McCain camp fires back:
It is pretty audacious for the Obama campaign to say that Governor Palin is not qualified to be Vice President. She has a record of accomplishment that Senator Obama simply cannot match. Governor Palin has spent her time in office shaking up government in Alaska and actually achieving results — whether it’s taking on corruption, passing ethics reform or stopping wasteful spending and the ‘bridge to nowhere.’ Senator Obama has spent his time in office running for President.
…Palin will argue that in fact Obama has no more experience than she does, and that Palin has the advantage of sharing McCain’s views (and thus being right) on the surge, Russian ambitions, and meetings with state terror sponsors. The VP debate against Biden may be dicey, but the McCain camp knows full well that a vice-presidential debate isn’t going to make or break their candidate. In short, McCain is hoping that Palin is good enough on this score for a number two pick against a Democratic ticket headed by a man with virtually the same meager national security credentials.
As to the second, Palin has much to offer McCain. On a non-political level few can doubt her Q-factor. (She will be the first former beauty queen to run on a national ticket.) The daughter of a teacher and mother of five, she has an ebullient personality and an excellent TV presence. The Right will be entranced : a pro-life hunter with a passion for domestic energy development? And in the battle for “change” she has the record of reform and the identity of a complete Washington outsider. Finally, as a lifelong NRA member, an outdoorswoman, and a western governor she may provide extra help in mountain and western states such as Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico which are certain to be in play.
On the policy front, Palin can make the case that the Democratic program of higher taxes, more spending, and a government takeover of health care is a proven loser. She will argue that she can bring practical experience from as far outside the Beltway as one can get. And, of course, the presence of a woman on the ticket creates instantaneous excitement and puts into play Clinton voters looking for a new champion.
The pick also tells us something about McCain: he thinks he can win. He was not willing to rock the boat with his conservative base. He can use Palin on offense to make a run at women voters and on defense to blunt the populist attacks from the Democrats. And it shows he understands the need to generate enthusiasm and “newness” in his own campaign.
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How anyone can gripe about the Vice President not having foriegn policy experience is beyond me. I am a lot more concerned with the President not having foriegn policy experience.
Obama has no executive experience, unless you count stealing money fron the Annenberg thing in Chicago as experience, nor foriegn policy experience. His running mate, Joe Biden, has never had to make a meaningful decision and his foriegn policy experience is abysmal. Obama and Biden are dumb and dumber.
McCain made a good decision on this one.
Chuck
This is the home run I’ve been waiting for from the Republicans for years. She is the real deal for conservatives. Her husband is the Luckiest Guy in America!
Governor Sarah Palin was a brilliant choice for VP. She will make history as the first female Vice Presidential candidate in the Republican Party, and again as the first female Vice-President of the United States of America. Because of her Christian beliefs and conservative creds, she will energize the Republican base which has thus far only been only lackluster in their support for McCain. A life time member of the NRA, she is also a gifted speaker, an ardent reformer and the extremely popular governor of Alaska. Sarah Palin is no slouch, and if the Democrats think they can paint her as inexperienced, they are in for the surprise of their collective lives. She’s more qualified than Obama, who hasn’t ANY executive experience, other than his brief tenure at the helm of William Ayres’ Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), a position Obama is in no hurry to trumpet.
Way to go Team McCain on your choice of Governor Palin! Now conservatives can actually campaign for McCain/Palin, not just campaign against Obama/Biden. This will also give Hillery’s PUMA’s a cause celebre for throwing their support behind McCain. From what I’ve read on the liberal boards, there are a lot of disenfranchised Hillery voters out there. We say: come one, come all! We have a big tent in the Republican Party, though we do lack a single Greek Temple.
are you kidding me? you think this woman is ready to step on the national stage and be the president of the united states? to say a woman who was mayor of a town of 10,000 people and having executive experience as gov for 2 years. you guys really think she is ready to go into congress and push legislation? can mccain send her to russia and meet with other world leaders?
wasn’t it said that the president and vice-president has to pass the national security test? does palin pass that test? the only think mccain did was make conservatives happy and i guess that is what he set out to do. he has changed the entire texture of the campaign because his announcement speech was about reforming washington and now winning the war on terror. in that, i say this pick has benefits for both mccain and obama. and i think the other thing that is good about this pick is that it will now come down to the issues and not the side show that has been the rave for the past month.
this will be the best election cycle this country has ever seen and in the end, history will be made. we will see.
I love this. She is running for VP with a few years of executive experience. Obama has no executive experience and about six months of Senatorial experience (seeing as how he has been on the campaign trail for the last 1+ years) and oh, that community organizer experience and he is running for President!
But you want to come at Palin?
You guys are a joke….
