Friday, August 29, 2008

Part of the answer to Jeff's question

Palin and McCain Share Enemies, Reformist Bent

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve,

Are you stunned or worried by this choice? It is so tough to be prepared for the the prez campaign and Biden, Obama, and McCain have been in training for 18 months and Pallin is being thrown into it. Goodness, I see some of the rationale for choosing her (from the article) but that is a mighty thin reed, to me. Perhaps, Pallin will be up to the campaign and the enormous scrutiny. It took Obama 18 months to become the candidate on the stump that he is--I just can't imagine someone with such relatively little national experience being up to this. Maybe she will come through--but this is a gamble.

Jeff

Stephen said...

It is a gamble. But I am not worried. I was as shocked as everyone else but I was pleased. I wasn't looking forward to backing Romney, or Huckabee. I wasn't crazy about Pawlenty. We'll see what she is made of soon enough.

Anonymous said...

Steve.

I agree--we will see if she is ready for prime time. This is why I luuuvvvvvvvvvv politics. McCain went all in. I suppose we will see.

Anonymous said...

Did someone in the campaign really vet this woman? It just came out that her 17 year old unmarried daughter is knocked up -- and has been for months. How did they miss that?
Z

Anonymous said...

SFW?
Paul

Stephen said...

McCain knew about it in advance.

Anonymous said...

I suppose you are going to say that he knew about this before he picked her as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI

I bet you would really be running w/ a video of Obama celebrating a group that wanted Illinois to secede.
Z

Stephen said...

Z,
I don't know what you saw in that video you linked, but it wasn't the governor supporting secession. I think you may have fallen prey to one of the rumors (proven false) that Palin was a member of, or endorsed candidates from this party. Not true. She was a republican and worked for the Forbes campaign.

Anonymous said...

It is the same logic being used on this site to attack Obama. Obama is on a committee w/ a terrorist, so his loyalty is in question. Palin is at least friendly (and increasingly it looks like more than that) w/ a group that advocates Alaska breaking away from the union, so -- by the standards established by the Repubs -- we should be questioning her loyalty. You can't, as much as you want to, have it both ways.
Z

Tom said...

Z (?):

You sure about that? You want to hold Obama's links with Ayers up to Palin's with the Alaska Independence Party? Let's say we agree that Palin is linked to the AIP exactly to the same degree that Obama is linked to Ayers, then where do we go from there?

We start comparing Ayers to the AIP--and while I am firmly against the AIP's mission, I have not found a single example of the organization commiting a crime, let alone murder and attempted murder and trying to blow up federal buildings, etc. (It seems like something that would have come up.)

Don't you see that these silly games only reflect worse on your candidate? Can you be so foolish as to keep falling into this trap?

By all means, have it one way, see where it gets you.

TB

Anonymous said...

TB,
Palin's husband was a member of the AIP. That doesn't concern you? Ayres is a terrorist, believe me, I have no more patience w/ the Weather Underground than you do, but Obama's ties (if we can even call them that) to him do not include Obama's membership in the Weathermen. Palin's own husband was AIP. If you don't think toying w/ seceding from the Union is serious, fine. I happen to think it is serious, but we obviously disagree. My point here is that the things the Repubs have fired at Obama (inexperience, ties to fringe politics) are easily directed at Palin. But when they are, the Repubs are screaming "liberal media." Again, you can't have it both ways. Good heavens, I've seen some in the McCain camp defend her on foreign policy by noting how close Alaska is Russia. Are you kidding? If Dems made a similar statement about Obama you would be up in arms (and rightly so, b/c that is idiotic). Your boy has made a very questionable pick, one that is, as Peggy Noonan was just caught saying, "political bs."
Zack (since Z seems to bother you).

Anonymous said...

"Z"-
Since you use the logic that by the Republicans own standards they should disavow themselves from Palin's husband's membership in the AIP, what of the Democrats cries of inexperience? Sarah Palin is more experienced than Barack Obama. She has made executive decisions in a state, no matter how small, and those decisions directly affect people. Obama has made some votes (few of which, if any, can be claimed to have crossed party lines in the name of bi-partisanship). None of his decisions - in and of themselves - have directly affected his constituents. He has never had to make a decision with the knoweldge that it will change people's lives. His votes have always been 1 of 100 (when he actually made a decision and voted either yes or no - thank you Rudy). Palin has made decisions that she knew would change people's lives. She has more executive experience.
"G"

Tom said...

Zack (whoever you are):

I know this is a hard concept to understand, but I believe that we can scientifically prove that Sarah Palin and Todd Palin are not the same person. And, again, I am against Alaska seceding from the union (I seem to remember reading somewhere about a lot of Republicans dying to stop that sort of thing), and I'm against parties that support such causes, but I am way more against making war on the United States from within and murdering anyone who stands in your way. But by all means, continue to compare away.

On another note, even if you were correct, and that I would laugh off the Alaskan Air National Guard intercepting 22 Russian bombers over North America between 2005 to 2007, for example, we'll never know, since Senator Obama does not have a comparable story that I could laugh at. But as long as we're casting partisan shots at each other, I suppose I should note that you are nowhere on the semi-anonymous record laughing at the claim that being the frontman in a presidential campaign somehow is great experience for being president (especially when one haven't really proven oneself at one's day job).

So at the end of the day, we have a very serious and even debate about who is more qualified, Senator Obama or Governor Palin. Which is awesome, since he's not running against her.

Keep truckin' brother, this is going well.

TB

g_rob said...

But Tom, Cindy McCain is dumb and she said a dumb thing and she's rich and she made the dumb mistake of pointing out that Russia and Alaska are next to each other, and she's rich and owns houses, and she's dumb and how dare you say Obama has no experience, and she's rich, and everyone knows that the governor of Alaska is one step below the Grand Poobah of the local Elk's Lodge.

Anonymous said...

Tom,
I am fully aware that Todd and Sarah Palin are different people, just like I'm aware that Obama and Ayres are different people (something you are struggling with). If you think serving on a committee w/ someone raises doubts about patriotism/judgement (which I've seen over and over again), then how is sleeping w/ someone whose part of a group that wants to break up the U.S. not a more serious question about patriotism/judgement? Again, you can try to change the rules now that the rules Repubs have made for attacks are turned around, but it is not going to fly. And if the "executive" experience of being governor is the critical issue for a president, how about the fact that McCain has no "executive" experience either? And that IS who Obama is running against.
Zack

g_rob said...

I don't think you want to have a discussion about Obama's experience vs. McCain's.

Tom said...

Zack,

For the third time: I am not asking for a different standard. Feel free to play the game by the rules set by Republicans (I'm not in that party, for the record). Feel free to continue comparing Governor Palin's connections to the goofy AIP with Senator Obama's connections to a murdering terrorist. Keeping comparing Todd Palin to Bill Ayers. I'm perfectly happy to let voters decide which they think is worse.

On the same note, have fun drawing everyone's attention to the relative experience of the two tickets. That's not a Republican talking point at all.

Wait a second...that's it, isn't it? You are on the Republican payroll. Otherwise, why would you wander around the web making their case for them?

TB

Anonymous said...

Has anyone asked Bill Ayres for a DNA sample? I read somewhere on the internets that he is actually the father of Bristol Palin's baby.

Randy, Concerned Citizen and Father of Four