Sarah Palin

[Jesina Dreis]

Thoughts?

I, personally, think she's the torpedo the Democrats were waiting for to sink McCain and he did himself a disservice by naming her his running mate. I think she's unqualified and another Bush in the making.

Anyone?

[Demon28]

I agree with you, Jes. But I'm also terrified that people are falling for the hype surrounding her. There is no way she can handle being President if something was to happen to McCain.

I know my Mom, who is 80, is going to vote for her & McCain and my vote for Obama will just cancel her vote.

Most of the people @ work are for McCain/Palin. It is like talking to a brick wall trying to point out that McCain/Palin is more of Bush's failed policy.

I try not to get involved in politics but this election is too important to stay on the side lines no matter what you believe. We all have to exercise our right to vote that was given to us in the blood of our forefathers and today's military protecting our right to vote.

This post has been edited by Demon28 on Sep 12 2008, 08:33 PM

[RedBirdie]

Oh. My. GOD. Did you see that she doesn't even know what the Bush Doctrine is? Jesus.

She's terrifying. I'm ready to rip out my girlie parts and disavow hockey so I'm not associated with her in any way. This woman is a WHACK JOB.

[Mia Celchu]

Ok, to be fair, this is my disclaimer, I'm voting for Obama/ Biden.

1st off, don't throw in your towel as a hockey fan, just cause she is.

I think she does really well as portraying herself as a very intelligent woman, I'm sure she is intelligent, but she does not seem to answer things well that deviate from the talking points. I'll have to wait and see how she does during the VP debates, but that's the way she seemed in the Gibson interview.

I'm disturbed that she keeps on bringing Hilliary Clinton into this as I believe its just pandering b/c a) Hilliary Clinton and herself come from very different view points politically b) Palin has said before she was selected something to the respect that Hilliary shouldn't wine about the media.

It's my view that she's doing the same thing. I'm not saying that the media isn't at fault in some points, like focusing on their clothing choices more than the issues or ability to juggle work and family life, but it should never be an excuse when they call you out on either a change of position and stretching the truth if not by all accounts lying.

It annoys me that McCain surrogates push her foreign policy qualification as having been to a total of four countries, her controlling the AK National Guard (has nothing to do w/ foreign policy work), and AK proximity to Russia. Traveling is extremely different from meeting w/ foreign leaders and working out a deal in my opinion. Granted that nobody can say they are ready to be President, unless they were VP at a time when the President was incapacitated/ unable to do work for a reasonable amount of time.

The other thing that annoys me is that she says she's a maverick, against pork barrel spending, and a reformer. It is every governor/ senator/ representative's right to ask for money to bring money to their constituents, but don't say you are against it if your state has benefited the most per person from it. She has also previously served on a committee to re-elect Sen. Ted Stevens. Also w/ this whole Troppergate issue, best way to deal with it is to be honest and release anything. Count me as a cynic, but when you refuse to release e-mails and not allow your staff to testify, I believe you have something to hide. We shouldn't have to wait until people get subpoena. Reforms for the government should include everyone. The people that should lead by example should be the ones pushing for it.

I would love to see a women one day to be VP and/or President, I just hope that one day, it would be someone that is highly qualified, and not someone that's just picked to pander to certain groups. Tokenism itself isn't progress. That's just my 2 cents.

[Jesina Dreis]

There hasn't been really positive thing said about the McCain-Palin ticket in this thread but the banner ad is for donations to their campaign.

Palin's lack of foreign policy experience scares me. Have we learned nothing from the last 8 years? Even the last 16 years? Bill Clinton went on the record saying that if he'd been more well-versed in foreign policy things probably would have gone quite differently.

No one is against pork barrel spending and I'm so unbelievably sick of that argument. No one. Nada, zip, zilch. Nobody. Kthxbye.

I said this on my LJ. The problems with Palin make me even more nervous about McCain. There are two possibilities here. Either McCain and his advisors are politically moronic and didn't care that the woman has a legal case against her and a pregnant teenager (both of which no candidate, Democrat or Republic, can afford right now in an election as contested as this is), or she wasn't properly vetted and his offering the nomination was knee-jerk, which scares me.

Also, that she's making the same points that even Bush no longer makes worries me. The Iraqis didn't attack us on September 11, Ms. Palin. Sorry but even W has figured that one out by now.

[Mia Celchu]

McCain, I believe is actually against pork barrel. Don't quote me on this, but I don't think he has brought any $ to AZ for what people would call "pork barrel project."

Like I said, have no issues w/ pork barrel spending, only thing I wish they didn't insert it into random bills. Once person pork barrel spending is another person's progress, I guess.

Oh, for anyone that hasn't seen it, SNL Palin/ Hillary opening very funny. You can find it on SNL's website. Tina Fey and Sarah Palin look like twins.

