The VP Choice that lost the Presidency for John McCain -- The Sequel

It's hard to believe that the post I wrote about McCain's selection of Palin (The VP Choice that Lost the Presidency for John McCain) was only 3 weeks ago! The moment he made his announcement, I felt it was a very bad choice, but I had no idea there would be such an outpouring of rage, confusion, support, opposition -- just pure emotion on every side.

Think about what has happened in the past three weeks and what we have learned (and not all from the mainstream media):

1. There have been hundreds of posts on Huffington about Palin (several of them by me), so many she now has her own big news page.

2. Palin's term as Mayor of Wasilla was marked by an increase in taxes and a town left with a deficit for a sports complex that is still not paid for.

3. We found out that Palin's daughter is pregnant, out of wedlock, to a self-described redneck.

4. We learned Palin can deliver a heck of a speech but tends to give the same one over and over.

5. We now know more about the Bridge to Nowhere and aerial killing of wolves than we ever wanted to know.

6. Trooper-gate has stayed in the news, partially because of the stonewalling by the McCains and Palins.

7. Palin has been interviewed only twice -- one by Charlie Gibson of ABC News and one by Sean Hannity of Fox News. Both interviews revelead a woman who is over-confident in the manner of George Bush and proudly claims she does not blink at much of anything.

8. Some women have embraced Palin but many have not.

9. Palin's views are more extreme than John McCain's.

10. Sarah Palin surged in the polls and then has fallen back.

I could list 20 more things that we have learned that make it even more frightening to think about a Sarah Palin as VP and possibly President.

But in the time that we have devoted to a person who has almost no understanding of the world outside Alaska, think about what has been happening in the world that has NOT been covered!

1. There have been a major hurricane that destroyed whole communities on the Gulf Coast.

2. The stock market is in free fall and many fear the loss of their retirement savings.

3. Mbeki of South Africa has been forced to resign and Mugabe has been forced to power share with his rival Tsvangirai

4. Half of the world's population is at risk of malaria, and children are dying as I write this post.

5. Fifty-three people died in the terrorist bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan.

And I could list another 100 major pieces of breaking news that have nothing to do with this election or with McCain or Sarah Palin.

The sequel to my initial piece is just this -- we will probably conclude that the tanking of the economy was the prime reason why McCain lost this election. But we should also blame ourselves and the media for taking our eye off the ball -- and allowing ourselves to forget what is really important this year -- electing a President, Barack Obama, who can restore our economy and our standing in the world. Who, if he can clean up the mess the Republicans have left us with, has a chance of starting to solve some of our biggest problems -- and those problems have nothing to do with Sarah Palin!

Comments

[Bitsko]

"But we should also blame ourselves and the media for taking our eye off the ball -- and allowing ourselves to forget what is really important this year..."

I hope by "we" you mean the media, the press or whatever you want to call it. I and millions of others sure didn't drop no ball.

[dutch163]

they are keeping Palin from doing interviews..they show how little she knows...even vocabulary!

(see Sean Hannitty interview and her word "verbage"..she meant "verbiage"....but she saying "McCain's verbage"...verbiage means using a lot of words to say little!!)

she scares me..and so do the people who think she is a good choice !

[BEdward]

You are looking for reasons not to vote for McCain. I would only vote for McCain if he had a conservative on the ticket and Palin is a conservative. The Dems and Hillary got punked and now you are whining. All the Libs need to see the inexperience of Obama and realize he will lose the election in a landslide. If he bombs in the debates, the election is over. We should worry about Barry and his lack of experience, not Sarah.

[BigPictureReg]

Sarah Palin.

As they say in Texas, BIG HAT, NO CATTLE!

[Musicalita]

Everyone:

Please take a moment to vote in this PBS poll being conducted on Palin. It takes about 30 seconds only.

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

[dmspeech]

Even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while. That's kind of how I feel about Palin's "interviews". If you stick with your talking points, every now and then you'll answer a question.

[Linda Bergthold - Huffpost Blogger]

This was sent to me by a friend...
----------­----------­----------­----------­------

By now, we’re all pretty clear that Sarah Palin isn’t the soccer mom we’d like to be sitting next to in the stands. We know she has little experience, a lack of judgment and an arrogance that is somewhat stunning.Yet a disproportionate number of Americans think she’s really great and are even willing to have her as President.

So I ask myself: What is going on here? Why are intelligent people falling for a ticket that is so obviously flawed? What motivates the often unexamined, emotional yes to McCain/Palin? And my answer is simply fear. John & Sarah play fear like the strings of a Stradivarius. They imply that if we don’t choose the “tough” approach (which of course hasn’t worked very well), we will lose credibility. We desperately want a quick fix.

