Sarah Palin in the Sit Room on 9/11?

I blogged yesterday about going easier on Gov Palin on the experience quotient. Though I outline lots of other reasons I think she would be a disaster as Veep.

This morning I have some pause on my or ANY argument to totally eliminate the experience quotient. I heard Richard Haas, the President of the Council on Foreign Relations tell this anecdote:

"On September 11th, while GWB was being whisked around the country and sequestered, Dick Cheney was in the Situation Room at the White House seeking private permission from the President to shoot down aircraft who entered US airspace. Can we imagine Sarah Palin making those split second decisions?"

Now Imagine Joe Biden in that same situation.

Now don't start screaming at me about what a disaster war monger Dick Cheney has been. That is related to my point. We know they made the wrong decision after 9/11 to go into Iraq. But "day of"? Different story.

Read more analysis from HuffPost bloggers on John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin

Follow Hilary Rosen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hilaryr

Comments

[Groenhagen]

Hilary Rosen flat-out lied on Larry King Tuesday night when she claimed that Sarah Palin cut special needs education by 62% in Alaska. That and other lies were debunked by FactCheck.org on Monday and CNN had done stories about it, so Rosen clearly knew she was passing along false information.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157986

[WinterStorm]

Hilary Rosen...not just a pretty face, like some others. I love this analysis. You see, this is the type of clear, concise argument that needs to be made regarding Gov. Palin's experience. Obama needs to borrow you Hilary for the next sixty days. You can be for him what Karen Hughes was for Bush, only you would tell the truth.

[Marcee]

I can see Biden facing this 9/11 decision. Especially on international affairs, Palin fails to measure up. I hope the press continues with their "due diligence" and asks her what has she done to prepare her for this kind of scenario. This would be a great question for Gwen Ifill. Clearly, we know about Biden's experience in this area. This was an interesting incident to use to reflect on the power and importance of a savvy VP. Thanks for your willingness to revise the "experience quotient" idea. How refreshing!

[mosh]

I have read this blog several times and still don't get your point. Are you saying Joe Biden would be less qualified than Sarah Palin to make the right decision if and when faced with 'another' 9/11 type situation, i.e. that unlike Palin Biden wouldn't have the guts to pull the proverbial trigger?

If so, you are not as astute an observer of people as I thought you were.

If not, what in the heck are you driving at?

Joe Biden has the guts and the will to make a tough decision on the 'day of' and to lead on the day after that and the day after that and the day after that, etc.

On the other hand, a warmongering religious zealot like Sarah Palin will be the creator of the very 'day of' scenario you elude.

Sarah Palin. Just what we need - another 'god speaks to me' wing-nut in the white house with her hand on the trigger. Heaven help all of us, including you, Hilary.

If this was not your point, I apologize in advance and ask again, what was your point exactly?

[wpih]

what she is saying is that even though she siad yesterday that experience may not be the right argument for opposing Sarah Palin, she would still rather have Joe Biden backing up the pres on a 9/11 type situation.

[truegreen]

Palin is appalling.

[Charley2u]

Can I just add one more thing - again not to praise Sarah - the problems we face today in Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, the national debt, 37 years of trade deficits, our negative investment position globally - all these problems weren't created by unqualified trashy hockey moms from the backwoods of Alaska.

They were created by men and women of impeccable pedigrees and long histories in the very uppermost reaches of our nation's power centers.

[Housewife]

And those men and women of impeccable pedigree keep bamboozling the uninformed electorate year after year. We can blame the crooks and cowards all we want, but at the end of the day, the voters have no one to blame but themselves. So just maybe, the unqualified trashy hockey mom, the wall street hedge fund manager, your ma, your pa and all the rest of the folks who choose a candidate without really doing their homework are the ones to blame. If 80% of the population thinks the country is heading in the wrong direction, but they vote for McCain/Palin because they like the pitbull in lipstick, then they have to own responsibility for the debt, bad foreign policy, home foreclosures and an environment in severe decline. It is time to start looking in the mirror.

[Charley2u]

I looked in the mirror and there is another alternative.

Just make it so no one, no matter how bamboozled, can get us into a predicament which calls into question the very Republic we hold dear; cannot get us into war with people who never did us any harm; can commit us to wars without end.

No nukes, no national security apparatus, no commander-in-chief with one million persons under arms, no intelligence services with the means and capability to snoop on citizens.

Then we can safely turn the presidency over to anyone meeting the constitutional minimum for the office without worrying we might be reduced to smoldering ash at 3AM.

Just a thought.

(I bet you thought I was a McCain supporter - joke's on you)

[socalgal59]

Ms. Rosen,
Wrong venue: your statement should appear on cnn.com, where your blog dismissing the validity of Palin's experience is currently posted.

[lady49]

Good for Hilary Rosen! I just linked it to 20 other sites. More people need to hear Hillary's message.

[Jaid]

Palin's temperment for VP is only dwarfed by her lack of class, experience, a platform, common sense, intellect, standards, family values, facts, truth, --Should I go on?.

[Charley2u]

Please do!

As a person to have over for a beer, I am not interested. But, as a poster child for why no one should have a button which allows them to launch a first strike against Russia, I am all ears - or eyes, as the case may be.

Sarah Palin for VP: because no one should have the power to precipitate nuclear winter.

