Palin's punches
I liked the parliamentary-style jabs at Obama and they have peppered the news coverage, though I still think she is skating on thin ice. Rudy Giuliani stirred the crowd with a demand that "they" stop asking her how she can cope with her parental opportunties as well as this new job. Strikes me that it is a perfectly reasonable question - you could argue that tiny babies need mums more than dads - and anyway "they" are mostly on the right, as here.
Is she tough or is she reckless? This is downright strange if it is true.
An interesting conversation with one of my favourite Republicans, Dick Armey of Texas, the former congressional leader. He says he supports Mrs Palin BUT he does not support this method of choosing vice presidential candidates - instead he suggests that the vice-presidential pick runs alongside the main man (oops, or woman) on the ticket. So they run as a couple and are elected in the primaries as a couple. Patronage and rolling the dice is replaced by good old democracy. Sounds wise, like so many of Dick's views. .....
Hello, I'm 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~57~RS~)
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Change the nominating process? He should have just stopped at "I support her BUT..."
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Mrs Palin doesn't seem sure of success in November: "I pledge to you that if we are elected . . ." and "if Senator McCain is elected president . . . " A more confident candidate would have said "when", not "if". Apart from that, it was the same old platitudes which no doubt posters will be delighted to tear to pieces. I look forward to reading the thoughts of our more righteous contributors.
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Palin has proven she can deliver a speech written for her under pressure. The real test will be on the campaign trial, at press conferences, and at the VP debate.
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Well I don't know where Justin Webb's been. allmymarbles can give him the lowdown on Sarah Palin's 5th pregnancy.
He just has to ask…
..and he said...
I am sure allmymarbles can answer that one as well. Or bethpa. Anyone ?
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She did McCain's speech writers proud and that's about it. No where near a Hilary Clinton caliber performance. Some red meat as they say, most of which will be ground up in Joe Biden's meat grinder and turned into well done moose burgers.
Palin's "Green Acres" stick will not cut it in these very real and very difficult times. With this VP pick McCain has found himself at the bottom of the class yet again.
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To#4Wanderingangus
Personally, I think the Republicans have made some very poor choices but they do not really dwell in this century. Things could get ugly.
The baby is probably average. I have a great grandchild about the same age who is a lot bigger. Genes and all that. I do ask why it was necessary for such a little one to be present at this event? I have read that she breast feeds but there are bottles for when that is inconvenient. We do live in interesting times
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Palin’s speech could be effective in the pre-Internet era. But facts tells us that Mrs. Palin failed her family business, and that she left Wasilla, a town of some 9.000 people with a $20.000.000 debt.
Her pro-life stance is not solid: Mrs. Palin cut money to support teenage mothers with newborns.
I also found her style visceral and disrespectful, for example, to the Democratic veterans. With all her bravado, she was not able to hide that she is rather poorly educated person, thus her speech sounded shallow and pretentious. There was not a single interesting and deep idea.
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To#5Chillo
I will answer.
If she is like all working mothers, she will be torn between the needs of her child and the demands of her job. Any working mother with a baby deals with this every day no matter how good her day care, nanny or family help.
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To Davidcunard
How can she be confident? In order for her to be elected McCain must be elected, which may not be as easy as some might thing. I hope that the Democrats encourage Hillary to have a go at Palin. That might be truly epic and possibly very entertaining.
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# 7
OK - but my first uncomfortable thought when the baby was used as a prop at her "coming out" last Friday was that it should not be there in a huge crowd on a very hot day.
I felt the same way when I watched the videos of her speech.
How do they know its not going to start bawling ?
....... something awfully exploitative about all this and I would love to hear what child experts have to say about it.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I am sure that I'm not alone in my discomforture.
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Oh dear, Justin just can't stop the bias. Great speech from Palin, who unlike Obama and Biden has actually got a record of achievement behind her.
Does Justin Webb know he has actually just called for mothers with children to stay at home?!! ' you could argue that tiny babies need mumms more than Dads'. How enlightened. It's good to know you lot on the left haven't changed your social attitudes since about 1930.
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The argument that she isn't fit because she should be home raising kids, as Webb suggests, is perhaps the most sexist statement I have ever read on the internet!
The link to Dr. Laura is absurd, as she is a) non partisan, and b) hardly a spokeperson for any group. This criticism is clearly a product of the majority of her critics, who are overwhelming in the left.
The link to the Dallas News story is the worst sort of tripe, which has absolutely no place in the public discourse. Further, it makes Mr Webb look more than a little creepy.
The fact that I am reading all of this of a forum from a group who consider themselves eglitarian and sophisticated is illuminating. Is there anything you won't say?
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Palin gave a great speech. She:
*fired up the crowd (no small feat at a Republican convention).
*offered glimpses about herself and her life accomplishments (though arguably not enough).
* showed that she's a strong politician, and suggesting capability to take the job should she be called upon to do so.
* took the attack to the Obama camp, pointing out several valid criticisms (such as Obama not authoring a single law and some of the 'unflattering' aspects of his tax plan).
Things which could have been done were:
*more explanation of who she is and her values.
*Pointing out what the Republican plans, especially economic, are, rather than just exposing the faults of the Democrat's agenda (though McCain should do that tomorrow--11:59 on the West Coast).
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9, Aqua.
I don't agree. A working mother compartmentalizes and manages very well. You may be thinking of women who don't have a live-in nanny or housekeeper, women who are always concerned for the welfare of their children because of a complicated or uncertain situation. That would be a very big problem and concerns for the children would be ever pesent.
I am not in favor of Palin and will not vote for her, but that is for political reasons. It has nothing to do with her being a mother.
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I think tonight, Sarah Palin's speech, was made in direct response to the media attack and scrutiny she's received over the past few days.
Some of the points from Palin's speech tonight were brilliant;
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#7, aquarizonagal :
I think she is the kind of rock that can shatter the glass ceiling, and be a good mother. I know some wanted that person to be Hillary, but she didn't make it.
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To#11Wanderingangus
You are not alone. This bothered me, as well.
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Sorry sorry sorry, number 3 mis-statement and number 8's post are typical of the lies being spread on the internet about Palin.
You got your information from a bunk source and now are embarrassing yourselves by repeating it. I live in Alaska and yes the baby is hers and where korsac (No 8) got his beliefs is a wonder. There are things you can say against Palin but that post was nothing but lies, blantant at that.
Number 3, what are you insinuating about her baby being big? That she had it earlier or the sad trash trying to convince people it's her kid's baby? Both are untrue and you're going to be feeling foolish when that girl does have her baby. However, I suspect you won't come here apologizing for such a nasty comment. Check out the facts - all sorts of documented proof tell the tale. Our news sources knew of Palin's girl's pregnancy but didn't report because of the children of candidates have no business being slimed. Before you give me a load of bunk about how it reflects on Palin, let me restate; CHILDREN OF CANDIDATES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OFF LIMITS and the media has treated that poor girl very differently then all of the other past children and their shinanigans.
Your other comment about being surprised they had her go so partison was actually the exact same that I felt. She's reknowned up here for telling both parties to take a flying leap and sticking to her word to the people. As conservative as she is (and believe me she is extremely conservative) she's been very practical about not forcing her beliefs on us while being Governor. Her lead has been surprisingly middle of the road and it's the reason she has 80% support here. The issues were too important to spend on politics for political sake. Don't misunderstand, she is very conservative and if she becomes President she'll put conservative Judges on the court. She's extreme pro-life (No 8, where in the heck did you get the idea she's not?)
Her middle of the road leadership has been because she's had to uncover and then fight major corruption, take on big oil, then get a 40 billion dollar contract to build a natural gas line to the Lower 48. Not to mention the $1200 she's giving to each Alaskan rather than putting that oil wealth into Government coffers. The budget is already about a billion and a half as is and Alaskans pay more for gas than most others in America. And no she didn't support the 'bridge to no where', things taken out of context have twisted that to be exactly opposite of what she did up here about that bridge.
I agree with you, it's a bad move on the part of the Republicans to attack and I think you're right the Democrats will have a heyday with it.
As for the legitimate posts on this board; I think Palin will surprise you in the long run. But at least you're not spouting off 'coined hate offerings' about her as so many are doing.
There's plenty to disagree with Palin, but find out the truth about her. Ask we who live in Alaska who have dealt with her; You'll find those that don't like her and most that do. But be careful; NBC did a report tonight on Wasilla and it surprised me they spent the whole report on this bitter candidate that hates Palin and didn't once interview a Palin supporter. They only thing they did do to try to balance the report was one sentence at the end, "Everyone in this town is very proud of Sarah Palin."
I'm impressed with the other posts though I don't agree with all. It was so nice to come to a message board in these turbulent days of mis-information and see most posts of intelligence rather than hate. Don't complain to me about far-right ranting - I don't like it either.
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What an odd world this is. For example, how many commentators mentioned last week that Obama and Clinton delivered speeches written by their speech writers? None! The left is beginning to look deranged as it stoops for ways to discredit Palin. Is her child really hers? And so on. But she did deliver a powerful speech, brilliantly, last night. Funny, too. What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick! McCain has none of Ronald Reagan's charisma, but he's just filled that position will a truly remarkable woman.
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#11, wanderingangus:
Actually, in American business now it is pretty normal for a woman to return to work with infant in tow for a few months until they start screaming rather than squeaking. Mostly they sleep alot, and wake up to eat. I'm sure that Mr. Palin knows where the changing room, and milk bottles are in case of a need.
I'm glad to see motherhood accepted in politics as a normal human behavior, rather than a cloakroom activity.
There is an ugly type of feminism that is anti mother, anti marriage, and sometimes anti male.
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#15Allmymarbles
I have no objection to Palin as a mother. I dislike her beliefs and I despise McCain. My reply was to another poster. I am not sure that people can compartmentalize as easily as you say and the majority of working women in this country do not have live in nannies. Most rely on various day care arrangements. Leaving your baby to the care of another may be easier for some more than for others.
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Regarding: Is she tough or is she reckless? This is downright strange if it is true.
It does appear to be true, as indicated by this Wall Street Journal feature: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122002615833483595.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (go to the very end).
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I thought she nailed it. Looked like the hounding in the media over past few days hadn't affected her at all.
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It seems to me that her speech was praise for McCain and attacks on Obama. Not in itself a great suprise, though I thought McCain wanted his campaign to be above such things and focus on issues.
However, what it failed to do was give us any clearer idea of who she is. I suppose her speech writer doesn't know enough about her yet either. Or perhaps, in attacking Obama and the media rather than give us any real clue as to what she intends to do as VP (she has only had a week or so to think about it) she has revealed plenty.
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Awwww, was wondering whether that would be too rude to get through the mods. Here's a more polite version (which should have been used in the first place):
wanderingangus:
kyotoite:
ljbella:
Where are you guys getting the idea that others wrote Palin's speech? Although it is common for politicians (from both parties) to read speeches written by professional speechwriters, David Brooks on PBS said that Palin wrote this speech herself.
And the speech wasn't a Hillary Clinton caliber performance--it was fluent and witty as opposed to alternating between shrill and loud (if you're looking for good speech-delivering skills in a Vice President). Beat all of Clinton's campaign speeches, with the potential exception of the decent concession speech.
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17. RF
For the record, the first draft of Palin's speech was written by Bush's speechwriters and they started a week ago before they knew who the candidate was. Sure they mixed in some Palin stuff including her only joke about the lipstick ... perhaps she should be referred to the SPA for cruelty to animals ...
And I don't know about you, but for a politician to need more than a day's coaching to give a speech tells me she's not a natural ...
Justin, the story about the waters is one I picked up on here several days ago: apparently her waters first brioke at 4am Texas time and she did not get to the hospital in Wasilla until 10.30pm, presumably Alaska time: was she so unconcerned because she knew the child had Downs? It is that extraordinary behaviour that gave the stories early in the week such traction, and I suspect that is why part of the gossip will not go away: apparently the birth certificate is 'missing'.
I think you missed something in your interview with Carly: you could have asked her how Palin's executive experience compared with her own. That would have put her far more on the spot.
And, you know, they'd be using the executive experience argument on Hillary as well, after al, as they would put it, she's only been a senator and a political wife. It's a false distinction, but the Dems need to think fast about a better way of dealing with it.
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“Mrs. Palin left a $20 million deficit as Mayor of Wasilla, town with a population of less than 10,000.
In the midst of the current recession, this is what the USA needs right now on a grander scale -- more reckless deficit spending??
She also had to hire a city administrator to help her manage that town, something the former mayor managed to do alone”.
This lack of administrative ability demonstrates also the lack of competence on McCain's part also.
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Now whilst I am a British Democract(!), ie I would prefer Obama to win the election - unless Hillary makes a remarkable comeback! I cannot help but disagree with not only your comments Justin but also those of a great many in the media. Why do babies need mums more than dads? Why are we not asking Obama whether he could properly care for his two girls whilst juggling the responsibility of the Presidency?! Double-standards anyone?!
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#21, ArcticFrostAK:
I agree with your assessment. I also see her (family, relatives) whole life being scrutinized as if what she did 20 or 30 years ago reflects the woman she is today. Barrack Obama wrote a memoir on his life so his "confession" is complete, his sins absolved. Has Sarah Palin made mistakes in her life? Oh, yeah, some big ones at times. But, people need to look at her accomplishments in the last 5 to 10 years, as Governor, as State employee. The rest of her life is interesting, and comparatively it would be interesting to know exactly what Barrack's experiences were like as a community organizer. But interesting, is not the criteria of assessing a person current capability.
As I see it, Barrak has a vision, but has never been able to make his vision a reality. That is telling, in that he served 1 1/2 terms in state legislature, and 2 years in the Senate. I would like anyone to point to anything that Barrak has changed to date.
I'd say, what you see, is what you get.
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Having just listened to exerpts of this woman's speech on youtube. I can safely say that Sarah Palin has the vocal attributes of an automaton. As a public speaker, she's not even on a par with he likes of Joe Biden never mind Barack Obama. In fact, as a possible career change, she could be the voice over for the myriad of Sat-Nav devices currently on the market.
This is quite simply an awful appointment for VP, and if the Republicans think that by having a bespectacled former beauty queen wheeling out her youngest child every five minutes, is going to win the election, they need to wake up to the realisation that it is going to take a lot more than that.
This woman quite clearly cannot keep her own house in order, hence the reason why her 17 year old daughter is currently with child. That said, if she cannot keep her own house in order, how on earth will she be adept at handling state affairs?
Quite frankly, I would give more credence to a candidate from Sesame Street running for VP as opposed to this travesty of a candidate. Woeful.
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Well at least the BBC has now given some coverage to the Republicans - even if it is about the VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate not the candidate for PRESIDENT.
When will we get to hear anything about the republican presidential candidate?
I spoke to someone the other day and they didn't know who the republican candidate was - they thought it was Hilary Clinton and Obama had just beaten her.
"McCain?" They said, "never heard of him. Does he make the oven chips?"
To be honest I don't know - does he?
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#30, MarkfromOxford:
"For the record, the first draft of Palin's speech was written by Bush's speech writers and they started a week ago before they knew who the candidate was."
Do you believe that Barrak, Biden, and Hillary write their own speeches?
"And I don't know about you, but for a politician to need more than a day's coaching to give a speech tells me she's not a natural ..."
Um, the schedule was for her to speak today. She delivered the speech very well, and it seemed natural for her. Why do you think otherwise?
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She'll tell you want she wants. What she really really wants.......zig-a-zig-ah
Sarah Palin seems to have spiced up the GOP campaign with her own brand of "girl power" - Posh, Baby, Scary, Sporty, Ginger and now Governor Spice.!
So much so that McCain has had no coverage all week. He'll to get back out front and centre to prove he's still the top of the bill on the ticket.
You're all doing very well !!
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Re the idea of campaigning couples in the primaries. I'm not sure that candidates would want to pair off before the primary prom begins. They may well want to go go home with somone else by the end of the night. The current system has the advantage (from the candidates point of view) of allowing the stengths and weeknesses of contenders to be tested in combat before a choice is made. A nomine may chose a defeated opponent or he/she may decide on on an outsider who helps strenthen a weakness in his/her platform that the primaries has shown up. Also the candidates would take a risk - imagine if Obama had teamed up with Edwards as his VP before the priomaries an then on the eve of super Tuesday the affair story had broken. the main candidate would be dragged down by the VP.
