More Palin love

Palin is 1.5 years into her first term as governor of America's 47th largest state. She's currently mired in a abuse of power scandal that she has pretty much admitted her office took part in (her aide admitted to pressuring her brother-in-law's boss to fire him because he's locked in a heated custody battle with Palin's sister). She's a part of one of the most corrupt state parties in the land, with a senator under indictment and a Rep. under a serious ethical cloud.

Also, if she could point out Georgia on a map, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Also, she is on the record as advocating that creation science be taught in science classes alongside evolution.

If this is the type of pick that McCain thinks is going to impress and win over independent voters, one word: Whoops!

We have our differences Rod but we agree on this one: "the loss of a sense of life's intrinsic worth in the face of genetic research"

Nothing is more deadly to our future. God bless Sarah Palin for her committment to the dignity of life and thank you Sen McCain bringing her into the national campaign. This election has moved beyond winning and losing to me right now. It has taken on the most critical issue of our time.

Never forget that Sen McCains presidential hero is TR who had no patience for birth control or abortion.

From Sullivan:

It's useful to judge the veep picks as an insight into how the two presidential candidates make decisions. A reader sums it up:

Looking at these two events, what do we see? Obama is cautious, conservative and highly deliberative in his approach. McCain is a risk-taker, indeed, even a bit rash.

In a world of Jihadist terror, resurgent great power politics, and proliferating WMDs, who are you more comfortable with? And how eager are you to roll the dice?

In a world of Jihadist terror, resurgent great power politics, and proliferating WMDs, who are you more comfortable with? And how eager are you to roll the dice?

If Palin's anything like the real folks I know who've been responsible all their adult lives, yet lived and worked at dangerous things, then I have MUCH more confidence in her than in the pandering, spineless Barak.

Has McCain's policy towards unjust war in Iraq changed this morning? Has his disinterest in economics and belief that rich begins at $5M changed this morning? Has his laissez-faire attitude towards the Bush torture policy changed since this morning? Has his willingness to continue Bush economic policies and government spending changed this morning?

C'mon, Daniel, symbols matter.

AND SHE HOMESCHOOLS!!!!! Just a few days ago she came into IDEA, Interior Distance Education of Alaska, where my husband works as a contact teacher, and signed up her high school age daughter! NOW I know why. She'll be on the campaign trail! She IS a Crunchy Con. She embodies every value in the book! I LOVE HER!!! All of us Alaskans do! When she had baby Trig, we all so proud of her and the witness she and Todd gave to the world regarding their prolife values. And When she said the state has made a heck of a lot of money because of the oil price speculating so lets give some of this windfall back to the people who are suffering so much from the price of fuel ($10.00 a gallon in some villages), we all just sat down with our mouths hanging open in admiration and awe!!! And you know she is smart! She announced her idea of an energy costs rebate IN THE NEWSPAPER first before letting the legislature get their greedy hands on the idea. The Legislators or some of them anyways, tried to whittle the rebate down or corner some of it for their own projects. One of them said the legislature should be given the money becuase they would spend it more wisely than the people would! (He'll never get elected again!!!) She is awesome and we in Alaska are just bursting with pride, joy and renewed faith in the political system!!!!!
Halleluia!

http://www.theonion.com/content/point/this_man_obviously_has_substance

I think The Onion sums up the relationship between religious conservatives and the Republican party quite nicely.

I for one will feel much better in the coming nuclear confrontation with Russia knowing that we have an attractive, female, pro-life VP who makes us feel good about ourselves. I'm sure my cousins and friends will be perfectly happy in whatever godforsaken battlefield they find themselves for their next two or three tours knowing that they're being led by "real folks".

I'm glad we haven't learned a single thing from the last eight years.

I last wrote a check for a presidential candidate when I did for Jerry Brown, Governor Moonbeam, when he ran for the Democrat nomination in, as I recall, 1992 (but I may be wrong as to the year). Tomorrow I send a check to the McCain/Palin campaign.

If Palin's anything like the real folks I know who've been responsible all their adult lives, yet lived and worked at dangerous things, then I have MUCH more confidence in her than in the pandering, spineless Barak.

Yeah, Watcher. It kind of reminds me of when Bill Buckley said he'd rather be ruled by the first 200 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.

Buckley was right.

Daniel,

Has Barack Obama ceased to be the Gary Coleman to William Ayers' Conrad Baine since picking Joe Biden as his running mate last week?

Thanks, Rod, for another great post. The citation by Nat Hentoff was fascinating -- great research on your part.

Fascinated by the various comments posted here including the observation by "SiliconValleySteve" about TR ("who had no patience for abortion or birth control"). Imagine if you can a meeting back then between TR and the racist eugenecist Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.

I share the group's enthusiasm for Palin. There is something refreshing about her style and approach (and that of her husband and family). No hint of Washington in these good, hard-working people. They really strike you as true "salt of the earth."

Of course, we all need to brace ourselves for the expected attempts by the Dems and the MSM to savage this woman. They'll be digging through her garbage (literally!) and interviewing all the corrupt officials she's had to fight in Alaska. You can expect some of the "old boy network" she's fought (including allies of GOP Senator Ted Stevens) to view all this as an opportunity for "payback" against her. I'll be praying that she survives this expected "hazing" with her head held high.

I wasn't going to vote this time around. I think I will now. A vote for Sarah Palin is a vote for the culture of life. Sorry Obama, but your love of abortion and support for infanticide lost my vote. Sarah Palin won it and my heart for herself.

McCain/Palin 2008.

Enjoy the moment Rod.

If you're lucky it will last until the middle of next week. End of next week I believe we'll see another vice President candidate standing hand in hand with McCain.

Here's why I believe this will go down with Eagleton as oops of the Presidential kind.

She's being presented as a maverick picked by a maverick. It doesn't pass the smell test. This reeks of the same group that pressured McCain into changing his position on torture of military prisoners.

She reflects the reflection we get when we look at those who made gay marriage the reason to vote for Republicans.

She's an advocate for creationism being taught side by side with evolution in public schools.

She's an advocate for more drilling for oil even if it means going against science and keeping polar bears off the endangered species list.

She believes global warming is a reality but mankind has nothing to do with it.

And she's in the middle of a scandal at home over abusing her power as the governor to punish a sister's ex-husband.

If you look at the things I've mentioned you don't see a maverick. You see Rove and company. You see more of the same.

One more thing Rod, if you and your wife had a brand new child, would you want her to become vice-President?

You can expect some of the "old boy network" she's fought (including allies of GOP Senator Ted Stevens) to view all this as an opportunity for "payback" against her.

There's an interesting subplot here. Palin is the mortal enemy of the Stevens-Murkowski-Young "Bridge to Nowhere" Republicans. Stevens and McCain are also bitter enemies -- on a personal level they despise each other.
So you have to wonder what Ted Stevens is thinking now. Because he's up for reelection, and ironically the massive McCain-Palin coattails in Alaska may be the decisive factor that saves his arse.

For now.

A certain kind of fevered mind looks at anything and sees Rove and company.

Usually a sign that Democrats are starting to panic. Posted by: Simon

Actually Simon seeing the handprint gave me a sense of relief. You see at first glance John's choice of her worried me a bit. But a closer look, love the internet, and now I feel better.

It really is sad you know. Of all the women he could have chosen it's too bad none of them fit into that tiny niche John's handlers had for their idea of a woman candidate for could be President.

There's an interesting subplot here. Palin is the mortal enemy of the Stevens-Murkowski-Young "Bridge to Nowhere" Republicans. Stevens and McCain are also bitter enemies -- on a personal level they despise each other.

If they are such bitter enemies, why did she keep Stevens' endorsement up on her website until yesterday? Are you going to have a lively discussion or are you going to continue censoring us?

