Chris Abraham » worries

Online Marketing and Online PR Converge

Chris Abraham — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:03:34 +0000

I got trained up in marketing and evolved into PR and there is a convergence going on. Not just between PR and marketing but also with advertising and … SEO (yes, I said it). David Hargreaves of Bitemarks agrees that there is a strong convergence — and so does the originator, Jeremiah Owyang:

Jeremiah Owyang produced an interesting piece earlier today asking what will happen to PR firms in a recession based on research among 200 PR agencies. I must confess I am not surprised to see that a small majority of firms are predicting that PR budgets were smaller than they were in fiscal 2008, but then if you if you look at any operating cost, I would be surprised if this wasn’t pretty much tracking the downward pressure on all operating costs.
Having said that I think cost reductions fall into two categories: reducing costs because in this climate ‘you can’ and ‘you need to be seen to’ and then there are those companies that are having to reduce costs because ‘they must’. I wonder what if the PR budget reductions are greater or smaller than comparable ad budgets?
I both agree and disagree with the second point Jeremiah makes when he says that “things don’t look too rosy for the PR industry.” If you are a traditional PR agency doing the same old stuff then I would be worried. However, if you accept that the world has changed and embracing social media is neither an option or an add on to your traditional offering then the world looks rosier.
By putting social media at the centre of what we do, we have a fantastic opportunity to extend our remit more broadly into the world of online marketing. Far from being gloomy, as someone who has been involved in the PR industry for 20 years and who has always embraced technology, the future for the industry has never been more exciting.

It is Illegal to Photograph a Bobby (or a Building) in the UK

Chris Abraham — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:25:39 +0000

Cory Doctorow talks about the new law in the UK that makes in a crime to take a picture of a police officer or a building, Britain’s no-photographing-cops law: even the cops hate it — and the US isn’t very far behind, to be sure — and be sure to listen to the CBC article about this law in As It Happens (MP3):

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show As it Happens did a great job covering the new British law that makes it a crime to take a picture of a police officer or a building, where that picture might be useful in “planning an act of terrorism.” First, they interviewed Peter Murray, Vice-President of the National Union of Journalists, who, predictably, worries that his members will find themselves with arrest-records as terrorists for violating the law. But then, they talked to Peter Smyth, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who also thinks the law is ridiculous — and this is just stupendous. Smyth says that there’s no evidence that terrorists use photographs to plan attacks, admits that this is an invitation for scared officers to abuse the law, and says that it will needlessly create conflict with journalists and the public.
The program tried to locate someone — anyone — who supported the law, but no one was forthcoming.

Does McKinsey Indicate a Social Media Tipping Point?

Chris Abraham — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:41:01 +0000

The advance guard of the blogosphere were afraid that they missed the blogging and social media wave back in 2006 when I wrote Surfing as a Metaphor for the State of the Blogosphere and Don’t Worry You Didn’t Miss the Height of the Blogosphere, which assured folks that the height was nowhere in sight (forgive me, I am from Hawaii):

Truth is, in terms of the height of the blogosphere, it isn’t even a wave yet. A few people have caught the wave already, but it is just forming. It certainly hasn’t crested! It is far from curling. The wave is still only accessible to the top 10%, but the real market is always in that 80%.

Well, maybe we have come upon the tipping point, according to Jay Deragon in his article, Has McKinsey Created A Tipping Point? In this article, Jay says,

“There has been plenty of discussions throughout the social web about how businesses can gain from the use of social media. marketers from every corner of the earth promote their services to businesses and proclaim “expert status”. However their is only one name in the globe that has the power of getting business leaders attention. That name is McKinsey.”

This may very well be true because McKinsey is, in fact, the living gospel of big business. You, too, can read this article, Six ways to make Web 2.0 work: Web 2.0 tools present a vast array of opportunities—for companies that know how to use them.

Over the past two years, McKinsey has studied more than 50 early adopters to garner insights into successful efforts to use Web 2.0 as a way of unlocking participation. We have surveyed, independently, a range of executives on Web 2.0 adoption. Our work suggests the challenges that lie ahead. To date, as many survey respondents are dissatisfied with their use of Web 2.0 technologies as are satisfied. Many of the dissenters cite impediments such as organizational structure, the inability of managers to understand the new levers of change, and a lack of understanding about how value is created using Web 2.0 tools. We have found that, unless a number of success factors are present, Web 2.0 efforts often fail to launch or to reach expected heights of usage. Executives who are suspicious or uncomfortable with perceived changes or risks often call off these efforts. Others fail because managers simply don’t know how to encourage the type of participation that will produce meaningful results.

