She has female genitals, so she'll attract some of the genital voters who were previously voting for Hillary's genitals, to balance out some of Obama's skin voters.

She's also pretty well liked among the conservative base.

The trouble is that she has been an extremely strong proponent of drilling in ANWR, while McCain has been an extremely strong opponent of it, and neither can change their positions now.

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Don't feed the Maradon!:
Obama: "I am a fresh face in politics"

*picks a career washington man for vice president*

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Yes, yes. all around. Maybe even , not sure. Most likely will work out better for McCain than Obama, though.

Her education ends at a single bachelors in journalism, and her previous experience includes beauty queen runner-up and mayor of a tiny Alaskan town.

And she has a decent chance of ending up being president of the USA

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I wish Zair would say this more often:
She is for creationism being taught in public school.

Her education ends at a single bachelors in journalism, and her previous experience includes beauty queen runner-up and mayor of a tiny Alaskan town.

And she has a decent chance of ending up being president of the USA

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She has a uterus, though.

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Zair who doth quote:
She is for creationism being taught in public school.

Her education ends at a single bachelors in journalism, and her previous experience includes beauty queen runner-up and mayor of a tiny Alaskan town.

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If she had a law or business degree from a major university - say Yale for example - you'd probably just say her rich parents bought it for her anyway.

If you hadn't, to paraphrase Obama, "painted your face blue" you might note that she isn't just a mayor but the Governor of the state of Alaska from december 2006 to present. She's also got an impeccable reform record, having fired a republican state commissioner, battled oil companies regarding safety regulations, and refused federal "bribe" money for state pork projects, the attainment of which most governors build their entire political careers around.

But I have to ask you, do you think experience matters or not? Think carefully before you answer this.

She is pro-life and a creationist and as always I most violently oppose both of those views, but both her and McCain have ironclad records when it comes to limiting and reducing government spending. Government spending and the associated "hidden inflation tax" is at the very heart of nearly every major economic issue we face.

Contrast this to Obama and his unabashed adoration of FDR and The New Deal which managed to kill this country twice and may kill it yet a third time if we can't figure out what to do with the 52 trillion dollars in unfunded social security outlays.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 08-29-2008 at 06:47 PM.

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Maradon! had this to say about Punky Brewster:

If you hadn't, to paraphrase Obama, "painted your face blue" you might note that she isn't just a mayor but the Governor of the state of Alaska from december 2006 to present. She's also got an impeccable reform record, having fired a republican state commissioner, battled oil companies regarding safety regulations, and refused federal "bribe" money for state pork projects, the attainment of which most governors build their entire political careers around.

But I have to ask you, do you think experience matters or not? Think carefully before you answer this.

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I wouldn't knock her for being well educated. I appreciate the leader of my country to be well educated. Obama graduated from Harvard Law and was president of their law review. McCain graduated almost last in his naval academy class. His vice president nominee only has a BA in journalism.

I mentioned she was a governor in the post before. A governor for only one/two years mind you.

And, no, I don't think experience matters very largely compared to other factors. I doubt anything TRULY prepares someone to be president, so it is more important who they surround themselves with once in office.

John McCain certainly cares about experience however. The fact that he would nominate this person that has almost none, (and zero foreign policy experience), after attacking Barack Obama for the same thing, shows that this nomination is a pretty blatant pander to single issue women voters.

This is worse than the gas tax holiday pander McCain and Hillary did earlier this year (note Barack was the only one not to).

Honestly,what does she offer above Tom Ridge or any of the other vp choices besides being a woman?

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Zair who doth quote:
I wouldn't knock her for being well educated. I appreciate the leader of my country to be well educated. Obama graduated from Harvard Law and was president of their law review. McCain graduated almost last in his naval academy class. His vice president nominee only has a BA in journalism.

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Unless it's Bush and his degree from Yale, right?

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John McCain certainly cares about experience however. The fact that he would nominate this person that has almost none, (and zero foreign policy experience), after attacking Barack Obama for the same thing, shows that this nomination is a pretty blatant pander to single issue women voters.

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It does make a difference that Obama is a presidential candidate and Palin a vice-presidential candidate. A VP is an understudy almost by definition. That aside, while her lack of experience is a legitimate issue, what you're describing here amounts to little more than a "gotcha" at McCain for criticizing Obama's lack of experience in speeches and advertisements.

The things that a candidate says in guarded moments on the campaign trail or in their commercials really don't even enter into the realm of my consideration, so this really means little to me, and I do extend the same courtesy to Obama.

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This is worse than the gas tax holiday pander McCain and Hillary did earlier this year (note Barack was the only one not to).

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I have no idea what you're implying. The gas tax holiday was a stupid idea in every sense except one: It brought to light the fact that the government makes more money on a gallon of gas than the oil company that produced it.

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Honestly,what does she offer above Tom Ridge or any of the other vp choices besides being a woman?

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You probably wouldn't know this, but she is almost universally popular among the conservative base of the party - a base that is ambivalent at best about McCain. If the ticket were reversed, I might even vote for it.

She's also very good at speechifying. This is important because Biden is good at speechifying and the VP's generally debate one another.

Her record compliments McCain's in a way that no other candidates' really does, least of all Ridge who is an asshole. Like McCain She is a demonstrated maverick and not a party zombie, but without the record of capitulation with the left, so she shores up that weak point of the ticket. She is tough on spending, like McCain, as I have already enumerated, and she is one of the loudest voices in favor of drilling in ANWR, another sore point of McCains.

I've mentioned twice now that I think her lack of education is a negative, and rather than respond to that, you have redirected with two different, "But you probably think...." statements.

Also, her preparedness for the job of presidency (in regards to experience) takes no less precedence than Obama's when she is second in line behind a 72 year old cancer survivor.

I brought up the gas tax holiday to show a contrast between Obama and McCain. McCain is willing to pander to a much greater degree to get elected. The gas tax holiday example is irrefutable. No economist thought it was a good idea, and McCain had to have known that. He was blatantly taking advantage of the ignorance of the average American for votes.

His VP is more debatable, but it seems obvious that she was chosen primarily for being a woman, something you even seem to agree with, though she has other potential strengths.

She will probably draw in tons of former Hillary supporters too, who will vote for her just because she is a woman, completely ignoring the fact she is completely opposite of Hillary on every issue (especially women specific issues like abortion).

I'll be the first to admit that Republicans are way better than Democrats at tricking the ignorant into voting against their own self interest.

Zair fucked around with this message on 08-29-2008 at 08:06 PM.

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x--ZairO-('-'Q) :
I've mentioned twice now that I think her lack of education is a negative, and rather than respond to that, you have redirected with two different, "But you probably think...." statements.

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The education argument is pretty silly, our country has a terrible history with college educated presidents going back to Woodrow Wilson and further. I personally think that academic achievement is almost irrelevant to the office so I really don't care either way, it just annoys me when the same people who called Bush stupid and blew off his Yale degree start harping over the gravity of another candidate's degree.

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Also, her preparedness for the job of presidency (in regards to experience) takes no less precedence than Obama's when she is second in line behind a 72 year old cancer survivor.

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Actually yes, it does take less precedence because the vice president of a 72 year old cancer survivor is still a vice president. It might be even less important if McCain were a 40 year old body builder, but people are living into their 80's all the time. 76 is actually our country's average life expectancy. The guy doesn't exactly have one foot in the grave.

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I brought up the gas tax holiday to show a contrast between Obama and McCain. McCain is willing to pander to a much greater degree to get elected.

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This is probably the most preposterous statement I've heard this entire election cycle, coming from a cheerleader for a populist party and a candidate who has done a complete 180 on almost every issue over the past four months and is pushing for another round of economic stimulus checks.

While McCain is a notorious party traitor who has stated his opposition to extremely popular proposals like drilling in anwr, bald faced, on conservative media outlets.

Yeah. McCain panders and Obama doesn't. Good luck selling that one.

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His VP is more debatable, but it seems obvious that she was chosen primarily for being a woman, something you even seem to agree with, though she has other potential strengths.

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I don't understand why you're saying this as if it's something uniquely despicable, as if Obama and Hillary both were not also running on their anatomy.

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I'll be the first to admit that Republicans are way better than Democrats at tricking the ignorant into voting against their own self interest.

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No, the democrats and every other populist party will always be the kings of tricking the ignorant into voting against their self interest. Just look at every union coal miner voting for a party obstructing the expansion of coal power, every teamster truck driver voting for the party that's keeping gas prices high and obstructing alaskan oil development which would be fed by teamster trucks, and every minimum wage earner who pulled that blue lever and is now unemployed.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 08-29-2008 at 08:33 PM.

