McCain chooses Palin for VP

[WCSox]

Relatively inexperienced vs no experience.

 

That's completely inaccurate. Obama has little more experience than Palin.

 

McCain himself has cited that the highest priority issues of our time are national security, Iraq, and Iran...3 things Palin has absolutely no experience in.

 

That's completely irrelevant, given that McCain is an expert in national security. Obama doesn't have any experience in that area as well, hence his selection of Biden.

Edited August 29, 2008 by WCSox

[lostfan]

So, let me get this straight: A relatively inexperienced Obama - who will DEFINITELY occupy the Oval Office, if elected - gets a free pass. But a relatively inexperienced Palin - who will only sit in the Oval Office in the unlikely event of McCain dropping dead - is a flawed choice?

 

I can tell that the Obama-maniacs are nervous right now.

Ok. Let me attempt to rephrase the logic again.

 

This VP pick does NOT give Obama something to attack McCain with. He (directly, anyway) is not going to attack her for being inexperienced. McCain attacks Obama routinely for being inexperienced. IF he plans to continue using that line of attack, then this pick does not make sense, because he effectively nullified that argument by picking someone who fits the same profile. Therefore, unless they simply don't care as has been suggested in this thread, the reason for the pick is something of a head-scratcher.

[Balta1701]

John McCain said based on her experience as a very small town mayor and gov of one of the smallest states in the union she is indeed ready to be president.

You know what? Frankly, I have no problem believing that, because I don't exactly buy that "Experience" is a valid qualification for the White House. I don't think you get better at dealing with foreign leaders or the Congress by practicing in a state when they know you're not the top dog anyway. And I'm not sure there's really any position short of being the President that truly prepares you to be the President. If you just look at the last century, there's really no correlation between how good of a President a person was and where they served beforehand. Johnson got us stuck in a terrible war and he came from the Senate. Bush got us stuck in a terrible war and he came from a governor's chair. Kennedy had a brief stint in the Senate and is still a legendary figure. Teddy Roosevelt bounced around like a crazy man because no one seemed to want him, he wound up briefly serving as a Governor because a couple of the bosses liked him, and he wound up being a surprisingly good president.

 

Tell me you know how the system works, tell me you know something about government, and tell me you're not going to be a complete embarassment for the country. That's all that the experience part does...and frankly, if you can get through a campaign and survive, that's about as much as you can learn on experience anyway.

 

The reason all the Obama supporters are bringing up experience isn't that we all don't think she's ready. Or at least it isn't for me. She's had an excellent rise through the system and the McCain campaign seems to think she'd be useful. I can live with a former governor as VP even if she was only a brief one. The reason why we're bringing up the experience thing is because the same people who are going to vote for McCain have been spending the last few months talking about how much of a novice Senator Obama is. How he's not experienced, how he's not ready, how he's only been in the Senate for 4 years, whatever. If you're going to apply that standard to Senator Obama, then you have to apply it to the other side.

 

I can understand an argument that Senator Obama might be ready and she might not be. It's a narrow one, but he's clearly done more in his years politically than she has. But until this morning, Obama's experience level was a supposed negative for him. Now, anyone who dares say that better be voting for Bob Barr, because the person a McCain heartbeat away from the Presidency probably has less.

[lostfan]

Relatively inexperienced vs no experience. McCain himself has cited that the highest priority issues of our time are national security, Iraq, and Iran...3 things Palin has absolutely no experience in.

No... McCain considers himself an expert there (whether or not that's accurate is another issue). He did need to solidify his "conservative" credentials so on that front the pick makes sense. But as far as how experienced she is relative to Obama doesn't matter, it just cancels out the argument from the GOP side.

[WCSox]

Ok. Let me attempt to rephrase the logic again.

 

This VP pick does NOT give Obama something to attack McCain with. He (directly, anyway) is not going to attack her for being inexperienced. McCain attacks Obama routinely for being inexperienced. IF he plans to continue using that line of attack, then this pick does not make sense, because he effectively nullified that argument by picking someone who fits the same profile. Therefore, unless they simply don't care as has been suggested in this thread, the reason for the pick is something of a head-scratcher.

 

I completely agree that McCain can no longer play that card. Instead, he'll play the "judgement" card and attack Obama's liberal voting record.

