Aug 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Palin on Iraq
Make of this what you will:
UPDATE: Apologies, I misunderstood what Time was doing here — this interview actually happened a couple of weeks ago. Still, strange for someone under consideration for the VP job not to have done any preparation.
79 Responses to “Palin on Iraq”
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August 29th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Please oh please tell me this interview was not from today…but that would be horrid!
August 29th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
OFF TOPIC:
Will Matt or someone please post the link to a 1-3 pages issues chart that accurately and fairly compares the candidates’ (Obama/McCain) views on the major issues? This would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance.
Obama/Biden ‘08
August 29th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I think it’s from Aug. 14…Matt’s post implies it was today.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The whole interview.
Luckily, there’s a transcript next to it, so you can actually understand what she’s saying. Or at least read what she’s saying. I still don’t understand it.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Wow. I’m not sure what she’s trying to say, either. I would hazard a guess that she knows we’d have no reason to be in Iraq were we not so dependent on oil imports in general, and that we need alternative domestic energy supplies to avoid future wars of this sort.
However, she neglected to speak the words that would let us know that she knows.
I suspect that the McCain campaign will be putting her into campaign cram school. Either that, or their strategy is to pit Joe Biden against a debate opponent who leaves so many rhetorical holes that he won’t know which one to address first.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Actually it sounds like it’s coming from Mars, or some hitherto unknown dimension. Is it certain that Palin is of the human species?
August 29th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
OMG!!!!!
Get to work people. Turn out the vote for Obama-Biden.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Sounds like she’s saying: “We dont have a plan for Iraq. So therefore, the GOP Energy Plan is the only way towards energy independence”
I havent been this confused since Ms Teen South Carolina answered the question about Americans having problems with geography.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
what. the.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
It’s from August 14 (http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837536,00.html).
But the transcript online doesn’t match the recording — where she goes off on a tangent about her son going to “Eye-rack” — isn’t part of the transcript. Either the TIME transcript was cleaned up to make it more coherent, or the recording was edited. I personally suspect it was the former.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Am I the only one who noticed that the Republican VP nominee said that the GOP has no plan for the Iraq War? Really?
August 29th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Holy crap. I don’t want to be too mean, but she honestly sounds like a complete idiot. I could articulate John McCain’s Iraq policy — she couldn’t even fake it?
This had better have been just a bad moment in a long interview, otherwise she’s going to get obliterated in the debate.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Palin sounds like someone who sees all policy as domestic policy (America has no interests but her own).
McCain’s interest in Iraq is Liberal Internationalist (read: interventionist). So for McCain, even if you take away WMD and oil, regime change and a long-term intervention make sense. For Palin if you take away oil there’s no good reason to be in (and send her son to) Iraq.
What’s nuts is that she sounds like she’s closer to Obama on Iraq while Biden is closer to McCain. This might be a generational thing.
But if her role in this campaign is to shake everything up so no one knows who stands for what anymore, she should stake out a position to the left of (or at least, more isolationist than) Biden. Shuffle the deck and let the chips fall where they may.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Oh, if it was 2 whole weeks ago that changes everything, I mean it hardly matters that the VP didn’t have a clue then…
August 29th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I think the Obama campaign should simply attack Palin’s knowledge, not her experience. It is her lack of knowledge in foreign affairs which really should alarm people.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I’m not convinced she was under consideration two weeks ago.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I’ve heard a few of Palin’s interviews tonight, and this is just the way she talks. I’ve noticed these patterns of speech before: usually when I’m talking to some underpaid, unempowered customer service representative in a call center who has absolutely no idea what they’re saying, but is quite certain that I should speak to a different department about it.
So they stick words into sentences. Big words. Filler words.
Or, as Palin might say: They insert verbiage, or phrases, if you will, due to factors, approximately, in an attempt to - so as to effect the lengthening, or the longitude, at this time, of the present sentence being used by them insofar as it relates to the speech in this instance.
