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><channel><title>Chris Abraham &#187; historians</title> <atom:link href="http://chrisabraham.com/tag/historians/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>The Ballad of Chris Abraham by Phillip Rhoades</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/12/the-ballad-of-chris-abraham-by-phillip-rhoades/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/12/the-ballad-of-chris-abraham-by-phillip-rhoades/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:33:23 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Chris Abraham]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Phillip Rhoades]]></category> <category><![CDATA[abraham]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ballad]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brains]]></category> <category><![CDATA[change]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chris]]></category> <category><![CDATA[different world]]></category> <category><![CDATA[endless hordes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fingers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fool]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fools]]></category> <category><![CDATA[graceful lines]]></category> <category><![CDATA[heart]]></category> <category><![CDATA[hearts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hearts and Minds]]></category> <category><![CDATA[historians]]></category> <category><![CDATA[humanities]]></category> <category><![CDATA[man]]></category> <category><![CDATA[memetic]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Memetics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[openness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[rhoades]]></category> <category><![CDATA[rush]]></category> <category><![CDATA[scum]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sword]]></category> <category><![CDATA[truth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[whirl]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wit]]></category> <category><![CDATA[wits]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/12/12/the-ballad-of-chris-abraham-by-phillip-rhoades/</guid> <description><![CDATA[The Ballad of Chris Abraham With fingers strong he types the truth With graceful words so slick He opens eyes, and hearts, and minds With his memetic tricks Oh, once you read his graceful lines You&#8217;ll see a different world With thoughts that live, evolve, and change In human minds a-whirl He fights the endless [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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/> With graceful words so slick<br
/> He opens eyes, and hearts, and minds<br
/> With his memetic tricks</p><p>Oh, once you read his graceful lines<br
/> You&#8217;ll see a different world<br
/> With thoughts that live, evolve, and change<br
/> In human minds a-whirl</p><p>He fights the endless hordes of fools<br
/> With sharpened sword of wit<br
/> Striking down the endless legion<br
/> A man of brains and grit</p><p>Remember him, Chris Abraham,<br
/> Historians to come<br
/> A man who rushed into the page<br
/> And fought the mindless scum</p><p>Via <a
href="http://www.ungab.com/content/ballad-chris-abraham">Ungab</a></p><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/2008/11/07/pithy-philosophical-quotes-on-democracy/</guid> <description><![CDATA[&#8220;Democratic institutions form a system of quarantine for tyrannical desires.&#8221; Friedrich Nietzsche # &#8220;Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule &#8211; and both commonl &#8230; # &#8220;Only the educated are free.&#8221; Epictetus # &#8220;When great changes occur in history, when great [...]]]></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 Pithy Philosophical Quotes on Democracy" /></a></div><ul><li>&#8220;Democratic institutions form a system of quarantine for tyrannical desires.&#8221; Friedrich Nietzsche <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993071297">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule &#8211; and both commonl &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993071738">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Only the educated are free.&#8221; Epictetus <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993072036">#</a></li><li>&#8220;When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.&#8221; Eug &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993072375">#</a></li><li>&#8220;The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness.&#8221; Edvard Teller <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993072899">#</a></li><li>&#8220;A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.&#8221;  Napoleon Bonaparte <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993073020">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.&#8221;  Napoleon Bonaparte <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993073339">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even f &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993073663">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.&#8221; Thomas Jefferson <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993074049">#</a></li><li>&#8221;You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.&#8221; James Thurber <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993075085">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993075719">#</a></li><li>&#8220;If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the s &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993077058">#</a></li><li>&#8221;Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted by man; without l &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993077649">#</a></li><li>&#8220;History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993078145">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it&#8217;s the only thing that ever has.&#8221;  Mar &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993078748">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Democracy encourages the majority to decide things about which the majority is ignorant.&#8221; John Simon <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993080542">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud what the country could do under first-class management.&#8221; Sen &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993083299">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.&#8221; George Bernard &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993084589">#</a></li><li>&#8220;In democracy everyone has the right to be represented, even the jerks.&#8221; Chris Patten <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993085550">#</a></li><li>&#8220;When the government fears the people, that is LIBERTY. When people fear the government, that is TYRANNY.&#8221;  Author Unknown <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993086210">#</a></li><li>&#8220;It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.&#8221; Marcus Tullius Cicero <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993086598">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it.&#8221;  Charles Caleb Cotton <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993086931">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.&#8221;  African proverb <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993087410">#</a></li><li>&#8220;You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.&#8221;  Ma &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993087974">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.&#8221;  John Stuart Mill <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993095762">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.&#8221; Laurens van der Post <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993096147">#</a></li><li>&#8220;The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don&#8217;t have any.&#8221;  Alice Walker <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993096520">#</a></li><li>&#8220;A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.&#8221;  Saul Bellow <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993097226">#</a></li><li>&#8220;It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.&#8221;  Aristotle <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993097371">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.&#8221;  Thomas A. Edison <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993097810">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Every civilizing step in history has been ridiculed as &#8216;sentimental&#8217;, &#8216;impractical&#8217;, or &#8216;womanish&#8217;, etc., by those whose fun, profit or &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993098255">#</a></li><li>&#8220;To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them a &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993099211">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Democracies don&#8217;t prepare well for things that have never happened before.&#8221; Richard A. Clarke, former White House counter- terrorism chief. <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993104502">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and &#8230; <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993105338">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Good government could never be a substitute for government by the people themselves.&#8221; Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, British Prime Minister <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993117778">#</a></li><li>&#8220;A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won&#8217;t cross the street to vote in a national election.&#8221; Bill Vaughan <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993118873">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Only the educated are free.&#8221;   Epictetus <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993119368">#</a></li><li>&#8220;I have no respect for the passion for equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy.&#8221; Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993119741">#</a></li><li>&#8220;It is better that a man should tyrannize over his bank balance than over his fellow-citizens.&#8221; John Mayard Keynes <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993120195">#</a></li><li>&#8220;Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.&#8221; Clement Atlee <a
