Montana Headlines thinks Sarah Palin wraps up Montana for McCain. Well, he's often wrong, and we can hope this is another example. Like other Republicans, he is in the uncomfortable position now of arguing that although Obama is too inexperienced to be president, Palin is just fine. He notes that Obama considered governors who are nearly as inexperienced, but doesn't seem to realize that considering an inexperienced candidate and choosing one are very different matters.
Quoting Kirsten Powers, he asks of those who are complaining about the choice: "Where were they when Obama, two years into the Senate, announced his candidacy for president?"
I don't know where "they" were, but I know where I was: I was thinking the man has no chance. But I also thought that he was young enough that he could run again in four or eight years, and the extra experience would make him a better candidate.
Obviously, I was wrong. And I was wrong not because "Dems" put him up but because he was able to win over millions of Americans who hadn't voted for Democrats, or voted at all, before. He did this over the course of hundreds of campaign appearances and carefully crafted speeches, dozens of national debates with the best the party had to offer against him, and by building grass-roots campaign efforts in state after state. His organization in Montana, to cite one example, dwarfs anything that Clinton or McCain has done.
And he did it by going directly against the two American families that have dominated national politics for two decades. Moreover, his was the only one of the three most successful presidential campaigns this election that never ran into financial difficulties. He may lack experience, but he has done all that a human being can do in so short a time to prepare himself for the world's most demanding job.
He has accomplished what no politician in American history has ever managed to pull off. He has run a campaign that transcends race, keeping the black vote firmly on his side while appealing to millions of Americans who have never voted for a black candidate in their lives. He is the Jackie Robinson of presidential politics, and he has changed history. Along the way, he has dealt with attack after attack in ways that demonstrate extraordinary grace and coolness under fire: that he is not black enough, that he is too black, that he hangs out with radicals, that he is too green, too weak, too easily influenced by others. He does all of that while continuing to call on Americans to rise above petty politics, to seek out compromise and to work together for the good of us all.
Having said all of that, I still wish he had more experience. And I wish he were not such a liberal. And if I had a choice of anybody in the country to vote for, it probably would not be him.
But I don't have that choice. I have a choice of Obama, an inexperienced but extraordinarily gifted politician, and his smart and seasoned vice president, or of a bellicose old warrior who now seems to willing to toss aside everything that has made me admire him over the years for the sake of a few extra votes, and his unproven vice presidential choice, about whom there is almost no chance I will learn enough in the next 70 days to persuade me that she could be president.
And Montana Headlines thinks Montanans will fall for her because she hunts moose. Lord save us.
UPDATE: If you still doubt that Obama isn't serious about what it takes to be president, reread this. Then ask yourself whether he or McCain (not even to mention Palin) has thought more carefully about the president's authority and responsibilities.
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4 comments:
When I read things like you wishing her weren't' "such a liberal", I cry out for specifies. I agree he sits on the spectrum to the left of McCain, but most of us do. Are you saying that he is a liberal in the same sense as those liberals who gave us Vietnam? Kosovo? Welfare reform? Where do he and Bush disagree on Iraq? Where is single payer?
Specifics please. You may thing yourself a centrist, but only in the sense that the center has moved hard to the right these past 16 years. I realize that I sit to the left, proudly so, but I think sometimes that you who shift back and forth with the spectrum need to find your compasses.
it's a long holiday weekend and everyone is out partying it up - on tuesday everybody goes back to work and sobers up- then this choice will look ridiculous to everyone. this is the vice president of the united states we are talking about. sarah's probably over her head as governor of alaska ferchrissakes and mccain is 72 years old. when everybody sobers up the reality of this ridiculous choice will probably drive mccain's numbers into the ground and it makes me wonder how many bottles of glenfiddich the savvy politicos went through to come up with this one. i would not like to be in the same room with Mr Mccain when the sobering numbers start to show up about mid week.
I suspect much of what guides the profession of journalism is very basic: fear of being caught out of the mainstream. And the mainstream is not where you find original thought.
Palin:
She has next to no experience in government. When ask about national security back ground or knowledge regarding foreign affairs the best Ms. McCain could come up with was “she lives right by Russia.”
She has only traveled outside the country twice in her life.
She was associated with to a 3rd party which among other things supports allowing Alaska to secede from the United States and feels the only thing wrong with the John Birch Society was it was to liberal! Her husband “First Dude” was registered as a member of this party between 1994 and 2004!
She tried to have a local Librarian fired for not banning books. She used her political office to try to have fired and smear a state trooper who is in a custody battle with her sister. She fired the guy who stood his ground and would not fire the trooper. She is being investigated for this and is worried enough about the outcome to have recently “lawyered up.”
Palin currently has pretty messy family issues. She recently gave birth to a son with Downs Syndrome and has a 17 year old daughter who is pregnant. Ironically she has fought sex education in the schools and availability of contraception for minors. I am glad she was able to make the choice to carry her disabled son to term…we all need the right to make our own choices!!!
She believes that for 9 months a woman has no right to control what is happening to her own body and is basically nothing more than a baby container. She does not believe in a women’s right to choose to end a pregnancy, even if she has been raped.
She tried to force her under age daughter into a marriage of political convenience, but her daughter would have none of it. Her oldest son may have joined the military to keep from going to jail. He and his 3 friends apparently caused $10,000 damage to a fleet of school busses. Track ( Palin’s son) was 16 at the time and was likely the one who provided he alcohol consumed by himself and the other 3 youths involved. There are multiple pictures showing both of her teenage (under age) children drink alcohol.
She has allowed her pregnant daughter, Bristol and her daughter’s boyfriend, Levi, to drop out of their Senior year of high school. They are on the campaign train with her as her own pro-life poster children. She reminds me of Lynn Spears (you know Britney and Jamie Lynn’s mother) as she seems to see nothing wrong with exploiting your children for your own fame and gain.
It has been reported she had an affair with her husbands business partner. Wow, if this is an example of “family values” I am very confused.
She does not believe human pollution has anything to do with global warming (even Bush has had to back down on this one). Is so in bed with big oil she is willing to watch as the polar bear and beluga whales become extinct, rather than slow the possibility of drilling. She would open up one of the last great wilderness on earth to exploitation by oil interests.
She laughed when hearing a fellow Republican woman being called a bitch in public (she and the woman had disagreed on several issues) I guess this does make her on par with McCain who thinks it is alright to call your wife a cunt in public.
She has been repeatedly described as stubborn with a vicious streak – even by family and friends. (nick name Sarah Barracuda)
Has an undergraduate degree in Journalism for a small obscure university. It took her six years and at least 5 different colleges to manage to get this undergraduate degree. Most people who have been in school that long have a Masters at least. If she were any kind of a student she could have been within 2 years of having her doctorate.
She did fund raising for Sen. Ted Stevens (think major Alaskan corruption) and accepted money from the same sources as Sen. Ted Stevens. She pushed for the “bridge to no where – the flipped when convenient to do so. In spite of what she has said she fought for earmarks for her home town and state…some of the same one condemned by McCain. She left the town she was major of in debt. Think pushing huge costly money pit sports complex at the expense of roads and sewer systems.
She has been named Sen. John McCain’s VP selection for the Republican ticket. Sen. McCain is 72 years old and has reoccurring cancer as part of his health history. One can not help but question Mr. McCain’s judgment regarding her selection. John McCain has made a calculated political choice in selecting his VP, that has unfortunately put an undereducated, inexperienced right wing nut case a “heart beat” away from becoming President at a time when our Nation faces some of the most complex and volatile issues it has in decades.
I am a Christian and a pastors wife…I was not completely decided on my vote until I really started to look into what this woman has done and what she stands for…she does not have my vote!
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