Find it funny that she "will fully co-operate" w/ the investigation, yet won't release the e-mails or talk w/ investigators, b/c it's politically motivated. Though, Republicans apparently outnumber the Democrats. Although, French I believe his name said there might be an "October Surprise." Stupid of him to say that, but still no reason not to talk w/ them if you have no reason to hide.

Her Gibson interview, made me squirm, and to think I would have voted for McCain in 2000, and possibly even 2004.

[Leia Janson]

The woman scares me. She's there to make the hard core conservatives happy, get the female vote (because, *turns sarcasm on* obviously, we shouldn't bother with the issues, but it makes us feel good to have a woman there.) so McCain can grab some of the softer shoe conversatives with his stances and show that he's a forethinking type of man.

Damnit Hillary.

I guess my dream ticket of Hillary Clinton (because that woman will do something) and Howard Dean (he wants to make healthcare affordable!) will never be.... *Sniff*

The worse thing is.... I have no faith in Obama as a leader. He's very slippery and he seems to shift gears way too often and I know nothing about Biden, which freaks me out a little. It was the same way with Kerry... He wouldn't talk about his stance on the issues. Which I really dislike.

[Jesina Dreis]

Biden's a very experienced senator and the information about him is there. Go to his senate office web site and you'll find probably everything you're looking for, and in a format that has been designed for his constituents more than for his presidential run.

Biden put together a detailed plan for a federal system in Iraq (ignoring the fact that in reality such a thing will never last in the long run, it's a huge step in moving toward a withdrawal of our troops. He's worked extensively on affordability of higher education. He's supported middle class tax relief and introduced bills to put more cops on the streets, implement 9/11 Commission recommendations. He also was involved in efforts to balance the budget in the 1990s.

And that's from five minutes on his senate site.

There's a reason that our recent presidents have come out of the executive rather than the legistlative--it's very difficult for a congressman or senator to present himself as having voted the same way on every vote related to a particular concern. It doesn't work that way; it can't. Being in Washington requires compromise and sometimes that means supporting things you don't agree with so that you can get support on something more important down the road.

Have you ever seen the movie The American President? It's ripe with this sort of negotiation. They have lawmakers willing to support one bill that they're wholly opposed to in order to get another off the table.

Kerry talked about issues... his positions were out there if you want to look.

You're better off not listening to what they say - speeches are designed to deliver maximum rhetoric and minimum information. Better off going to Senate web sites or campaign web sites and reading up on the information yourself.

I would shoot myself to have Howard Dean take office. Dean's proposals work well in small-scale but he'd have had a very rude awakening on the national scale.

Not targeting you at all, Leia, and I don't know how much research you've done but I find more and more people are unwilling to open a web browser and invest half an hour to find out a little about the people they're going to be voting for or against. We watch the news and catch the speeches and form our opinions based on those, which is a highly uneducated way to go about it.

[Leia Janson]

Thanks for the frank discussion. I didn't take offense at all.

See, I checked the official sites on Kerry and there was nothing much that I could find about where he stood online (but that was then and this is now) , because I don't watch the speeches much. I don't have tv and when I do watch things, it's over at a friends place. But you're right. I haven't (YET) looked at those sites. So, I was wrong to weigh in when I didn't have the full information yet.

So allow me to apologize.

[Jesina Dreis]

No apology necessary I campaigned for Massachusetts Democrats in 2002 and for John Kerry in 2004 so I'm familiar with this. I think the position papers we had on Kerry in the office were straight off his issues page from the campaign web site.

The other thing you can do is go to the RNC and DNC sites. The party platforms in an election year are dictated by the presidential candidates' positions... what you'll see on the issues on the party web sites will mirror the positions of the candidates. That's another way you can see what they're doing and what they stand for.

[RedBirdie]

A few more things about Joe Biden:
1. his Secret Service guys, even the die-hard republicans, love him, because he's down to earth, knew all the names of his protective details' children within an hour, and discusses football as fluently as foreign policy.
2. He's one of the "poorest" (that being a relative term, of course) members of the senate. His personal wealth is nil. He doesn't own 7 houses, he's not a trust fund baby, he didn't marry a beer distribution heiress to jump-start his political career.
3. A few weeks after being elected to the senate back in the 1970s, he was in Washington when his family was in a horrifc car crash, which killed his wife and newborn daughter, and hospitalized his two sons. Biden started commuting every day from his home in Wilmington, DE, to DC so his sons wouldn't have to be alone after that. He has continued to do that commute, each day, on the Amtrak train, until he was picked to be the VP running mate. Amtrak and public commuting have no bigger champion in the senate than Biden.

Biden, of course, is also well-known for foot-in-mouth disease. But, ya know, at least he talks to people, unlike Palin.

And if I can throw out one thing about Obama: his background is in constitutional law. I don't know about you, but the idea that someone might actually have a deep understanding and respect of one of our country's founding documents makes me feel a little better. No longer would the Constitution be viewed as an inconvient piece of paper, but instead as one of a guiding principles of all levels of law.