Maybe someone will call it “folksy”.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
strange for someone under consideration for the VP job not to have done any preparation.
Maybe that’s because she didn’t seriously think she was in contention, until about yesterday.
Jay Levitt: “I’ve noticed these patterns of speech before: usually when I’m talking to some underpaid, unempowered customer service representative in a call center who has absolutely no idea what they’re saying…”
That’s it! I’ve been trying for years to describe Palin’s vocal style, and you’ve nailed it.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Speaking of Palin’s speech patterns, she has a regional accent that I can’t quite place (Alaskan dialect is a mishmash of everywhere). Just wait until you hear her use the expression “deal though.” You will laugh.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
McCain has clearly and selfishly put his ambitions above the interests of the country. In addition, Palin is no substitute for Hillary Clinton…..it’s an insult to Clinton supporters to assume that they would accept her just because she’s female.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Matt,
This is terrifying. Drill drill drill is NOT a comprehensive energy policy and will NOT enhance our national security nor end the war in Iraq. Is it possible that she actually BELIEVES this???
August 29th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Yes, but when they play this on the radio, all that 90% of people will hear is “my son is being deployed to Iraq”. The rest will mean nothing to them.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
August 29th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
HTML, why you do me like that?
Anyway, that was supposed to say something like this:
Either the TIME transcript was cleaned up to make it more coherent, or the recording was edited.
It was edited; the part about her son in Iraq was a response to a question about her kids, separate from the part about energy independence. So she wasn’t going off on a tangent, and she isn’t as incoherent as the tape makes her sound. OTOH, what she said was still remarkably contentless as far as the war goes. This afternoon I was saying that I don’t know if she’s ever expressed an opinion on foreign policy, and I still don’t know. Say what you will about Obama’s experience, he’s at least been speaking out against the war for five years.
Here’s the whole Palin transcript.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
“Make of this what you will:”
To Matthew Yglesias: Offhand I have no idea what to make of “this” because you haven’t quoted the relevant portion of the source material. Not even a link or a publication date.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Jimmy D, a chart to compare the candidates’ views is here:
http://votegopher.com/HTH.php
August 29th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Reminds me of this other beauty queen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
August 29th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
That vote gopher site says McCain wants to fund stem cell research. The GOP platform that will be introduced at the convention calls for a ban on all stem cell research funding, including private money.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2351/1903451448_635a36aed2_o.jpg
She has many other talents, however.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
You should read her interview rather than listen to the tape, which is spliced and out of context. She had one sentence where she failed to express a coherent thought, which Biden can fail to do for paragraphs, if not pages, of transcript. The Democrats’ “experience” line of attack is a tactical blunder. Palin has far more executive and life experience than Obama. She’s also challenged the power structure in her own party, while Obama has always been a “go along, get along” politician, though admittedly with a golden tongue.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Yes, the whole speech was lacking substance but mentioning that her son will go to Eye Rack, leaving sept 11th no less! gives us a glimpse into McCain’s strategy. A running mate with family on the front line! Wow that’s as good as the Queen and Prince Harry!
August 30th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Not only all that, but Ms Palin has had virtually no contact with Jewish people in America. In fact, most Alaskans still use the term “to jew someone down” as part of their every day vocabulary when speaking about bargaining at the store….so I guess Ms Palin has a huge storehouse of inherited antiSemitic fixations based not on hatred but on ignornace. Ask her what she thinks of Jewish people someone? I am sure he only knows about 3.
Posted by: allen bean | August 30, 2008 1:11 AM
August 30th, 2008 at 1:44 am
also, she spoke of McCaine as “my running-mate” in her speech but in fact SHE is HIS running mate. This woman has her eye on the main desk, and you could see in John’s eyes he is afraid now. He now realizes he chose the wrong person. SHE wants to be pres now. Watch out, John!
