Sarah Palin for President?

[Big Don]

if obama had selected an ex-military officer, preferably a general, he would have this thing sewn up.

jf

Not necessarily, Wesley Clark didn't do so well...

 

[Makalakumu]

Not really, I'd prefer to have the option to vote for a true Republican/conservative. My vote will be for Obama's opponent.

Obama has lots of opponents. Some of them are more conservative then McCain.

 

[Makalakumu]

Perhaps alone in this belief, but I think both Sarah Palin and Barack Obama could be much more effective than anyone seems to think possible. Hollywood satirists (with an agenda), flip celebrities (with an agenda) and media talking heads (with an agenda) can make whatever noises and inferences they wish... but I think neither of these people are the stupid buffoons they are being made out to be.

I am concerned that Sarah Palin or Barack Obama could fail in office - but I am infinitely more troubled that so many will want them to fail. Apparently one can take the odious Clinton and Bush families out of the races... but the hate, the polarization, the constant war room campaign red and blue tripe just goes on.

People, if you don't lose the red + blue attitudes, you may get to revisit the Blue and the Gray. Somebody sarcastically referred to Obama as the Obamaessiah..... but I am starting to think that, no matter who gets in office, the only "messiah" that'll save this train wreck is the one we all see in the mirror.

I'd be the last one who could throw a dart over making funny and sarcastic posts. But we (including me) so easily get sidetracked by trivia - as a consequence missing out on the real issues. This thread was created with the best of intentions. Yet, after all this (cyber) mileage can anyone read it and intelligently answer whether Sarah Palin can be a good President? What would she do about Iran? Would she get us out of Iraq - when and how? What about higher taxes on families at every level, while incompetent corporations get bailouts? How about illegal immigration.... Russia.....keeping American jobs? Aren't these - and others - what we really need to be exploring - - - and finding out what John, Sarah, Barack and Joe would do about them?

I don't think we are hungry enough for that kind of strife. However, I think the seeds are there. If there was a major interruption of our society, lets say the financial markets meltdown worldwide and all of the dollars that other countries hold in reserve come flooding back to our shores, we very well could see the blue and the gray.

I think the key is that people need to recognize the issues in which fixing is only going to provide for the common good. The two parties are two busy with their soap opera for this...

 

[Mark L]

Obama has lots of opponents. Some of them are more conservative then McCain.

C'mon, the next President will be McCain or Obama. Casting my vote for a more conservative (third party) candidate that has no chance of winning is a waste, effectively giving +1 to Obama rather than McCain. I won't do that, though I hope it is a viable option in the near future.

 

[Mark L]

No, I thought you were keying in on the way he used actuary...it appeared that you were unfamiliar with the term.

Besides, older people don't don't more often...everyone only dies once.

Nope, I know what it means and I understand the math behind it.

You're right, everyone dies just once. Nice catch, I'll tap out on that one.

McCain is more likely to die, actuarially speaking, in the next four years since he's older. However, I suspect the equations the insurance companies (that's where the actuaries find employment, mostly) use don't contain variables reflecting the medical microscope under which the President lives. Nor do they reflect the fact that the President has virtually immediate access to the premier medical minds and facilities on the planet.

 

[jarrod]

Not necessarily, Wesley Clark didn't do so well...

true, but he wasn't paired up with obama either. lack of military experience is his most glaring weakness, yet his campaign doesn't seem to be drawing much attention to the fact that most americans & iraqis want us out of there. if obama's charisma were paired with somebody with military experience & a viable, quick exit strategy, i think he would be doing better in the polls. just a thought, though.

jf

 

[tko4u]

I for one like sarah palin. she adds a breath of fresh air to mccains campaign.

 

[Twin Fist]

most americans & iraqis want us out of there.

jf

most americans would like a paycheck without going to work too, doesnt make it a good idea

work till the work is done, even if it is hard.

 

[arnisador]

Actuarially speaking? That's ridiculous.

Are you sure you know what the term means? Look here:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html

All things being equal, a 74 year old man has about a 4.0% chance of dying in the next year; at 78 it's 5.7% Meanwhile, a 47 year old has about a .44% chance. Now all things aren't equal here--they never are--but John McCain's injuries will likely catch up to him before Barack Obama's smoking does, as that takes a while to develop. This is an order of magnitude difference--from less than a 1% chance to a 1-in-20 chance. Yes, it matters.