She is imminently more qualified than a guy with no executive experience and no commander in chief experience at all, except for his Annenberg exec experience which Obie doesn’t really want to talk about.
Palin has knowledge and experience in negotiation with foreign governments already which is not something that Obie has.
My prediction? McCain won the election today.
On foreign policy experience, dealing with DC from Alaska is like dealing with a foreign country. Specifically, everything east of the 95th Meridian and North of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Two quick observation.
First, the democrats say that this election is about understanding people in small town america. Yet their criticism of Palin is that she was the Mayor of a small town and this counts as 0 experience. So why do they disparage small town Americans as unqualified?
Second, it is interesting to watch as the media savages another women as it throws Palin under the buss as a VP candidate while it celebrates a man with equal or less experience as a qualified presidential candidate
James, Alaska is between Canada and Russia, and she knows how to deal with both, signing a huge contract with a Canadian company for a pipeline, and constantly being briefed on what the Russians are doing near Alaska. She shot her first rabbit at age 10 and in her teens hunted caribou with her father, what will Putin say after she tells him she can take him out before he even blinks…. Yes Mame, where do I sign?
Tony
so let me get this straight… you guys are saying that sarah palin is the most qualified person to be president of the 4 (mccain, palin, biden, obama)? you are saying that being governor of alaska has prepared her for the geo-political environment of the EU, Russia, NATO and combating terrorism. You are saying that being in the senate for any number of years should not count as experience when selecting a president? so why was obama’s experience an issue if the only experience that counts is being an “exectutive”? spin this anyway you like but the only thing that qualifies palin for this ticket is being a conservative.
how much support would she have for president had she started with mccain and romney? imagine not much. this pick comes down to mccain knowing that the democrats had the excitement and he needed to shake things up. this makes conservatives happy but she IS a conservative and we’ve witnessed for 8 years what conservatives do when given a chance to govern. we don’t even have to mention her resume. the point has been made that the republican party has run the country and economy into the ground and we certainly don’t need another far-right winger in the WH.
She has more executive experience then Obama, Biden and McCain. Her State borders both Russia and Canada. She is more qualified to run a country then Obama thats for sure and she isn’t running for President. The community organizer is.
He was elected to the Senate and six months later was on the campaign trail. He is the chair of a few committees, including one on Afghanistan, and has NEVER attended one. He is a absentee Senator with no legislation under his belt, while she does.
Oh, he does have one accomplishment.
Yes we do. After a devasting attack that conservative administration ensured our economy did not falter, they took out two tyrannical governments in the Taliban and Saddam and freed 25 million people from dictatorship into freedom. And in 8 years there has not been one more attack against this country or our interests. Care to count how many times al-Qaeda attacked our interests during the Democrats turn in office? They didn’t during this one because we’ve demolished them, no thanks to the Democrats.
Face it, Palin and Obama have little experience. She has executive experience at least, and legislative experience to boot.
No recession, tax cuts, and the economy is growing, not to mention that unemployment the same or lower then during the Clinton years. VDH on the economy Obama and you liberals try in vain to describe as failing:
The point is that even our VP pick has more experience then your Presidential pick….quite embarrassing.
curt… as vice president that makes running for (just in case) president. that means come january, if mccain wins – and i certainly don’t believe he will – she would have to be ready to become president. being governor of a state bording a foreign country does not qualify one to become a president. obama is a graduate from harvard, a law professor, a state senator and is now a u.s. senator. he ran a campaign became the nominee of his party. are you telling me that palin would have been the nominee of your party had she ran against romney, rudy and mccain.
heck, the righties have been balking about obama not picking hillary – why didn’t mccain pick romney – he’s a governor, a successful businessman? is palin more qualified then romney?
No, but she is more qualified then Obama who has almost zero Senatorial experience and no executive experience.
He went to harvard and has run for President. Thats about all he has….oh, I forgot, his experience as a community organizer. He has horrible judgment, runs with convicts, corrupt politicians and terrorists. He flips and flops based on which way the polls tell him to and lets not get into his performance without a teleprompter….ah, ah, ah, uh.
An empty suit.
You guys made a horrible mistake putting Obama rather then Hillary up as your nominee and will pay for it in November.
James: After what you have said about Palin I don’t see how you could vote for Obama. Palin may be only a heartbeat away from the Oval Office if McCain wins but Obama would sit in the big chair on day one if he wins.
I find it odd that you continue to repeat basically the same comment about experience over and over which only serves to highlight that Obama is not fit to be Commander in Chief.
At least Palin can learn from McCain. Whose going to teach Obama? Michelle?
James you’re a buffoon. Obviously, you’re too stupid to realize that all the arguments that you make against Palin are the same ones you don’t have the integrity to cast upon O’Bama.
I guess there’s just no fixing…stupid.
