Friday, August 29, 2008

Bloggy reaction to Palin

Cesca, the funny and the serious. First the funny:


Pale and Palin '08

And now the serious:


Senator Obama has run one of the most successful campaigns in the history of American politics, and he defeated the most popular Democratic brand in the world. Raises $50 million per month. Organized the most energetic, historic convention... ever. And he chose a near-perfect running mate in Senator Biden. That's his "executive" experience.

What does Governor Palin have that qualifies her to be a breath away from the presidency when two wars are being waged and the economy is disintegrating?

McCain might as well have picked Cindy McCain.

Sullivan:

Drilling for oil is [not] going to win the election. In fact, it's insane that it should win the election. It's fine, even important, as part of a longer-term energy diversification policy. But I don't see how a focus on drilling for oil is going to win over independents in an era of petrol-fueled-wars and climate change.

And yes, there's always a balance between a president's qualities and a vice-president's. That's why Obama picked Biden. It's why Bush picked Cheney. But a future vice-president in war time should have some record of even interest in foreign policy. [...] She's had two years of executive experience as governor of a state with not many more people than the District of Columbia.

I reserve judgment of this pick until we see her and him together. And I can see the sense of it from television's angle, from diversity's angle, and from the change angle. She may well also be a great pick for the future of the GOP. But, still ...

Marshall:

It's a daring pick but I think a very weak pick. I'm perfectly happy with it. [...] John McCain's central and best argument in this campaign is that Barack Obama simply lacks the experience to be President of the United States. And now John McCain, who is a cancer survivor who turns 72 years old today, is picking a vice presidential nominee who has been governor of a small state for less than two years and prior to that was mayor of a town with roughly one-twenty-seventh of the citizens that Barack Obama represented when he was a state senator in Illinois. [...] Palin is manifestly less qualified [than Obama]. And that undermines the central premise of McCain's campaign.
Joe Klein:
In a weird, clever, way, Palin's inexperience serves to illuminate Obama's...and so Democrats, especially Joe Biden, would probably be wise to tread carefully here. The Republicans can easily make the argument that they got their ticket order rightside up--experience over a compelling new face--and the Democrats got their order upside down. They can make that argument...we'll see how it flies.
On one side we hear, "It's the economy," and Obama spent a lot of time in his speech last night on that ground, more than what he spent talking about the wars. On the other side, we hear, "We're in wartime." Best to have a VP who has the gravitas in that arena.

Let's not forget: Bush 43 was governor of a giant state, and yet his "executive experience" in running that state has ultimately proven worthless, as he has run the economy virtually into the ground. We are literally a house of cards, as I told someone in the News department of KTTV yesterday. Palin's experience as mayor of a small town, and half a term as governor of a sparsely populated state, will provide the GOP ticket with almost no tangible strength on economic matters. And Bush 43's inexperience on the international front has had grave consequences for America -- even with a VP as solidly experienced in foreign policy as Cheney. As I said earlier, she's a political lightweight.

This choice will prove out to be purely political, an attempt to grab disappointed Hillary fans and shore up McCan't's lack of support among evangelicals. She's anti-abortion, but has supported gay rights, according to Wiki. She's a she, so Biden runs the risk of seeming ungentlemanly if he zings her (but all he has to do is follow Obama's lead there since he so effectively neutralized Hillary during the primaries).

This pick will blow up in McCan't's face. He tried to be clever, but at the end of the day, it's just lipstick on a pig.

No comments: