Not An Onion Headline of The Day: More Americans Believe Palin Ready To Be President Than Not

Obama supporters might want to put your "Palin is McCain's last coffin nail" celebration on hold. Liberal/progressive/Democratic-leaning blogs had exploded with glee, hailing John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice President to be the worst political move since Michael Dukakis decided that driving a tank looked presidential and that she would more likely replace Tina Fey on 30 Rock than Dick Cheney at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Arianna Huffington called the move "clearly a Hail Mary pass," suggesting "Maybe an anxious nation can offer John McCain a do-over." Jewish Journal editor, Rob Eshman, advanced the thought that her support for Pat Buchanan's Presidential run could alienate Jewish voters and "cause 'Israel First' Jews, who seemed to be pretty much done with Obama, to take a second look." Even noted blogger and incessant, self-promoting author/satirist/TV writer/columnist, Steve Young, wrote facetiously of the seeming attempt to attract the female vote, "I can just see the deluge of anti-science, anti-women right to choose, anti-gay, anti-environmental Hillary supporters lining up for this one."

Albeit the Democrat's delight, the majority of Americans aren't making plans for the Obama inauguration. In fact, it seems the immediate reaction to the Palin pick has more Americans believing Palin is ready to be president than not.

That's not an Onion headline, folks. Not even FreeRepublic.com. That was READ THE REST OF THE "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN, BUT I'M NOT' STORY" "HERE

Award-winning TV writer, Steve Young, is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (www.greatfailure.com) and blogs at the appropriately named steveyoungonpolitics.com

Comments

[Anonani]

How revealing is that poll! What exactly is it saying about America? "We would rather put a white (person) in the office than put the nation first."

[Fatman40]

I can't wait to see what Lou Dobbs has to say about the VP pick this week. He has been very critical of Obama and he claims to be independent in his thinking. This week will tell if that is true.

[Celliott]

As an African American woman, a loyal democrat, I see this for what it is. The Republicans made a bold and strategic favorable move to get white working class folks. It doesn't matter that Paulin doesn't have much experience. She is white and that will get her over. Look at Bush II how much experience did he have over Gore and Kerry. None ! But, the american people believed the crap the republicans said about Bush and got elected twice. Look, where we are now

The story here is that it doesn't matter about her experience, she is white and female that will do. And, guess what American will vote for her regardless of her flaws. This election has really proved to me the mentality of this coutry in regard to race. She will not get vetted by the media, they will leave her alone. But, Barack got creamed by the media and republicans. All sort of misinformation and lies have surfaced about him and guess what most of those working class whites beleive the crap on Barack without even doing their homework to see if it's true. Because they want an excuse not to vote for him , even if it's not true. Also, quite revealing is that a poll was taken and 90% of those polled said that Palin is ready to be president. Are you kidding me? We don't even know her. Code here, She's white and her experience doesn't matter

[Kerris]

Well said, Celliott. White = "that will do." That is all the Palin choice will prove if it helps McCain win this election.

[Kerris]

Many, many people wach Fox news and their ilk. They believe what they want to believe. They want to believe Palin is experienced. They want to believe that Obama would be a disaster for America. Will America's deeply-held values and true colours begin to show on election day? If McCain-Palin wins (and, yes, they can) it will prove that Republicans, and those swayable indepdendents and disgruntled Hillarites who helped them, will put any white person into the White House instead of a black man. All I hear is the "any white person is better" speak all weekend long. It's not just gender, race has not left this race.

[TommyMcCarthy]

"Exploded with glee"?.....
The LAST thing I feet was GLEE,....more like furious anger followed by an overriding sense of sadness.

It turns out that John McCain,......
a man athought of as a patriot, .....
and for whom I retained a substantial measure of personal respect........
does not give one whit for this country or anybody in it.

McCain claims his opponent would be willing to "lose a war to win an election"....!

McCain is perfectly happy to lose our country's future in order to win A SINGLE DAY'S NEWS CYCLE!!!

Disgusting, appalling. I don't want to hear another word about McCain's "patriotism"....he has none.

Mr. McCain does not love this country
tm

[matthew 270808]

Silly.

Firstly other polls show a much higher number saying she is not qualified.

But most important you don't need a majority on this question. Every 1% that think she is unqualified is a 1% McCain might lose. McCain doesn't need to lose 50% of the vote to lose the election. McCain currently doesn't even have to lose 5% to lose the election. He has to gain that amount. If this issue puts him just 5% behind he's stone dead. And according to the poll quoted even among Republicans only 63% think she is qualified. Among Independents it's only 41%.

[Jasel]

This is a country that elected Bush twice. It's not a secret that Americans aren't exactly the brightest group of people in the planet.

