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><channel><title>Chris Abraham &#187; debates</title> <atom:link href="http://chrisabraham.com/tag/debates/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><link>http://chrisabraham.com</link> <description>Because the Medium is the Message</description> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 26 May 2012 20:29:14 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2</generator> <xhtml:meta xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="robots" content="noindex" /> <item><title>Public relations vs SEO Debate on Twitter</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/23/public-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/23/public-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:34:25 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[PR v SEO]]></category> <category><![CDATA[PR vs SEO]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Public Relations vs SEO]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Simon Wakeman]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beasts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beens]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[crossover]]></category> <category><![CDATA[crossovers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debate]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debates]]></category> <category><![CDATA[engineer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Love]]></category> <category><![CDATA[objective]]></category> <category><![CDATA[public relations campaigns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[public relations practitioner]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Publicity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[relative roles]]></category> <category><![CDATA[RSS]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Search]]></category> <category><![CDATA[search engine optimisation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category> <category><![CDATA[shoulds]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twittering]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twitters]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wakeman]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/23/public-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter/</guid> <description><![CDATA[Thanks, Simon Wakeman, for catching up with your RSS and Twitter feeds!  Love this one: Stuart Bruce has a nice summary of a debate that’s been happening on Twitter and elsewhere about the relative roles of public relations and search engine optimisation (SEO). For me the two are very different beasts, although there is some [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/23/public-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter/"></a></div><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2009%2F02%2F23%2Fpublic-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter%2F&media=&description=Public+relations+vs+SEO+Debate+on+Twitter" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Public relations vs SEO Debate on Twitter" /></a></div><p>Thanks, <a
href="http://www.simonwakeman.com/">Simon Wakeman</a>, for catching up with your <a
href="http://www.simonwakeman.com/2009/02/22/what-ive-missed-the-big-rss-catch-up/">RSS and Twitter feeds</a>!  Love this one:</p><blockquote><p>Stuart Bruce has a <a
href="http://www.stuartbruce.biz/2009/02/public-relations-is-about-reputation-not-seo.html" target="_blank">nice summary</a> of a <a
href="http://rock-star-pr.com/seo-and-public-relations/" target="_blank">debate</a> that’s been happening on Twitter and elsewhere about the relative roles of public relations and search engine optimisation (SEO). For me the two are very different beasts, although there is some crossover. Stuart hits the nail on the head identifying SEO as one of the many tools that a rounded public relations practitioner should have available for use, depending on the objectives of the public relations campaigns and the best way to achieve them.</p></blockquote><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2009%2F02%2F23%2Fpublic-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter%2F&media=&description=Public+relations+vs+SEO+Debate+on+Twitter" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Public relations vs SEO Debate on Twitter" /></a></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/23/public-relations-vs-seo-debate-on-twitter/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>The State of Buzz (and Word of Mouth) in 2009</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/18/the-state-of-buzz-and-word-of-mouth-in-2009/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/18/the-state-of-buzz-and-word-of-mouth-in-2009/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:45:06 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Ben McConnell]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Church of the Customer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Church of the Customer Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Emanuel Rosen]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Anatomy of Buzz]]></category> <category><![CDATA[affectations]]></category> <category><![CDATA[affection]]></category> <category><![CDATA[alls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category> <category><![CDATA[angie]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Astroturfing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beens]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[blogged]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[book buzz]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brand]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bricks]]></category> <category><![CDATA[buzz]]></category> <category><![CDATA[buzz marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[buzz word]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[checks]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Community]]></category> <category><![CDATA[connectivity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversational]]></category> 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<category><![CDATA[job]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[latest blog entry]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Learning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[learnings]]></category> <category><![CDATA[lego]]></category> <category><![CDATA[legos]]></category> <category><![CDATA[likeness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[liking]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Love]]></category> <category><![CDATA[manipulation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[media strategies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mouths]]></category> <category><![CDATA[network theory]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[no doubt]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nutshell]]></category> <category><![CDATA[onli]]></category> 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<category><![CDATA[shoulds]]></category> <category><![CDATA[social]]></category> <category><![CDATA[socialism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[socialization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[spent three]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Spirit]]></category> <category><![CDATA[tastemakers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[think]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tipping Point]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Video]]></category> <category><![CDATA[word buzz]]></category> <category><![CDATA[word of mouth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[yelp]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/18/the-state-of-buzz-and-word-of-mouth-in-2009/</guid> <description><![CDATA[I spent three years working at New Media Strategies, from 2003-2006, doing buzz marketing and have spent from 2007-2009 doing some semblance of word-of-mouth and public relations. As a result, I am fascinated by what Emanuel Rosen, dean of buzz, says 9-years after the publication of his book, The Anatomy of Buzz.  Thank you, Ben [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2009%2F02%2F18%2Fthe-state-of-buzz-and-word-of-mouth-in-2009%2F&media=&description=The+State+of+Buzz+%28and+Word+of+Mouth%29+in+2009" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt The State of Buzz (and Word of Mouth) in 2009" /></a></div><p>I spent three years working at New Media Strategies, from 2003-2006, doing buzz marketing and have spent from 2007-2009 doing some semblance of <a
href="http://chrisabraham.com">word-of-mouth</a> and <a
href="http://chrisabraham.com">public relations</a>.</p><p>As a result, I am fascinated by what <a
href="http://www.emanuel-rosen.com/">Emanuel Rosen</a>, dean of buzz, says 9-years after the publication of his book, <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Buzz-Create-Mouth-Marketing/dp/0385496672/wabalake-20" target="_blank">The Anatomy of Buzz</a>.  Thank you, <a
href="http://www.creatingcustomerevangelists.com/about.asp">Ben McConnell</a>, for this interview!  Check it out at the <a
href="http://www.churchofcustomer.com/2009/02/five-questions-with-emanuel-rosen.html">Church of the Customer Blog</a>.</p><blockquote><p><strong>1. Do you define a difference between word of mouth and buzz?</strong><br
/> I use the word “buzz” as an umbrella term to describe all the person-to-person communication about something. I like the definition you gave in your first book: “Buzz = Word of Mouth + Word of Mouse” but I would add to this formula any other type of communication (for example: learning through observation). By the way, the first person to suggest the word buzz to me was <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Rogers" target="_blank">Everett Rogers</a>, the late diffusion scholar. I told him that I didn’t like this term, but over the years I grew to like it a lot.</p><p>I read your latest blog entry on <a
href="http://www.churchofcustomer.com/2009/02/word-of-mouth-vs-buzz.html" target="_blank">word of mouth vs. buzz</a> and, although we use different terms, I agree with the spirit of the things. The foundation of buzz is a great customer experience. No doubt about this. But even customers who love you sometimes forget and run out of opportunities to talk. My whole focus has been on ways to trigger and stimulate additional conversations, and there’s more than one way of doing this.</p><p><strong>2. Network-theory scientist Duncan Watts disputes a lot of what’s in Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point,” specifically that if marketers just reach a few influential tastemakers then word of mouth should flourish. Where do you stand on Watts’s research?<br
/> </strong>My approach is practical: there are people who talk more than others. Whenever you can, cost effectively, identify these folks and work with them — go for it. Watts’s work is an important reminder that not all buzz is created by hubs or influentials, but it does not prove that connecting with these people doesn’t work. In the new edition of my book I dedicate five pages to this debate but the above is my view in a nutshell.</p><p><strong>3. What’s your assessment of how social media affects word of mouth today?</strong><br
/> Social media let text-based buzz explode, but perhaps more important is the effect it has on visual buzz. Buzz is not only about telling, but more and more about showing. My friend doesn’t have to tell me that he likes Lego Mindstorms. He just posts a video of the latest robot he built using these Lego bricks. My cousin doesn’t have to tell me that she supports a certain organization.  I see on Facebook that she’s now a fan of that cause. A lot of the value of social media comes from this type of implicit recommendation.</p><p><strong>4. How prevalent is fake buzz, whether its agencies creating astroturfing campaigns for clients or companies comment-stuffing review sites like Yelp?</strong><br
/> I didn’t investigate how prevalent it is but I’m sure that undercover marketing is out there and that’s such a shame. Anyone who cares about word of mouth should fight this type of manipulation. I like the approach of Zagat and Angie’s List, that see it as part of their job to ensure the integrity of their sites. On a related issue, I think we should encourage everyone to generate more experience-based buzz (“I read this book and I liked it because…) as opposed to secondhand buzz (“my friend says that his cousin read this book and it’s cool.”) With too much secondhand buzz, we&#8217;ll end up with what can be best described as a buzz bubble as illustrated by a review posted on Amazon: &#8220;I haven&#8217;t read this book, but judging from the online reviews below, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s a very good book.&#8221;</p><p><strong>5. In the big picture, what do you think is more helpful in understanding buzz and word of mouth: marketing or psychology?</strong><br
/> Psychology. I think that the first step is always to understand what motivates people to do certain things. Marketing techniques come and go, but if you understand why people talk about products, you can find new ways to motivate them to talk about your brand.</p></blockquote><div
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border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt The State of Buzz (and Word of Mouth) in 2009" /></a></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://chrisabraham.com/2009/02/18/the-state-of-buzz-and-word-of-mouth-in-2009/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>links for 2008-12-16</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/16/links-for-2008-12-16/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/16/links-for-2008-12-16/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:18:44 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[del.icio.us]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Advertisement]]></category> <category><![CDATA[advertiser]]></category> <category><![CDATA[advertisers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ATOM]]></category> <category><![CDATA[atome]]></category> <category><![CDATA[awesometown]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beens]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[blogged]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogger]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Bloggers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[boxer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brand]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brazell]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brouhaha]]></category> <category><![CDATA[buechele]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ceo]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ceos]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chris]]></category> <category><![CDATA[chris brogan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[chris pirillo]]></category> <category><![CDATA[christmas]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Community]]></category> <category><![CDATA[community trust]]></category> <category><![CDATA[consumers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[controversial ads]]></category> <category><![CDATA[controversy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cultures]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debate]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debates]]></category> <category><![CDATA[decade]]></category> <category><![CDATA[dollarization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[dreams]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[English]]></category> <category><![CDATA[eric yaverbaum]]></category> <category><![CDATA[flickr]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fouts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[foxes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[free]]></category> <category><![CDATA[girls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[goode]]></category> <category><![CDATA[goodness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[grammar]]></category> <category><![CDATA[grammar girl]]></category> <category><![CDATA[humanities]]></category> <category><![CDATA[jeffe]]></category> <category><![CDATA[jim kukral]]></category> <category><![CDATA[job]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[kindness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[kmart]]></category> <category><![CDATA[listener]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Love]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Money]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mouths]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Novel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[npr]]></category> <category><![CDATA[online]]></category> <category><![CDATA[PayPerPost]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[personal satisfaction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[personality]]></category> <category><![CDATA[personalization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pettiness]]></category> 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<category><![CDATA[socialization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[swaps]]></category> <category><![CDATA[swedish meatballs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[tag]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tagging]]></category> <category><![CDATA[teapot]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twittering]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twitters]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Video]]></category> <category><![CDATA[web]]></category> <category><![CDATA[weinburg]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Wikipedia]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[writing a novel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[YouTube]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/16/links-for-2008-12-16/</guid> <description><![CDATA[YouTube &#8211; Awesometown &#8211; FOX Cut Blog profile &#8211; Twingly Blog Search Burger King Fails With BK Boxers » Adrants Controversial ads can help boost a brand &#8211; PRWeek US Eric Yaverbaum, president and CEO of Ericho Communications, says the press might not be good, but this kind of attention effectively multiplies the company&#8217;s ad [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt links for 2008 12 16" /></a></div><ul
class="delicious"><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh2ld_Vt_eQ&amp;feature=channel">YouTube &#8211; Awesometown &#8211; FOX Cut</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.twingly.com/blogs/profile?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chrisabraham.com%2f">Blog profile &#8211; Twingly Blog Search</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.adrants.com/2008/12/burger-king-fails-with-bk-boxers.php">Burger King Fails With BK Boxers » Adrants</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.prweekus.com/Controversial-ads-can-help-boost-a-brand/article/122692/">Controversial ads can help boost a brand &#8211; PRWeek US</a></p><p
class="delicious-extended">Eric Yaverbaum, president and CEO of Ericho Communications, says the press might not be good, but this kind of attention effectively multiplies the company&#8217;s ad buy and drives consumers to want to go online and watch the video.</p><p
class="delicious-tags">(tags: <a
href="http://delicious.com/chrisabraham/social">social</a> <a
href="http://delicious.com/chrisabraham/media">media</a> <a
href="http://delicious.com/chrisabraham/public">public</a>)</p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/how-to-write-a-novel.aspx">Grammar Girl :: How to Write Your First Novel</a></p><p
class="delicious-extended">Since you’re listening to this podcast, you probably love the English language and the written word. And if you do, you probably have an itch to write that first novel. Well, you&#8217;re not alone. The dream of writing a novel, either for personal satisfaction or to make money, has been prevalent in our culture for decades, if not centuries.</p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&amp;art_aid=96569">MediaPost Publications &#8211; Kmart Enlists Bloggers For Social Net Campaign &#8211; 12/12/2008</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/12/izea-where-is-t.html">/Message: Izea: Where Is That Line Again?</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.philaahzophy.com/2008/12/11/izea-and-payperpost-further-abandon-concept-of-quality-blogs/">Izea and PayPerPost Further Abandon Concept Of Quality Blogs | Philaahzophy</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://socialmediadigest.com/2008/12/12/kmart-enlists-bloggers-for-social-net-campaign-mediapost-publications/">Kmart Enlists Bloggers For Social Net Campaign &#8211; MediaPost Publications | Social Media Digest</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-still-want-my-swedish-meatballs-izea.html">mrontemp: I still want my Swedish meatballs! The Izea brouhaha continues</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://blog.izea.com/2008/12/twitter-tips-week-one-winner.html">IZEA Blog: &#8221;Twitter Tips&#8221; Week One Winner</a></p></li><li><p
class="delicious-link"><a
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class="delicious-link"><a
href="http://www.navigatorsllc.com/About/2/default.aspx">About Us &#8211; DC Navigators</a></p></li></ul><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2008%2F12%2F16%2Flinks-for-2008-12-16%2F&media=&description=links+for+2008-12-16" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt links for 2008 12 16" /></a></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/16/links-for-2008-12-16/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>L&#8217;Amour from LeWeb</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/09/lamour-from-leweb/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/09/lamour-from-leweb/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:58:03 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Chemistry.com]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Dr. Helen Fisher]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Helen Fisher]]></category> <category><![CDATA[LeWeb]]></category> <category><![CDATA[LeWeb Paris]]></category> <category><![CDATA[personality type]]></category> <category><![CDATA[aim]]></category> <category><![CDATA[alls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[aptitude]]></category> <category><![CDATA[attachments]]></category> <category><![CDATA[attractiveness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[attributes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beens]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chemistry]]></category> <category><![CDATA[chemistry profile]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chris]]></category> <category><![CDATA[complex person]]></category> <category><![CDATA[complexity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[concrete]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversational]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversations]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[creativity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debate]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debates]]></category> <category><![CDATA[doe]]></category> <category><![CDATA[dr helen]]></category> <category><![CDATA[efficiency]]></category> <category><![CDATA[excitement]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Family]]></category> <category><![CDATA[feelings]]></category> <category><![CDATA[flexibility]]></category> <category><![CDATA[follower]]></category> <category><![CDATA[followers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[four personality types]]></category> <category><![CDATA[free]]></category> <category><![CDATA[imagination]]></category> <category><![CDATA[independent thinker]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[innovator]]></category> <category><![CDATA[insi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[insight]]></category> <category><![CDATA[insightful]]></category> <category><![CDATA[insights]]></category> <category><![CDATA[intellect]]></category> <category><![CDATA[intellectuals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[intimacies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[intimacy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[investigative rigor]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Learning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[learnings]]></category> <category><![CDATA[liking]]></category> <category><![CDATA[listener]]></category> <category><![CDATA[logic]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Love]]></category> <category><![CDATA[lowe]]></category> <category><![CDATA[negotiator]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Novel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[novel theories]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nurturer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[origins]]></category> <category><![CDATA[paris]]></category> <category><![CDATA[people]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[personality]]></category> <category><![CDATA[personality test]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pleasure]]></category> <category><![CDATA[probability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[profiles]]></category> <category><![CDATA[protect]]></category> <category><![CDATA[puzzle]]></category> <category><![CDATA[questionnaire]]></category> <category><![CDATA[relationship]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Relationships]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sex attraction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[signs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[social]]></category> <category><![CDATA[socialism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[socialization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Spirit]]></category> <category><![CDATA[spirituality]]></category> <category><![CDATA[surprise]]></category> <category><![CDATA[surprises]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sympathy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[taked]]></category> <category><![CDATA[think]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twittering]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twitters]]></category> <category><![CDATA[type director]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/09/lamour-from-leweb/</guid> <description><![CDATA[I have been pinned by the coverage of #leweb down in Paris on Twitter, especially during all of the excitement as Dr. Helen Fisher talked about sex, attraction, and falling in love. So, since everyone else has been taking the Chemistry love personality test, I thought I would do the same. So, with no further [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
align="right" style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 5px 5px;"><a
name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/09/lamour-from-leweb/"></a></div><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2008%2F12%2F09%2Flamour-from-leweb%2F&media=&description=L%26%238217%3BAmour+from+LeWeb" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt LAmour from LeWeb" /></a></div><p>I have been pinned by the coverage of <a
href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=leweb">#leweb</a> down in Paris on Twitter, especially during all of the excitement as <a
href="http://www.chemistry.com/drhelenfisher" alt="Dr. Helen Fisher" title="Dr. Helen Fisher">Dr. Helen Fisher</a> talked about sex, attraction, and falling in love. So, since everyone else has been taking the Chemistry love personality test, I thought I would do the same. So, with no further ado, here&#8217;s my results. Is any of is surprising? You, too, can take the test for free (and sign up, as a result) over at <a
href="http://www.chemistry.com">Chemistry.com</a></p><blockquote><p>Hello Chris,</p><p> <strong>Welcome to your Chemistry Profile</strong>. The  following analysis is based on your responses to our questionnaire.  Your results identify your major and minor personality types, as well  as the types with whom you&#8217;re likely to be compatible.</p><p><strong>Your Major and Minor Personality Types </strong>Characteristics  of all four personality types can be found within each of us, but there  is almost always one personality type that is dominant. We call this  the major personality type. The Chemistry Profile also  identifies your minor or secondary personality type. You exhibit some  aspects of this personality type, though not to the same degree as with  your major type.</p><ul><li>Your major personality type = <strong>Director</strong></li><li>Your minor personality type = <strong>Negotiator</strong></li></ul><p><strong>You are a DIRECTOR/negotiator</strong> You are an innovator. You are an inventive, thorough, independent  thinker with a deep interest in how the world works. You quickly grasp  patterns and relationships. And when you focus on a particular  work-related or social puzzle, you often come up with novel theories  and ideas about it. You have a strong need to achieve. You want to make an impact on the  world. And with your aptitude for theoretical thinking, your  investigative rigor, your logic and your determination, you are likely  to win the honors your hard work deserves. You are a complex person, outwardly assertive, logical and  intellectual, yet likely to see the many sides of an issue, feel deep  sympathy for others and enjoy the spiritual as well as the concrete. You can be friendly, insightful and eager to please. These  attributes, combined with your love of challenges and knowledge, make  you an exciting, and at times, very sensitive companion.</p><p><strong>How your personality breaks out</strong></p><p><strong>Explorer &#8211; 23% of your personality </strong>- Known  for high energy, high creativity and spontaneity. Seeks novelty, risk  and pleasure. Intellectually curious and not easily swayed by opinion.</p><p><strong>Builder &#8211; 19% of your personality </strong>- Usually very popular. Deep attachment to home and family. Calm demeanor and low anxiety. Often consistent, loyal and protective.</p><p><strong>Negotiator &#8211; 27% of your personality</strong> &#8211; Excels  at seeing the big picture, long-term planning and consensus building.  An intuitive thinker who is flexible, verbal and socially skilled.  Imaginative, empathetic and nurturing.</p><p><strong>Director &#8211; 29% of your personality &#8211; </strong>Daring,  original, direct and inventive. A non-conformist. Skilled at abstract  thinking and short-term planning. Often assertive and quite  competitive. Tough-minded and efficient.</p><p><strong>Dating Tips for Directors</strong></p><ul><li><p>Not  everyone is as direct, focused and &ldquo;to the point&rdquo; as you are. So make  sure you give potential partners the time they need to express  themselves. You will probably be surprised at their logic and intellect.</p></li><li><p>Your  competitive spirit is useful in the office but it doesn&#8217;t work in  dating&#8211;unless you find someone who likes to challenge and debate. When  that happens, go for it. Otherwise, try to listen actively.</p></li><li><p>Aim  at investigating some of the &ldquo;grey areas&rdquo; during an invigorating  conversation. Much of the world does not see in black and white.</p></li><li><p>Separate  work from play. Try to get your assignments out of your mind while on a  date&mdash;so you can truly enjoy your &ldquo;down time&rdquo; with a partner.</p></li><li><p>Make sure to schedule enough time to get to know someone.</p></li><li><p>Try  looking directly into the eyes of your partner during a conversation;  many people find this &ldquo;anchoring gaze&rdquo; a powerful form of intimacy.</p></li></ul></blockquote><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2008%2F12%2F09%2Flamour-from-leweb%2F&media=&description=L%26%238217%3BAmour+from+LeWeb" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt LAmour from LeWeb" /></a></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/09/lamour-from-leweb/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Twitter Swaps Jack Dorsey for Evan Williams as CEO</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/17/twitter-swaps-jack-dorsey-for-evan-williams-as-ceo/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/17/twitter-swaps-jack-dorsey-for-evan-williams-as-ceo/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:10:53 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Evan Williams]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jack Dorsey]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Twitter.com]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Twitterati]]></category> <category><![CDATA[WOMMA]]></category> <category><![CDATA[alls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category> <category><![CDATA[blogged]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[board of directors]]></category> <category><![CDATA[business standpoint]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ceo]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversational]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversations]]></category> <category><![CDATA[conversions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cool new news]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debate]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debates]]></category> <category><![CDATA[founders]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fred wilson]]></category> <category><![CDATA[generations]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[new york times]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[perspective]]></category> <category><![CDATA[perspectives]]></category> <category><![CDATA[presidential debate coverage]]></category> <category><![CDATA[product perspective]]></category> <category><![CDATA[productivity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[shakeup]]></category> <category><![CDATA[slides]]></category> <category><![CDATA[swaps]]></category> <category><![CDATA[think]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twittering]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/17/twitter-swaps-jack-dorsey-for-evan-williams-as-ceo/</guid> <description><![CDATA[Cool new news from the gang over at WOMMA, A Twitter Shakeup (Via Marketing Conversation): Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, the co-founders of Twitter, have decided to switch company roles. Dorsey, the current CEO of Twitter, will become the Chairman. Williams, the current Chairman, slides into place as the new CEO. Said Fred Wilson from [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/17/twitter-swaps-jack-dorsey-for-evan-williams-as-ceo/"></a></div><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2008%2F10%2F17%2Ftwitter-swaps-jack-dorsey-for-evan-williams-as-ceo%2F&media=&description=Twitter+Swaps+Jack+Dorsey+for+Evan+Williams+as+CEO" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Twitter Swaps Jack Dorsey for Evan Williams as CEO" /></a></div><p>Cool new news from the gang over at WOMMA, <a
href="http://tr.subscribermail.com/cc.cfm?sendto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ewomma%2Eorg%2Fblog%2F2008%2F10%2Fa%2Dtwitter%2Dshakeup%2F&amp;tempid=b97ad0c6a8f143fc9696e5ce4695fe78&amp;mailid=d6988a69dd524b2f989cb19ce2d9ad9c">A Twitter Shakeup</a> (Via <a
href="http://marketingconversation.com/2008/10/17/twitter-swaps-ceos-jack-dorsey-evan-williams/">Marketing Conversation</a>):</p><blockquote><p>Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, the co-founders of Twitter, have decided to switch company roles. Dorsey, the current CEO of Twitter, will become the Chairman. Williams, the current Chairman, slides into place as the new CEO. Said Fred Wilson from the Twitter Board of Directors, ” ‘We all think Ev is a better fit to lead the company from a product perspective, an operations perspective, and a business standpoint.’ ” The news was greeted somewhat quizzically by the New York Times’ Bits Blog, which pointed out that Twitter has become somewhat of a stable enterprise, especially after its highly successful weeks of presidential debate coverage. Bits suggests that perhaps this shakeup is a way to start Twitter on a path to generating revenue.</p></blockquote><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/10/sarah-palin-comment-thread-par-excellence/</guid> <description><![CDATA[If you have not been keeping on top of all of the great comments streaming in to the AH Poll entitled &#8220;If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Palin be competent to be President?&#8221; you are really missing out! Some of them are the most insightful, thoughtful, and brilliant collection of thoughts representing [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
align="right" style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 5px 5px;"><a
name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/10/sarah-palin-comment-thread-par-excellence/"></a></div><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2008%2F10%2F10%2Fsarah-palin-comment-thread-par-excellence%2F&media=&description=Sarah+Palin+Comment+Thread+Par+Excellence" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Sarah Palin Comment Thread Par Excellence" /></a></div><p>If you have not been keeping on top of all of the great comments streaming in to the <a
href="http://ahpoll.com">AH Poll</a> entitled <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/palin/">&#8220;If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Palin be competent to be President?&#8221;</a> you are really missing out!  Some of them are the most insightful, thoughtful, and brilliant collection of thoughts representing the best and the worst of the right and the left! Roll up your sleeves and batten your hatches because you&#8217;re going to have one hell of a ride. Oh, also, these comments are in reverse-chronological order so the most recent are at the top. If you want to keep track of them live, please <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/palin/#comments">go visit them where they love and breathe</a>. Read below for the most amazing Sarah Palin comment thread of the Internets!<br
/> <span
id="more-5087"></span></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-147">Palin = MORON</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://sogetthis.com" rel="nofollow">Anonymous</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/10/2008 &#8211; 12:58.</div><div><p>Only  a complete moron would vote for a Republican after the past 8 years of  idiocy. McCain is a Bush croney and Palin is just an idiot.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/147">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/147/Palin-MORON">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-146"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-146">reply to KB in IA</a></div><div> Submitted by ab (not verified) on Fri, 10/10/2008 &#8211; 08:52.</div><div><p>KB,<br
/> Sorry, I don&#8217;t usually reply to these remarks, but I couldn&#8217;t resist&#8230;&#8230;..<br
/> What message of &#8220;hate&#8221; are you talking about?<br
/> If someone doesn&#8217;t agree with your worldview, that doesn&#8217;t<br
/> mean they hate. Where is your tolerance?<br
/> AB</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/146">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/146/reply-KB-IA">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-145"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-145">Palin</a></div><div> Submitted by Walter Arndt (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 &#8211; 22:23.</div><div><p>Only a person with his head in the sand would vote for a democrat.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/145">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/145/Palin">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-144"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-144">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by KB in IA (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 &#8211; 21:54.</div><div><p>Things  might get interesting soon, since the Alaska Supreme Court said today  that the investigation known as Troopergate could proceed, dashing the  hopes of the McCain/Palin campaign to stonewall it until after the  election (article at <a
href="http://www.adn.com" title="www.adn.com">www.adn.com</a>).  Amazing that someone CURRENTLY under investigation for misuse of public  office, could be stirring up crowds with a message of hate.  Mind-boggling that someone who had to attend 5 or 6 different colleges  before getting a degree in journalism, can try to make a bogeyman out  of someone who graduated with honors from Harvard Law. I hope Alaska  gets their Governor back soon&#8230;if they even want her back.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/144">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/144/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-143"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-143">Re: Palin</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 &#8211; 18:06.</div><div><p>Are  you as crazy as she is? It IS the republican party that has messed up  this Country over the last 8 yrs. We may not get out of this mess we  are in. Take your head out of the sand. Obama IS the best selection  this election.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/143">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/143/Re-Palin">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-142"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-142">Qualified?</a></div><div> Submitted by  Leo (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 &#8211; 17:17.</div><div><p>Mrs.  Palin is much more qualified to be President than Obama who has done  absolutely nothing but organize thugs in ACORN! She could save this  Country from Socialism and all the corruption the Democrats are up to.  He is not capable of telling the truth and Hollywood and the Media are  doing their best to cover for him. He is not qualified to be a Senator  and should be on trial for treason.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/142">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/142/Qualified">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-141"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-141">Pailin </a></div><div> Submitted by GE Mayer (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 &#8211; 16:53.</div><div><p>Not  only is Palin not qualified to be Vice President much less President, I  am incensed, that John McCain would insult my intellegence by picking  such a &#8220;newby&#8221; above several well qualified, experienced women who have  served the country and the Republican party.<br
