Country First: President Palin?

Though I plan on living forever I still make sure that I have a robust life insurance policy to ensure that my two young children won't be starving and homeless were I to suddenly pass away.

Senator McCain, I shouldn't have to spell this out for you, but your choice of vice president is kinda sorta the same thing. Your choice of running mate is your life insurance policy for us, the American people, in case something, god forbid, happens to you.

Entrusting the most important job in the free world to President Palin is like leaving your children an insurance policy consisting of a freezer full of moose meat.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Comments

[DLB]

"Your choice of running mate is your life insurance policy for us, the American people, in case something, god forbid, happens to you."


My God, you liberals are trying to put an empty suit into the actual executive office. For Christ's sake address the neophyte (who was chosen by the far left of the Democrat Party only for his stand against the Iraq war, which he wasn't even in the Senate at the time to vote against) who has less experience than his running mate!! The fact is that Governor Palin is more qualified to be vice president than Senator Obama is to be president!

[digger624]

Sarah Palin has more in common with previous VP stock than you give her credit for. she is a governor,p­rogressive­, an evironmentalist, hunter, gun enthusiast,young, dynamic personality,fighter of corruption. It reminds me of another Vice President. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt . Remember he was not elected to the presidency. He was a polarizing pick of Mckinley, who rose to the presidency after Mckinley's assasination. He was our youngest president taking office at the age of 42.

Remember that Obama, other than his speaking skills, is lighter in qualifications. He has been a US senator for 143 days before seriously campaigning. She has been governor for 2 years in the 6th wealthiest state of the union. The senate is a legislative, not an executive position. Your moose meat analogy only shows your mudslinging ability, and you do not have a very strong arm by the looks of it.

Don't discount her because Community Organizer is not part of her portfolio.

[wolflover]

She is an environmentalist? She supports shootings wolves from the air in order to increase the big game population for sport hunters. A true environmentalist understands that predators play an important role in eliminating sick and weak animals from the herd. An environmentalist would place higher restrictions on hunters who often take healthier game animals before killing wolves.

She also opposes placing additional protections on polar bears and supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She is not sure if global warning is man-made. These are hardly the positions of an environmentalist.

As for Theodore Roosevelt, he also favored increased government regulations on industry. For example, he signed legislation creating the Food and Drug Administration. On the other hand, Govenor Palin has stated that she favors less government regulation. The only thing that she actually appears to favor regulating is a woman's relationship with her doctor.

I also suspect that Roosevelt could have easily answered a question about becoming vice president without asking "what does the vice president do?"

[MSiddique]

It is transparent what McCain is up to. But, I always worry how the folks in hinter-land would react to it: I suspect positively! It seems to me that there is this notion going around that the Presidential candidates should be a regular guy or gal that lives ordinary lives, need not be particularly well educated, some one you can have a beer with, etc.: we are talking about some one who would be responsible for running the affairs of the most powerful nation in the world! No interest in his/her education, talent, judgment, intellect, tastes, etc. I maintain that underlying this partiality for the ordinary is the anti-intellectual, anti-education, anti-science (i.e., pro creationist) ideology driven by the evangelicals (that Richard Hoffstatter wrote about a long while ago), and which the right-wing has been able to exploit time and again.

I cannot explain Obama not leading McCain by substantial margin otherwise. And I will have to scream if some body one more time mentions that the reason is that Obama has not been specific about his plans for the country. The reasons why support for him is not stronger, I think, are what I mentioned above, outright racism, and control of the mass-media by conservative corporations engaged in spreading 'doubts' about Obama and his candidacy. No wonder the media failed miserable to initiate public debate on these vital issues that continue to impede democracy in the US.

[elizaW]

Instead of jumping to conclusions about Sarah Palin, why don't you at least give her a few weeks on the political scene. Maybe you're afraid she'll surprise you. At this point she's a breath of fresh air, no matter her family issues because this is what she's not. She's not bitter, snarky or frustrated like all the people who spew angry anti-Palin remarks.

[wrb]

She's hot and she's not Hillary.

What more could a guy want?

[jean22]

Someone who has the qualifications to be president perhaps?

[AdobePhsyko]

She was also President of the local PTA for years and ,Did I Mention, John McCain was a POW ?

