The major task of the VP is to step in as President if the elected President is unable to complete their term. I'm an Obama backer and in away I feel bad for Palin because she is in over her head, she's not ready yet. A second term as governor, a high level cabinet post and a nice grad degree from Duke, MIT, or Harvard would really round out her resume. Right now she is just being held up as a rally symbol for conservatives. Plain’s best long term political interest is not served, the long term interest of the GOP is not served and the interest of the USA is not served.
What serves the interest of America is having someone that is ready to lead. I have confidence in Obama, Biden and though I’m not a fan of John McCain generally feel he’s capable. Even though I don’t support him or want to have four more years of the same thing.
Right now I see Palin as a puppet of sort that has her strings pulled by GOP powerbrokers and political elite, the really sad thing I honestly feel that she doesn't see the betrayal. One of my favorite movies of all times is Malcolm X by Spike Lee. Malcolm X was so blinded by loyalty that he literally didn’t see the betrayal; I see the same issue in Sarah Palin. Blind loyalty is blind loyalty and it’s usually ends in a tragedy.
Watch this great clip on blind loyalty from the movie Malcolm X- it's very powerful.
Lets see what Chuck Hagel says about Sarah Palin.
GOP senator: A 'stretch' to say Palin is
qualified
Thu Sep 18, 10:47 AM ET
Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a "stretch" to say she's qualified to be president.
"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."
Could Palin lead the country if GOP presidential nominee John McCain could not?
"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.
McCain and other Republicans have defended Palin's qualifications, citing Alaska's proximity to Russia. Palin told ABC News, "They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Hagel took issue with that argument. "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In July, Hagel traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Though he didn't expect to be asked, Hagel had said he would have considered serving as Obama's running mate.
Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, before becoming Alaska's governor in December 2006.
Palin visited soldiers in Kuwait and Germany last year and said in an interview with ABC News that her only other foreign travel had been to Mexico and Canada. She also said she had never met a foreign head of state.
Hagel told the newspaper that other governors have been elected to serve in the White House without experience in Washington. He said judgment and character were also important for the job.
"But I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world," Hagel said. "I think that's just a requirement."
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Comments: 17
I hope her career is over.
Man, Chuck Hegel's really come out swinging this year against his own party. Now THAT'S what the "Country First" slogan they keep waving at rallies is supposed to mean.
Sorry, I can't watch your clip. Dial up here!! :( Great article Brian and NO I don't think she's qualified to be the VP let alone lead this country if something happened to McCain.
As for Sarah Palin, she personifies everything that Obama promises to bring: She's a reformer who cleaned up her own party and as governor she returned money to the people (our friends who live in Juneau just received an extra $1200+ from the state just for living in Alaska).
I, for one, and going to do everything I can to help her get elected. And if she loses this election, I promise you she'll be back.
I'm more qualified to be VP.
Now that tells you something.
He's going to have his hands so full cleaning up the mess left by the corrupt team already in office, I doubt he's going to have time to emulate a corrupt and inexperienced governor of a state that, although it has less than a million residents, manages to lead the nation in rape per capita and house the crystal meth capital of the country.
Brian, Obama has been blindly loyal to the Chicago political machine and the Democratic Party. Only McCain and Palin have proved they have the guts to stand up against what they believe to be wrong IN THEIR OWN PARTIES. Obama is a typical politician -- all air and no substance -- and has nothing to show for his 2 1/2 years in Congress (except for running for President).
Interesting statement: "Conservatives today would say "liberal media" and could be trusted." That's exactly the opposite perception from what I've observed.
Sunnye T. My statent should have read not because of a typo. here it is as i meant it to be posted.
BT
Watch the clip Sunnye T, watch the clip.In the clip Malcolm X was blindly loyal to those who eventually betrayed him. Malcolm didn't believe what was written in the newspapers it was" the devils paper" and could not be trusted. Conservatives today would say "liberal media" and could not be trusted. It's the exact same thing.
Palin is ready is a ticket Iwon't buy no matter how hard someone tries to sell it.
A new CBS/NYT poll shows a 21-point swing among white women in Obama's direction in just the last week. Palin's favorable rating among women has fallen 11 percent. It is folly to extrapolate too much from any one poll, but others confirm the trend.
According to the poll, the two things McCain voters like most about Palin are that she is "outspoken" and "a woman," neither of which are actually qualifications for the presidency. While arguing for months that the only reason Obama has come so far is because of his race, it turns out that Palin was picked mostly because of her gender. Poll respondents tend to agree: only 17 percent think Palin is qualified to be president. Conservatives love her anyway; 78 percent are enthusiastic about her candidacy. Turns out that tokenism is an exciting phenomenon for a party that is increasingly homogeneous.
And Obama has come this far NOT because of his race but because he sold his sole to Soros and the Chicago political machine. That was evident when he made a speech at the Democratic Convention BEFORE he was even elected to Congress. Only someone whose way would be paved by money and corruption would be able to do something like that. The fact that he got away with it and continues to just shows how ignorant the American public is about how the political campaign process works.
Gov. Palin is exactly what the feminists have been describing for 50 years as the perfect woman EXCEPT for the fact that she not only talks pro-life, she lives it. That's what has made the Eastern feministas angry -- her very existence threatens their lifestyles. I say MORE POWER TO PALIN.
Wilma, you haven't bothered to learn what Palin has done for her state, have you? She's done the things Obama says he wants to do -- but hasn't. Anywhere.
1. She became mayor of a town with zero debt and left it with $22,000,000 in debt
2. She brought the Republican party machine to Wasila and campaigned as a "Christian Mayor" while campaigning about a Pro-Life platform...something that has zero to do with running a city and everything to do with villifying your opponent (who was also a Christian, BTW)
3. Asked a "hypothetical question" regarding how she would go about censoring books as a test of loyalty to see how willing the librarian was to "follow administrative agenda." Upon becoming mayor, fired the librarian. (but had to rehire her after the town went into an uproar)
4. Sued the Federal government to have polar bears removed from the endangered species list
5. Fought a Clean Water bill that the people of Alaska wanted and environmentalists said was important to protect the salmon fishing industry
6. Authorized the shooting of wolves from helicopter, just to protect the caribou herds for sport hunters. Defended the shooting of wolf cubs in the den, even though it was a direct violation of state law.
7. Used a private e-mail account for government business in violation of Alaska state law and federal law
These aren't slurs or opinions. They are documented facts. Now you can bury your head in the sand (or snow, depending on your preference) but these are issues that rational people are concerned about. We've already suffered through 8 years of Bush/Cheney secrecy and "tests of loyalty." This country won't survive 4 more.
Sarah Palin has already been betrayed; she's not ready but is being told that she is and is not bright enoigh to realize it. She needs a second term, more travel, a grad degree and or cabinet post to round out her resume.