What say you? Are we at the tipping point? Can we all start making money now instead of just being gurus, mavens, connectors, and early-adopters? Well, hopefull. Again, from Jay:

This article should be considered a tipping point. When McKinsey speaks business leaders listen and you can bet this article will stir more engagement in social media activities from businesses around the globe.

Sword of Damocles

Chris Abraham — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:16:14 +0000

MEANING:

noun: An ever-present threat; an impending disaster.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Damocles of Greek legend. Damocles was a courtier who flattered the ruler Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, to excess. The fulsome praise so annoyed the king that he decided to teach him a lesson. He held a banquet in honor of Damocles but when Damocles saw the sword hanging by a single horse-hair over his head, he lost all taste for the lavish feast. He realized that even those who appear to enjoy great fortune face fears and worries. By the way, the word impending literally means hanging over.

USAGE:

“Roth said, ‘The threat of an audit … looms like the sword of Damocles over the heads of taxpayers.’”
IRS Chief Wants to Balance Service, Enforcement; The Advocate (Stamford, Connecticut); Feb 13, 2009.

PRONUNCIATION:

(sord uhv DAM-uh-kleez)

Chelsea Reviews My Comm350 Guest Lecture

Chris Abraham — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:50:42 +0000

I spoke to two classes of communications majors today about digital PR and social media marketing. It was a wonderful experience. The University of Maryland undergraduate course was called Comm350: Public Relations Theory and their communications professor, Sahar Mohamed Khamis, was amazing generous and welcoming, basically handing me the reins to her class, sight unseen. The class is described as:

The historical development and contemporary status of public relations in business, government, associations and other organizations. Application of communication theory and social science methods to the research, planning, communication and evaluation aspects of the public relations process.

Everybody was super bright and super nice to me. One thing I was concerned about is that in both classes I taught today, both Comm350, only a couple people had Twitter accounts and I think there were just a couple folks who have a blog or who had every blogged. And these are our future PR professionals. Of course, when I asked, 100% of the students in both classes were on Facebook. Natch.

Well, I presented my A Guide to Blogger Relations slide show and then took questions. I told them that blogging, Twittering, and participating in the wider conversation would almost guarantee them a good job at a local or national agency after college. I told them that they should all, separately or in concert, start writing a blog about their take on communication, on advertising, on popular culture, on television, on PR, on social media — that the thing they learn in class every day would be interesting to the blogosphere, seen through their young eyes. That there is no doubt in my mind that you can really and truly write yourself into the job of your dreams and if they didn’t blog, all of them, they were darned fools (well, maybe I didn’t say it — it was implied).

I receive quite a thank you note from one of student from the first class, Miss Chelsea Clark, who not only asked a question but also said the following nice things — a mixture of review, testimonial, and, I dare say, her first blog post once removed:

I walked into my Comm350 class on Tuesday expecting to sit there taking notes for an hour and a half like usual. Instead, our professor announced we were having a guest speaker. I was thinking to myself that this could go one of two ways: really interesting and way better than cramping my hand taking notes, or really boring and put me to sleep.
Our guest speaker took the floor and introduced himself and described what his company does. I’ve learned about blogs in PR before, but I was never really able to link the two together. Yeah, so blogs are a new media outlet, but how does that help clients? How do businesses personally benefit from random people around the country writing about their hobbies and interests? I never really understood the connection until Chris’ presentation.
He described how he would have his team search for blogs that were written about topics that relate to his clients and then send out mass emails to the bloggers to ask them to write about his clients. He was worried that we would think he was a spammer, but, having made many annoying calls and emails to reporters myself, I knew how he felt. He then showed us results of actual bloggers that wrote about his clients. He got so excited! We all recognized this feeling, for being PR people ourselves, we know how satisfying it is to have free publicity.
I thought that Chris did a really good job with his presentation. I followed what he was saying the whole time and enjoyed some of his nerdy antics. I think some of the people in the class were less interested or maybe didn’t follow what Chris’ company is responsible for, either because they were pretending to take notes while really checking their facebooks or because they are still a bit unfamiliar with PR and got a little bit confused.
For me, the presentation was enlightening, exciting, and interesting and showed me new ways of getting publicity without necessarily resorting to TV and newspapers. I would definitely recommend him to other PR college classes that are looking for guest speakers!