Rod, you're the living embodiment of the old phrase "there's a sucker born every minute." Look, regardless of this woman's qualities, many of which do truly seem to be fine, she isn't the President. And, before Cheney, VP's didn't get to do a hell of a lot. It's still McCain at the top of the ticket, and everything that was wrong with him before remains wrong with him now. More war, more tax cuts, more support for the rich and powerful, more torture, more unilateral international relations, more Bush. He'll just have an attractive woman near him who shares your values, and who, given his treatment of women in the past, he will completely ignore. Your best hope is that he drops dead, leaving her in charge. And then you'll discover that all those nifty Alaskan values don't get you very far in the rough and tumble of global politics.

(It's worth noting, I lived in Alaska for years, and though I hate stereotyping, most Alaskans were the most short-sighted, backward people I've ever lived among. And I've lived in 8 countries.)

But there you are, bursting with eagerness to pull that lever for the Republicans again. And two years in, when things have gotten even worse, you'll do just what you did with Bush...just what you did with Catholicism. After singing their praises endlessly, you'll turn on them, with surly descriptions of how they fooled you, and how could you have known?

Except that millions of people did know. They don't fool you...you keep fooling yourself. You're so desperate for the world to be the way you think it should be, the world you'll feel safe in, that you just can't accept that it isn't now, and it's never going to be that world again. Hell, I doubt it ever was, except in your own fevered fantasies. But you'll blame it on someone else, switch teams again, and wait for the next wunderkind to show up and promise a blissful return to traditional Christian values and a bucolic life on the farm.

It's a good thing you're happily married. As a single man, it would be hard to imagine how any even vaguely clever gold-digger wouldn't take you for all you're worth in a few months. I think you should consider renaming your genre from Crunchy Con to Gushingly Gullible.

If it didn't mean the continued ruin of our nation, and the future of my children, it would be almost endearing. As it is, it just seems sad how traditional Conservatives will keep selling this country right down the gutter for the smallest possibility that their values will once again dominate the public discourse.

. . . about TR ("who had no patience for abortion or birth control") . . . well . . . perhaps he had no patience for such things when practiced by white people of northern European extraction.

Charles Grant, a friend of TR's, wrote a 1916 bestseller called "The Passing of the Great Race," which attempted to popularize eugenic notions, and which was translated into German and won a fan letter from Hitler. TR praised the book and said "All Americans should be grateful to you for writing it." TR also said, "Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce."

If McCain really said TR was his hero, I'd say that's typical of the unintended results when you take a simplistic approach to history and fail to do adequate research--unfortunate tendencies in a would-be president.

She's for the Iraq war, a catastrophic mistake that Rod thought was important, once upon a time.

Rod was wrong, as usual, for going along with his lefty friends on that. It turns out Iraq's a stunning success.

And the torturers are still in power--has Mrs. Pro-life said anything about that issue?

you're wrong, Saddam is gone. And she was for that, remember? A great pro-life, anti-torture stance.

I'm a little confused on what her position is on global warming--David Brooks talks as though she is concerned about it, but I've read others say she denies human influence, so I have to do a little more reading to know what the immense brain of Mrs. Palin has concluded on that issue.

It takes you less than 8 sentences to resort to your innate inner hatred and prejudice and become personally insulting.

That observation COMPLETELY invalidates any silly "questioning" you might have of another's intellectual acuity - especially since your basis is nothing other than disagreeing with YOU - the one ruled by hate and venom.

Speaking of her giant brain, she seems to think there's a serious creation/evolution debate.

Definitely a sign of greater intellectual might than you.

If McCain's lucky, they'll choose to focus on "inexperience," thereby trying to sell the public on the argument that inexperience in a Vice President is too risky, whereas electing a President who has even less substantive experience than she does would be a sign of Hope and Change We Can Believe In.

Lots of luck with that one, guys. :)

What? The press is already making it doctrine one of journalism.

I'm quite happy. I think she's not ready to be the candidate, but she's not the candidate. She'll get time to get seasoned matters as VP. Heck he might not die during his term at all. Being mentally fit and healthy at 76 is not that weird these days. I was going to vote for him anyway, but I might donate now which I've never done before.