Thus, when McCain wants to end terrorism by finding Bin Laden, some people think that’s enough. When he wants to fire the chairman of the SEC as the solution to the current financial crisis, it sounds like a great idea. The decision for voters in this election is whether or not they will succumb to candidates who give John Wayne answers to Winston Churchill dilemmas.

I’m going with the ones who call on individuals to take responsibility in their families and communities, who offer thoughtful solutions to complex problems and who call upon the best qualities of America---its creativity and its compassion. May we rediscover courage.

[msamerica08]

It amazes me that some of you still think and believe that Sarah Palin is ready to be Vice President much less President of the United States. She has personality,she is cute, and she has to have some political savy to have gotten as far as she has, but this woman is not ready to be Vice President OF THE UNITED STATES!

I would have had a lot more respect for John McCain if he had picked KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON or OLYMPIA SNOWE. America would not have to endure hearing about either of them having to be "tutored in foreign policy". That alone should scare anyone to death. Good grief people! Reminder: war, horrid economy, health care issues. THIS IS NOT A BEAUTY CONTEST! If John MCCain died after taking office-next President is Sarah Palin! Spare me the "Oh, well she is Governor of Alaska". Alaska is a sparsely populated state with less than 1 million people in it! That is the entire state! The Governor of ALABAMA, Bob Riley, is more prepared to be Vice-President of the United States than this woman!

According to 60 minutes,Palin has done 2 INTERVIEWS since being named to MCCain ticket- Joe Biden has done over 80 INTERVIEWS since being put on Democratic ticket! When she gets on "Meet the Press" or "Face the Nation" then I will change my views on her. How about an intelligent conversation about foreign policy/int­ernational issues on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on CNN. Serious times=Serious questions.

[SensibleAmerican]

There should be a counter post on this blog titled "the Presidential choice that lost the Dems yet another election"! While the Dems obsess over Palin, McCain has closed the deficit amongst women from 52-18 Obama in July this year to a McCain modest lead of 44-42!
Swing states are now moving towards McCain, Independents are gravitating towards McCain as well. The comparisons being made are now between Obama and Palin, go figure ...
The first Debate on this 26th will be crucial. By this time, the economic crisis will turn into another petty squabble between the White House and Dems in Congress. Right wing 527s are waiting for the last few weeks before Nov. 4th to resurrect Pastor Wright and Bill Ayers!

1 out of 4 women who supported Hillary are now supporting McCain! Approximately 3% of Caucasian voters will not vote for Obama because of race. 3 million votes seperated Bush from Kerry in 2004 which led to his victory. The 2008 Electoral Collge Map resembles the 2004 more and more every day

The way the trends are going McCain should beat Obama by even a higher margin!

[dmspeech]

You need to check the latest figures for the majority of catagories that you just cited. They are all going in Obama's favor--with the exception of the racism you exhibit.

[BarackMarley]

I interviewed the AKIP Chairman about Sarah Palin. THe AKIP(Alaskan Independence Party) is radical secessionist political party with ties to the palins. They had some interesting things to say about Sarah Palin, the USA and death threats.

Read it here

http://www.newsone.com/elections/article/akip-interview-on-palin

[ebanks84]

"COMMEN SENSE" should tell us that Palin is NOT a viable VP candidate. That alone should be enough to answer all other questions of her capabilities. Some of you really need to use it or have you been so brainwashed that you forgot you even had it.

[SensibleAmerican]

Sarah Palin has more experience and more of a track record of achievement than Barack Obama! "Common sense" does not seem to be very common when it comes to the latter ...

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

You mean running the budget of that one-horse Alaska town into the ground? Thats your idea of achievement? She's blatantly incompetent and only got elected governor because everybody else in Alaska politics is up for indictment for something which shows how much judgment they have up there.

[FirstShirt]

Amazing spin on the facts. Keep it up. It will keep the democratic core warm and fuzzy.

Truth is this is the democrats year to shine. It should be a slam dunk. McCain under the bus.

But with Palin, the republicans have a nominee with more experience in government than Obama. Hard to argue that. And, McCains numbers have risen with her on the ticket. A dead heat in many states with significant states still up for grabs.

If the democrats are in a dead heat during an election in which they should win, that is called losing.

[Clavis]

You didn't phrase your talking point specifically enough. Obama has more experience in government than Palin: Palin has more *executive* experience in government than Obama.

However, it's quickly becoming clear that Palin abused her power, made other people do all the work (for which she then took credit), appointed unqualified cronies to high positions, took revenge on her political "enemies" and was otherwise Bush/Cheneyesque.

So I think the important question is not "How much executive experience does Sarah Palin have?" but "What did Sarah Palin do with the executive opportunities she had?"