/> I expect my Comander in Chief to Carefully sellect an individual more  qualified than him/herself to take over. It shows John&#8217;s thinking.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/141">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/141/Pailin">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-140"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-140">Palin?  Presidential material?  No, doggone it!</a></div><div> Submitted by Krissi (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2008 &#8211; 21:35.</div><div><p>While  I admire Sarah Palin&#8217;s spunk and determination, I think that she is  completely out of her league as not only a vice president but also a  president. If people would take a good look at her record, they&#8217;d see  that she doesn&#8217;t even have a good grasp of the issues.</p><p>In addition, she&#8217;s been caught in numerous lies and distortions. For  example, she did not sell a jet on eBay &#8212; she tried but failed; the  jet was sold later to a private buyer. She did not leave the town of  Wasilla financially sound; she left it in debt. She says she;ll be a  strong supporter of kids with needs. In truth, Palin actually slashed  funding for schools for special needs kids by 62%.</p><p>And her famous, &#8220;I told the Congress &#8220;thanks, but no thanks,&#8221; for  that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we&#8217;d build it  ourselves&#8221; line? More spin. Congress&#8217; requirement that funds be spent  on that bridge (aka the &#8216;earmark&#8217;) were removed before Sarah Palin  became governor. She was, therefore, in no position to tell Congress  anything about the bridge, one way or the other. During her campaign,  she said she supported funding for the bridge.</p><p>There are more examples, of the fibs and many examples of her poor  insight into our nation&#8217;s problems. I could list them all, but I  encourage you to do your own homework (forwarded emails DO NO COUNT)!</p><p>If MCCain and Palin win this election, I&#8217;ll probably be hoping for a lengthy, overseas assignment &#8212; maybe four years or more!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/140">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/140/Palin-Presidential-material-No-doggone-it">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-139"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-139">Palin is Failin</a></div><div> Submitted by GA for Brains in the White House (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2008 &#8211; 21:02.</div><div><p>W &#8211; below C student<br
/> McCain &#8211; at the bottom of his class<br
/> Are we really electing the best? Shouldn&#8217;t we elect someone better than  we are? And someone not ready for the assisted living home? Someone who  can remember the name of his opponent instead of calling him &#8220;that  one&#8221;. McCain left right away after the debate &#8211; seniors do go to bed  early, probably past his bedtime. As for integrity, check out McCain&#8217;s  involvement in the S&#038;L bailout, he was right there along side W&#8217;s  brother Neil. All working to steal investors&#8217; money. Just like King  Henry is doing now, rewarding his Wall St. buddies.</p><p><strong>And we wonder why this happens to us???</strong></p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/139">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/139/Palin-Failin">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-138"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-138">Palin</a></div><div> Submitted by Ed Sherrill (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2008 &#8211; 10:49.</div><div><p>Not  only is Sarah Palin competent to become President, she is idealogically  and tempermentally better suited to be President than John McCain.  Republicans are going to be very sorry thet chose McCain over Mitt  Romney. I only pray the Democrates don&#8217;t screw up the country so bad  over the next four years that it can&#8217;t be fixed.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/138">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/138/Palin">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-136"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-136">Is she for real?</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 &#8211; 22:13.</div><div><p>If  Joe Biden winked at the camera 5-6 times during the debate, wouldn&#8217;t we  be calling him a pervert? Come on people, get serious. Sarah Palin is a  joke &#8212; an embarrassment to Americans who take our politics &#8212; and the  plight of our country &#8212; seriously.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/136">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/136/she-real">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-134"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-134">Is Sarah Palin Qualified to be President?</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.selfhelpdaily.com" rel="nofollow">Joi</a> (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 &#8211; 13:34.</div><div><p>To  be sure, Sarah Palin doesn&#8217;t deserve the crucifixion the media and  entertainment world are giving her (and her family). McCain might  deserve some of it, after all &#8211; he picked her. Why? She&#8217;s female. I  admire the man completely &#8211; he is an American hero and I can&#8217;t even  begin to imagine the hell this brave man endured.</p><p>However, when it came to choose running mates, I belive Obama chose  one that was best for the country and McCain chose one (he thought) was  best for the campaign.</p><p>I THINK that he lost the race with his choice.  I KNOW he lost my vote.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/134">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/134/Sarah-Palin-Qualified-be-President">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-133"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-133">Surprising VP choice</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow">olivier blanchard</a> (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 &#8211; 13:30.</div><div><p>Hindsight  is always 20/20. Perhaps Gov. Palin&#8217;s weaknesses weren&#8217;t 100% obvious  to Sen. McCain when he picked her. (So much for due diligence, I  guess.) Did he want a dynamic, charismatic, family-friendly VP  running-mate? Of course. And she fit the bill&#8230; on the surface, at  least. But honestly, weren&#8217;t there better choices (male or female) for  the job? Competent, charismatic, appealing, worldly Republican  governors or senators? People he actually knows and trusts? 30 years in  politics, and he can&#8217;t think of a single person he has worked with who  would be a better choice for a running mate? He goes with a complete  stranger? I find that bizarre. Irresponsible, even. I just don&#8217;t get  it. There are plenty of smart, competent, experienced women in the  Republican Party who would have made a great running mate.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/133">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/133/Surprising-VP-choice">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-132"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-132">Don&#8217;t confuse appeal with competence</a></div><div> Submitted by DBStevens (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 &#8211; 12:21.</div><div><p>Too  many people in this country confuse personal appeal with competence,  and make decisions based on who&#8217;s the most charming or even who&#8217;s  sexiest. Or they make decisions based on generalities such as &#8220;we need  a woman in the White House.&#8221; A COMPETENT woman in the White House would  be a great asset to this country. There is no doubt of that.</p><p>But we can&#8217;t decide the leaders of our country based on a visceral  reaction to her charm and folksy demeanor (there is a lot of doubt as  to the sincerity of that demeanor anyway&#8230;she shows signs of being  rather ruthless). During these times of uncertainty and fear, it&#8217;s  natural to want some comfort, to feel that the person leading our  country is down-to-earth and &#8220;real.&#8217; We felt good about Bush and people  like Rudy Guiliani for a short time right after 9/11. They appealed to  our emotions and need for reassurance. But that demeanor means nothing.  It&#8217;s the actions that matter, and in the time following 9/11, both Bush  and Guiliani&#8217;s true nature was revealed&#8230; incompetence and  self-serving.</p><p>Sarah Palin acts cute and has a pretty face. That&#8217;s perfect for  president of the PTA. But has not gained enough experience to be  president of a country. The job of Vice-President or President is NOT  an &#8220;on-the-job-training&#8221; type of job. Being Mayor of a tiny town in a  remote state, then Governer of that remote, sparsely populated state  (670,000, way smaller than a city like El Paso, TX) is not enough  experience to lead a country whose every move has global implications.  Palin treated the job of Governer like a telecommuting job, she worked  form her hown home for 86% of the year.</p><p>No matter how intelligent she may seem to be, no matter how  ambitious or driven she may seem, and ESPECIALLY no matter how pretty  or charming she is, she is not ready for the responsibilities of a job  like President. Without experience, without having the time to really  begin to understand the nature of national and global dealings on every  level, no matter how much coaching or guidance she would receive, Palin  would either crumble under pressure or make very bad decisions with  repercussions that could shake this country and its international  stature to the core. Or she wouldn&#8217;t act quickly enough at  all&#8230;stalling and deflecting decisions (as she does with many  questions, or with such events as the investigation dubbeed  &#8220;Troopergate&#8221;).</p><p>I also worry about the demands of her family. During times of her  family&#8217;s need, do we want someone faced with the dilemma of either  neglecting her family&#8217;s needs because of her duties as Vice-President,  or neglecting the VP duties because of her family&#8217;s needs? Neither of  those are good choices&#8230;.Sarah Palin has too many personal  responsibilities.</p><p>Palin also shows all the signs of behavior very similar to  Bush&#8217;s&#8230;including a tendency toward cronyism, abuse of power, and  self-serving decisions that flout the law.</p><p>She even mispronounces the word &#8220;nuclear&#8221; just like Bush. Certainly  that&#8217;s a small point, and that pronunciation is commonly recognized as  a sub-standard metathesis of the word, but it&#8217;s very annoying to listen  to.</p><p>So wake up American. Move your responses from your gut to your  brains, and make sure you understand the repercussions of your vote.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/132">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/132/Dont-confuse-appeal-competence">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-131"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-131">I&#8217;m moving&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.andyosier.com" rel="nofollow">Andy Osier</a> (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 &#8211; 10:15.</div><div><p>John  McCain himself isn&#8217;t capable of running the country; I shudder to think  of the train wreck a Palin administration would be. If they win, I&#8217;m  seriously considering a moving. How&#8217;s the January weather in Berlin,  Chris?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/131">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/131/Im-moving">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-130"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-130">Big State&#8230;&#8230;little experience!</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/126" rel="nofollow">Anonymous</a> (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 18:11.</div><div><p>Granted, we&#8217;ve got plenty to worry about at home!<br
/> But we&#8217;re talking about a Governor of a state bordered by 2 foreign  countries, Palin is the proud NEW owner of a passport! (barely 1 year)<br
/> The world is smaller than ever and so is our standing in it. We don&#8217;t  need &#8220;a little Wasilla in Washington&#8221;. We already have a narrow minded  view of the world with our current administration.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/130">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/130/Big-Statelittle-experience">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-129"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-129">Palin for presidnet?</a></div><div> Submitted by Joyce (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 16:49.</div><div><p>She  would call on the brightest brains in the Republican party, put them in  positions of power and support, and do her best to do the best she  could for her country. She&#8217;s an acheiver and would never accept failure  for herself. She has Condeleesa, Romneys, Huckabees and several others  who want to serve and members to help and advise her. Her history shows  that she uses support and advise to guide her towards her goals and  accomplishments. She would take the credit for it too.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/129">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/129/Palin-presidnet">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-128"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-128">Re: If McCain dies is America Screwed?</a></div><div> Submitted by Allison (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 15:10.</div><div><p>Palin  is the only person that does not have someone dictating what she says  about policy and does not try to appear to have all of the answers. She  certainly knows how to find the answers. She has integrity, and knows  truth when she sees it and definitely has mankind&#8217;s best interests as  her priority. These are some of the things that make her the best  candidate for the job. I am sick and tired of politicians with agendas!  She is a real person that is capable of any good, or decent task put  before her. She will also employ the same type of people to work beside  and under her. The point that she is not capable of selling us down  stream for a special interest group, or her own pocket, or fame makes  her my choice in a leader &#8211; regardless of the presence of McCain.  Allison</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/128">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/128/Re-If-McCain-dies-America-Screwed">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-127"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-127">Re: If McCain dies is America Screwed?</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 15:08.</div><div><p>Palin  is the only person that does not have someone dictating what she says  about policy and does not try to appear to have all of the answers. She  certainly knows how to find the answers. She has integrity, and knows  truth when she sees it and definitely has mankind&#8217;s best interests as  her priority. These are some of the things that make her the best  candidate for the job. I am sick and tired of politicians with agendas!  She is a real person that is capable of any good, or decent task put  before her. She will also employ the same type of people to work beside  and under her. The point that she is not capable of selling us down  stream for a special interest group, or her own pocket, or fame makes  her my choice in a leader &#8211; regardless of the presence of McCain.  Allison</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/127">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/127/Re-If-McCain-dies-America-Screwed">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-126"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-126">Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 12:47.</div><div><p>She didn&#8217;t ride in on her &#8220;own merits&#8221; She rode in on her SEX. PERIOD.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/126">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/126/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-125"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-125">If McCain dies is America Screwed?</a></div><div> Submitted by RisingFromDecadence (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 12:17.</div><div><p>It&#8217;s  the most frightening and compelling reason to not elect McCain to date.  It&#8217; clear that the choice was to win vs. what&#8217;s right for the country.  And it saddens me that with so many strong female candidates out there  McCain has landed on this choice. It speaks volumes of his lack of  sound judgement and doesn&#8217;t do justice to the feminist movement.</p><p>I couldn&#8217;t agree more with &#8220;Double Standard&#8217;s&#8221; comments about  education, and intelligence vs. the &#8220;experience&#8221; of a low-population  governor. Has it somehow become a negative trait for our president to  be articulate well educated and even published?</p><p>I think its safe to now say, like every great civilization, America  has grown from it&#8217;s indestructible, can-do &#8220;adolescence,&#8221; and has  entered it&#8217;s &#8220;decadent&#8221; period of greed, fear, fat and a lack of clear  vision. America needs a president who will bring intelligence, a new  vision, and optimism so that we don&#8217;t lose the real values we&#8217;ve grown  up to believe are American such as truth, innovation, compassion,  charity and vision.</p><p>Our values as a nation should not be confused with same sex  marriages or religious agendas. I seem to remember from my grade school  social studies classes that America was born as a nation with the  purpose and promise of many freedoms. Personal choice values are not to  be mixed with National values. Growing up, this difference has been why  I&#8217;ve been so proud to be an American. In the last 8 years much has  changed. I believe that only with the leadership of Obama will we be  able to regain our credibility and our course as a nation. Most  importantly, America could be &#8220;Proud Again.&#8221;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/125">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/125/If-McCain-dies-America-Screwed">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-124"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-124">Answer the question</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://ascannerbrightly.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Jaz-Michael King</a> (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 10:40.</div><div><p>As  an unbiased, unable-to-vote immigrant, can I point out that as usual,  from either of your minimalist two sides, when the question is simply  If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Palin be  competent to be President?&#8221;, the arguments spin off to why the opponent  isn&#8217;t. Maybe that will be the next question, but like I wanted to yell  at Palin while watching the debate&#8230; answer the question posed to you.</p><p>Everyone has their weak points, and in some respects, Obama, who has  considerably more than two years in the US Senate as his experience (he  was a state senator, you know) has plenty. However, I think there&#8217;s a  good reason hockey moms and joe sixpacks don&#8217;t run. No-one wants  regular folk in charge. You all want a ruling elite no matter how much  you profess to the contrary.</p><p>There are plenty of strong, competent women on both sides of the aisle in the USA. Gov. Palin is not one of them.</p><p>She is not qualified because she is not qualified. Being as  unqualified as anyone you wish to compare her to does not make her  qualified. Her inabilty to answer a straight question makes her  unqualified. I personally believe the fact she is the kind of person  who can compete in a beauty contest makes her unqualified. And as of  today, her assertion that Obama&#8217;s political career started off in the  living room of a terrorist (all of a sudden, he&#8217;s been a politician a  lot longer than two years according to the Republicans) has pulled her  from the absurd to the surreal.</p><p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong, Obama seems to pander to some vaporous &#8220;change&#8221; mentality, but that wasn&#8217;t the question.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/124">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/124/Answer-question">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-123"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-123">Palin Unqualified</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous jones (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 &#8211; 09:16.</div><div><p>The  difference between Obama and Palin is that Obama thinks. He&#8217;s smart  enough to go to Harvard, graduate high enough in his class to be  president of the Harvard Law Review there. He&#8217;s a thinker who doesn&#8217;t  shoot from the hip. He knows the Constitution inside and out and knows  if something is just a whim to increase his own power compared to a  great idea which would help millions of people (think fairer taxes,  health insurance coverage). Palin bankrupted Wasilla which is now 23.5  MILLION dollars in debt. She has no idea of what real issues are out  there&#8212;she doesn&#8217;t have any idea of what to do in a financial  situation, a diplomatic situation or anything beyond her own home. She  shows no compassion for others who are not in her situation (religious,  financial, educational, political) and has no international experience.  We do not need another DOPE in the White House. McCain has shown very  poor judgment in choosing an under-educated (a BA is like a high school  degree these days) fool rather than a smart, intellectually  sophisticated worthy VP candidate. This is a sellout of the Democratic  process. Such a shame. But then again, McCain graduated at the bottom  of his class (894 out of 899), so what does he want with a smart second?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/123">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/123/Palin-Unqualified">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-122"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-122">Just because she could, does not mean she should.</a></div><div> Submitted by Bjshazam (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 22:34.</div><div><p>Does  it not trouble anyone who has been posting here that we have reached  this point at all? I&#8217;ve been writing draft after draft of posts here,  trying to find the right balance that won&#8217;t come across as too  ideological, or that won&#8217;t be automatically dismissed by the true  sycophants because it contains some Left or Right code word that  justifies their turning off of the brain. Can&#8217;t do it. She&#8217;s too  dangerous, and it angers me so much that we as a country have been put  in the position of having to opine about the staggering impropriety of  her selection as McCain&#8217;s running mate.</p><p>Consider:</p><p>My brother is a great guy. Smart as a whip, with what I think is  decent judgment (except for his love of the Yankees). I trust him  implicitly. So, should I be in a position to name him to, say, the  Supreme Court, I would expect no questions from anyone about his  qualifications. According to the Constitution, he is legally qualified  to be a Justice, even the Chief Justice. I already told you he is smart  and has good judgment. What else do you need to know? How dare you  question my choice or his desire to serve?</p><p>The President of the United States has a mind bogglingly huge amount  of discretion in executing the job. The president can, without  obstruction by court or Congress, lay waste to our financial system,  impede entirely the execution of justice, or unleash Armageddon. The  office of the president can disband virtually unilaterally the entirety  of the intelligence gathering power of the U.S., or focus it all on the  least secure among us &#8212; with no recourse by anyone.</p><p>Most of the time, this isn&#8217;t an issue. Regardless of your political  persuasion, we have been blessed mostly with chief executives that took  the burdens of job dead seriously. A president of the entire country,  not just those who cast the votes.</p><p>Now the bar has been set so low that we cannot figure out the right  words to describe how wrong it is for a candidate to relish the fact  that she really doesn&#8217;t understand the job the Constitution has laid  out. That this is somehow an asset to a campaign makes me ashamed for  my country.</p><p>That John McCain affirmatively foisted this train wreck upon his own  party, and possibly upon the country, is a sin for which he should  never be forgiven.</p><p>That she is considered by some to be the next face of the GOP, and a  real contender for the nomination next time around, should make my GOP  colleagues shudder and the nation weep.</p><p>I don&#8217;t want a hockey mom or joe six-pack running the country. Hell,  I don&#8217;t want anyone like me running the country. I want a president.  And she is not it.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/122">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/122/Just-because-she-could-does-not-mean-she-should">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-121"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-121">make that Palin UNQUALIFIED PERIOD</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 22:25.</div><div><p>Darn, brain outrunning my fingers.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/121">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/121/make-Palin-UNQUALIFIED-PERIOD">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-120"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-120">Palin qualified period</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 22:22.</div><div><p>And  the mental midgets who are using that as a ruse to comment on Obama  miss the entire point. Biden IS qualified to fill in shoudl something  happen to Obama (go to smoking gun to see why that IS an issue).</p><p>Palin is a bimbo and if you do not think so, Palin supporters, then  take this simple acid test: were it Obama who made those brain dead  comments instead of Palin, what would you be saying about him? Gotcha!</p><p>jim</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/120">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/120/Palin-qualified-period">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-119"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-119">Palin Not Qualified</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 22:01.</div><div><p>Anyone  that believes that Sarah Palin is qualified to be President is kidding  themselves. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman. The  fact that she is SO unqualified is what made her pick an insult to  every hard-working, intelligent woman out there. She was picked for her  good looks and her folksy charm. There were MANY more qualified women  in the ranks of the Republican party that could have been chosen.<br
/> Palin attended five different colleges before she was finally able to  stick out a degree program. She majored in journalism and  communications and couldn&#8217;t name ONE newspaper or magazine that she  reads on a regular basis. She minored in political science and doesn&#8217;t  know what the Vice President&#8217;s role and duties are in our government.  She has abused her power in every political post she has been elected  to, has lied about her record both as mayor and governor and her short  political career has been marked by scandal. She says that she fought  the energy interests in Alaska, but her campaigns have all been heavily  funded by energy companies.<br
/> In short, she&#8217;s not smart, she&#8217;s lacks integrity, she has gotten most  of what she has attained on her looks and charm and these things don&#8217;t  add up to someone who is qualified for Vice President, nevermind the  Presidency. If you want her to be your leader, move to Alaska. This  country and the world cannot afford another incompetent leader at the  helm. One more bumbling idiot at the helm will spell doom for the  future of all of the citizens of this country.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/119">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/119/Palin-Not-Qualified">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-118"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-118">qualifications.</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://crazypolitics.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Crazy Politico</a> (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 20:10.</div><div><p>If Gov. Palin isn&#8217;t qualified to &#8220;POSSIBLY&#8221; become president, then what of Barack Obama?</p><p>What exactly is his qualification for the job? A couple of  non-descript years in the Senate with no major legislation to show for  that time? A history of voting &#8220;Here&#8221; on controversial issues so as to  keep a rather neutral record when running for the next higher office?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/118">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/118/qualifications">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-117"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-117">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 14:49.</div><div><p>Does  she have enough political experience for the position of president? I  would say not&#8230;.. but then again, there&#8217;s nothing like a long run of a  president that can&#8217;t even string a sentence together in English to  remind you that you don&#8217;t really need much skill for the job. It&#8217;s  whose behind the president that counts no?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/117">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/117/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-116"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-116">Is Palin Qualified to be President?</a></div><div> Submitted by Thoughtful_Independent (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 11:49.</div><div><p>I&#8217;m  a registered independent. I was waiting for the VP picks to be made  before making my mind up. VP&#8217;s Gore and Cheney have both illustrated  the growing importance of the VP position in the Executive Branch. The  magnitude of the nations and worlds problems highlight the fact that  the top two elected officials in the US need to have a wide range of  capabilities., strong intellect, and global perspective. At minimum,  the President needs a knowledgeable confidant and advisor he/she can  trust.</p><p>For all of her folksy charm, Governor Palin displays very little of  these qualities or qualifications. If you take the time to investigate  the educational and professional accomplishments of our sitting VP&#8217;s  over the past 50 years, even the most biased observer would conclude  that Governor Palin would be the least educated and least experienced.  If you don&#8217;t have the time to look at all of them, just compare her  against Dan Quayle who was arguably the weakest of the sitting VP&#8217;s.  Quayle&#8217;s accomplishments at the time he was selected as Bush&#8217;s running  mate dwarf Palin&#8217;s.</p><p>Upon inspection, the rabid and exaggerated claims about her energy  expertise and executive experience vaporize (the claims of foreign  policy experience are not even a valid topic). Living in an oil rich  state, shuffling petrodollars from the oil companies to the citizens in  the form of dividends, &#8220;negotiating&#8221; potential terms of a yet unplanned  and unfunded natural gas pipeline, and a college degree in journalism  do not qualify one as an energy expert.</p><p>Furthermore, the role of Governor of Alaska is diminished in  complexity compared to the Governors of the lower 48 due to factors  such as: 1) very small population (the whole state has a population  smaller than typical medium sized US cities), 2) the largest Alaskan  cities are smaller than many small ciities or large towns in the lower  48 (Anchorage = ~280K, Fairbanks = ~35K, Juneau = ~35K), 3) low  industrial output (Alaska is ranked near the bottom compared to the  other 50 states), and 4) a budget which is majority funded by revenues  from oil and gas companies. The hardest problem of the Alaskan governor  appears to be deciding how much money to send from the Permanent Fund  to the citizens versus how much to stash away for a future time when  oil revenues begin declining.</p><p>I find the argument that Palin has more &#8220;executive experience&#8221; than  McCain, Obama or Biden to be disingenuous. If executive experience is  really so important, Mitt Romney should be the Republican candidate for  President or, at minimum, the VP candidate. While I was not a huge fan  of Mr. Romney, his skillset is so superior to Palin&#8217;s that comparisons  are impossible. The same can be said with respect to experience in  matters of the economy. Ironically, Mr. Romney&#8217;s biggest shortcoming  appeared to be that he was a Washington outsider. Now being from our  most remote state is a strength for Palin?</p><p>My perspective is that the most successful Presidents of the last 50  years (for arguments sake Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton) were able to  balance their core idealogical positions with advocacy for programs and  policies that improved the situation for the majority of US citizens  and improved our stature in the global community. Each of these  Presidents had well educated and highly skilled running mates. As an  Independent who holds a blend of conservative and liberal positions,  this mix is what I am weighing the most. My assessment is that  Obama/Biden have a better overall leadership/intelligence/world view  profile than McCain/Palin. McCain could have selected a male or female  running mate who would have tilted my assessment in his favor.  Unfortunately, for reasons only he and his advisors can comprehend, he  went with a female ideologue with weak academic, intellectual and  professional skills.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/116">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/116/Palin-Qualified-be-President">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-115"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-115">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 06:15.</div><div><p>@  CanIGet2NewZealand</p><p>What does it take to satisfy people like you?<br
/> or&#8230; is this a display of jealousy ? Ms Palin does make a rather  impressive appearance on a simple &#8216;ride in from the Wilds of Alaska&#8217;.<br
/> Instead of complimenting a person on a job well done you prefer to show the &#8220;cat fight&#8221; attitude.<br
/> What has Obama more than Palin?</p><p>If Obama had been a white boy from Illinois, would he have received  the nomination of the Dem Party? If your answer is NO _ then you must  vote for Palin for she rode in on her own merits not on her skin color!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/115">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/115/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-114"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-114">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://questionitnow.com/educationb" rel="nofollow">REB 84</a> (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 &#8211; 00:35.</div><div><p>Would John McCain be a competent president?  This is a question you should be asking.<br
/> <a
href="http://questionitnow.com/educationb/2008/09/which-is-real-mccain.html"> QuestionItNow &#8211; Will America lead?</a></p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/114">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/114/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-113"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-113">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by CanIGet2NewZealand (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 19:28.</div><div><p>Palin has been governor of a state with the population of Poughkeepsie, New York .</p><p>The State of Alaska, despite its conservative appearance has been  giving out money to its citizens from its oil dividens (Alaska  Permanent Fund) (<a
href="http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2003/sharing_alaska_style" title="http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2003/sharing_alaska_style">http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2003/sharing_alaska_style</a>)  since the 1970&#8242;s. The money Palin boasts about giving her citizens is  money of this sort, the citizens of Alaska have been receiving these  payments for almost 40 years. How can she use these payments as part of  a discussion of her fiscal capabilities as Governor?</p><p>Governor Palin impresses me as being a cross between a Barbie Doll  and that really annoying head cheerleader that the intelligent girls  all could not stand in highschool.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/113">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/113/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-112"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-112">Palin was a mistake for McCain in the 1st Place</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.ireport.com/people/FranklinB?view=documents&#038;viewingAsOthers=true" rel="nofollow">FranklinB</a> (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 16:52.</div><div><p>I  have been publishing my thoughts on this matter for awhile now  regarding the selection of Sarah Palin for VP. I gave my views on her  initial selection here:</p><p>Did John McCain have good judgement?<br
/> <a
href="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-72657" title="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-72657">http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-72657</a></p><p>Sarah Palin is not my Vice President<br
/> <a
href="http://digitalseller.tblog.com/post/1970016179" title="http://digitalseller.tblog.com/post/1970016179">http://digitalseller.tblog.com/post/1970016179</a></p><p>Sarah Palin is just another pretty face<br
/> <a
href="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-86323" title="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-86323">http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-86323</a></p><p>McCain will have to pick a new VP<br
/> <a
href="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-94699" title="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-94699">http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-94699</a></p><p>VP Debate was great, for Biden and Obama<br
/> <a
href="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-102625" title="http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-102625">http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-102625</a></p><p>Overall I agree that McCain is kind of a maverick, but also he is a  big gambler. Instead of picking one of the most qualified in the arena,  he went outside to a relatively unknown woman who he knew could  energize the base. That has happened, but with such obvious liabilities  that only a pure conservative will think she is qualified, because pure  conservatives don&#8217;t care who is in that position as long as that person  is republican, conservative and can walk &#038; talk. Hannity has said  publicly that he believes she would be qualified to fill the top job,  and so did Limbaugh as well. I got yelled at the other day by one of my  very oldest and best friends who couldn&#8217;t believe I didn&#8217;t think she  was for real. That was before the Couric interview. Now after the  debate I know I have made the right choice with Obama and Biden. The  financial collapse is bad enough, but if there was a President Palin  someday, it could be an even worse disaster for our country.</p><p>Obama and Biden are consistant in their positions on the Iraq war  and other matters regarding the need to help the middle class. I  believe McCain has no interest in the working class folks in this  country, and even if Palin does have that interest, she is not  knowledgeable enough to make any difference. JMHO</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/112">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/112/Palin-was-mistake-McCain-1st-Place">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-111"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-111">You&#8217;re Kidding, right?</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://onthebloc.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Shelly Roberts</a> (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 14:04.</div><div><p>Sarah  Pallin is an embarrassment to the Republican Party, who may well be  qualified to run for PTA vice president, but hardly for the  heart-beat-away position of Vice President of the United States.</p><p>In the debate with Sen. Bieden Palin spoke repeatedly an d stiltedly  from obviousy drilled-in talking points rather than from any  appropriate knowledge. With a wooden, albeit cheerful presentation  worthy of earning her the title of Best Stepford Candidate.</p><p>Palin&#8217;s presentation was a constant one-note, praise-singing  golly/gee campaign advertiisement for John McCain, and did litttle if  anything to present any viable credentials as a candidate for the high  office into which she has been so thoughtlessly thrust.</p><p>I&#8217;d pity her for the position for which she has been recruited if  the holder of that position didn&#8217;t stand such a strong chance of  becoming the leader of the free world with a 79 year old unhealthy  running mate &#8211;shudder&#8211; a horrifying thought.</p><p>It shouldn&#8217;t be enough merely that she didn&#8217;t panic, screw up or cry  to qualify her as even a contender in the so-called debate. I have some  issues with Mr. Bidden as well, but at least he came across as someone  who has done more than simply look west and north in the direction of  the former Soviet Union, and self-pronounce a competency in foreign  affairs. That&#8217;s way too much like watching Animal Planet and  proclaiming veterinary competence with elephants.</p><p>Did Sarah win the debate?  She wasn&#8217;t ever even qualified to enter the race.</p><p>Is she qualified to be President regardless of the state of John McCain&#8217;s health?  You&#8217;re kidding, right?!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/111">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/111/Youre-Kidding-right">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-110"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-110">Dummy be gone! THINK!</a></div><div> Submitted by Skillet Marimba (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 11:27.</div><div><p>The G.O.P. targets DUMMYS but DUMMYS are finally starting to wake up. Dummy be gone.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/110">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/110/Dummy-be-gone-THINK">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-108"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-108">If McCain Died, Is Sarah Palin Qualified To Lead This Nation?</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://legalconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/obama-biden-a-winning-ticketbut-obama-clinton-a-landslide-victory/" rel="nofollow">Patrick Pearce</a> (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 09:33.</div><div><p>Let  me first establish that I am not hopping on any band waggon here to  vilify or demonize Sarah Palin because she is a woman. My argument is  limited to choice. Based on both Vice Presidential Candidates, Sarah  Palin and Joe Biden of the Republican and Democratic Party  respectively, should one of these men (Whether Obama or McCain) died or  become incapacitated as President of the United States, and  constitutionally the Vice President is next in line to assume the  presidency, I unequivocally would trust the experience of Joe Biden to  lead this great Nation over Sarah Palin. I am sure I share the same  views as most sensible Americans. I used to hear that John McCain was a  stubborn man, I am now convinced. There are so many more experience and  viable Republicans out there to be VP, why did he chose Sarah Palin? If  only some of these potentially great men would listen to somebody  instead of arrogating to themselves because of ego, they would be such  great leaders. Obama-Biden victory in November, hands down! See my  recent post at: <a
