True. The selection of Palin completely undercuts McCain's main argument against Obama--that he isn't qualified to be Commander in Chief.

 

McCain's words: Experience and qualifications matter. McCain's actions: Experience and qualifications don't matter (Palin pick). Which is it, McCain?

 

The choice also significantly undermines McCain's foreign policy experience. He is certainly qualified in this area, but if elected he would also be the oldest President in history. What happens if Ms. Palin is called upon to take over mid-term? Then you have someone with absolutely zero foreign policy experience of any kind running the country's international affairs.

 

McCain just took one of his most potent arguments and flushed it right down the toilet! :eek:

 

Now, Obama's camp can focus on hitting the Republicans about the economy and the stagnant middle class standard of living over the past seven years.

I disagree and I expect McCain to continue to hammer on the issue. Obama has exactly zero foreign policy experience, why would he even want to debate that issue since he's at the top of the ticket?

I am on record saying Palin would be an excellent choice months ago, at a time when her name appeared on almost none of the lists of likely nominees. Palin is a great choice and her selection has totally thrown Obama's campaign into panic mode. Already, his campaign issued a statement ridiculing her selection and then Obama had to do another one of his "do-over" statements a few hours later. Obama and his staff are being unmasked as amateurs one step at a time each and every day.

I agree 100%.

Anyone who thinks that a democratic woman who supported Hillary will now vote for McCain just because he has a woman on the ticket is kidding themselves. Especially when the Palin has the totally opposite view on every issue as Hillary has.

 

McCain might get some of the PUMA votes, if they vote at all, but he would have got them regardless of his VP selectin.

 

Palin has other issues that will distract McCains' message.

1- The on going "Abuse of Power" investigation that gave the greenlight for the special procecuter to begin a full investigation of her using her office to get her ex brother in law fired.

2- Her making a point that she backed away from Stevens' earmarks when in 2006 she supported the "Bridge to nowhere"

3-Her admitted pot use. Over 4 million Christian Right voters stayed home in 2000 when GWB's DUI was made public.

 

Political suicide when you offend that many fractions of your own party and the independents.

Bad decision, and I'll lay it out.

 

How can O say the Republican ticket is not about change with McCain being the Maverick, once again, with the VP selection and Palin having a history of reform in her own party.

 

1. Does voting with Bush 90% of the time indicate change? That's McCain for you.

 

2. McCain's most potent argument was experience, and he completely lost it with the choice of Palin. This may be the turning point in the election.

 

3. Palin has no knowledge of leadership outside of Alaska, and has even said she hasn't followed the war and has "no opinion" on the War in Iraq.

 

4. Palin won't draw Clinton supporters. They are completely different, outside of gender, and female Clinton supporters weren't just supporters because she was a female, it also included her values and ideas.

 

5. Palin is no where near the speaker of Clinton, and is dismal usually. She isn't in the same hemisphere as Obama.

 

6. This may be the only place it will help McCain. With Biden's experience and knowledge, he could easily rip Palin limb from limb in a debate, but it may actually help McCain. Perhaps women will feel sorry for Palin?

Great column by Mark Stein.

 

The hostess with the moosest

 

First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy.

 

Second, it can't be in Senator Obama's interest for the punditocracy to spends its time arguing about whether the Republicans' vice-presidential pick is "even more" inexperienced than the Democrats' presidential one.

 

Third, real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign's thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night). -

Ouch!!

 

Palin Makes Good First Impression: Is Viewed More Favorably than Biden

 

Sarah Palin has made a good first impression. Before being named as John McCain’s running mate, 67% of voters didn’t know enough about the Alaska governor to have an opinion. After her debut in Dayton and a rush of media coverage, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 53% now have a favorable opinion of Palin while just 26% offer a less flattering assessment.

 

Palin earns positive reviews from 78% of Republicans, 26% of Democrats and 63% of unaffiliated voters. Obviously, these numbers will be subject to change as voters learn more about her in the coming weeks. Among all voters, 29% have a Very Favorable opinion of Palin while 9% hold a Very Unfavorable view.