href="http://twitter.com/chrisabraham/statuses/993120641">#</a></li></ul><div
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Debates]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Presidential Election]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Presidential Endorsements]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Presidential Poll]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Presidential Race]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Vice Presidency]]></category> <category><![CDATA[vice president]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Vice Presidential Debate]]></category> <category><![CDATA[8 years]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ACT]]></category> <category><![CDATA[activists]]></category> <category><![CDATA[actors]]></category> <category><![CDATA[actuall]]></category> <category><![CDATA[advocacy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[affirmation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[aim]]></category> <category><![CDATA[alaska supreme court]]></category> <category><![CDATA[alls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[amazement]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ammunition]]></category> <category><![CDATA[animals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[arrogance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[assed]]></category> <category><![CDATA[asses]]></category> <category><![CDATA[assets]]></category> <category><![CDATA[attitude]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Babies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[balls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Barack]]></category> <category><![CDATA[batten]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beatings]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bedding]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beens]]></category> <category><![CDATA[beers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Berlin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[berliner]]></category> <category><![CDATA[berliners]]></category> <category><![CDATA[billions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bitterness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bliss]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bob]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bobs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bomb]]></category> <category><![CDATA[boots]]></category> <category><![CDATA[border]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bottoms]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brains]]></category> <category><![CDATA[brilliant collection]]></category> <category><![CDATA[buddies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bush]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bushes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigning]]></category> <category><![CDATA[campaigns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[camping]]></category> <category><![CDATA[canada]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cbs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cells]]></category> <category><![CDATA[change]]></category> <category><![CDATA[chefs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Children]]></category> <category><![CDATA[choices]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chris]]></category> <category><![CDATA[citizen]]></category> <category><![CDATA[clintons]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cmon]]></category> <category><![CDATA[coach]]></category> <category><![CDATA[collaborator]]></category> <category><![CDATA[colleague]]></category> 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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
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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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
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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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://ahpoll.com/forward">Email this comment</a></li></ul></div></div><p><a
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
href="http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/if-mccain-died-would-palin-be-competent-as-pres">If McCain died, would Palin be competent as Pres.?</a> widget and many other <a
href="http://www.widgetbox.com/">great free widgets</a> at <a
href="http://www.widgetbox.com">Widgetbox</a>!</noscript></p><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=3848</guid> <description><![CDATA[I got to spend some time hanging out with Martin Marty at Renaissance Weekend a couple years ago. All I knew about him was gleaned from lunches, dinners, and panels together. During last night&#8217;s run, my friend Marty Marty started speaking into my iPod earbuds in the form of an interview on Speaking of Faith, [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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src="http://www.chrisabraham.com/MartinMartycolor-thumb.JPG" alt=" Martin Marty is a Gift to America and My Favorite Theologian" width="100" align="left" height="136" hspace="5" title="Martin Marty is a Gift to America and My Favorite Theologian" />I got to spend some time hanging out with Martin Marty at Renaissance Weekend a couple years ago. All I knew about him was gleaned from lunches, dinners, and panels together. During last night&#8217;s run, my friend Marty Marty started speaking into my iPod earbuds in  the form of an interview on Speaking of Faith, <a
href="http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/marty/index.shtml" rel="nofollow">America&#8217;s Changing Religious Landscape: A Conversation with Martin Marty</a> <a
href="http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/20061102_marty.mp3" rel="nofollow">Download MP3</a>, <a
href="http://publicradio.org/tools/media/player/speakingoffaith/20061102_marty" rel="nofollow">Listen</a>, Podcast, and <a
href="http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/20061102_marty-raw.mp3" rel="nofollow">uncut interview with Martin Marty (1:38)</a>. God bless <a
href="http://www.illuminos.com/mem/memMain.html" rel="nofollow">Martin Marty</a> and thank you, <a
href="http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/about/staff.shtml#tippett" rel="nofollow">Krista Tippett</a>.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Transcript of <a
href="http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/marty/index.shtml" rel="nofollow">America&#8217;s Changing Religious Landscape: A Conversation with Martin Marty</a></strong></p><p>Billboard:</p><p>Krista Tippett, host: I&#8217;m Krista Tippett, today a conversation about religion in America, with one of the great public theologians of our time, Martin Marty. For decades, Martin Marty has been watching developments that are now the stuff of daily headlines: the rise of religious fundamentalism across the world, the decline of the Protestant majority in American culture, and the vigor of evangelical Christianity in American life. Marty offers historical and personal perspective.</p><p>Mr. Martin Marty: I&#8217;ve often thought — I&#8217;ve often said, &#8216;If Billy Graham had been born mean, we&#8217;d be in terrible trouble,&#8217; because he had so much power, so many gifts, and so on. One of my distinctions in religion is not liberal and conservative, but mean and non-mean. You have mean liberals and mean conservatives, and you have non-mean of both.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Martin Marty on America&#8217;s changing religious landscape. This is Speaking of Faith. Stay with us.</p><p>[Announcements]</p><p>Ms. Tippett: I&#8217;m Krista Tippett. For decades, Martin Marty has been watching developments that are the stuff of daily headlines and partisan rhetoric: the vigor of evangelical Christianity in politics, the decline of the Protestant majority in American culture, and the rise of religious fundamentalism around the world. Today we&#8217;ll probe the historical perspective of this leading scholar of religion. We&#8217;ll discuss what&#8217;s really new in religion as a force in American culture, politics, and daily life.</p><p>From American Public Media, this is Speaking of Faith, public radio&#8217;s conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. Today, &#8220;America&#8217;s Changing Religious Landscape: A Conversation with Martin Marty.&#8221;</p><p>Martin Marty has been called the foremost interpreter of religion in America today. The National Book Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are just a few of the honors he has amassed. He&#8217;s served on U.S. presidential commissions and directed a visionary research project on religious fundamentalism. The University of Chicago Divinity School, where he taught for 35 years, has created the Martin Marty Center to continue his work on public religion.</p><p>But for all his celebrity and scholarship, Martin Marty draws crucial insight from his own personal grounding in the mainstream religious life of American culture. He began his working life not as a scholar but as a pastor. He was born into a Lutheran family in 1928, in the Nebraska of Dust Bowl and Depression, where his father was a teacher and a church organist.</p><p>Mr. Marty: We were a churched family, of course, it was my father&#8217;s profession, and I&#8217;ve reminisced with some folks about how I got babysat next to the organ bench and had to sit through long funerals as a child, and somehow it didn&#8217;t turn me off from it all. I have a brother and a sister, and the three of us were well-schooled in literature and music and art, and also a very close basic sense of the faith of ordinary people, and I&#8217;ve tried to keep some sense of that in my lifework.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Much of Martin Marty&#8217;s investigation into American religious life has centered on the dominant majority religion at the heart of our culture, the many denominations of mainline Protestant Christianity. But in our time, surveys show that majority is disappearing even as many Americans perceive the influence of evangelical Protestant Christianity to be growing. In his 2004 book, The Protestant Voice in American Pluralism, Marty describes the centuries from 1607 to 1955 as an era in American history in which &#8220;Protestants ran the show.&#8221; That began to change and take on new dimensions in the 1960s, an era vivid in the American popular imagination for political movements and the Vietnam War. For Martin Marty, it was also a decade of astonishing religious turning points whose significance went unnoticed. I asked him to walk me through the religious watersheds of the 1960s that began to erode the dominance of mainline Protestantism.</p><p>Mr. Marty: The biggest single event that hit this country happened in Rome, and that&#8217;s the Second Vatican Council. That is, Protestantism always knew what it was because it knew what Catholicism was, and it was over against that. Suddenly, Catholicism is friendly. It moves out into the public sector. The GI Bill puts Catholic young people into universities. They soon became the most educated group in the country, and Protestants were thrown off balance by that.</p><p>Secondly, it&#8217;s the beginning of the surge of evangelicalism within Protestantism, which — in those days, I imagine a lot of the Protestant leaders kind of sneered at Billy Graham and looked down their nose at tent revivals and so on and didn&#8217;t pay much attention to see how it was coming. And suddenly in the &#8217;60s, I visited Berkeley, you had the Jesus People, little girls getting baptized in their bikinis, and change of worship from a certain kind of formality. The rock bands were coming in. And another huge infusion was an awareness of the religions of the East. You might keep going to your Presbyterian church, but you start doing yoga and you start doing Buddhist disciplines, etc. And you didn&#8217;t stop being Presbyterian, but you were of a different sort. You didn&#8217;t take it all for granted.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: I also think that something we&#8217;ve lost a memory of is how much tension there was between Catholics and Protestants, right, in this country, between different kinds of Christians, in a way that is absolutely unimaginable now. And I mean, personally for you, was that shift surprising?</p><p>Mr. Marty: I, in 1956, was invited to join the staff of The Christian Century, which was the towering Protestant voice. Today it still is, if not towering, a strong voice, but it&#8217;s ecumenical. It has a lot of Catholic writers; it has a lot of evangelical writers. But at that time, it was Protestant, and it was anti-Catholic. In 1950, on the cover of The Christian Century, there was an article, &#8220;Pluralism, A National Menace.&#8221; Pluralism was they&#8217;re worried about Catholicism. When I joined the staff five years later, pluralism was the best game in town. My first visits to campus, you always had one priest, one minister, one rabbi; that was called pluralism back then. But through that all, the Protestant still was in a privileged position. It simply was a kind of a reflex: &#8216;We&#8217;re the largest. We&#8217;re the ones who left our stamp on America&#8217;s literature, its poetry, its statecraft, etc.&#8217;</p><p>I&#8217;m going to say something in case I&#8217;m sounding critical.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: You can sound critical if you&#8217;d like to.</p><p>Mr. Marty: I&#8217;d be happy to be critical, but I don&#8217;t want to be distorting what I want to be. And that is to say, for all of that reflexive sense of establishment, I think I&#8217;m being a neutral, value-free historian when I say I don&#8217;t know any time in human history that somebody that powerful yielded that gracefully. In the previous century, Protestantism was often used — white Protestantism — to enslave, and it was used to justify the reservating of the Indians. But in the 20th century, Protestants have sort of said, &#8216;All right, you&#8217;re making your case. We&#8217;ll make room for you.&#8217; They weren&#8217;t doing that much before the mid-&#8217;50s, but from then on in, they have done it even at the expense to their own identity.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: And I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve read these statistics that are now coming out, that perhaps today or tomorrow or six months from now, there will no longer be a Protestant majority in this country. And it depends on how people measure these things but, still, it seems significant when what is replacing the number of people who say that they&#8217;re Protestant are more people who say that they have no religion at all. In fact, it&#8217;s very high among people who were born in 1980 or later. And then there&#8217;s a category that&#8217;s doubled, of people who call themselves just Christian, right, who don&#8217;t identify with a specific tradition. How do you explain these statistics?</p><p>Mr. Marty: First of all, I think that Protestantism and Catholicism have very common fates here. They both have had trouble holding their younger generation. In some respects, the Protestants, Catholics, and Jews of the northern part of the United States share a lot with Canada, which is far less involved with church, or Western Europe, which is far, far less involved. Incidentally, that little section, I call it the spiritual ice belt: Western Europe, the British Isles, Canada and the northern U.S. We are really exceptions in the world, and we are really having a hard time catching up with understanding the rest of the world.</p><p>Protestantism is not in trouble around the world. I am a Lutheran, and we&#8217;ve had 300 years to get about eight million people. In 15 years from now, the African Lutheran churches will have added as many people as it took us 300 years to get. And that&#8217;s true of many other Protestantisms and Pentecostalisms. Every day there are 23,000 new Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, and half of them would be called Protestant, if often in the Pentecostal version. So around the world, it&#8217;s not a losing force. No longer, however, does it make the reference it once did to Western Europe and its daughter, the United States.</p><p>What will that mean for the United States? I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re going to wake up some day and see total change. There&#8217;s a strange thing that hundreds of years after the vital life of a religion is past, there&#8217;s still a strong influence. We&#8217;re still living off some of the Greek religious influences. We&#8217;re living off a lot of medieval Catholicism. Our very universities are inventions of that. Our hospitals are inventions of that. So in a sense, meanings, ideas — in this case, ideas of liberty, freedom — that came very often from Protestants will live on even if not everybody goes to church. Still, the churches have been the places where these stories get renewed regularly.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: OK. I mean, I just wonder, personally, is this something that troubles you?</p><p>Mr. Marty: I don&#8217;t think I wake up in the morning having great worries about that. You can tell from what I&#8217;ve said I have a global view of humanity and of religion, and it moves around a lot. In the 1930s a great Catholic, Hilaire Belloc, said, &#8220;Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.&#8221; Well, that was true then. Now the cathedrals are empty, but their granddaughters are full in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. I certainly think that some things borne by the Protestant message would be a great loss. One of its gifts to America was its sense that we&#8217;re scripted. It&#8217;s a scriptural faith, it&#8217;s a Christ-centered faith, but it doesn&#8217;t mean that all virtue and all morality goes with you. And I think that&#8217;s been a nice irritating voice in classic Protestantism, which is, no matter how far along you&#8217;d come, God was holding you to a higher standard.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Religious historian and author Martin Marty. One of the most popular of his over 50 books is Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in American. He is considered by some to be a bridge between the devotional and scholarly worlds of liberal mainline Protestantism and evangelical Christianity.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Let&#8217;s talk about evangelical Christianity, which at the same time that there are some statistics of people becoming less religious, there&#8217;s certainly a sense that religion in some ways is more of a force now. I mean, I think there would be people who would take your phrase, &#8220;When Protestants ran the show,&#8221; and say that a certain kind of Christianity is becoming almost a controlling force or, you know, we have an evangelical Christian in the White House. I mean, how are you observing what&#8217;s happening now, with your broad view of things and of history?</p><p>Mr. Marty: I think those of us who write this kind of history are a little puzzled by the naiveté of the — well, people in journalism, in the media, in the general public, who think all this just got invented in the last four years and couple months. It has very deep roots. I trace it not to the &#8217;20s. Nobody cared about the religion of Harding, Coolidge, Hoover. And Roosevelt was a mainline Protestant, Episcopalian, and he could draw upon these themes very much. Harry Truman was a salty Baptist. Truman and Carter and Clinton, the three Baptist presidents of the century, know the Bible best. They can just recite reams of it at any moment. Eisenhower started having Billy Graham come by. When we say &#8220;evangelical&#8221; today, it&#8217;s almost a long shadow originally of Graham. Today, evangelicalism is multi-headed. It&#8217;s all over the place. You can&#8217;t really generalize about it much anymore, but in its purer form, it came up in that way.</p><p>And, yes, in &#8217;64, they really galvanized around Barry Goldwater and the kind of conservatism. And they didn&#8217;t get very far because he didn&#8217;t get very far, but they got angry about being dismissed and so on. In 1976, when Jimmy Carter ran, he&#8217;s the first one who would say, &#8216;I&#8217;m born again,&#8217; first one to say, &#8216;I had a personal experience with Jesus,&#8217; but they soon dropped him because they didn&#8217;t like him politically. Ronald Reagan was not born again, but he was friendly to them. But you could see this long trend coming.</p><p>Robert Handy, one of our major historians, once wrote a little book on The American Religious Depression, 1925–1935, because the mainline churches were already beginning to lose some of their membership, their status. They were depressed. But Joel Carpenter, another historian, has since pointed out, through it all the fundamentalists who&#8217;d been disgraced in the 1920s started organizing. They bought radio stations. They started Bible colleges. They had magazines. And they were building a world inside the world. And suddenly along come people like Billy Graham and presidents who favor it, and you have a very different kind of pattern, so that by the time — I would say by the time of Ronald Reagan, it became so vivid that the normal clergy in the White House would be evangelists, usually, until recently, of a rather moderate sort.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: It also seems to me, though, that a mistake is made in media in lumping together — as you said, evangelicalism is a — there&#8217;s a multiplicity of evangelicalism, and evangelicalism has a very different history and theology in some cases from Pentecostals and certainly from fundamentalists, although there is some overlap. How would you explain the distinctions?</p><p>Mr. Marty: All right. To the sociologists, the slightly more than one-fourth of America that would be called evangelical includes fundamentalists, evangelicals, Pentecostals, Southern Baptists, and conservative Protestant denominations. And they really have tremendous differences except when they converge on highly focal and, let&#8217;s say, useful political points: gay marriage or something of that sort. But for the most part, they&#8217;re much more diverse.</p><p>Until around the turn of the last century, all Protestants were called evangelicals; all evangelicals were called Protestant. During the century, though, you started having the liberal churches accenting more the Biblical story applied to social life, economic life, cultural life, whereas those who were evangelical started dealing with private life, personal life. That still goes down in our own time.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Why did that happen? How did that happen?</p><p>Mr. Marty: Well, I think the Protestants who ran the show had the sense that you can pass a law and get rid of slavery, you can join secular people to get antitrust laws, you could have child labor laws. All the while then, the revivalists, Billy Graham&#8217;s ancestors — the greatest being Dwight Moody, a Chicago evangelist — looked out at the world and saw it in trouble, and he said, &#8216;The world is a flood, and God gave me a lifeboat and said, &#8220;Moody, rescue all you can.&#8221;&#8216; And I think they concentrated on heaven, on saving souls. And then on moral issues, they chose those over which an individual could have control: You shouldn&#8217;t gamble. You shouldn&#8217;t swear. You shouldn&#8217;t drink.</p><p>Now what&#8217;s so interesting today is, what have come to be called social issues in recent campaigns are not social, they&#8217;re personal enlarged. In other words, the evangelicals and the fundamentalists and the Catholic conservatives concentrate on what goes on in the bedroom, and they don&#8217;t talk much the way classic Protestants did about should the government be involved with poverty, with waging peace, all of those kinds of things. It&#8217;s been their genius to organize that in our own time so they have great political power. The Republican Party in particular has seen that that can be amassed and help get votes for things outside of the bedroom.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Although there certainly are Catholics and evangelicals who are mobilized around poverty and those more classic kinds of social justice issues.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Oh, my, yes. Catholics are very much upfront. And some of the strongest social involvements of today are among evangelical Protestants. But that kind of Catholic and that kind of evangelical and that kind of Protestant are themselves in a kind of a loose coalition today. Not as powerful as the personal morality people, but there&#8217;s a lot of power there. A lot of witness goes on.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Religious scholar and author Martin Marty. I&#8217;m Krista Tippett and this is Speaking of Faith from American Public Media. Today we&#8217;re exploring Martin Marty&#8217;s historical and personal perspective on the changing religious dynamics in American culture. For a half-century, he has studied the effect of increasing pluralism on American Christianity. He&#8217;s also been a visionary scholar of religious fundamentalist movements around the world.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: I want to talk about the Fundamentalism Project that you did but, I mean, before we actually talk about fundamentalism, I&#8217;d like to note something that I thought was very interesting. I was reading your address that you gave at the conclusion of that project to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. You titled it, &#8220;Too Bad We&#8217;re So Relevant: The Fundamentalism Project Projected.&#8221;</p><p>I&#8217;ll just read this quote: &#8220;The Fundamentalism Project scholars have found that fundamentalists tend to turn intimate and private issues into public affairs. Concern for the zones of life closest to the self — world view, identity, sexuality, gender differentiation, family, education, communication — tend to take priority over macroeconomic concerns.&#8221;</p><p>So my question to you is, is there something at the origins of fundamentalism that is also moving our culture as a whole right now?</p><p>Mr. Marty: OK. One quick word about fundamentalism. The fundamentalism we studied, to which you&#8217;re referring, is not your friendly neighborhood fundamentalist down the block. Our assignment was to study the militancies. When we started this, a historian friend said, &#8216;When you&#8217;re studying American fundamentalism, Marty, remember there are no machine guns in the basement of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.&#8217; We were really studying a different kind of thing there, and yet there are certain things everybody had in common.</p><p>In the roots of fundamentalism in our culture, it started, of course, anti-evolution, anti-biblical criticism, and then it started taking a moral cast. But its moral cast, again, was the things that you should take control of. Virtue, advice were their big terms, not social justice and social change. Take what is a virtuous person; pass laws to promote that virtue. And I certainly am leaving a wrong impression if I&#8217;m suggesting that bedroom and clinical issues don&#8217;t have social consequences. They have huge social consequences. If divorce becomes more easy and grows and families disintegrate and children don&#8217;t have models in the parental world and they&#8217;re not educable, it&#8217;s a huge difference in the culture. So they don&#8217;t have a monopoly on it either in its invention or its present carrying out, but I think more of them restrict their energies to that and, again, it&#8217;s a very politically popular thing to do.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: But here&#8217;s my question: This description that you gave of fundamentalism, that people turn to intimate and private issues and that these take priority over macroeconomic concerns, could actually, I think, describe maybe a majority of Americans this year. So what I&#8217;m wondering is if there&#8217;s something that you see that gives rise to that tendency within fundamentalism that is actually alive in our culture as a whole right now.</p><p>Mr. Marty: I think two things are going on. On one level, around the world people are having trouble with their identity, their belief — whom do I trust, who trusts me? And so a phrase we used in The Fundamentalism Project, around the world, there is a massive, convulsive ingathering of peoples into their separatenesses and over-againstnesses, to protect their pride and power and place from others who are doing the same thing. Now, look at American life. We don&#8217;t do it the way they do it in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. We don&#8217;t veil women or anything like that, but we&#8217;re clustering more tightly. &#8216;We&#8217;re the virtuous, and they&#8217;re the vicious. We&#8217;re the good, they&#8217;re the evil.&#8217;</p><p>Ms. Tippett: I guess I&#8217;m still wondering how you understand the human and spiritual&#8211;maybe not theological, but the spiritual roots of this focus that seems to have become so definitive in our public life, on private issues of morality as the issues of morality.</p><p>Mr. Marty: I think that all through Christian history, anything related to sexuality was troubling and exciting. Clerical celibacy for 1700 years in Catholicism shows this, how much of an upheaval was caused when Martin Luther got married and when the Protestant clergy married. Every change in sexual mores is troubling because that&#8217;s so close to the roots of creation and transmission of life. Now what&#8217;s happened in our own time, I argue, every church body from the Mennonites to the evangelicals to the Roman Catholic Church are torn up over two words: sex and authority. By sex, I mean everything in the biological cycle, from in vitro fertilization or stem cell research, abortion, birth control, cohabitation outside of marriage. All these things are troubling all the churches, some of them sweeping…</p><p>Ms. Tippett: And dividing people in them.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Oh, yes. Some people sweep these things under the rug or close their eyes to it or whatever. But I think it&#8217;s very hard to get to the root of your part of the question as to why this longtime concern for personal morality, sexual morality, suddenly became so politically powerful. On one level, let&#8217;s be honest, it&#8217;s very exploitable. Everything else I&#8217;ve talked about — caring for peace, caring for justice, caring for feeding — these are all relative things. How much foreign aid budget you&#8217;re going to put into it, how much energy you&#8217;re going to put into it. With abortion, you either have an abortion or you don&#8217;t. You either perform gay right marriage or not. So it can be a big matter of identity and boundary, and I think that&#8217;s very popular in a time when people lose their identity and their boundary. I always say that the laws on gay rights and the practices toward them will be changed when every tenth evangelical minister&#8217;s daughter comes out. That is, when it gets close to you, you see these differently.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: So liberal — let&#8217;s say, Democrats and even liberal religious people who also have been struggling to find a voice in this last period will often hearken back to the days when it was the social justice issues that mobilized people and that had political force. Did those issues somehow achieve that force in the &#8217;60s because they became more personal for people and, I mean, could you imagine that happening again?</p><p>Mr. Marty: Oh, I think so. The personalization of civil rights, you suddenly had a face: Martin Luther King. You suddenly had causes: the four little Birmingham girls who were bombed. These are very, very vivid things so that the president of the United States had to get on television one night, and after you&#8217;d seen the pictures of the dogs attacking children and police attempts to put down blacks in the South, suddenly it did become personal.</p><p>I should also say in fairness — I&#8217;m really trying to be as accurate as I can — these involvements of white Protestants in peace movements and civil rights movements that was never massive. That was often leadership. Some people would call them generals without armies. And there&#8217;s where I think we historians have kept saying a lot of evangelicals were up close, they were getting their hands dirty. The Salvation Army, for example, is an evangelical movement, one of the oldest. So we don&#8217;t have any absolute lines here at all. I just think that the sudden choice to organize on the virtue-vice line, the &#8216;we&#8217;re entirely right and they&#8217;re entirely wrong&#8217; line, was very exploitable in politics, and in many, many states that has come to prevail as the main political agency. Nobody would have dreamed of that 20 years ago.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Historian and author Martin Marty. This is Speaking of Faith. After a short break, more of his reflections on the nature of fundamentalism, separation of church and state, and the future of religion in America.</p><p>Mr. Marty: I once spoke in eastern Iowa and they said, &#8216;Well, you live in pluralism.&#8217; I said, &#8216;Where&#8217;s the oldest mosque in American? It&#8217;s in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.&#8217; And they have Postville Lubavitcher Jews north of them, and they have transcendental meditation south of them, and they have gypsies east of them, and Amish west of them. That&#8217;s the America we have. It doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s all easy, doesn&#8217;t mean everybody likes everybody.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Visit our Web site, speakingoffaith.org. Subscribe to our free weekly podcast so you can listen to this and other archived programs again. Listen when you want, wherever you want. Discover more at speakingoffaith.org.</p><p>I&#8217;m Krista Tippett. Stay with us. Speaking of Faith comes to you from American Public Media.</p><p>[Announcements]</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Welcome back to Speaking of Faith, public radio&#8217;s conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. I&#8217;m Krista Tippett, today exploring America&#8217;s contemporary religious landscape with Martin Marty.</p><p>Martin Marty is a celebrated historian and interpreter of American religious life. This hour he&#8217;s been reflecting on the religious dynamics of contemporary America from his perspective of half a century of scholarship. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century and into the present, he&#8217;s been involved in many large-scale analyses of American Protestantism in particular, including its cultural influence and its pluralistic impulses.</p><p>And from 1987 to 1993, well before religious fundamentalism had become a feature of daily news headlines, Marty directed a global fundamentalism project that was commissioned by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. That project studied militant religious fundamentalist cultures around the world, and resulted in a five-volume publication. I asked Martin Marty what he learned that surprised him and what shapes his reaction to fundamentalism now.</p><p>Mr. Marty: The first thing we learned was that it is religious. That is, we didn&#8217;t let the psychologists in the first couple of years. This was a six-year study. We wanted to make sure that we caught the religious dimension and were convinced of that. And therefore fundamentalists, by and large, saw us as being fair. Our main instrument was the tape recorder. We sent out a couple hundred scholars around the world and they would ask, &#8216;Why are you this?&#8217; and &#8216;Why do you raise your family that way?&#8217; We studied it in 23 religions, by the way, Jains and Sikhs and everybody; it wasn&#8217;t just Christians and Muslims and Jews.</p><p>What else did we learn? Number one, fundamentalism is not the old-time religion. Fundamentalism is a very modern packaging. That is, it&#8217;s born when there&#8217;s an assault on values that you have and are uncertain about. There has to be a threat to you as a group identity or to you as an individual. So the most important word in fundamentalism is you react. Very few fundamentalists are concerned about things that traditionalists and regular conservatives and orthodox are. You can&#8217;t get a phone booth full of an argument on the most important Christian doctrines like the divine trinity and the two natures of Christ and the bread and wine of the Lord&#8217;s Supper. They care about evolution. They care about being left behind as the world ends. But there&#8217;s a very selective agenda. The whole left-behind theology is not the old-time religion. It was invented in the 1840s, which is really the modern world.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: For someone like you.</p><p>Mr. Marty: That&#8217;s right. I move glacially, not with a hurricane. And many other features were modern. Everywhere we studied them, they were better at the use of mass media than modernists were.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Now, that&#8217;s interesting.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Yes. I once spoke in a church in — I think it was Dallas, and the pulpit looked like a 747 panel. A red light would go on, a baby&#8217;s crying in nursery 23C, and another blue light and that means a Jaguar&#8217;s lights were left on in parking lot D, and I could raise the temperature and the volume and everything else. And the minister in his sermon later on blasted technology, which he was using. In other words, he blasted the energy put into it, I suppose you&#8217;d say.</p><p>Well, I can go to a liberal Methodist church and I&#8217;m pretty sure the microphone won&#8217;t work. I&#8217;m kidding, I&#8217;m kidding, but Ayatollah Khomeini&#8217;s revolution was done through tape recordings from France. Al-Qaeda is very much at home with the Internet.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Very savvy, yeah.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Mass media helped produce fundamentalism because — first stage was born in the early radio; the second stage, Billy Graham, early television; the third stage now, Internet. What do you do? It comes at you with full force. You might try laws against obscenity and pornography. You might try to boycott Disney World. That doesn&#8217;t do much. You&#8217;re better off starting your own television networks. &#8216;Mass media are what messed up the intimacy of my family life; I&#8217;ll turn it right back upon itself.&#8217;</p><p>Ms. Tippett: So as late as on September 11th, 2001, the word &#8220;fundamentalism&#8221; became a part of our public vocabulary. And I&#8217;m curious, as you watched that happen and have watched all the discussion since then, having spent this good block of time studying fundamentalism a decade earlier, what have you found to be missing in our analysis of fundamentalism recently?</p><p>Mr. Marty: I think, unfortunately, the word is used to clump everybody together. The overuse of the word &#8220;fundamentalism&#8221; — I should be claiming a patent on it because we did those five big fat books on it. But one of the themes of those five books was there are an awful lot of things out there and there&#8217;s a lot of internal diversity. We would remind people — for example, the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s had 450,000 members in Indiana, in the North, and every meeting had a Protestant minister, it had a cross, it had the open Bible, it had prayer, and the rest of Protestantism and the rest of Christianity would say, &#8216;That&#8217;s not a bit representative of the one billion of us out there.&#8217; So I think when al-Qaeda came on the scene that was our first message: Show the diversities. Make it easier for moderates to be moderate. Don&#8217;t demonize the enemy. Do all that you can to show their varieties and to make it easy for them to be diverse.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Esteemed religious historian and author Martin Marty. I&#8217;m Krista Tippett, and this is Speaking of Faith from American Public Media. Today, &#8220;America&#8217;s Changing Religious Landscape: A Conversation with Martin Marty.&#8221;</p><p>Ms. Tippett: You&#8217;ve lived a good long time as a public theologian and a religious thinker, and you quote a lot of great thinkers in all your works. I wonder, if I asked you who you think of as the most formative and influential religious figures in American life in the 20th century, who would you want to describe?</p><p>Mr. Marty: Among the well-known people, I would have to say the two Niebuhr brothers, Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr, who towered at Union Seminary and Yale when Protestantism was strong. They both were strong for the prophetic principle. They weren&#8217;t good at leading you into worship, though they did write prayers. But they were up close. They were in the thick of things.</p><p>Reinhold was a &#8220;cold warrior.&#8221; He was a consultant in the Truman era to the Dean Achesons and then the John Foster Dulleses. He&#8217;s there. But his interpretation of human nature — on one level, there was a group called Atheists for Niebuhr, but he once said, &#8216;You&#8217;ll never understand me if you don&#8217;t know that I believe in Christ crucified.&#8217; He always went back to his roots in the gospel, but they also appreciated his analysis of human nature was so realistic, and his interpretation of history and the place nations played.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Here&#8217;s a favorite quotation of the 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, with which Martin Marty ended an address at the White House in 1998.</p><p>Reader: &#8220;Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true, or beautiful, or good, makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, could be accomplished alone; therefore, we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint; therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.&#8221;</p><p>Ms. Tippett: From Reinhold Niebuhr.</p><p>My guest, Martin Marty, is describing some of the most interesting and influential religious forces in his lifetime.</p><p>Mr. Marty: I certainly would have to put Billy Graham in the front rank. And I may not have always been in the same camp, we&#8217;ve exchanged a few nice letters and have never had a sour word in 30, 40 years, but there&#8217;s no doubt about it that I&#8217;ve often thought — I&#8217;ve often said, &#8216;If Billy Graham had been born mean, we&#8217;d be in terrible trouble,&#8217; because he had so much power, so many gifts and so on. One of my distinctions in religion is not liberal and conservative, but mean and non-mean. You have mean liberals and mean conservatives, and you have non-mean of both. But he&#8217;s not a mean. And I think you&#8217;d have to say that&#8217;s just been an enormous influence on many people.</p><p>Paul Tillich, of German import, was highly influential theologically. But I really think that people whose names you&#8217;ll never know were influential.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Right. And who are some of those that are important to you?</p><p>Mr. Marty: Well, a custodian at a high school I went to. You&#8217;d come there in the morning and, as busy as he might be pushing a broom, he read your face better than the counselors did as to what your trouble was.</p><p>I personally have a lot of interest in the arts and I have hung out with people who are in music. Recently I was at the dedication of a new organ in honor of Paul Manz, a great, great organist who brought back something as corny-sounding as hymn singing into the great cathedrals. He and I have been on a couple of CDs together. I assure anybody listening that I don&#8217;t sing, I narrate. But certainly Paul Manz would be in my front rank of people who shaped me.</p><p>A theologian named Joe Sittler, not among the best-known theologians in America, blind in the last years of his life, nearly deaf, had a way with words and a way of discernment and a good-humored understanding of ethics that made the world richer for me.</p><p>Reader: A reading from Joseph Sittler in the 1986 book Gravity and Grace:</p><p>&#8220;St. Augustine, at the beginning of his Confessions, makes a great and beautiful statement: &#8216;Thou has made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.&#8217; Back of that statement lies a proposition which says that the human is created for transcendence … that we are by nature created to envision more than we can accomplish, to long for that which is beyond our possibilities.</p><p>&#8220;We are formed for God. …Faith is a longing. Humankind is created to grasp more than we can grab, to probe for more than we can ever handle or manage.</p><p>&#8220;…This restlessness may make us want to throw in the towel — or to pull up our socks. You can either be creatively restless, as before the unknowable, or you can simply collapse into futility. One of the goals of the Christian message is to join together the people of the way, the way of an eternally given restlessness, and to win from that restlessness the participation in God, which is all that our mortality can deliver.&#8221;</p><p>Theologian Joseph Sittler, from the book Gravity and Grace.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: You often mention a Dutch philosopher.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Oh, yes.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: How do you say his name?</p><p>Mr. Marty: Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, who was a Swiss-German Jew and Christian. He&#8217;s one of those geniuses that you can quote 20 pages of and then the 21st page is so nutty you&#8217;re not sure you can use it. But I&#8217;ll give a quick illustration of what I get from him. For example, he says — and this is extremely important in my life. He says you can write the history of learning in the western world in three Latin phrases.</p><p>The first is, in Latin, Credo ut intelligum — &#8220;I believe in order that I may understand.&#8221; It&#8217;s the birth of the universities in Europe, Bologna, Paris, Oxford. You believe to apprehend the universe; truth is divinely revealed and can be appropriated. And that&#8217;s the charter that believers should never be afraid of learning.</p><p>Secondly, modern learning, without which we couldn&#8217;t do, is Descartes. René Descartes. Cogito ergo sum — &#8220;I think, therefore I am.&#8221; Modern university is born on skepticism and doubt and inquiry and criticism, and you want that. I don&#8217;t want a med school in which they&#8217;re just taking things on faith. I want them to be extremely critical. But he said, &#8216;That, too, gets sterile.&#8217; And so he says, in the 20th century, that we also have to learn that truth has a social character. I&#8217;m learning from this conversation with you. We learn from conversing with someone else, we learn from the meaning of &#8220;I&#8221; and &#8220;thou.&#8221;</p><p>And his third motto was Respondeo etsi mutabor — &#8220;I respond although I will be changed.&#8221; I&#8217;m not changed when I argue with somebody because I know an answer and I got to defeat them. I&#8217;m always changed in a conversation because they&#8217;re going to surprise me. It&#8217;s kind of a game, it&#8217;s kind of play. And I think that that&#8217;s the kind of learning we need more in the churches, in theology, in politics, and in personal life.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: You&#8217;ve done a lot of projecting in your life. I mean, I found one book written in 1971 where you were projecting the church in that century, and there was projecting in The Fundamentalism Project. I wonder what you have been wrong about, as you look back, and also I wonder, as you look forward, where you are finding your hope and nurture.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Well, looking ahead, it&#8217;s a very foolish thing for a historian to do because we have nothing to say until something&#8217;s happened. I mean, our specialty is the past. But when you&#8217;re involved in the worlds in which I&#8217;m involved, you do hang out with the people who do projecting and you go along with them. My biggest misses were I didn&#8217;t foresee three huge things: One, the explosion of evangelicalisms; number two, the highly individualized spirituality of which you spoke earlier, the people who are on a spiritual search but they&#8217;re doing it at the coffee shop, at the mega bookstore, or they&#8217;re doing it in a little chanting group, and they&#8217;re not doing it in the churches. That&#8217;s certainly a force I hadn&#8217;t foreseen. And then I think the vitality that has come with the new pluralism, and that&#8217;s because I did a lot of writing before 1965 when the immigration laws changed.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: That&#8217;s another one of those points in the &#8217;60s that you say how important that was for our religious life, that we never talk about as a turning point in the &#8217;60s.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Well, it&#8217;s huge. It was the year of the Selma March. It was the year of the engagement in Vietnam. It was the year of all the LBJ Great Society legislation, and Congress made a little change in the immigration laws, after 41 years. And it was just in time for all the boat people. It&#8217;s just in time for people from Africa to come direct, and so on. And it was just a huge change…</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Because it gave rise to a pluralism and a multiculturalism in a new way.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Yes. It makes new demands on hospitality, etc. Lewiston, Maine, suddenly has people from Somalia. I once spoke in eastern Iowa and they said, &#8216;Well, you live in pluralism.&#8217; I said, &#8216;Where&#8217;s the oldest mosque in American? It&#8217;s in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.&#8217; And they have Postville Lubavitcher Jews north of them, and they have transcendental meditation south of them, and they have gypsies east of them, and Amish west of them. That&#8217;s the America we have. And when you go to a hospital today, your doctor&#8217;s probably Pakistani and your nurse is Filipino, and your clinician is Jewish, etc. That&#8217;s our future. It doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s all easy, doesn&#8217;t mean everybody likes everybody, but it does mean that your interpreting is being done on a larger scale.</p><p>And, again, the two biggest of those — and I guess you could say I probably didn&#8217;t foresee that either, since we&#8217;re talking about what I didn&#8217;t foresee — is that half of everything we&#8217;re talking about today is done by women. And that was not true in the &#8217;50s. When I was writing the third volume of my three-volume work on American religion, I said to my class, half of whom were women, &#8216;Help me out. I need women who are big in religion in the &#8217;50s. I can&#8217;t have an index of all men.&#8217; And they couldn&#8217;t find hardly anybody. And then one of them said, &#8216;I&#8217;ll bet they were seething.&#8217; And I said, &#8216;OK, Julie, you&#8217;re going to right a history of seething women of the &#8217;50s,&#8217; and she found interesting stuff. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Catherine Marshall, all these people whose husbands are up front, and they&#8217;re seething. They&#8217;re all ready to change along the way. So I didn&#8217;t foresee how sudden and total that is.</p><p>It&#8217;s hard to think your way back to when very few women added work outside the home if they had children at home. And I think the…</p><p>Ms. Tippett: That&#8217;s a piece of pluralism we don&#8217;t really think about, in terms of how people are active in our public life. Women are more of a force in that way.</p><p>Mr. Marty: Oh, yes.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Religious historian Martin Marty. We&#8217;re exploring how his historical and personal insights shed light on the religious dynamics of contemporary America.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: I think that there is a real sense among many people in our time that the whole relationship between church and state&#8211;as we define that, it&#8217;s not really just church and state anymore, right, it&#8217;s mosque, synagogue, church, and state, and many other variations of religious expression, but that that is shifting profoundly. But I wonder, with your perspective as a historian, you know, how new, how profound is this shift and how do you view this?</p><p>Mr. Marty: On one level, the image of the wall of separation never worked. We did never have a wall. For example, tax exemption of churches probably pays more to the churches in America than being established governmental churches in Europe ever did. I like James Madison&#8217;s word, there&#8217;s a &#8220;line of distinction,&#8221; a line of separation between religion and civil authorities.</p><p>I think of it more, too, as zones. Most people know when you&#8217;ve really overstepped. Most people don&#8217;t want religion utterly in a box. When the astronauts looked at the Earth on Christmas Eve, they read, &#8220;In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.&#8221; I think Madalyn Murray O&#8217;Hair and one or two other people protested, but most people thought, &#8216;That&#8217;s great.&#8217; And when you have the space shuttle disasters, the president gets up and is at his most eloquent invoking religious language. Well, if you read real separation of religion and the state, you wouldn&#8217;t do that.</p><p>It gets more complex in some other areas. There is much more eroding of that line than there had been. I think, though, again, many of us who are nervous about crossing the line are also interested in religion in public life. I&#8217;m all for the teaching about religion in public schools. I think you should know that Martin Luther King was a black Baptist and what that did for him. You should know why the Puritans came. You should know why your Hindu neighbor does something different. But a lot of people want to convert that and say, &#8216;But we should teach the majority religion as the truth about life, and we should worship in that tradition.&#8217; And that&#8217;s where we get nervous, and yet there&#8217;s a strong popular appeal. &#8216;If only we had prayer amendments. If only we had stipulated prayer.&#8217; And here&#8217;s where a Protestant of the old school or a real Protestant would say, &#8216;Watch out. Give religion privilege and it gets corrupt. And look at Europe if you want a sample of that.&#8217; So in my view, religion has its place all over the public sphere as long as it is persuasive and voluntary. And the minute it gets to be coerced and privileged and assumed, somebody&#8217;s going to run it at the expense of others or it&#8217;ll get fat and corrupt.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Where do you look for nourishment and hope? Where do you look around and say, &#8216;This is exciting. I&#8217;m happy for my grandchildren to be living in this time&#8217;?</p><p>Mr. Marty: The most important thing in my world, when I mention public life I don&#8217;t mean only politics. A lot of people equate the two. Politics is one branch of it. Public life is town meeting, it&#8217;s the mall, it&#8217;s the supermarket, it&#8217;s the college, it&#8217;s all those things. And I&#8217;m greatly cheered by artists, by musicians, by people who live out their vocation. It&#8217;s almost a hobby for me to pursue people who just never get their name in print and do heroic things.</p><p>I&#8217;m cheered by — I never know how to speak without proper nouns. I like a group called Opportunity International, which is one of a number of microeconomic ventures around the world that lends money, put 140,000 people around the world to permanent work last year. Now, they&#8217;re religiously motivated people and they give me tremendous hope, as do the people on the other end, 92 percent of whom pay their loans back in two years, which inspires me. That kind of thing.</p><p>In the city where I live, Chicago, there are all kinds of groups that provide leadership in the inner city without condescension, without imposing on them. There are others that train people. In one of these groups, the Christian Industrial League, trains people, mainly Mexican men, to start their landscaping companies and women to start their homemaking companies — not just to do the work, but to start companies. And they plant the flowers that we see in the city of Chicago. Come see them.</p><p>And family is very important. I draw nurture from the family. We love friends. I can&#8217;t say enough — I once wrote a book about friendship. In a cold, brutal world, you can&#8217;t do much better for somebody else than to stimulate friendship. And the model there again is God. As distant as God&#8217;s supposed to be, God also condescends and is our 3:00-in-the-morning friend. So I&#8217;m nurtured by all those kinds of things.</p><p>Ms. Tippett: Martin Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. The Martin Marty Center has been founded there to promote public religion endeavors. He&#8217;s the author of more than 50 books, including, recently, The Protestant Voice in American Pluralism, When Faiths Collide, and the Penguin Lives volume on Martin Luther.</p><p>Contact us at speakingoffaith.org and read listeners&#8217; reflections on this conversation. Also, sign up for the free Speaking of Faith podcast. You&#8217;ll never have to miss another program again. Listen on demand, when you want, wherever you want. Discover more at speakingoffaith.org.</p><p>The senior producer of Speaking of Faith is Mitch Hanley, with producers Colleen Scheck and Jody Abramson and editor Ken Hom. Our Web producer is Trent Gilliss, with assistance from Jennifer Krause. Kate Moos is the managing producer of Speaking of Faith, the executive editor is Bill Buzenberg, and I&#8217;m Krista Tippett.</p></blockquote><div
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url="http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/speakingoffaith/20061102_marty-raw.mp3" length="47249068" type="audio/mpeg" /> </item> <item><title>Father Abraham Had Seven Sons</title><link>http://chrisabraham.com/2006/09/22/father-abraham-had-seven-sons/</link> <comments>http://chrisabraham.com/2006/09/22/father-abraham-had-seven-sons/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:18:52 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Abraham</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[abraham]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Father Abraham]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[bce]]></category> <category><![CDATA[book of genesis]]></category> <category><![CDATA[christianity islam]]></category> <category><![CDATA[christians]]></category> <category><![CDATA[faith]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Family]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fist]]></category> <category><![CDATA[fists]]></category> <category><![CDATA[god]]></category> <category><![CDATA[historians]]></category> <category><![CDATA[israelites]]></category> <category><![CDATA[judaism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[legs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[major religions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[move right]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[muslims]]></category> <category><![CDATA[myths]]></category> <category><![CDATA[patriarch]]></category> <category><![CDATA[punch]]></category> <category><![CDATA[qur]]></category> <category><![CDATA[right move]]></category> <category><![CDATA[sons]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Wikipedia]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=3179</guid> <description><![CDATA[&#8220;Abraham (between 2000 BC/BCE and 1500 BC/BCE) is regarded as the founding patriarch of the Israelites whom God chose to bless and be a blessing to all the families of the earth. He is a critical figure in Judaism later adopted by other religions like Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá&#8217;í Faith. The accounts of his [...]]]></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 Father Abraham Had Seven Sons" /></a></div><blockquote><p>&#8220;Abraham (between 2000 BC/BCE and 1500 BC/BCE) is regarded as the founding patriarch of the Israelites whom God chose to bless and be a blessing to all the families of the earth. He is a critical figure in Judaism later adopted by other religions like Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá&#8217;í Faith. The accounts of his life found in the Book of Genesis (and for Muslims and Bahai, those in the Qur&#8217;an also) are believed to be accurate within the major religions respectively associated with these books, but they have sometimes been assumed to be myths (as opposed to factual) by some secular historians.&#8221;</p></blockquote><p>Via <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia</a></p><blockquote><p>Father Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Father Abraham.<br
