Posts filed under 'Sarah Palin'
If one were to listen to the Democrats over the last couple weeks, you might conclude that Senator McCain is terribly ill just waiting for November or January to keel over. The line of attack is to tell voters that Sarah Palin will be president, and that she is not qualified for that job.
So for a moment lets ignore the morbid, and highly suspect premise of this argument. It’s Palin v. Obama. It’s a first term Governor v. a first term Senator. Both are short on foreign policy experience. They each have some experience, but not an extensive foreign policy record. Palin wins on executive experience; she’s run a state, she has run a town; she’s the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard. What’s particularly surprising is that Governor Palin has the edge of legislative achievements. This is an area that Senator Obama should win as his experience is almost completely in the legislative branch, yet he has no major pieces of legislation in his name in the U.S. or State Senate. It’s not that he has no legislative experience but it is sparse and it is mainly on politically safe issues.
Palin’s legislative accomplishments actually eclipse Obama’s. She pushed through bipartisan ethics reform bill in Alaska. She passed a tax increase on oil company profits, and she enacted the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) to set up a natural gas pipeline in Alaska. She has taken on her own party in big ways by ousting two entrenched incumbants, resigning her post at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as a protest to ‘lack of ethics’, and opposed the reelection of Republicans Don Young and Ted Stevens because of ethics/corruption charges. Senator Obama does not have a bipartisan record, or a history of taking on his own party in any way.
So if Governor Palin were running for president I would have some doubts about her foreign policy experience, somewhat similar to those I have about Senator Obama’s foreign policy experience. However, she’s not running for president. Yes, it is possible that she could become president, but on the other hand Senator Obama would definitely be bringing a lack of foreign policy experience to the White House. If Governor Palin did have to take over the Presidency, her vice presidential experience would eclipse any experience Senator Obama now claims to have on foreign policy. The only way the Obama campaign has even the slightest opportunity to win the experience argument against Palin is to convince everyone McCain is on his last legs. Granted no one is guaranteed a particular life span, but this argument is a stretch and rather grim.
It is the team element of the Palin pick that makes McCain/Palin combination so strong. There is legislative and executive experience on the Republican ticket. There is a foreign policy expert, and there is an energy expert, they both have a history of working across party lines and battling corruption, there is military experience, there is ‘beyond the beltway’ experience. They both have a background and history of reform. On the Democratic side Obama chose an experienced Washington insider, who brings foreign policy experience, but dilutes the message of change. The match is awkward with the experienced candidate in the two slot and the novice at the top of the ticket. This has left the Obama campaign with the ‘About to Die’ argument leaving another ding in the ‘politics of hope’ mantra.
Obama Palin and the About to Die Argument
September 14th, 2008
Reform: 1.the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc.: social reform; spelling reform.
Change: 1.to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one’s name; to change one’s opinion; to change the course of history.
From Dictionary.com
There is a difference in the promise of a change versus the promise of a reform. First, a reform ticket acknowledges the good of the initial structure, and seeks to route out what has corrupted it. The promise of change simply says things will be different; possibly better, possibly worse, but definitely different. Change lacks specifics, reform seeks the goal of fixing the problems. While reform includes some change, the basic promise differs, and this is evident in the two campaigns. The Obama campaign promises to be different than President Bush. Different how? In party affiliation, in political philosophy, a broad sweeping promise to not be ‘him’. However, the McCain campaign says through reform they’ll fix Washington. Washington is ‘broken’, but it is not inherently bad. The government structures of America are quite remarkable, however, with power comes corruption and the McCain/Palin ticket seeks to rectify problems of waste and corruption. The ‘reform mantle’ take a sliver of the ‘change argument’ and focus it on specifics. The idea of change is often appealing, but change can be good and it can be bad. Simply promising not to be ‘that guy’ is not concrete plan for what type of change one seeks.
McCain Palin Reform Ticket Tackle Change
Tags: reform agenda, reform policies, reform politics, reformation
September 8th, 2008
Well it’s a new day! Mayor Guiliani and Governor Huckabee are angered by the main stream media’s sexism towards Governor Palin, and Gloria Steinem is belittling the experience of the first ever female Republican VP nominee.
Mayor Giuliani’s Convention Speech, “How dare they question whether Palin will have enough time to spend with her children while vice president? When do they ever ask a man that question?”
“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday accused the mainstream news media of engaging in “shocking” sexism in its coverage of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the GOP’s new vice presidential nominee.”
Gloria Stienem, “This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need.”
What’s troubling with Ms. Stienem’s postition is two fold. First, she’s undermining the Republican’s #2 for lack of experience when the Dems #1 has the thinnest resume of any Presidential nominee in history. Second, she’s determining what is important to all women. Yet again, all that is supposed to matter to women is equal pay legislation (which many believe is ineffective) and the issue of choice. National security, energy, health care, foreign policy, all apparently not issues for women.
On the other hand, two political figures who no one would have predicted becoming champions of women’s rights are calling the media on their bizarre obsession with Governor Palin’s family life. The media’s double standard has been so blatant that people across the political spectrum (with the possible exception of a handful of people way to the left) are telling the media to knock it off and focus on issues.
