd stop growing the government like Bill Clinton's member in the nudie bar and throwing money at every problem known, then maybe we wouldn't have had the deficit problem we have now.
5:17 AM No, I'm trying to figure out about her. All you've said about her since she was announced was that she was an idiot. I still don't have the whole story, and the fact she seems to be hiding from the hard interviews is making it difficult for me to be sure. But I go with my gut.
She's not an idiot. She's quite clever. To be able to pass oneself off as a contender for the vice presidency takes some real calculation and balls.
What I'm feeling is anger. Anger at a reckless Republican party--and it's presidential candidate--for putting this uninformed, intellectually lazy woman in the position to possibly become president!
ANd to address your question of why she's hiding from hard interviews with follow-up, unscripted questioning--it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why her handlers have kept her from doing those shows. She is very good at giving speeches--but when she went before Gibson and Couric the nation got a glimpse into her intellect--and found it to be sorely lacking.
She's pretty, she has great rhetorical skills, she can fire up the base with red meat and demagogery, but that doesn't make for a great, thoughtful, informed leader. You continue to ignore this and pretend this doesn't matter.
She was never brought on for her national experience. She brings something conservative to a ticket that was sorely lacking.
That's says it all, Patrick. McCain puts a person on the ticket without NATIONAL experience? We KNOW she has no foreign experience. But she brings something conservative to the ticket? You mean like the hockey rink that left Wasilla $25 million in debt? That is one of her legacies as a "conservative" mayor.
Do me a favor. Find out exactly what the mayor of the village of Wasilla is actually responsible for. I'll give you a headstart: no authority over the schools, the fire department. That's part of her "experience" as mayor.
She brings executive experience to a race full of legislators. She brings a perspective that's as far outside the beltway you can get.
You are also obviously unaware of how very chummy she has been as governor of Alaska with some of the most powerful Washington "beltway" insiders. She had absolutely no problem with entertaining and wooing them as the governor so that she could advance her prospects for getting on the ticket.
You really ought to read more about this.
Her lastest gaffe about fruit flies again tragically illustrates her appalling ignorance--really--she is a walking, talking example for why America has fallen behind dozens of other countries in science and mathmatics.
She's a lazy thinker--and confidently uninformed.
8:32 AM Shaw: Anger at a reckless Republican party--and it's presidential candidate--for putting this uninformed, intellectually lazy woman in the position to possibly become president!
I could say something similar about Obama.
She is very good at giving speeches--but when she went before Gibson and Couric the nation got a glimpse into her intellect--and found it to be sorely lacking.
Let's play substitution:
[Obama] is very good at giving speeches--but when [he] went before [O'Reilly] and [somebody else] Couric the nation got a glimpse into [his] intellect--and found it to be sorely lacking.
However, Obama has grown and gotten on point after a year of campaigning. Sarah's had a couple of months, and has been hard on the trail every day since the convention.
I'll freely admit she's uninformed on a slew of things. I've been blogging like a horny rabbit on acid for a year now, learning as I go, and still not a week goes by where I have to go and look up something. And I don't go that deep.
So based on that, I'm willing to cut her some slack, being she is the VP candidate.
But to get back to James's point, it will all come down to McCain.
12:30 PM Patrick: However, Obama has grown and gotten on point after a year of campaigning. Sarah's had a couple of months, and has been hard on the trail every day since the convention.
Roderick: But I thought that Palin was whisked away right after she was introduced as McCain’s running mate and sequestered with Joe Lieberman so he could tutor her on foreign policy.
What exactly did he teach her or was she just not able to retain what he taught her?
I understand that this woman has a lot on her plate ( five children-one that just shipped out to Iraq , another one who is about to make her a grandmother in a couple of months, and a newborn who has Downs Syndrome) and she is a governor but for her not having a clue on what the Bush Doctrine is seems odd.
Then Palin spouted off how she would handle Pakistan and ended up echoing Obama’s position and opposing McCain’s.
Patrick: I'll freely admit she's uninformed on a slew of things. I've been blogging like a horny rabbit on acid for a year now, learning as I go, and still not a week goes by where I have to go and look up something. And I don't go that deep.
Roderick: You’re comparing being one heartbeat away from the President to blogging? LOL
And it’s not really that Palin isn’t knowledgeable, it’s that she is incurious just like Bush and she don’t like to be criticized. That is why she struck out at Couric as ‘annoying’ because she couldn’t answer the questions. Instead of studying and doing better in a later interview Palin has still has this huge chip on her shoulder.
Patrick: But to get back to James's point, it will all come down to McCain.
Roderick: But McCain was looking for Joe the Plumber yesterday and made a
complete ass of himself.
"Joe's with us today. Joe where are you? Where is Joe? Is Joe here with us today? Joe I thought you were here today," McCain said at the morning rally in Defiance, Ohio, getting no answer from Wurzelbacher in the crowd.
Recovering quickly, he said: "Alright, you're all Joe the plumber, so stand up.... Thank you. Wherever you are, Joe, let's give him a round of applause for what he's done for America."
ROFLMAO!!!!
When I heard this on my drive to work I almost ran off the road it was so funny. McCain sounded like a senile old man looking for his dog.
I guess JTP was meeting with his agent.
3:46 PM Patrick, my love. Please don't compare your experience as a new blogger to a woman who hopes to be the vice president as the most powerful nation on earth. Please.
But I will say this: You are smarter than she is on many, many levels.
7:58 PM Roderick: But I thought that Palin was whisked away right after she was introduced as McCain’s running mate and sequestered with Joe Lieberman so he could tutor her on foreign policy
I can't answer for the stupidity of the McCain campaign. I'm just trying to put myself in her shoes. Will I look as sexy? I don't know. :)
You’re comparing being one heartbeat away from the President to blogging? LOL
Well, then Maybe McCain should have picked me. I'm pretty sure I'd have caused his heart to explode in the ensuing shouting match.
Seriously, it takes the application of brain power to go on as gratuitously as I do sometimes. But the point is that when you have to give snap answers, it doesn't always come. Or it comes out wrong. Which brings us to Biden....
Recovering quickly, he said: "Alright, you're all Joe the plumber, so stand up.... Thank you.
At least he wasn't in a wheelchair. Beyond that, I have nothing. It is McCain after all.
Shaw: You've no chance to seduce me to the Dark Side. I've got instincts that are blindingly good, and if McCain manages to make it, a lot of people will be surprised by her. Not you, of course, but....
8:24 PM Patrick, being VP takes a completely different skill set than being a blogger.
And no I wasn't belittling you because you are obviously intelligent although very,very angry.
You were purposely obtuse when I mentioned McCain's 'where's Joe The Plumber' moment.
The point I am making is that this campaign has been about anyone but McCain.
First it was Palin and until Joe the Plumber came along it's been Obama.
It should be obvious that McCain has nothing to offer but his ' I was a POW for five years' story and he depends on others to prop up his canidacy.
9:32 PM Roderick: And no I wasn't belittling you because you are obviously intelligent although very,very angry.
I'm angry? I thought I was plaid. But I haven't been in a regular state of anger in over 6 years. There's a story there, and I covered that in July, but since then, I really haven't been angry, except briefly and occasionally over specific things, which is different then being angry in general.
That and I have the most bizarre sense of humor and the unique ability to bloviate until I run out of whiskey.