Catchy.

(Yes, you would give your Ph.Ds and all the wise men and women that power, wouldn't you? But, not Sarah. Sarah is too trashy; uneducated; too parochial - hell, I bet she wouldn't even know which spoon to use at a state dinner)

(If it takes a Sarah to convince you no one should have the power to end life on Earth, she gets my vote!)

[Charley2u]

This is not an argument against Sarah Palin for me - although there are many.

For me this is just another example of the many reasons why we need to realize the national security apparatus of the United States is, as Col. Andrew Bacevich states, "wise men without wisdom."

Here: On that very day, each and every American, no matter how remote from the events which unfolded, no matter how innocent, no matter how in conformity with the laws of the nation, were potential targets of the very government established to protect them.- - Americans who were themselves under attack by al Qaeda risked dying at the hands of the very forces sworn to their safety for doing no more than going about their business in complete ignorance of what was unfolding around them.

Think about this the next time you have to submit to the humiliation of an airport search.

This woman would not get my vote for many reasons, but I would rather have a hockey mom on the other end of that phone who doubted the "wisdom of wise men, " than all the Ph.Ds listening intently to Cheney's call.

[mosh]

huh? I read bacevich too but certainly can't agree with your conclusion.

What makes you think hockey moms would doubt the 'wisdom of wise men' any better than a PhD? And what's a doctorate got to do with it?

According to Sarah Palin, hockey moms are pitbulls in lipstick. Pitbulls in lipstick, or at least, that's how Sarah likes to think of herself.

Moral to this blogging story - all stereotyping is limited. And never say 'all'.

[Charley2u]

It is a matter of principle: you don't get different results by doing the same thing over and over again.

Since WWII we have relied on a cloistered group of experts, with their peer reviewed papers in all the scholarly journals; vetted by experts; subject to withering questioning; chosen by men and women of great gravity and standing; products of the finest universities.

And, where are we? Knee deep in blood and broken minds and bodies, with 2 trillion dollars and 4000 lives wasted on their debacles.

They were the "best and brightest," and they have ruined this nation; undermined this Republic, and driven us to edge of economic catastrophe.

Frankly, my mother could have done a better job for minimum wage - and yours too.

[Charley2u]

Read it again. You obviously missed everything of importance.

[lady49]

You didn't REALLY read any of Col. Bacevich's writings as a military scholar. Did you?
The point went right over your head.

Nonetheless, Palin as VP would make America the laughing stock of the free and not so free "world"

[NicoleW]

Hilary this is not the time to cut this lady any slack.. All she did was what she did on the first day McCain introduced her, she told her fairy tale resume, and then she attacked. She still does not mention what she believes in and stands for, or solutions for this country... She might have brought the house down with sarcasm however there was no substance behind it, she still has a lot of questions to answer. Please take note of the programs she cut in Alaska, and her extreme conservative views....

[thecanadian]

We need her vetting record. Her speech last night? Absolutey SCARY! Hillary - why IS CNN bowing and scraping again today. For goodness sake! There has NEVER been a time in this lifetime or since
WW11, that has been more dangerous. If the media starts pandering and bowing under like rats, then they are as responsible for millions of American lives as well. It is always a Free Pass for
Repugs, If you are going to be on CNN - forget the babygate crap - "how about the millions of volunteers in America" - and around the world that Palin absolutely dismissed, dishonoured and derided last night!

[1will]

I can see Palin making those decisions. What I cannot see is Obama making those split second decisions without being able to check with his 300 advisers. I can see him giving a truly kick ass speech after the event but I cannot see him responding in a firm manner to a threat. As for Biden, he'd still be talking as the White House burned down around him.

[fistbump]

Ms. Rosen,

Are the PUMAs still holding out? Are they still thinking about supporting McCain, especially after he put a woman on the ticket?

Are they going to support a woman who is prepared to take away every right that women have fought for the last 50 years? A woman who doesn't believe in equal pay, or pro-choice rights? Are they going to vote for this woman who called Hillary Clinton a whiner? Really?

Here is a reason to really coalesce behind Obama. He doesn't have the estrogen, that's true, but he believes in my equality (and others) more than the candidate with a uterus. He'll worked harder for me.

So what do the PUMAs really believe in?

[RedDogBear]

Ms. Rosen, while I in no way think Palin is qualified to be VP (as one leading Alaskan republican said "she isn't even qualified to be governor") I don't find your argument all that compelling. The fact is that on 9/11 (as on most days of his presidency) the president wasn't doing his job. There was no need for him to be flying around the country like a chicken with its head cut off. Rather than imagine Palin trying to do Cheney's job, I imagine what would have happened if we had a competent man such as Bill Clinton or Barack Obama in charge on 9/11. Well to begin with 9/11 wouldn't have happened because when the CIA tried to warn such a president he wouldn't have told them "All right you've covered your ass now" ref: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901211_pf.html and then ignored it. But even if some attack had happened a competent president would have been in charge of coordinating the response, not hiding like a coward and letting the VP run things.

[Burnsey]

That is one of the best points I have seen made in recent days. I always thought the argument should be based on her capabilities, or lack therof, and not this family stuff. Everyone has something going on in their famalies and that's not really anyone's business. But this kind of argument is exactly what is important in this selection.