Now for the negatives. I worry about her foreign policy inexperience. This could make her look bad in debates. I worry this kills inexperience as an issue, which might damage him. The scandal sounds like much ado about nothing, but a reputation as a dictatorial person who fires at the drop of a hat could bring up Bushite issues. I also worry she's not as good as she sounds.

What I absolutely do NOT worry about is Andrew Sullivan's disapproval. Sullivan has become the biggest schill for Obama I've ever seen. Everything he does is good and most everything McCain does is bad by him. I used to read him often, but he has lost all credibility with me.

Rob,

She's neither Catholic nor Pentecostal. She is Evangelical. Baptized Catholic as a newborn (so in a certain sense Catholics would consider her Catholic), but apparently raised Protestant. From Time magazine's interview with Gov. Palin:

Q. What's your religion?

A. Christian.

Q. Any particular...?

A. No. Bible-believing Christian.

Q. What church do you attend?

A. A non-denominational Bible church. I was baptized Catholic as a newborn and then my family started going to non-denominational churches throughout our life.

A lady that was a part-time mayor of some tiny Alaskan town. A lady that has been governor of Alaska for a year and a half. She only met McCain once before they came to a decision to have her be VP.

We're gonna have this person a heart-beat away from the presidency?

Well, considering Obama's experience consists mainly of running for President, making nice speeches which tell us what we all want to hear, and apparently sleeping through 20 years of Jeremiah Wright's fiery sermons, we could do worse.

Whew....comedy gold! My favorite is that this nobody has more experince than Obama and Biden combined. Dayum...I'm literally holding my side from the laughter. Woohooo! Thanks McCAin!

Here's what the top Republican pundits and people from Alaska have to say about her:

* Charles Krauthammer: "The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead.... To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful 'Is he ready to lead' line of attack seems near suicidal."

* Noah Millman, presenting a defense for Palin: "I realize, of course, that she's totally unqualified to be President at this point in time. If McCain were to die in February 2009, I hope Palin would have the good sense to appoint someone who is more ready to be President to be her Vice President, on the understanding that she would then resign and be appointed Vice President by her successor."

* Ramesh Ponnuru called it "tokenism," adding, "Can anyone say with a straight face that Palin would have gotten picked if she were a man?"

* David Frum: "The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical.... It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.... If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?"

* Kathryn Jean Lopez: "As much as I loathe Obama-Biden, I can't in good conscience vote for a McCain-Palin ticket. Palin has absolutely no experience in foreign affairs. Considering both McCain's advanced age and the state of the world today, it is essential that the veep be exceedingly qualified to assume the office of president. I simply don't have any confidence in Palin's ability to deal effectively with Iran, Russia, China, etc."

* Mark Halperin: "On the face of it, McCain has failed the ultimate test that any presidential candidate must face in picking a running mate: selecting someone who is unambiguously qualified to be president."

* The Daily News-Miner in Fairbanks: " She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land.... Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation's when he created the possibility that she might fill it."

* State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla: "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?"

* Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist for Alaska's second largest newspaper, The Daily News-Miner, called McCain's choice of Palin "reckless" and questioned her credentials.

* Mike Doogan, a former columnist now serving as a Democrat in the state legislature: "John McCain looked all over the United States to find the single Republican who is qualified to be, as the saying goes, a heartbeat away from the presidency, and he came up with Sarah Palin. Really? ... [L]et's be honest here. Her resume is as thin as the meat in a vending machine sandwich.... The long and short of it is this: We're not sure she's a competent governor of Alaska. And yet McCain, who is no spring chicken, has decided she's the best choice to replace him as president if he should win and then fall afoul of the Grim Reaper. Sarah Palin? Really?"

* The Anchorage Daily News' Gregg Erickson: "[Palin] tends to oversimplify complex issues, has had difficulty delegating authority, and clearly has some difficulty distinguishing the line between her public responsibilities and private wishes.... It is clear that she has not paid much attention to the nitty-gritty unglamorous work of government, of gaining consensus, and making difficult compromises. She seems to be of the view that politics should be all rather simple. That often appeals to the wider public, but frustrates those who see themselves as laboring in the less glamorous parts of the vineyard."

