As to the first bolded, that's a very interesting point worth discussing. Are you implying that no one in the US can ever get a fair trial because every it would be utterly impossible for any juror to look at the accused or the evidence in a trial without bias?

As to the second bolded, that was exactly the point I have been trying to make. If I interpreted Habib's post accurately, he seemed to be saying that Palin's decision to step down was the last nail in her political coffin. I responded that he may think so but that more moderate voters may disagree and her political career may not be dead. Assuming Habib is the moderate you claim him to be for argument purposes, allow me to restate my statement to be: he may think so but that voters that do not have the strong bias against Palin that he admittedly does may disagree, so we can move away from the whole who's a moderate urinating match.

 

She has made some odd decisions in my opinion and at this time I'm not sure if her step down decision qualifies as such or not. It's way too early to tell. The fact that Rove thinks it will hurt her actually leads me to think it may not have been a bad decision after all. I'm actually encouraged that she would do something that Rove thinks is a mistake as it shows some independence of the far right advisors and partisan hacks (of which Rove is clearly one).

 

It's a long time from now to 2012. Many a politician has recovered from political wounds (if you even conclude that her stepping down is a wound) in the course of 3 years. There is no doubt that her adversaries will bring this issue up again if she indeed does set her sites on the national stage. But if she comes across to the voters in 12 as a more moderate candidate than she was in 08; if she develops a better knowledge of national and international issues over the course of the next 3 years; and if she improves her public speaking skills, I don't think her decision to step down as Governor is as fatal as some are stating. And again, a lot of her success in 12, if she decides to run, will be determined by the mood of the voters at that time and Obama's policy decisions between now and then. Even the most polly annish Democrat has to be concerned about Obama's poll numbers. Yes his personal numbers are still high, but the numbers on his policy decisions have dropped. As I've oft stated, the middle voters in America are about as fickle as they come and their voting patters swing pretty wildly back and forth across party lines. In my opinion, the very reason she has been the focus of so much attention from the Democrats is because they realize just how dangerous of an opponent she can be in 12. We'll see in a few years if she is a viable candidate or not, but in my opinion it's way too early to write her off as a result of her stepping down as Governor.

 

Well that clears it up.

As to the first bolded, that's a very interesting point worth discussing. Are you implying that no one in the US can ever get a fair trial because every it would be utterly impossible for any juror to look at the accused or the evidence in a trial without bias?

 

 

Fair trial? Depends on how you define it.

 

However, no one comes into a jury box without some sort of bias. Its simply human nature. One may think they are unbiased but its simply not true. The question then becomes what factor does that natural subsconscious bias play in the mind of the juror.

 

We're all biased.

A Wasilla resident has officially filed an ethics complain against Gov Palin regarding the issue of per diem money. The story broke last year but I think this is the first official complaint being made by a resident.

I hear this morning that the RNC Chairman says he doesn't see Palin running for President in 2012.

If she does run for President then she has already given her oponents ammao to use against her.

 

Rove said tonight that she's going to have troubles refuting the claim that she couldn't handle being Gov of Alaska for even two years before it got too hot for her to handle.

In fairness to Mrs. Palin, her opponents do not need a whole lot of ammo. Even if she had remained the rest of this term and decided not to run for reelection, she would still be labeled as an unqualified right-wing Conservative looking to run for President... I do not think anything she can do, besides maybe serving another 10+ years in a high ranking government position, would eliminate that stigma.

I hear this morning that the RNC Chairman says he doesn't see Palin running for President in 2012.

I have not been taking this as the first steps towards a Presidential bid as many have suspected.

I hear this morning that the RNC Chairman says he doesn't see Palin running for President in 2012.

 

If I were the RNC Chairman, I'd be more concerned about her coming for MY job.

Well that clears it up.

 

I thought so. :D

If I were the RNC Chairman, I'd be more concerned about her coming for MY job.

I would say that is plausible.

Fair trial? Depends on how you define it.

 

However, no one comes into a jury box without some sort of bias. Its simply human nature. One may think they are unbiased but its simply not true. The question then becomes what factor does that natural subsconscious bias play in the mind of the juror.

 

We're all biased.

 

Then are we all predudiced towards people of different races?

Then are we all predudiced towards people of different races?

 

Prejudice may not be the right word. Biased? To some extent. Its impossible for the brain to not have any preconceived ideas about anyone. They may be minute or subtle but they're still there even though we don't think so.

 

By the way, its not just race. Its everything.

So no one finds it disingenous or , should I say, 100% expected for Sarah Palin to come off as "looking out for the taxpayers and citizens" by not wanting to do something that would pull her away from being the Gov of Alaska (You betcha I'm different. I'm a maverick.) when she did exactly that during the campaign for McCain?

 

Does she think we don't remember?

Did she say something to the effect of, "the point guard will win this game" in reference to herself? A friend told me that.

Prejudice may not be the right word. Biased? To some extent. Its impossible for the brain to not have any preconceived ideas about anyone. They may be minute or subtle but they're still there even though we don't think so.

 

By the way, its not just race. Its everything.

 

Let's keep the discussion of bias in the context used in this thread. We are talking about bias to the degree that one cannot or will not fairly assess and apply information to over come that bias. Habib has admitted that he does not like Palin (to what extent I'll let him say, but from my observations, it's a pretty strong dislike). Frankly, I accordingly don't expect him to give her the benefit of any doubt. But I do think it's possible that other voters, who may not have a dislike or as strong of a dislike as Habib, to view her actions differently than Habib does.

 

I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, including my own, as I think she'd have a difficult row to hoe if she ran for national office in 12. But she has shown an ability to speak with an energy around her; she is an attractive person; she is a female; she is young, and she is not from Potomac Ave but is rather from rural Main Street. I think she has the possibility of rehabbing her reputation and think it's premature to write her off with the time remaining before the primaries begin. Who knows, I may be wrong. If she decides to run, we'll see.

She truly annoys me...