One thing about the US ystem is that it does allow for the political establishment to be refreshed by bringing in fresh faces. In the UK someone has to serve a long apprentice ship in the political establishment in order to reach the highest levels. There are, as always, pros and cons. Renewal from the outside is good but keeping experience is also good - keeping the balance is the hard part. The REP's obviously plan to campaign on the case that Mccain/Palin has that balance just as the Dems will argue that Obama/Biden is also the right blend.
You're all doing very well !!
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The Dallas link is interesting. Most commercial airlines will not take on board as a passenger a woman if she is 32 weeks or more into her pregenancy. I'm sure that this is as much a commercial decision as a medical one. After all if a plane is diverted for an emergency due to a complication then it would cost the airline and leave a plane load of other passengers stranded in a midway stop-over they hadn't planned on. I'm not a medic so if any blogging medics can tell me if down syndrome is more likely to lead to complicatins at birth? If so then why take any unnecessary risk with the sacred life of your unborn child? Perhaps airlines in Alaska are more used to emrgency medical flights since they must serve extemely remote locations .....?
You're all doing very well !!
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My mum and I were having a laugh yesterday, wondering if she should have tried to run for Prime Minister, given that my sister has Down's Syndrome, and has my mum just been wasting her time as a full-time carer? It's black humour to us, because my mother has no respite to even go to the shops apart from when I am home and can take over, and yet here is Sarah Palin running for vice-president. I suppose it's admirable that she's kept the baby (not that she would've done anything else) but the real hard work is in bringing him up and she has no clue what will come in the future. It's not easy, it's not straightforward, and anyone who says otherwise is very naive. And I also don't believe she came to terms with it as quickly as she says she has - it just doesn't happen that way. I don't believe Palin's any different but she has to act that way because she's anti-abortion, so we will never really know how she feels.
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25 - innerproduct
That story is true to a point if you're commenting on her speech giving before her delivery of her fifth child. What they don't tell is her Doctor's insistance that it was a non-event and he assured her she wasn't taking any chances and go ahead and proceed with her schedule. He's gotten quite upset at the media's take on the story.
But she's a tough cookie that way and some may find fault with that decision. She doesn't hide from the fact she made that choice. As a matter of fact, earlier in the article they mention the pressure put to bare on the saftey commisioner that was fired. When questions began she had it investigated herself and called a press conference to bust herself (more appropriately her staff and she brought out a tape with conversations of them asking a person close to the saftey dude to tell him about how awful the State Trooper she and her husband didn't like.) But she insists she didn't realize her discomfort was being told through out the department and how others were applying pressure. She states his firing had nothing to do about how she felt about the disputed trooper. I believe her, but you'll have to make that choice for yourself.
I see it this way, her and her husband mouthed off about the Trooper they didn't like, for they don't hold back their opinions on anything. Her staff went too far and she should have been on top of them. I don't believe that is why she fired the Safety Comissioner, but it didn't help his case. I was an editorial cartoonist while she was Mayor and her husband became furious about a cartoon I had done on her and ranted to the editor that I didn't deserve to be the cartoonist. So I personally know how mouthy they get and I can imagine the things they said to staff members and friends about this Trooper. Foolish, yes, corrupt, no.
You'll have to decide for yourselves. The fatcs on that investigation should be coming out soon enough.
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This is nothing short of total devaluation of VP post,which elevated to new hieghts under Dick Cheney.Palin's seems to have rehearsed her written speech well,which more cliche ridden,full of gas and little substance.She derserves mayorship of a bigger town first that the high post she is aiming at.
RNC/McCain will needlessly be defending the choice as new revealations will keep popping up regular intervals depriving McCain of a serious debate on the major issue.A total avoidable campaign distraction ending up in a big liability for GOP.
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Excellent speech - no matter who wrote it. And she has achieved her intention of rattling Democratic supporters, as witnessed here. She cleverly exploited Obama’s lack of substance and his eloquent but meaningless rhetoric. Palin will be a force to be reckoned with and I suspect, hugely popular with the electorate. Isn't life interesting?
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Put it another way, who would you have dinner with? or more pointedly invite to dinner at your home.
The Obamas and Bidens would put you at your ease and be charming company.
McCain would make you feel a little on edge. You would be on your best behaviour and it would be hard work. You would be proud but drained after he left.
Palin? Would you really invite her into your home?
Because you do invite a President into your home. The President becomes the voice of the nation for the next four or eight years, and it is not just about a heartbeat: the most common form of near-death incapicitation is a stroke. Many people recover, but it takes time, and in that time the VP would be in charge.
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IF the waters breaking story is true and she then got on a plane and travelled a couple of thousand miles then she is reckless in exposing herself AND her son to a totally unnecessary risk of doing both great harm.
Arn't there rules about pregnant women flying? There are there for a reason - the safety of both the woman and the baby.
Also, she did not write the speech herself. There was a piece on the CBS news last night (shown on SKY) where McCain's speech writer said the VP speach had already been written BEFORE Palin was announced and they had to start again because it was too masculine in tone.
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I didn't know before tonight that Tom Palin is 1/8 Yup’ik (native Alaskan).
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# 42 ~ valuable insight from ArcticFrost, which confirms the worries of many around the world who will be affected by the outcome of this election.
Can America really afford a VP whose instinct is to "mouth off" when crossed. That may be acceptable behaviour in a small-town mayor but is truly dangerous for in a high-level politician (or even a diplomat as the VP job is very much a diplomatic one).
Given her known convictions, she is going to have lots and lots of opportunities to "mouth off" and I, for one, will be watching from behind the sofa.
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#42, ArcticFrostAK :
"That story is true to a point if you're commenting on her speech giving before her delivery of her fifth child. What they don't tell is her Doctor's insistence that it was a non-event and he assured her she wasn't taking any chances and go ahead and proceed with her schedule. He's gotten quite upset at the media's take on the story."
I published the link to the ADN story giving a full account of the time line, and links to the conference, and totally debunked the allegations in this blog in the last few days.
Trig is Sarah Palin's baby. Period. To say otherwise in the face of evidence is defamatory and libelous.
It doesn't stop twitterers and mud slingers from trying to make this into a Jerry Springer episode.
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JohnAAA welcome back as ArcticFrostAK!
ID may be designed to slip in under the radar, but style and tedious repetitive dog-with-bone stuff remains extanct.
Do your boss, colleagues and company a favour and get on with some work today. If you want to sue the BBC go ahead - the rest of us are not interested thanks.
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A delay in getting to hospital may be construed by some as a way of trying to let Nature take it's often tragic course...
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Post 30 - perfect example of what I've been saying. How pathetic of you. You don't know any of the facts about that birth, so stop repeating rumor. The fact you accuse Palin of wanting to lose her own baby because it's a special needs child is why the left wingers are currently worse than the right wingers in hate speech in my opinion. And here I was just warming up to O'Bama after Republican bashing tonight. You pushed me right back to McCain because you reminded me of who O'Bama's base is, the right wing base is bad too but your statement reminded me how mean you left wingers are and it concerns me he caters to you. You guys are the worse thing that can happen to O'Bama's campaign.
Post 32 - if you actually believe that the small town of Wasilla was left with a 20 million dollar deficiet, then I have a 'bridge to nowhere' to sell you. I'm astounding at the ignorance of those two posts.
Alas, I leave you all and put my way too mouthy opinions to rest. I just couldn't let those two posts go unanswered.
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#45, MarkfromOxford:
A better question; Who would you want to stare down if needed Vladamir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, Hu Jintao, or Kim Yong-il?
I don't enjoy having my boss over for dinner either, but I would prefer the "Commander in Chief" to be ready to handle the job.
Popular does not mean capable.
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Tough or reckless is a reasonable question not only for Palin, but for McCain. Obama broke the 50% mark in the Gallup poll yesterday and it will be a tough race, but the steady on approach of the Dems is a great strategy that should pay off in November and in the years ahead.
Steady progress
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#43, arunmehta:
If what you say is true, then the door was opened by Barrak Obama.
Barrak -- community organizer, 1 1/2 terms as a back bencher in State legislature, 2 years in Senate.
Palin -- Community work, 2 terms as a mayor, 2 years State employee, 20 months as Governor .
Actually, I find it kind of refreshing to not have the same old tired political hacks from Washington, but some people who are still in touch with the people.
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THe discussion about mothers juggling work and children isn't one we should be having in the 21st century. I'm a stay-at-home dad looking after my three under-fives, my wife works full time in her choosen career. No problem. She even chose to pump milk at work so we could keep feeding out tots mummy's milk. This should be a non-issue. However, I do understand that with a special-needs child other factors come into play. As VP though she'd get no end of assistant carers though and be financially-secure... good reason to go with the offer. choose the VP. Not to mention the disctinction of first female VP and probable President.
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I wonder if anyone can explain this to me - how on one hand can Sarah Palin be "pro-life", even in respect of pregnancy through rape, saying she would "choose life", and yet be pro-capital punishment on the other hand? ("I would choose death"?)
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I really want to say "Go girl!" .... but her views frighten me.
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37, RF
Barack wrote the first draft of his speech in Hawaii before passing it to Axelrod. He then worked with them; and I might add the report from Axelrod was that he literally wrote it with a pen. One reason why Obama is a better speaker is that, at least on the big speeches, he initiates the process. So yes, he is different from the others, but that is perhaps because he has taught at university.
As for her presentation, Palin lacked, shall we say, nuance: it was mainly two dimensional rhetoric, and the smart lines look like they were written for her, except fo the lipstick joke which was already doing the rounds yesterday.
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#39, Young-Mr-Grace:
I agree. The way it is now, the parties can field the best two people who will help them win the election. Otherwise you might like one person from one team, and one from another. Then, there would be all the drama of breaking up and reforming as you got closer to the convention. I believe it used to be the party would field president and vice president from the field of those who campaigned. But now, the selection has more to do with capturing a demographic.
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Those who say that Palin's speech was not great are seeing the world through obama tinted glasses. Even MSNBC said it was good!
What is clear now is that BO must destroy her to win. He did not get that much of a bounce and now is at 5.8%. As Labour found out many times this is not enough.
As for speeches OB's are re-writes of MLK's I even have a few of MLK's on CD. This was the main reason I dislike(d) OB he's no MLK. OB choice of Biden was a mistake and merely shows that he is know different for others.
So big deal if she didn't write hers no politician does.
She (the pit bull with lipstick, Palin) has charisma (I'm sure those of you that have be on the business end of a pit bull will know they are not known for charisma), charm, looks and wit. Today the race changed. The dems must hope the dig something up in Alaska besides Oil. Not the word dig not drill.
As an aside my students are now less interested in OB. Seems he's not new anymore. Maybe just maybe the young vote is starting to collapse for him.
This was great:
“I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town,” Palin said. “Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess, I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Time to get you coat OB.
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All Sarah Palin had to do was to READ the speech that was custom-calibrated for her! Her teen age pregnant daughter Bristol could have delivered it as successfully if not better!
How would Sarah perform in debate with Joe Biden on the Middle East or Georgia when there would be no custom-calibrated script for her to read from?
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#60, MarkfromOxford :
I think the strategy worked. She's been smacked around the last few day, and this speech was a fiery come back. It would have been weak to be defensive of old news issues, and outright lies, but on certain issues it was a nuanced punch. Her points were on comparative experience, on actually doing something rather than talking about it, on raising taxes, on being an advocate in the White house for women, mothers, and children with special needs. She also put most of the focus of her accolades, not on her, but on McCain. There was a section where she referred to the POW watching through a crack as McCain was brought back to his cell after torture session always giving a nod and a thumbs up. I think it was the right speech for her to give, and she did it well. It made her look strong, bright, articulate and supportive of McCain.
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Leaving aside gender and reproductive politics, a few have struck me about the Palin choice.
First, the Obama / Biden ticket now feels like the safer choice. McCain / Palin is a bit too "all maverick, all the time".
Second, McCain can't be happy with all the process stories about vetting. He seems to be running on process as much as on policy - a "I have the experience and judgement to make the right decisions" kind of thing. So, the apparent haste and impulsiveness of the Palin choice surely detracts from his experience message.
Finally, though Palin seems to have aquitted herself well last night, there is still plenty of room for serious errors. No doubt the campaign will try to minimise her press time: no press conferences, but a few interviews to make her appear visble and available
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If Palin made it to VP her next pregnancy would be of interest - history of past pregnancies is
boring to all not directly involved.
In 1558 John Knox sounded the warning
but surely even he would be amazed at the
situation in the USA today, some four and a half centuries after his 'First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'
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58, ChiefWhiteHalfoat:
From what I read; She has said she would support capital punishment in cases where adults murdered children.
Capital punishment is a secular issue that is thrust upon people of conscience (including religious people). When you accept the mantle of public office you need to perform your duty as a secular representative of the people. Why the society wants capital punishment may be deterrence of others, or eliminating an unredeemable threat to society. I don't support it, but I would have prisoners earn their keep.
My particular position is "pro-life" but not based on religion. I'm a libertarian, so I believe the government has the duty to define when "citizenship" begins. It matters in defining laws that would punish crimes of feticide, when a person assaults a pregnant woman resulting in the death of her unborn (and viable) baby. Also in being able protect the unborn citizens rights. I think the legal test for "life" should be the same as for a person on life support (e.g. brain activity).
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63
I think you will find OB did the same.
I watch an interview with Palin (SP from hereon) and was impressed with her. Biden better be on his game or she'll kill him. As for middle east how many flip flops did OB do on this?
Remember SP in the VP, OB will have to lead.
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Here's a hypothethical question....you are due to make a long flight with your family when your 5 year old daughter complains that she doesn't feel well. Doc says it's her appendix. Probably it will be OK for the length of the flight and can be treated on arrival but nothing can be 100% sure and should the appendix rupture in mid flight then.... do you decide doc says proabably OK and get on the flight or do you delay your plans and wait until have your daughter seen to in a local hospital first ?
Now same Q....you are due to board a long flight when your waters break... the life of the baby in your womb is every bit as valuable and sacred in the eyes of God as the 5 year old girl holding your hand....do you get on the flight?
You're all doing very well !!
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#57, aegeanblue :
Last year one of my assistant directors had a baby, but didn't have a private office. So I switched places with her for about 10 months so she would be able to care for her baby in private.
My boss didn't think I should have done it, but he is old guard and part of that dying breed that think people need to adapt to their profession rather than together making life and profession work for individuals.
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Not sure a leader is one who has to stare down the leader of another nation - there are times for quiet diplomacy too...putting ourselves in another's shoes - "if I do this, he/she will do that"...cause and effect...e.g., f I push against the preferential trade agreements between UK and its ex-colonies for their banana and sugar, where do these small islands get an income? not from ganja? not from what? Is that why Chavez is popular re supply of energy to them? Will they be just fodder for the US labour market? the annual farm work programs cutting cane in Florida?
Politics includes saving face/giving someone a way out as well as being intimidatory...not "bombing us with your democracy"...e.g., looking at the present situation we have Milliband (UK) running around stirring things in the East...is putting anti-missiles systems in Poland making the Russians feel safe? Is this really for "rogue" states?
Did WE feel safe during the Cuban missile crisis? Rather than the UK minding its own business, it's stepping into US-Russia games...
But, look at the crop of leaders we have had/could have - lawyers (incl. Blair) and PR men (Cameron) and their knowledge of anything more than politics, is it any wonder?...the messing with the domestic education system, the state of NHS....
Looking further afield, in these dangerous times, where people think in (Christian) fundamentalist terms about things, it begs the question - where is the diplomat? another Adlai Stevenson? Certainly not in Milliband or Rice?
Leaders seem all clueless - lacking that "vision thing", ready to lead poor people into wars, for what? a greater glory? delusions of power? a new oil source?
The Puritans were exported West. Some people want to see the world in easy black and white...with a book/a simple belief structure to make sense of everything. Not see the world the way it is or even that someone else can have equally valid beliefs. The hate that spews in some of these debates seems weird. There's always some scapegoat...
Politics seems to have crossed into religion - the idealisation of leaders has taken on the fervour of any (suspend belief) belief value system.
(In "A piece of the action" - Sidney Poitier 's character responded that what we're doing doesn't produce life just gratification...ah, well, so's a blog, so does politricks.)
:-)
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One perspective from a American government employee with several years of Washington experience, moderate political views, disdain for both political parties, and (former) respect for McCain as a person and leader.
The VP-job is so much more than a 9 - 5 job. She is being horribly irresponsible to her children by assuming a 24/7 job. Usual White House hours are 6 to 10 or later, 6 or 7 days a week. I'm all for women in senior leadership positions and hit the glass ceiling continually myself (an attorney with 2 graduate degrees) -- but the VP needs to have worldly experience and infinite time to dedicate to the job. A 4 month old baby with special needs -- holey cow. Why not Carly Fiorina or Meg Whitman?
Question: Does she have a passport? Has she lived anywhere by Idaho and Alaska, two of our most rural states? If she married her high school sweetheart and had 5 kids.... she has had absolutely no exposure to the world. Where was her last international trip? How many languages does she speak? How many states has she visited?
It is positively terrifying to me that she will be one step away from the presidency, with no experience outside of the rural US and absolutely no relevant experience.
Someone famous once said something along the lines of, 'no one ever lost an election by underestimating the ignorance of the American population.' Unfortunately, this is the case. If she mobilizes the religious right and all of the ignorant people in the US who Karl Rove convinced to vote against their economic interests, the US is sunk again.
Shame on McCain for making such a poor choice of someone so unqualified, so inexperienced, so provincial. I could have accepted a McCain presidency out of respect for him -- but his VP pick is a disaster.
This isn't a popularity or beauty contest for homecoming queen -- I'm sure she's a lovely and smart person -- this is about finding the person most qualified to lead the US during difficult and dangerous times. I'm horribly disappointed in his judgment -- and in hers for accepting the nomination.
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ok next, I hope this is not your best shot!
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Justin, I expected better of you – are you seriously saying Mothers should not be allowed to work? Based on the evidence that kid will go everywhere with her. I can’t imagine anyone telling her she can’t bring it to work. Luckier than some.
Some of the people on here are plainly barking. “She didn’t write her own speech.” What! The number of senior politicians who write their own speeches could be counted on the fingers of one hand of a clumsy chef. They have these people called “speechwriters.” The last person to write his own speech was probably Christ on the Mount. Obama certainly did not write that speech he delivered last week.
“2., David_Cunard wrote:
Mrs Palin doesn't seem sure of success in November: "I pledge to you that if we are elected . . ." and "if Senator McCain is elected president . . . " A more confident candidate would have said "when", not "if". Apart from that, it was the same old platitudes which no doubt posters will be delighted to tear to pieces. I look forward to reading the thoughts of our more righteous contributors.”
I don’t know if I am “righteous,” or if being “righteous,” is a good thing, but here’s a couple of thoughts for you.
There is a difference between confidence and arrogance. The Presidency is no-ones by right, it is an honour given, not earned or taken.
In applying the conditional, perhaps Palin is recognising this, and assuming nothing. Personally I see this as having humility, not lacking confidence.
In any case, she later referred to “the next President of the United States, John S McCain, which kind of invalidates both our points, I guess.
#18 Mrs MEvE – You were clearly watching a different speech to the one I saw.
“Palin's speech was hollow. It lacked serious content, it failed to inspire me... “
Why would you not be inspired by the story of a woman who rose from PTA to Councilman to Mayor to Govenor in such a short time, while raising a family, who has run on an ethical ticket and who drives herself to work?
“Palin could have done better, much better than this, but she didn't. She could have chosen better points to attack Obama with, but instead she chose to highlight supposed faults that are so painfully apparent in herself.”
What she said about Obama is that he is a self-regarding narcissist who hasn’t actually done anything except make pretty speeches. To paraphrase the former President, “he is fooling all of the people for some of the time.”
This is a killer accusation, because it is true. He spent all that time in the Legislature and he has sponsored exactly no bills, instigated exactly no changes, and done nothing to make the US better for anyone except himself. He is a no score draw. He has kept his head down and his record clean of controversy, but also achievement.
Palin, on the other hand has done more in her short time in the Govenor’s and Mayor’s offices than he has achieved in his entire life.
#45 Mark from Oxford – “Would you invite Palin into your home? This is both desperate and pathetic.
I would not want Obama over my threshold, or Biden, or McCain, or Palin. I would not have invited Blair into my home either, someone as false and insincere as him would make me uncomfortable in the extreme. I would not be choosing the next President on the basis as their suitability as a friend, I would want someone capable of doing the job. Much more important.
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Brilliant speech.
All the sexiest attacks on her will just move the women to vote republican.
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Her speech, for me, was based on juvenile name calling and personal attacks whilst lacked any real substance of what she'll do if she's in office. Same old Repubican nonsense. Given McCain's age she could be President - that's a scary thought.
I'll say it again - she's an idiot. She's opposed to the Enlightenment, and moreover, a hypocrite. She believes in right to life and capital punishment, but somehow the latter is secular?! She's nuts.
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73.
History tells us it is better to have the fight earlier rather than later. For example france stops german crossing the rhine no WWII. Nato drops a division in to Cech... the Russians had orders to turn back.
Also by not standing up to russia we in fact gave them less options not more. The russian people were loving their time on top. So russia couldn't pull out.
However if we had said get out or else then Russia could have taken the high ground and said in the interest of peace etc.... See Cuban M. C. We could also threaten to recognize regions in Russia as countries.
Russia looks at weakness not as diplomacy but as weakness. Only JFK knew this.
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74:
Live in the now. It is for her family to decide.
If she works out OB loses
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Let me abbreviate my previous post.
Contrary to #21, Palin did initially support the "bridge to nowhere".
There's a media interview and photograph to prove it.
Also, I don't think she is qualified.
Many Alaskans don't think she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from President.
Comparing Alaska to Illinois or Washington DC isn't valid.
I think her stance on sex education (abstinence) is a valid topic for discussion given the huge teenage pregnancy rate in the US but her daughters should be left out of it (even if the Republicans accuse Obama of using his children).
The partisan messages don't help the discussion.
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#74. USinRussia – May I interpret some of your comments.:
One perspective from a American government employee with several years of Washington experience, ONE OF THE KIND THAT SARAH PALIN ATTACKED?) moderate political views, (DEMOCRATIC,)
She is being horribly irresponsible to her children by assuming a 24/7 job. (I’M CHILDLESS, SHE SHOULD BE.)
an attorney with 2 graduate degrees- (BUT YOU STILL CAN’T SPELL) holey cow.
Question: Does she have a passport? (QUESTION – DID YOU NOT CHECK BEFORE ASKING. SHE HAS VISITIED THE ALASKA NATIONAL GUARD IN WAR ZONES.)
Where was her last international trip? (SEE ABOVE)
How many languages does she speak? (HOW MANY DOES OBAMA SPEAK? WHO CARES?)
How many states has she visited? (HOW MANY HAS OBAMA VISITED?)
Shame on McCain for making such a poor choice of someone so unqualified, so inexperienced, so provincial. (SO GAUCHE, SO AMATEUR, NON-U.)
I could have accepted a McCain presidency out of respect for him -- but his VP pick is a disaster. (SHE ISN’T A FEMINIST.)
This isn't a popularity or beauty contest for homecoming queen -- I'm sure she's a lovely and smart person (DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE IF I EVER HEARD IT.)
this is about finding the person most qualified to lead the US during difficult and dangerous times. (YES, AND OBAMA IS THE LAST PERSON YOU NEED. THE MAN HAS NO EXPERIENCE OF ANYTHING, AN UNTESTED BACKGROUND, UNKNOWN SYMPATHIES AND FRANKLY, SCARY FRIENDS.)
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Let her be the 'poster child of the GOP' -- not Vice President.
She will not be able to take her baby to work.
Being VP of the US is not a normal job in any way. She will not see the baby during his waking hours. She may spend more time at home than members of her staff, but she will not have a normal life by any stretch of the imagination.
There is a huge price to pay for folks who choose to serve in senior government positions (or business positions for that matter.) It's not a male or female issue -- it is a time issue.
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Oh!dear poor old Sarah Palin looks like she touched a raw nerve,good for her-that shows she is feared!.Love her or hate her you cannot deny that she has more connection with the ordinary people than all the other candidates put together including McCain!
If only we had a person with her tenacity in the UK.I would put money on her to become President in the not to distant future.Obama made a mistake in chosing a clapped out running mate and in doing so will lose the election. He should have chosen Hilary and then both vice president hopefuls could have slugged it out.It would have been better tv viewing than wrestling and a very close election.
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Jon,
No, but they do seem to share a graphic design team, though.;-)
ed
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It's clear that Mrs. Palin is not an educated woman. Her partisan attacks on Mr. Obama were cheap and silly. The American people are tired of nasty, divisive politics that offer no solutions. Her coments were obviously "red meat" for the republican base. She could have, at least, made an attempt to show some knowledge of economics or foreign policy. It's very sad to see her using her family as props. The young man who got her daughter pregnant looked like a hostage. To call the pending marriage between Palin's daughter and this young man a shotgun wedding is an understatemant. Sarah Palin's naked ambition is costing her family dearly.
The right side of the aisle has devastated America's standing in the world, spilled too much blood in Iraq and is destroying the economy. The middle class is under seige. Republicans still claim the war was justified because Sadaam had weapons of mass destruction; don't confuse them with the facts.
Poor whites in red states vote against their own best interests because they get caught up in divisive issues such as abortion, "pledge of allegiance" in school, and the right to bear arms. Race is still a big issue, especially in the red states(including, by no coincidence, the former Confederate States of America). The rich back the republicans because they know where their bread is buttered. Race is still a very, very big issue, despite what some people say.
McCain's miltary record does not make him qualified him to be president. That was 40 years ago. He also cheated on his first wife and divorced her when she was ill 40 years ago. To pick one and not the other is disingenuous in the extreme. His temperment and judgement are very much in question. He insults womens' intelligence to think that they will vote for Palin just because she is a women. He had months to check all posible VP choices, but instead got desperate and wants to put this provincial, untested and unqualified woman a heatbeat away from the most powerful office in the history of the world. That she does not believe in evoltion and disputes global warming are indicators of her consrvative, backward mindset.
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dceilar
Well if she is nuts then it makes me feel better for the future and security of the USA.She may not say the politically correct words you want to hear but she connects with the voting public and thats been long overdue in America,her private beliefs and affairs are her own business as yours are I would hope..If Obama can get support by making frilly speeches and promises he knows he cannot fulfil then surely thats nuts?How could anyone be such a fraud?
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No doubt Palin and McCain will get a bounce from this week and something of a sympathy vote from some women.
However, over the long haul, people will want to look at issues and solutions. So far at the convention, there has been no mention of the economy, only partisan and nasty attacks on Obama. There have been no uplifting speeches, nothing to offer hope or a reason to vote FOR them, only reasons to vote AGAINST the other side. It's the same GOP strategy of Karl Rove and the Bush administration. Perhaps it will work again, only time will tell.
Anyway, she should enjoy the moment - even Matt Drudge is lapping her up!
However, there will be more revelations to come. The incident about her childbirth seems to have legs, not to mention her dealings with lobbyists, being for the Bridge before she was against it, the troopergate affair and a host of other things.
While she may play well in some rural areas and has fired up the right-wing base, more moderate folk in cities and suburbs may find her too aggressive and off the wall. If she becomes the poster child of the finger-wagging, conservative moralists, she risks appearing too extreme and too weird for maintstream America. Her energy and vitality also risks eclipsing John McCain, who is looking frailer by the day. Put side by side, the contrast between them looks too great. They look a very odd couple to say the least.
Swing voters don't want two impulsive mavericks in the White House. They want someone safe and reliable who can fix the economy and pursue a sensible foreign policy. Palin's comments about Iraq being "God's will" have yet to gain traction but will be brought up again soon.
One more thing she needs to work on is her voice! Maggie Thatcher underwent voice training in the late 70s to lower the tone and come across as less abrasive.
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I found the criticisms expressed by Rudy Giuliani regarding the nomination of a working Mom for VP of the USA justifiable on the basis that many democrats (not Obama or Biden) have gone well beyond the limits of decorum and common sense, but have actually criticizes her for doing what democrats, especially feminists, have championed for decades.
What struck me the most about Carly Fiorina's speech was not the substance or style or her discourse, which was 100% CEO material, but the indifference of many of the delegates who were cheerfully engaged in conversation while a prominent member of their party was speaking.
Gov. Palin's speech was, not surprinsingly, very good, regardless of the partisan views expressed in it. For example, the focus on energy ignores McCain's record of opposition to off-shore drilling before the campaign, and ignores Obama's proposals to expedite oil drilling in places like the Debakke formation, and development of alternative energy sources. It also denies the record of Republican mismanagement the past 7.5 years.
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"Strikes me that it is a perfectly reasonable question - you could argue that tiny babies need mums more than dads"
So I gather by your logic that Tony Blair should have resigned as PM to look when Leo was born? Or is it because she is a woman that she cannot cope?
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#71, Young-Mr-Grace:
Hypothetical question; Have you ever been 8 months pregnant? Have you ever had Braxston Hicks contractions?
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54, 64, RF
First of all, yes I would much rather have Obama's clinical assessment of risks and opportunities backed by Biden's advice (and probably that of Richardson); than McCain's gut instinct and bellicosity combined with Palin's ignorance. And by the way, you keep saying Obama has been 2 years in the Senate ... he was elected in 2004, well before Palin was governor, and was part of the Senate team sent to Iraq in 2006.
Second, being mayor of a small town and then governor of a remote state with a population less than that of many cities is scarcely the stuff of executive experience. It was, frankly, hilarious watching the ex-CEO of Hewlett Packard effectively make her own career inconsequential by saying that Palin's experience was sufficient. Nor is McCain's twenty years in the navy until he reached middle ranks exactly executive experience. My father was a senior naval officer who held both managerial and diplomatic posts, so spare me the naval officer executive biography. Unlike his father and grandfather, McCain never achieved flag rank; mine did and I know the difference.
As for the McCain POW story (yet again?), the last one he told was lifted straight from 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' so I would not put much credibiltiy on something clearly provided by Bush's speechwriters to sound good. It might play well in the hall, but I bet you'll find it somewhere in the Gulag Archipelago in the stories about the trains; in fact I'm almost certain it is from there as I read all of Solzhenitsyn as a teenager.
One final thing: 'an advocate in the White House for women': I guess that is why she slashed the budget providing care for single teenage girls who get pregnant. It was reported in the Washington Post two days ago. And in the Post today, they have printed copies of emails sent from her private Yahoo account that were clearly intended to intimidate and ensure the sacking of Wooten.
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#74, USinRussia:
What has Obama done so far in his career to "change" America?
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See post # 82
There seems to be much more crude and shouty abuse on this site today. Certainly more than there has been up until now.
I wonder why ?
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#82
The 'holey' of holy cow was only for emphasis. I spell quite well and don't need to type in all capital letters to make myself heard.
Actually, I am a federal government civil servant (i.e., not a politically appointee and prevented by law from being overly engaged in the political process) and I might have voted for McCain out of respect for his years of public service. I used to be a republican before it became the party of the Christian right and earmarking. Honestly, until you see it, it is impossible to imagine the damage that is done to the US federal government by earmarks such as the bridge to nowhere. But, earmarks are just a function of politicians just trying to 'bring home the bacon' to get re-elected.
Unlike today's republicans, I don't have to scream (which is what you are doing in capital letters, no?) to engage in meaningful dialogue.
She's simply unqualified to be anything but the poster child of the GOP.
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Mrs. Palin decide to keep her child even though it was diagnosed with Down syndrome before birth. She of all people needs to understand and respect the right of women to choose what to do with their lives in such difficult (if not impossible) circumstances. Denying this basic right is invasive, indiscreet and unfair. Mrs. Palin may be wealthy or may have the opportunity to take a sick-day off work to look after her children but most American women simply don't have this kind of luxury.
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Wow. Once again, the BBC has shone its uncanny knack for using some of the homeliest photographs of people available (seemingly).
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I don't really like any of them but I have to comment on Obama
He is totally ripping off Martin Luther King in the way he talks and delivers speeches. If you play aMLK speech and an Obama speech, listen for the exact pausing mid sentence. He is trying to sound just like him.
It is incredible that people have been taken by this man. To me he shows no substance whatsoever, with very little in the way of experience and policies.
A perfect example is his comment to the former Australian PM when critical of some of the US tactics in Iraq. Obama said well perhaps they want to increase their military in Iraq by 20,000 before commenting.
What an ignorant thing to say to a staunch Allie of the US. He seemed oblivious that the population of Australia is only above 20mill, not 300 mill.
This man is out of his depth in foreign affairs.
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Constable Shoe,
Simply untrue. Obama has sponsored numerous bills (most easy to my recollection was Jim Webb's) and initiated others. Such blanket negative statements display either ignorance or something worse.Salaam, etc.
ed
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#83, USinRussia:
The VP job consists of two things, presiding over the Senate (until you transfer the gavel), and being alive if the President gets killed.
Everything else is optional. For example, can you recall anything Al Gore accomplished during the Clinton years?
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The context of Giulliani's "they" remarks is that evangelical social conservatives and the politicians who manipulate them posit that their way of life -- the true American way of life as they see it -- is constantly threatened by heathen swarms of liberals.
The roots of this can be traced to segregationists' defense against civil rights legislation in the 1960's. It was at that time we first saw conservatives plant opposition to "liberal" politics in evangelical and fundamentalist soil.
Conservatives have always opposed the protection and expansion of liberties within the U.S. They have typically justified that opposition as an expression of religious faith.
The 1960's was also when evangelicals began to remove their children from the public schools and enrolled them in private religious schools, so-called "Christian academies". Initially, most of these schools were simply designed to allow the children of white segregationists to avoid attending an integrated school. Quickly, however, they became havens for parents who do not want their kids exposed to what they see as an evil and corrupt world.
The problem for society is that it has little visibility into how and what children are taught in such schools. Invariably, here as elsewhere, any criticism or questioning immediately triggers the "it's a private matter of faith" defense.
I believe the widespread but erroneous belief about the USA's "biblical common law foundation" can be traced to deliberately inaccurate history lessons in these schools. Hence, we get far-right politicians like Palin declaring that oil pipelines and war in Iraq are instruments of God's will. Such assertions are consistent with their world view because they were raised and educated in an environment that presented skewed and distorted history as honest and accurate.
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#87, ironaphill :
"It's clear that Mrs. Palin is not an educated woman."
It is clear you don't understand what educated means.
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The core issue could end up being cleaning up the whole corrupt mess in Washington. McCain and now Palin have track records in ethics reform, in chopping the pork barrel stuff Obama and Biden do not - they are part of the Augean mess, machine politicos.
She is gonna be very effective in attacking Obama, no holds barred. People may not like her style, her small-town roots, but she has populist appeal. She is a competent public performer, and shows wit as well as a hard edge.
The BBC presents her primarily as some sort of religious fundamentalist. Ignoring the reformist track record. That may work for UK audiences, but not in the US. Voters are now asking "Who is this woman, what;s the fuss about - and what has she actrually done ?" And the more they see what she has actually achieved, the more hollow all Obama's record will appear.
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In this European country we have an equal number of women and men in the government.
Our present Minister of Defence was appointed when 7 month pregnant with her first child. Has not stopped her doing her job.
Everyone her takes both their father's and their mother's surnames and keep them for life regardless of whether they marry or not.
We also like the Russians who come here on holiday or to work. I know several presonally. The USSR was the only state which gave material aid to the elected Government during the 1936-39 Civial War.
We regard Russia as very much part of Europe and have number of prodjects with them.
Although have simpathy with the people of Kosava, our Government has not recognised their Unilateral Declaration of Independance as against International law.
The next United States Administration is going to be faced with the worst crisis in American history bar none. I just hope for the sake of the American people they will be up to it.
What is quite clear is that at this point in time nobody inside or outside American can have the least idea whether they will be or not.
BTW I live in Spain.
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#94. Barack hasn't done anything to change America either, and I don't think he can. Both major parties absolutely represent only big money, corporate interests (such as lobbying, earmarking) at the end of the day, because they have to raise money to get elected. There are so many similarities between the parties, other than on social issues, which are generally state (not federal) issues. And, as far as change goes, sorry to be grim, but, I think that America is too far gone for any politician to step in and save the standard of living for the average American -- the US is way too dependant on cheap oil and gas and too far in debt to everyone else in the world (both on a national level and on an individual-citizen level) for a politician to have an impact on the economic system. Arctic drilling is a minor issue that will not in any way take care of the energy crisis in the US -- and I believe there isn't a viable alternative (you can't fly a plane using nuclear energy.) But, I do think that Barack and Biden would do a lot to repair the perception of the US around the world as a more diplomatic nation. It's horrible to be an American abroad these days, and I like to think that Barack and Biden would treat other nations with more respect than the current administration or McCain would.
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Just like Dubya, Sarah Palin is of course a rootin' tootin' (not to mention shootin') member of the fundamentalist fringe of the G.O.P. where blind faith reigns supreme while evidence and reason count for little.
So perhaps it's not too surprising that she had me thinking of these lyrics: "She said, 'There is no reason/And the truth is plain to see.'"
The song, of course, is 'A Whiter Shade Of Palin'.
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#93, MarkfromOxford:
"As for the McCain POW story (yet again?)"
You imply it is a lie. Except the POW that was referenced was in the audience. Nice try.
"One final thing: 'an advocate in the White House for women': I guess that is why she slashed the budget providing care for single teenage girls who get pregnant. "
Have we heard anyone say "why" that was trimmed back? Maybe there is a good reason for it to be trimmed back.
The Real Story Behind Covenant House
I hate hack journalism, and their tools for spreading false information. Has anyone ever heard of checking both sides of a story before babbling it everywhere and closing your minds?
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I respected Giuliani until yesterday. Yesterday he proved to me that he is a little man with a very small brain, in fact no brain.
he is like a blind man in a dark cave.
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I'm disappointed in Justin Webb. He's bias towards the Republicans is really showing through these days. The BBC should be better than that - it's bad enough that 90% of the American media lean towards them and gloss over their lies.
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#96, USinRussia :
Her appeal is in rallying the Red States where people "desperately cling to guns and religion."
Just as Biden's appeal is in bringing blue collar union Democrats on board what they would considered an elitist professor.
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Checking the facts
Stretching the truth
And so much for family being off-limits. They cannot have it both ways. Saying leave the children alone (even when pregnant) then shine the spotlight on them
family politics
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Heck if the good old'e USA can elect a B Rate movie actor as President, why not elect a B rate mother, ex-cat walk bimbo (Sure she was not a one time blonde), precedence already set. Feel for the poor boy that got the daughter cheggers he's in for a rough time me thinks, but not what the real USA common sense folk can expect if this one gets close to the Oval office....the other guy is 72.......just a matter of time then.......sure there be plenty more skeletons in the cupboard.....Is it only a matter of time for Arnie 'I'll be back' to get his shot?
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The problem with your mate's suggestion of running as a ticket rom the start is that it precludes losing candidates from being selected as VP candidates. This means that heavyweights like Biden who never really had a chance of winning the nomination would have to choose between running for President and joining a ticket.
That's a problem whatever they decide because if they choose to join a ticket, you'd lose some important voices in the Presidential race which contribute to the debate even if they haven't got a shot at the nomination - let's face it, you can't make the same kind of impact as a VP candidate.
And if they go the other way and decide to run even though they have little chance of being the nominee, then some potentially brilliant VPs would be ruling themselves out of that job - Obama couldn't have picked Biden, McCain couldn't have picked the person he should have picked (Romney).
So it's an interesting and initially attractive idea, but ulitmately, I think, a flawed one.
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Less impressed with Palin than ever. It's yet more crack-pot, small town, white and Christan loony thinking with no concept of a world outside of her backyard that has marred America for the past eight years. The Iraq comment of 'God's will' really would scare me if I was American after the past two terms. Obama has been right to distance himself completely away from that thinking.
I think she was totally the wrong choice for the Republicans. I know John McCain needed to do something to get people talking about his campaign, but I think there are more skeletons in her cupboard and the people in Washington have the knives out for her. She will also be very susceptible to suggestion, which is how the neo-conservative crackpots got hold of GWB.
I also believe that attacking the Democrats isn't a good idea (Bush Senior tried that against Clinton) and neither was attacking Obama's comments on 'guns and religion' because she saw it as a personal attack on her and people like her in America. It wasn't. She showed her small town reactionary thinking right there.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Post 92 RealFrigid
I have to answer no to your Q -I've never been pregnant. Young-mrs-grace has, and the advice given was if your waters break go to the hospital even if contractions have not started.
The article in Justin's link stated that Sarah Palin's waters had broken.
Since this was her fifith child she was obviously in a position to base a decision based on her past experience and medical advice. I don't think I would have flown or have advised my wife to fly in those circumstances but Sarah Palin made a different call. I'd have been tempted to make the conference speech by video link - it was good enough GWB this week....
Perhaps she is just less risk averse than I am. That's either decisive leadership or foolhardy recklessness. There is a fine line and every voter will have to make his/her call on that.
You're all doing very well !!
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72:
"So I switched places with her for about 10 months so she would be able to care for her baby in private............My boss didn't think I should have done it, but he is old guard and part of that dying breed that think people need to adapt to their profession rather than together making life and profession work for individuals."
Yer. I have also seen mothers in full-time work coming in late to work after having dropped off their kids at school, and who clock off early in mid-afternoon to pick them up, all while being paid a full-time salary and while others get paid the same salary or less and have to cover for them and do the best they can until they are actually available. That is just plain wrong, whatever way you cut it, and it causes a lot of disruption in a lot of workplaces. People who see that for what it is - wrong - are most certainly not a dying breed.
You do adapt to the profession first and foremost. If you can't do it then it's time to consider another career, which is what people used to do when they actually planned for children. People used to ask "Can I afford it?" or "What happened if I had to give up work?" or "Could I go to part-time hours?" before they decided to have a child, because, you know, that was the responsible thing to do.
Unfortunately, crackpot, lunatic and politically correct thinking and attitudes have absolved parents, and particularly mothers, of responsibility by making it seem as though they are being hard done by.
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It was announced prior to Palin's speech that the staff had written it before a VP was chosen, but was changed at the last minute to make it "less masculine." I felt her bringing her baby to a convention at 10:30 at night to use him as a tool to show her connection to us common folk, was not a motherly thing to do, but a politically ambitious stunt. Her "thanks but no thanks" to the bridge that went no where is a deliberate distortion of the truth on her part. There is proof that she lobbied for the bridge and was glowing in her praise of it to the delegates. Once she got the money, she said no thanks and did not build the bridge. She also received money for the approach road, which is being built. Like her statements, the road is currently going nowhere. I have heard many wise people state Amrey's view about both candidates being in the primary. It makes complete sense, and would give we citizens a greater opportunity to observe the duo who make potentially lead this country. Palin is an insult to intelligent, stable and good Republicans everywhere. (And her voice simply grates on one's nerves, too.) PS A woman who has double the experience of governship in Hawaii was not chosen, if McCain had really wanted a woman on his ticket. It wasn't Palin he was craving, but Alaska's environment so he can ruin it and drill for oil.
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#101
For most of the last 7 1/2 years, Cheney's office has run this administration. His office has had the last word in many big decisions that have been made. Granted, if she wins, she will not have any of the same pull as Cheney does because she doesn't have the same long-standing connections and because she is a woman (DC is a very sexist environment and there are few women in power in comparison to men, simple fact.) Cheney can pick up the phone and with a single phone call make a lot of stuff happen -- she simply wouldn't have this same amount of power. I wonder if this isn't part of the reason why McCain chose her -- there is no way that she would challenge his authority the way that Cheney has challenged Shrub's. McCain will run the show unchallenged, not the way that Cheney has run this administration like the wizard of oz behind the curtain.
#104
Ethics reform sponsored by either party is just smoke and mirrors, for the most part. Politicians say and do what they think they need to do in order to get elected, but any kind of ethics reform is gutless or of limited term, when you read the text of what is passed into law. Both parties are powerless to change this situation until the American public becomes completely engaged in politics and cares more about the political system than the latest gossip about movie/music stars. This change will happen only when living standards change dramatically.
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# 102
Offers some reasonable history.
Apart from partisan propaganda pieces,
how much of what we see represents the "real" America?
If Palin is representative of a substantial portion of American attitudes,
if such deprived folk really resent those who can think beyond the next beer and barbecue,
then American is going to keep on going down hill. George Bush and some of the posters we see here may represent the decay.
___________________
Teleology (the belief in "progress") requires that someone lead. Will it be Germany? Will it be a coalition? Will it be China?
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What? No live coverage of the speech like Biden?
After all this ridiculousness about her water breaking, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some scandalous story about Obama occupying a 1-seater public restroom for hours during his most recent kidney stone. "What does that say about his judgement?!!!"
This is all too stupid.
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101, 103. RF.
'everything else is optional'.
Quite wrong: for a start the VP is a statutory member of the National Security Council, and that is a rather important role that requires some understanding of geo-politics and history as well as the limitations inherent in the use of force.
'It is clear you do not know what educated means'
Well, I teach at university and have four degrees (one, incidentally, in International Politics) including a doctorate from Oxford, so I just might. I've also held a dozen visiting fellowships in the US including Harvard, Yale, Texas and Kansas and I've taught in Tulsa. I've given conference papers in a dozen countries and visited more than a hundred US universities in 26 states from Case Western to Georgia State and U Mass to Cal Tech and UCLA, so again I might just have a feel to where a journalism degree from Idaho may rank compared to a law degree from Harvard, and of the differences in education involved. I'm sure the professors at Idaho do the best they can with the students they get and the resources that they have, but a journalism degree from a minor university does not require an 'education' in the same way as law degree from Harvard. I suspect Palin's grasp on the major texts of the classic authors is slim: a very good start would be Erasmus's Praise of Folly. I think it is very fair to say that Palin is not particularly educated; and if you want to make the comparison with Clinton - she had a law degree from Yale.
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I don't know which speech the media was watching or listening to. That sounded more like a pep rally for a sporting team that has no skill. The tactic was to shout them down and hope you win without having to show what you have on the field. She was constantly twisting statements and mocking anyone who is in the opposition. The attacks weren't even about a difference ideas, they were more about the person being a Democrat. The point I find even more dispicable is that they are still trying to sell the idea that only POWs are honorable.
We move on to the the delivery. I don't know if it was the style it was written in but it sounded like it was in point form. They were trying to make every statement a sound bite and it just sounded like a brain washing tape.
She didn't do anything amazing she stood up and did what she was told. The only thing she actually said that she did was sell a plane on ebay (WOW).
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I find it interesting that so many Republicans criticize Barack Obama's eloquence. It seems that they still believe that George W. Bush's incredible inability to speak coherently means that he is an "ordinary person" who understands the common citizen. In fact, Bush has revealed time and again that he lacks understanding of the American people as well as of global issues. What Obama reveals in his eloquent speeches is his intelligence and thoughtfulness, attributes that the United States desperately needs in a president.
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108, RF.
The point about the McCain POW story is that it is being flogged to death as justification for him being President. I've no doubt McCain did a very brave thing 40 years ago and suffered for his principles, but he was caught out a few eeks ago of having taken his 'line of sand' story from Solzhenitsyn, and this is frankly another such narrative that is supposed to make his time as a POW a fable for our times. He may have been sitting in the audience, but we already have evidence that he seems to have merged his own experiences with those of Solzhenitsyn.
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115
Good comments.
The problem in American politics is that Democrats want to be right and Republicans just want to win.
Let's not forget how McCain was thrown under the bus by Shrub's campaign a few years ago with allegations that he had an illegimate child with an African American. McCain has learned how dirty politics can be, and, unfortunately, because Americans are not engaged in the political process and vote on soundbytes alone, smear tactics work. If he employs the same tactics that were used on him by Karl Rove, he will probably win.
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The only thing that excites me at this moment in time are the imminent televised political debates between these 4 protagonists. And I promise you this, Palin will be shown up for the political novice she is against Biden. It will be a lesson to the Republicans that just because you have a bespectacled attractive woman, masquerading as someone intelligent, it doesn't guarantee you the right to govern the country.
McCain too will be exposed as an inept infirm when Obama refutes all of his claims to be great potential leader on live TV. Obama V McCain is a not contest, Obama will win hands down, and more importantly the Republicans know they have a very WEAK candidate - both literally and figuratively.
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Re #69
If capital punishment is a secular issue then so is abortion, surely? By making the comment at all, you imply that abortion is *not* a secular issue, in which case the first amendment prohibits it from having any relevance to the presidency. Admittedly Palin has said she wouldn't introduce any new anti-abortion laws if in power, but if I had a penny for every pre-election promise I heard...