[publicschoolTeacher]

So- the bottom line is that most people have no idea what it takes to run this country. They think if you can run a bake sale, then you can run the government. After all, there are plenty of advisors to tell ya what's what, and all that needs to happen after that is a decision about what sounds best. Sarah Palin can be as good a "Decider" as...oh crap.

[elroybug]

This is an irresponsible and misleading post for several reasons:

1. It's taken out of context. Gallup said that 39% is the lowest percentage of people who thought the VP was ready to be president since Dan Qualye.

2. Gallup also indicated that it was to early to draw any conclusions because most people said that they just plain did not know who she was. This post is soooo premature.

3. You should have waited to make some comparisons with other polls, especially those that would break out independents and undecideds, since their opinions are what matters these days.

Rasmussen did this and an astounding 59% of undecideds said that Palin was unready to be president, 6% said she was ready. 31% said that McCain's VP pick made it more likely that they woulld not vote for him, 6% less likely.

See: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/undecideds-dont.html

Let's try not to promote fear-mongering on Huffington Post, shall we?

[Steve Young - Huffpost Blogger]

Yours is an irresponsible and misleading comment for the following reasons:

1. Then all commentary not reprinting an entire column alluded to is "out of context." That's why link is supplied.

2. . The column was right on time. The poll was premature

3. I couldn't wait. I had other things to do later,

Your reply would make complete sense if it weren't for the fact Dan Quayle and George W Bush were actually voted in. And John Kerry was deemed a coward, and George W was not. And Al Gore was said to say what he did not.

Most important...VOTE and make sure everyone who has one iota of sense also votes.

Thx,
SY

[TheWordman]

There is an article on Foxnew.com of all places that cites 39% in a Gallup poll. I don't know how to post links but it's called, Polls: voters doubt Palin's qualifications while Obama expands lead.

[kallopolis]

Palin for VP is either an insult to the intelligence of Americans, or a condemnation of the educational system in America.

[FlyTheBlueSky]

It's the "education system", not "educational system".

[Christian]

The schools have been failing us, and 1/2 the population has an IQ under 100 and many more just don't bother to educate themselves. Think about it, remember the "Bell Curve" and that 100 is the average IQ of the masses, so if you got 40% then those are people with IQ's that qualify them as stupid or they are ignorant and too lazy to do anything about it. Easier to be a sheep and follow the herd. It is to say the least, disgusting. We need to talk about what is a smart person, an educated person, and what makes a wise person. They compare her with Obama, a law professor and she was a sports-caster. It is time for us to get smart people in power again, this stupidity is destructive to us all.

[Sensationalist]

Okay, makes sense. In school we were educated on which candidate to vote for? It was the blue guy right?

[dahlenu]

The rest of the world has been laughing at Bush's America. This takes it to another level. It's almost Orwellian.

[kimhoulian]

American will get what they deserve for voting for palin..we in alaska did. Its sad the lower 48 doesn't know anything about us in alaska and what we have been dealing with. stupid people will get a stupid government ..our darn kids cant even compete with the kids in the lower 48 unless the parent take extra measures to educate their children.. how many lower 48 kids go school all day just to come home and do home schooling

[YR]

That's not the whole story. A lot of people are unsure because they don't know her. People who would vote for McCain because of Palin would not have voted for Obama in the first place.

The headlines read Confidence in Palin low.

There is also wide uncertainty about whether she's qualified to be president. In the poll, taken Friday, 39% say she is ready to serve as president if needed, 33% say she isn't, and 29% have no opinion.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/08/30/Poll_Confidence_in_Palin_low/UPI-90361220128026/

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-30-palin-poll_N.htm?csp=34

[SRW1]

"In fact, it seems the immediate reaction to the Palin pick has more Americans believing Palin is ready to be president than not."

Oh my God. Can you imagine what the vast majority of people outside of the US who hear this will be concluding about the American electorate?

So, having been the head of a 100 employee bureaucracy in a little city of 8000 souls and then 18 months governor of, populationwise, one of the smallest and, viewed from the national political center of gravity, remotest states in the country does make Sara Palin ready to be president, even though there is, at least so far, very little to no evidence that she has thought through and understood issues of critical importance at the national and international level? And against that dearth of information the people interviewed for the survey must have expressed their opinion.

One wonders which magic aspect of having headed one minor and one fairly small bureaucracy gave Sarah Palin her presidential ability? And how precisely would she make decisions based on her understanding of how the boxes of bureaucratic structures interrelate with each other, when the substance of such decisions are unclear, or at least unfamiliar, to her? (Actually, its even doubtful that she has much of an understanding on how the bureaucracy in Washington operates)?

This is getting awfully pathetic.