href="http://legalconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/obama-biden-a-winning-ticketbut-obama-clinton-a-landslide-victory/" title="http://legalconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/obama-biden-a-winning-ticketbut-obama-clinton-a-landslide-victory/">http://legalconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/obama-biden-a-winning-ti&#8230;</a></p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/108">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/108/If-McCain-Died-Sarah-Palin-Qualified-Lead-Nation">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-107"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-107">Palin Better than Most</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://thescoundrel.wordpress.com" rel="nofollow">thescoundrel</a> (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 09:21.</div><div><p>I  tend to disbelieve anything that comes out of any politicians mouth.  Politicians are liars&#038; cheats. While they are kissing your baby  they are picking your pocket at the same time. The President&#8217;s Job is  limited. The Congress is where most of the power in this country lies.  They make legislation, they pass legislation and even if the President  vetoes that legislation, they have the power to override it. A relative  rookie politician, Palin, actually has more executive experience than  McCain, Biden or Obama. Now that is scary since she is merely a VP  nominee. I would vote for her over Obama or Biden. She has a limited  track track record of what Obama/Biden pretends to have without any  track record to prove their claims: Palin has shown the grit to fight  her own party as governor of Alaska. Obama has shown me nothing for the  time he was in my state of Illinois government or once he was elected  Senator. He was no more than a puppet to Emile Jones that is the strong  arm thug of DEmocrat Gov. Governor Blagodabitch, the soon to be cell  mate of ex Republican Gov. George Ryan. So yeah I would trust Palin  much further than I would Obama leading this nation. Obama only  understands Chicago and Springfield style corruption which he was a  part of.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/107">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/107/Palin-Better-Most">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-106"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-106">If John McCain died&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by Pat Baker (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 08:21.</div><div><p>To Anonymous:<br
/> I have been hollering &#8220;Double Standard&#8221; all summer&#8221;. You hit the nail  on the spot. When Obama was trained by the late great Saul Alinsky  &#038; his staff to learn how to be a better community activist, take  surveys, housing problems, school problems in the poor Chicago  districts, Palin sneered at the his outcomings, stating all those  programs arenow defunct. Her ignorance is bliss. Reason: Viet Nam war,  &#038; the 60&#8242;s riots cost us plenty At least Obama was vetted. Some  pundits t laughed him. I too, was trained by Alinsky, this great Jewish  community consultant for the poor back in the late 60&#8242;s. If Palin was  crossed examined by a Judge/Atty she would simply say I will only  answer the questions I wish to reply to. My people call it &#8220;double  standard&#8221;. Thanks, Anonymous for reminding me that I don&#8217;t need on the  job training vp by McCain/Palin ticket.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/106">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/106/If-John-McCain-died">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-104"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-104">my vote</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.squidoo.com/leanandripped" rel="nofollow">joe</a> (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 07:35.</div><div><p>Ihave  no faith or trust in any politition, democrat or republican, they all  end up shafting the middle class in the end,She will be no better or  worse than the rest of the lot.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/104">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/104/my-vote">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-103"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-103">This Election is More Irritating than Usual</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 07:26.</div><div><p>Why  do people feel someone who has been a Senator for 2 years is more  qualified to be President than in the unlikely event McCain has to be  replaced by Govenor Palin??? The other thing that keeps being over  looked is Nancy Pelosi has been two heartbeats away from President??  She is qualified?? Unfortunately, people are being too influenced by  the media and not doing there own research. Quit using the medias  opinions and form your own. Do some real research. Somethinf fun to do  is go to <a
href="http://abcnews.go.com/politics" title="http://abcnews.go.com/politics">http://abcnews.go.com/politics</a> scroll down to the Match-o-Matic II  game.  It is ver interesting.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/103">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/103/Election-More-Irritating-Usual">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-102"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-102">Does Being Governor Make Governor Palin Qalified?</a></div><div> Submitted by artbcpa (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 &#8211; 01:54.</div><div><p>In  &#8220;Third Out of Four&#8221; the commentator points out that Clinton and Reagan  were both Governors before becoming President. We shouldn&#8217;t forget that  Jimmy Carter was also a Governor before becoming the most incompetent  president in the history of the United Staetes. He also may have been  among the academically brightest of all recent Presidents. What does  all that tell us?. &#8230;NOTHING.</p><p>Whether Sarah Palin was a Governor or Barack Obama was at the top of  his academic class does not ensure that either will or will not do a  good job in their respective positions.</p><p>We need to make our decision based on factors more likely to lead to  a successful Presidency. After eight years of the most secretive,  nontransparent Presidency in history, we need someone who will instill  trust in the institution of the Presidency and restore confidence in  the people of the country.</p><p>We had several such Presidents in the prior century &#8211; Franklin  Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. Each had a vision for the  country which was clearly articulated and embraced by the people. In a  choice between the idealistic Barack Obama and the wily curmudgeon,  John McCain, Barack Obama is clearly the choice of what this country  needs at this time in history.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/102">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/102/Does-Being-Governor-Make-Governor-Palin-Qalified">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-101"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-101">Palin is not our woman.</a></div><div> Submitted by Pam (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 23:59.</div><div><p>I  know that I do not want Palin. I know that I don’t want her anywhere  near our foreign policy. I know that I don’t like what she said in the  debate about ‘expanding’ the role of vice president. I know that I  don’t like her far right, religious views that can impact the world in  a bunch of ways that I don’t like.</p><p>There are other things I don’t like about her, though, I can’t say I  am completely sure about my reasoning. I don’t like her winks and her  nods. I don’t like how she talks to us like children.</p><p>I question my own opinion about these things, as I am not sure if I  know what I want or expect in a female politician. It’s a very  important thing. This first woman. This example of all of us. This  person in whom I place so much of my future and that of my daughters.  Hmmm, too much pressure?!?</p><p>Do I want her to be more of a man than any of the men at the table?  Competing in the same way as men, but climbing the ladder in stilettos?  Or do I want her to be the nurturing female that gets things done  without men being any the wiser? With charm and feminine wiles that  could will men to do what they might not have done, otherwise?</p><p>I thought, when considering Hillary, that I didn’t want a woman  President who had a husband that is a former President. My sister then  pointed out that we might not consider too many women that did not have  such a sense of the White House.</p><p>It’s difficult. These women, up for consideration, don’t have  military backgrounds. Yet, she would be responsible for ‘pushing the  button’ and/or ending a war.</p><p>I guess, even if I did not have a problem with her foreign presence,  her religious intent or her understanding of the role she was about to  take on, I would still have an issue to deal with.</p><p>So, I don’t like Sarah, but, who do I like?  And, the bigger question for me, why?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/101">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/101/Palin-not-our-woman">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-100"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-100">Re: Poll</a></div><div> Submitted by FD (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 23:24.</div><div><p>To King of Chatalot: I&#8217;m an independant, but I voted once and the poll will not allow me to vote again.<br
/> The only way someone could vote twice is through a proxy, but I tested that idea fater reading your comment.<br
/> It didn&#8217;t work.<br
/> I tried several different proxies, I reset my ip, and nope, it would not allow me to vote again.</p><p>Take off the tin foil hat.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/100">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/100/Re-Poll">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-99"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-99">Poll</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.chatalot.net" rel="nofollow">King of Chatalot</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 22:11.</div><div><p>I  find it amazing that Democrats would stoop so low as to make multiple  votes in this silly poll just to bend the outcome towards their way of  thinking&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;..so to make it appear as if they are the  winners&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.</p><p>&#8230;but then&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;considering that they will ultimately lose in November I&#8217;m not totally surprised&#8230;&#8230;..</p><p>&#8230;..merely amazed&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/99">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/99/Poll">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-98"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-98">Palin&#8217;s hand on the &#8220;Nukular&#8221; button? </a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://mediaconcepts.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Media Concepts</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 21:39.</div><div><p>I  can&#8217;t decide whether that&#8217;s hilarious, or horrifyingly frightening. I  think it&#8217;s both. Based on McCain&#8217;s age alone, historian Doris Kearns  Goodwin says that there&#8217;s almost a one in three chance that McCain  would die in office were he to be elected. Factor in his FOUR bouts of  Melanoma, which is often fatal regardless of the victim&#8217;s age, and  those odds increase markedly.</p><p>Something to think about.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/98">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/98/Palins-hand-Nukular-button">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-97"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-97">It&#8217;s about leadership</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://politicalvindication.com" rel="nofollow">Shane from PV</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 20:30.</div><div><p>The  presidency is about leadership, and if we can survive eight years being  led by an Arkansas governor who would rather molest the hired help than  pay attention to what Osama Bin Laden is doing, then America will do  just fine with a President Sarah Palin. She certainly has more  leadership experience than her opponents. Does that mean I would have  made her my choice for VP? I would have loved to see Mitt Romney as VP,  but she&#8217;s smart, focused, and knows how to lead. The important  question, if she should ever end up in the Oval Office, would be who  she surrounds herself with. That&#8217;s another reason why Obama would be  very scary as president. He has terrible judgment, and considering the  people he has surrounded himself with throughout his life, and the fact  that as president he will have to decide what advice to act on when it  comes to important issues &#8211; I don&#8217;t trust him to be able to distinguish  from among a bevy of poor advisers the advice least damaging.</p><p>Obama supporters, like so many on this comment board, have no idea  who Obama really is &#8211; frankly, no one does. Obama has locked up his  records, is protected by a compliant press, and says only what he  thinks Americans want to hear. He&#8217;s a charlatan, but his supporters  don&#8217;t care. <em>That&#8217;s why this question is so ironic.</em> They hate  Bush/Republicans/conservatives more than they fear the inexperience of  their presidential candidate and manchild Barack Obama. The derangement  of the left has led them to support and oppose issues not because they  want to protect their country or improve the lives of Americans, but  because they hate their adversaries and will do or say anything to beat  them (the &#8220;this war is lost&#8221; quote by Harry Reid comes to mind &#8211; how  incredibly telling). I think this frothing derangement will cause them  to self-destruct again as they did in 2000 and 2004, where Americans  got a good look at the mindless bitterness and spite that inspires the  left. McCain will win in a squeaker.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/97">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/97/Its-about-leadership">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-96"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-96">Palin is more qualified than most&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by Greg (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 20:24.</div><div><p>I&#8217;m  not a big political kind of guy nor do I follow many campaigns. I voted  for a democrat and a republican for president; the best person for the  job always gets my vote. But this is the first time in a long time that  I&#8217;ve seen an honest person make it this far in politics. Usually they  get creamed by the media &#8211; Palin is still holding her own. What you see  is what you get &#8211; nice change of pace especially since I&#8217;m originally  from Delaware. No doubt this isn&#8217;t true for Biden &#8211; he&#8217;s all over the  place telling you whatever it is you want to hear whenever you want to  hear it.. I don&#8217;t dislike Biden and yes, he is qualified to continue  the same old Washington politics; not what I&#8217;m looking for this year at  least.</p><p>I&#8217;m still wondering why Obama thinks Biden represents change? Not even close.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/96">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/96/Palin-more-qualified-most">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-95"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-95">Sarah Palin&#8217;s much sharper than Obama or Biden</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.morethings.com" rel="nofollow">Al Barger</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 20:08.</div><div><p>Not  to put too fine a point on it, Sarah Palin&#8217;s the sharpest person of the  four here. People I think get that when they get a good look at her as  in her famous nomination speech or last night&#8217;s vice presidential  debate.</p><p>Of course, this ain&#8217;t from lack of media attempts to Quayle-ize her.  Look at the double, triple, quadruple standards. It&#8217;s supposedly some  proof that she&#8217;s a moron that she didn&#8217;t choose to spit up a list of  newspapers she reads for Katie Couric.</p><p>But Joe Biden says the most ignorant nonsense day after day, and it  doesn&#8217;t make the news. When the current financial meltdown started a  few weeks ago, Biden was out criticizing Bush reaction. See, when the  1929 market crash happened, FDR when on television to show people that  he was involved and doing something. FDR wasn&#8217;t president, and there  was no television then. This nonsense didn&#8217;t make the news. Imagine if  Palin said something that stupid.<br
/> =====================================<br
/> Little known Palin fact:<br
/> FACT: Having run out of ammunition during a hunting trip, Sarah Palin  once took down a moose using a beauty pageant tiara as a boomerang.</p><p>More Palin fun facts I just made up, and a couple hundred pictures of our girl<br
/> <a
href="http://www.morethings.com/images/sarah_palin/sarah_palin-photo_gallery001.htm" title="http://www.morethings.com/images/sarah_palin/sarah_palin-photo_gallery001.htm">http://www.morethings.com/images/sarah_palin/sarah_palin-photo_gallery00&#8230;</a></p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/95">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/95/Sarah-Palins-much-sharper-Obama-or-Biden">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-94"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-94">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 20:00.</div><div><p>Joe Biden, VP  (Vice and Plagiarist)</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/94">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/94/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-93">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ethel W (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:50.</div><div><p>Obama has done much good thru working for ACORN.  Remember, from tiny acorns, might oak trees grow.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/93">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/93/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-92"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-92">Barack&#8217;s leadership skills in government?</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://playborhood.com" rel="nofollow">Mike Lanza</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:43.</div><div><p>Please folks &#8211; give us an example.  And please, make it a good one.</p><p>If this were an election for Student Body President, I might vote  for the dude, but he&#8217;s applying to be the Leader of the United States  of America. Is there anything in his governmental experience that  indicates that he can be a great leader? Anything?</p><p>This ain&#8217;t no popularity contest&#8230;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/92">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/92/Baracks-leadership-skills-government">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-91"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-91">Palin as Prez? No Way</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://janetleejohnson.com" rel="nofollow">Janet Johnson</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:41.</div><div><p>I&#8217;m  tired of Sarah Palin. I&#8217;m tired of kicking her around, of waiting for  her to have a public brain freeze, of hearing her droppin&#8217; g&#8217;s and  bringing nuc-u-lur back into the lexicon (I hope we&#8217;re almost finished  with that coming out of the White House).</p><p>At the same time, I&#8217;m proud that she&#8217;s the second legitimate woman  who&#8217;s a running mate on a presidential ticket, the first to &#8220;electrify&#8221;  a country. I&#8217;m mortified as I write that, but I&#8217;m proud of that big ol&#8217;  crack in the glass ceilin&#8217; she&#8217;s added to Hilary&#8217;s 18 million others.  (sigh)</p><p>As most of your poll-takers agree, no way is she qualified to be president. God help us all if she&#8217;s a heartbeat away.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/91">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/91/Palin-Prez-No-Way">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-90"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-90">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Stevie (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:35.</div><div><p>Do  I feel that a citizen of this country who has not kept abreast of the  foreign policy situations, and the current administration doctrines is  qualified to step in as head of state in an emergency? No&#8230;.<br
/> Do I feel that someone who will terminate people who disagree with her is worthy to be in the White House? No&#8230;&#8230;.<br
/> Do I feel that someone who feels that because she is a woman she should  be treated with deference in a television interview should be leading a  country? No&#8230;..<br
/> Does a cram session with various political pundits counteract her  inacurate knowledge of what life is like for the rest of us in the  lower 48? No&#8230;&#8230;<br
/> Does this woman have the ability to gain respect of various world  leaders particularly those from countries where women are considered to  be less than equal? no.<br
/> what we really need is a Margaret Thatcher type.. the closest we have is Hilary Clinton.<br
/> Anita Palin is no Hilary Clinton<br
/> And being a POW and being in the Vietnam War does not make you the  right person to be president either. There are plenty of Vietnam Vets  and others who were POW&#8217;s .. and they aren&#8217;t running for President&#8211;  though John Kerry did.. and he wasn&#8217;t a POW.. he served his country.  Don&#8217;t bank on that one being the ACE..</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/90">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/90/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-89"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-89">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:29.</div><div><p>Or maybe Obama would want his friend Tony Rezko to advise him on ethics in government.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/89">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/89/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-88"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-88">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:28.</div><div><p>Or maybe Obama would like William Ayers for his Secretary of Defense, since he knows how to blow things up.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/88">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/88/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-87"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-87">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:25.</div><div><p>Maybe  Obama can install Rev. Wright as Secretary of State. All the other  nations of the world will love his philosophy: God damn America!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/87">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/87/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-86"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-86">Re: amazing 75% believe Palin cant be President</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:23.</div><div><p>I  think where the logic breaks down is that you&#8217;re assuming all  Governor&#8217;s are created equally. An American Governor&#8217;s principal job is  running the state, and to be honest, I&#8217;m not sure how good a governor  she is, but thats for the people of Alaska to decide. But as an  American, I feel that she&#8217;s dangerously ignorant of world affairs and  issues around a global economy.</p><p>And frankly, I think we&#8217;ve had enough of that already.</p><p>On the other hand, Obama and Biden are far more savvy. If you  watched the debate, you&#8217;ll have noticed how rarely Palin answers a  direct question. She&#8217;s not dumb, but she&#8217;s not worldly either. And  worse, she revels in her inexperience.</p><p>If she ever gets into the Presidential office, you might just wish  for the good ol days when GW was in charge. And if that doesn&#8217;t scare  you, it should.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/86">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/86/Re-amazing-75-believe-Palin-cant-be-President">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-85"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-85">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:21.</div><div><p>Don&#8217;t you love it when a public relations man calls people degrading, hateful names?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/85">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/85/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-84"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-84">That is just dumb</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.dpkpr.com" rel="nofollow">Dan Keeney, APR</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:16.</div><div><p>You  and your swill slinging dopes really should stop. Aside from Billy Bobs  missing teeth with Confederate Flags in their pickups, Americans  understand that Senator Obama is as American as you or I.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/84">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/84/just-dumb">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-83"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-83">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:15.</div><div><p>Someone  commented on here that we live in a Global society and therefore need  Obama. Folks, this world is getting so screwy and dangerous, that is  exactly why we do NOT need a post-modern green horn such as Obama as  POTUS. All the pie in the sky he professes is absolutely meaningless  without solid, tough, and REAL national security. Somehow, grandiose  social programs lose their luster when you have a nuclear missile up  your ass.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/83">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/83/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-82"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-82">double standard</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.madeinhead.org" rel="nofollow">Jason Preston</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:12.</div><div><p>Palin  took five tries and five years to get a journalism degree at  undistinguished schools, and managed to be an undistinguished student  at all four schools involved in her quest for a chance to be a TV  reporter. Obama was at the top of his class at every step of his  collegiate journey. When pressed three times to answer, Palin cannot  name a single existing newspaper or news magazine that she reads. If  you can&#8217;t see the difference here, perhaps you&#8217;re not an ideal student  or intellect either, but only through pride does a person lacking in a  certain virtue seek to exalt that lack. Just because I&#8217;m not tall  enough to slam dunk doesn&#8217;t mean I push for the NBA to hire more short  people! The Presidency&#8217;s the hardest job in the world, or one of them.  Stellar intellect, stellar ethics, and stellar success in life should  all be ironclad prerequisites to the job. If Palin is qualified to be  President, I am twice as qualified and will expect Palin fans&#8217; votes  when I make my run for high office.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/82">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/82/double-standard">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-81"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-81">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Cowboy X (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:10.</div><div><p>Who  is qualified to be the President? There is no class to take to become  certified. We have to put our trust in a person. I wish that person  were Ron Paul!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/81">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/81/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-80"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-80">amazing 75% believe Palin cant be President</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 19:00.</div><div><p>So  75% believe Palin cant be president in case something happens to  McCain. So I guess its OK to be an inexperienced presidential  candidate, but if your a vice presidential candidate who has actually  run a state, you don&#8217;t qualify. The logic here escapes me completely.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/80">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/80/amazing-75-believe-Palin-cant-be-President">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-79"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-79">Sarah Palin: Unfiltered</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.petitiononline.com/CBSPALIN/petition.html" rel="nofollow">John Schuller</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:50.</div><div><p>CLICK ON MY NAME TO SIGN THIS PETITION</p><p>To:  CBS News</p><p>Sarah Palin herself has requested to speak to America without the  Media Filter in the Vice Presidential debate. ?I like being able to  answer tough questions without the filter of the mainstream media  telling the American people what they just heard,? she said in her  closing.</p><p>The people of the United States of America deserve to see the CBS Katie Couric interviews with Sarah Palin in their entirety.</p><p>This should be acceptable by Republicans and Democrats as it will  let Sarah Palin talk to America without the filter created by editing  and leaving important information on the cutting room floor.</p><p>Let us see an edition of &#8220;Sarah Palin: Unfiltered&#8221;.</p><p>This will allow Americans to see the real Sarah Palin.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p>The Undersigned</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/79">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/79/Sarah-Palin-Unfiltered">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-78"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-78">Seriously&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://newyorkmomentsblog.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">newyorkmoments</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:49.</div><div><p>regardless  of the VP candidates&#8230;are we really going to vote in a Hussein????  Seriously?? I&#8217;m saddened that I&#8217;m not going to be able to vote Democrat  this election.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/78">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/78/Seriously">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-77"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-77">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:43.</div><div><p>I  sent John McCain a $1000 in September 2007&#8230;when his campaign was  flailing. I believed his voice needed to be in the debate. Until Sarah  Palin&#8217;s acceptance speech I did not send a penny to any other  candidate.</p><p>I was so outraged by the poor judgment demonstrated by McCain &#8212;  there were thousands, if not tens of thousands, of more capable,  competent men and women who could serve as his VP. I promptly sent a  large contribution to Obama. And with every solicitation letter I  receive from John McCain (they arrive daily), I write to ask for my  money back.</p><p>Whether &#8220;Joe six-pack&#8221; likes it or not&#8230;we live in a Global  Society, not an igloo nation. We already had Joe-six pack from  President for the last 8 years. Doesn&#8217;t any one remember &#8211; &#8220;George W.  Bush is the guy I want to have at my BBQ&#8221;???&#8230;Well &#8211; we got him&#8211; only  we got bbq&#8217;d.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/77">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/77/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-76"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-76">Re: Would it be so much to ask&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by Eric (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:35.</div><div><p>Would it be so much to ask for a Presidential nominee who actually had some experience?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/76">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/76/Re-Would-it-be-so-much-ask">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-75"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-75">Would it be so much to ask&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.liesdamnedlies.com" rel="nofollow">Ian Thomas</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:32.</div><div><p>&#8230;for a VP nominee who actually had some experience *before* she takes office?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/75">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/75/Would-it-be-so-much-ask">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-74"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-74">Third out of four</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:30.</div><div><p>Stack  rank all four candidates &#8212; Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin &#8212; in terms  of experience, and she comes out 3rd out of 4. Obama is last.</p><p>Stack rank all four candidates in terms of executive experience &#8212;  meaning, &#8216;has the candidate ever managed a budget before, had headcount  before, and had to make decisions as opposed to provide advice&#8217; &#8212; and  she incredibly comes out first amongst the four, as she&#8217;s been both  governor and mayor.</p><p>Being the governor of a state was good enough for Clinton, good enough for Romney, and good enough for Reagan.</p><p>Those who attack her experience must feel terrible that Obama is the  leading candidate for the Dem&#8217;s, given his extraordinarily thin resume.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/74">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/74/Third-out-four">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-73"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-73">If Barack Doesn&#8217;t Die, Is He Qualified?</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://playborhood.com" rel="nofollow">Mike Lanza</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:29.</div><div><p>Be  honest, folks. In his career in *government*, not running a campaign,  has he ever demonstrated outstanding leadership or executive skills?  Sarah certainly has, but her experience may nonetheless be too light.</p><p>Barack Obama has the least leadership or executive skills of *any* of the major candidates for president or vice president.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/73">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/73/If-Barack-Doesnt-Die-He-Qualified">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-72"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-72">Not a fan, but c&#8217;mon</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.dpkpr.com" rel="nofollow">Dan Keeney, APR</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:21.</div><div><p>I&#8217;m  not a Sarah fan, but she has a solid foundation &#8212; an ability to  connect with men and women, powerfully deliver her messages and ramp up  quickly on complex subjects. The actuaries estimate that there is a 75%  chance that Mr. McCain would survive a first term. Presumably, the  chances of him passing in the first YEAR would be very small. So the  real question would be &#8212; If Sarah Palin had at least a year as Vice  President under her belt, would she be competent to be President if  John McCain were to be incapacitated? I don&#8217;t have any doubt that she  would. I will not be voting for the GOP ticket, but the fear mongering  about Ms. Palin&#8217;s ability is baseless and perhaps sexist.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/72">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/72/Not-fan-cmon">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-71"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-71">To Pat Baker,  Actually, she</a></div><div> Submitted by The Sensible J. (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 18:01.</div><div><p>To Pat Baker,<br