Anyway, given her experience with guns, we can expect that, if she makes it to the White House, we won't see a repeat of 2006 where the Republican VP managed to shoot one of his fellow hunters instead of a quail.
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Oh oh- a young charismatic speaker from a demographic not usually seen in presidential politics (women), but this time from the Republican side- better change the system!
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Whether one agrees with her views or not, one cannot dismiss McCain's choice in Palin as a foolish one.
She brings a new vivacious look to the Republican's campaign who, let's face it, does seem a little creaky at times.
However, I do fear that in the long run she may be a hindrance to McCain by unwittingly reminding voters of his age. The VP may be important but if the Republicans are voted in, it will McCain on the television screens, not Palin.
On a different point, I couldn't help but noticing that there were no blacks, hispanics or even many women in the Republican crowd. Has anybody else noticed this, or is it just me?
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I believe very few people care about Palin's family life, that of her daughters' or husband's, however there is quite a lot to be alarmed at over this pick, a short list off the top of my head:
+ she tried to sack a librarian as mayor because she wouldn't ban certain books from the library.
+ she helped run the 527 for the indicted Senator Ted Stevens (while claiming she did not support him)
+ she supported the 'Bridge to nowhere' ear marks, while claiming she did not
+ she hired a lobbyist for Wasilla, raised regressive taxes and still managed to create a deficit, while cutting taxes for the richest land owners (corporations) in the town
+ after her sister's state trooper husband tasered her nephew, she attempted to abuse her executive powers and have him fired (I guess that's acceptable), but after failing to do so she sacked the police chief who refused (within her power but a breech of ethics). She is currently being investigated, but refuses to testify since being nominated for VP.
+ she sacked numerous fire chiefs and agricultural boards because they did not support her, replaced them with incompetent cronies who did
+ her husband is a member of the AIP - Alaska independent party, a secessionist party who's founder hated America, she possibly attended their conference in 1994.
+ she cut 20% of the budget for a programme in Alaska that helps troubled, young teenage moms.
+ she doesn't believe abortion in the case of rape should be legal
+ she doesn't believe in evolution or man made global warming.
She's a bizarre pick for vice president, she just has so much going on she will distract from McCain's campaign.
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Dear 188 Cilurnum
You infer that all working mothers cut corners and take their empoyers for a ride... Oh dear me. The dinosaurs are alive and well in your neck of the woods.
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What I got out of Gov. Palin's speech last night was a reiteration of the most fundamental difference between Republican and Democratic domestic policies, which is individual Vs collective responsibility.
Her speech highlighted the fiscal and economic policies championed by Republicans since the Reagan years with special focus on denying the role of government in providing services to the people, trusting the ability of corporations to police themselves, and taking the altruistic intentions of the top 2% of our population for granted. After 7.5 years of fiscal irresponsibility, out of control budgets, rising national debt, "emergency" funding, unmitigated borrowing, lack of government oversight with subsequent corporate plundering of tax payers money, and many other abuses it is difficult for us to trust the intentions of born again Republican politicians. The memory of some of us may be failing due to age, but forgetting the greed of energy, pharmaceuticals, and insurance companies, to name a few, during the past few years while they were getting huge tax breaks is not something we can forget easily.
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As an addenda, I just checked US college rankings. There are 133 ranked universities, followed by 62 'Tier 3' universities, among them Idaho. Given some of the insitutions in that Tier 3 list, Idaho will not be in the top half; so we are dealing with the difference who graduated with distinction in law from the top university in the country, to someone who graduated in journalism from an institution that must be ranked somwhere about 170-180.
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Palin is a gift for the Dems.
1. She will galvanize and motivate those who were struggling to get behind Obama, or who saw McCain as a centrist. Gone is the possibility of McCain capturing Regan Democrats and Clinton supporters who see Palin as the antithesis of the Christian right.
2. She is a female version of George Bush in a plethora of ways.
3. She is a liability - being an attack dog when you don't have your own kennel in order is an open invitation for Democrats to chase every last rumour about her
4. The persistent speculation surrounding her most recent child, along with the legal proceedings in Alaska will magnetize the media and distract attention from vulnerabilities in the Obama/Biden camp
5. Americans used to say about Cheney that they were only a heartbeat from a Bush Presidency. If McCain makes it to the White House they'd be a heartbeat from a FemBush Presidency. A terrifying prospect for people wanting change.
6. What does it say about McCain's judgement and leadership? He wanted Lieberman but rolled over for the Evangelical block and cynically picked an inexperienced woman.
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The BBC is showing it's typical right wing bias by showing wall to wall coverage of the Republican convention while censoring opinions from the Democrats. The BBC wouldn't show all this extra coverage if Palin was a man. Even Justin's previous blog showed a video of him interviewing yet another Republican woman. What do the Democrats need to do to get some coverage here? Oprah!? I don't pay my licence fee for this unbalanced reporting.
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kyotoite wrote:
Palin has proven she can deliver a speech written for her under pressure. The real test will be on the campaign trial, at press conferences, and at the VP debate. AGREED!!
korsak123 wrote:
.... With all her bravado, she was not able to hide that she is rather poorly educated person, thus her speech sounded shallow and pretentious. There was not a single interesting and deep idea. AGREED
justcorbly wrote:
The context of Giulliani's "they" remarks is that evangelical social conservatives and the politicians who manipulate them posit that their way of life -- the true American way of life as they see it -- is constantly threatened by heathen swarms of liberals.
The roots of this can be traced to segregationists' defense against civil rights legislation in the 1960's. It was at that time we first saw conservatives plant opposition to "liberal" politics in evangelical and fundamentalist soil.
Conservatives have always opposed the protection and expansion of liberties within the U.S. They have typically justified that opposition as an expression of religious faith.
The 1960's was also when evangelicals began to remove their children from the public schools and enrolled them in private religious schools, so-called "Christian academies". Initially, most of these schools were simply designed to allow the children of white segregationists to avoid attending an integrated school. Quickly, however, they became havens for parents who do not want their kids exposed to what they see as an evil and corrupt world.
The problem for society is that it has little visibility into how and what children are taught in such schools. Invariably, here as elsewhere, any criticism or questioning immediately triggers the "it's a private matter of faith" defense.
I believe the widespread but erroneous belief about the USA's "biblical common law foundation" can be traced to deliberately inaccurate history lessons in these schools. Hence, we get far-right politicians like Palin declaring that oil pipelines and war in Iraq are instruments of God's will. Such assertions are consistent with their world view because they were raised and educated in an environment that presented skewed and distorted history as honest and accurate. FULLY TOTALLY AGREED
cilurnum wrote:
Less impressed with Palin than ever. It's yet more crack-pot, small town, white and Christan loony thinking with no concept of a world outside of her backyard that has marred America for the past eight years.AGREED
I am very happy that i could witness this highly educated academical political white small-town christian mother woman.
And i will keep tracking her and scrutinize everything she says, proposes,suggests.
She helps you to understand what this Big Party; the Republican Party is become a PARTY OF MAKE BELIEVE AND HYPOCRISY.
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She has got through her first test by convincing the Republican Party faithful that she has the brains,brawn and perhaps the beauty to be the second in command should the Republicans win the elections. The road to success is always paved with good intentions. But has McCain picked a real winner? The jury is out on this one. The Democrats seem unfazed by her. They are concentrating on addressing real issues not personalities!
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136
The missing words are 'between someone'.
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#133
Good comments, but, in American politics, the truth doesn't matter to the vast majority of the voting public. Look at the embarrassment that we have in Shrub (Bush) -- if the truth mattered to voting Americans, he never would have ended up in office.
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"11. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I am sure that I'm not alone in my discomforture."
I felt exactly the same when Obama wheeled out his two young kids at the start of the Democrats' convention.
I know why they are all doing it of course, to show how they have the same responsibilities and pressures of the rest of us.
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I did not watch the broadcast of her speech.
I could not listen to the words of a V.P. candidate that claims global warming is not real.
Maybe she did not hear about the giant ice shelf that fell off and floated out into the Arctic ocean.
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Dominick,
An appropriate observation, if there ever was one.Mark, I'm glad you overcame your modesty ;-)Salaam, etc.
ed
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108 she trimmed it back to stop encouraging girls to get pregnant for money.
No it was because there are no girls in alaska.
no it would have been because there was some fraud going on.
so throw the baby out when you clean the tub.
Seriously you seem to have some issues with some femanists, you sound reasonable when you list what you hope for, but you cannot see that this lady just doesn't like private jets and can use the money for hiring someone to do her job for her.Lol.
This speech.
All I heard was, He's inexperienced and they are LIBERALS,Liberals? here in the US.
not Real americans liberals.liberals liberals. they are liberals. their tax is liberals.their war is liberals.
their economy is liberals ,they don't tell you any facts, no concrete plans liberals , liberals, liberal.did I say liberals yet liberals,liberalliberals woman liberals liberals I'm spunky,liberals liberals liberals liberals.
Never once setting out a plan. never once showing concern that the state she lives in is going to be a swamp in 30 years(ice roads wont work there) (big oil says they can extract oil in anwar using the ice and snow roads during the winter season,But there wont be any Ice or snow roads lets.)
but she (and to be fair all the republican cantidates) did say liberal a few times.
So boring rubbish.
what ever trash the dems talked this was nothing but attacking with no basis,A bit like america's foreign policy a bit like bush, AND low and behold A bushy(not a palin) speachwriter.
Is that why it sounded like bush.
Well the republicans are declaring war on liberalism.
THE WAR ON LIBERALS.
Fine BRING IT ON.
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"138. The BBC is showing it's typical right wing bias by showing wall to wall coverage of the Republican convention while censoring opinions from the Democrats. The BBC wouldn't show all this extra coverage if Palin was a man. Even Justin's previous blog showed a video of him interviewing yet another Republican woman. What do the Democrats need to do to get some coverage here? Oprah!? I don't pay my licence fee for this unbalanced reporting."
Last week, when the Dems were having their party, the coverage was on nothing but their hacks trotting out the party line on how wonderful Obama is. Why would it not be? The conventions are major events for each aprty and it is always difficult for the other party to gain visibility in those weeks.
As to the BBC having right-wing bias you evidently have very liberal leanings to feel so. If anything the BBC, as a European organization, tends to have a very pro-liberal air.
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MArkfromoxford well said on so many of these posts.I am glad someone tries to talk to the robbing fish eagles politely, saves me the effort.
have a good well earned pint when you get to the pub.
And direct an american tourist to summertown when they are looking for magdallen bridge for me.
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#106 USinRussia and #121
I like your posts...very reasoned
( I know I am too emotional ..but its difficult seeing your nation destroyed and being unable to help bring it back to sanity)
Yes imo you have got the facts straight and you were once a Republican
"I think that America is too far gone for any politician to step in and save the standard of living for the average American -- the US is way too dependant on cheap oil and gas and too far in debt to everyone else in the world (both on a national level and on an individual-citizen level) for a politician to have an impact on the economic system. Arctic drilling is a minor issue that will not in any way take care of the energy crisis in the US." ( USinRussia quote).
The US is in deep trouble.
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"129. McCain too will be exposed as an inept infirm when Obama refutes all of his claims to be great potential leader on live TV. Obama V McCain is a not contest, Obama will win hands down"
Well first, Obama seems to have trouble getting his words out unless he is reading them from hsi teleprompter. Then once he does, he is so busy trying to say all the "right" things to get votes that he ends up contradicting himself. Of course if he actually presented those aims and method he does believe in, he would be dropping votes left and right. This based on his historically left-wing voting record.
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Palin as a Fish eagle.
but fish eagles are just opportunistic scavengers that hunt for themselves as little as possible, get others to do the work and rob it.
Women WHAT HAVE THE REPUBLICANS DONE TO YOU RECENTLY.
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#5 chill0
I don't know how she can do both..In higher positions people commonly work more than 80 hour weeks, if they are fulfilling the job. I was a stay at home Mom..that was my choice...and my husband worked 80 + hour weeks ...with a lot of tension. (I consider myself a feminist who is very pro child)
Hillary had one child...she understood imo the demands of child rearing and a high level career and I think she was a good mother.
My guess is that in a larger family the children help one another too..and its more like what was happening in the past with families where people had to work long and hard just to survive.
And at one time the upper classes in Britain sent their children to boarding school to be raised...
Imo the ideal is for a mother and father to be co-equal in raising their children and for both to have careers that give some freedom to be with the children and the family..but..that is an ideal...
At 7 months pregnant I took a plane from Germany to NYC..but my mother was dying of cancer and it was the last time I would see her...
and my doctor told me NOT to go.
Imo Palin views herself as on a mission from God and she will do what she needs to do to fulfill her mission.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,...That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." Palin quote
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Sam169 wrote:
.........
On a different point, I couldn't help but noticing that there were no blacks, hispanics or even many women in the Republican crowd. Has anybody else noticed this, or is it just me?
We have been wondering about the american demography and its consequences on the republican party and the young new registered voters; and yesterday was a clear statement of where these young NEW voters, blacks, hispanics ,women and asians are surely not going!!
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Dick Army should read the Twelfth Amendment.
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Since Sarah Palin was chosen as the VP nominee, I've been confused by the democrat response that Sarah should run back home to the kitchen and stay home with her children.
You see, I was a pre-teenager in the 1970's, and was fascinated by the feminists of the day who sparked the "You can have it all, career and family" revolution.
As a teenager in the 1980's, it was preached to us in our schools that as young women we SHOULD pursue a career---the higher and more professional the better! Daycare was a perfectly acceptable co-parenting tool, and a professional career as a woman should not take a backseat to motherhood, cooking and fetching the husband's slippers.
In the 90's, Hillary Clinton supported this with the "It takes a village" concept!
So now we have a professional woman with a career and 5 children, and the Democrat response to Palin seeking an office historically reserved for men is to go back home and raise the kids!
This isn't irony.
It's not even shameless hypocrisy.
The current democrat response is FEAR.
When democrats start telling me that I need to throw away decades of hard-fought battles for equal feminine rights and go grab my apron, I know which party represents me---and which party does not.
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144
I think she'd be happy to claim that the ice shelf breaking off was caused by the rush of polar bears getting the heck out of Alaska...
http://www.adn.com/polarbears/story/413710.html
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I listened to her for 3 min. i could not stand more than that as I found her to be precisely the sort of American the world despises and does not need. Insulting, arrogant, selfish, liar, with a lack of vision for world peace and prosperity.
What sort of lipstick was the pitbull using yesterday I don't know, but one thing I know. She is the sort of person America does not need. Personally I am questioning the intelligence of people in Alaska in choosing such a negative insulting character as governor. Good thing I won't find out, as I would just stick to visiting Canada and not bother with Alaska at all.
I hope America does not fall for the "veteran former prisoner hero" and the theatrics of this drama queen.
John McCain is not the only hero, I can think of many more people I would consider heroes before I take my heat off to him. He certainly does not seem to be a hero in times of peace which is what America and the world needs.
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142 too true I have no confidence in the american voting population.
but we'll see. we are at war now.
I think that's what last night was about.
A new Civel war.
from the party that brought you
"Gulf war Won"
"the return to Sod'em"
"The new cold war"(MA I thought you said
Ya'll won that one .)
"We now have Civil War 2"
because it seems to me that the dems gave a call out to the republicans to come to the light, help in these american Ideas.
The republicans came out(not all) and said "we hate you God(and he's on our side) Damned liberals."
Wow way to get cross overs.
Fascists.
Bully boys.
Oppressive jingle istic thieving(world perspective) bunch of tommies.
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According to Palin's speech, everything that happens and the reaction is 'God's will'.
Also, she came close to uttering the dreaded words of 'no new taxes', but managed not to say it. I thought it was the usual political rhetoric speech, very lightweight, divivise and not a lot of hope. Palin is not a commanding speaker.
Again, another typical politician happy to get the family photo ops on the front page but bemoans the press for making her family front page news.
Did anyone notice how old McCain looked when he came on-stage? I thought he looked very stilted, stiff and shuffled. He also looked very old next to Palin. It does make me wonder if voting for McCain is really a vote for a Palin presidency.
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all you people, when will you stop this sexist rubbish?
If a woman attacks a man is fair game, if a man attacks a woman in sexism...????
wow....
so much ignorance in the world, and the people who share such views and fight for equality when they don't understand the meaning of the world are just a waste of oxygen.