 

[lostfan]

The reason all the Obama supporters are bringing up experience isn't that we all don't think she's ready. Or at least it isn't for me. She's had an excellent rise through the system and the McCain campaign seems to think she'd be useful. I can live with a former governor as VP even if she was only a brief one. The reason why we're bringing up the experience thing is because the same people who are going to vote for McCain have been spending the last few months talking about how much of a novice Senator Obama is. How he's not experienced, how he's not ready, how he's only been in the Senate for 4 years, whatever. If you're going to apply that standard to Senator Obama, then you have to apply it to the other side.

100% correct.

[lostfan]

I completely agree that McCain can no longer play that card. Instead, he'll play the "judgement" card and attack Obama's liberal voting record.

Probably. The only way that it makes sense is if he wants to change strategies entirely.

[BigSqwert]

No... McCain considers himself an expert there (whether or not that's accurate is another issue). He did need to solidify his "conservative" credentials so on that front the pick makes sense. But as far as how experienced she is relative to Obama doesn't matter, it just cancels out the argument from the GOP side.

So if McCain were to lose his life somehow during his 1st term we would have a President who is an expert at nothing. Governing a tiny state (population-wise) in a remote region of our continent for the past 2 years hardly qualifies someone to be the leader of the free world.

[WCSox]

Probably. The only way that it makes sense is if he wants to change strategies entirely.

 

The "experience" card was only part of his strategy. Keep in mind that Obama's voting record and associations over the years paint him as a pretty far-left guy, and McCain's been going after him on those issues for a while now.

 

[WCSox]

So if McCain were to lose his life somehow during his 1st term we would have a President who is an expert at nothing.

 

And your alternative is putting somebody who is an "expert at nothing" in the Oval Office right away?

 

The "McCain is old and is going to die" argument is as trite as it is flawed.

 

[lostfan]

So if McCain were to lose his life somehow during his 1st term we would have a President who is an expert at nothing. Governing a tiny state (population-wise) in a remote region of our continent for the past 2 years hardly qualifies someone to be the leader of the free world.

I personally think the experience thing is overrated and there shouldn't be so much weight attached to it. It's about policies, leadership, approach, ideas, and so on. All of that is more important than experience.

[WCSox]

I personally think the experience thing is overrated and there shouldn't be so much weight attached to it. It's about policies, leadership, approach, ideas, and so on. All of that is more important than experience.

 

It matters to an extent, but I've never seen Obama as massively unqualified in terms of experience.

 

[BigSqwert]

And your alternative is putting somebody who is an "expert at nothing" in the Oval Office right away?

 

The "McCain is old and is going to die" argument is as trite as it is flawed.

Has she even been over seas to meet with World Leaders? It's like they held a raffle at the local church and her name was pulled.

[WCSox]

Has she even been over seas to meet with World Leaders? It's like they held a raffle at the local church and her name was pulled.

 

I find it funny that you mention church. I could respond to that, but the joke pretty much writes itself.

 

No, Palin hasn't gone on a World Publicity Tour with Brian Williams and Katie Couric. Does that make Obama a foreign affairs expert?

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

Picking Palin practically BEGS people to talk about how old and close to death McCain is.

It raises the "is she ready to step in" question.

[WilliamTell]

Has she even been over seas to meet with World Leaders? It's like they held a raffle at the local church and her name was pulled.

 

Does it really matter who McCain picked? Most Obama supporters are going to criticize McCain's choice just like McCain supporters would with Biden.

[lostfan]

It matters to an extent, but I've never seen Obama as massively unqualified in terms of experience.

I agree, it does matter to an extent. It's not like *I* could just start a campaign and come out of nowhere and get elected. But it gets pushed as if it was the #1 thing. Like this was World of Warcraft or something, you have a Level 62 Senator taking on a Level 24 Governor and one automatically wins.

 

I didn't think Obama was some complete random n00b either though, to keep the references to video games.

[Balta1701]

So, FWIW, our good friends at TPMedia (our meaning...well...you know) have a summary of the Palin firing scandal case and where things currently sit. They've actually been following it for a while, so they at least know who the players are.

 

Perhaps the key point...the Alaska legislature is actually scheduled to give a report on the case at the beginning of November. Even if it's an "exonerating" type report, that's not exactly the message you'd want to close on. "Not guilty!"