 

By way of comparison, on the day he was selected as Barack Obama’s running mate, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden was viewed favorably by 43% of voters.

Bad decision, and I'll lay it out.

 

 

 

1. Does voting with Bush 90% of the time indicate change? That's McCain for you.

 

2. McCain's most potent argument was experience, and he completely lost it with the choice of Palin. This may be the turning point in the election.

 

3. Palin has no knowledge of leadership outside of Alaska, and has even said she hasn't followed the war and has "no opinion" on the War in Iraq.

 

4. Palin won't draw Clinton supporters. They are completely different, outside of gender, and female Clinton supporters weren't just supporters because she was a female, it also included her values and ideas.

 

5. Palin is no where near the speaker of Clinton, and is dismal usually. She isn't in the same hemisphere as Obama.

 

6. This may be the only place it will help McCain. With Biden's experience and knowledge, he could easily rip Palin limb from limb in a debate, but it may actually help McCain. Perhaps women will feel sorry for Palin?

1. Irrelevant to this discussion. May be true, but irrelevant.

 

2. First of all, for those who complain that McCain is too old, this helps. Secondly, while I concede that she has little experience (although more experience in elected office than Sen. Obama, I believe), I believe that VP is more of a job you can learn how to do it while on the job, whereas the Presidency has the strong potential of being a "finger on the trigger" job (bad phrasing) in which experience is needed right away. Then again, the experience issue means little to me.

 

3. First of all, Palin undoubtedly has followed the Iraq war. Maybe not as much as Biden, Obama, or McCain, but that is not her job. Her job was leading Alaska. Secondly, her son is going to Iraq- to say that she hasn't followed at all is ridiculous. Anyways, many Americans (myself included) think that some issues are more important then the war, i.e., energy issues, which Palin no doubt has followed.

 

4. I have no proof, but I'd disagree with you. There are plenty of Americans supporting Obama because they hate Bush, and IMO there will be some Americans who will vote McCain because of Palin due to the fact that they feel disenfranchised because of what happened to Hilary. If not making women automatically vote for McCain, it will at least make them receptive.

 

5. No clue. I haven't seen enough of Palin's speeches to make a good judgment. I admire your abilty to so closely follow Alaskan politics that you can already say she is "dismal".

 

6. Not really appropriate, but if you feel necessary and relevant, then so be it.

Liberals, watch this Biden performance and tell me how confident you are that he is going to humiliate Sara Palin in a debate. Also, be advised that Biden's family moved from Scranton when he was ten years old. Keep that in mind when Biden explains why he moved from Scranton and do the math. :lol:

 

It is time to reset those Biden gaffe-meters to see how long he can go before his next one.

 

I disagree and I expect McCain to continue to hammer on the issue. Obama has exactly zero foreign policy experience, why would he even want to debate that issue since he's at the top of the ticket?

 

 

Wrong. Thanks for playing.

 

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

 

You go on expecting McCain to try to hammer on the issue of foreign policy experience. You'll be waiting a long, long time. He isn't going to emphasize a glaring weakness on his ticket. The guy is 72 and has battled cancer--trying to hit Obama on foreign policy experience now that he has selected Palin only raises questions about his own judgment for picking a backup who has never held office at the national level.

 

Look, no one is debating that McCain has more foreign policy experience than Obama. That is largely a function of age and McCain is old. The selection of Palin merely serves to eliminate foreign policy experience as a weapon for McCain's campaign to use.

True. The selection of Palin completely undercuts McCain's main argument against Obama--that he isn't qualified to be Commander in Chief.

 

McCain's words: Experience and qualifications matter. McCain's actions: Experience and qualifications don't matter (Palin pick). Which is it, McCain?

 

The choice also significantly undermines McCain's foreign policy experience. He is certainly qualified in this area, but if elected he would also be the oldest President in history. What happens if Ms. Palin is called upon to take over mid-term? Then you have someone with absolutely zero foreign policy experience of any kind running the country's international affairs.