That, Chelsea, really made my month. I appreciate the kind words and thank you, again, to professor Sahar Khamis

who will soon be coming out with a really compelling new book you should all pre-order on Amazon, Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace. I look forward to it.

Also, if you’re curious as to the content of the slide show and the presentation I did, here it is inline for your enjoyment… however, I need to record one with my insight, wit, and wisdom one of these days soon:

My Top 91 Social Media Blog Posts

Chris Abraham — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:30:11 +0000

I am not willing or able to say that the following 91 blog posts about social media, blogging, new media, social networking, etc, are the definite top-91 posts because I didn’t have the time or attention to go through all of my 5,437 blog posts:

Knife Pornography From Boing Boing Gadgets

Chris Abraham — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:40:28 +0000

One of my goals in life is to be on Boing Boing, so in many ways my dreams are coming true every day in so many ways in the form of getting a guest blog post on Boing Boing Gadgets about the ultimate gadget, my hand-made, bespoke, Randall Model 1 knife — many thanks to my buddy John Brownlee for inviting me over and for not only considering my knife a gadget but fancying it worthy of bbG:

Knife Porn: Four years waiting and one month with the Randall Model 1 Fighting Knife Posted by John Brownlee

Guest Review by Chris Abraham
After four years, I finally received my bespoke, hand-made, Randall Model 1 “All-Purpose Fighting Knife.” Unstead of tearing right into the box, I paused and filmed a nine-minute unboxing video and took some photos of the knife — knife porn.
There are two iconic fighting knives known the world over for their service in World War II. The British Sykes-Fairbairn dagger and the American style of fighting knife, inspired both by the Bowie and the American hunting knife. There was one knife, above all other, that I coveted… coveted not just because it was considered “the best” by all of the knife magazines I bought but also because it was associated with doing hard service during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. That knife was the Randall Model #1.
Because I wanted a Randall that was as authentic to the knives that have served our military since WWII, I ordered the Randall with a carbon blade, since it predates stainless steel. There are some challenges associated with owning and using a carbon steel knife, be it in the kitchen or in the field.
First, they can — and do — rust. Since rust is normal with daily use out in the field, don’t freak out if it happens to you. A little sandpaper should do the trick if the rusting isn’t too bad.
Second, even if you spend the time and attention required to make sure your knife remains dry and sealed under a light coating of oil, there is still the issue of discoloration. Unlike stainless, carbon steel reacts with the things it touches. The acids and oils of the leather sheath could discolor the blade. Cutting meat will discolor the blade, too.
The instructions also suggest that cutting meat with the carbon blade results in discoloration, so you’re pretty much screwed unless you don’t use your Randall at all. Luckily, that’s not true. Go ahead and use it, if you’re not a strict collector — it was meant to be man-handled. Like I said above, all of the discoloration can be easily polished out of your knife. Working carbon knives always end up looking a little like they were made of silver because of the way silver tarnishes.
When I received the knife, the blade was coated with a light oil. The instructions recommend keeping the blade dry and lubricated with WD-40. After I posted the unboxing video on YouTube, someone commented that I should be really careful with the carbon steel blade and not store the knife in the leather scabbard but rather keep the blade (but not the handle) wrapped in an oil cloth.
And how does it feel? Perfectly-balanced. It’s right where it’s supposed to be: the shiny brass hilt rests the handle right on your forefinger, as it should.
There is an after-market for Randall knives if you’re unwilling to wait for 4-years for one like I did. I checked out A.G. Russell, a popular knife store, and I found the Randall Model 1 for $600. Instant gratification for Randalls generally starts at $600 for a brand new knife of someone else’s design, usually with a micarta or stag handle, and quickly tops out at thousands for a specialty, rare, or vintage knife. If you want a knife made by Bo Randall himself, it will cost: older Randall knives are worth five to fifteen times their value.
These are collectors knives, that’s for sure. If you explore the catalog, you’ll get a feel how extensively you can pimp your knife. I ordered mine plain vanilla “traditional” with the pressed-leather handle, 7″ blade, and Duralumin butt cap. Some options I could have requested were a longer or shorter blade in stainless steel. There’s an assortment of brass hilt shapes and sizes along with a myriad of handle types, including bone, tusk, horn, micarta (a mixture of layered linen and resin), or just about anything else that could be shoehorned onto the full tang.