August 30th, 2008 at 1:46 am
As a Democrat I am overjoyed with the Palin pick. As a citizen I am completely freaked.
August 30th, 2008 at 7:00 am
@Grumpy: Thanks. I remembered the other word that used to come to mind: “officious”. It’s as if they realize that they have no credibility, and so they start trying to sound Big And Important. This is when they say things like “due to corporate policy” and “for security reasons” and other appeals to authority.
I worked with a guy who used to talk like that; you could actually hear his voice deepening as he felt more intimidated.
@allen bean: Maybe so, but that doesn’t worry me so much; it’s more common than you’d think. I have a friend who almost married a native Texan. Not only did his family say “jew him down”, but they didn’t even realize that it was considered an epithet. Bush has been a disaster, but I don’t think anti-semitism’s been a part of that..
August 30th, 2008 at 9:11 am
and of course, her 19 year old son is getting deployed to I-RAQ on September 11 th! That qualifies her to be VP
August 30th, 2008 at 9:29 am
#1. The woman has *one* issue–supplying the lower 48 with domestic oil from ANWR, packaged as a “security issue” (Rep appeal) and “energy independence” (anyone not environmentalist).
#2. Right now she has no Iraq policy. That’s a mother talking. When’s her kid coming home? But it also relates to #1. She’ll get it together and link them more coherently soon enough.
Don’t underestimate the potential force of this of this particular tactic.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:57 am
You people are nuts if you can’t see how favorably Palin contrasts with Obama. They’re both young, charismatic and have held high elective office for just a short time, but she’s DONE SOMETHING. She took on and defeated the corrupt establishment of her own party, just as McCain has done with the porkers in the Senate, while Obama played ball with the Daley machine, the fixer Rezco, and the unrepentant terrorist turned radical educator Ayers. Unlike Barack, Palin has run something besides her mouth. Obama has no accomplishments except for making speeches and winning elections.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:09 am
EOniel–Leaving the Republican-Democrat views aside, you can’t really say that Palin has more life experience than Obama and make that to be a valid statement. Perhaps you prefer her life story to Obama’s, but many people around the world find his life story to be compelling. As for the executive experience; I doubt most people consider being mayor of a small town the size of some high schools to be significant executive experience.
Obama (along with McCain) is a legislator, so that argument is really one of apples and oranges.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:38 am
MrsJones, Obama has written two autobiographies, but, if you remove his Kenyan ancestry, there’s really nothing in his resume that distinguishes him from hundreds of bright Ivy League-educated, successful middle-aged men. He certainly wouldn’t stand out in the Senate, where he started running for president almost as soon as he got there. The only achievement he ever points to in the Senate is a routine stray nukes bill with Richard Lugar that passed on a voice vote.
Throughout Obama’s career, he’s never challenged the leaders of his party, including the totally corrupt Daley machine. In fact, he thrived in the you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours Chicago culture. See Rezco, convicted fixer, who helped Saint Barack buy his mansion. In stark contrast, Palin challenged corruption on the oil and gas board she served on, then unseated Governor Murkowski by promising to clean up Alaska’s rotten government. She’s battled Ted Stevens and the “good ole boys” network every step of the way, and she has prevailed.
What has Obama done? Speeches don’t count.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:59 am
She’s having an unscripted conversation and isn’t using a teleprompter. I think the critics here are used to their talking heads using prepared statements, mistaking that for intelligence.
How many critics here have been a successful governor of a state on the cusp of energy, environmental and conservation issues?
Fact is, this lady is head and shoulders more accomplished than her critics, and actually has executive government experience whereas neither McCain, Obama or Biden do not have significant executive experience.
Palin has been Chairman of Alaska’s Natural Resource Commission, a city council member, a mayor and the Governor of Alaska. That’s executive experience with a little local legislative deliberation thrown in.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Gotta add one more comment. What’s key about a leader is that she is a hard worker, quickstudy and highly intelligent. This is, for example, the case for any new leader in a new league, such as a recently promoted officer of the military. They’ve got experience, but they may have no experience in a particular mission, scale or theatre. Others bring them up to speed.