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While you read this, I'm gonna go make out with I'm New's mom:

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A GLIMPS OF TAH FUTAR?

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Karnajing:
Since McCain and Palin are both staunchly pro-life, it's hard to say whether or not she'll attract female PUMA Clinton supporters. The most conservative ones might go, sure, but most moderate and certainly nearly all liberal female Clinton supporters are going to be turned off by that position. But on the other hand, maybe the prospect of having a woman closer to the Presidency than ever before can override that.

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I am confident that this is an overestimation of the political acumen of the genital voters.

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The logic train ran off the tracks when I'm New said:

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"Kiss the rings, bitch."

"I'm in pre-mature labor but first I've got to give this speech, then fly to alaska, then drive 45 minutes from anchorage to a small village hospital in order to give birth to my special needs child who would have benefited from the hospitals in dallas where I am now or anchorage where I will be stopping

Also, women should put their family first!"

"Abstanace only education works!

Also, my 17 year old daughter is preggers."

Even Obama is telling the press that Palin's daughter is irrelevant. None of the mud will stick because none of it means a damn thing.

Honestly, though? I'm not surprised that the 17 year-old daughter of a rural Alaskan conservative wound up preggo. What is most unfortunate, though, is that this poor girl is going to have to get married, have the kid, and, in all likelihood, have her life ruined in the name of Family Values.

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Kegwen wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
Her daughter's pregnancy is a private ordeal. Now if only her party would see that a bunch of other similar things that they don't support are private and shouldn't be politicized then we wouldn't have a problem anymore

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OHHHHHHHhhhh

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x--KegwenO-('-'Q) :
Her daughter's pregnancy is a private ordeal. Now if only her party would see that a bunch of other similar things that they don't support are private and shouldn't be politicized then we wouldn't have a problem anymore

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I never said it was a private ordeal, I said it was irrelevant. Anyone who would have considered voting for McCain won't have their minds changed by this, and she's no less popular with the conservative base of the party for it.

I posted this poll on the Glenn Beck message boards. It's subscriber-only, one account per subscriber, so no poll packing. About 45 of the 70 votes were cast after the pregnancy issue was already public. And before you ask, Beck is extremely anti-McCain and dedicated an entire week of his show to obscure third party candidates.

The only people who care about this are people who were never going to vote for McCain in the first place. Seriously, where did you people even get the idea that this constituted a "disaster"? DailyKOS? Huffington Post? Democratic underground? Somethingawful?

As for me, even if she is a uterus-grabbin' religious zealot, I'll take that over a man that idealizes the FDR presidency - which is to say, over a looter government - any day of the week.

But in a world where there is so much undue power concentrated in our governmental offices and people lie so flagrantly to get into them, I think it's justified to use any clue or unguarded moment that we get to try and divine the true nature of a candidate.

I just don't think this clue means anything.

Maradon! fucked around with this message on 09-02-2008 at 08:08 PM.

As you pointed out, it's very necessary to keep our eyes on politicians and keep them as honest as possible.

edit: basically the point is if she can claim this is a private affair and that the media should back off, then it'd be nice if politicians like her would chill out about other shit that the government need not have their hands in.

this is all really poorly phrased what i mean to say is RON PAUL MAAAAAAAAAAN REVOLUTION

Kegwen fucked around with this message on 09-02-2008 at 08:35 PM.

Incidentally, I love The People's Cube with all my heart.

let's just agree that Palin hasn't done anything wrong here and call it a day

fiscal hypocrite

and a former member of an Alaskan secessionist party.

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Kegwen still thinks SARS jokes are topical, as evidenced by:
it's become evident that I'm really stretching here because I can't articulate what it is I want to say

let's just agree that Palin hasn't done anything wrong here and call it a day

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Keg, she has done something wrong: by billing herself (or being billed as) a staunch social conservative and a champion of Family Values, she has opened herself and her family to scrutiny. That's why we know her daughter took one load too many. That's why we know her husband got arrested for driving drunk twenty-two years ago. It's unreasonable to be a poster child for this idiotic conservative notion of the nuclear family and expect to be given the pass when it comes to your own. If you don't want your family's shit dragged out into the limelight, then don't accept the VP nod. Or, conversely, don't be a champion of Family Values, so that when this shit comes up, you can quite reasonably say, "Like most other families on this planet, I'm not perfect, but I and my husband try our best," or perhaps quip "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."