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Mark from Oxford
What you are writing is true I've attended several colleges and the differences are very wide between upper tier and lower tier colleges.
But in a nation as anti intellectual as America is...that will make no difference and it is precisely because Obama has a high level of intelligence and has attended ivy league schools that he is considered not American by the people who support Bush.
Bush himself had to overcome his attending Yale and did that effectively by mauling the English language.
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And this from the Boston Globe. I've trimmed it down, but it is worth quoting at length because of all that it reveals, not least that apart from visiting Canada, she has made one overseas trip to visit the ANG in Iraq and even counted the refuelling stop in Ireland as overseas experience ...
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin got her first passport in 2006 and has visited just four countries, and has had little involvement in her state's cross-border issues, raising questions about her supporters' assertions that Alaska's proximity to Russia has given her unique experience on foreign affairs.
In seeking to demonstrate the first-term Alaska governor's readiness to be John McCain's second-in-command, campaign officials have maintained that Palin has had to deal with unusual security challenges and a variety of diplomatic and trade issues in a state sandwiched between Russia and Canada.
However, a review of Palin's 20 months in office shows that aside from overseeing the National Guard's state-level emergency missions, as all governors do, the first-term governor played no role in any territorial defense or other national defense operations involving military forces.
...
Palin has also visited one fewer country than originally stated by her Alaska office. Earlier in the week, the governor's Alaska spokeswoman was quoted as saying Palin had traveled to Iraq, Kuwait, Germany, and Ireland, in addition to Canada. McCain campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella acknowledged yesterday that Ireland was only a refueling stop on a trip in July 2007 to visit Alaskan National Guard troops in Kuwait and Iraq.
Comella said yesterday that the 2007 trip was her only foreign travel apart from visits to Canada.
...
According to business leaders and academics familiar with foreign-policy issues and Palin's administration, she has demonstrated little interest in expanding the state's trade ties with Canada or Russia compared with some of her predecessors.
...
This week, McCain and his campaign officials have emphasized that being head of the Alaska National Guard gives her special experience in national security matters.
...
Due to its strategic location, Alaska has a large number of military installations established during the Cold War to keep watch on Russia, including Elmendorf Air Force Base, home of the Air Force's 3d Wing, and Forts Wainwright and Richardson, where active-duty Army units are stationed for operations in the Pacific. The Aleutian Islands chain that runs toward the Russian coast is also home to sensitive radar installations.
But those units are under the control of the president, not the state governor, according to top military officials and specialists.
And while the Alaska National Guard operates a launch site for a US antimissile system at Fort Greely, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, the Alaskan governor is not in the site's chain of command and has no authority over its operations, according to Major General Craig E. Campbell, the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard who commands the roughly 3,800 state militia members.
"Our National Guard is basically just like any National Guard," said Campbell, a native of Springfield, Mass., in a telephone interview. "You could call [Adjutant General] Joe Carter in Massachusetts and he would say he is organized the same way."
Nor are the recent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan by the Alaska National Guard under Palin's purview, despite assertions this week by McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds to that effect. "She is head of the National Guard that has been deployed overseas," Bounds said. "That's foreign policy experience,"
Palin's authority over the Alaskan National Guard applies to domestic missions - such as fighting wildfires and rescuing stranded residents - but she has a limited role in determining how the forces are trained, Campbell said.
About 75 percent of the Guard's budget, he said, is the purview of the National Guard Bureau in Washington, which is responsible for ensuring the Guard is prepared to be called up by the president in a time of war. Palin's primary role, he said, has been in recruiting Guard volunteers.
...
Asked to respond to contentions that Palin does not have sufficient foreign policy experience, her spokeswoman Comella said: "Governor Palin has the judgment required for these dangerous times and the background as an executive making tough decisions needed to manage large organizations. She oversees responsibility for the National Guard and State Defense Force responsible for responding to state emergencies and has displayed leadership in the energy security discussion."
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Mark you raise the question of the quality of the degree.
As this unemployable but skilled Blacksmith with no degree but the one in B.S.
But with more skill than many graduates of "metal smithing" I have often posted comments on the over emphisis on degrees in the US.
her is a prime example.
She has a degree in Journalism.
which in most collages basically means you get a video camera and do a stoy on some local rubbish.OK OK I know they study the world out there a little.
But did she (oh no she was too busy sprogging) go out and do any real journalism?
NO she gets into politics and they say "She has a degree"
You would have to be pretty stupid to not get a degree from some po dunk university(sorry i da hoe allumnii )
But she has a degree.So she must be smart.
Right.
Like you need a degree to say liberals .
Oh and give up with the latin . america having a latin phrases associated to your educational establishments is pandering to the italians and europeans and more importantly the catholics.
use american phrases like "git er dun".
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Hard-Point (147), I think you overlooked the bulge in dceilar's cheek, and missed the point!
;-))
ed
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#132 seeing no blacks, hispanics, women in the audience. Another poster mentioned this early, so when I watched a recording later, imagine my surprise to see lots of blacks and women (I don't know about hispanics, maybe there were and maybe there weren't). So those who saw none, were you looking, did you just make this up, or was the coverage you were watching being careful with their crowd shots to give this impression. Or maybe the coverage I saw had some clever photoshop style gimmicry going on. Yes, that's it - these extreme right wing conservatives will stop at nothing to give a false impression (I was wathing Fox, so that must be it!
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#124. MarkfromOxford - "I teach at university and have four degrees." Modesty, dear boy, modesty. This isn't the place for any part of your CV/resumé.
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Just when I thought the far-right was lying low and trying to seem reasonable enough to let justifiably sick up to the neck of blinkered conservativism Americans vote them back in - this embodiment of small mindedness rears up her lipstick-covered pitbull muzzle (she said it, not me - so don't accuse me of being insulting or sexist) and barks self righteous redneck ignorance back at the world. Whatever lingering doubt I had about McCain not being as bad as all that has just been blown away.
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ref #45
I don't think who I would like to have diner with anymore important than the 2000 who would you rather have a beer with.
I would enjoy conversing with Obama but I would not want to be lectured by Michelle on my soul or fall asleep listening to Biden
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Palin has certainly fired up the debate - but nobody mentions that tonight we are going to see the other side of the GOP coin in McCain himself.
Admittedly he too will have most of his speech written for him and it will be interesting to see if it is by his own wordsmith, Mark Salter, or by the Rovelets who have moved in on him, or if the two sides clash in the middle.
Can he keep Palin's momentum going ? Last night they were cheering someone who they liked and who was brand spanking new to them. McCain is anything but new and Palin had to be brought in because the GOP were chary of him.
The Democrats are well advised to keep their powder dry until they have weighed up what he has to say and the reception he gets when he says it.
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145, 148 Ed and Jack.
Thanks once again to both of you. It provides a diversion from writing the book :)
You'll usually find me at the Turf when I'm having a pint; though if I'm up in Summertown I might be at the Wine Cafe ;)
I find the claim to have visited Ireland because the plane refuelled there astonishing ... on that basis I've been to Bahrain, and I guess the couple of times I've changed flights in Denver and Houston counts as well ...
What I'd be interested to know is how many states in the US she has actually visited. We know about Alaska and Idaho, and she attended a conference in Dallas. She's been to DC, and visited McCain in Arizona, then went on a quick trip to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Mississippi, and is now in Minnesota, but are there any other states she has been to, especially before last week? Has she ever been to NY, LA, Boston, Chicago, Miami, or San Francisco?
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Palins speech is from the same folks that write for all the neo cons .
Take no responsibility for the last eight years, raise the fear factor , offer solutions that are nothing more than a cheap cartoonish sound bite . ie pit bulls and hockey moms .
I know of one national issue that they may have solved the energy issue... with all that hot air we could fuel the nation .
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the war goes on and on
The economy is in the tanks
Jobs are hemmoraging to the delevloping world
The middle class is shrinking and there is no end in sight
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I thought the speech was good.
The main stream press is an easy target especially when you have MSNBC and CNN
Harry Reid who is more unpopular than Bush as wel.
I thought her jabs at Obama were on target
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Left, right, left, right, liberal, conservative, liberal, conservative.....the marching tune of the one-dimensional non-thinkers.
Those who find a flat Earth (two whole dimensions!) too complex to contemplate are perhaps in need of a little help choosing their leaders, and both main political parties are always ready to help.
Just try and imagine how difficult it must be to contemplate the third dimension! Thank God for Religion!
;-)
ed
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democrats are afraid of Palin bk they can no longer paint the Republicans as the evil old white man party. Palin is a living example of someone with ideals who has been happy and successful in America with no help from anyone but herself. Obama has lived in a sheltered world of ideas his whole life. He was coddled at a ritzy prep school in his youth, and has managed to parlay the fact that he is half black into a "narrative". The truth is that he has less in common with most African Americans than does Sarah Palin or any other American of white skin. If you look at Obamas voting record he has never taken a stand on anything controverisial.
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Three cheers to the future VP of U.S.A Palin and to the maverick future President, John McCain who chose her!!
ArcticFrostACK, Sebchabel, Realfrigid, pdlodge, AnonymousCalifornian, Fractious
and others, I feel honoured to be in your company of straight shooters! Yes, Sarah
Palin's performance at the GOP Convention
was indeed dazzling! She will be a worthy VP to a worthy President and to the people of U.S.A. especially at the present juncture.
In passsing I would like to mention, that I am a citizen of your neighboring country to the North and is therefore free of the media
hype.
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zairerdc
Crack pots they are , well said
BTW every one. this woan is not in a normal situation as regard to motherhood.
She has a down syndrome baby .This is an extra responsibility.
Good on her for keeping it( or not seeking to stop it whatever) will she do her best for it?
I doubt it .
Palin and her supporters are so happy to say you are being sexist.
But if a man I knew proposed looking after his down syndrome baby and helping his wife by looking for a job that involves a whole bunch of travel ,just because, I would tell him "you (I would swear at him here) idiot. Do you not think your wife might like some help here? Do you think there might be some other job."
Palin is breast feeding this child, no real problems yet. another baby Know how to deal with this.
But this baby will be different.
Special but different.
Is she going to be effective as a VP when she starts to face the issues.
LECHIC wrote this.
"41. At 09:23am on 04 Sep 2008, lechic wrote:
My mum and I were having a laugh yesterday, wondering if she should have tried to run for Prime Minister, given that my sister has Down's Syndrome, and has my mum just been wasting her time as a full-time carer? It's black humour to us, because my mother has no respite to even go to the shops apart from when I am home and can take over, and yet here is Sarah Palin running for vice-president. I suppose it's admirable that she's kept the baby (not that she would've done anything else) but the real hard work is in bringing him up and she has no clue what will come in the future. It's not easy, it's not straightforward, and anyone who says otherwise is very naive. And I also don't believe she came to terms with it as quickly as she says she has - it just doesn't happen that way. I don't believe Palin's any different but she has to act that way because she's anti-abortion, so we will never really know how she feels.
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Ed,
You are correct. To be fair, Obama has done some stuff in Congress.
List of bills sponsored by Barack Obama in the United States Senate
Many are little things, some are major.
- Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006
- Lugar-Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006
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PACNWGARDENER #32
ArthurPutey #107
SanYing #63
ironaphill #87
Brachioradialis #133
magicSkates #137
jchan412 #144
Reading these posts, I notice first, I never saw the writers before. Second that spew a hate normally not seen here. (except between ourselve ie: jf ma2 d_c AquaAgal Dominkect, just in fun even) Third, the history page shows they are 'Brand New'
My point is that we must be aware of the internets smear campaign on both sides, lackeys doing nothing but hate and misinformation. (say it enough and its true).
On Palin, ya'll know my views, Xie_Ming will tell you, I swallowed that pill whole and will tell you I like it
Namaste() Peace
(burb:)
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She was picked because Mc CAin plans to use alaska to launch his invasion of russia so he wants her help.
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166, DC
My point, perhaps over-laboured, was that I know what I'm talking about. I find the attempt to make Palin's education as valid as Obama's distasteful, given the profound difference in standards and disciplines.
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Me too! I have lots of heroes who aren't dominated by fear and an addiction to an endless state of war. Straying slightly from the thread's topic, I have friends in AA, for whom the most notable effect of giving up drinking is that they suddenly discover they have loads of money. If the USA gave up warfare, there would be riches indeed to apply to Peaceful reform.Peace to all
ed
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scwwwhwhwhrp
147
(thanks ed for drawing my attention to this nutter fascist
As a " liberal ".
supportive of a
"very pro-liberal air"
I believe all fascists (ie republicans) are to be derided at every occasion.
And so I support the american war on liberals.
it is fair After all I believe there should be a war on fascists jack boot wearing goose stepping geriatric old people and their "spunky" ( ie rabid and right wing) grand children.
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#117, Young-Mr-Grace:
According to the ADN story April 22nd. I linked a couple days ago, she called her doctor, and the doctor's advice, based on contraction strength and frequency told her would be ok to fly. They stopped in Seattle, and she checked in again. It wasn't like she was ignoring the situation, the way the press make it out.
I provided links on this two days ago, but if you look it up, the general advice is that if your water breaks and you don't go into hard labor, then you should get to a doctor within 24 hours.
After that, depending on the situation they may or may not induce depending on the risk of infection.
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171 you seem to have missed out the bit where they declare war on the "other half".
on to
WOMEN HEAR MY VOICE, IF YOU WANT A WOMAN PRESIDENT THEN WHY ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE FOR THIS WOMAN AS VP.
or do you really hope that he play that will not be mentioned has something to tell?
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David (166),
I reckon Mark's pulling rank was justified in the circumstances.
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Mark
By that count I had travelled to more countries than all them put together before I was 3.
But please concider giving a particularly arrogent american tourist the wrong directions from me.
BTW don't tell anyone about the Pitt rivers museum (sorry uni museum)
they will not be able to handle the collection of thai water pipes.
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#136, MarkfromOxford:
Bush got crap for being a silver spoon Yale man. Do you really want to pull the Ivy League elitist crap as a campaign argument?
Where does Eureka College rank?
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Mark, I can only offer you a virtual pint, but, if/when we visit Oxford for Art in Action, we usually stop for chips and a carry-out on the way to the punts at Cherwell...I'll look out for you next july?
Slainte!
ed
P.S. Your creds explain why your posts are so readable and germane. (and elitist?) ;-)
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#160, goleooo:
Sexism isn't about who attacks who.
If either sex says something like, "Men are better at auto mechanics." That is sexist.
Or, in this specific case, if anyone says, "Doesn't she care about her special needs baby?" You are implying she should not be running for VP, and probably should not be the Governor of Alaska. You are in essence saying, she should be in Wasilla raising children. You aren't outright saying that, but that is the implication.
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#121, USinRussia:
True. Presidents don't craft legislation, they can try to pressure congress to craft it or veto it.
They will need Republican and Democratic allies to sew up the loop holes. I'd like to see PAC money, and Ear marks go away.
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133, Brachioradialis:
Most of your list is mud slinging. Provide some links to the facts, e.g. not huffington, or dailykos crap.
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"You infer that all working mothers cut corners and take their empoyers for a ride..."
I did no such thing actually. Feel free to get defensive about it, but it does happen a lot more regularly than most people would care to admit. I wonder why that is. The ridiculous laws we have now have made the impression of entitlement even worse.
The comeback of "Oh, not every mother is like that" is pretty meaningless.
"Oh dear me. The dinosaurs are alive and well in your neck of the woods."
Well stone me. I was of the opinion that when you took a full-time job, or a job in the police that required odd shift patterns, that you actually did those contracted hours and turned up when everyone else turned up.
Sorry, but a business and an economy is not there to fund time for you on school runs, or because little Timmy has fallen over again, or feel sorry for you because you fell pregnant with someone who you've been with for ten minutes leaving you a single parent, or sympathise when your marriage breaks up, mysteriously straight after you have achieved your full quota of two children. It never happens before then...................
I've seen it happen time and time again, and everyone knows it is true but won't admit it even to themselves.
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A scintillating speech, as evidenced by the bitter bile-spitting panic of the lefties.
Gee, when I was a boy the left used to like the working class and hate snobs. Who would have guessed the world would change 180% in one lifetime?
Interesting breeding-and-cooking take on female life roles from Justin Webb. Has he got his knickers back after throwing them at 'The One' yet?
