NYT: Dick Cheney, Palin's Role Model

Saturday's New York Times runs an editorial hammering Gov. Sarah Palin over her debate comments about expanding the powers of the vice president:

In all the talk about the vice-presidential debate, there was an issue that did not get much attention but kept nagging at us: Sarah Palin's description of the role and the responsibilities of the office for which she is running, vice president of the United States.

In Thursday night's debate, Ms. Palin was asked about the vice president's role in government. She said she agreed with Dick Cheney that "we have a lot of flexibility in there" under the Constitution. And she declared that she was "thankful that the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president also, if that vice president so chose to exert it."

It is hard to tell from Ms. Palin's remarks whether she understands how profoundly Dick Cheney has reshaped the vice presidency -- as part of a larger drive to free the executive branch from all checks and balances. Nor did she seem to understand how much damage that has done to American democracy.

Here's the video:

The NYT continues, saying Palin's understanding the vice presidency "frighteningly wrong":

Mr. Cheney has shown what can happen when a vice president -- a position that is easy to lampoon and overlook -- is given free rein by the president and does not care about trampling on the Constitution.

Mr. Cheney has long taken the bizarre view that the lesson of Watergate was that Congress was too powerful and the president not powerful enough. He dedicated himself to expanding President Bush's authority and arrogating to himself executive, legislative and legal powers that are nowhere in the Constitution.

Any president deserves a vice president who will be a sound adviser and trustworthy supporter. But the American people also deserve and need a vice president who understands and respects the balance of power -- and the limits of his or her own power. That is fundamental to our democracy.

So far, Ms. Palin has it exactly, frighteningly wrong.

Comments

[rangem]

who care s who caribou crap barbie see s as a role model

[ylpatriot]

Thank you for the resounding piece of crap from your mouth, sara p....

You have solidified the fact I CANNOT and WILL NOT vote McCain... !!!!!!! Not that i like obama that much ... but I cant risk my vote on a ticket that has this hick from Alaska .... And yes I am a woman and no I wont vote McCain because he chose a woman to run with him on this Rep ticket.

God Help America ... our politicians are not interested in doing so !

t ....

[MandyVin]

"Verbage" huh? Gee, now where did PumaAnn get that word from? Who used that word before....­.?

[bossone]

Most young people, senior and junior high students don't know who Cheney is or what he does, very telling. Where he been at. (the way young people talk).

[McChimp]

Just the fact that Palin mentioned in the debate that she would want more powers granted to the VP shows that she would make Cheney look like Ghandi, and must NOT be allowed near the Oval Office.

[bossone]

I am in the tank for vets. Didn;t use to be. I used to tell vets, see the govment for your money. Didn't realize the the situation. I apologize. Give them hell!!!!

[bossone]

Walter Reed Hospital, enough said!! Oh, Why are we in Iraq, WMD, hell no, oil. Enough said!! Fool me once.

[whit4brains]

Frontiersman Editorial: Palin Philosophy Is People Are Either With Her or Against Her. A
Frontiersman editorial wrote, “Palin continues to lose public faith sticking by her philosophy that either
we are with her or against her.” [Frontiersman editorial, 3/7/97]

[darker]

Since PALIN = CHENEY
then never mind! no thanks.
Let's have no more years for Republican corruption, lies, disasters.
Republicans are too expensive, we can't afford them!

[thegirlnextdoor]

my favorite photo of dick cheney ever. a picture is worth a thousand words.

[forebode]

And he appears to be snarling in the photo. Cheney is a BEAST, a fascist, good for nothing Nazi who should be FORCED to pay for what he has done to the American people. He allowed the oil companies to meet behind closed doors so they can make up excuses to raise the cost of oil and make OBSCENE profits at the expense of the American people. When it comes time for Bush and Cheney to step down, people will be waiting all hours of the night to see them leave. They will have to escape with their lives, and their Secret Service personnel ALSO will have to escape with their lives.
Bush and Cheney's pariah-hood will make O.J. Simpson's pariah-hood days look like popularity.

[IhaveaDREAMwhitegirl]

Voters, please check your VOTER/Stat­us.....at,

www.votersunite.org .(RobertKe­n.nediy.Jr­. approved.)

Just make sure you are registered to vote, then vote.

[tm68]

Article in Newsweek on Palin is interesting:

"Despite recent media reports of a wild temper, those who know Palin say she is more prone to anxiety and frantic overdrive than tantrums. "She's the world's worst multitasker," says the aide. "She'll have a cell phone in one hand, the BlackBerry in the other while she is reading two position papers. You have to tell her prior to the debate, 'Put that down, breathe deep.' They [the McCain staff] are not going to know that."

NOT a woman I want anywhere near the button of our nucUlar arsenal.

[grimp]

Palin was wired Has Clear Plastic tube connected to the left side of her glasses and then directley into her ear. Also Photos with battery pack on lower back of her suit jacket with Gwen Ifill.

[GSMRaleigh]

One more thing and then I'll quit. Palin winks with her left eye. Tina Fey blinks with her right eye.

[GSMRaleigh]

Oh.....Whe­n Palin winks....I think that is her nervous reaction to lying.

She lies, she winks.

Why? When most people lie they touch their nose because of the blood flow the nose which is an involuntary reaction. Without a doubt, Palin has been coached and trained not to touch her nose when she is lying or feels uncomfortable about what she is saying.. But, he body must react to when she tells a lie. It is totally unconscious. It make sense that her winks are her body's involuntary reaction to lying.

[GSMRaleigh]

When Obama is elected president, I hope he will reinstate the office of the VP as it was before that Thug Cheney came along.