[Targaray]

Noted Foreign Policy Expert Palin/Bush Quote of the Day -

“They're our next door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska,” she said. "

FACT:
Palin's hometown of Wasilla isn't much closer to the Russian capital of Moscow (4,318 miles) than New York City is (4,663 miles).

[apachejim00]

The island of Little Diomede, Alaska is 2.4 miles from the Russian Island of Big Diomede, so I don't think she was refering to Moscow. She lives there, and I think she knows a little about where Russia is located.

[PatBurns]

Bet she couldn't find Georgia on the map and now she's ready to go to war with Russia!

[Msohio]

McCain and Palin-----
Under-achievers who want to rule the world. What does this say to the new mantra of "working hard and getting what you want"? I can't just see her sitting across the table from any world leader. That is a nightmare that I do not want to have.

[nostalgia]

As a woman I have been pondering about Palin and Clinton effect on our psyche. Despite several years of postgraduate studies, I am in "awe" when I think of Senator Clinton's accomplishments. She did a college degree. I did it too. She did law school. I did medical school. She has spent several years hobnobbing with Heads of State, VIPS etc...I have spent several years hobnobbing with poor patients. She has done several legislations, policies in the Senate. This is where I would defer to her. I just don't have the energy to cope with that level of challenge. Somehow she is beyond my reach...
Palin? She struggled through 6 colleges to get a BA. I did it better. She was a mayor in a small town. I could have done it without leaving a huge debt. She is doing a stint as governor of a sparsely populated state. Many of us feel if she could do it, so could we.
Now I understand the Palin effect. Is it wise to elect someone like us or someone smarter and "beyond our reach"? I would choose the latter.

[Skippy3000]

This might be the dumbest thing I have ever read on this website. Sarah Palin became the governor of Alaska on her own accord. She is self made. Hilary Clinton became the senator of New York by riding her husbands coattails.

I would argue that Governor Palin is much more accomplished.

[ebanks84]

Accomplished or not, she's just a woman who should be running her family, not our government. She is definitely NOT qualified to be anything other than a mother.

[nostalgia]

It is a false comparison that Palin is much more accomplished. If she were, she would have been giving an intelligent interview with Charles Gibson. She would have been willing to meet the Press to let the American people know her views. She would have been free to interact with the voters. Instead we see a woman riding McCain's coattail, repeating the same empty alking points, the same lies fed to her by her party.
Clinton may have got some help from her husband to get to the Senate but she is no airhead and has earned great respect from her colleagues for her work. In fact she has far more grey matter in her brain

[2sunny]

You surely must be paid for this nonsense. How much money is enough, to state this nonsense?

I live on this planet too! The word accomplished is NOT synonymous with Gov Palins one and only speech agonizingly repeated over and over and over and over......­..........

[bellepepper02]

Did you not know that Hillary Clinton was named by the law industry as being among the top 100 lawyers of America before her husband ran for President? In the 1960s, Hillary Rodham was the first student in the history of Wellesley College to deliver the Commencement Address. This was before she had encountered Clinton. Riding her husband's coat-tails? Take a look at her CV--if she hadn't been Bill Clinton's wife and made to give way to her husband's political career, Hillary Rodham would have probably had an even faster rise up the political ladder.

Governor Palin is much more accomplished? She's a small-town baby machine. She's never run for President. The only reason she was picked was because they were looking for a female politician who was easy on the eye--she's riding McCain's coat-tails.

[Janus]

I see that you forgot about her statement to her pentecostal congregation that her winning the governership of Alaska resulted in a major way from the ritual of her being anointed by laying-on-of-hands and prayer performed by the African pentecostal pastor visiting in her church. The video of her presentation did not include one way or the other whether she had at some point (or for that matter, the pastor) spoken in tongues in the course of the ritual.

As for dumb things you have read, it is obvious that you spend time with other sources of dumb things reading and absorbing and then parroting them on HuffPost.

[ivillage]

John McCain Owns 13 Cars, Barack Obama 1
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/john-mccain-own.html

Michigan Poll: Barack Obama 52%, John McCain 43%
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/michigan-poll-b.html

Fact Check: Did Barack Obama Vote 94 Times for Higher Taxes?
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/fact-check-did.html

Who's the Boss? Sarah Palin Bills Herself Over John McCain
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/whos-the-boss-s.html

Barack Obama Campaign is Pulling Staff Out of North Dakota
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/barack-obama--3.html

US Filmmaker Woody Allen Says Obama Loss Would Be 'Humiliation' For U.S.
http://www.sefermpost.com/sefermpost/2008/09/us-filmmaker-wo.html

[Gould123]

This woman republican will be supporting Obama! Palin been given talking points like a parrot! mccains people in Alaska helping her dodge the bullet,and hide her wrong doing! It's scary, and woman relate to her, HOW?