I don’t know if I like the big and bulky sharpening stone pocket on the front of the sheath since I don’t plan on being far enough in the wilderness to not be able to come home to sharpen the knife. I did a little research and you can get just about anything you want from Randall, including getting the sheath without the stone pouch, although a replacement sheath from Randall costs almost two-hundred dollars, nearly the cost of the knife itself. If my Google searches are true, you can even get sheaths in other leathers and colors, including ostrich, alligator, and zebra. All I need to know is the length of the blade, which is a very standard and popular 7″ (8″ is also very popular).
The man behind Randall Made Knives, W.D. Bo Randall, started making hand-forged knives as a hobby back in 1937 and started selling them in the years leading up to World War II. A reporter wrote a story about Bo during the early years of the war and there was so much demand for his fighting knife, now known as the Model 1, that Bo became a full-time knife-maker. According the website, Bo Randall hand-crafted each knife no matter how much demand or the temptation to mass-produce. Throughout WWII, the knives became legendary. Ronald Reagan carried a Randall Model 1 knife.
And, if you ever have a chance to buy a used Randall on the cheap, don’t reject a knife just because it’s rusted or the sheath is rotted. Some oil, a fine grit emery cloth or steel wool, a little polish, and you’re good to go. These knives were made for duty so there isn’t a lot you can do to “kill” the knife. And, if the knife looks a little far gone, don’t worry, you can probably find a knife-maker in your area who can fix it up by reshaping the blade and restoring the bits and pieces. If you want to restore your Randall in style, to this day you can buy replacement sheaths from the company, made to order. Additionally, you can send your Randall home to Orlando, Florida, where it was born, they can do a lovely job restoring it.
Why did I buy a knife like this? Well, that’s an odd thing, and the reason dates back over 24 years to when I was a strapping teen. When I was in high school, during the mid- to late-80s, I was a teenage commando. I went to an all-boys Catholic school in Hawaii called Saint Louis School and we had an JROTC program that I joined because it was either that, PE, or band (shudder). After joining JROTC I joined the Ranger club. On the surface the Rangers were a bunch of boys who did calisthenics and ran around campus and were entitled to wear black berets and bloused jump boots on the days every member of JROTC was required to skulk around school in Class-A Army uniforms. Still, that wasn’t all the Rangers did. We also spent weekends playing the part of Opposition Forces (OPFOR) for Hawaii’s National Guard and Army Reserve. As part of all that, we were issued camouflaged fatigues (BDUs), ALICE packs, web gear, and M-16s. Yes, real M-16s with real banana clips and real brass casings filled with real smokeless gunpowder, but without bullets with a blank-firing adaptor.
I was motivated and dedicated. I became obsessed with everything military. I bought copies of SOF and shopped at Army surplus stores. We all prized authentic gear and many of us bought Vietnam-era slash-pocket OD fatigues and Ka-Bar knives. I was obsessed with knives and started a collection.
That was 1984. I didn’t end up ordering my own Randall until twenty-years later while I was supposed to be working for Pete Snyder at New Media Strategies during the Summer of 2004. I put down $50 as a down payment, clicked “order” and then obsessed about it for nearly five years! I paid off the balance of $264.00 about a year ago. It was supposed to be delivered in June but I received a letter letting me know that delivery had been delayed until October.
Why does a knife take four-years? One of the reasons my order, #57224, order date September 2004, took so long is because I ordered my knife in a time of war. Randall Made Knives is a purveyor of hunting knives during peacetime; however, during a time of war, most of their capacity is spent on providing for our troops. According to their FAQ, “spare time and space is devoted to filling military knife orders for our active military customers. I think that’s fair, since the Model 1 was a military knife from the very beginning.
It was finally ready for delivery while I was in Berlin so I had the knife FedExed to my mom’s house in Arlington, Virginia, and counted the days until I returned home for Christmas. I arrived on Christmas eve but kept it in my pants until Christmas day, when I took this unboxing video and these photos.
After four years, the knife more than lives up to my expectations, especially since there were a couple of cool surprises that I didn’t know about, including red, white, and blue patriotic spacers between the hilt and the pressed-leather handle and between the handle and the Duralumin butt cap — I’ll photograph it with my Nokia N95 camera phone. To be frank, I have been waiting for this Randall Model #1 for twenty-four-years, since I fell in love with this perfect thing back when I was a Freshman in high school.
Worth the wait? Yes! Any hype associated with the entire experience? No, I don’t think so at all. It couldn’t be better-crafted or more beautiful. I am no longer a knife collector — or an anything collector — so the only two remaining knives in my collection is a Cold Steel Tanto I got back in 1983 and this Randall Model 1.
Randall Made Knife Unboxing Porn
Randall Knife Unboxing Pics [Flickr]
When not waiting four years for a knife to be hand crafted for him, drunkenly stumbling away with me from a disreputable Berlin pub, or being one of the sweetest and smartest guys it is my pleasure to know, Chris Abraham runs a crackerjack conversational marketing firm, Abraham Harrison. This technically makes him a scumbag, but I love him anyway.

links for 2008-11-03

Chris Abraham — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:31:36 +0000

Survivor Corps – Peer Support
(tags: ping.fm)
Charity Folks | Online Auctions
(tags: ping.fm)
Netvantage Marketing Blog
Let’s face it, we’re in a recession. In the past five weeks, the stock market has tanked, the credit market has dried up, and a very large rescue/bailout plan has seemingly had little effect. Companies are now cutting back and employees are being let go.
Daily Herald – Before and After
On Oct. 2, 2006, Capt. Scott Quilty, 26, was leading a foot patrol in Rustimullah, a town south of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him. He lost his right arm and right leg.
DEFENSE STANDARD: Wounded Not Broken
Her husband, Capt. Scott Quilty, lost an arm and a leg and spent two years at Walter Reed recovering. She wants the patients she sees to live the life her husband now enjoys.
Before and after Iraq – Los Angeles Times
On Oct. 2, 2006, Capt. Scott Quilty, 26, was leading a foot patrol in Rustimullah, a town south of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him. He lost his right arm and right leg.
* photo op at Walter Reed – pics – Democratic Underground
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, Friday, March 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
KarlfromNH.com Weekly Columns
This interview was followed by yet another inspirational young man on my June 1st radio show. Captain Scott Quilty, a Francestown, NH native and son of friends of mine, related his experiences in the military
Briefing on the importance of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Scott Quilty, Program Manager for Survivor Corps; and Anne Somers, Policy Counsel for the American Association of Persons with Disabilities.
Organizing Committee Contacts
Survivor Corps
Contact Scott Quilty 202.250.3946 squilty@survivorcorps.org
Johns Hopkins University | Today’s News
Capt. Scott Quilty, a rifle platoon leader with the 10th Mountain Division, had been in Iraq for two months on Oct. 2, 2006, when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while on patrol near Baghdad. Surgeons amputated his right arm below the elbow and his right leg below the knee.
Bush Issues Apology Over Conditions At Walter Reed | National Security Network
At Walter Reed, Bush awarded 10 Purple Heart medals and chatted with patients. In a physical therapy exercise room, he shook Lt. Scott Quilty’s prosthetic right hand, hopped onto an elliptical exercise machine next to Staff Sgt. Gregory Robinson (who lost a leg) and admired a naked woman tattoo on Sgt. Mark Ecker’s left shoulder.
ON EDUCATION; Graduating Into the Real World, And Preparing to Take Up Arms – New York Times
These 17 had entered R.O.T.C. for different reasons. Cassandra Crosby could not have afforded college without the program’s scholarship. Benjamin Keating had absorbed ”the idea of citizenship” in his classics courses. Scott Quilty and Megan McGrevey embodied the third generation in military families.
Survivor Corps – Survivor Corps Staff
Welcome to New Hampshire and to the homepage of Karl from New Hampshire.
On June 1st, 2008, I was joined in the studio by Capt. Scott Quilty of Francestown, NH.
Capt. Quilty suffered the loss of his right arm and leg, below the elbow and knee, respectively, while gallantly serving his country in Iraq.
He is now involved with SurvivorsCorps, a non-profit organization based in Washinton, DC which is developing programs to reach out to other injured veterans to help them realign their lives.
Scott currently lives in Maryland with his wife, also a veteran.
Iraq Today: War News for Friday, July 04, 2008
Scott Quilty, 28, lost his right arm and leg in October 2006 to a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq.
June 3rd Briefing on Capitol Hill | RatifyNow.org
Scott Quilty, U.S. Program Manager, Survivor Corps; Disabled U.S. Veteran
At Ease!
Scott Quilty, a 28-year-old Iraqi war veteran who lost part of an arm and leg while on foot patrol in Baghdad, presented the award to Lee Woodruff, who said she accepted it on behalf of all caregivers, parents and wives of those who have been injured in war and on behalf of anyone serving in the military.
M?u Thân 68
Ba tháng sau l?i tiên tri toán pháp này ?ng d?ng vào ??i úy Scott Quilty, 26 tu?i; anh d?n trung ??i ?i tu?n ti?u t?i Rustimullah, m?t th? tr?n phía Nam Baghdad, ngày mùng 2 tháng M??i 2006. Quân Iraq cho n? m?t qu? mìn, anh b? m?t tay m?t và chân m?t.
??? PoEnglish: Bush Apologizes for Poor Conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit to Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, 30 Mar 2007
Bush Apologizes for Poor Conditions on Visit to Walter Reed Army Hospital «
March 30: President Bush shakes hands with 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit to the Walter Reed Army Center.
\jeff{krimmel} » Blog Archive » Americans Dying at Alarming Rate in Ira
First Lt. Scott Quilty, 26, had to have his right leg amputated below the knee and his right arm amputated below the elbow, his father told The Sentinel.
Nashuatelegraph.com: Benefit bake sale rescheduled
MILFORD – The bake sale to benefit the family of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty has been rescheduled to this Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. It will be in front of the Toadstool Bookshop, Lorden Plaza, Route 101A, Milford.
President Bush shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty · Scaz.Net
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, Friday, March 30, 2007.
Today in Iraq
Lieutenant Scott Quilty, a native of Francestown, was injured in Iraq Sunday night when an improvised explosive device was detonated while he was on a dismounted patrol with the Army platoon he led. As a result of his injuries, Quilty, 26, had his right arm amputated below the elbow and his right leg removed below the knee, according to his father, R. Scott Quilty, who said he had not been told where in Iraq the attack had occurred. A state lawmaker stationed in Iraq has been injured.
Bush Apologizes for Poor Conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit to Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, 30 Mar 2007
LJWorld.com / Bush apologizes at Walter Reed
President Bush meets Army 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, D.C. Quilty has a prosthetic arm because of injuries suffered during his Army service.
reaching out «
March 30: President Bush shakes hands with 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit to the Walter Reed Army Center.
Before and after Iraq — O Papel dos EUA no Sistema Internacional Pós-1989
On Oct. 2, 2006, Capt. Scott Quilty, 26, was leading a foot patrol in Rustimullah, a town south of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him. He lost his right arm and right leg.
U.S. Programs Office of Survivor Corps
Roadfood.com Forums – For a Debt That Can Never Be Repaid
On Oct. 2, 2006, Capt. Scott Quilty, 26, was leading a foot patrol in Rustimullah, a town south of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him. He lost his right arm and right leg.
Survivor Corps – Programs – United States
Scott Quilty
Survivor Corps
2100 M St. NW Suite 302
Washington DC 20037
Ph: 202.250.3946
F: 202.464.0011
squilty@survivorcorps.org
Acinetobacter Baumannii in Iraq the Casualties
First Lt. Scott Quilty
“Doctors had to amputate a portion of one of Quilty’s arms, and part
of one leg.
He is really battling infection, so he has a very high fever. He is still
in critical condition
BLOG.DEFENSESTANDARD.COM
For Quilty, the motivation to come to work each day is intensely personal.
Her husband, Capt. Scott Quilty, lost an arm and a leg and spent two years at Walter Reed recovering. She wants the patients she sees to live the life her husband now enjoys.
Untitled Document
Brotheres, Just finished reading the 31st. Inf newsletter. I was disconcerted to find out that, on 9/19/o6, Spec. Bobby Callahan from Jamestown, N.C was killed in iraq, when the vehicle he was in turned over. On Oct.1st.P.F.C Satieon V “T” Greenleewas killed by sniper fire in Baghdad, he was from Pemdleton, S.C. Also on the 1st., Lt. Scott Quilty lost an arm and leg (improvised explosive device) while on dismounted patrol. These men were and are with A/4/31, the unit, since 2001, has had four combat tours. Our’ brother Polar Bears are still under the hammer. With deep regret, Ed. Pro Patria.
Military & Veterans: Politics for the deserving: 5/11/08 – 5/18/08
On Oct. 2, 2006, Capt. Scott Quilty, 26, was leading a foot patrol in Rustimullah, a town south of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him. He lost his right arm and right leg.
The best worst injury
Photo from AP Photo by Gerald Herbert – Daylife
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, Friday, March 30, 2007.
President George W. Bush watches U.S. Army 1st Lt. Scott Anthony Quilty of Francetown, N.H., demonstrate his walking abilities Friday, March 30, 2007, during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Standing with the President is Lt.