Considering that Palin and every other politician who may serve relies on experts and must be smart enough to handle consultants and do their own homework, those who argue that they’re scared “as a citizen” are FOS. To be consistent you’d have to be scared as a citizen whenever any politician without military experience is elected to be CINC. Who might that include?
The only inference to be made from your argument about Palin if you also don’t include Obama in it, then, is that you believe a civilian woman can’t be CINC.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Jay Levitt and Grumpy are right about the Palin’s speech pattern, and that it’s folksy. Many people understand it instinctively, it’s the way they themselves talk.
Folks totally understood George Bush was an opponent of “nation building,” and they were tired of nation building. He delivered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that can’t end until the new nations are built.
Now we hear Palin is against oil company corruption. It doesn’t matter if she is articulate or not, as long as you get the message. That’s the appetizer, and a best-seller to be sure. The main course will be ANWAR.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Yeah, screw Obama! It’s not like he ever accomplished anything in the Senate! It’s not like he reached across the aisle to Republican Senator Tom “I Opposed So Many Democratic Bills They Named An Omnibus After Me” Coburn! And even if he did, it’s not like it was for anything important, like reducing government corruption! He definitely didn’t create a public-searchable Internet-fronted database of all government expenditures or anything of the sort! And he CERTAINLY didn’t name it anything cheesy like USASpending.gov!
When WILL you people touting Obama’s so-called experience wake up? And when WILL I stop being so sarcastic?
August 30th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Sounds like this time I heard a really stupid world leader trying to describe the definition of sovereign.
I all seriousness, every please ignore this dummy.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
America wake up, vote fair and vote right!!!!
August 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Anyone who thinks Sarah Palin is a ditz should watch this interview. http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=836304396
August 30th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
McCain accused Obama
Well I say - McCain Wants to lose the Country for his Political Gain - based upon his age and that he could die in office.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:11 am
What’s the plan, John? Dunno, but the world is in the balance, Pallin.
Or to put it another way
Like George Bush–no plan once we get to Bagdhad–Sarah Pallin 7 years later–has an even smaller idea of what is going on Iraq than Bush did then. Heckofajob. Oh well, they can hold the convention as an Iraq telethon to figure it out now that Maliki’s holding out for refusing legal immunity to Americans there.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:28 am
The Truth about Palin!!
I just heard tonight about Mccain picking Palin and i was shocked!!!! I can’t believe he’d do this to our party! Palin and her family are liars and sinners and I have proof. A few months ago I was visting my friend in anchorage, Katie, and she was telling me about this huge scandal with the governor (palin) that was being kept under wraps. Katie’s mom is part of the cleaning crew that picsk up after Palin. ANyway, apparently, Palin’s daughter SLEPT with her BROTHER (eww gross) and got pregnant. The mom was so ashamed she had to cover it up by claiming the baby was her own!!! Look at these pictures of her at 7 mos, heh, shes not 7 mos!! That’s why the baby was born with Downs syndrome, God was punishing them for their incest. Then, palin shipped her OWN SON off to Iraq to make sure the word didn’t get out.
I can ‘t believe people are thikning about supporting this awful woman!!!
Please, get the word out.
A Concerned Christian Mother
August 31st, 2008 at 11:51 am
“I, frankly, have no idea what she’s trying to say here.”
Well, when you take cut and paste audio and string separate paragraphs together to deceive people into thinking it’s a long winded inane run on statement, I could see the confusion. How about not using cleverly edited audio to merge separate statements that are in response to separate questions into something that it’s not as a means to discredit someone? You know, some integrity.