James Manning’s drivel would be somewhat easier to read if he followed some basic rules in what I presume (perhaps incorrectly) to be his native language.
SP another Margaret Thatcher? Hell the West could do with another one right now.
Electing Obama would only prove how invasive the liberal mantra of affirmative action has become.
YOU ALL ARE CRAZY!!! IF MCCAIN DIES WE HAVE THIS AS ARE PRESIDENT!!
bafoon? i never questioned obama’s experience. in fact, i questioned his experience as well, but he ran a campaign on his ideas and won. hillary tried to use the experience thing against him and go nowhere. mccain tried to use it and it seem to work but he was still losing. this campaign was never going to be about who had more experience. but to hear you guys tell it… being a senator does not equip someone to be president. so one year as governor better than 20 years as a senator – that makes no sense to me.
and is she the most qualified woman in the GOP? if being a governor made her ready, why didn’t mcccain go for romney?
anyway… it doesn’t matter because mccain/palin is going to lose in november. this pick is about getting the republican base out to vote but this is not year for it. the experience crap is off the table and mccain made that calculation that it would help obama but wouldn’t hurt palin… its a wash. there was not excitement for him and with palin now there is. so politically, i get it – the question is, will it work. i dont think it will. she’s not going to get hillary voters because she is further to the right than george bush. the western states are going blue and having a brash conservative is not going to swing them. once she starts talking about teaching creation in school, ending a woman’s right to choose, and i’m there will be more.
we will see. this will be an interesting race.
This will be an outstanding race. Barak Hussein Obama is an empty suit and an Islamic racist whose rhetoric makes Karl Marx look like a capitalist. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has a list of accomplishments that demonstrates she delivers. It is not experience that makes a difference, it is the ability to confront a situation and the character to deal with it in a way that reaches a satisfactory solution. Along the way she has done that in a professional and outstanding manner. As she stated in her comments, the people elected her to take action. Barry may talk about change, but Sarah delivers it!
i notice that the argument for Palin is only sustained by and argument against Obama. Just saying she is better than someone else doesn’t make her Qualified in the least. Sorry.
She’s not impressive at all and she very well may be our next president. John McCains health is poor and she’s next in line. Would you vote for her as president? My guess is no, yet that is a very distinct possibility and everyone is oblivious to that notion.
I don’t know that obama would be better but at least his family life is under control.
she’s rumored as adulterer who bring personal vendetta’s to work and can’t even instill values in her own children. How can she be at or near the head of our country.
Step away from partisan stubbornness and use your god given brain.
False.
Opinion unsupported by fact.
More unsupported opinion.
Yes, absolutely.
You have no idea how correct you are there.
Really?
Uninformed you are.
Really?
Really?
Are you sure or are you slandering Sarah Palin?
Hmm…..
When did that happen?
Obviously, you are not the parent of teenagers.
Teens make their own choices. Sometimes they stray away from what they were taught.
Did you always do every single thing that your parents told you and taught you to do?
My guess is no.
Very good advice there.
Very good indeed.
You should follow it.
Would you vote for her as president?
Yes, absolutely.
you sound intelligent with you’re systematic analysis of my comment but saying things like that make you sound nuts. maybe i’m uninformed but at least i’m not delusional.
she is a stunt.
thank you for enlightening me. i now see the error of my ways.
You know, you’re right, I do.
Thank you for pointing out my superiority.
You’re right again.
Really?
Are you sure?
Is that what the voices in your head are telling you?
??!!!???
Clearly not ready for primetime. I’m not saying that she won’t one day be ready to serve at this level, but not yet.
And don’t give me, “But Obama says ‘Uh’ a lot!” At least the words between the “uhs” make sense.
aye chihuahua,
I guess the voices in my head were on to something.
do your research.
here is just one of many articles. if my articulation is unsatisfactory maybe this will suffice.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/palin_troopergate
good luck in november!!
@e:
From the article:
“I thought that was odd and made me a little uncomfortable,” said Walter Monegan, the commissioner, who later was fired by Gov. Palin. “We’re having it in the governor’s office, and he’s not the governor. I think he was trying to use state trappings to handle a personal issue.”
Of course the wife-beater was uncomfortable, he was forced to confront a man. I love it.
BTW, just read a column by Mike Gavel-D, Alaska that just advised Sarah to make sure Todd has the same security clearance should she become VP. He counsels that she will need someone trustworthy and strong to rely on once she hits DC. Apparently Gavel-D, Alaska has not been swayed by the politics of Troopergate and respects both Todd and Sarah Palin.
@e:
Yep, you’re right, the voices on your head are on something.
the vowel “e” writes:
Yes, but when you write
I’d say take your own advice:
and get a clue from Aye: