Patrick, at the risk of turning a funny post into a serious one, can you help me out with some serious examples of why Palin *is* a good pick?
I looked around yesterday and the best I could find was from some feminist who basically said "well, she is a girl, and it's about time a girl got taken seriously in politics".
Matt, for most republicans she wouldn't be a smart pick for the reason that she does what the typical republican candidate can do. She solidifies the party base. McCain had very little hope of doing that b/c if you look at his voting record he goes across/against party lines frequently. He bucks party leadership. The Washington Post has a great article about that yesterday or Sunday. That's the biggest reason she was chosen I think, and the party is united behind McCain now. That wasn't the case a month ago. And if you examine the responsibility of the VP, Cheney excluded, most are chosen for sureing up their running mates weaknesses. Not saying that is right, but it's the reality of it.
She does have some other "good" points. First she isn't from Washington and has a history, allbeit short, of reform. That's a hotpoint in this campaign. In regards to economics, she espouses small government, low taxes the standard republican points. Where she has the potential, and the emphasis has to be on potential, is her experience dealing with the energy and oil companies. Unlike the other players in this race she has worked with oil companies and gotten them to work with the state of Alaska. She reworked the revenue sharing agreements so that more of the money the companies are seeing as a result of price increases is returned to Alaskans. She worked to get the new natural gas pipeline underway, again, with oil companies. Those points, in my mind at least, lend her some credence.
Obviously she does have downpoints. The trooper scandal, the pregnant daughter, the experience issue. She's nowwhere near the perfect VP candidate but better than some of the other options given what her roll is: enliven the base and bring some history of working with oil companies.
So now that we've moved this to serious I enjoy this debate especially when folks take the time to move past the standard party talking points and examine the candidates. It's interesting.
If you want my thoughts on Obama let me know and I'll send you my position paper!
Thanks for the informative response. It's sad that it's really quite hard to find a serious discussion about what she brings with her, other than the evangelical vote.
General thoughts about Obama would be interesting, but my main point of contention between the two parties is trying to figure out which is worse for our country: The social conservatism of the Republicans or the fiscal liberalism of the Democrats. Oh, how I wish there were more than 2 parties (that were taken seriously) ...
This is pretty good for comic relief as well: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/campaign.wrap/index.html not to mention last nights Larry King Live-
sorry, for some reason the entire link didn't post. Anyway it was on Palin's appearance at a town-hall meeting in Michigan. It was the first time she went without script and I found it quite humorous. I look forward to the debate.
we definitely need to have a debate party to watch palin against biden :) I also want to take credit for this video being on Traci's blog. I emailed her the link to find it. :) Jon and I thought it was hillarious
10 comments:
ha ha funny. how do you think they really feel about palin?
Patrick, at the risk of turning a funny post into a serious one, can you help me out with some serious examples of why Palin *is* a good pick?
I looked around yesterday and the best I could find was from some feminist who basically said "well, she is a girl, and it's about time a girl got taken seriously in politics".
this is too funny but also a bit scary :)
Matt, for most republicans she wouldn't be a smart pick for the reason that she does what the typical republican candidate can do. She solidifies the party base. McCain had very little hope of doing that b/c if you look at his voting record he goes across/against party lines frequently. He bucks party leadership. The Washington Post has a great article about that yesterday or Sunday. That's the biggest reason she was chosen I think, and the party is united behind McCain now. That wasn't the case a month ago. And if you examine the responsibility of the VP, Cheney excluded, most are chosen for sureing up their running mates weaknesses. Not saying that is right, but it's the reality of it.
She does have some other "good" points. First she isn't from Washington and has a history, allbeit short, of reform. That's a hotpoint in this campaign. In regards to economics, she espouses small government, low taxes the standard republican points. Where she has the potential, and the emphasis has to be on potential, is her experience dealing with the energy and oil companies. Unlike the other players in this race she has worked with oil companies and gotten them to work with the state of Alaska. She reworked the revenue sharing agreements so that more of the money the companies are seeing as a result of price increases is returned to Alaskans. She worked to get the new natural gas pipeline underway, again, with oil companies. Those points, in my mind at least, lend her some credence.
Obviously she does have downpoints. The trooper scandal, the pregnant daughter, the experience issue. She's nowwhere near the perfect VP candidate but better than some of the other options given what her roll is: enliven the base and bring some history of working with oil companies.
So now that we've moved this to serious I enjoy this debate especially when folks take the time to move past the standard party talking points and examine the candidates. It's interesting.
If you want my thoughts on Obama let me know and I'll send you my position paper!
Please forgive the misspellings and the book!
Thanks for the informative response. It's sad that it's really quite hard to find a serious discussion about what she brings with her, other than the evangelical vote.
General thoughts about Obama would be interesting, but my main point of contention between the two parties is trying to figure out which is worse for our country: The social conservatism of the Republicans or the fiscal liberalism of the Democrats. Oh, how I wish there were more than 2 parties (that were taken seriously) ...
pretty funny! definitely the funniest part of this week's SNL
This is pretty good for comic relief as well: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/campaign.wrap/index.html
not to mention last nights Larry King Live-
sorry, for some reason the entire link didn't post. Anyway it was on Palin's appearance at a town-hall meeting in Michigan. It was the first time she went without script and I found it quite humorous. I look forward to the debate.
we definitely need to have a debate party to watch palin against biden :) I also want to take credit for this video being on Traci's blog. I emailed her the link to find it. :) Jon and I thought it was hillarious
Thanks for the link Amy! When is the debate? I will set something up.
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