Bashing someone on facts and true statements is fine. Taking bits and pieces of what someone says, stringing them together and then arguing that they make no sense is intellectually dishonest, and pathetic. Maybe you think your regular readers are dumb enough to buy it, but the rest of us aren’t.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:56 am
@E. O’Neal: Thanks. She definitely sounds a little less out of her depth on the subject of ANWR drilling. She’s not particularly detailed; on the environmental topic, she points out that “Nobody but Alaskans” would care more about the Alaskan environment, without explaining (a) some ways that their caring would actually protect the environment from the drilling that she’s proposing, and (b) if their caring about the environment is balanced, in any way, by the fact that they all get checks in their mailbox which are funded by the oil proceeds.
I’m also a little curious about how she thinks that ANWR will make us independent from “foreign regimes” and feed the “hungry market”, unless we’re withdrawing from the world oil markets. As I understand it - and I’ve done very little reading about this, I confess - oil prices are oil prices; any supply we add simply adds to the global supply, and if OPEC wants the prices to remain high, they can curtail production. Is that incorrect?
As to her energy credentials: I’m reminded of a quote I saw a few days ago, along the lines of “when we speak about an energy crisis, I don’t believe that we’ve been discussing a crisis in oil-*producing* regions.”
“there’s really nothing in his resume that distinguishes him from hundreds of bright Ivy League-educated, successful middle-aged men”: Quite true. There’s nothing in Obama’s resume that distinguishes him from smart, successful, well-educated people. And there’s nothing about Palin that distinguishes her from average, small-town soccer moms. Are you saying that, given the choice of two people who can’t be distinguished from their peer groups, you want the soccer mom in the White House?
“Palin challenged corruption on the oil and gas board she served on”: By resigning from it, no? Did that have its own effect on the process?
“She’s battled Ted Stevens”
Ted Stevens supported her in the general election; he did a (very weird) campaign commercial for her. He supports her now.
“and she has prevailed.” Ted Stevens won his primary last week. In what sense has she prevailed?
You seem to count her very election to Governor *as* her success in “beating the system”. If that’s true, then Obama’s victory over the Clinton machine should certainly be one of his.
@Mike: Executive experience… if mayor of a small town, chair of a commission, and a year of governing an unpopulous, remote state are executive experience, then isn’t president of Harvard Law Review, chair of IL’s HHS committee, and leader of a voting drive also executive experience?
Truth is, I think neither one has significant experience in “executing”, in the presidential sense. Obama, at least, has been reading about, debating, and involving himself in national and global issues since his undergrad days. He’s smart, he’s aware, but he hasn’t done an overwhelming amount with that yet. In my ideal world, he’d have more accomplishments under his belt, but you go to the election with the candidate you have… we pulled him up from the minors early, because we needed him now.
Palin, on the other hand, just doesn’t seem like she’s spent much time thinking about the world outside Alaska. It’s not just that she’s going to be DEALING with the never-ending Israeli/Palestinian conflict for the first time; it’s that she’s going to be THINKING about it for the first time.
“on the cusp”: What conservation or environmental issues was she on the cusp of, other than opposing protection for polar bears? What was her contribution to these issues? What energy issues was she on the cusp of, other than encouraging the oil companies to, as an Alaskan put it, drill even more than *they* thought was “profitable and prudent”?
August 31st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I don’t do folksy; I want facts and no BS. The citizens of the US are fighing for survival- so a beauty queen who is folksy is not going to cut it. I’ll take a chance on Obama/Biden, the US is not for sale. I can’t wait to hear her answers of real “Washington” and overall US issues she may encounter. She blow the foreign issues on day one. (meaning she is clueless of anything outside of Alaska, seriously) Being a caucasian female doesn’t make her a shoe-in for Hillary. (or is it the privileged thing again?) I am white, everyone is suppose to vote for me, I got all this experience from being an Alaskan governor (short of some months.) If idiots vote for her they’re definitely going for bankruptcy. To think McCain was a train wreck - she makes McCain look like a fender bender. Stop looking at gender and race; pay attention to the issues, people.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Jay Levitt, you make some interesting points, some valid. Sarah Palin is a remarkable woman with, until recently, a fairly ordinary life story. That is one thing that makes her so appealing against two career politicians who are trying to paint McCain as “out of touch”. Biden, who’s spent more than half his life in the Senate, likes to talk about ordinary Americans sitting around their kitchen tables — well, that’s the Palins, not some blowhard Senator used to being treated like a god and of thinking of himself that way. Sarah’s husband is an oil worker, commercial fisherman and world champion snowmobile racer. They’re avid hunters who have five children, one of whom has volunteered for Iraq — you can’t get more heartland than that.