/> And they never laughed, and they never cried.  All they did was go like this:<br
/> With a left! (punch left fist into air)  With a left!<br
/> (Now, move your left fist up and down in time to the music.)</p><p>Father Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Father Abraham.<br
/> And they never laughed, and they never cried.  All they did was go like this:<br
/> With a left!  (punch left fist into air)  With a left!<br
/> And a right!  (punch right fist into air)  And a right!<br
/> (Now, move both fists up and down in time to the music.)</p><p>Father Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Father Abraham.<br
/> And they never laughed, and they never cried.  All they did was go like this:<br
/> With a left!  (punch left fist into air)  With a left!<br
/> And a right!  (punch right fist into air)  And a right!<br
/> And a left!  (move left leg)  And a left!<br
/> (Now, move both fists up and down, AND move left leg in time to the music.)</p><p>Father Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Father Abraham.<br
/> And they never laughed, and they never cried.  All they did was go like this:<br
/> With a left!  (punch left fist into air)  With a left!<br
/> And a right!  (punch right fist into air)  And a right!<br
/> And a left!  (move left leg)  And a left!<br
/> And a right!  (move right leg)  And a right!<br
/> (Now, move both fists up and down, AND move both legs in time to the music.)</p><p>Father Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Father Abraham.<br
/> And they never laughed, and they never cried.  All they did was go like this:<br
/> With a left!  (punch left fist into air)  With a left!<br
/> And a right!  (punch right fist into air)  And a right!<br
/> And a left!  (move left leg)  And a left!<br
/> And a right!  (move right leg)  And a right!<br
/> And the head!  (shake head)  And the head!<br
/> (Move both fists up and down, both legs, AND your head in time to the music.)</p><p>Father Abraham, had seven sons.  Seven sons had Father Abraham.<br
/> And they never laughed, and they never cried.  All they did was go like this:<br
/> With a left!  (punch left fist into air)  With a left!<br
/> And a right!  (punch right fist into air)  And a right!<br
/> And a left!  (move left leg)  And a left!<br
/> And a right!  (move right leg)  And a right!<br
/> And the head!  (shake head)  And the head!<br
/> And the body!  (shake body)  And the body!<br
/> (Move everything in time to the music.)</p></blockquote><div
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isPermaLink="false">http://chrisabraham.com/?p=2602</guid> <description><![CDATA[My favorite food on the planet was a good loco moco at Cafe 100 with my mom and dad when we travelled to Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii, on business. The only place on the planet we ever considered having loco moco was at Cafe 100, which is supposed to be the best place on the [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div
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/></center> My favorite food on the planet was a good loco moco at <a
href="http://www.onlinehilo.com/cafe100/" rel="nofollow">Cafe 100</a> with my mom and dad when we travelled to Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii, on business. The only place on the planet we ever considered having loco moco was at <a
href="http://www.onlinehilo.com/cafe100/" rel="nofollow">Cafe 100</a>, which is supposed to be the best place on the planet for real loco moco. I think I am going to make some loco moco this weekend!</p><p>From <a
href="http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/LocoMocoHistory.htm" rel="nofollow">What&#8217;s Cooking America</a></p><blockquote><p><strong>Loco Moco Recipe</strong></p><p>1/4 pound ground beef<br
/> 1 egg<br
/> Hot prepared gravy<br
/> Hot pepper sauce<br
/> Tomato ketchup<br
/> Soy Sauce</p><p>Form the ground beef into a patty. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, cook patty until cooked to your liking; remove from heat and set aside.</p><p>Fry egg (sunny-side up or over easy) in the grease from the ground beef.</p><p>Assemble this dish by putting a bed of cooked rice in a large bowl, top with hamburger patty, fried egg, and 1 to 2 ladles of hot gravy. Add hot pepper sauce, ketchup, or soy sauce according to your preference.</p><p>Makes 1 serving for a very hungry person.</p><p>Loco Moco (loh-koo moh-koo) is Hawaii&#8217;s original homemade fast food and can be found at just about any fast food joint, roadside diner, mom and pop restaurant or lunch wagon in the Islands.  It is truly unique to Hawaii, and it is a comfort food, or &#8220;local grind,&#8221; of the Hawaiian Islands. Local food is not the cuisine that is served in upscale hotels and restaurants of Hawaii. It&#8217;s basic structure was established soon after World War II &#8211; the best fast food or mixture of cuisines from many Pacific rim countries, with a special Hawaiian twist.</p><p>Loco Moco is a mountainous meal consisting of a heap of white rice topped with a hamburger patty and a Sunnyside-up egg, and then smothered in gravy. This dish is popular for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and is a candidate for the Cholesterol Hall of Fame.  As you eat, break the egg &#8211; then blend the burger, egg, rice, and gravy on your fork for each bite for a real taste of paradise.</p><p>There are many people who claim to have invented Loco Moco, but it is generally agreed that around 1949, either the Cafe 100 or the Lincoln Grill (both in Hilo, Hawaii) originated the first dish of Loco Moco. According to the story, the dish was created for teenagers who wanted something different from typical American sandwiches and less time-consuming than Asian food to eat for breakfast. The nickname of the first boy to eat this concoction was Loco (&#8220;crazy&#8221; in Portuguese and Hawaiian pidgin). Moco rhymed with loco and sounded great, so Loco Moco became the name of the dish.</p><p>According to John Penisten of the web site Tropi-Ties, Inc:</p><p>Rudy Legaspi, former member and unofficial historian of the Tropi-Ties (also recently retired Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Hawaii County and admitted loco-moco fanatic) says &#8220;The loco-moco had its origins with the Lincoln Wreckers Athletic Club, an informal organization for local teenagers, in the late 1940&#8242;s. The group used to hang-out at the Lincoln Grill Restaurant across the street from Lincoln Park in downtown Hilo.</p><p>The Lincoln Wreckers, who played in the local &#8220;bare-foot&#8221; football league of the time, had some success on the field, but its main claim to fame was their creation of the loco-moco. The popular local dish has become a staple on restaurant menus throughout the islands and is a recognized cultural cuisine icon, as much as a taco is to Mexican fare or a pizza to Italian fare.</p><p>The loco moco story began in 1949, after Richard and Nancy Inouye opened the Lincoln Grill Restaurant. The teens used to hang-out at the eatery, playing the pin-ball machines, cards, dropping nickels in the Wurlitzer jukebox and constantly feeding their hungry appetites. And in those days, when teens didn&#8217;t have much money in their pockets, the standard fare was a bowl of saimin noodles or a hamburger, things which didn&#8217;t quite fill the always hungry teens.</p><p>So the club devised a plan to ask the Inouyes to create a special dish just for them, something filling and affordable. For the task, the Wreckers nominated a guy nicknamed &#8220;Crazy&#8221; for his wild and madcap play on the football field. &#8220;Crazy&#8221; approached the Inouyes with the club&#8217;s request and the rest is history.&#8221;</p></blockquote><p><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco_Moco" rel="nofollow">Loco Moco on Wikipedia</a></p><blockquote><p>The Loco Moco is a dish unique to Hawaiian cuisine. There are many variations, but the essential loco moco consists of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, a fried egg, and brown gravy. Variations may include bacon, ham, kalua pork, Portuguese sausage, teriyaki beef, teriyaki chicken, mahi-mahi, shrimp, oyster and other meats.</p><p>Its roots are not entirely clear. James Kelly writes that the dish was created in 1949 by the Inouye family, who owned the Lincoln Gril in Hilo, Hawaii in 1949. In keeping with the standards of Japanese Cuisine, they used rice as a staple starch and finished it off with the hamburger and gravy to create a dish that did not require the preparation time of bento. The egg was added shortly thereafter. The name derives from the nickname of one of the teenagers who frequented the restaurant (&#8216;Loco&#8217;) combined with a rhyming (&#8216;moco&#8217;), meaning snot. It is a widespread and popular dish in Hawaii and a favourite of local fast food restaurants, but is almost completely unknown elsewhere, except for in Japan where it is very popular.</p><p>Loco Moco is also the name of an American restaurant chain featuring Hawaiian rice bowl dishes.</p></blockquote><div
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