 

[jarrod]

most americans would like a paycheck without going to work too, doesnt make it a good idea

work till the work is done, even if it is hard.

that's a little bit different of a scenario. work & war are two different things.

besides, even if you agree with the war, i was talking about how to win the election. if a significant majority of voters want the war to end enough to make that their deciding issue, it doesn't matter if it's a good thing or not in terms of the election. personally i think we should be out of iraq & focused on afghanistan, but my personal views don't matter in this context.

jf

 

[IcemanSK]

I laughed when I heard her refer to it as the "Palin/McCain ticket" the other day.

The sad part is, adding her to the ticket is just an attempt to appease the Evangelical voters. Far from being a "maverick" who doesn't go along with the GOP line. He chose (or had chosen for him) a running mate who has perfect Evangelical credentials & is the poster mom for pro-life. What the GOP really hasn't paid attention to in the last 4 years is that Evangelicals are also interested in poverty (therefore the economy), the environment, the war, & other social issues. More & more Evangelicals are looking at things other than just gay marriage & abortion. The Dems are addressing these things much more than the GOP.

 

[Mark L]

Are you sure you know what the term means?

Yes, I am sure. I've undergrad and grad course work in probability and statistics, I know what the tables say and what they don't say.

How about we apply the same mathematical techniques to decision making. Let's take a look at how often McCain made a decision or took a stance vs. the same for Obama. Let's try and keep all things equal by looking at their Senate records. Both have abysmal records in the current session (64% missed for McCain and 45% for Obama, data here http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/), probably because they're out job hunting. In the prior eight sessions dating back to 1993 McCain's missed vote percentages have been 9, 2, 5, 29, 3, 3, 5, 2. That tells me he's on the job, the data on Obama says he isn't on the job. There's only one data point on Obama, but it is fact. The means say Obama (45%) is three times more likely than McCain (13.5%) to falter when it comes time to make a decision. There's other things we can say given this data, but the conclusion I'm offering is analagous to the actuarial tables you linked. They tell a story, but maybe not the whole story.

So, you see we can make arguments and draw conclusions with data that may not reflect what could happen. That's why they are called probabilities, not certainties.

 

[shesulsa]

Please, let's stay on the topic of a vice presidential candidate potentially becoming the president no matter how unqualified she is or dire the situation happens to be.

 

[Mark L]

Please, let's stay on the topic of a vice presidential candidate potentially becoming the president no matter how unqualified she is or dire the situation happens to be.

Right. Sorry.

 

[arnisador]

There's only one data point on Obama

Statistically speaking, the story ends there.

So, you see we can make arguments and draw conclusions with data that may not reflect what could happen. That's why they are called probabilities, not certainties.

I don't think anyone suggested that anything is certain other than death and taxes. Would take a $10K bet that McCain will outlive Obama? That's the question being answered here. The context is your post here:

She's as likely to occupy that office as is Joe Biden

Whether or not that statement is true is highly relevant to the question of her suitability to be VP. I don't think anyone doubts that she can break ties in teh Senate or attend funerals.

 

[Mark L]

Statistically speaking, the story ends there.



I don't think anyone suggested that anything is certain other than death and taxes. Would take a $10K bet that McCain will outlive Obama? That's the question being answered here. The context is your post here:



Whether or not that statement is true is highly relevant to the question of her suitability to be VP. I don't think anyone doubts that she can break ties in teh Senate or attend funerals.

I sent my rebuttal to you via PM.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Whose doctrine?

There’s something going on here that’s even more disturbing than the thought of a Palin presidency—which we have to consider, given that McCain would hit 80 in his second term, his health history, and the average US life expectancy. What’s more upsetting, more frightening, is the collapse of political discourse and rational, reality-based decision-making in the United States. In summation, what concerns me is the collapse of democracy.

In recent interviews Palin let on that she both didn’t quite know the duties of the vice president, and that she was unfamiliar with the “Bush Doctrine” of preemptive war, which is at the core of her party’s controversial foreign policy. It was sort of a Beavis and Butthead moment. Research coming out of Alaska shows that she ran up a huge deficit when mayor of tiny Wasilla, mostly building a recreation center, it turns out, on land the town didn’t quite own, creating an expensive, seven-year legal battle. During her six years in office she raised taxes by almost 40 percent while simultaneously running up a new deficit of more than $4,000 per resident. This year her state government is giving each Alaskan a check for $3,200, supposedly from a state surplus, while borrowing money to pay for road and infrastructure maintenance and construction. Like, wow, let’s take out credit cards in the names of our unborn children—we’re “pro-life.”

The Palin exposés are coming faster than we can digest them: threatening librarians for stocking books she doesn’t like; abuse of power in office to pursue personal vendettas; and a big, nasty penchant for fibbing. The last fib I stumbled across was the sale of Alaska’s luxury jet, not on eBay as she recounted, but in a private sale to a Republican donor.

And McCain. We don’t even need to go there anymore—no one else is.

http://artvoice.com/issues/v7n38/grip

 

[Twin Fist]

that post is full of lies Bob.

She didnt run up a big debt while mayor of wasilla.

the so called "big debt"?

a 20 million BOND project that the people voted on and approved.

that has been debunked 100 times already, but the leftists keep trotting it out....

she NEVER threatened any librarians, she asked a question about how something might happen. thats been debunked 100 times too, but again,the leftists keep trotting it out

vendettas? that must mean trying to fire a state trooper who tazered a 10 year old. yeah, the mean crazy lady wanted to fire a cop who tazered a 10 YEAR OLD, then when the commissioner, who serves at the pleasure of the gov, by the way,refused to follow orders and fire the cop who tazered a ten year old, she fired the comissioner.

yep, thats an evil personal vendetta all right

this crap has all been proven untrue, and Bob, you do a dis-service to the truth when you repete it.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Really? Let me do some digging.
That article btw, just ran in one of my local alt-papers, and is by someone with a pretty good track record on such things.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Ok, I spent 20 minutes on Google doing some digging. I really don't care to waste much more time on our new VP as I personally disagree with her on pretty much every point. If you want to defend her, offend her, etc, go for it. I think her own words show how ill prepared she is for the job of VP, much less as CIC.

In recent interviews Palin let on that she both didn’t quite know the duties of the vice president

This is a documented clip on Youtube from an actual interview.
Pretty clear to me.

and that she was unfamiliar with the “Bush Doctrine” of preemptive war, which is at the core of her party’s controversial foreign policy. It was sort of a Beavis and Butthead moment.

Looks like she doesn't have a clue on this to me.

Research coming out of Alaska shows that she ran up a huge deficit when mayor of tiny Wasilla, mostly building a recreation center, it turns out, on land the town didn’t quite own, creating an expensive, seven-year legal battle.

Found a number of opinions, blogs, etc. Not much else on a quick search.

During her six years in office she raised taxes by almost 40 percent while simultaneously running up a new deficit of more than $4,000 per resident.

Didn't find much on this.

This year her state government is giving each Alaskan a check for $3,200, supposedly from a state surplus, while borrowing money to pay for road and infrastructure maintenance and construction.

Didn't find much on this.

threatening librarians for stocking books she doesn’t like;

According to the Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla’s library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, said that Palin asked her outright if she "could live with censorship of library books.”

abuse of power in office to pursue personal vendettas;

Audiotapes released last month reveal that aides to the 44-year-old governor pressured Safety Director Walter Monegan to dismiss Trooper Mike Wooten, after Wooten allegedly threatened Palin’s father during a messy child custody fight with the governor’s sister Molly.

Monegan refused to do so and was fired on July 11 and replaced by an official who had previously been suspended for sexual harassment.

Palin said Monegan was let go for failing to fill trooper vacancies and invited a close examination of her role in the matter. The Alaska state legislature obliged, allocating $100,000 to investigate. The results of the probe are expected on Oct. 31, less than a week before the general election.

and a big, nasty penchant for fibbing. The last fib I stumbled across was the sale of Alaska’s luxury jet, not on eBay as she recounted, but in a private sale to a Republican donor.

This is from the Chicago Tribune. Similar stories are on countless other reputable newspaper sites.

JUNEAU, Alaska — When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sought to illustrate her frugality and flair to delegates at the GOP convention Wednesday, she described how she disposed of a corporate jet acquired by her unpopular predecessor.

"That luxury jet was over the top," Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said to loud cheers. "I put it on eBay."

Palin's statement implied the plane was sold through the online auction site revered for empowering millions of small entrepreneurs, and Palin's spokeswoman insisted Thursday that the transaction occurred. But the plane failed to sell on eBay.

Instead, the 23-year-old 10-seat Westwind II was sold in August 2007 for $2.1 million to a Valdez, Alaska, entrepreneur; that's about $300,000 less than a broker's asking price, according to news accounts.