/> Actually, she has NOT been governor for a few years. She has been a  governor since 2007, she won the election at the END of 2006. So, not  even 2 years yet.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/71">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/71/Pat-Baker-Actually-she">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-70"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-70">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by The Sensible J. (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:58.</div><div><p>When  a lot of people say she was put in the VP nominee ticket because she  would shake things up for the Republican party, that&#8217;s scary. Why was  that the first and foremost reason why she was picked?!</p><p>We are not running a popularity contest here for god&#8217;s sake. We need  a leader, a WORLD LEADER that will get American back into the  respectful country it is amongst other nations in this world. Not a PTA  mom who claims she can juggle 5 kids when in fact her nanny, chef,  driver/pilot, gardener and 20 other staffers take care of the Mom role  for her. I&#8217;m all for the &#8220;women can do the same if not better job than  men&#8221; ideal, but come on, she isn&#8217;t even up to par on her events and  history. When you can only make punch points and be a talking head,  that is NOT a leader. She can&#8217;t even name ONE supreme court decision  other than Row vs. Wade. And being able to see Russia from Alaska does  not qualify as foreign experience. We do not need and DO NOT want an  average Joe or Jane to be our president or vice president.</p><p>It is scary when our (by that I mean the republicans) expectations have sunk so low.</p><p>And it&#8217;s even more scary when people are voting for republican  SIMPLY because she&#8217;s pro-life, even for those women who were victims of  rape or incest would NOT get a choice. That alone, to me, is hugely  undermining the equality so many women have worked so hard for so many  years.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/70">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/70/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-69"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-69">Sarah Palin Qualified</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://cashflowtipsbydon.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Don S</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:54.</div><div><p>Maybe  the most appropriate question is . . . if Barack Obama is elected  president, whether or not John McCain dies, is he qualified to lead the  country?</p><p>Being a governor is a proven road to the White House. Alaska is a  strategic state. Let&#8217;s see: Clinton was from Arkansas &#8212; even less  strategic, Carter from Georgia and Reagan from California . . . Bush  from Texas . . . oh, sure, I saw a post on the Huffington Post this  week that said &#8220;Bush is intellectually challenged.&#8221; Of course, there  was no evidence to support the claim.</p><p>Obama is currently more likely to become president than Sarah Palin  and that&#8217;s something that should concern all clear-thinking Americans.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/69">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/69/Sarah-Palin-Qualified">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-68"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-68">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Jerome Schindler (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:53.</div><div><p>How  could she possibly be any worse that what we have been subjected to  recently. I am sure Harry Truman&#8217;s skills woudl also have been panned.  McCain ought to be a good choice as nobody has been sure what party he  belongs to for many years.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/68">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/68/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-67"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-67">Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah</a></div><div> Submitted by Bill Platt (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:45.</div><div><p>Deluded?  Although she has as much or more experience than Obama, you are willing  to suggest that my delusion is that she could not be President, but  Obama can be?</p><p>The only delusion is that Obama&#8217;s experience is greater than hers.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/67">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/67/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-66"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-66">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:31.</div><div><p>Palin is absolutely not qualified &#8211; anyone who thinks so is deluded.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/66">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/66/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-65"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-65">Re: pailin would shove her heels up putin&#8217;s a&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:29.</div><div><p>The point was she won&#8217;t take no crap.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/65">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/65/Re-pailin-would-shove-her-heels-putins">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-64"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-64">Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah</a></div><div> Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:27.</div><div><p>Too bad they don&#8217;t have a minimum test for people to take in order to qualify for the job.</p><p>Then James they should do the same before becoming parents. Maybe  then we won&#8217;t have so many libetards. Bunch of whiners don&#8217;t know a  good thing when it slaps them upside the head.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/64">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/64/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-63"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-63">Re: Re: Palin is a Disgrace Which Makes McCain a Fool</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.taipaninvestor.info/blog" rel="nofollow">Gerald</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:26.</div><div><p>As  a Vietnam veteran I can assure you that sad fact by itself (yeah, we  lost a war we had no business being in) does not qualify anyone to be  President. While I respect McCain&#8217;s service to his country McCain  himself has admitted that he collaborated with the enemy and signed  documents condemning America&#8217;s.bombing of Hanoi as being war crimes.</p><p>As at the time we were carpet bombing a densely populated Hanoi with  low level B-52 bombing runs, the North Vietnamese perhaps had a point  that a stressed out and in terrible pain McCain decided to agree with.</p><p>Not that I blame him. Fortunately, my POW camp experience was  limited to a combat training exercise at Camp Lejeune, N.C. It was only  for a very long day but that was enough to make brave grown men trained  for combat by battle hardened US Marines cry out in pain. McCain&#8217;s  experience had to be horrible and I&#8217;m sure that the scars, mental and  physical, must still be with him.</p><p>However, I wasn&#8217;t referring to McCain other than his grandstanding  poor judgement in selecting Governor Palin as his running mate. Sarah  may be a swell gal, certainly her down home nature appeals to a lot of  down home people across America, but please, qualified to perhaps have  to step into the President&#8217;s role?</p><p>She is a little league player suddenly thrown into the major  leagues. I admire her spunk but fear her aggressive claim that she is  ready to serve when she can&#8217;t even handle soft ball interviews. Who  wants a President just like an average Joe? In case you haven&#8217;t noticed  there are very complicated problems that America faces that will  require outstanding leadership to solve.</p><p>I&#8217;m not a big Obama fan either but at least the man has first class  intelligence and a first class temperament. He doesn&#8217;t tend to shoot  from the hip or fire, ready, aim like old fighter pilots are apt to do.  Palin was a choice designed to fire up the Republican Party&#8217;s  conservative base and in that the move was successful. But at what risk  to the country if McCain and Palin are elected?</p><p>With the odds being about one in four that a 72 year old cancer  survivor would not make it another four years a President Palin is a  frightening possibility.</p><p>That&#8217;s putting country first? Please! Give me a break.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/63">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/63/Re-Palin-Disgrace-Which-Makes-McCain-Fool">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-62"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-62">ldaught2  AHEM ! ! !</a></div><div> Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:24.</div><div><p>ldaught2</p><p>AHEM ! ! !</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/62">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/62/ldaught2-AHEM">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-61"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-61">Re: Competent?</a></div><div> Submitted by ldaught2 (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:16.</div><div><p>//Until then, keep reading all the world&#8217;s magazines and Newspapers. They actually can teach you a lot.//</p><p>Are you kidding?? what can a bias newspaper and magazine teach??  (and that would be all of them)That is the most idiot statement I have  read!</p><p>To answer the question&#8230;Could Palin be President?&#8230;yes yes and  yes&#8230;.The other 3 on the ticket was in the senate and HELPED drive  America where we are today! I dont care if Palin comes from a goat  farm, she could do better than this stinkin government!!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/61">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/61/Re-Competent">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-60"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-60">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:15.</div><div><p>Lady Coveted&#8230;.another woman that feels threatened by good looking successful women.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/60">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/60/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-59"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-59">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:14.</div><div><p>James flew in from that alternate universe that Joe Biden lives in.   Maybe the Missouri Truth Squad can help him.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/59">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/59/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-58"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-58">pailin would shove her heels up putin&#8217;s a&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://the-coveted.com/blog" rel="nofollow">lady coveted</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:14.</div><div><p>being as putin&#8217;s no longer president of russia.</p><p>dmitri medvedev succeeded putin back in march, she&#8217;s so out of touch she&#8217;d probably miss that point too.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/58">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/58/pailin-would-shove-her-heels-putins">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-57"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-57">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by James (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 17:08.</div><div><p>She&#8217;s  competent all right. Competent enough to ban books at the public  library, books she has never even read. Competent enough to try to fire  a librarian who was just doing her job, Competent enough to veto sex  education for minors, (surprise there huh?), competent enough to fire  the head of the troopers who refused to fire her ex-brother in law for  unjustifiable reasons.</p><p>No wonder repugs love her so much, she&#8217;ll fit right in..*L*</p><p>At least Obama went through a process and garnered enough votes to  earn the right to be where he is today. Palin was handed the position  because McCain needed a quick fix and liked the way she looked and  talked.</p><p>Was she the most qualified and best suited republican for the job?  Of course not and people are not being genuine if they say yes. For  that reason McCain should and will lose this election.</p><p>Too bad they don&#8217;t have a minimum test for people to take in order to qualify for the job.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/57">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/57/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-56"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-56">Re: Re: Pansies? then what&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:54.</div><div><p>Palin would shove her pretty heels up Putin&#8217;s ass.  Then make him beg for more.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/56">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/56/Re-Pansies-then-what">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-55"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-55">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:52.</div><div><p>Yes.  She would do a great job, because she has intelligence coupled with  common sense, grit, and good solid values. Would to God that this  country had had dozens of Presidents like her instead of some of the  buffoons we&#8217;ve suffered through.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/55">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/55/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-54"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-54">Re: People around you</a></div><div> Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:52.</div><div><p>No he&#8217;ll bring them in from the hood.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/54">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/54/Re-People-around-you">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-53"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-53">Shooting wolves from a Copter</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:50.</div><div><p>is  not the kind of Hunter i respect&#8230;..and margaret Thatcher is on her  way over their to whoop your ass for comparing her to Palin&#8230;.Thatcher  was one of the most intelligent and tough politicians in modern  times&#8230;.Palin doesn&#8217;t have a college education and she can&#8217;t even  stand up to KATIE M*^#ATHERF%*#KING COURIC&#8230;.stop comparing her to  Thatcher</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/53">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/53/Shooting-wolves-Copter">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-52"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-52">People Around You</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.Matt-Sanchez.com" rel="nofollow">Matt Sanchez</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:49.</div><div><p>Obama  will have the flag stomper and terrorist, Dick Ayres and the God D@*$  America Reverend Wright. Both these gentlemen have doctorates!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/52">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/52/People-Around-You">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-51"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-51">People around you</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:46.</div><div><p>it  is very important who the president brings into their admin&#8230;..I&#8217;m  certain Obama isn&#8217;t going to fill his cabinet from his high school  yearbook like little miss Palin</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/51">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/51/People-around-you">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-50"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-50">Obama Qualified</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.Matt-Sanchez.com" rel="nofollow">Matt Sanchez</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:46.</div><div><p>A one-term governor who is the most popular governor in the country.</p><p>Of course, that&#8217;s one more term than former &#8220;community organizer&#8221; and one-term senator.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/50">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/50/Obama-Qualified">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-49"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-49">Re: Pansies? then what&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://americanandproud.net" rel="nofollow">Robert</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:46.</div><div><p>Obviously  you haven&#8217;t seen Sarah Palin in the real world, she hunts guts and eats  things that get in her way, I would imagine you are the type of idiot  that thought Margaret Thatcher was a bad choice too&#8230;.Russia would beg  for forgiveness from Palin and Putin would be licking Sarah&#8217;s boots in  red square&#8230;.</p><p>Moron.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/49">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/49/Re-Pansies-then-what">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-48"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-48">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://mrclm.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Chris Meirose</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:45.</div><div><p>More  competent than Al Gore. More competent than Dick Cheney. More competent  than Dan Quayle. Palin would do just fine. Being president is as much  or more about who you have around you than anything else. You must be  able to make tough decisions, and know what you believe in, but at the  end of the day the experts you surround yourself with as President will  make or break your term in the modern context.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/48">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/48/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-47"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-47">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.pullinsreport.com" rel="nofollow">Scott Pullins</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:43.</div><div><p>She&#8217;s clearly not competent.</p><p><a
href="http://pullinsreport.com/2008/10/03/scott-pullins--online-poll--do-you-have-faith-in-palin-3.aspx" title="http://pullinsreport.com/2008/10/03/scott-pullins--online-poll--do-you-have-faith-in-palin-3.aspx">http://pullinsreport.com/2008/10/03/scott-pullins&#8211;online-poll&#8211;do-you-h&#8230;</a></p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/47">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/47/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-46"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-46">Pansies? then what&#8230;</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:43.</div><div><p>russia  calls us a bunch of homos, and Putin slams his shoe on the desk?  &#8230;&#8230;if Palin were president Putin would literally rape her mouth on  live telivision then claim he thought she was the &#8220;entertainment&#8221;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/46">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/46/Pansies-then-what">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-45"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-45">Re: Re: Palin isn&#8217;t competent to wipe my ass</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://americanandproud.net" rel="nofollow">Robert</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:42.</div><div><p>The  answer is YES, she has run something, SHE has more experience RUNNING a  government than ANY of the candidates&#8230; So yes she is Qualified.</p><p>Obama isn&#8217;t qualified to be elected dog catcher, McCain at least has  the experience in dealing with hostile forces, and for you libtards  there still are hostile forces at work oh and they are hoping for Obama  too&#8230;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/45">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/45/Re-Palin-isnt-competent-wipe-my-ass">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-44"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-44">Re: Margaret, its me God</a></div><div> Submitted by Margaret (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:41.</div><div><p>I  didn&#8217;t say NO degree. I said not an &#8220;Ivy League Degree&#8221;. I was just  giving my opinion &#8211; &#8220;If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would  Sarah Palin be competent to be President?&#8221; My answer is yes.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/44">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/44/Re-Margaret-its-me-God">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-43">Palin</a></div><div> Submitted by Matt Jones (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:40.</div><div><p>Clinton&#8217;s  budget experience was a budget of Arkansas which was smaller than  cuyahoga county. Obama has ZERO budget experience. She can manage a  budget. She communicates and articulates the GOP positions more  effectively than McCain, Bush, Cheney and Dole to name some powerful  people.</p><p>go to Canada you commie bastages!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/43">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/43/Palin">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-42"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-42">Re: Palin is a Disgrace Which Makes McCain a Fool</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://americanandproud.net" rel="nofollow">Robert</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:39.</div><div><p>and  an Obama/Biden victory will make us look like a bunch of pansies&#8230;I  would love for you to explain how a war veteran that went through what  McCain did would cause the world to look at us as a laughing stock? Mrs  Thatcher was looked at a little off by the owrkd but she did fine? is  it you are scared of women or hunting women?</p><p>Palin is the only candidate in the race I would vote for president  and be happy about it. I will vote McCain just to get Sarah Palin  closer to the Big Job.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/42">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/42/Re-Palin-Disgrace-Which-Makes-McCain-Fool">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-41"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-41">Re: Palin isn&#8217;t competent to wipe my ass</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:35.</div><div><p>The US is going to hell because McCain&#8217;s buddy George Bush set us on that course.  4 more years of that?</p><p>BTW, the question was if McCain kicks, is Palin qualified?  And the answer is no.</p><p>Instead of attacking Obama, how about telling why you think Palin is  qualified? Is it because even you know she isn&#8217;t? Typical Republican.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/41">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/41/Re-Palin-isnt-competent-wipe-my-ass">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-40"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-40">&#8220;College Education&#8221;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.Matt-Sanchez.com" rel="nofollow">Matt Sanchez</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:35.</div><div><p>All  those &#8220;economic experts&#8221; have great post-grad degrees from high end  schools. Hopefully, that will help them as they look for a new job.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/40">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/40/College-Education">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-39"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-39">Palin is a Disgrace Which Makes McCain a Fool</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.taipaninvestor.info/blog" rel="nofollow">Gerald</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:34.</div><div><p>Palin  makes a big deal about her &#8220;six pack joe&#8221; ways and seems to be proud of  her ignorance. We have had almost eight years of a largely  disinterested in the world at large President and see where that has  taken us. American is on a slippery downward slope and it will be  difficult to avoid a hard crash and burn landing.</p><p>I for one don&#8217;t want someone as VP, who may well end up being  President, who is just another six pack Joe yahoo. America is the  laughing stock of the world just to have such a yahoo candidate.</p><p>If McCain and Palin are somehow elected American&#8217;s standing in the  world as a world leader, much less a super power, will be further  reduced to the vanishing point. We would be looked upon as a nation of  village idiots.</p><p>It&#8217;s not that I love Obama. Come to think of it with the choice down  to Obama or McCain perhaps we American have found the perfect means to  self destruct. The support given by McCain and Obama for the $700  billion bailout bill (before another $100 billion or so in pure pork  was added) is another giant step in that direction.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/39">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/39/Palin-Disgrace-Which-Makes-McCain-Fool">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-38"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-38">Re: Re: Palin isn&#8217;t competent to walk my dog</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://americanandproud.net" rel="nofollow">Robert</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:33.</div><div><p>&#8220;You  idiots care more about a donkey and an elephant than you do about the  stars and stripes. You get what you deserve.&#8221; The truest statement  since Reagan stated the most scary thing ever was &#8220;I&#8217;m from the  government and I&#8217;m here to help&#8221;</p><p>I wouldnt be so dead set against OBAMA if he were more Country  first, rather than Blame everyone else&#8230; HIS party has led congress  for the last 2 years and we have gone from solvency to bankruptcy and  BOTH parties are to blame, ONLY one party is used to responsibility,  the other is used to &#8220;Tolerance&#8221; and forgiveness of their own&#8230;.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/38">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/38/Re-Palin-isnt-competent-walk-my-dog">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-37"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-37">Re: Margaret, its me God</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:31.</div><div><p>you  mean like the modern day general who doesn&#8217;t have a college degree? are  we suddenly recruiting presidents from third world countries? because  EVERY American General has a college degree&#8230;&#8230;lets not pretend we  live in the world of 2 centuries ago</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/37">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/37/Re-Margaret-its-me-God">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-36"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-36">Re: Palin isn&#8217;t competent to walk my dog</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:28.</div><div><p>Nothing  like partisanship. That&#8217;s right put the party before the country. No  wonder the US is going to hell in a rocketship. You idiots care more  about a donkey and an elephant than you do about the stars and stripes.  You get what you deserve.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/36">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/36/Re-Palin-isnt-competent-walk-my-dog">link</a></li><li><a
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id="comment-35"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-35">Re: Palin isn&#8217;t competent to walk my dog</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://americanandproud.net" rel="nofollow">Robert</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:28.</div><div><p>Oh  and I&#8217;m qualified because I am a black community organizer.. Don&#8217;t look  at the communities I organized or anything, just trust me for CHANGE&#8230;  BS, it is highway strong arm robbery, ACORN? Rev Wright? Ayers?  Phlegar? Farakhan? Ok Palin has what? A couple of LIES perpetrated by  the elitist media that have been debunked. Yeah Obama in 08 and the end  of our nation in 09&#8230;.good plan.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/35">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/35/Re-Palin-isnt-competent-walk-my-dog">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-34"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-34">Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://experiencecurve.com" rel="nofollow">Karl</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:27.</div><div><p>It&#8217;s  ironic that if you guys had listened to Carter in the 70&#8242;s you would  not be as f**cked as you are now and you would probably have energy  independence.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/34">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/34/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-33"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-33">Palin isn&#8217;t competent to walk my dog</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:24.</div><div><p>Say  what you want about Obama, he&#8217;ll make a much better President than  either &#8220;I&#8217;m qualified because I can see Russia from my pooper, yah, you  betcha&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;m qualified because I was a POW a million years ago,  wait, what was the question again?&#8221;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/33">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/33/Palin-isnt-competent-walk-my-dog">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-32"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-32">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.Matt-Sanchez.com" rel="nofollow">Matt Sanchez</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:19.</div><div><p>Palin  Derangement Syndrome is alive and well as the media blitzkrieg is  desperate to discredit the Palin/McCain presidential ticket.</p><p>Palin handily beat Biden down last night, and that causes severe swelling in the liberal frontal lobe.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/32">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/32/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-31"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-31">Competent&#8230;OBama?</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:19.</div><div><p>So  you say go back home hockey mom&#8230; Wow&#8230; your complete lack of what a  hockey mom is.. basically a communtity leader&#8230;hmmm Let&#8217;s see Omaa is  just that, he has not been a Governer, worked a state budger.. .his  short political careeer shows less tenure that Palin. Fair is Fair ,  your last paragraph shows your compete ignorance,,, go read a bit  yourself!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/31">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/31/CompetentOBama">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-30"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-30">Re: Margaret, its me God</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.omarhamada.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Anonymous</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:19.</div><div><p>You mean like George Washington?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/30">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/30/Re-Margaret-its-me-God">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-29"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-29">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://republicaninthearts.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Incognito</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:14.</div><div><p>and  how about looking at it this way&#8230; with all Biden&#8217;s asinine gaffes  would people be thrilled to have him as president, if Obama were to  die? I&#8217;d be much happier with a Palin presidency than either an Obama  or Biden presidency.</p><p>She&#8217;s done very well for Alaska&#8230;thank you very much.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/29">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/29/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-28"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-28">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.golfblogger.com" rel="nofollow">GolfBlogger</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:10.</div><div><p>It&#8217;s  not saying much, but I think Palin&#8217;s more qualified than Obama. The  problem is that if you vote Republican, an unqualified person MIGHT  become president. If you vote Democrat, an unqualified person WILL  become president.</p><p>The only logical ticket is Biden-McCain &#8212; one which, during the primaries, Joe Biden said he wouldn&#8217;t mind.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/28">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/28/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-27"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-27">Margaret, its me God</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:09.</div><div><p>you  would not make a good president nor would anyone who doesn&#8217;t have an  University Degree&#8230;..watch that sassy little Katie Couric if you want  to know why Sara Palin is completely incompetent</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/27">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/27/Margaret-its-me-God">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-26"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-26">What the&#8230;?</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.soldiersperspective.us" rel="nofollow">CJ Grisham</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:07.</div><div><p>If Palin isn&#8217;t competent enough to be President, then Obama is even LESS competent to hold the position!!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/26">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/26/What">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-25"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-25">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Margaret (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 16:03.</div><div><p>Why  won&#8217;t Sara Palin be a competent President? Is there anything about  Obama that makes him more intelligent than Palin? It offends me as a  person to think differently. I believe she would do as well, if not  better, than any other of the men or women who have made a run during  this election.</p><p>I didn&#8217;t go to an ivy league college. I haven&#8217;t served as a PTO  chairperson or any other office but I think I would make a darn good  president. I&#8217;m excited to think that maybe we might have something  fresh in the office. From Hillary to McCain it is the same old same old.</p><p>Margaret</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/25">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/25/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-24"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-24">experience or education ?</a></div><div> Submitted by James (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 15:57.</div><div><p>While  one could argue all day long about the experience factor between Obama  and Palin, one can&#8217;t argue much about the difference in education. I  would rather have someone educated in the highest office of the land.</p><p>Thanks, but no thanks for that sweet talkin&#8217;, well read gal from Alaska.</p><p>Don&#8217;t YA know?</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/24">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/24/experience-or-education">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-23"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-23">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://americanandproud.net" rel="nofollow">Robert</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 15:55.</div><div><p>I  am voting for McCain/Palin for precisely that reason, I would be WAY  more happy with Palin as President than I will be with McCain.<br
/> If Obama wins we ALL lose&#8230;.Oh and a preemptive dismiss to those that  say it&#8217;s because he is black&#8230;Its not because he is black its because  he is a communist/socialist libtard baby killing gun taking no  leadership other than &#8220;ACORN&#8221; type skills&#8230;. but vote how you want, I  cant wait till you liberal idiots get what you want, just like after  Carter, you came crying to the Conservatives to save you, Obama is a  black Carter maybe worse.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/23">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/23/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-22"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-22">NFW</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://twww.mahamatzav.org" rel="nofollow">rebaaron</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 15:54.</div><div><p>Sarah  Palin is a poser. She&#8217;s so enamored with Ronald Reagan I believe, in  part, because she&#8217;s just like him &#8211; an actor. Reagan wasn&#8217;t a president  as much as he was able to act like a president. The VP debates last  night showed this &#8211; Palin is all show and no substance. What&#8217;s really  scary is she believes that she&#8217;s capable. I think she really has no  idea and is not capable of getting it. I think some call this  sociopathic tendencies?!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/22">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/22/NFW">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-21"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-21">Palin Did Better Than Expected</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://baconeatingatheistjew.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">The Atheist Jew</a> (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 15:53.</div><div><p>She proved to me that she doesn&#8217;t have an IQ of 75.  It is more like 90 or 95.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/21">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/21/Palin-Did-Better-Expected">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-20"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-20">National Level Experience (NLE)</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 15:53.</div><div><p>Palin  is an order of magnitude more Podunk than any national political figure  in modern times. Case in point, 6 months ago, Palin said, flat out, she  is not INTERESTED in national policy, as in she doesn&#8217;t have the time  or will to keep up with what is going on in this country&#8230;when you use  NLE as the measure Obama is far ahead of Palin, exemplified by the fact  that the very first thing he did in the Senate was get a law passed to  help secure &#8220;loose nukes&#8221; in the former USSR&#8230;.compare that to Palin  who apparently could not even pass a seventh grade civics test (doesn&#8217;t  know any supreme court cases besides Roe v. Wade?)</p><p>All the PAlin supporters are the same , pardon my french, IDIOTS who  supported GW because he&#8217;s a guy they can drink a beer with&#8230;..Palin  sure is a regular joe&#8230;Joe Retard that is</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/20">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/20/National-Level-Experience-NLE">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-19"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-19">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by brad (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 15:53.</div><div><p>If  something happened to McCain on day one would Palin be ready? No, BUT  what makes you think Obama is? Lets talk about the TOP of the ticket.  Give me a break!!!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/19">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/19/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-18"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-18">And Barack is Qualified? </a></div><div> Submitted by J (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 14:33.</div><div><p>I  love how people point out how Palin&#8217;s not qualified SHOULD something  happen to McCain. And what makes Barack qualified? He&#8217;s been in the  Senate for 2 years? And if he is elected, he&#8217;s it. At least with  McCain, we&#8217;re electing a very seasoned and proven person who has a  pretty good track record for change. Obama can talk about change but he  hasn&#8217;t walked it at all.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/18">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/18/And-Barack-Qualified">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-17"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-17">Re: Re: McCain&#8217;s &#8220;Cancer&#8221;</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 13:32.</div><div><p>Source please.  Media previously said superficial Basal cell.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/17">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/17/Re-McCains-Cancer">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-16"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-16">Re: McCain&#8217;s &#8220;Cancer&#8221;</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 13:15.</div><div><p>He has had MELANOMA. The deadliest form of skin cancer</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/16">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/16/Re-McCains-Cancer">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-15"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-15">Competent?</a></div><div> Submitted by rusmayse on Fri, 10/03/2008 &#8211; 00:48.</div><div><p>Poor  Palin. I commend her on the acceptance of such a difficult position in  such a tough time. It takes a really strong person to take on the role  she has. And I do agree with the fact that she may &#8220;catch on quickly&#8221;.  I&#8217;m just particularly concerned and unsure she has any idea what she is  doing. Period.<br
/> Go back home hockey mom. Gain experience over the next 8 years. Become  more involved on a national level. Listen to the cries of us people.  And then please, come back again :) Until then, keep reading all the  world&#8217;s magazines and Newspapers. They actually can teach you a lot.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/15">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/15/Competent">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-14"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-14">Not as a woman, or a man</a></div><div> Submitted by TomCollins2100 on Thu, 10/02/2008 &#8211; 23:33.</div><div><p>Are  you kidding? The notion that she&#8217;s being unfairly judged as unqualified  because she&#8217;s a woman is absurd. If she were a man, McCain would have  been laughed out of the country for picking a first-term governor with  no other applicable experience and zero national &#8211; let alone foreign  policy &#8211; qualifications.</p><p>Women with any brains at all should be insulted that McCain and the  Republicans think that they will vote for any woman they offer, or  belive this particular woman is remotely qualified to run any country,  forget about the United States.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/14">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/14/Not-woman-or-man">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-13"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-13">RELEASE THE MEDICAL RECORDS</a></div><div> Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 &#8211; 16:02.</div><div><p>what  you say is partially true, superficial skin cancers are not fatal,  especially with decent healthcare, but WE DON&#8217;T KNOW THE EXTENT OF  MCCAIN&#8221;S CANCER because he won&#8217;t release ALL of his medical  records&#8230;&#8230;don&#8217;t sit here and defend him against this criticism, when  his campaign could put this completely to bed with a single phone call  to his doctor.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/13">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/13/RELEASE-MEDICAL-RECORDS">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-12"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-12"> Palin needs to read a American History Booko</a></div><div> Submitted by pat baker (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 &#8211; 15:41.</div><div><p>I&#8217;m  sick of McCain calling Obama a on the job learner, community action  worker. Palin is is a affrimative action herself. Mrs Bush said she was  a &#8220;quick learner&#8221; Do I need a vp who is a quick learner? She&#8217;s just a  Gov for a few years, no national experience. She can&#8217;t answer straight  question. These photo opts with people from the MiddleEast aren&#8217;t  getting on my nerves, they are making me sick Who cares if she&#8217;s cute  while my 401 K might go down the tubes!. Hillary Clinton would run  rings around her. I don&#8217;t need a &#8221; on the job VP during these troubled  times..</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/12">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/12/Palin-needs-read-American-History-Booko">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-11"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-11">McCain&#8217;s &#8220;Cancer&#8221;</a></div><div> Submitted by <a
href="http://www.omarhamada.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Omar Hamada</a> (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 &#8211; 15:33.</div><div><p>Enough  of the cancer stuff!!! Talk about spin and/or ignorance! When&#8217;s the  last time someone actually died from superficial squamous or basal cell  skin cancer? Answer: NEVER. Now if it were actually melanoma or other  types of invasive squamous cell cancer, then it would be a different  story &#8211; BUT IT&#8217;S NOT!!!!!!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/11">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/11/McCains-Cancer">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-9"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-9">but seriously, she reads ALL the newspapers</a></div><div> Submitted by Dave (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 &#8211; 00:55.</div><div><p>Check  out her interview with Katie Couric. She shares that she reads ALL the  newspapers in the world. She must be really freakin smart. She also  graduated from the University of Idaho. I mean it doesnt get much more  prestigious than that. And besides, who is Biden to talk.</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/9">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/9/seriously-she-reads-ALL-newspapers">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-8"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-8">Don&#8217;t Fret</a></div><div> Submitted by Chris A (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 &#8211; 00:48.</div><div><p>Don&#8217;t  worry about Palin. If you saw her interviews, you would know that  the&#8230; War in Iraq and reforms to our economy and importance in the  field of green energy under the umbrella of job creation and then  health care.<br
/> She knows what everyone needs&#8230;</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/8">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/8/Dont-Fret">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-7"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-7">Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 &#8211; 00:45.</div><div><p>uh hu &#8230;..uh hu !!!</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/7">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/7/Re-If-John-McCain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-Sarah-Pal">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
id="comment-6"></a></p><div><div> <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/content/if-john-mccain-died-or-became-incapacitated-would-sarah-palin-be-competent-be-president#comment-6">come on,  hes only had cancer</a></div><div> Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/30/2008 &#8211; 22:59.</div><div><p>come on,  hes only had cancer 3 times. plus,  its not like hes old or anything</p></p></div><div><ul><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/reply/4/6">reply</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/comment/6/come-hes-only-had-cancer">link</a></li><li><a
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p>And, here&#8217;s an embed of the poll, if I&#8217;ve piqued your interest by now:</p><p><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js?appId=8eaed869-bb53-4d27-9b3b-d790184cb9c9"></script><noscript>Get the <a
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href="http://www.widgetbox.com/">great free widgets</a> at <a
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/10/09/my-personal-take-on-the-second-presidential-debate/</guid> <description><![CDATA[With regards the second presidential debate, I thought it was the same ole same ole. I thought that there was not the kind of passion that one might really feel if one were truly concerned with the economy or with America. I thought that the dig about the Hair Transplant, with regards to Joe Biden, [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt My Personal Take on the Second Presidential Debate" /></a></div><p>With regards the second presidential debate, I thought it was the same ole same ole.  I thought that there was not the kind of passion that one might really feel if one were truly concerned with the economy or with America.</p><p>I thought that the dig about the Hair Transplant, with regards to Joe Biden, was cheap, and I think that John McCain&#8217;s &#8220;folksiness&#8221; comes across as very snide and mean-spirited.  I am surprised how little these two guys have true passion, conviction, or the sort of fire that might make either one of them a great president.</p><p>I feel no awe at either of their existence on the stage or at all. There are, indeed, men like this. And, when Barack Obama first landed on the stage, back during the 2004 Democratic convention, I was awed.</p><p>I am afraid these two men have been so altered and watered-down over the course of this ultra-marathon of a campaign that they&#8217;re truly afraid to convey their visions for each of their presidencies with any sort of authenticity or truth. I don&#8217;t know what to say.</p><p>I was underwhelmed.  All three of these debates have been draws, two presidential and one vice-presidential &#8212; and if there have been winners at all, it surely has been the result of a TKO &#8212; technical knock out.</p><p>Nobody has even really laid a finger on the other. It is truly appalling to me to see this sort of cat and mouse so close to the elections.</p><p>Would someone just take off his glove and please challenge the other to a bona fide duel already?</p><p>I really miss Bill Clinton.</p><p><center><object
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border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Do you have faith in Palin?" /></a></div><p>I just moved back to Berlin yesterday after spending all Summer in the US attending a series of weddings, meetings, conferences, and sales talks.</p><p>When I got home to my apartment last night, my entire clock was messed up and I was totally jetlagged so I stayed up until 3AM my time to watch the Vice Presidential debates. I was surprised and impressed by both candidates. In my opinion, both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden performed very well.</p><p>I am writing because my business partner and I are both super-interested in understanding how America&#8217;s view of Sarah Palin has developed as a result of this debate. We&#8217;re posing the poll question, &#8220;If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Palin be competent to be President?&#8221;</p><p><center><script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.ahpoll.com/embed-widgets/embed/google-gadget/1-YWhtUVI2WC9hbVhacy5haHBvbGwuY29t/gadget.xml&#038;synd=open&#038;w=450&#038;h=300&#038;title=If+John+McCain+died+or+became+incapacitated%2C+would+Sarah+Palin+be+competent+to+be+President%3F &#038;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&#038;output=js"></script><br
/> Please consider voting: <a
href="http://ahpoll.com/palin" class="external_lnk">http://ahpoll.com/palin</a></center></p><p>I can&#8217;t wait to see what the poll results are at the end of the campaign &#8212; there are only 31-days until the election so I am getting pretty excited and am waiting with bated breath to receive my Virginia absentee ballot.  Thanks again and I appreciate your time.</p><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/06/04/i-prefer-the-original-recipe-mortal-sins/</guid> <description><![CDATA[Diane Grzyb, the Polish Diva, and I grew up Catholic and I think we both agree that the original Seven Deadly Sins are pretty good but that &#8220;kids nowadays&#8230;&#8221; What I mean is that most kids nowadays don&#8217;t even know (or care) what many of these sins even mean: Sloth? Gluttony? Envy? What does that [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/07038437516395120655">Diane Grzyb</a>, the <a
href="http://polishdivadc.blogspot.com">Polish Diva</a>, and I grew up Catholic and I think we both agree that the original <a
href="http://polishdivadc.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-seven-mortal-sins.html">Seven Deadly Sins are pretty good but that &#8220;kids nowadays&#8230;&#8221;</a> What I mean is that most kids nowadays don&#8217;t even know (or care) what many of these sins even mean: Sloth? Gluttony? Envy? What does that mean?</p><p>Even so, most of these mortal, deadly, sins aren&#8217;t even sins any more, they&#8217;re American and good for the economy.  The economy would collapse were advertisers not able to leverage Pride, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Greed for their sales and marketing strategies! Come on, it is true, these &#8220;sins&#8221; drive the economy!</p><p>Also, when it comes to international relations and crowd control, Anger and Sloth pretty much drive the war on terrorism and make it easier for the Powers That Be to extricate our liberties from our cold Slothful fingers.</p><p>I am not making any sense on this &#8212; Diane nails it when she says, <em>&#8220;the problem is that people either don&#8217;t believe that they sin or that they don&#8217;t believe that telling someone else their sins will make them better people&#8221;</em> Diane says it better than me in <a
href="http://polishdivadc.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-seven-mortal-sins.html">The New Seven Mortal Sins</a>:</p><blockquote><p>&#8220;I was a little <span
class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">surprised</span> to learn that the Vatican has issued a new list of seven deadly sins, particularly since the apparent reason for revisiting the list was because people aren&#8217;t taking advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation enough. But just looking at today&#8217;s headlines alone suggests that the old sins were the problem (i.e., lust at the Mayflower, envy of more popular presidential candidates). No, the sins aren&#8217;t the problem: the problem is that people either don&#8217;t believe that they sin or that they don&#8217;t believe that telling someone else their sins will make them better people.&#8221;</p><p>But for giggles, let&#8217;s review the list:</p></blockquote><blockquote><p><strong>THE OLD MORTAL SINS</strong><br
/> - Pride<br
/> - Envy<br
/> - Lust<br
/> - Gluttony<br
/> - Anger<br
/> - Greed<br
/> - Sloth</p><p><strong>THE NEW MORTAL SINS</strong><br
/> - Environmental pollution<br
/> - Genetic manipulation<br
/> - Accumulating excessive wealth<br
/> - Inflicting poverty<br
/> - Drug trafficking and consumption<br
/> - Morally debatable experiments<br
/> - Violation of fundamental rights of human nature</p><p>Now, father forgive me, I have no idea what some of these mean, nor do I believe that I have the resources to commit these sins. Genetic manipulation? I&#8217;m not running any cloning labs in my basement. And violation of fundamental rights of human nature? What the heck does that mean? Requiring Catholics to take a philosophy course before they make amends with G-d just doesn&#8217;t sound like an enticing way to get them back in the confessional.</p></blockquote><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/03/15/i-was-a-dd-dungeon-master/</guid> <description><![CDATA[OK, in honor of the passing of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons &#38; Dragons, I am coming out. I, Chris Abraham, played D&#38;D from 6th grade until I was in 9th grade, although it might have been longer. I was a Dungeon Master, I held games at my house, I owned all the books [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt I Was a D&D Dungeon Master" /></a></div><p>OK, in honor of the passing of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons &amp; Dragons, I am coming out. I, Chris Abraham, played D&amp;D from 6th grade until I was in 9th grade, although it might have been longer. I was a Dungeon Master, I held games at my house, I owned all the books and spent long evenings with graph paper and a pencil, designing pre-Internet virtual worlds.  I owned many many multi-sided dice.  The first BASIC program I made with my IBM AT was a program to roll characters and also roll dice. When we tired of D&amp;D and joined JROTC, we moved on to a game called RECON, but it wasn&#8217;t the same. Nor was Wizardy or Adventure, two early attempts to replicate D&amp;D on the computer and on early minicomputers and archaic networks.  Why am I waxing nostalgic?  Well, Gary Gygax passed away and I want to come out and be proud that I, Chris Abraham, am an alumnus of Dungeons and Dragons.  Here&#8217;s an amazing remembrance from the <a
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein7mar07,0,5487018.column">LA Times</a>:</p><blockquote><p><a
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein7mar07,0,5487018.column"><strong>Fond memories of the &#8216;Dungeon&#8217;</strong></a><br
/> Remembering his days as a part of the game cult created by Gary Gygax.<br
/> March 7, 2008</p><p>Iwas so young when I started playing &#8220;Dungeons &amp; Dragons&#8221; that I assumed Gary Gygax, the game&#8217;s creator, wasn&#8217;t real &#8212; just as I figured there&#8217;d never been a Walt Disney or burger chefs named McDonald. When I finally realized Gygax indeed lived in Lake Geneva, Wis., near the post office box address listed on every &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; book, I pictured him in a mansion filled with piles of gold and women in metal bikinis. More insane, I deeply believed these outfits would be practical for swimming.</p><p>But when Gygax, who conducted a weekly game up until the end, died on Tuesday, he was not rich, despite my best efforts from fourth through eighth grade. And in part, I realize, that is my fault. Because unlike the paunchy, white-ponytailed Gygax, who was not afraid to let his geek flag fly, I have spent the last 20 years avoiding &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; because I was ashamed. Gygax influenced my childhood more than any writer, filmmaker or teacher, and I turned my back on him. I am a traitor to my people. Luckily, they are among the few peoples I can beat up.</p><p>Sure, I talk about &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; a lot, but it&#8217;s with defensive self-mockery, as if my nerdishness was some larva stage that I had cocooned out of. Into a butterfly of &#8220;Shaft&#8221;-like smoothness. That&#8217;s what a few TV appearances will fool you into thinking.</p><p>But this week, I had my old &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; books sent to me, and proudly put them on my bookshelves. Paging through them, I realized they are the best books I own: detailed, weird, creative, smart, funny &#8212; encyclopedic lists of rules for spells, monsters, gods, weapons, trade and career advancement. &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; exceeded any single mythology; it embraced Camelot&#8217;s knights, Dante&#8217;s devils, dinosaurs and the Yeti. And I still think the line-drawing of the succubus is totally hot.</p><p>But reclaiming my &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; pride is not going to be an easy process.</p><p>As soon as I started reading Gygax&#8217;s fantastical compendiums as a kid, I realized how mundane non-gamers&#8217; lives were. They lived in flat world, where all the dice had only six sides. We had imagination and a leader who never talked down to us, even if he did sound like Yoda. &#8220;This work is written as one Dungeon Master equal to another,&#8221; Gygax wrote in &#8220;The Dungeon Master&#8217;s Guide.&#8221; &#8220;Pronouncements there may be, but they are not from &#8216;on high&#8217; as respects your game.&#8221; My &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; friends and I loved his hippie-geek insanity. We were mixing theater with math and debate and other after-school activities that didn&#8217;t involve helping people in the community. That was for nerds.</p><p>The game allowed you to navigate the mayhem of adolescence through fantasy &#8212; perhaps even including the kind that might lead a boy, just for a little while, to play a female character. &#8220;That&#8217;s cool, right? She&#8217;s like a half-elf, like a hot half-elf, just to mix it up. And she&#8217;s got spells. And a flagon of mead. In case anyone is interested in that.&#8221; Usually, though I was a magic-user. I was such a nerd that my nerd fantasy was simply to be an even bigger nerd.</p><p>But the true thrill of the game was that it made you feel smart. You constantly had to consult actuarial tables in the back of the dozens of &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; books to determine the results of a battle, convert currency or figure out how many kilograms your character could carry. Everything was documented in such detail that in the event of a nuclear holocaust, Gygax had left survivors a complete guide to replicate society. A society like a Renaissance Faire.</p><p>Gygax also expanded my vocabulary, though many of the words meant the same thing. Wench, courtesan, harlot, strumpet &#8212; all interesting townspeople a nice preteen Paladin could meet.</p><p>The thing is, I didn&#8217;t meet many townspeople. Like most &#8220;D&amp;D&#8221; players, I read the books, learned the rules, created tons of characters, mapped out dungeons, even subscribed to Dragon magazine &#8212; but I almost never played the actual game. Because &#8212; as I was reminded in 2003 when I played it with Elijah Wood of &#8220;Lord of the Rings&#8221; &#8212; the game itself sucks. It&#8217;s slow and silly and entails an endless amount of prodding by the Dungeon Master to force players to step into the traps he spent all weekend devising &#8212; but that will, of course, not kill your favorite character because if it did you&#8217;d never play with him again.</p><p>&#8220;Wasn&#8217;t someone always saying, &#8216;No, seriously, guys&#8217; the whole time? &#8230; And then someone would get mad,&#8221; said Matt Selman, who writes the Nerd World blog for time.com, when we started to reminisce.</p><p>Exactly. We didn&#8217;t spend our time playing as much as fantasizing about playing in a fantasy world. Which is why &#8220;Dungeons &amp; Dragons&#8221; is the best game ever invented. I&#8217;m pretty sure Gygax knew that. And I bet he knew that someday I&#8217;d grow up enough to put his books back on my shelf.</p><p><a
href="mailto:jstein@latimescolumnists.com">jstein@latimescolumnists.com</a></p></blockquote><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/02/27/npr-worldwide-berlin-radio-1041-fm/</guid> <description><![CDATA[Attention to everyone in Berlin, Germany &#8212; Americans, Brits, English-speakers, and those who want to learn &#8212; National Public Radio has just opened up a 24-hour radio station right here in Berlin, NPR Worldwide Berlin, 104,1 FM! Probably the only reason I spent 17+ years in Washington is because of WAMU, 88.5 FM, the local [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
align="right" style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 5px 5px;"><a
name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2008/02/27/npr-worldwide-berlin-radio-1041-fm/"></a></div><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2008%2F02%2F27%2Fnpr-worldwide-berlin-radio-1041-fm%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Fworldwide%2Fphone.gif&description=NPR+Worldwide+Berlin+Radio+104%2C1+FM" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" /></a></div><p>Attention to everyone in Berlin, Germany &#8212; Americans, Brits, English-speakers, and those who want to learn &#8212; National Public Radio has just opened up a 24-hour radio station right here in Berlin, <a
href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/berlin/">NPR Worldwide Berlin, 104,1 FM</a>!</p><p><span
id="more-4428"></span>Probably the only reason I spent 17+ years in Washington is because of <a
href="http://wamu.org">WAMU, 88.5 FM</a>, the local NPR radio station. At one point <a
href="http://www.weta.org/fm/">WETA, 90.9</a>, moved from Classical to NPR talk programing, and it was bliss. When I moved to Berlin, Germany, in November, I loaded up every day on <a
href="http://www.npr.org">NPR</a> and <a
href="http://www.pri.org/">PRI</a> podcasts because I did not want to do without Car Talk, Wait Wait Don&#8217;t Tell Me, Studio 360, Speaking of Faith, This American Life, Fair Game with Faith Salie &#8212; the lot!</p><p>Well, I was farting around with my Nokia n95 8GB cell phone last week, and using the Radio feature, and happened upon 104,1 FM, and there was NPR programming!  I thought it was a podcast, which I also listen on this amazing little device, and it wasn&#8217;t.</p><p>For some reason, the stations I had mapped for Washington opened me up to a station I had had programmed in Washington (Nokia checks the city and then populates all the sations) &#8212; WXGG, a Gospel station in Washington! Well, it wasn&#8217;t Gospel, it wasn&#8217;t German-language, and it wasn&#8217;t <a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/worldservice/psims/ScheduleSDT.cgi?Pg=Sx&#038;Ce=52375%3a28NW%3aBerlin&#038;Co=DE%3aGermany%3a1&#038;Tz=DE01">BBC World Service Berlin</a>.</p><p>Well, my heart leapt!</p><p>There isn&#8217;t a lot of local programming yet but there is a pretty cool feeling of programming going on &#8212; there is a little more content focused on the Foreign Service and Diplomatic Corps, which is cool, but all your faves are there: <a
href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/">Marketplace</a>, <a
href="http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/">Wait Wait&#8230; Don&#8217;t Tell Me!</a>, <a
href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things                   Considered</a>, <a
href="http://www.onthemedia.org/">On                   the Media</a>, <a
href="http://www.cartalk.com/">Car                   Talk</a>, <a
href="http://whyy.org/freshair">Fresh                   Air Weekend</a>, <a
href="http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/">Morning                   Edition</a>, <a
href="http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/">The Diane Rehm                   Show</a>, <a
href="http://www.wamu.org/programs/hjsn/">Hot                   Jazz Saturday Night</a>, <a
href="http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/index.shtml">Speaking of Faith</a>, and &#8212; wait for it &#8212; <a
href="http://phc.mpr.org/">A                   Prairie Home Companion</a>!</p><p>Lake Wobegon and Garrison Keillor are the most important here because the entire radio show isn&#8217;t available via podcast, only the sweet Report from Lake Wobegon, not the entire radio show.</p><p
class="pagetitle" align="center"><a
href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/nprworldwide.html"><strong>24 Hour Satellite and Cable             Schedule</strong></a></p><p
align="center"><table
class="text" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"><tr><td
bgcolor="#99ccff"><p
align="center">Live Program</p></td><td
bgcolor="#90c890"><p
align="center">Recorded with Live             Newscast</p></td></tr></table><p><center></p><table
class="text" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" height="1020" width="562"><tr><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="23">CET</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="57">Monday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="57">Tuesday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="78">Wednesday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="70">Thursday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="59">Friday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="61">Saturday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" height="16" width="68">Sunday</th><th
style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="18">ET</th></tr><tr><td
align="center" height="18" width="23">0000</td><td
rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="156"><p
align="center"><a
href="http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/">Wait Wait&#8230;<br
/> Don&#8217;t Tell Me!</a></td><td
colspan="5" bgcolor="#99ccff"><p
align="center"><a
href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/">Marketplace</a></p></td><td
colspan="5" rowspan="7" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="116"><p
align="center"><a
href="/programs/atc">All Things                   Considered</a></p></td><td
rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="41" width="68"><p
align="center"><a
href="http://marketplacemoney.publicradio.org/">Marketplace Money</a><!--<a href="/programs/pianojazz/">Piano                   Jazz</a>&#8211;></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="18" width="18">1800</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="22" width="23">0030</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="7" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="116">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things                   Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="22" width="18">1830</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="17" width="23">0100</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="156">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/">On                   the<br />
Media</a></td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" width="68"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/pianojazz/">Piano Jazz</a>				 					<!--</p>
<div align=center><a                   href="http://www.wamu.org/programs/hjsn/">Hot                   Jazz<br />
Saturday<br />
Night</a></div>
<p>&#8211;></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="12" width="18">1900</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="16" width="23">0130</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="12" width="18">1930</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="1" width="23">0200</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="1" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.cartalk.com/">Car                   Talk</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="6" bgcolor="#99ccff"><a href="http://www.wamu.org/programs/hjsn/">Hot                   Jazz<br />
Saturday<br />
Night</a></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="12" width="18">2000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="16" width="23">0230</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="12" width="18">2030</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="30" width="23">0300</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="51" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzset/index.html">Jazz Set</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="11" width="18">2100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" height="21" width="23">0330</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="11" width="18">2130</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0400</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://whyy.org/freshair">Fresh                   Air<br />
Weekend</a></td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34">
<p align="center"><a href="http://whyy.org/freshair">Fresh Air</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://marketplacemoney.publicradio.org/">Marketplace Money</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">2200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0430</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">2230</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0500</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="7" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="142">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things                   Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="4" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="70" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="18" width="18">2300</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0530</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="18" width="18">2330</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0600</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.justicetalking.org/">Justice                 Talking</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0630</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0030</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0700</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="61" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.fromthetop.org/">From the Top</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0730</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0130</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0800</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="57">
<p align="center">NPR Specials</p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/index.shtml">Speaking of Faith</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">0830</td>
<td colspan="5" bgcolor="#90c890">
<p align="center"><a href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/">Marketplace</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0230</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="23">0900</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="61" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/">On The Media</a></p>
</td>
<td colspan="4" rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/totn">Talk of the                   Nation</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.dw-world.de/">DW Weekly</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="156">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/">On                   the<br />
Media</a></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="26" width="18">0300</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="36" width="23">0930</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="26" width="18">0330</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="19" width="23">1000</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="40" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.harryshearer.com/leshow/">Le Show with Harry Shearer</a></p>
</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="40">
<p align="center"><a href="http://whyy.org/freshair">Fresh Air</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="57">
<p align="center"><a href="http://whyy.org/freshair">Fresh                   Air<br />
Weekend</a></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="26" width="18">0400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="19" width="23">1030</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="25" width="18">0430</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">1100</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="10" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="187">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/">Morning                   Edition</a></p>
</td>
<td bgcolor="#90c890" width="70">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=dialogue.welcome">Dialogue</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="35" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.cartalk.com/">Car                   Talk</a> <a href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/nprworldwide.html#Phone"><img src="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/phone.gif" align="middle" border="0" height="16" width="19" title="NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" alt="phone NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" /></a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="18" width="18">0500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="23">1130</td>
<td bgcolor="#90c890" width="70">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.kcrw.org/show/tb">The Business</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="17" width="18">0530</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="21" width="23">1200</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="44" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://marketplacemoney.publicradio.org/">Marketplace Money                 </a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="4" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="80" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://phc.mpr.org/">A                   Prairie<br />
Home<br />
Companion</a></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20" width="18">0600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="21" width="23">1230</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20" width="18">0630</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">1300</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="34" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.justicetalking.org/">Justice Talking</a><a href="http://www.dnafiles.org/"> </a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20" width="18">0700</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="16" width="23">1330</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20" width="18">0730</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20" width="23">1400</td>
<td rowspan="6" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="157" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/index.html">Weekend<br />
Edition</a></td>
<td rowspan="6" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="183" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/wesun/index.html">Weekend<br />
Edition</a></td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="27" width="18">0800</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="20" width="23">1430</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="26" width="18">0830</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="29" width="23">1500</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="26" width="18">0900</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="29" width="23">1530</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="26" width="18">0930</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="26" width="23">1600</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#99ccff">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/">The Diane Rehm                   Show</a><a href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/nprworldwide.html#Phone"><br />
<img src="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/phone.gif" align="middle" border="0" height="16" width="19" title="NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" alt="phone NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" /></a></td>
<td height="26" width="18">1000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="23">1630</td>
<td width="18">1030</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="23">1700</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#99ccff">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.onpointradio.org/">On Point</a> 				  <a href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/nprworldwide.html#Phone"><br />
<img src="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/phone.gif" align="middle" border="0" height="16" width="19" title="NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" alt="phone NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2" bgcolor="#90c890" width="61">
<p align="center">  <a href="http://www.cartalk.com/">Car Talk</a> <a href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/nprworldwide.html#Phone"><img src="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/phone.gif" align="middle" border="0" height="16" width="19" title="NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" alt="phone NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" /></a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="41" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/pianojazz/">Piano                   Jazz</a></p>
</td>
<td width="18">1100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="23">1730</td>
<td width="18">1130</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="30" width="23">1800</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#99ccff">
<p align="center"><a href="http://freshair.npr.org/">Fresh                   Air</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="48" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/">Wait Wait&#8230;<br />
Don&#8217;t Tell Me!</a></td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="48" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.bealestreetcaravan.com/">Beale<br />
Street<br />
Caravan</a></td>
<td height="30" width="18">1200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="23">1830</td>
<td width="18">1230</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="23">1900</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#99ccff">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/day/">Day to Day</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="35" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/">Jazz<br />
Profiles</a></td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="35" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.harryshearer.com/leshow/">Le                   Show<br />
with Harry<br />
Shearer</a></td>
<td width="18">1300</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="23">1930</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="24" width="18">1330</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="34" width="23">2000</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="4" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="140">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/totn">Talk of the                   Nation</a><br />
<a href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/nprworldwide.html#Phone"><img src="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/phone.gif" align="middle" border="0" height="16" width="19" title="NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" alt="phone NPR Worldwide Berlin Radio 104,1 FM" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="4" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="140" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.wamu.org/programs/hjsn/">Hot                   Jazz<br />
Saturday<br />
Night</a></td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="44" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.dw-world.de/">DW Weekly</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="34" width="18">1400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="34" width="23">2030</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="34" width="18">1430</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="41" width="23">2100</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="2" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=dialogue.welcome">Dialogue</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="41" width="18">1500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="34" width="23">2130</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="39" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.kcrw.org/show/tb">The Business</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="18">1530</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="23">2200</td>
<td colspan="5" rowspan="4" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff" height="89">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc">All Things                   Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="48" width="61">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.bealestreetcaravan.com/">Beale<br />
Street<br />
Caravan</a></td>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#90c890" height="48" width="68">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/thistle/">The Thistle &#038;                   Shamrock</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="24" width="18">1600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="23">2230</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="24" width="18">1630</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="23">2300</td>
<td colspan="2" rowspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#99ccff">
<p align="center"><a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/">All Things                   Considered</a></p>
</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="24" width="18">1700</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="23" width="23">2330</td>
<td align="center" bgcolor="#ffffff" height="24" width="18">1730</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></center></p>
<table class="text" border="0">
<tr>
<td><a title="phone" name="phone"></a><strong>Call to Participate in These                   Programs</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Car Talk</td>
<td>+ 1 617 353 6350</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Diane Rehm Show</td>
<td>+ 1 202 537 7872</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>On Point</td>
<td>+ 1 617 353 0645</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Talk of the Nation</td>
<td>+ 1 202 513 3305</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>It looks to me like they&#8217;re still starting up.  They mentioned on the radio that they want to get peoples opinion and feedback on NPR Worldwide Berlin and the asked all of us to write an email to <a href="mailto:WorldWide@npr.org">WorldWide@npr.org</a>.  Well, I did, and I received this fantastic email back from Jeff Rosenberg of NPR Worldwide, and he replied:</p>
<blockquote><p>Dear Chris,</p>
<p>Many thanks for your note.</p>
<p>It would appear that our extraordinarily low-key marketing campaign for NPR FM Berlin has reached you.  It’s almost a miracle.</p>
<p>As you might guess, the station needs a lot of help getting better known in the community.</p>
<p>Any offers of help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Many folks in Berlin have told us that the station completely changes the quality of life in Berlin.  We hope you agree.</p>
<p>Best wishes,</p>
<p>Jeff Rosenberg<br />
<a href="http://www.npr.org/worldwide/">NPR Worldwide</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, Jeff is my savior, so I will work real hard on promoting NPR Worldwide Berlin. Thank you Jeff.</p>
<blockquote><p>Jeff Rosenberg is currently director of National Public Radio (NPR) Worldwide. He is responsible for international distribution of NPR programs in more than 150 countries around the world. Earlier, Mr. Rosenberg was the director of News Broadcast Relations and senior producer of NPR Events Unit in the News and Information Division. The unit produced coverage of presidential news conferences, hearings, briefings, debates, election nights and political conventions.</p>
<p>Mr. Rosenberg has more than 30 years’ experience with National Public Radio. He was part of the planning team for NPR’s acclaimed evening newsmagazine ALL THINGS CONSIDERED in 1971 and went on to work as an associate producer, director and tape editor for the program during its early years. Since then, he has had a broad range of assignments within the news division.</p>
<p>In the early 1970s, he worked on some of NPR’s first special projects. In June 1972, he produced NPR’s first foreign broadcast – two weeks of live one-hour reports from the United Nations World Conference on the Environment from Stockholm. He also produced NPR’s coverage of the Senate Watergate Hearings.</p>
<p>In 1979, Mr. Rosenberg was tapped to produce the first weekly news program devoted solely to foreign policy concerns, “Communique.” He then produced the daily program, “NPR Dateline.”</p>
<p>He has also been NPR’s representative to the U.S. network radio pool, and has frequently served as producer on behalf of all American networks for pooled coverage of presidential foreign travel.</p>
<p>From 1978-1992, Mr. Rosenberg served on the media advisory committee of the Indo-U.S. Subcommission, a private venture designed to foster cooperation between U.S. and Indian media. He has planned and supervised a number of workshops with All India Radio for Indian producers and reporters.</p>
<p>A native of Buffalo, NY, Mr. Rosenberg has a degree in communications from Northwestern University. He also studied international communications at the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, through a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.</p>
<p>Mr. Rosenberg lives in suburban Virginia, with his wife Alison Podell Rosenberg, a specialist in African development issues with the World Bank, and son Robert, a high school student and budding film critic.</p>
</blockquote>
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		<title>The AfroSpear AfroSphere</title>
		<link>http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/21/the-afrospear-afrosphere/</link>