This post has been edited by RedBirdie on Sep 29 2008, 10:31 AM

[Jesina Dreis]

Marginally off-topic but I love con law. I still have my con law casebooks.

Birdie, someone mentioned to me that Obama had switched his position on gun control after the court ruling about DC. Do you know anything about that?

[RedBirdie]

the gun issue in DC is messy, complicated, and far too complex for even a DC-er like me to really understand. What Obama's position is, i don't know, but here's a quick rundown on the events:
1. DC enacts a handgun ban way back when.
2. Last year, some NRA-type decides that the handgun ban violates his constitutional right to bear arms
3. The Supreme Court agrees with him (using some really flimsy reasoning, imo)
4. DC re-drafts their gun laws, taking out the handgun ban, but still making it might difficult to obtain a permit for a handgun with city limits.
5. Congress gets their panties all in a twist in deicdes that us poor, pathetic DCers need their leadership, unilaterally throws out DC's law (oh, yes, in addition to not having ANY voting representation in Congress-500,000 Americans who are second class citizens-Congress can do pretty much whatever they want to the city) and enacts a less restrictive law.

Now, as you might imagine, I'm not so big on this Congress-constantly-meddling-in-our-affairs thing. Congress doesn't go around invalidating the laws of, say, Wyoming (which, by the way, is smaller than DC but gets two senators and a representative!). I don't know who voted what way, who said what, nothing. All I know is I'm about ready to march up South Capitol Street with a pitchfork and tell the Texans and Vermonters and Alabamans and the rest of them to shove off and butt out. I don't tell Mississippi how to conduct their business (although I probably should-there's a dysfunctional state).

Although if you want to discuss dysfunctional states, out friends across the Potomac bring it to a whole new level!

[Jesina Dreis]

I remain amazed that DC continues to be unrepresented.

I'm really excited to watch the debate on Thursday.

[RedBirdie]

DC: America's last colony! DC residents pay federal taxes, just like other Americans, yet lack representation (federal territories like Guam and USVI don't pay federal taxes). It wasn't until the 1964 presidential election that DC residents could vote for president! The direct election of the mayor is new as well.

[Jesina Dreis]

Well, Joe Biden knocked my socks off last night in the debate.
In fact, I think the Democratic ticket is backwards.

Palin, I admit, did better than I expected but one more "maverick" comment and I'd have shot myself.

If you dislike Palin, or at least have a sense of humor about her, you'll probably find this amusing: Palin's debate prep

[Rogue SG-1]

That's hilarious!

[Valin_Halcyon]

Hm, TrooperGate gave its results... and Palin says she was "vindicated". It's kinda scary how blatantly you can lie and still get away with it.

[Rogue SG-1]

Politicians have it down to an art form.
BTW, on a slightly political note, I get to vote for the first time this weekend!

[RedBirdie]

ugh, we have a McCain/Palin ad at the bottom of the page. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Did y'all hear about this "Joe the Plumber"? Oh. My. God. ok, first of all, he hasn't a CLUE what he's talking about when it comes to Obama's tax proposal. It really irritates me when people regurgatate Republican talking points without taking the slightest bit of time to educate thamselves about the FACTS (oh, wait, but then the facts would prove that, horrors, Obama's plan would actually cut the tax liability of a guy like "Joe"). And then on top of that, he's a guy who obviously has ZERO understanding of how businesses operate-he may buy the business for $275,000 or so, but that is decidedly NOT what he'll be taking home each year. And then the idiot has a tax lein against him! Hardly the upstanding, average American, no?

My father in law is a plumber in the Toledo area, owns his own business, and let me tell you, never ever once has he come anywhere CLOSE to raking in $250,000+ a year. And if he has, my mother in law wants to know where he's been hiding all that money for the last 30 years!

This post has been edited by RedBirdie on Oct 17 2008, 10:16 AM

[RedBirdie]

a little humor to brighten your day as we get closer and closer to the day Sarah Palin goes back to Alaska:

[RedBirdie]

There'a an absolutely fantastic article in the Washington Post today about Jill Biden (she got her doctorate a few years ago in education; she teaches english at Delaware Technical and Community College; Joe asked her 5 or 6 times to marry him before she said yes) that has some thing about Joe Biden in it. The full article can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...02300047&s_pos=

But here are some things about Sen. Biden:
Joe Biden write the landmark Violence Against Women Act which became law in 1994
In 1987, shortly after dropping out of the 1988 presidential race "he suffered a brain aneurysm so severe that a priest administered last rites at the hospital."
"Joe's first wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter died in a car crash in 1972, six weeks after he was elected to the Senate at the age of 29. Their sons, Beau and Hunter, wound up in the hospital, Beau in a full body cast. Joe had to be persuaded to start his first term."