The way Sarah Palin handled her selection on Friday with such self-assurance and intelligence convinced me that she’s not out of her depth at all. The particulars of foreign affairs can be mastered by anyone who’s a quick study. No governor is fully conversant with national security issues, nor is a first term senator who’s spent most of his three and a half years running for president and who voted against funding our troops. The moral courage, strength and independence Palin has demonstrated in the cesspool of Alaskan politics, the opposite of Obama’s “don’t rock the boat” machine membership in the Chicago cesspool, is exactly what we need in a commander-in-chief
Of course, the first time Palin makes a gaffe the media and the Democrats (is that redundant?) will be all over her like a duck on a June bug. Obama can claim he’s visited 57 states and stammer around whenever his teleprompter is off without the media noticing that he’s clueless, but their narrative for Palin is already written and waiting for her first misstatement.
As to oil prices, worldwide demand is in the neighborhood of 85 million barrels a day. As we see with hurricanes and other supply disruptions, the temporary loss of one or two million barrels a day causes a sharp price spike. If we had a couple of million barrels a day of additional supply from ANWR or other domestic sources, prices would likewise decline. The world oil markets are highly inelastic, which means small increments in supply or demand result in large price increments.
August 31st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
90% of people hearing “obama is change” will not realize he already failed to take a stand on many important things.
Misogynistic treatment of HIllary Clinton, voting for the retro-FISA bill, voting for Dick Cheney’s energy bill, being open to offshore drilling, selecting a VP who VOTED FOR THE Iraq Resolution.
You know, that BIG BIG FAUX PAS everyone trashed Hillary for.
Hypocrites.
The democratic party is now smearing another woman.
We’ll see how well that goes for the 50% of extremist dems; remember how the neo-cons hijacked the republican party?
Welcome to the same ol’, fellow Dems.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:01 pm
OH, I can’t stand it - !!! (To those of you who have posted positively about Palin on this site -)
The Outside (as we call it in Alaska) news sources and all this stuff about Palin’s great restoration of integrity in Alaska politics is just irritating - yes, she did pull off a few things, but she really hasn’t been governor long enough to see if Alaska’s gamble on her has paid off. And now she is off running around the country without finishing her work here. She hit a lucky run, I had somer respect for her as governor but PLEASE!!!! she is not at all VP material and it is just a shallow thinking fantasy to imagine that she can compare to Obama, Hillary Clinton or any other number of really dedicated people in the Rep. party. I refer you to today’s Anchorage Daily News story on how she broke her promise to the community that needed the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ and I believe there is still a YouTube piece from a local news station detailing some of the information about the Alaska State Legislatures investigation into her possible misuse of power. This investigation started a few weeks ago and she has already had to take by prior statements that were erroneous - and there may be more to come, we don’t know yet.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Oh, yes, and I forgot - her high approval rating in her home state? Consider this - legislation just passed to send every Alaskan a $1200 energy rebate along with this year’s PFD check (to you Outsiders that is the return on oil all residents receive yearly, interest on a huge investment fund). Palin also arranged for these checks to come out a whole month early this year. By September 12, every man, woman and child in the state will be receiving what is estimated to be about $3200 each. If you think about a family with three kids, that is a pretty hefty amount. People really do need the help, especially in the Bush (rural Alaska), but it does have a tendency to make everyone happier with their governor.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Palin’s national security credentials explained by the Doocy Doctrine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwWGS73v4_k
The Doocy-McCain Doctrine explains a lot of things:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VhpA8f8r10