		<comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/21/the-afrospear-afrosphere/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:49:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[oovoo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Think Tanks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[adrianne]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[african descent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belief]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bloggers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogosphere]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cells]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[collective voice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[collectives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[continents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[curriculum]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diasporic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[experiences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[left behind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[objective]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[origins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[perspectives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rush]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[t claim]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tank type]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viable solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wisdom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work in progress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/21/the-afrospear-afrosphere/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was going around the Internet and the blogosphere for work looking for folks who are using ooVoo and stumbled upon Adrianne and her article, The AfroSphere is making headlines, and ooVoo is keeping us connected. The article is all about how the members of the AfroSpear think tank keep connected online using ooVoo and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div align="right" style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 5px 5px;"><a name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2007/12/21/the-afrospear-afrosphere/"></a></div><div class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2007%2F12%2F21%2Fthe-afrospear-afrosphere%2F&media=&description=The+AfroSpear+AfroSphere" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt The AfroSpear AfroSphere" /></a></div><p>I was going around the Internet and the blogosphere for work looking for folks who are using ooVoo and stumbled upon <a href="http://agcommunications.wordpress.com/">Adrianne</a> and her article, <a href="http://agcommunications.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/the-afrosphere-is-making-headlines-and-oovoo-is-keeping-us-connected/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The AfroSphere is making headlines, and ooVoo is keeping us connected.">The AfroSphere is making headlines, and ooVoo is keeping us connected</a>. The article is all about how the members of the AfroSpear think tank keep connected online using ooVoo and I think that&#8217;s cool and what ooVoo should be used for.</p>
<p><span id="more-4209"></span>I asked about the AfroSpear story and Adrianne popped me the <a href="http://afrospear.wordpress.com/about/">AfroSpear history</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The origins of “AfroSpear” started from a discussion a group of us had in regards to developing a community of African/Black progressive minded bloggers. From further discussions it developed into an idea to create a diasporic-wide think tank type blog comprising of 6 bloggers: 3 women and 3 men. The vision was that it would focus on discussing issues, exchanging ideas and creating strategies, with the objective of developing concrete and viable solutions to tackle the concerns relating to those of African descent worldwide.</p>
<p>The 6 we initially started with had developed a relationship by exchanging ideas and having discussions and respectful debates on each others blogs. We didn’t always agree, but what we had in common was our love for our community and a commitment to the progress of those of African descent, both near and far. We came from 4 different countries on 3 continents. We brought a variety of experiences, perspectives, ideas, beliefs and values in an effort to foster understanding, wisdom, knowledge and strength.</p>
<p>So we are currently and forever will be a work in progress. Standing still is not an option! When one stands still, you actually start moving backwards, you get left behind as others move forward. We don’t claim to have all the answers but we are searching. We want to be a part of, connected to and add our collective voice to the variety of other Afrocentric/Black individuals, cells, conglomerations and collectives out in the AfroSphere. To the best and the brightest for the progress of our people.</p></blockquote>
<p>And to meet the members of <a href="http://afrospear.wordpress.com/about/">AfroSpear</a> you can explore  <a href="http://agcommunications.wordpress.com/">Adrianne&#8217;s</a> blogroll:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.agloco.com/r/BBCG7838">Agloco-Own the Internet</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blackwomenineurope.blogspot.com/">Black Women in Europe Award winning blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/bwie" title="Cute stuff for Black Women in Europe">Black Women in Europe Shop</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blackwomenineurope.ning.com/">Black Women in Europe Social Network</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.blogrush.com/r20625393">Blog Rush</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.plantener.org/">Christopher Plantener</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myspace.com/dyseriousnonsense">Dynamic</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=625617606&amp;highlight">Facebook-JobsinStockholm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://fortyplustwo.com/" title="Coaching">FortyPlusTwo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://garyreid.com/" title="SMO expert">Gary Reid</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jobsinstockholm.blogspot.com/">JobsinStockholm.com Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http:///">JobsinStockholm.com For English speaking professionals</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cafepress.com/jobsinstockholm">JobsinStockholm.com Store</a></li>
<li><a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/educators/download.cfm?dlkey=418">Louis Armstrong Curriculum Guide</a></li>
<li><a href="http://adriannegeorge.blogspot.com/">MySocial Bio</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.myspace.com/jobsinstockholm">MySpace-JobsinStockholm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.oovooworld.com/2007/09/17/award-winning-blogger-loves-oovoo/">ooVoo World</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.robertwesleybranch.com/rwbhome.html">Robert Wesley Branch Agency</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/blackwomenineurope">Squidoo-Black Women in Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/expatsinsweden">Squidoo-Expats in Sweden</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/jobsinstockholm">Squidoo-JobsinStockholm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://therockconsultinggroup.com/">The Rock Consulting Group</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.aesn.eu/bwie">Women in the African Diaspora</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blackwomenunite.ning.com/">Women in the African Diaspora Social Network</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.zn.be/">ZN</a></li>
</ul>
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		<title>What Ever Happened to Feminism?</title>
		<link>http://chrisabraham.com/2007/02/26/what-ever-happened-to-feminism/</link>
		<comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2007/02/26/what-ever-happened-to-feminism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:54:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Attraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beauty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Celebration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plastic Surgery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pop Culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sexism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sexuality]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[advertiser]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[aggressor]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[angie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anorexia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attitude]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body politic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brooklyn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[butt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ceo]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[collectives]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[commercialization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commercials]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[contraction]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[couples]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[daughters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debacle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discipline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[droids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[embrace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emergence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emily]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evenings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[excitement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[expectation]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[extent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eyebrow]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[fashion collection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feelings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[female self]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feminist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feminist theory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feminists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flexibility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[girls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Globalism]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Harvard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hell]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[hypocrisy]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=3742</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am a feminist. I studied postmodern feminist theory at Uni and felt confident that the progress and passion behind feminism offered by deconstructionism &#8212; the cultural and linguistic tools a women would need to redefine her story and her self &#8212; would result in a female self-empowerment much more substantial than the hyper-sexual self-objectification [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div align="right" style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 5px 5px;"><a name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2007/02/26/what-ever-happened-to-feminism/"></a></div><div class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2007%2F02%2F26%2Fwhat-ever-happened-to-feminism%2F&media=&description=What+Ever+Happened+to+Feminism%3F" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt What Ever Happened to Feminism?" /></a></div><p>I am a <em>feminist</em>. I studied <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_feminism" rel="nofollow">postmodern feminist theory</a> at Uni and felt confident that the progress and passion behind feminism offered by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction" rel="nofollow">deconstructionism</a> &#8212; the cultural and linguistic tools a women would need to redefine  her story and her self &#8212; would result in a female self-empowerment much more substantial than the hyper-sexual self-objectification of <a href="http://chrisabraham.com/2005/09/21/manolo-blahnik-feminism-the-right-to-choos/" rel="nofollow">Manolo Blahnik feminism</a>. I am not the only one asking the question, <em>&#8220;What Ever Happened to Feminism?&#8221;</em> Check out <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/style/tmagazine/25tbody.html" rel="nofollow">Body Politic by Ingrid Sischy</a> from the T Style Magazine (yes, I read it).</p>
<p><span id="more-3742"></span></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;<strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/style/tmagazine/25tbody.html" rel="nofollow">Body Politic</a></strong><br />
<strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/style/tmagazine/25tbody.html" rel="nofollow"> By INGRID SISCHY</a></strong><br />
<strong> Published: February 25, 2007</strong>Last fall I was stopped in my tracks as I walked into a show in Milan during the collections, and a male friend, who’d just witnessed the same debacle that I had, raised his eyebrows and asked, “What happened to feminism???? It’s a question that is being asked repeatedly these days, and for good reason. The only word for the fashion collection we’d just seen was “bimbo??? — clothes put out on the runway without irony, without quotation marks, without any raison d’être other than saving money on material. Over the course of the next two weeks I gave myself a little assignment. I’d watch the runways in Milan and Paris and check off those clothes that signified a throwback to the long past of objectifying women. And on the other hand I’d put a little star down when the designer seemed to be wanting to take us into the future with a view of women that reflected self-possession.</p>
<p>Good thing I still like swings. Of course there were exceptions, designers who were true to the present, but by and large it was backward and forward and backward and forward. Then there were the designers who left earth entirely and showed a universe of female droids and cyborgs. These were the ones who, intentionally or not, illuminated the big challenge facing women’s fashion, best described by tweaking the famous tag line from “Star Trek???: women’s fashion, the final frontier . . . to boldly go where no one has gone before.</p>
<p>That’s easier said than done. As Miuccia Prada said to me, “The problem with new ideas about feminism is that there has been so little public discussion of the subject.??? Well, that’s changing, big time — if not in fashion at least in the art world, which has historically been the first place where a new perspective begins. In fact, after it seemed as though the subject of feminism had been put on simmer, the art world is cooking with gas again, not just for a new generation of feminist artists but in retrospect too. The year started out with a symposium at the Museum of Modern Art, once such a perfect target for feminist critics, who felt it was stuck in the Stone Age as far as the representation of women goes. Now there are bicoastal extravaganzas planned for this spring: the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles will stage “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution??? from March 4 to July 16, and the Brooklyn Museum opens “Global Feminisms??? on March 23. The show celebrates a new center for feminist art, anchored by the permanent installation of Judy Chicago’s famous “The Dinner Party.??? How these exhibitions will loop back to fashion and the creative/commercial balancing act that designers have to do is anybody’s guess, but bets are that there will be a trickle-down effect, as there often is.</p>
<p>What’s interesting is that if one goes through the iconic works of the first, second and third waves of feminist writers, there is so little that actually addresses fashion. Rereading Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millet, Shulamith Firestone, Germaine Greer, Lucy Lippard, Linda Nochlin and so many others, I was struck by the dearth of attention to this subject, which after all has everything to do with how identity is constructed for the outside world. There’s no lack of thinking when it comes to inner life, working life, creative life and public life, but when fashion comes up, the attitude tends to be knee-jerk and programmatic. Take Greer’s climactic moment at the end of “The Female Eunuch,??? where she creates a sort of bill of rights, inciting women to: “. . . refuse hobbles and deformity and take possession of your body and glory in its power, accepting its own laws of loveliness.??? In fact some of the most powerful, liberated women I know choose to hobble around in the craziest skyscraper shoes. “The higher the heel,??? they say, “the better I feel.???</p>
<p>But the other part of Greer’s declaration — that women have the right to control their own bodies — is as resonant today as it was when she wrote it nearly 40 years ago. One can see that drama being played out in the fashion arena right now, with the debate over skinny models brought to a head by the deaths last fall of two South American catwalkers from complications of anorexia. The hysteria that resulted led to a spectacle of ignorance, hypocrisy and bureaucracy. If the issue weren’t so serious, some of the solutions proposed by bureaucrats — like models being weighed in like boxers or jockeys — would be funny. But unfortunately they don’t just infringe on everything that we are supposed to hold dear in the department of human liberties, they also display so little understanding of the disease they are trying to combat that it is frightening. So is the tendency to lump together girls who are naturally skinny with those who are sick, two very different realities. Hey, as someone who likes her fries, I’m all for bringing back a Rubenesque shape as the height of fashion, but the fact is that perceptions of beauty cannot, and will not, be dictated by laws. That’s where consciousness comes in. At the center of it all, for anorexics, but also for each of us, lies the issue of control, or as Barbara Kruger wrote in one of her most unforgettable artworks: “Your body is a battleground.??? Hopefully you win.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://chrisabraham.com/2005/09/21/manolo-blahnik-feminism-the-right-to-choos/" rel="nofollow">Manolo Blahnik Feminism: The Right to Choo&#8217;s</a></strong></p>
<blockquote><p>I call the new feminism Manolo Blahnik Feminism, which is a super-sexual, super-sexy, and super-confusing form of self-empowerment. Ariel Levy calls it &#8220;raunch culture&#8221; and I believe that it is going to blow up in American women&#8217;s faces.</p>
<p>I believe very strongly that there are too many dangerous contradiction in the new feminism, in the new American woman.</p>
<p>I attended a panel on gender differences in the new feminism and my question to the panel was, &#8220;I understand how empowering strappy stilettos, butt jeans, bare bellies, and camisole tops are for the modern woman. It is all about taking back the sex, taking back the gaze, reclaiming the control of what is cute, what is hot, what is sexy, it about taking back control, reclaiming feelings of pride in the body, pride in the shape and tan earned from an active, outdoorsy life. That&#8217;s all fine and good. Unfortunately, we men never got the memo. I never got the memo.&#8221;</p>
<p>In fact, I feel sort of like a fox in a hen house. Why? Well, all of my old-world, unenlightened, seduction techniques work now better than ever! In fact, the truth is, I am really too nice for the Manolo Blahnik k feminist.</p>
<p>The Manolo Blahnik feminist wants to be taken, wants to find a real man, wants to take risks and have a great time; she pursues a doctrine of devil may care.</p>
<p>Well, no matter what the Manolo Blahnik Feminist thinks she wants and no matter what she thinks she&#8217;s doing, she is actually walking into a very dangerous trap.</p>
<p>We men are not responding to this self-empowerment with amazement and respect, we&#8217;re responding to it by licking our lips, by taking advantage, by rubbing our hands together, and by trying not to jinx this out of being. We are pretty well convinced that what is happening won&#8217;t last: the Manolo Blahnik feminist fancies herself the aggressor, the buyer, the pursuer, the seducer. And we men are what she is after.</p>
<p>All we see is, &#8220;man that girl is fine &#8212; I&#8217;d like some of that.&#8221;</p>
<p>As men in such a seller&#8217;s market, we don&#8217;t have to choose. We can date another willing girl every night. We can push sex much faster than we ever could believe. The three-date rule? Ha! That&#8217;s the official rule, but now the first date counts from the night we first met. Oral sex on the first date has sort of become de rigueur &#8212; if you want a second date.</p>
<p>Instead of getting control, the Manolo Blahnik Feminist has relinquished control to us men.</p>
<p>And even worse, this is a very dangerous game. We men are bigger, stronger, and not all of us are so nice. I personally have a lot of experience with women who are survivors &#8212; survivors not just of dating or their 20s, but survivors of sexual abuse and rape.</p>
<p>I have loved them, I have befriended them, and I worked through relationships with women who have survived sexual abuse and rape.</p>
<p>Its always an ugly story and the world is never the same. We just have not received the memo. This kind of exciting, naughty, passionate, irresponsible, reckless indulgence in &#8220;raunch culture&#8221; is going to result in one hell of a cultural hangover.</p>
<p>Many women will be unable to recover from this self-indulgence with any semblance of faith, trust, hope, or intactness.</p>
<p>And many men, too.</p>
<p>When it comes right down to it, who would have any of the right stuff to even have faith in marriage, the family, and children after indulging in such self-destructive, self-loathing chaos?</p>
<p>Not I.</p>
<p>I am not sure if modern women have it very good. Not nearly as good as would be expected. I attended college at a high point for feminism an academia, when a woman would still identify with being a feminist.</p>
<p>Not any more.</p>
<p>Not Liberating, After All<br />
How did feminists end up in bed with Hugh Hefner?</p>
<p>BY WENDY SHALIT<br />
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT</p>
<p>Ariel Levy attended Wesleyan University in the 1990s, and she doesn&#8217;t feel the better for it. It was a place where &#8220;group sex, to say nothing of casual sex, was de rigueur.&#8221; It was a place where they had &#8220;coed showers, on principle.&#8221; When Ms. Levy suggested to a department head that it would be nice to have at least one course in the traditional literary canon, she was dismissed with icy contempt. Yet elsewhere on campus a professor of the humanities taught a course on pornography featuring, um, detailed textual analysis.</p>
<p>It was all supposed to be so liberating. But it wasn&#8217;t, as Ms. Levy argues forcefully in &#8220;Female Chauvinist Pigs.&#8221; It was merely the academic groundwork for what she calls &#8220;raunch culture,&#8221; now so ubiquitous that we take it for granted. Young women wear shirts emblazoned with &#8220;Porn Star&#8221; across the chest. Teen stores sell &#8220;Cat in the Hat&#8221; thong underwear. Parents treat their daughters&#8217; friends to &#8220;cardio striptease&#8221; classes for birthday parties. This is liberation?</p>
<p>Ms. Levy is baffled. &#8220;Why,&#8221; she wondered, &#8220;is laboring to look like Pamela Anderson empowering?&#8221; Why did female Olympic athletes pose for Playboy before the summer 2004 Games? Why did Katie Couric feel the need to point to her cleavage and gush &#8220;these are actually real!&#8221; when she guest-hosted &#8220;The Tonight Show&#8221; a couple of years ago?</p>
<p>Some sort of pervasive pressure, apparently, requires &#8220;everyone who is sexually liberated . . . to be imitating strippers and porn stars.&#8221; Ms. Levy describes the perfect distillation of this impulse&#8211;a social group called CAKE that hosts steamy, hooking-up parties in New York and London. CAKE makes big bucks advertising &#8220;feminism in action&#8221;&#8211;it claims to be the place where &#8220;sexual equality and feminism finally meet&#8221;&#8211;but its events are indistinguishable from those held at the Playboy Mansion.</p>
<p>The surface logic of such conduct is fairly simple, notes Ms. Levy. &#8220;Women had come so far,&#8221; or so the thinking went, that &#8220;we no longer needed to worry about objectification or misogyny.&#8221; If male chauvinist pigs &#8220;regarded women as pieces of meat, we would outdo them and be Female Chauvinist Pigs: women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves.&#8221;</p>
<p>Well, Ms. Levy is having none of it, and she is not the only one. Even Erica Jong seems to feel that something has gone wrong. Known for popularizing the idea that a woman may want consequence-free sex, Ms. Jong today declares: &#8220;Being able to have an orgasm with a man you don&#8217;t love . . . that is not liberation.&#8221; It isn&#8217;t? Someone should tell this to Annie, a blue-eyed 29-year-old who admits to Ms. Levy that she &#8220;used to get so hurt&#8221; after a night of sex that didn&#8217;t yield an emotional bond. Now she has gotten over it, or tried to: &#8220;I&#8217;m like a guy,&#8221; she brags.</p>
<p>How did this happen? Why did feminism sell its soul to the sexual-liberation movement in the first place? After all, the original feminists were fighting to be taken seriously. Hugh Hefner, by contrast, said that his ideal girl &#8220;resembles a bunny . . . vivacious, jumping&#8211;sexy.&#8221; There seems to be a contradiction here.</p>
<p>Ms. Levy&#8217;s answer is that, after a brief and failed fight against pornography, feminism joined forces with Hef &amp; Co. to fight for abortion rights. This is a plausible explanation, as far as it goes. Abortion has indeed assumed a primary importance in both feminist &#8220;rights&#8221; thinking and in the whole culture of soft-core libertinism: Mr. Hefner is a big fan of abortion, for obvious reasons.</p>
<p>But something else may be going on. Feminism grounded itself, in its early days, in the idea that there were no differences between the sexes. A girl wanting to keep her virginity was bad, for sexual reticence amounted to asserting a separate standard, a Victorian one at that. To Hef, modesty was a &#8220;hang-up,&#8221; and to the feminists it was a &#8220;patriarchal construct.&#8221; Ms. Levy believes that feminism was on the right track but then veered off-course: &#8220;What has moved into feminism&#8217;s place . . . is an almost opposite style, attitude, and set of principles.&#8221;</p>
<p>But maybe feminism&#8217;s foundations were weak from the start. Everyone in Ms. Levy&#8217;s book&#8211;whether it&#8217;s middle-class girls who feel anxiety about appearing &#8220;hot&#8221; or grown women who confess to Ms. Levy that &#8220;accumulating sex for its own sake . . . is not that sexual&#8221;&#8211;shows that a woman&#8217;s experience of sex and love is very different from that of an adolescent boy or a man. Indeed, the more a woman imitates a man, the clearer these differences become.</p>
<p>Paris Hilton tells Rolling Stone: &#8220;My boyfriends always tell me I&#8217;m not sexual. Sexy, but not sexual.&#8221; (Ms. Levy reports that on one of the infamous videotapes she takes a cellphone call during intercourse.) Plainly, the sexual revolution has not brought fulfillment for women. Even its mascots experience boredom, and for the civilians there is distress and heartache.</p>
<p>It may be that, like Ms. Levy, a lot of feminists now regret getting in bed with Mr. Hefner. Yet if you mention the word &#8220;modesty&#8221; within 20 feet of them their heads spin around like Linda Blair in &#8220;The Exorcist.&#8221; This is where they get stuck. Only if feminism can embrace the more traditional ways that men and women have courted throughout the ages can it have anything practical to offer young women. To the extent that feminists dismiss as worthless anything that is perceived as &#8220;backtracking,&#8221; they only help to perpetuate the &#8220;raunch culture&#8221;&#8211;even as they deplore its effects.</p>
<p>Take a beach scene that Ms. Levy recounts, when the male &#8220;friends&#8221; of two girls pressure them to take off their suits. Soon surrounded by a circle of 40 screaming men, the girls say &#8220;no way!&#8221; but eventually give in and spank each other to appease the crowd.</p>
<p>Such a girl requires, in addition to perhaps Mace, a compelling alternative to the Female Chauvinist Pig. Otherwise she may well give in to social pressure&#8211;not to mention professorial nonsense&#8211;and then wonder what&#8217;s wrong with her when she is not happy with the pig in her bed or the pig she has become.</p>
<p>Ms. Shalit is author of &#8220;A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue.&#8221; You can buy &#8220;Female Chauvinist Pigs&#8221; from the OpinionJournal bookstore.</p>
<p>September 20, 2005</p>
<p>Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/national/20women.html?ex=1127966400&amp;en=3f7348e314a603ee&amp;ei=5070&amp;emc=eta1</p>
<p>By LOUISE STORY</p>
<p>Cynthia Liu is precisely the kind of high achiever Yale wants: smart (1510 SAT), disciplined (4.0 grade point average), competitive (finalist in Texas oratory competition), musical (pianist), athletic (runner) and altruistic (hospital volunteer). And at the start of her sophomore year at Yale, Ms. Liu is full of ambition, planning to go to law school.</p>
<p>So will she join the long tradition of famous Ivy League graduates? Not likely. By the time she is 30, this accomplished 19-year-old expects to be a stay-at-home mom.</p>
<p>&#8220;My mother&#8217;s always told me you can&#8217;t be the best career woman and the best mother at the same time,&#8221; Ms. Liu said matter-of-factly. &#8220;You always have to choose one over the other.&#8221;</p>
<p>At Yale and other top colleges, women are being groomed to take their place in an ever more diverse professional elite. It is almost taken for granted that, just as they make up half the students at these institutions, they will move into leadership roles on an equal basis with their male classmates.</p>
<p>There is just one problem with this scenario: many of these women say that is not what they want.</p>
<p>Many women at the nation&#8217;s most elite colleges say they have already decided that they will put aside their careers in favor of raising children. Though some of these students are not planning to have children and some hope to have a family and work full time, many others, like Ms. Liu, say they will happily play a traditional female role, with motherhood their main commitment.</p>
<p>Much attention has been focused on career women who leave the work force to rear children. What seems to be changing is that while many women in college two or three decades ago expected to have full-time careers, their daughters, while still in college, say they have already decided to suspend or end their careers when they have children.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the height of the women&#8217;s movement and shortly thereafter, women were much more firm in their expectation that they could somehow combine full-time work with child rearing,&#8221; said Cynthia E. Russett, a professor of American history who has taught at Yale since 1967. &#8220;The women today are, in effect, turning realistic.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dr. Russett is among more than a dozen faculty members and administrators at the most exclusive institutions who have been on campus for decades and who said in interviews that they had noticed the changing attitude.</p>
<p>Many students say staying home is not a shocking idea among their friends. Shannon Flynn, an 18-year-old from Guilford, Conn., who is a freshman at Harvard, says many of her girlfriends do not want to work full time.</p>
<p>&#8220;Most probably do feel like me, maybe even tending toward wanting to not work at all,&#8221; said Ms. Flynn, who plans to work part time after having children, though she is torn because she has worked so hard in school.</p>
<p>&#8220;Men really aren&#8217;t put in that position,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>Uzezi Abugo, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania who hopes to become a lawyer, says she, too, wants to be home with her children at least until they are in school.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen the difference between kids who did have their mother stay at home and kids who didn&#8217;t, and it&#8217;s kind of like an obvious difference when you look at it,&#8221; said Ms. Abugo, whose mother, a nurse, stayed home until Ms. Abugo was in first grade.</p>
<p>While the changing attitudes are difficult to quantify, the shift emerges repeatedly in interviews with Ivy League students, including 138 freshman and senior females at Yale who replied to e-mail questions sent to members of two residential colleges over the last school year.</p>
<p>The interviews found that 85 of the students, or roughly 60 percent, said that when they had children, they planned to cut back on work or stop working entirely. About half of those women said they planned to work part time, and about half wanted to stop work for at least a few years.</p>
<p>Two of the women interviewed said they expected their husbands to stay home with the children while they pursued their careers. Two others said either they or their husbands would stay home, depending on whose career was furthest along.</p>
<p>The women said that pursuing a rigorous college education was worth the time and money because it would help position them to work in meaningful part-time jobs when their children are young or to attain good jobs when their children leave home.</p>
<p>In recent years, elite colleges have emphasized the important roles they expect their alumni &#8211; both men and women &#8211; to play in society.</p>
<p>For example, earlier this month, Shirley M. Tilghman, the president of Princeton University, welcomed new freshmen, saying: &#8220;The goal of a Princeton education is to prepare young men and women to take up positions of leadership in the 21st century. Of course, the word &#8216;leadership&#8217; conjures up images of presidents and C.E.O.&#8217;s, but I want to stress that my idea of a leader is much broader than that.&#8221;</p>
<p>She listed education, medicine and engineering as other areas where students could become leaders.</p>
<p>In an e-mail response to a question, Dr. Tilghman added: &#8220;There is nothing inconsistent with being a leader and a stay-at-home parent. Some women (and a handful of men) whom I have known who have done this have had a powerful impact on their communities.&#8221;</p>
<p>Yet the likelihood that so many young women plan to opt out of high-powered careers presents a conundrum.</p>
<p>&#8220;It really does raise this question for all of us and for the country: when we work so hard to open academics and other opportunities for women, what kind of return do we expect to get for that?&#8221; said Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of undergraduate admissions at Harvard, who served as dean for coeducation in the late 1970&#8242;s and early 1980&#8242;s.</p>
<p>It is a complicated issue and one that most schools have not addressed. The women they are counting on to lead society are likely to marry men who will make enough money to give them a real choice about whether to be full-time mothers, unlike those women who must work out of economic necessity.</p>
<p>It is less than clear what universities should, or could, do about it. For one, a person&#8217;s expectations at age 18 are less than perfect predictors of their life choices 10 years later. And in any case, admissions officers are not likely to ask applicants whether they plan to become stay-at-home moms.</p>
<p>University officials said that success meant different things to different people and that universities were trying to broaden students&#8217; minds, not simply prepare them for jobs.</p>
<p>&#8220;What does concern me,&#8221; said Peter Salovey, the dean of Yale College, &#8220;is that so few students seem to be able to think outside the box; so few students seem to be able to imagine a life for themselves that isn&#8217;t constructed along traditional gender roles.&#8221;</p>
<p>There is, of course, nothing new about women being more likely than men to stay home to rear children.</p>
<p>According to a 2000 survey of Yale alumni from the classes of 1979, 1984, 1989 and 1994, conducted by the Yale Office of Institutional Research, more men from each of those classes than women said that work was their primary activity &#8211; a gap that was small among alumni in their 20&#8242;s but widened as women moved into their prime child-rearing years. Among the alumni surveyed who had reached their 40&#8242;s, only 56 percent of the women still worked, compared with 90 percent of the men.</p>
<p>A 2005 study of comparable Yale alumni classes found that the pattern had not changed. Among the alumni who had reached their early 40&#8242;s, just over half said work was their primary activity, compared with 90 percent of the men. Among the women who had reached their late 40&#8242;s, some said they had returned to work, but the percentage of women working was still far behind the percentage of men.</p>
<p>A 2001 survey of Harvard Business School graduates found that 31 percent of the women from the classes of 1981, 1985 and 1991 who answered the survey worked only part time or on contract, and another 31 percent did not work at all, levels strikingly similar to the percentages of the Yale students interviewed who predicted they would stay at home or work part time in their 30&#8242;s and 40&#8242;s.</p>
<p>What seems new is that while many of their mothers expected to have hard-charging careers, then scaled back their professional plans only after having children, the women of this generation expect their careers to take second place to child rearing.</p>
<p>&#8220;It never occurred to me,&#8221; Rebecca W. Bushnell, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, said about working versus raising children. &#8220;Thirty years ago when I was heading out, I guess I was just taking it one step at a time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dr. Bushnell said young women today, in contrast, are thinking and talking about part-time or flexible work options for when they have children. &#8220;People have a heightened awareness of trying to get the right balance between work and family.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sarah Currie, a senior at Harvard, said many of the men in her American Family class last fall approved of women&#8217;s plans to stay home with their children.</p>
<p>&#8220;A lot of the guys were like, &#8216;I think that&#8217;s really great,&#8217; &#8221; Ms. Currie said. &#8220;One of the guys was like, &#8216;I think that&#8217;s sexy.&#8217; Staying at home with your children isn&#8217;t as polarizing of an issue as I envision it is for women who are in their 30&#8242;s now.&#8221;</p>
<p>For most of the young women who responded to e-mail questions, a major factor shaping their attitudes seemed to be their experience with their own mothers, about three out of five of whom did not work at all, took several years off or worked only part time.</p>
<p>&#8220;My stepmom&#8217;s very proud of my choice because it makes her feel more valuable,&#8221; said Kellie Zesch, a Texan who graduated from the University of North Carolina two years ago and who said that once she had children, she intended to stay home for at least five years and then consider working part time. &#8220;It justified it to her, that I don&#8217;t look down on her for not having a career.&#8221;</p>
<p>Similarly, students who are committed to full-time careers, without breaks, also cited their mothers as influences. Laura Sullivan, a sophomore at Yale who wants to be a lawyer, called her mother&#8217;s choice to work full time the &#8220;greatest gift.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;She showed me what it meant to be an amazing mother and maintain a career,&#8221; Ms. Sullivan said.</p>
<p>Some of these women&#8217;s mothers, who said they did not think about these issues so early in their lives, said they were surprised to hear that their college-age daughters had already formed their plans.</p>
<p>Emily Lechner, one of Ms. Liu&#8217;s roommates, hopes to stay home a few years, then work part time as a lawyer once her children are in school.</p>
<p>Her mother, Carol, who once thought she would have a full-time career but gave it up when her children were born, was pleasantly surprised to hear that. &#8220;I do have this bias that the parents can do it best,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I see a lot of women in their 30&#8242;s who have full-time nannies, and I just question if their kids are getting the best.&#8221;</p>
<p>For many feminists, it may come as a shock to hear how unbothered many young women at the nation&#8217;s top schools are by the strictures of traditional roles.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are still thinking of this as a private issue; they&#8217;re accepting it,&#8221; said Laura Wexler, a professor of American studies and women&#8217;s and gender studies at Yale. &#8220;Women have been given full-time working career opportunities and encouragement with no social changes to support it.</p>
<p>&#8220;I really believed 25 years ago,&#8221; Dr. Wexler added, &#8220;that this would be solved by now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Angie Ku, another of Ms. Liu&#8217;s roommates who had a stay-at-home mom, talks nonchalantly about attending law or business school, having perhaps a 10-year career and then staying home with her children.</p>
<p>&#8220;Parents have such an influence on their children,&#8221; Ms. Ku said. &#8220;I want to have that influence. Me!&#8221;</p>
<p>She said she did not mind if that limited her career potential.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll have a career until I have two kids,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t necessarily matter how far you get. It&#8217;s kind of like the experience: I have tried what I wanted to do.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ms. Ku added that she did not think it was a problem that women usually do most of the work raising kids.</p>
<p>&#8220;I accept things how they are,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t mind the status quo. I don&#8217;t see why I have to go against it.&#8221;</p>