I have lived among evangelicals all my life and cannot for the life of me understand how in the world they can jettison all their beliefs about child-rearing to place the governor in the VP's office. This is a serious question -- I know literally hundreds of evangelicals who "tut-tut" about women working when they have young children, but who will vote for the governor. You're willing to sacrifice this child's time with his mother for your own hope of clinging to power? This is why you're not taken seriously by thinking people.

Oh, and to be fiercely partisan for a moment -- JPL is dead-on and Houghton is delusional.

I'm sick and tired of having being ruled by the stupid.

Quote ================================

End of next week I believe we'll see another vice President candidate standing hand in hand with McCain.

LOL - well, you read it here first!

end Quote ===============================

By the end of the convention, we might have Palin for President and McCain as VP.

Don't conservatives give a damn about the fate of our country? McCain selects this bimbowho was elected governor by a couple hundred thousand horny oil field workers, and you're okay with that? What happens when she's sitting across the table from Putin, trying to prevent a world war? Can she stand up to the Dick Cheneys inside the country any better than Bush did? Come on, guys. This choice is a disgusting, dangerous joke, and reveals that McCain is no more fit to be president than she is to be vice president.

"Don't conservatives give a damn about the fate of our country?"

And now it's the familiar "you hate your country" line we get from 'progressives' when they've got nothing left to say.

Green Eagle uses the now-cliched tropes we've seen repeatedly today from leftists, including wearily familiar use of snarling misogyny. Oh yeah, the DNC, that's the party of women, all right. As long you're not getting in the way of their power grab.

It's "dangerous" and "disgusting" - Seriously, can you guys take a deep breath and listen to yourselves. It's 2004 rage all over again.

You're on your way to racking up another loss.

Oh Houghton old boy, we are all just fine and dandy....thanks for the concern-trolling, but we are just trying to get over the shock of the RNC giving us the election with a bowtie around it. It's not every day that the party of Tricky Dick Nixon politics would just throw in the towel by giving such a monumental fuck-you to the American electorate, so it might take a few weeks for us to absorb the implications of how far the right has imploded. By the way, your keen sense of optimism is noted on our "racking up another loss", but disregarded as blathering stupidity by anyone who can actually think for themselves.

Your list...of Sara Palin acomplishments and suitablility for office- a masterwork of Republican talking-points, lies, half-truths and complete and utter bullshit. Before I see that list again as a mass-email, I'm just gonna send it to snopes.com for their analysis of where this originated. Not that you couldn't come up with original material, you couldn't, it's just not in a RNC robot's directive to be original or think for themselves.

You said,"

AND SHE HOMESCHOOLS!!!!! Just a few days ago she came into IDEA, Interior Distance Education of Alaska, where my husband works as a contact teacher, and signed up her high school age daughter! NOW I know why. She'll be on the campaign trail! She IS a Crunchy Con. She embodies every value in the book! I LOVE HER!!! All of us Alaskans do! When she had baby Trig, we all so proud of her and the witness she and Todd gave to the world regarding their prolife values. And When she said the state has made a heck of a lot of money because of the oil price speculating so lets give some of this windfall back to the people who are suffering so much from the price of fuel ($10.00 a gallon in some villages), we all just sat down with our mouths hanging open in admiration and awe!!! And you know she is smart! She announced her idea of an energy costs rebate IN THE NEWSPAPER first before letting the legislature get their greedy hands on the idea. The Legislators or some of them anyways, tried to whittle the rebate down or corner some of it for their own projects. One of them said the legislature should be given the money becuase they would spend it more wisely than the people would! (He'll never get elected again!!!) She is awesome and we in Alaska are just bursting with pride, joy and renewed faith in the political system!!!!!
Halleluia!

Posted by: Shelley | August 29, 2008 7:45 PM
"

I say, how in the world can a woman "home school" when she and her husband are on the campaign trail??? Oh, right, the Republican school. Don't ask questions, don't learn from mistakes...greeeaaaat! Look forward to the product of that schooling soon!