[JennyJay]

Your article is so off the mark - you are assuming that McCain cares about this country, and therefore would be smart enough to have a good insurance policy.
SO WRONG!.
McCain does not care one wit about this country or the people in it. McCain is in a pi**ing contest
with George Bush. Bush beat him to a pulp in the last election and now McCain is trying to get even.
He picked Palin to infuritate Bush by diminishing the VP office. He wants to show Bush that even
a moosemeat eating, gun toting, beauty queen could be VP.
It kind of lets all the dignity and stateliness out of the whole presidential thing.
Like . . . . IN YOUR FACE Geroge Bush.
And of course Bush didn't get to speak on the first night of McCain's convention.
What a blast, this thing is just laughable.

[CBS]

The ticket is a testimony to the fact that the GOP was thoroughly destroyed by GWB.....it is a joke.....

http://www.sfbaysailingpix.com/pez2008p1.htm

[DLB]

Well that certainly explains the $10,000,000 in donations McCain's campaign made over the weekend. He was averaging $25,000,000 a month.

[bluehorizon]

Way to go Trey. Love the moose meat line.

[gunsmoke]

I live in the state of Alley Oop voters - right wingers who claim to espouse the Repub philosophy, but who are constantly asking how big is that next PFD check? They shoot wolves and bears from planes and decry the oil companies even though 90% of them would never have the jobs paying them the salaries they receive anywhere else in the country (including the First Dude). Sarah Palin won easily and handily here because she is a self-aggrandizing promoter of herself to drooling voters who are primarily uninformed. Family might take second in her rules book, but country is decidedly last! Her response to McCain should have been "Thanks, I'm flattered and humbled, but I'm in over my head." If this is the ticket the Evangelical Republicans who support "family values" which to promote, they better take another hard look. Watch closely, she has been a puppet governor of her Cabinet, and when the questions start coming from a media that isn't infatuated with her as they were here, she will be quick to state that "we'll have to study that further" or some such thing. It's up to the rest of the country now. I'm sorry that Alaska has become such a national embarrassment, in more ways than one.

[athenasword]

I laughed so hard seeing this clip! Even they can immediatly see how insane it would be to let this woman be in line to the most powerful chair on Earth, if this ticket were (heaven forbid) to win.

Can we somehow get the msm to take a good, hard look at whether McCane is fit? His judgement is questionable. He shows confusion, memory loss, inability to keep basic facts straight, frustration and outbursts of anger and very erratic decision making processes. These are classic signs of dementia.

Voters need to demand that his health, age, and mental status come into question. In choosing S.P. as a vp he puts the issues squarely on the table.

[flamflurm]

Very clever. You and Diddy work on this together?

[kaspiahn]

Mr Ellis, we can trust our country to a non-experienced Junior Senator who spent most of his taxpayer paid time looking for another job?
However we can't trust our country to an executive-­experience­d Mayor/Governor. Who has proven she can bring the change that Obama only promises.

[sixletters]

I think Palin was sent to us by God.

[steamboat]

Trey, you are right. She is too inexperienced. Why she is almost as inexperienced as Obama.

[FanofPaine]

She's way more inexperienced than Obama. Stop reading the republican talking points and pay attention.

[UpstateNY]

Except that Obama does have experience and he has more - he has judgement, he has a thought process; he's been a state senator; he's been the executive of his own campaign - and what a campaign he has run! We've seen him for the last 2 years and he has proven his ability to led this country. What does Ms. Palin bring that is really needed as a VP pick? This shows poor judgement for John McCain and more damning, it shows his regard for the welfare of this country. He made a purely political pick and his campaign has been crowing on it's looked like it was working. I guess if all you care about is stepping on the Democratic bounce (which it did do) and getting conservative Republicans to donate millions of dollars (which it also did), this is a good pick - otherwise, it could be a disaster for America.

[SaltySaltillo]

Can someone please explain why the breaking news that Palin used to be a member of the AIP is getting NO traction in the press. PEOPLE WAKE UP! This is the ultimate political heresy for American politics, at least since 1865. 500,000 American people died over the question of whether a state - any state - may secede from the Union. And we are expected to turn over the executive power to a person who once believed that secession is an acceptable political view? Drop the pregnancy gossip already and get real: The PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA MUST NEVER, EVER BE GIVEN OVER TO ANYONE WHO HAS EVER ADVOCATED, ENDORSED, OR ENTERTAINED THE IDEA THAT ANY STATE HAS A RIGHT TO OR SHOULD SECEDE FROM THE UNION!!!