<p>After all, she added, those roles got her where she is.</p>
<p>&#8220;It worked so well for me,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and I don&#8217;t see in my life why it wouldn&#8217;t work.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thanks to Carrie for sending me this article.</p>
<p>My dear friend commented on this part of the article, &#8220;And when it comes right down to it, who would have any of the right stuff to even have faith in marriage, the family, and children after indulging in such self-destructive, self-loathing chaos?&#8221;</p>
<p>Her response was, &#8220;&#8230;.Therein lies the pitfall&#8230;. Once you start tasting of that forbidden apple, the garden of romance can all too easily dissapear! This, i think, is why many parents of our generation divorced &#8212; lack of faith in love is a direct result of the &#8220;free love&#8221; movement. Someone needs to warn the young!!! They need to be made aware of the booby-traps. Otherwise we are all just walking around with broken flowers, feeling numb to the pain we don&#8217;t even realize we are entitled to have.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Hill Holliday is an Expert at Textual Healing Flash for SEO</title>
		<link>http://chrisabraham.com/2006/11/29/hill-holliday-is-an-expert-at-textual-healing-flash-for-seo/</link>
		<comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2006/11/29/hill-holliday-is-an-expert-at-textual-healing-flash-for-seo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:34:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[I worship Hill Holliday. They have their required Flash &#8220;brand presence&#8221; with all the fancy &#8220;interactive&#8221; requirements, and that takes up 800&#215;600. Were that all, I would blanch and spit on the ground. I hate Flash because I am highly textual. So, go to Hill &#124; Holliday and then&#8230; wait for it &#8230; scroll down. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div align="right" style="float: right; padding: 0px 0px 5px 5px;"><a name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2006/11/29/hill-holliday-is-an-expert-at-textual-healing-flash-for-seo/"></a></div><div class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2006%2F11%2F29%2Fhill-holliday-is-an-expert-at-textual-healing-flash-for-seo%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chrisabraham.com%2FHill-Holliday.gif&description=Hill+Holliday+is+an+Expert+at+Textual+Healing+Flash+for+SEO" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Hill Holliday is an Expert at Textual Healing Flash for SEO" /></a></div><p><a href="http://www.hhcc.com/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.chrisabraham.com/Hill-Holliday.gif" alt="Hill Holliday Hill Holliday is an Expert at Textual Healing Flash for SEO" align="left" border="0" width="100" height="141" hspace="5" title="Hill Holliday is an Expert at Textual Healing Flash for SEO" /></a>I worship <a href="http://www.hhcc.com/" rel="nofollow">Hill Holliday</a>. They have their required Flash <em>&#8220;brand presence&#8221;</em> with all the fancy <em>&#8220;interactive&#8221;</em> requirements, and that takes up 800&#215;600. Were that all, I would blanch and spit on the ground.</p>
<p><span id="more-3314"></span><br />
I hate Flash because I am highly textual. So, go to <a href="http://www.hhcc.com/" rel="nofollow">Hill | Holliday</a> and then&#8230; wait for it &#8230; scroll down. Yes, the entire <a href="http://www.hhcc.com/" rel="nofollow">Hill Holliday</a> corporate site is a simple header on the top of a powerful and admired blog. A powerful and admired vertical and industry blog. Brilliant! <em>Bravo</em>!</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s why this is all so important: Google and the other search engines don&#8217;t see Flash-based sites: they&#8217;re invisible.  Read this&#8230; <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-7310228388890295"; google_ad_output = "textlink"; google_ad_format = "ref_text"; google_cpa_choice = "CAAQhOSQ_QEaCJ0mn-838cQbKKjntoQB"; google_ad_channel = ""; //--> </script><br
/><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"> </script></p><blockquote><p><strong>Make Your Invisible Graphics-Intensive or Flash Site Highy Visible to Google</strong></p><p>Chances are that your corporate website is beautiful and expensive. Beautiful websites tend to be rich in graphics, images, photos, and Flash content. They also tend to be shallow with few pages and very little copy. Sites like this are almost impossible for Google to find. If Google can&#8217;t find you then neither can your customer. Until now. This article helps you turn your invisible corporate website into a high-profile and highly-effective medium for communication.</p><p>This article is designed to help you turn your stealth website into a big, loud, impressive, bomber of a website with plenty of payload capacity, the payload being your company, your message, your products, your services, and your story.</p><p>Corporate websites that are highly graphics-intensive or are built using Macromedia Flash or Shockwave rich content are pretty much invisible to every search engine because search engines want nothing more than lots and lots of descriptive and rich content. In general, the prettier the site, the more impossible it is to actually find unless you know just where to look.</p><p>Websites are delivery vehicles and their payloads are your company message, your products, your services, your brand, your culture, and your story.  Is your company website an F-117 stealth fighter, only visible to people who know where to look and only carrying a small payload, or is your company a C-130 Hercules, filling the sky with its size and noise and carrying a massive payload.</p><p>There are some important things to consider when optimizing a web site for search engines, using Google as the gold standard. SEO requires three things, two of which most web developers and companies do good jobs: rich textual title content, rich textual metadata content (in the form of meta tag keywords and description), and rich body textual content.</p><p>Most websites suffers from a strong lack in rich body textual content because they are in general built like brochures: very shallow and very graphical. Sites that rely heavily on either image files or Flash content suffer disproportionately when it comes to search engine ranking. Why?</p><p>Because search engines can only index the content that web sites offer them and the only content that the search engines can use is plain text. Although handsome, graphically-rich sites don&#8217;t have either the diversity or the sheer volume of keyword phrases that text-rich sites have. In addition to pure volume, search engines also need to find all keyword variations of your service – all variations of the service that your potential clients might use.  Search engines also care about what is called “keyword density?? which means that the most readable of copy isn&#8217;t necessarily the most findable.</p><p><strong>Keep Pronouns to a Strict Minimum</strong></p><p>First, never use pronouns. Keyword density is essential to how Google ranks you. Second, use variations on search terms.  To illustrate the first two points, I will take a bit of copy and optimize it for search engines and their love for keyword density. Instead of this:</p><p>“Viral marketing is now an essential strategy for every firm. It has become as essential to small and large firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, it has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.??</p><p>Try this:</p><p>“Viral marketing is now an essential marketing strategy for every marketing firm. Viral marketing, also known as relationship marketing, buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, conversational marketing, and passion marketing, has become as essential to small and large marketing firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, viral marketing has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.??</p><p>Yes, you&#8217;re appalled by its inefficiency and wordiness. Your boss would never approve, nor would your writing coach. Tough. This is not about winning the PEN/Faulkner, its about arousing Google’s algorithms.  Of course, I am exaggerating in order to make a point.  I removed all the pronouns and made sure that everything is completely contextualized – not for your visitors, but rather for the search engines.</p><p>For my example, I made sure that there was a broad diversity of all the ways people might search for this content.  In addition, I made sure that I also mentioned all the buzzwords and key terms that I could imagine.  Brainstorming with your sales and communication team or looking at the kind of words and wording your competitors use is always a great idea.</p><p><strong>The Controversial Image ALT Tag</strong></p><p>Although there is much debate over whether Google pays any attention to ALT tags for images, I always recommend adding ALT tags to all image files, even when the web page is made up of a “sliced image.??  The only ALT tags that exist are usually in the banner of the site.  No other parts of a highly graphical or flash-based main page are usually textualized using image ALT tags.</p><p>Your company slogan, tagline, phone number, guarantees, products, services, the menu choices (navigation) should be included in the image ALT tags.   Even if Google doesn&#8217;t care about ALT tags like the rumors say, the site will be way more navigable, especially to the blind and seeing impaired – and don&#8217;t they deserve a break?  don&#8217;t they need your services, too?</p><p><strong>Google&#8217;s &#8220;Eyes&#8221; Focus on Where Your Eyes Do</strong></p><p>Google give favor and weight to headers and emphasized text. No matter what anyone says, Google cares about formatting.  Strong, Bold, Emphasized, Italicized, and Hyperlinked text is favored by Google.  Also, Google looks at header tags, too.  Header 1, Header 2, Header 3, and Header 4 are important to use. This is especially important because when the same desigers who have you that &#8220;sliced&#8221; graphics-based site, they might have designer the CSS style sheet without concern for these thing.  CSS styles can change the look of regular HTML tags as easily as they can customized DIVs, SPANS, and STYLES.</p><p><strong>Corporate Blogs</strong></p><p>Corporate blogging is essential to the growth of online properties for a number of reasons, including access to the blogosphere and its interested and passionate community of bloggers and blog-readers. Blogs offer built-in useful tools such as RSS syndication, comments, outgoing links, blogrolls, trackbacks, a richness of text and textual content, and the ability to build celebrity and personality online through a first-person relationship with said blogosphere, current, and future customers.</p><p>Since potential and future clients are clueless as to how the company works, how you have grown the company, why you chose to go into this business, and what your vision is, this is a great opportunity to share yourself as the owner, as someone who has his finger on the pulse, and also to directly respond to the curious and the unconvinced.  It would also allow you to accept and then publish shameless testimonials from real fans like me.  It would also allow you to publish any and all positive or neutral mentions (testimonials or otherwise) about the blog or your official corporate website.</p><p><strong>Corporate Blog as SEO Strategy</strong></p><p>The Search Engine Optimization of your official corporate website will aid in the site’s “findability?? in Google, MSN, and Yahoo!. There are other things that Google and the other search engines consider in addition to the textual completeness of the entire web property.  The most important are the depth of the site (more pages are better), number of links and interlinks to and from the site (can be within the same site), and the frequency with which the site gets updated.  A traditional corporate web site is shallow, poorly-linked (especially to external sources) and can oftentimes go for months without being updated.  If Google can figure out that your site isn&#8217;t changing, it passes it over for constant indexing. It does this because Google has a finite number of resources and will revoke any resources it can in order to preserve them. Since the Internet is vast, Google give priority to web sites and web pages that are constantly-updated such as blogs.  Blogs are constantly-updated, deep, many-paged sites that are constantly being updated and constantly being spidered by search engine robots.</p><p><strong>Corporate Blog as Community Outreach</strong></p><p>No matter how many cool offers there might be online and no matter how much of a your company’s products and services might be, a real angle in the entire blogosphere and blog world is in not only letting your service speak for itself but also that people are even more attracted to story, personality, and the behind-the-scene experience of both the people who run companies and their clients than they are to the services themselves.  If you have the time, passion, and wherewithal to put the time and energy into really reaching out to the blogosphere and the community of readers and bloggers, you can get quite an amount of influence and sway – real impact and market penetration – by just building a relationship with the blogsavvy, wealthy, young, and the professional – people with money, in other words.  These types of people, 25-45, are the same sort of people who spend a lot of time reading blogs.</p><p><strong>Blog Community Outreach</strong></p><p>One powerful technique for building community on blogs is to first find a compelling item about your industry, products, and services then search for the blogs that are already talking about it on <a
href="http://Technorat.com" rel="nofollow">Technorat</a>i. It is much easier to message on blogs that are already having friendly conversation.</p><p><strong>Technorati as Strategic Tool</strong></p><p>Spread the word online:  People are already talking about how busy they are, how awful their places look, and so forth &#8212; tell them about your company, your culture, your history, your story, your products, and the services you offer – and do it openly and honestly and place your own name, your own email, and either the URL of your web site or the URL of the blog itself. Here&#8217;s how:</p><p>1) Go to <a
href="http://Technorati.com" rel="nofollow">Technorati.com</a>, a blog search engine.</p><p>2) Type in one or more of the keyword phrase in your Meta Tag keywords</p><p>3) Go to the blogs that are talking about your company, industry, products, and services</p><p>4) Where appropriate, leave a short note about your company or your corporate blog</p><p>5) Come back the next day (or as often as you can) and do the same thing but be sure to follow-up with the conversation because dropping a message without coming back is considered spam and in the blogosphere, an ounce or prevention is worth a pound of cure.</p><p><strong>Submit your Blog and Website to Search Engines</strong></p><p>I personally use <a
href="http://www.submission2000.com/products/ds7/index.html" rel="nofollow">Dynamic Submission</a>, but there are a bunch. <a
href="http://www.web-positiongold.com/pro-web-position-gold.html" rel="nofollow">Web Position Gold</a> is another fave. I choose Dynamic Submission because it allows me to spider my entire blog to within an inch of its life and then submit not just the site&#8217;s arteries but also all the way down to the site&#8217;s villi as well.  In my opinion, search engines are lazy. They have only so many resources and so many nanoseconds in the day.  They need to put first things first.  So what I do before I spider the blog is set the index page of the blog to view 365-days of posts, or maybe a bunch of weeks, so that I can spider most of the blog from one &#8220;Import from Web.&#8221;  When the import is complete, I change it back to showing only the last 7 days.  I even maintain a separate box on which to host the Dynamic Submission tool because it&#8217;s such a processor hog.  And then let it go.  Seems to work like a charm.  Why?  Well, not because I am doing anything unseamly but rather just because Google and the rest sometimes miss something and I want to make sure that all the engines get everything.  Every little dumbass link.</p><p><strong>The Services You Might Want to Employ</strong></p><p>Although I have not used the services, one respectable way of increasing your link popularity and prestige in Google is to use a service like <a
href="http://www.text-link-ads.com/?ref=14720" rel="nofollow">Text Link Ads</a>.  What <a
href="http://www.text-link-ads.com/?ref=14720" rel="nofollow">Text Link Ads</a>s offers is a link-buying service that does double-duty.  The double duty is as follows: in addition to creating clickable links on the popular sites that can choose and afford, it will also allow you to legally create Google bombs that will heighten the probability that your company website or your corporate blog will turn up when people search for your company, your industry, your market, your products, and your services.</p><p>Employing &#8220;localized&#8221; Google AdWords, content-based Google AdWords, and search-based Google AdWords is a no-brainer.  There are other advertising solutions available now, including finding the advertising networks that might be placed on some of the blogs you find the most focused or relevant, including <a
href="http://BlogAds.com" rel="nofollow">BlogAds</a>, etc.</p><p>Okay, I hope that helps.  I am tired of writing but if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask me questions below in the comment section and I will both answer them and also use your questions, comments, feedback, and suggestions to fuel future articles.</p></blockquote><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=2629</guid> <description><![CDATA[I collected all of my personal blog articles to-date on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and have been handing them out to folks who still believe that SEO is snake oil and I thought I would share them with you, too, since most of you students of blogging actually want your words, your passion, and your [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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name="fb_share" type="button" share_url="http://chrisabraham.com/2006/06/14/search-engine-optimization-works-like-a-champ/"></a></div><div
class="pin-it-btn-wrapper"><a
href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchrisabraham.com%2F2006%2F06%2F14%2Fsearch-engine-optimization-works-like-a-champ%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.zemanta.com%2Freadside%2Floader.js&description=Search+Engine+Optimization+Works+like+a+Champ" count-layout="horizontal" class="pin-it-button2" ><img
border="0" style="border:0;" src="//assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" title="Pin It" alt="PinExt Search Engine Optimization Works like a Champ" /></a></div><p>I collected all of <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/seo">my personal blog</a> articles to-date on <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/search_engines/"><em>Search Engine Optimization</em></a> (<a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/seo/">SEO</a>) and have been handing them out to folks who still believe that SEO is snake oil and I thought I would share them with you, too, since most of you students of blogging actually want your words, your passion, and your voice to be heard.</p><p><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/04/make_your_invis.php">Make Your Invisible Graphics-Intensive or Flash Site Highly Visible to Google</a></strong></p><blockquote><p><em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">Until now</span></em>. This article helps you turn your invisible corporate website into a high-profile and highly-effective medium for communication.</p><p>This article is designed to help you turn your stealth website into a big, loud, impressive, bomber of a website with plenty of payload capacity, the payload being your company, your message, your products, your services, and your story.</p><p>Corporate websites that are highly graphics-intensive or are built using Macromedia Flash or Shockwave rich content are pretty much invisible to every search engine because search engines want nothing more than lots and lots of descriptive and rich content. In general, the prettier the site, the more impossible it is to actually find unless you know just where to look.</p><p>Websites are delivery vehicles and their payloads are your company message, your products, your services, your brand, your culture, and your story. Is your company website an F-117 stealth fighter, only visible to people who know where to look and only carrying a small payload, or is your company a C-130 Hercules, filling the sky with its size and noise and carrying a massive payload.There are some important things to consider when optimizing a web site for search engines, using Google as the gold standard. SEO requires three things, two of which most web developers and companies do good jobs: rich textual title content, rich textual metadata content (in the form of meta tag keywords and description), and rich body textual content.</p><p>Most websites suffers from a strong lack in rich body textual content because they are in general built like brochures: very shallow and very graphical. Sites that rely heavily on either image files or Flash content suffer disproportionately when it comes to search engine ranking. Why?</p><p>Because search engines can only index the content that web sites offer them and the only content that the search engines can use is plain text. Although handsome, graphically-rich sites don&#8217;t have either the diversity or the sheer volume of keyword phrases that text-rich sites have. In addition to pure volume, search engines also need to find all keyword variations of your service – all variations of the service that your potential clients might use. Search engines also care about what is called “keyword density??? which means that the most readable of copy isn&#8217;t necessarily the most findable.</p><p><strong>Keep Pronouns to a Strict Minimum</strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>First, never use pronouns. Keyword density is essential to how Google ranks you. Second, use variations on search terms. To illustrate the first two points, I will take a bit of copy and optimize it for search engines and their love for keyword density. Instead of this:</p><p><em>“Viral marketing is now an essential strategy for every firm. It has become as essential to small and large firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, it has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.???</em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>Try this:</p><p><em>“Viral marketing is now an essential marketing strategy for every marketing firm. Viral marketing, also known as relationship marketing, buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, conversational marketing, and passion marketing, has become as essential to small and large marketing firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, viral marketing has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.???</em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>Yes, you&#8217;re appalled by its inefficiency and wordiness. Your boss would never approve, nor would your writing coach. Tough. This is not about winning the PEN/Faulkner, its about arousing Google’s algorithms. Of course, I am exaggerating in order to make a point. I removed all the pronouns and made sure that everything is completely contextualized – not for your visitors, but rather for the search engines.</p><p>For my example, I made sure that there was a broad diversity of all the ways people might search for this content. In addition, I made sure that I also mentioned all the buzzwords and key terms that I could imagine. Brainstorming with your sales and communication team or looking at the kind of words and wording your competitors use is always a great idea.</p><p><strong>The Controversial Image ALT Tag</strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>Although there is much debate over whether Google pays any attention to ALT tags for images, I always recommend adding ALT tags to all image files, even when the web page is made up of a “sliced image.??? The only ALT tags that exist are usually in the banner of the site. No other parts of a highly graphical or flash-based main page are usually textualized using image ALT tags.</p><p>Your company slogan, tagline, phone number, guarantees, products, services, the menu choices (navigation) should be included in the image ALT tags. Even if Google doesn&#8217;t care about ALT tags like the rumors say, the site will be way more navigable, especially to the blind and seeing impaired – and don&#8217;t they deserve a break? don&#8217;t they need your services, too?</p><p><strong>Google&#8217;s &#8220;Eyes&#8221; Focus on Where Your Eyes Do</strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>Google give favor and weight to headers and emphasized text. No matter what anyone says, Google cares about formatting. Strong, Bold, Emphasized, Italicized, and Hyperlinked text is favored by Google. Also, Google looks at header tags, too. Header 1, Header 2, Header 3, and Header 4 are important to use. This is especially important because when the same desigers who have you that &#8220;sliced&#8221; graphics-based site, they might have designer the CSS style sheet without concern for these thing. CSS styles can change the look of regular HTML tags as easily as they can customized DIVs, SPANS, and STYLES.</p><p><strong>Corporate Blogs</strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>Corporate blogging is essential to the growth of online properties for a number of reasons, including access to the blogosphere and its interested and passionate community of bloggers and blog-readers. Blogs offer built-in useful tools such as RSS syndication, comments, outgoing links, blogrolls, trackbacks, a richness of text and textual content, and the ability to build celebrity and personality online through a first-person relationship with said blogosphere, current, and future customers.Since potential and future clients are clueless as to how the company works, how you have grown the company, why you chose to go into this business, and what your vision is, this is a great opportunity to share yourself as the owner, as someone who has his finger on the pulse, and also to directly respond to the curious and the unconvinced. It would also allow you to accept and then publish shameless testimonials from real fans like me. It would also allow you to publish any and all positive or neutral mentions (testimonials or otherwise) about the blog or your official corporate website.</p><p><strong>Corporate Blog as SEO Strategy</strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>The Search Engine Optimization of your official corporate website will aid in the site’s “findability??? in Google, MSN, and Yahoo!. There are other things that Google and the other search engines consider in addition to the textual completeness of the entire web property. The most important are the depth of the site (more pages are better), number of links and interlinks to and from the site (can be within the same site), and the frequency with which the site gets updated. A traditional corporate web site is shallow, poorly-linked (especially to external sources) and can oftentimes go for months without being updated. If Google can figure out that your site isn&#8217;t changing, it passes it over for constant indexing. It does this because Google has a finite number of resources and will revoke any resources it can in order to preserve them. Since the Internet is vast, Google give priority to web sites and web pages that are constantly-updated such as blogs. Blogs are constantly-updated, deep, many-paged sites that are constantly being updated and constantly being spidered by search engine robots.</p><p><strong>Corporate Blog as Community Outreach</strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p>No matter how many cool offers there might be online and no matter how much of a your company’s products and services might be, a real angle in the entire blogosphere and blog world is in not only letting your service speak for itself but also that people are even more attracted to story, personality, and the behind-the-scene experience of both the people who run companies and their clients than they are to the services themselves. If you have the time, passion, and wherewithal to put the time and energy into really reaching out to the blogosphere and the community of readers and bloggers, you can get quite an amount of influence and sway – real impact and market penetration – by just building a relationship with the blogsavvy, wealthy, young, and the professional – people with money, in other words. These types of people, 25-45, are the same sort of people who spend a lot of time reading blogs.</p><p><strong>Blog Community Outreach</strong></p><p>One powerful technique for building community on blogs is to first find a compelling item about your industry, products, and services then search for the blogs that are already talking about it on <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://technorat.com/">Technorat</a>i. It is much easier to message on blogs that are already having friendly conversation.</p><p><strong>Technorati as Strategic Tool</strong></p><p>Spread the word online: People are already talking about how busy they are, how awful their places look, and so forth &#8212; tell them about your company, your culture, your history, your story, your products, and the services you offer – and do it openly and honestly and place your own name, your own email, and either the URL of your web site or the URL of the blog itself. Here&#8217;s how:1) Go to <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://technorati.com/">Technorati.com</a>, a blog search engine.</p><p>2) Type in one or more of the keyword phrase in your Meta Tag keywords</p><p>3) Go to the blogs that are talking about your company, industry, products, and services</p><p>4) Where appropriate, leave a short note about your company or your corporate blog</p><p>5) Come back the next day (or as often as you can) and do the same thing but be sure to follow-up with the conversation because dropping a message without coming back is considered spam and in the blogosphere, an ounce or prevention is worth a pound of cure.</p><p><strong>Submit your Blog and Website to Search Engines</strong></p><p>I personally use <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.submission2000.com/products/ds7/index.html">Dynamic Submission</a>, but there are a bunch. <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.web-positiongold.com/pro-web-position-gold.html">Web Position Gold</a> is another fave. I choose Dynamic Submission because it allows me to spider my entire blog to within an inch of its life and then submit not just the site&#8217;s arteries but also all the way down to the site&#8217;s villi as well. In my opinion, search engines are lazy. They have only so many resources and so many nanoseconds in the day. They need to put first things first. So what I do before I spider the blog is set the index page of the blog to view 365-days of posts, or maybe a bunch of weeks, so that I can spider most of the blog from one &#8220;Import from Web.&#8221; When the import is complete, I change it back to showing only the last 7 days. I even maintain a separate box on which to host the Dynamic Submission tool because it&#8217;s such a processor hog. And then let it go. Seems to work like a charm. Why? Well, not because I am doing anything unseamly but rather just because Google and the rest sometimes miss something and I want to make sure that all the engines get everything. Every little dumbass link.<br
/> <strong></strong></p><p><strong><span
style="font-family: Arial;">The Services You Might Want to Employ</span></strong></p><p>Although I have not used the services, one respectable way of increasing your link popularity and prestige in Google is to use a service like <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.text-link-ads.com/?ref=14720">Text Link Ads</a>. What <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.text-link-ads.com/?ref=14720">Text Link Ads</a>s offers is a link-buying service that does double-duty. The double duty is as follows: in addition to creating clickable links on the popular sites that can choose and afford, it will also allow you to legally create Google bombs that will heighten the probability that your company website or your corporate blog will turn up when people search for your company, your industry, your market, your products, and your services.</p><p>Employing &#8220;localized&#8221; Google AdWords, content-based Google AdWords, and search-based Google AdWords is a no-brainer. There are other advertising solutions available now, including finding the advertising networks that might be placed on some of the blogs you find the most focused or relevant, including <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://blogads.com/">BlogAds</a>, etc.</p><p>Okay, I hope that helps. I am tired of writing but if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask me questions below in the comment section and I will both answer them and also use your questions, comments, feedback, and suggestions to fuel future articles.<span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/optimize_your_b.php"></a></span></p><p><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #ff6600; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/optimize_your_b.php">Control Your Google Listing</a></span></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">I control all the aspects of the following return &#8212; title <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">and</span></em> description <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">(and maybe even placement)</span></em>. <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">You should too!</span></em></span></p><p>How did I do that? Well, I just wrote some code and pasted it into my blog template, above the opening tag, between the and tags. Simple but mightily effective!</p><p><em>Holler!</em></p><p>If you optimize your blog you can control the way Google shows your site to the world.</p><p>Be sure to add a &#8220;description&#8221; meta tag as Google uses it in search returns (and you can control Google&#8217;s description of your site). If you don&#8217;t want to top there, you can continue with the whole lots of meta tags.</p><p>If you want to see what meta tags I use, they&#8217;re listed at the bottom of this article. I will paste my tags at the end of here for you to enjoy. Also, make sure you give &#8220;alt&#8221; and &#8220;title&#8221; tags to all of your images and &#8220;title&#8221; tags to all of your links.</p><p><em>(For you newbies, the meta tags all go within the header tags in your blog template. So you will need to do some template editing.)</em></p><p><strong>Four</strong>, find a <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/11/google_sitemap_1.html">Google Sitemap plug-in</a> and use it.</p><p>Five, submit your blog as though it were a traditional website. I personally use <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.submission2000.com/products/ds7/index.html">Dynamic Submission</a>, but there are a bunch. <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.web-positiongold.com/pro-web-position-gold.html">Web Position Gold</a> is another fave. I choose Dynamic Submission because it allows me to spider my entire blog to within an inch of its life and then submit not just the site&#8217;s arteries but also all the way down to the site&#8217;s villi as well. In my opinion, search engines are lazy. They have only so many resources and so many nanoseconds in the day. They need to put first things first. So what I do before I spider the blog is set the index page of the blog to view 365-days of posts, or maybe a bunch of weeks, so that I can spider most of the blog from one &#8220;Import from Web.&#8221; When the import is complete, I change it back to showing only the last 7 days. I even maintain a separate box on which to host the Dynamic Submission tool because it&#8217;s such a processor hog. And then let it go. Seems to work like a charm. Why? Well, not because I am doing anything unseamly but rather just because Google and the rest sometimes miss something and I want to make sure that all the engines get everything. Every little dumbass link.</p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/quick_blog_sear.php"></a></span><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/quick_blog_sear.php"></a><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/quick_blog_sear.php"><strong></strong></a><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/quick_blog_sear.php">Quick Blog Search Engine Optimization Tips You Can Control</a></strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">Google, Yahoo!, and MSN already love you, blogger, so just <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">write, write, write</span></em>. If you have more time and an inclination you can continue reading.</span></p><p>Without doing anything to your blog, you have an advantage which is lots and lots of text that is generally topic-centric and frequently updated. You are already ahead of the game. Add to that that Google loves you and cares about keeping up with the blogosphere and you can safely stop reading now and be fine. Just make sure you write something twice a day.</p><p>Although the most important part of SEO is getting Very Important People to link to you, there is a lot you can do on your own that I will go into below (I also go over how I think Google works in <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/10/how_google_prob.html">How Google Probably Ranks Your Site in My Opinion</a>).</p><p><strong>First, </strong><em><strong>never use pronouns</strong></em>. Keyword density is essential to how Google ranks you. <strong><span
style="font-family: Arial;">Second</span></strong>, use variations on search terms. To illustrate the first two points, I will take a bit of copy and optimize it for search engines and their love for keyword density. Instead of this:</p><p><em>&#8220;Viral marketing is now an essential strategy for every firm. It has become as essential to small and large firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, it has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.&#8221;</em></p><p>Try this:</p><p><em>&#8220;Viral marketing is now an essential marketing strategy for every marketing firm. Viral marketing, also known as relationship marketing, buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, conversational marketing, and passion marketing, has become as essential to small and large marketing firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, viral marketing has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.&#8221;</em></p><p>Yes, you&#8217;re appalled by its inefficiency and wordiness. Your boss would never approve, nor would your writing coach. Tough. This is not about winning the <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">PEN/Faulkner</span></em>, its about arousing Google&#8217;s algorythms.</p><p><strong>Third, </strong><em><strong>optimize your blog as though it were a traditional website</strong></em>. Be sure to add a &#8220;description&#8221; meta tag as Google uses it in search returns (and you can control Google&#8217;s description of your site). If you don&#8217;t want to top there, you can continue with the whole lots of meta tags. I will paste my tags at the end of here for you to enjoy. Also, make sure you give &#8220;alt&#8221; and &#8220;title&#8221; tags to all of your images and &#8220;title&#8221; tags to all of your links.</p><p><strong>Four</strong>, find a <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/11/google_sitemap_1.html">Google Sitemap plug-in</a> and use it.</p><p>Five, submit your blog as though it were a traditional website. I personally use <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.submission2000.com/products/ds7/index.html">Dynamic Submission</a>, but there are a bunch. <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.web-positiongold.com/pro-web-position-gold.html">Web Position Gold</a> is another fave. I choose Dynamic Submission because it allows me to spider my entire blog to within an inch of its life and then submit not just the site&#8217;s arteries but also all the way down to the site&#8217;s villi as well. In my opinion, search engines are lazy. They have only so many resources and so many nanoseconds in the day. They need to put first things first. So what I do before I spider the blog is set the index page of the blog to view 365-days of posts, or maybe a bunch of weeks, so that I can spider most of the blog from one &#8220;Import from Web.&#8221; When the import is complete, I change it back to showing only the last 7 days. I even maintain a separate box on which to host the Dynamic Submission tool because it&#8217;s such a processor hog. And then let it go. Seems to work like a charm. Why? Well, not because I am doing anything unseamly but rather just because Google and the rest sometimes miss something and I want to make sure that all the engines get everything. Every little dumbass link.</p><p>Six, make sure you use a <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/02/what_is_a_ping.html">ping server</a>. If you don&#8217;t know a thing, start with filling out <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.pingomatic.com/">Pingomatic</a> as best you can. That should be good enough for now. Blogger and WordPress.com offer a checkbox you can use to send out the ping. You can probably build it into your submission using the WordPress &#8220;Update Services&#8221; under Options/Writing, then scroll down. On MT it&#8217;s in Settings/New Entry Defaults/Publicity/Remote Interfaces. I use a long list that I will post under the Meta Tags below:</p><p><strong>Ping Server List for ChrisAbraham.com</strong></p><p>http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php</p><p>http://api.feedster.com/ping</p><p>http://api.moreover.com/RPC2</p><p>http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2</p><p>http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC</p><p>http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc</p><p>http://coreblog.org/ping</p><p>http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi</p><p>http://ping.bitacoras.com</p><p>http://ping.blo.gs</p><p>http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc</p><p>http://ping.feedburner.com</p><p>http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php</p><p>http://rpc.pingomatic.com</p><p>http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping</p><p>http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2</p><p>http://topicexchange.com/RPC2</p><p>http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b</p><p>http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2</p><p>http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates</p><p>http://xping.pubsub.com/ping<em>(I was Inspired by BBC&#8217;s <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/businessblogconsulting?m=137">More Blog Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks</a>)</em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/02/what_is_a_ping.php"></a></span></p><p><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/02/what_is_a_ping.php"></a><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/02/what_is_a_ping.php"><strong></strong></a><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/02/what_is_a_ping.php">What is a Ping Server?</a></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">Whenever you post a new entry to your blog I am pretty sure you tell all your friends. It is also important to tell blog search engines and news aggregators so that they too can check out all your new content. Telling them you have fresh content is called pinging them.</span></p><p>According to the definition on <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://developers.feedster.com/index.php/FeedsterPingServer">Feedster</a>, &#8220;A ping server is a bit of software infrastructure, a server program to be specific, which lets a feed tell us &#8216;I&#8217;ve just updated; please index me now.&#8217; What it receives is a small tidbit of information from a blogging or publishing tool which is called a &#8216;ping&#8217;. Hence the name.&#8221;</p><p>The simple solution is to make sure you visit <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.pingomatic.com/">Ping-o-Matic</a> every time you publish a new blog entry. I have already published a <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/02/essential_ping.html">comprehensive list</a> of available ping servers and I will discuss other solutions in future articles.</p><p>Depending on which blog service or which blog software you use, there are simple ways to automate the act of pinging all of the ping servers.</p><p>I plan to delve much more deeply into this very very soon.<span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/06/search_engines.php"></a></span></p><p><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #ff6600; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/06/search_engines.php">Search Engines Favor RSS Feed Supported Sites</a></span></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">To paraphrase <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://toprank.blogspot.com/2005/06/rss-for-increased-search-engine.html">Lee Odden</a>, <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">&#8220;RSS feeds get blogroll, inclusion in RSS directories assist with link popularity, Updated RSS feeds are indexed more frequently, RSS output contributes to your freshness, The format of most RSS feeds provides content that&#8217;s easier for search engines to understand.&#8221;</span></em></span></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/basic_seo_for_b.php"></a></span></p><p><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/basic_seo_for_b.php"></a><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/basic_seo_for_b.php"><strong></strong></a><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/basic_seo_for_b.php">Basic SEO for Bloggers Comes a Little Short</a></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">Thanks to <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney?m=692">Darren</a> for the link to <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.blogherald.com/2005/07/12/basic-seo-tactics-for-bloggers/">Basic SEO tactics for bloggers</a>. That said, it is <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">too basic</span></em>.</span></p><p>It doesn&#8217;t talk much about SEOB (Search Engine Optimization for Blogs) so much as just how to architect your blog. There are so many other tips and tricks.</p><p>I am opening up a text page right now to start writing my own Basic SEO for Blogs because if I am going to tell you that this article is severely limited, I had better suggest something better, right?<span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/i_have_power_ov.php"></a></span></p><p><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #ff6600; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><br