The scandal began on July 11, when Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was removed from his post with little explanation, a move whose abruptness quickly raised questions in Alaska. A few days later, Monegan decided to blow the whistle, and came forward to tell local media that he had been dismissed because he refused to fire trooper Mike Wooten, the ex-husband of Palin's sister, after having been pressured to do so by aides to Palin. (Monegan's replacement, former Kenai Chief of Police Chuck Kopp was only on the job for two weeks once past complaints of sexual harassment from 2005 were publicized.)

 

Critics pointed out that the effort to fire the trooper might have been directly related to the fact that Palin's family had a longstanding grievances with Wooten. In an internal state police investigation in 2005, Palin herself had accused Wooten of threatening to harm her father during the breakup of her sister's marriage. (The Palins claimed, among other things, that Wooten had used a taser on his 10-year-old stepson, and shot a moose without a permit.)

 

Since Monegan made his allegations, Palin has denied that she personally had a role in the effort to fire Wooten. On July 28, the state legislative council, a bipartisan panel of senators and representatives, appointed a special commission to probe the matter.

 

Her backtrack on her office's role was prompted by the preliminary findings of a separate ongoing investigation into the matter by the state Attorney General, launched on August 4, that she herself put into motion. At a press conference at which Palin revealed some of that investigation's finding, she acknowledged that in February, state troopers had taped a phone call from Frank Bailey, Palin's director of boards and commissions, whom she appointed in August 2007, in which Bailey appeared to push for the firing of Wooten on Palin's behalf.

 

In the call, Bailey appeared to say that Palin and her husband were frustrated that Wooten still had his job. "The Palins can't figure out why nothing's going on," Bailey said in the recorded phone call. "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads ... 'Why is this guy representing the department, he's a horrible recruiting tool.' You know? So from their perspective everybody's protecting him."

 

The investigation could be particularly poorly timed for the GOP. Steve Branchflower, a former state prosecutor who is conducting the investigation, has a three-month contract for his work, which started August 1, and will end October 31, according to Alaska State Senate Judiciary Committee chair, Hollis French (D), who is overseeing the probe. French told TPMmuckraker that he expects Branchflower to release his report in the days before the November 4th presidential election.

 

A spokeswoman for Palin told TPMmuckraker that the governor's office would be fully cooperating with Branchflower.

[EvilMonkey]

Has she even been over seas to meet with World Leaders? It's like they held a raffle at the local church and her name was pulled.

Well, she went overseas and met with our wounded soldiers, which is already one more thing than Obama did.

 

http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2008/07...-versus-ob.html

[spiderman]

PS: If it's Palin... now THAT is inexperience. She's only been in office for 2 years (Obama has 12+ years in state and national service). That moots McCain's "Obama's not ready" argument. Obama could throw it right back at him.

 

I don't think he will because Obama still remains inexperienced.

[spiderman]

It's Palin, according to Fox. You have to wonder if this move was made with the focus on getting Hillary's voters to vote for McCain.

 

Clearly, this was the biggest motive for the pick. It also helps that she's a staunch Republican who has a lot of similar qualities to McCain in regards to wasteful spending, reform.

[spiderman]

Buchanan is voting Obama.....did you see him spooge over his speech last night? It was hilarious

 

That may be a requirement for MSNBC employees.

[Nokona]

Well, she went overseas and met with our wounded soldiers, which is already one more thing than Obama did.

 

http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2008/07...-versus-ob.html

 

Do you have a drinking problem? Sometimes you're ability to post completely inane things is unbelieveable.

[EvilMonkey]

Do you have a drinking problem? Sometimes you're ability to post completely inane things is unbelieveable.

I have no problem drinking. I do it very well.

[EvilMonkey]

Do you have a drinking problem? Sometimes you're ability to post completely inane things is unbelieveable.

Let's see. So far your contributions to this thread have been a Youtube video of Stevens endorsing palin for Governor, as if any same-party Senator wouldn't do the same (post #305), a pretty chauvanistic remark about her only getting the nomination because she was a woman, when if someone said Obama only got it because he was black they would be crucified (post#277), a post noting that her hubby works for BP and Biden rides Amtrack (ok, that one was ok) (post#121), and you worry about what I post? Ok.