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Armey's idea is not only not "wise" but downright stupid and unworkable, as one might expect coming from a Texas Republican. It would not be practical to select a running mate from a list which excluded others who planned to run for the presidential spot themselves. Thus, a Kennedy-Johnson ticket would not have been possible, and Kennedy would have lost to Nixon without Johnson. Of course, eventually we got Nixon anyway, but that's a different story.
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@180
Hate to ruin your conspiracy theory Doug, but I'm not part of any internet hate campaign. I'm Welsh, been reading Justin Webb and following this election since last year and decided to sign up today to comment.
Why is Palin a bad idea? Because USA has already had one corrupt, unethical ignoramus in office and it has fallen on its face, and in my opinion McCain has a 30% chance of giving up the ghost before the 2012. I'm incredibly uncomfortable with someone who doesn't accept evolution, sides with oil companies rather than scientists on global warming and has entirely unknown views on foreign policy.
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182, MarkfromOxford, just who has been claiming that Palin's education is on a par with Obama's? The comparison being made by the republicans is executive experience, not college education. I agree with JF, it's experience that matters, not a college degree (shame he then turns logic on its head and then seems to think that having a degree makes you less worthy).
As it happens, I know a number of people with degrees from U of I, and indeed know someone from England who did a post-grad course there. I would not describe them as uneducated. But what do I know, I only have one degree myself, from Imperial.
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Send in the Girls!
Smart move.
Pax
ed
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#137, magicSkates;
"who see Palin as the antithesis of the Christian right."
Wouldn't Hillary be the antithesis of the Christian Right?
"She is a female version of George Bush in a plethora of ways."
Of course, you don't say why. Does she talk funny, or is it that she hunts, and runs a fishing trawler? Americans are more folksy like her, than they are elitist like Obama.
"being an attack dog when you don't have your own kennel in order is an open invitation for Democrats to chase every last rumour about her"
I'm not sure I catch the kennel reference here, but she's not an attack dog. She was pretty assertive most of the time, and aggressive some of the time. Most of her aggressiveness in her career so far has been to toss out corrupt Republicans. Or, are you talking about the one speech to which you might have listened? You don't think it would appropriate to fight back after how she's been attacked?
"The persistent speculation surrounding her most recent child, along with the legal proceedings in Alaska will magnetize the media and distract attention from vulnerabilities in the Obama/Biden camp"
No, it's an ugly false smear. How about we go ahead and check on the paternity of Obama's kids too.
"A terrifying prospect for people wanting change."
Yeah, terrifying. Demagoguery?
"What does it say about McCain's judgement and leadership?"
That's what we'll find out in November. I've still got an open mind, but I think you went into this with your mind closed already.
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#130, ChiefWhiteHalfoat :
It is secular for me, but it is religious for most.
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Now I have to jump in with my $.02.
The Republicans did a terrible job over the
last 8 years. They have quite a hill to climb to
regain the trust of the American people.
But, the fact that this race is very close indicates
something that you Democrats might consider:
you lost the trust of the American people many
years ago. Otherwise, this election would be
a cakewalk.
As far as Palin goes, she made a good first step.
But, she is not through the door. On the other
hand, while her Democratic counterpart, Biden,
is obviously far more familiar with national
and international issues, he also has major
weaknesses. So, don't write Palin off, it is
possible that she could acquit herself fairly
well. On the other hand, one major gaffe,
and she is history.
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#84, Old
Precisely. I thought Palin's speech was solid and good and just what the GOP needed. While it did not move me from my choice this November - when we look at the polls in a few weeks, my feeling is that we will begin to see the shift as her target was small town America and small town America is who delivers elections.
#122, Xie (or rather, write name ...)
Having lived in the PRC and making my profession in this arena, I would caution you on taking this line. Rural areas and their abilities still make up the vast demographics of China. If, for example, we remove Beijing, Shanghai (and the Pudong region entirely), Tianjin, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong from the mix, we will find that the technological abilities of China decrease exponentially. You may ask, how can they be removed from the mix? If the global economy tanks, given China's dependence on FDI, and the rate of inflation in China continues to raise, the Chinese Miracle will need an IV and fast ...
Germany - sound. The UK - sound. China - no.
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#182
Spoken like an Oxford man! =0)
Happy Sam
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I'm sure that if America had been a third world nation, Europeans would have dismissed them as backward, undeveloped and uneducated. But Americans, who keep electing conservative governments headed by those who still believe in moral absolutes, are an embarrassment to Europe and the liberal world.
Pallen did brilliantly well in her opening speech: witty, intelligent, real, hard charging and fearless.
The Republican' veepee candidate is more more experienced than the Democratic presidential candidates. we can't even compare both presidential candidates.
I am hoping Obama will soon be unmasked for what he is: a self-assured, dreamy, idealistic and dangerous man whose only conviction is that nothing good exists in America.
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#189
Fridge,
Actually he got crap because he was too stupid to go there without Grand Pappy and Pappy giving the college lots of spondoolies.
Sam
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188, Jack
I'll send them to the ironmongers down Wheatsheaf Lane ;) He's the last one left ....
Apparently, there is scuttlebut about an affair due for publication tomorrow ... should be interesting ...
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#190
Ed,
I bet Mark eats at Le Manoir. Lucky blighter.
Sam
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#155 (tiptoplisamich):
>>"So now we have a professional woman with a career and 5 children, and the Democrat response to Palin seeking an office historically reserved for men is to go back home and raise the kids!"
You've seen that from some blogs, pundits and assorted talking heads, but you haven't heard it from any Democratic party members or anyone associated with the Obama campaign.
McCain, Palin and the GOP are packaging media coverage of Palin as attacks by the Democrats. That's likely McCain's motivation for putting Palin on the ticket. Don't let him sucker you.
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197 Is that a welsh name?
sorry back to the point that good to hear another rational voice join the debate.
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#180
Doug,
Welcome one, welcome all. I don't read a lot of these posts as hate. Nothing compared to some of the stuff we've had about Obama.
Pax,
Sam
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USinRussia (#74), the actual quote is:
"No one in this world, so far as I know ... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby." H. L. Mencken
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RealFrigid wrote:
#121, USinRussia:
True. Presidents don't craft legislation, they can try to pressure congress to craft it or veto it.
They will need Republican and Democratic allies to sew up the loop holes. I'd like to see PAC money, and Ear marks go away.
I completely agree.
2 other things I'd like to see:
Congressional term limits (but that would basically force Congress to police themselves, which would never happen because politicians mistakenly believe that a Congressional office is supposed to be a lifetime career).
One item bill voting: In Illinois, the state legislature votes on only one thing at a time. This prevents "pork" being snuck into bills, which creates hundreds of pages in a piece of legislation that becomes so tedious and long that legislatures don't read the bill in its entirety before voting. (again, Congress would have to pass legislation on this to make it happen, but it did happen in Illinois so maybe there is hope...????)
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189, 190 RF and Ed
First, RF, Obama got to Harvard on a scholarship: that is an achievement, not elitist: daddy didn't pay, unlike Bush. And I have no problem with world-class universities: if you keep chopping the top, those lower down have nothing to aspire towards. We need higher standards, not lower, and I say that with the real experience of someone who teaches. As an academic, I have no problem failing people and of pushing my students beyond what they believe they are capable of: that is my job; that, and to teach them moral tolerance through an awareness of the diversity of human experience. You should be proud of a candidate who has used his intelligence and determination to raise himself to the very top by dint of sheer application and hard work, whether you agree with his politics or not: he has done that in academia, in politics, and in this campaign. Obama is a shining example to others, not a demon to be excoriated at every turn.
Ed, cheers. In fact I live [Personal details removed by Moderator].... make it late July: I'll be on a fellowship in LA until the middle of that month.
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Sean, The original remark was that she seemed "poorly educated". I would have said "minimally", but it wasn't me what started it. She shore ain't no uppity sophisticated elitist, nohow!
;-)
ed
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seanspa.
I don't think degrees make someone stupid.
I think they are highly over rated as a way of training people to have skills or knowledge that is pertinent to the task.
Science degrees are pretty specific.
you would not hire journalist to build an air plane.
but they will hire many people here in the states and offer them considerably more money just for having a degree.
no matter how irrelevent to the task.
I think Marks point was that they say she is as qualified as obama. in journalism, American journalism at that(weak on the whole).
Obama know Law, and at the moment I would rather have some one who graduated With about as Good a degree as possible from one of the highestranked universities in the land, IN law, to assess things like "Is this even legal"(war ,tapping,gitmo,GW-endangered species,creationism(religion in schools).etc.
Because I am sure as hell that a journalism degree from IU is not going to prepare her for that.
look at GW broke so many laws they don't know where to start with an impeachment.
And I dropped out of Architecture so it was not like i did not have the chance.
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#214 (tiptoplisamich):
>>"Presidents don't craft legislation..."
Presidents and their staffs craft and send to the Hill voluminous amounts of legislation. The budget is one prime example.
Presidents cannot submit legislation into the Congressional hopper, but there are plenty of members to handle that technicality.
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#210
Actually, I read these type of comments (lots of them "most recommended" right here on this BBC website) from the die-hard Obama supporters. Also, "journalists" in US media touting the question of "should she stay home?" to panel members.
My point is: This issue is being raised by democrat voters and supporters. So, where is the hue and cry against telling working women to get back home and mind the babies?
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G&R (202),
$.02 and three hands?
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@193
Troopergate: http://www.adn.com/politics/story/510080.html
Bridge to nowhere: http://www.andrewhalcro.com/the_bridge_to_somewhere
Won't allow abortion for rape victims: http://gregransom.com/prestopundit/2008/09/sarah-palin-debates-tony-knowl.html (gubernatorial debate)
Wants Creationism taught alongside evolution in schools: http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.html
Links to AIP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI (address to AIP convention)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26524024/ (husband a registered member)
Trying to ban books and sack librarian: http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/515512.html
I haven't got time to find links for the rest RealFrigid, but that's enough for now. I hope Anchorage Daily News isn't too leftist for you.
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204, 209 Sam.
Cheers. I wish I did eat at Le Manoir :) On the other hand, there is something to be said for the college cellar ;)
It amuses me evry time I see someone claim that Obama is just 'self-assured, dreamy, idealistic and dangerous man' (206): that is why he put Clinton to the sword, and why he has built such a formidable operation in every state. McCain is just starting to put staff into states where Obama has been operating for months like North Carolina and Michigan, despite having several months advantage. The GOP are so busily obsessed with their stereotype of who they want Obama to be that they cannot acknowledge what is in front of their eyes.
It's just stopped raining ... I'm off for my pint!
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Mark like you choice of wayward directions.
I hope that was a black smith as opposed to just a mongerer . But either way I am sure they will like the extra business.
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@211
Haha, no - it's the muscle you use in your arm to drink a beer. Vitally important.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
#219 (tiptoplisamich):
So, you are holding Obama and the Democratic Party responsible for comments from some in the media and by pseudonymous posts by blog readers?
If a blog or a TV pundit irritates you, the logical thing to do is to stop reading the blog or stop watching the pundit.
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and one more thing,
christians like Palin and the stuck up republicans are like the gentiles.
they would crucify christ every day and twice on the weekend.
Such a shame that christianity is connected to American politics. But it is definitely the strongest way to mislead a nation that considers itself right in the eyes of God.
If there is a God, I am sure He would see Obama closer to his side than a war hero who promotes war and fear, instead of peace and revival...I just find it humourous...and the best part is they even had a priest yesterday opening up...
Madness I tell you, Madness.
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224 well it should be a welsh name then. Cheers.
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#202, Ed, I admit it, I am tri-dexterous.
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#182. MarkfromOxford: "My point, perhaps over-laboured, was that I know what I'm talking about." I've no doubt about the latter but I/we could have done without the former.
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#202, Guns
Yes and yes and yes.
The GOP has lost my respect. It will be a long haul for them to receive it back. They must earn it and although McCain is making an effort, it is too late for this election.
This is further aggravated by the fact that I believe in Obama's message. It is time for change ...
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#210
Lisa,
No need to hue and cry, Palin's policies will do that quietly over a few years. But not for us, for our daughters.
Sad Sam
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#200. RealFrigid "I'm not sure I catch the kennel reference here, but she's not an attack dog." Nonetheless, having described herself as an "average hockey mom" she went on to say "You know what they say the difference is between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick!" A pit bull is very much an attack dog, with or without the lipstick.
Is it time for the Obama campaign to take off the gloves or will giving like-for-like alienate voters? Perhaps Mrs Palin could "debate" with Mrs Clinton who, although not a candidate, would show us the differences between the two women and the policies they would pursue.
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I'm a 47yo American who left the country 25 years ago dismayed by the social decline (caused by the politics largely) and just recently left London six months ago for the same reason.
Watched Gov Palin's speech and instantly took to her though I'm not particularly a fan of McCain, but if I had to elect him to get her I would (if I could vote).
Obama blew his VP choice by picking more of the same old political fabric and suspect Hillary and Bill are absolutely fuming now seeing that Gov Palin has reinvigorated the campaign with her humanist touch.
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Learning at the feet of the Masters?
Bush Aides Give Palin Foreign Policy Lessons
She's a quick learner!
God(s) help us!
ed
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#215, MarkfromOxford:
Do you think there should be a academic test then to be able to run for political office?
Wouldn't that fly in the face of the phrase "of the people, by the people, for the people"? It would be oligarchy certainly, and possibly plutocracy.
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225 and 227 goleooo
say it again any time you want. it will infuriate some raging mad pit bulls.(which is fun)
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233, David_Cunard:
Imagine a father daughter debate. Do you think that might turn off women?
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Jon Stewart on the double speak
Gotcha!
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226. At 5:51pm on 04 Sep 2008, justcorbly wrote:
#219 (tiptoplisamich):
So, you are holding Obama and the Democratic Party responsible for comments from some in the media and by pseudonymous posts by blog readers?
If a blog or a TV pundit irritates you, the logical thing to do is to stop reading the blog or stop watching the pundit.
I promise, I'm not trying to be facetious here in my answer, but am I supposed to now go live in a cave? Avoid all news outlets? Blogs such as this? How is one to know what the faithful from each party is saying without reading the comments?
I realize that most(!) of the radical/fanatical responses from both sides of the aisle must be eliminated; however, when a particular statement is made repeatedly in various forms of the media, it captures my attention.
I don't think a media blackout would be an effective investigative tool in tracing answers.
Much of what is written by BBC HYSayers "irritates" me, yet I don't turn away just because I don't agree with a certain opinion. I'm hardly that narrow minded or set in my ways.
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anybody can read a speech prepared for them.
smoke and mirrors.
there is more to this than meets the eye.
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# 230
Mark from Oxford's comment was in response to assertive attempted put-downs from one semi-educated and claiming to be otherwise.
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Sad Sam, (#232)
I appreciate the attempt at sentiment, however your comment comes across as little more than patronizing rhetoric.
This election is important to me. I may be one vote out of millions, but it is my privelage to take part in the process.
Having party-line rhetoric tossed at me does nothing to promote discernment in choosing what the Republican and Democrat parties stand for, their platforms and policies, and how it will affect not only myself but my country as well.
I'm giving the benefit of the doubt in assuming that you were not attempting to talk down to me. Hopefully this is true.
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#221, Brachioradialis:
"Troopergate: "
Well, the jury is still out on this, right. Wasn't it Palin who revealed that some in her staff acted on this without her knowledge? The two e-mails to Wooten leaked today reference the trooper as examples of a cop out of control, but she never asked him to be fired.
"Bridge to nowhere:"
Yup, looks like she waffled on it.
"Won't allow abortion for rape victims:"
I had to listen to most of the debate to get to that section, but the question asked was "if a constitutional amendment banning abortion, including in cases of rape, came out would you support it?" Her answer was yes. She has a right to support her positions. In another place, when asked about this she has stated that it would be up to Alaskans to decide how they would want their values reflected as law. We had discussed this issue a few days ago, and I'm conflicted on what to do in some extenuating circumstances.
"Wants Creationism taught alongside evolution in schools: "
I disagree with her on this issue. I'm more in line with the Independent candidate. It would be fine to discuss in a philosophy class, but ID and creation should not be in a science classroom.
"Links to AIP:"
According to Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, she told ABC News that "Gov. Sarah Palin first registered to vote in the state in May 1982 as a Republican, and she has not changed her party affiliate with the Division of Elections since that time." Is her husband politics important? How about Michelle Obama's?