style="page-break-before: always;" /></span></strong></p><p><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #ff6600; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/07/i_have_power_ov.php">I Have Power Over Algorithmic Search Engines</a></span></strong></p><p><em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">&#8220;Some time ago, I realized that I have power over google, yahoo and other algorithmic search engines. I can choose words and phrases. And then I can get top ranking for those words in search engine results.&#8221;</span></em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"> <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">Me too</span></em>, and I <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://worcester.typepad.com/pc4media/2005/07/blog_pagerank_w.html">couldn&#8217;t say it better</a> myself. <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://worcester.typepad.com/pc4media/2005/07/blog_pagerank_w.html">PC4Media</a> via <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney?m=700">ProBlogger</a>.</span></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/10/how_google_prob.html"></a></span></p><p><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/10/how_google_prob.html"></a><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/10/how_google_prob.html"><strong></strong></a><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/10/how_google_prob.html">How Google Probably Ranks Your Site in My Opinion</a></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">Google indexes web pages and then ranks them based on three distinct and equally-weighted aspects. </span></p><p>The first aspect is a trinity which is based on the content of each page: page title, page description and keywords (meta tag data), and page full-text content. A page that has similar content wording (and density) is considered to be legitimate. If a web page has all three components it generally a reliable resource.</p><p>The second aspect is that Google favors web sites that are continually-updated; therefore, a blog is always indexed more often and considered more timely than a static &#8220;brochure&#8221; web site.</p><p>The final and most-important aspect Google uses to favor (and thus rank higher) web pages is each page&#8217;s (and site&#8217;s) link popularity. Link popularity is basically how many other sites link back to a site; in addition, Google goes one step further and considers a number of things to insure that the link popularity isn&#8217;t abused: prestige.</p><p>If an old, high-prestige, high link-popularity web site (or sites) links to a site, it is more beneficial to the site&#8217;s link popularity than if a host of insignificant sites link to a site. Old, popular, and well-trafficked sites always lend their prestige to the site to which they link.</p><p>The three taken together result in the ranking of the site based on a typical Google keyword search.</p><p>You need the content (flash-based and highly graphical pages without well thought out meta tags are virtually invisible to Google), you need the link popularity, and when it comes to it, you need to have new content to show up in the top-ten on Google.</p><p>A popular upstart blog or message board can oftentimes achieve better ranking than a big corporate website, especially if that website is new or has changed the architecture of its website recently (Google considers the sudden and complete change of the architecture and file-structure of a web site really fishy).</p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/never_use_prono.php"></a></span></p><p><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/never_use_prono.php"></a><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/never_use_prono.php"><strong></strong></a><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/03/never_use_prono.php">Never Use Pronouns When You Blog</a></strong></p><p><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">First, </span></strong><em><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">never use pronouns</span></strong></em><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">. <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">Keyword density</span></em> is essential to how Google ranks you. <strong><span
style="font-family: Arial;">Second</span></strong>, use variations on search terms.</span></p><p>To illustrate the first two points, I will take a bit of copy and optimize it for search engines and their love for keyword density. Instead of this:</p><p><em>&#8220;Viral marketing is now an essential strategy for every firm. It has become as essential to small and large firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, it has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.&#8221;</em></p><p>Try this:</p><p><em>&#8220;Viral marketing is now an essential marketing strategy for every marketing firm. Viral marketing, also known as relationship marketing, buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, conversational marketing, and passion marketing, has become as essential to small and large marketing firms alike, both for its relative affordability and its potentially high effectivity. With the advent of the Internet, viral marketing has become amazingly efficient: all you need is a laptop and a compelling message.&#8221;</em></p><p>Yes, you&#8217;re appalled by its inefficiency and wordiness. Your boss would never approve, nor would your writing coach. Tough. This is not about winning the <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">PEN/Faulkner</span></em>, its about arousing Google&#8217;s algorythms.<span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/02/invest_in_googl.php"></a></span></p><p><strong><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #ff6600; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/02/invest_in_googl.php">Invest in Google Sitemap as a Tool for SEO Analysis</a></span></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;">Investing in <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/11/google_sitemap.html">Google Sitemap</a> is worthwhile. For example, the top search query for chrisabraham.com is <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=ladder%20theory&amp;hl=en">ladder theory</a> and the top search query click is <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=nicole%20richie%20diet&amp;hl=en">nicole richie diet</a>.</span></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: #cccccc; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/01/brand_protectio.php"></a></span></p><p><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/01/brand_protectio.php"></a><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/01/brand_protectio.php"><strong></strong></a><strong><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/01/brand_protectio.php">Brand Protection on Blogs</a></strong></p><p><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 140%; font-family: Arial;"><a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7780.asp">Andy Sernovitz</a> is spot on when it comes to how to control and manage brand online, especially when it comes to <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.newmediastrategies.net/">online brand protection</a>.</span></p><p>It boils down to this:</p><p><strong>Blog search engines such as Technorati, Feedster, and BlogPulse only really care about the last word.</strong> If you can reply to a negative, hurtful, brand hit, then you can dominate the conversation and win the debate, in most cases.</p><p><strong>Google cares about everything but the latest word isn&#8217;t always indexed yet</strong>, so therefore, in the world of Google, the better indexed site always wins. Learn about SEO and Google Sitemaps if you want to compete here.</p><p><strong>You can&#8217;t control online conversation unless you participate.</strong> The only way to get indexed by Google or to show up on Technorati, Feedster, and BlogPulse is to be an online opinion leader who has a site that has made it out of Technorati, Feedster, BlogPulse, Yahoo!, MSN, and Google&#8217;s sandbox, and has an SEO and a Blog Search Engine strategy.</p><p>You have to initiate membership, become part of the conversation, build street cred, have an SEO and blog strategy, and become a respect online opinion leader <em><strong><span
style="font-family: Arial;">before</span></strong></em> something goes awry.</p><p>To quote Mr. Sernovitz, , <em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">&#8220;you&#8217;ll never be able to control the blogosphere conversation. Don&#8217;t even try. You&#8217;ll never be able to manage your blog coverage like you manage the press. Don&#8217;t even try. </span></em><strong><em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">But what you can do is participate, earn respect, and tell your story. Jump in, join the conversation, and be a part of it.</span></em></strong><em><span
style="font-family: Arial;">&#8220;</span></em></p><p>This is my response to a very brilliant and spot-on article. I have nothing to say in contest to it, so stop reading me and go read <a
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7780.asp">WOM Tactics: Blogs are Upside Down</a>.</p></blockquote><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=2612</guid> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://chrisabraham.com/2006/06/10/have-you-missed-past-articles/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>REPOST: America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2005/12/08/repost-america-does-not-go-abroad-in-search-of-monsters-to-destroy/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2005/12/08/repost-america-does-not-go-abroad-in-search-of-monsters-to-destroy/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2005 12:08:58 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Altruism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[America]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Capitol Hill]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Conservative]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Culture]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Current Events]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Globalism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Intelligence]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Patriotism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Propaganda]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Republican]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Security]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Warfare]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category> <category><![CDATA[White House]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[balance of power]]></category> <category><![CDATA[blowback]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bottoms]]></category> <category><![CDATA[commentator]]></category> <category><![CDATA[complexity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[debates]]></category> <category><![CDATA[declaration of war]]></category> <category><![CDATA[domestic terrorism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[emergence]]></category> <category><![CDATA[external influence]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fatwah]]></category> <category><![CDATA[free]]></category> <category><![CDATA[free market economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[freedom]]></category> <category><![CDATA[global balance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[heart]]></category> <category><![CDATA[imposition]]></category> <category><![CDATA[infidels]]></category> <category><![CDATA[influence]]></category> <category><![CDATA[insecurity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[marketers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[meet the press]]></category> <category><![CDATA[monarchy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[mr buchanan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nation state]]></category> <category><![CDATA[onli]]></category> <category><![CDATA[organism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[origins]]></category> <category><![CDATA[participants]]></category> <category><![CDATA[passions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[pat buchanan]]></category> <category><![CDATA[political presence]]></category> <category><![CDATA[population]]></category> <category><![CDATA[premise]]></category> <category><![CDATA[president bush]]></category> <category><![CDATA[press]]></category> <category><![CDATA[proletariat]]></category> <category><![CDATA[repost]]></category> <category><![CDATA[roadmap]]></category> <category><![CDATA[run]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sacred soil]]></category> <category><![CDATA[saudi arabia]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sovereign nation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[think]]></category> <category><![CDATA[traffic]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=1485</guid> <description><![CDATA[Repost from March 10, 2005: Has anyone checked the label on the prescription that we in the United States have been given to treat permanent tyranny around the world? The side effects are much worse than the cure. The most important side effect is that until the population of a sovereign nation-state is ready to [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/03/america_does_no.html" rel="nofollow">Repost</a> from March 10, 2005:</em> Has anyone checked the label on the prescription that we in the United States have been given to treat permanent tyranny around the world?  The side effects are much worse than the cure.</p><p><span
id="more-1485"></span><br
/> The most important side effect is that until the population of a sovereign nation-state is ready to join the emergent worldwide free market economy, any attempt at imposing either democracy or capitalism will fail once external influence is removed. The blowback from this imposition and resulting failure is that the resulting system will be similar or worse than the preceding system, and when it comes to the global balance of power, the devil you know is always better than the devil you don&#8217;t.</p><p>On the 13th of February <a
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6954712/" rel="nofollow">Meet the Press</a>, Natan Sharansky debated Pat Buchanan over the book <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1586482610" rel="nofollow">A Case for Democracy</a>, about which President Bush admits he is passionate and which the White House intends to use as a foreign policy roadmap for the next four years.  I have yet to read either Mr. Sharansky&#8217;s book or Mr. Buchanan&#8217;s controversial response, <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312341156/chrisabraham" rel="nofollow">Where the Right Went Wrong</a>, but I do have an opinion based wholly on the debate and the <a
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6954712/" rel="nofollow">transcript of the debate</a>.</p><p>I found myself in strong agreement with a lot of what Pat Buchanan recommended on foreign policy.  For example, &#8220;In my judgment, what happened on 9/11 was a result of interventionism. Interventionism is the cause of terror.  It is not a cure for terror.&#8221;</p><p>The President&#8217;s premise that domestic terrorism is the direct result of envy, jealousy, or insecurity is flawed. As Pat Buchanan states in the interview, &#8220;the United States was not attacked because we are free.  Bin Laden was not attacking the Bill of Rights.  We were attacked because the United&#8211;over here because the United States&#8217; military and political presence is massive over there.  Bin Laden in his fatwah, his statement of declaration of war on the United States, said the infidels were standing on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia.  They want us out of the Middle East.  They don&#8217;t care whether we have a separation of church and state.&#8221;</p><p>All systems reject invasion, even our bodies. Even in the case of a transplanted organ which is welcome, one must continue taking medicine for life in order to keep the body from rejecting the invader, even though the invader is pink, healthy, not poisoned and dying like the original. Internationally, it doesn&#8217;t matter if our prescription, our pink and healthy liver, our strong heart, is going to cure what ails the world, because that just isn&#8217;t the point. Curing the world&#8217;s ills requires that we will need to make sure the patient is constantly taking its &#8220;for the rest of your life&#8221; anti-rejection medications.  Even if this is delivered forcibly under restraint, &#8220;for your own good&#8221; and &#8220;it hurts me more than it hurts you.&#8221;</p><p>One of the obvious outcomes of this stated overt (and not covert) intention &#8220;to help democratic institutions in every region in every nation on earth is a formula for permanent war,&#8221; says Mr. Buchanan,</p><p>Buchanan went on to state very clearly that it is not in America&#8217;s best interest to intervene in affairs of sovereign nation-states, governments that are in fact recognized by the world.  To again quote Pat Buchanan, paraphrasing John Quincy Adams, &#8220;America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.  She is the champion of freedom everywhere, but the vindicator only of her own.&#8221;</p><p>John Quincy Adams said it better himself, &#8220;America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.&#8221;</p><p>When it comes down to it, there is no legal mandate that we as a nation or as a member of the world government may aggressively pursue this sort of agenda.  Again, Pat Buchanan, &#8220;where in the Constitution do we get the right to intervene in the internal affairs of countries that do not threaten us and do not attack us?  If they don&#8217;t, their internal politics are their own business,&#8221; adding that &#8220;the president of the United States has no constitutional authority to do this.&#8221;</p><p>And even after all that, one might realize that the only form of government that can in fact be transplanted like an organ is an authoritarian dictatorship. In this case I will intentionally misappropriate Senator Charles Grassey&#8217;s quote when he said, in the same episode of <a
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6954712/" rel="nofollow">Meet the Press</a>, &#8220;I think that there&#8217;s a movement towards freedom that people are naturally born free, they want to be free, and you don&#8217;t impose democracy.  Democracy is natural.  You can only impose dictatorship.&#8221;</p><p>Even though we want to believe that all functioning systems need to have an emergent pattern that is democratic, this is not exclusively the case.  Governments are really visible manifestations of their culture.  There has never really been a long-lasting government that has been out of step with its mother culture.  We know that a family&#8217;s culture is deep and very difficult to influence. A company&#8217;s takes either a lot of time or a total radical amputation to truly change the culture.  Since nation-states are in fact artificial constructs anyway, it is almost impossible to make drastic changes without Draconian measures, the majority of which are morally and ethically offensive and more costly than their intended good.</p><p>My interpretation on this quote is that a Vanguard of Democracy is as futile as a Vanguard of the Proletariat.  That imposing democracy is as futile and as temporary as imposing Marxist-Leninism,  communism, capitalism, or even the free market.  And when this Vanguard of Democracy and the free market system was imposed on Russia, the blowback was arguably the complete dissolution of realpolitik, resulting in an entire country run by the Russian Mafia in a very effective and complete power grab.  Is this democracy?  Where is the Nation-State in a country that can&#8217;t even contain its nuclear assets?  The biggest weak link in the entire underground weapons-grade plutonium economy?  A country that has a larger rift between haves and have nots than ever before, A true playground for the neo robber baron.  Where the super rich can ignore traffic laws if they posses the official flashing blue lights on their Mercedes-Benz S600 sedans.  In the case of Russia, we have a culture that has never known either democracy or freedom, from the Czars to the Communists.  On a systemic level, the Russian system broke under this imposition.</p><p>And there are a surplus of sovereign governments worldwide unready or unwilling to accept an imposed &#8220;freedom,&#8221; &#8220;democracy&#8221; and &#8220;the free market&#8221; systemically from the top-down.  These desires happen in emergence, through bubbling up from the bottom.  From discontent, from desire, from education, and through participation in a global market and global economy.  By willing hearts and minds legitimately as opposed to through heavy-handed coercion.</p><p>So, in that regard, Natan Sharansky&#8217;s naive comment, although correct on the surface, is not a very complex argument, &#8220;I believe that all the people, when given opportunity to choose between living in fear or living in freedom, choose to live in freedom,&#8221;  What he forgot to mention is that his argument doesn&#8217;t include a very important missing piece, which is, &#8220;all things being equal.&#8221;</p><p>I agree with the following premise, &#8220;All things being equal, I believe that all the people, when given opportunity to choose between living in fear or living in freedom, choose to live in freedom.&#8221; But in developing nations, in nations that are still tribal or predominately rural, in nations that don&#8217;t have a history of education or are based on tribalism, monarchy, or religion, and in nations that have high scarcities or are under crushing debt, the resulting unintended consequences of imposing democracy, capitalism, or the free market economy usually results in a situation much worse, or at least much less predictable, than the original.  I hate to use &#8220;better the devil we know than the devil we don&#8217;t&#8221; but the jury is out as to whether an Iraq with no boarders and a forced, unnatural, system of government will  chomp at the bit until it is given an opportunity to revert to something similar but different.</p><p>Again, to quote Pat Buchanan in support of the above &#8212; the devil we know is better than the devil we don&#8217;t theory of foreign policy, &#8220;We cannot make the enemy the best of the good . . . we have had occasions, the last great crusade for democracy was Woodrow Wilson going across the sea with an army to make the world safer. We brought down all the monarchs and we got instead Lenin and Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler.&#8221;</p><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=1233</guid> <description><![CDATA[I just received a Skype call from a gentleman who thanked me for the article I wrote about my response to our &#8212; the United States&#8217; &#8212; short sighted and self-destructive foreign policy, entitled America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy. Please check it out&#8230; America Does Not Go Abroad in [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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href="callto:+12024702630" rel="nofollow">Skype call</a> from a gentleman who thanked me for the <a
href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/03/america_does_no.html" rel="nofollow">article I wrote</a> about my response to our &#8212; the United States&#8217; &#8212; short sighted and self-destructive foreign policy, entitled <a
href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/03/america_does_no.html" rel="nofollow">America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy</a>. Please <a
href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/03/america_does_no.html" rel="nofollow">check it out</a>&#8230;</p><p><span
id="more-1233"></span><br
/> <strong><a
href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/2005/03/america_does_no.html" rel="nofollow">America Does Not Go Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy</a></strong></p><p>Has anyone checked the label on the prescription that we in the United States have been given to treat permanent tyranny around the world? The side effects are much worse than the cure.</p><p>The most important side effect is that until the population of a sovereign nation-state is ready to join the emergent worldwide free market economy, any attempt at imposing either democracy or capitalism will fail once external influence is removed. The blowback from this imposition and resulting failure is that the resulting system will be similar or worse than the preceding system, and when it comes to the global balance of power, the devil you know is always better than the devil you don&#8217;t.</p><p>On the 13th of February Meet the Press, Natan Sharansky debated Pat Buchanan over the book A Case for Democracy, about which President Bush admits he is passionate and which the White House intends to use as a foreign policy roadmap for the next four years. I have yet to read either Mr. Sharansky&#8217;s book or Mr. Buchanan&#8217;s controversial response, Where the Right Went Wrong, but I do have an opinion based wholly on the debate and the transcript of the debate.</p><p>I found myself in strong agreement with a lot of what Pat Buchanan recommended on foreign policy. For example, &#8220;In my judgment, what happened on 9/11 was a result of interventionism. Interventionism is the cause of terror. It is not a cure for terror.&#8221;</p><p>The President&#8217;s premise that domestic terrorism is the direct result of envy, jealousy, or insecurity is flawed. As Pat Buchanan states in the interview, &#8220;the United States was not attacked because we are free. Bin Laden was not attacking the Bill of Rights. We were attacked because the United&#8211;over here because the United States&#8217; military and political presence is massive over there. Bin Laden in his fatwah, his statement of declaration of war on the United States, said the infidels were standing on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia. They want us out of the Middle East. They don&#8217;t care whether we have a separation of church and state.&#8221;</p><p>All systems reject invasion, even our bodies. Even in the case of a transplanted organ which is welcome, one must continue taking medicine for life in order to keep the body from rejecting the invader, even though the invader is pink, healthy, not poisoned and dying like the original. Internationally, it doesn&#8217;t matter if our prescription, our pink and healthy liver, our strong heart, is going to cure what ails the world, because that just isn&#8217;t the point. Curing the world&#8217;s ills requires that we will need to make sure the patient is constantly taking its &#8220;for the rest of your life&#8221; anti-rejection medications. Even if this is delivered forcibly under restraint, &#8220;for your own good&#8221; and &#8220;it hurts me more than it hurts you.&#8221;</p><p>One of the obvious outcomes of this stated overt (and not covert) intention &#8220;to help democratic institutions in every region in every nation on earth is a formula for permanent war,&#8221; says Mr. Buchanan,</p><p>Buchanan went on to state very clearly that it is not in America&#8217;s best interest to intervene in affairs of sovereign nation-states, governments that are in fact recognized by the world. To again quote Pat Buchanan, paraphrasing John Quincy Adams, &#8220;America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the champion of freedom everywhere, but the vindicator only of her own.&#8221;</p><p>John Quincy Adams said it better himself, &#8220;America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.&#8221;</p><p>When it comes down to it, there is no legal mandate that we as a nation or as a member of the world government may aggressively pursue this sort of agenda. Again, Pat Buchanan, &#8220;where in the Constitution do we get the right to intervene in the internal affairs of countries that do not threaten us and do not attack us? If they don&#8217;t, their internal politics are their own business,&#8221; adding that &#8220;the president of the United States has no constitutional authority to do this.&#8221;</p><p>And even after all that, one might realize that the only form of government that can in fact be transplanted like an organ is an authoritarian dictatorship. In this case I will intentionally misappropriate Senator Charles Grassey&#8217;s quote when he said, in the same episode of Meet the Press, &#8220;I think that there&#8217;s a movement towards freedom that people are naturally born free, they want to be free, and you don&#8217;t impose democracy. Democracy is natural. You can only impose dictatorship.&#8221;</p><p>Even though we want to believe that all functioning systems need to have an emergent pattern that is democratic, this is not exclusively the case. Governments are really visible manifestations of their culture. There has never really been a long-lasting government that has been out of step with its mother culture. We know that a family&#8217;s culture is deep and very difficult to influence. A company&#8217;s takes either a lot of time or a total radical amputation to truly change the culture. Since nation-states are in fact artificial constructs anyway, it is almost impossible to make drastic changes without Draconian measures, the majority of which are morally and ethically offensive and more costly than their intended good.</p><p>My interpretation on this quote is that a Vanguard of Democracy is as futile as a Vanguard of the Proletariat. That imposing democracy is as futile and as temporary as imposing Marxist-Leninism, communism, capitalism, or even the free market. And when this Vanguard of Democracy and the free market system was imposed on Russia, the blowback was arguably the complete dissolution of realpolitik, resulting in an entire country run by the Russian Mafia in a very effective and complete power grab. Is this democracy? Where is the Nation-State in a country that can&#8217;t even contain its nuclear assets? The biggest weak link in the entire underground weapons-grade plutonium economy? A country that has a larger rift between haves and have nots than ever before, A true playground for the neo robber baron. Where the super rich can ignore traffic laws if they posses the official flashing blue lights on their Mercedes-Benz S600 sedans. In the case of Russia, we have a culture that has never known either democracy or freedom, from the Czars to the Communists. On a systemic level, the Russian system broke under this imposition.</p><p>And there are a surplus of sovereign governments worldwide unready or unwilling to accept an imposed &#8220;freedom,&#8221; &#8220;democracy&#8221; and &#8220;the free market&#8221; systemically from the top-down. These desires happen in emergence, through bubbling up from the bottom. From discontent, from desire, from education, and through participation in a global market and global economy. By willing hearts and minds legitimately as opposed to through heavy-handed coercion.</p><p>So, in that regard, Natan Sharansky&#8217;s naive comment, although correct on the surface, is not a very complex argument, &#8220;I believe that all the people, when given opportunity to choose between living in fear or living in freedom, choose to live in freedom,&#8221; What he forgot to mention is that his argument doesn&#8217;t include a very important missing piece, which is, &#8220;all things being equal.&#8221;</p><p>I agree with the following premise, &#8220;All things being equal, I believe that all the people, when given opportunity to choose between living in fear or living in freedom, choose to live in freedom.&#8221; But in developing nations, in nations that are still tribal or predominately rural, in nations that don&#8217;t have a history of education or are based on tribalism, monarchy, or religion, and in nations that have high scarcities or are under crushing debt, the resulting unintended consequences of imposing democracy, capitalism, or the free market economy usually results in a situation much worse, or at least much less predictable, than the original. I hate to use &#8220;better the devil we know than the devil we don&#8217;t&#8221; but the jury is out as to whether an Iraq with no boarders and a forced, unnatural, system of government will chomp at the bit until it is given an opportunity to revert to something similar but different.</p><p>Again, to quote Pat Buchanan in support of the above &#8212; the devil we know is better than the devil we don&#8217;t theory of foreign policy, &#8220;We cannot make the enemy the best of the good . . . we have had occasions, the last great crusade for democracy was Woodrow Wilson going across the sea with an army to make the world safer. We brought down all the monarchs and we got instead Lenin and Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler.&#8221;</p><p>Posted by Chris Abraham at March 10, 2005 01:17 PM</p><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=294</guid> <description><![CDATA[I received a brilliant response to my analysis of an ineffective viral protest campaign. A foundering meme, if you will. It begins, &#8220;Who are you fooling, you embarrassingly transparent lackey?&#8221; Here is the entire comment in full: &#8220;Who are you fooling, you embarrassingly transparent lackey?&#8221; &#8220;What the &#8220;Left&#8221; has to do if it wishes to [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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href="http://www.chrisabraham.com/curly.html" onclick="window.open('http://www.chrisabraham.com/curly.html','popup','width=200,height=257,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false" rel="nofollow"><img
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href="http://chrisabraham.com/2005/04/19/two-plus-two-makes-five-225/#comment-281" rel="nofollow">brilliant response</a> to <a
href="http://chrisabraham.com/2005/04/19/two-plus-two-makes-five-225/" rel="nofollow">my analysis</a> of an ineffective viral protest campaign.  A foundering <a
href="http://chrisabraham.com/2005/04/19/two-plus-two-makes-five-225/" rel="nofollow">meme</a>, if you will. It begins,</p><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><p>&#8220;Who are you fooling, you embarrassingly transparent lackey?&#8221;</p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p>Here is the entire <a
href="http://chrisabraham.com/2005/04/19/two-plus-two-makes-five-225/#comment-281" rel="nofollow">comment in full</a>:</p><blockquote><p>&#8220;Who are you fooling, you embarrassingly transparent lackey?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;What the &#8220;Left&#8221; has to do if it wishes to meet the present Republican party on this battlefield is show an equally cynical willingness to baby-talk sweet nothings to the masses to get their passive consent, then do whatever they damn well please with the power they gain.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;What&#8217;s hobbling the Democrats right now in their struggle against the radical right is that they are clinging to the original, romantic notions of democracy being about truth, honesty, transparency, debate, and freedom of opinion. Those are liabilities when facing a rival party where unity and loyalty are prime, and all those other things are tertiary at best.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We know the jaded old adage well: &#8220;Democracy is the system in which the people get the government they deserve.&#8221; Most of the American people deserve &#8211; and want &#8211; to be lied to and controlled. A horrifying percentage of Americans still cling desperately to the utterly and completely discredited fantasy that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Even our President, who got so much mileage off this disinformation has conceded that it was a lie &#8211; and yet huge numbers of our countrymen simply refuse to give up this myth, like children clinging to their belief in the Easter Bunny. If the Democrats would just grasp this power concept as the Republicans have, perhaps they&#8217;d be allowed back into the positions from which they can give the people what they want.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Yes, it&#8217;s a shame that the democracy that our Founding Fathers envisioned is eroding down towards a one-party sham-democracy. And it&#8217;s a shame that those great democratic notions of truth, honesty, transparency, debate, and freedom of opinion are withering under this current cynical onslaught. And it&#8217;s a shame that those many Americans who know that Easter eggs actually come from chickens have to watch as the democracy we&#8217;ve known and held dear for generations slowly degenerates into a caricature of itself, but perhaps Americans just aren&#8217;t ready for democracy.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;And hey, if you don&#8217;t like it, go to Russia. It&#8217;s actually quite nice there right now if you have some money, and the women are absolutely wonderful. One of the greatest things about being American is that you can live anywhere in the world you want to &#8211; it&#8217;s a big, beautiful place out there. Check it out, you might actually prefer it to the present theater of the absurd back home.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;To sneer or not to sneer? Chris, drop the spin doctor&#8217;s hat. You&#8217;ve been behind closed office doors and at dinner tables with the world&#8217;s wealthy, educated, and powerful. We all sneer and look down our noses at the &#8220;normal people&#8221;, Democrats and Republicans alike. The Republicans are just showing the good form to do it in private and entre nous.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s aristocracy 101; I guess the Dems need some charm school.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;(P.S. If this insults you, sorry ya&#8217;ll&#8230; but there is no Santa Claus. We really do sneer &#8211; on both sides of the aisle. If you don&#8217;t like it, then wake up and use what&#8217;s left of your freedoms to kick us out. But you won&#8217;t&#8230; I&#8217;m going back to my life of privilege. Go back to your cubicle.)&#8221;</p></blockquote><div
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