September 1st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Oh, I can’t stand it either Neva… I guess obviously you’re one of the 20% here in Alaska who are neutral or dissapproving of the Gov Palin. And, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m one of the 80% who approve wholeheartedly of her and believe fully that she is exactly what we need in Washington DC if regular rank and file citizens are ever going to have a voice in the governance of our nation. In my 2 and a half decades as a voting citizen, Sarah Palin is the first politician of her status who is “one of us”. No ivy league lifelong politician bent on feathering her own nest, no aristocratic millionaire out of touch with the reality us average citizens, and a straight shooter in general. Sharp enough to successfully handle negotiations with the oil executives of the huge multinational corps we deal with daily here in Alaska, and not let them ride roughshod over herself, or the citizens, and get a fair tax rate passed, and get the ~$40 billion gas line moving which will benefit the economy of the entire US during its construction, and which will benefit the entire US with utilities price stabilization for decades to come. Tell me which other distinguished candidates have made a national contribution on this level?
And, she still makes it a priority to listen to and understand the constituents.
She’s got class, and has stayed largely out of the corruption fray that was allowed to develope in our state by so many apathetic voters for so many decades now, even though she could have been jumping up and down pointing her finger at the transgressors and saying “I told you so!” I am one of the 80% who believed in her and put her in that office because we were tired of “business as usual”. We sent her there with a job to do, and shes done it exceedingly well. The whole nation stands to benefit from the hard work and strong character of the “one in a million” average citizen.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
I am posting this in response to E. O’neal. I a’int mad at ya’. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This is the USA! But, I really don’t like the mis-characterization that often gets espoused.
I would like post more of Obama’s accomplishments as a U.S. Senator, but the list is too substantive, so I’ll mainly categorize.
During the first - 8 - eight years of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced
233 regarding healthcare reform,
125 on poverty and public assistance,
112 crime fighting bills,
97 economic bills,
60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills,
21 ethics reform bills,
15 gun control,
6 veterans affairs and many others.
His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These inculded **the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 - became law, **The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, - became law, **The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate, **The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, - became law, **The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, and many more.
In all, since entering the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored another 1096.
An impressive record, for someone who supposedly has no record according to some who would prefer that this comparison not be made public.
He’s not just a talker.
He’s a doer.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Yes, saying JEW SOMEONE DOWN is not antisemitic at all, it is just like saying I GOT GYPPED, without remembering that Gypsies are real people. So you are right, above, I doubt Palin is antisemitic, not socially. But in terms of her religion, she is antisemitic, as she believes Jews will go to some place called Hell when they die because they did not accept her myth savior as their G-d before they died. THAT is antisemitism, as is the entire New Testament. To be honest.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
She scares the daylights out of me. Does she actually imply in her response that we went to Iraq for the oil (energy)? This is what I’ve always believed, that Saddam was the scapegoat and nothing more. Her response made no sense at all. It is mind boggling that a person who seems to lie compulsively, has BA in journalism, and has governed for for only a couple of years could be one step away from being our commander and chief. So many fishy stories coming from her mouth and McCain’s. One is her recent birth. It is very curious that there are no pictures of her looking pregnant prior to the birth of ‘her’ son. She told no one that he would be handicapped or else she didn’t know. Don’t they do amniocentesis routinely these days. She is disconnected from reality. She also appears to be an absent parent with poor communication skills when it comes to her personal life. The stories are all mixed up and conflicting. Hopefully, the American people will wake up and see that Palin and McCain are simply more of the same: status quoit: George Bush and Dick Cheney. Corruption, secrecy, and manipulative tactics are their norm. They won’t change anything. They will make things worse!
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