"Trying to ban books and sack librarian:"
The librarian had supported Palin's opponent in Palin's bid for reelection. Might be some small town political infighting in 1996 then. So, what were the books due to language? Maybe if they were really disgusting according to community standards they would be considered pornography, right?
"I haven't got time to find links for the rest RealFrigid, but that's enough for now. I hope Anchorage Daily News isn't too leftist for you."
Thanks, ADN is not too leftist. It's just easier to check out actual facts, rather than a bulleted list of items. My mantra is that "information on the internet is crap, until you research it, and then you can still be wrong."
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#242, Xie_Ming:
Welcome back!
What would sufficiently educated be, when we describe President or Vice President of the US?
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One of the links provided above says it was the Alaska State Republican Party policy that:
"We support giving Creation Science equal representation with other theories of the origin of life. If evolution is taught, it should be presented as only a theory."
While it seems that Sarah Palin probably believes in creation theory, (a) it's hardly remarkable that her reply reflected the GOP official policy, and (b) there's no evidence that she's a zealot on the issue or has pushed it since she became Governor.
She's not at all my cup of tea, but it seems to me as though Justin's criticism of her is over-stated. Her main danger to McCain could be that she'll rather overshadow him this week.
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"... you could argue that tiny babies need mums more than dads ..." and you wonder why there's been an outcry that the media is just out to get Palin because she's not part of the Washington crowd? Matt, by asking this very question, you have just demonstrated the existence of your deep-buried, but never acknowledged gender bias. If Obama's wife just gave birth to a baby, would you have been asking similar questions of Obama? Probably not. And yet, isn't Obama also supposed to be spending the heck of a lot of time with his newborn if he is expected to live up to his parental responsibilities? Or are you trying to say it is OK for a man to be a sideline Dad if he's trying to run for President in which case my question would be -- would you vote for someone who has no intention of acting in the best interest of his child?
I am a mother of a 2-month old baby. I am back to work full time because I want to. I love my baby but I also love my work. Apparently, by your measure (and it seems the measure of the rest of the world), I am a "bad" mother. You know what? I honestly don't care what other people think anymore. I know for a fact that I can fully perform as a mother, a wife, and a full-time employee and do all three things very well and I'm sure Sarah Palin knows she can too. That's why she's agreed to be on the McCain ticket.
For all those out there who don't think you would have been able to handle all three responsibilities had you been in Palin's shoes, do me a favor. Stop superimposing your own limitations on other women. Some of us take one hour to do the same things that would have taken you two days because we are smarter, more hardworking and determined, better organized and have excellent family support. Have the decency to admit that perhaps, just perhaps, you are talking Palin down because you can't imagine that anyone could be better than you and then, have the decency to show some humility and generosity towards others.
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#238. RealFrigid: "Imagine a father daughter debate. Do you think that might turn off women?" It would depend on which father and which daughter - but I'd much prefer two adults who had some kind of governmental experience. I think both women and men would find it most instructive.
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#249 (tiptoplisamich):
No one mentioned a media blackout.
I just wondered if you are holding the Democratic Party and Obama responsible for statements they did not make?
And, if so, why? Why would someone decide to vote for or against a candidate based on what a random collection of unknown and anonymous people say?
Why would someone become irritated at what some people in the media say about a candidate and then decide that's sufficient reason to vote for that candidate?
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It is truly sickening to read the comments from some of the women who have contributed to this forum. Parents all over the world make daily decisions to support the health and well-being of their families. Men refuse promotions because it would require less time with their families, women take sabbaticals from well paid jobs to be with their young children. The moment a suggestion that the gun toting, creationist McCain has tapped as his running mate might think of her family first (particularly her most recent child who has Down Syndrome), is raised it is labeled as sexist. Republicans preach family values, but apparently are more than willing to suspend the responsibilities they entail when they encroach on their personal ambitions. Blinded by emotion, Republican rhetoric and the latest well tuned sound bites it would be eye opening for these critics to spend some time in other countries where the government works for the people, rather than the US system where the Republican administration rewards the rich and tells the rest to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.
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A few things that will confuse many:
Define exactly what you mean by:
a) "God"
b) "democracy"
c) "liberal"
d) "elitist"
e) "elite"
f) Christian values
g) religious values
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236, RF
I think you should choose the wisest, most compassionate, tolerant and good person you can, with a shrewd sense of the world and the courage to be both just and stand up those who would bully others without being a bully in the process; and I think you want the person who is going to deal with issues like global warming, the US dependency on Chinese funding as much as Arab oil, and who will give you the fairest and most just society. I don't think that person is McCain, and I certainly don't think it is Palin. Obama is heads and shoulders above the other candidates in his moral and intellectual stature,and in his ability to take tough decisions without taking undue risks. The same cannot be said of McCain whose gut instimct gets in the way of his risk assessment. You have the choice between a good and great man, or a distinguished and brave man; you have the choice between an informed and principled VP, or a vindictive and arrogant one. It could have been different, but that is how the choices have fallen. If the US votes for McCain and Palin, the respect of the rest of the world for the US will plummet below its present dire levels, not because of McCain but because of Palin and what she represents. And the US economy and currency will not recover because McCain's policies rely on Chinese funding (as has been the case for the last eight years) to be carried out.
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251, Xie.
You must think we are really stupid. Maybe that is your problem - you have an exaggerated sense of your mental ability.
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251. Xie_Ming
A definition for any one of those would take a book or more. : )
So what would you like for the future? If things were to go well?
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America is full of IDIOTS:
Let me mention a few: Romney, Giuliani, Palin, and sadly I hate to say it: McCain but I will focus on Romney.
ROMNEY....how can a person put teachers vs students in the same sentence? That's the problem why Romney and his fellow americans have the IQs of dinner plates. Teachers are parents too mr. idiot, and before you send you idiot child to school, teach him family values first, and expect the teacher to teach the rest and not to educate your spoiled child. The reason why american kids are behind in just about anything but cheating and plagiarism.
The guy made me puke with that comment on teacher's union, when the teachers are the most underpaid anywhere, and Romney makes millions he does not deserve. t
And also, there should be no Guantanamo. Mr. Romney, unlike your primitive self, some of us are civilized people and like to extend that courtesy even to those who are less fortunate and are stuck up on terrorism ideas. (well you call them so anyways, so I don't know what they really are)
Thus we acknowledge the human rights something that they forgot to teach you in school.
The guy is an idiot, but even more so the idiots who elect him.
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#243
Actually it was irony. I don't do party rhetoric, I'm Independent.
That said I distinctly dislike the Republican ticket because I am a businessman first and a human being second. These guys have no understanding of economics between them, not a clue.
In addition Gov Palins social positions disgust me as they will likely increase the number of teenage mums and remove more talent from the pool available to move our country forwards by condemning smart young kids to a mislead, ignorant upbringing.
And that is a crime.
Sam
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#98
My God, she looks like a Pitt Bull. Chewing a wasp.
Smiley Sam
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I am amused to see so many of the posters here repeating the Democrat talking point that Palin was merely delivering a speech that "was written for her."
I have a newsflash for all of you Obamabots: ALL politicians have their speeches written for them, especially Obama. His speeches are crafted by his campaign manager David Axelrod and his team, and every word is carefully weighed. All Obama has to do is read the teleprompter with gusto.
That is why when the teleprompter is gone and Obama is left to his own devices, he is reduced to a stuttering mass of incoherence, and uh . . . um . . . uh. . . .
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#251
Xie,
What is your point?
Confused Sam
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#258
Simple. He isn't. I've seen Obama talk off the cuff for an hour and he is very impressive. I've also seen John McCain using index cards in a 5 minute interview. I'd be embarassed if I had to go into an interview with cards.
As I think I posted once before John McCain was a man of integrity and dignity. But he's past his best and his mad lurch to the right to win the nomination has left us with a tired old party hack. The Republicans second choice, after W.
It's a shame.
Sad Sam.
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As the Anchorage Newspaper said recently - People think they know Sarah Palin and I quote (all these are on the web and more):
"Frontiersman Editorial: Palin Doesn't Grasp the Truth. A Frontiersman editorial wrote, "Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth." [Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]
"LYING
Palin Exaggerated Work Experience for Mayoral Campaign. In 1997, Frontiersman columnist Paul Stuart wrote that after Palin had criticized her opponent for using City Hall resources for political gain, "when Palin was asked back then (by me) why the lodge where she claimed, in her campaign, to have gained her management experience, had no record of a borough business license or of paying any bed tax, she paused and said it might have been because the place had no clients for a year or so." In an article describing the possibility of recalling Palin, the Frontiersman wrote the "reasons include Palin's alleged falsification of her credentials during the campaign last fall." [Frontiersman, 1/22/97, 2/5/97]"
"Palin Said "Hang 'Em Up" When Asked About the Death Penalty. Asked about the death penalty, in extreme cases such as the murder of a child, Palin said, "My goodness, hang 'em up, yeah." [Anchorage Daily News , 8/18/06]"
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#251, #254, 259
The point of asking for definitions:
To have those who use or imply those words to think about what they mean.
It will only happen for some individuals, because most are repeating catch phrases and other indoctrinations.
Eample: there has been much use of "elitist" and very little of "elite".
Do those who use the terms have a definition?
Recent example from the Deep South:
"We've had a guy I can drink beer with-now I want somebody who can solve problems". Could he be talking about "elite" rather than "elitist"?
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#74- very informative contribution! I used to hear that Bill Clinton would only get 4 hours of sleep or something-is Palin headed for that kind of schedule or do VPs do less work!
About little babies needing mommy more- i think this is accurate-there is something called maternal attachment that supposedly has an effect on a child's development-mommy is very important in a baby's life. I am a woman and would love to know how Palin reasons- this is not about sexism-any nurturing woman must feel alarmed by the responsibilities she is taking on-I happen to believe that being mommy is a special sacred job and doesn't make one less of a feminist- she has proved that she is tough by being a governor- I am not sure where one draws the line!
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Well done Justin. What would we do without your comments and your always interesting links. Keep up the good work.
I can't believe what is happening with this election. Surely the women of America are furious this woman, that one day could be President, actually believes that abortion
should not be allowed for the innocent victims of incest and rape. Come on women where is the rage.
Her other beliefs...Creationism should be taught in schools.
Human beings do not contribute to global warming.
The Polar Bear must be removed from the endangered species list so they can drill for oil in Alaska.
This all proves she really isn't capable of representing the United States of America. If she ever did achieve power then, some countries in the world would laugh at her, whilst other countries would weep.
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#262
Yeah, but what's your point?
Still confused Sam
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#163
Jack,
Mark can't drop the Latin, it's genetic in Oxford. That said he does seem to be a reasonable and extremely well educated chap.
On the degree front, I agree there is a strong emphasis. The sad fact is we have a strong focus on slotting kids into roles from college age, if they miss out on geting the right degree doors start to close. So it becomes an obsession. I try to be as flexible in my business but even I am astounded when I meet my peers from the UK and the are open that they don't have an MBA and read Chemistry, Philosophy, Politics but re every bit as good as their jobs, if not better, than I am.
I guess we can't change that but we should note it. I'd rather have an artist than someone who studied accountancy from the age of 16 any day.
And I do say unto those who claim a left wing bias on this site:
Futue te ipsum, gaudeam
I'll let Mark translate.
Fond regards,
Sam
P.S. I still want those frogs. Sneak a link in for me to a site where I can buy 'em?
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#74
USinRussia
Do you think McCain chose Palin to gain the support of the religious right? or does he want to lose? Is he senile or cagey?
So many Republicans seem so happy with his choice of Palin but she clearly does not have the backround to handle the presidency. Are some Republicans thinking that if McCain is unable to serve that Palin will be easy to control?
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
#268 had 3 phrases in Latin
the first was
"everything sounds profound in Latin"
the next was
"if you can read this you are over educated"
and the third was
"I'm sorry did I start to speak in Latin again?"
well at least my Latin was not obscene...
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# 265
Those who can think, should think.
America needs somebody who is elite.
There are problems to be solved.
If he sounds "elitist", so what?
_____________________
The other definitions are part of the "discourse" being pushed, inclucluding, it would appear, federal funds for confessional schools.
I suspect that "religious values", Christian values" and "God" might enter here, if there were any agreement on what these terms mean
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# 267
Bethpa re Palin:
She is repeating catch words:
"drilling", "money", "development", "economy", "anti-abortion", "creationism", etc. The party faithful respond to catch words rather than to programs.
[Thi is another reason for advocating that those who can, give some attention to definitions]
There is also the (irrational) hope that unleashing such a barracuda or attack dog on the Senate might aid in the reform of Washington.
The reports appearing here indicates that such hopes have not even been realized among the 700,000 peole of Alaska.
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It's petty of me but I have to ask: Am I the only mom in the world who thinks it's odd to bring a four-month-old baby to a convention? I could barely tolerate family members and in-laws holding my newborn, and Palin's got this poor baby in a crowd of 20,000 people. At that age, a baby's immune system is still very fragile.
Everybody knows she had a baby so it wasn't at all necessary to bring him. She could have released pictures of him to the media if she wanted people to see him, so I ask you: Why would anyone risk a baby's health by exposing them to that many germs?
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I completely agree with davidcunard in post #10. I would actually pay money to see Hillary Clinton have at this poser from the tundra.
Whether you love her or hate her, you've got admit that Hillary's a cannibal. Let's not even talk about how Hillary would destroy this woman with her knowledge of foreign policy. By the time Hillary Clinton finished tearing into her just on women's rights, health care and teen pregnancy, there'd be nothing left of her but skid marks and a vapor trail. Palin wouldn't be able to get back to Alaska fast enough.
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GMlaster,
Even Hillary can't win an argument with an ignorant person - nobody can.
Salaam, etc.
ed
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It's okay with me for a presidential nominee to pick a running mate; but that person should have to endure the rigor of all the other candidates and not, simply put, be a token political convenience. Governor Palin was not vetted by independent thinking
Republicans but, rather, by a secret group of right wing extremists as reported in the mainstream media. Republican good old boys should have more respect for our patriotic US, than to allow for this type of selection process to stand without criticism.
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#270
Hi Beth,
I know, I don't know how I got away with it.
This is clean though:
Quis vult nubere peditori capulare diviti?
Cindi McCain
Sam
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Clever move by the republicans in their selection of Palin. This will appease to the creationists, the warmongers, the anti-abortion nut cases. There are plenty in this pool of lies over here in the US. I am up for sale, moving out of US. My heart cannot take anymore of the lies, and I am getting older (36) and it is time to be happy. These leaders, have put a huge crunch on the middle and lower class, and it is time for the Empire to fall!!!
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You individuals who believe it is sexist to ask how Palin can be a VP and mother are wrong. It is mostly women who are asking the question around here, are we women
sexist ? I, a woman, believe that all her kids need to be a bit older before that criticism is not a issue. For goodness sakes, she has 5 children. I believe children need their mother and father. Being Mayor and governor is going to be vastly different from being VP and much much more demanding. It is a 24/7 position, as is motherhood. And it is a lie to believe anybody can have it all, one area will suffer.
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Dear John,
I am sorry to tell you this way, but it is over between us. For a while I thought you were my man, but now I see I was mistaken.
We have both changed. I see you drifting right, further than I can go. Your partner holds beliefs that I cannot support. Over the past month I realized that I am finally sick and tired of politicians pandering to religion. The two themes should be separate and distinct. Period.
So John, please know I am not unique. There are many California Moms just like me who have written you off. Some say it is because you have another woman. But for me, it is not the woman who worries me but rather the beliefs she brings to the platform.
Yours sincerely,
Me and my pals
ps: #279. Having discussed same with my gal pals, please know you would find agreement here. Of course, we are conflicted because we wonder whether we are being sexist. But for me it is a simple matter of fulfilling prior obligations. And having a child is the ultimate commitment. She has 5 prior commitments, including 1 extra-special baby. Boggling.
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I thought we lived in a time when little girls were taught they could grow up and become whatever they want. I see, so we still need permission. I seem to recall Brits have a queen who managed to have children and still do her job.
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I just want to know if Michael Palin is related to the Palin family. And if so, will he admit to it. He was the lead lumberjack in the Monty Python sketch!
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I think her punches, were not enough to get her and John McCain into the White House...
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