 

McCain just took one of his most potent arguments and flushed it right down the toilet! :eek:

 

Now, Obama's camp can focus on hitting the Republicans about the economy and the stagnant middle class standard of living over the past seven years.

 

 

As I have repeatedly said and no one has answered, how did that strategy work for Hillary in the Democrat primary?

Anyone who thinks that a democratic woman who supported Hillary will now vote for McCain just because he has a woman on the ticket is kidding themselves. Especially when the Palin has the totally opposite view on every issue as Hillary has.

 

McCain might get some of the PUMA votes, if they vote at all, but he would have got them regardless of his VP selectin.

 

Palin has other issues that will distract McCains' message.

1- The on going "Abuse of Power" investigation that gave the greenlight for the special procecuter to begin a full investigation of her using her office to get her ex brother in law fired.

2- Her making a point that she backed away from Stevens' earmarks when in 2006 she supported the "Bridge to nowhere"

3-Her admitted pot use. Over 4 million Christian Right voters stayed home in 2000 when GWB's DUI was made public.

 

Political suicide when you offend that many fractions of your own party and the independents.

 

If the reports are accurate that he tasered her nephew, women would drive up there themselves to taser the guy. EVEN Keith Olberman said that was a non-issue.

If the reports are accurate that he tasered her nephew, women would drive up there themselves to taser the guy. EVEN Keith Olberman said that was a non-issue.

Investigators have said that Palin's office has been so cooperative that they will not need to issue any subpoenas. It is very unlikely that anything will come of the investigation that will hurt Palin or McCain politically. Monegan was a political appointee that Palin could have fired at will on the day that she took office.

One BIG PLUS from Palin.

 

She has expertise in the number one kitchen table issue facing families. Rising fuel costs.

 

She has already made plans in her state to help families with rising fuel costs.

She has already started with plans through her state to help this country become fuel self-sufficient.

They can push that she has the expertise to help Americans where they are hurting most. The pocketbooks because of the price of fuel, both in cars and in their homes.

 

When a voter is struggling to put gas in the car and pay their home fuel bill, they will care minimal to none about Iraq, Iran, Georgia or any of that other stuff.

 

And Palin has ALREADY helped out Alaskan families in this regards while Obama was talking the talk but not walking the walk. Palin was doing things.

 

I could easily see a debate where she lists the $1200 she sent back to families, where she taxed the profits of oil companies, where got rid of the fuel tax for a year to help families and ask Joe Biden, I was DOING THINGS to help mothers and their families what were you and Obama doing in Congress besides just talking about doing things. Huh, Mr. Biden, what have you been doing to help families and their problems with fuel costs over the past 38 years??????

As I have repeatedly said and no one has answered, how did that strategy work for Hillary in the Democrat primary?

 

As caustic as the Democratic primary was at times, there were limits to how aggressive Clinton could be in beating up her rival over experience. There certainly are no limits in the general election, when there is no concern over healing rifts and achieving party unity at the end. But, through his choice of the inexperienced Palin, McCain has now taken the issue completely off the table. When people think of McCain's age and Palin's experience and qualifications, they'll realize she has held the office of governor for less than two years of a four-year term and before that was mayor of a town probably not too different from the one portrayed on Northern Exposure.

 

Bad call, John.

As caustic as the Democratic primary was at times, there were limits to how aggressive Clinton could be in beating up her rival over experience. There certainly are no limits in the general election, when there is no concern over healing rifts and achieving party unity at the end. But, through his choice of the inexperienced Palin, McCain has now taken the issue completely off the table. When people think of McCain's age and Palin's experience and qualifications, they'll realize she has held the office of governor for less than two years of a four-year term and before that was mayor of a town probably not too different from the one portrayed on Northern Exposure.

 

Bad call, John.

 

Was watching Beltway Boys and while this is definitely different times and they were not trying to say Palin is comparable to this President, it was pointed out that Abe Lincoln first time into elected office, I believe was as President.

 

He turned out okay.