Gender Politic’s Role Reversal
Tags: gender politics, palin controversy, palin issues, palin vp
September 8th, 2008
From the very beginning this has been a crazy race. Candidates counted out early on came back to upset the favorites. Established favorites made very odd choices (i.e. Giuliani not competing until Florida, Clinton not competing in caucus states) basically handicapping their own campaign. This last week, the media has added a somewhat new wrinkle to this already crazy race, borderline insanity. Media bias is nothing new, ask any Clinton or McCain supporter, and they can give a dozen or so examples of the media’s double standard. However, as Governor Palin arrived on the scene the media appeared to come unglued. Networks sent crews to Alaska to investigate Palin’s daughter. The rumor mill unleashed a string of nasty and unfounded accusations about Palin and her family. People like Whoopi Goldberg have made comments referring to Palin as ‘Nazi’ like; granted Madonna already compared McCain to Hitler, but ‘Nazi’ seems a tad harsh for simply accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination. Reports have surfaced that prominent female Democrats are being asked to attack Palin, like that is somehow more appropriate than a man attacking her. Frankly, it’s unclear if that tactic is sexist or stupid, but what is apparent is that Governor Palin has knocked the left wing media on its ear.
If the media had a modicum of decency and perspective they would start asking questions about actual issues. The irony to the media’s obvious bias is that they’re actually drumming up sympathy for Palin. By the looks of Governor Palin’s speech on Wednesday it is sympathy that is neither sought after nor needed as she can clearly handle the media. However, the press has been so ridiculous in their coverage of Palin that they have not only destroyed any remaining credibility they may have had, they missed an opportunity to ask legitimate substantive questions. At some point they will likely have to get back to asking questions of substance, but their behavior over the last week and a half has shown them as completely untrustworthy.
Tags: mccain palin, Media Bias, palin media, palin vp, press coverage
September 8th, 2008
September 4th, 2008
Thanks to RedState and Google bloggers had a blogger’s brunch with Fred Thomspon. Here are some highlights.
Fred Thompson on the primary campaign. “What did you learn from your campaign? Well, the main thing I learned is never under estimate John McCain.”
Regarding foreign policy, “It isn’t the time to turn to the keys over to a fourteen year old in heavy traffic.”
Regarding Governor Palin “She’s the kind of public servant that we all say that we want. Someone who is an outsider not inside the beltway. The first thing every candidate does is try to convince everyone that they are not from inside the beltway. That’s what we want; someone who will stand up to authority right, someone that will work on a bipartisan basis will work with either side but will stand up to either side including members of their own party, but somebody who is successful who will take on the powers that be but will beat them. Well guess what that’s what you got. We know somebody else like that they’re running at the top of the ticket.”
Can you give your assessment of the media? (paraphrased)
“Well, it’s been generally poor up till now, and now it is abysmal.”
Tags: RNC08
September 2nd, 2008
Look around the web and do a few blog searches for ‘Sarah Palin’ and it becomes evident the left is loosing their nut over McCain’s Palin pick. Smears about Palin’slast pregnancy are swirling, and cries of inexperience abound. Two problems; VP candidates go through a rigorous vetting progress making these smears just fantasies of over-zealous Obama supporters. Two, the Republican’s number two pick is just as qualified if not more so than the Dem’s number one pick. One’s a first term Senator, the other is a first term Governor.
The Governor has more legislative accomplishments than the Senator, and is the only one from either ticket who has executive experience. First elected head of the Conference of Mayors in Alaska, then more recently becoming chair of the National Governors Association’s Natural Resource Committee. The other complaint is that this pick is solely gender based. The problem here is that she is an excellent reflection of Senator McCain’s values. A reformer who has beaten out incumbent politicians, and successfully challenged and defeated corruption in her home state, who has a son in the military. McCain picked someone like himself in many ways, just different in gender; as the ticket has doubled down on the maverick and reform qualities.
If Dems want to challenge her experience they’re going to have to explain why inexperience at the one slot is more acceptable than at the two slot. Governor Palin will have to perform at the debates and on the campaign trail, but judging just by the Dem’s panicky reaction, this pick has the potential to be a home run.
*Correction Palin is the Chair of the National Governors Association’s Natural Resource Committee, not of the National Governors Association.
Tags: governor palin, mccain palin, mccain pick, palin, vp
August 31st, 2008
Republicans are ecstatic. It’s a new race today.
Democrats are blindsided and scared, and the Obama campaign went straight into attack mode.
Republicans say it’s noteworthy that, on the week commemorating the 88th anniversary of women getting the right to vote — with McCain, making a groundbreaking VP pick — the Obama campaign’s first response was to attack, not congratulate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, or acknowledge the historic nature of her selection.
It was just yesterday that McCain ran a TV ad congratulating Obama on his historic achievement.
Upon further reflection, Sens. Obama and Biden issued a more carefully considered response:
“We send our congratulations to Gov. Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the Republican nominee for vice president,” said the Democratic ticket in a joint statement. “It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward, Gov. Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign.”
Jon Henke posts a lot in interesting tidbits about the selection.
The left-wing blog MyDD asks, “Do we really need to put another wildly inexperienced, purely political choice into the White House.” I assumed they were talking about Barack Obama.
Without a doubt, McCain-Palin 2008 is the winning ticket.
Tags: Barack Obama, john MCain, republicans, Sarah Palin
August 29th, 2008