President George W. Bush watches U.S. Army 1st Lt. Scott Anthony Quilty of Francetown, N.H., demonstrate his walking abilities Friday, March 30, 2007, during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Standing with the President is Lt. Quilty’s wife U.S. Army Capt. AnnMarie Dora Quilty. Lt. Quilty was later awarded the Purple Heart by President Bush. White House photo by Eric Draper
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, Friday, March 30, 2007. At center is his wife Annmarie Quilty,
President Bush watches as 1st Lt. Scott Quilty goes through his exercises as he visits with patients
President Bush watches as 1st Lt. Scott Quilty goes through his exercises as he visits with patients in the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, Friday, March 30, 2007. Between them is his wife Annmarie Quilty.
Bush Apologizes for Poor Conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
President Bush, right, shakes hands with the 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit to Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, 30 Mar 2007
The UNH Connection: An Electronic Newsletter
PROUD VETERAN
In 2006, while serving in Iraq, Scott Quilty ’04 (pictured with President Bush at Walter Reed Army Medical Center) lost his right arm and leg in a roadside bombing. But he didn’t lose his commitment or his hope. He tackled his rehabilitation process with determination, married his high school sweetheart, AnnMarie Dora Wilcox Quilty ’03 (also pictured), and today is leading a pilot program that will help train other survivors of traumatic injury. Focusing on his blessings is a poignant exercise for Quilty, whose close friend and UNH roommate, Ben Keating ’04, lost his life while serving in Afghanistan. “Knowing that for whatever reason I was still here and a guy like Ben isn’t — who was my better on every measurable level — kind of solidified within me that I needed to, regardless of the situation, push through the darker periods to rise above being a victim of it all,” Quilty says.
The long road back for a wounded warrior
There were dark days, but a retired Army captain who was injured by a roadside bomb feels lucky to be alive. First of two parts
Soldier wounded in Iraq bombing
FRANCESTOWN (AP) – A Francestown soldier serving in Iraq was seriously wounded over the weekend in a roadside bombing.
First Lt. Scott Quilty, 26, had to have his right leg amputated below the knee and his right arm amputated below the elbow, his father told The Sentinel.
A Need to Take the World Seriously
Capt. Benjamin Keating ’04 and 1st Lt. Scott Quilty ’04 began their UNH journey together in 2000, when they enrolled in the Army ROTC program. They participated in countless early morning field exercises, spent many a late night studying for exams, and, as seniors, became roommates. By 2006, they had something else in common: both were assigned to serve in war zones, Keating in Afghanistan and Quilty in Iraq.
U.S. Programs Office of Survivor Corps
Survivor Corps and the global consulting firm Booz Allen Hamiliton are hosting an Initiators Conference on the Community Reintegration of Service Members and Veterans in an effort to bring together the leaders of key government, business, nonprofit, and academic institutions currently engaged on this issue. Booz Allen Hamilton, which has a long history of commitment to America’s service members and veterans, has joined us in this effort, bringing their extensive experience in helping leaders and organizations collaborate to address complex issues across sectors.
Scott Quilty with George W Bush — PHOTO
Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed on Friday.
Bush promises vets a better Walter Reed – USATODAY.com
Bush, right, shakes hands with the prosthetic arm of 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit with patients at the physical therapy wing of Walter Reed on Friday.
Rockingham Ambulance Online – News
Two Stars of Life proudly represented Rockingham Regional Ambulance, Inc. this year. EMT – Intermediate Scott Hurst and Operations Center Coordinator Scott Quilty were selected by their peers and managers to represent both Rockingham Ambulance and the State of NH at this annual event.
LSN – Landmine Survivors Network – Bios
Scott Quilty – U.S. Program Manager
UnionLeader.com – New Hampshire news, business and sports
Capt. Scott Quilty, center, and his wife, Capt. AnnMarie Dora Wilcox Quilty, pose with President Bush during Scott’s Purple Heart ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. (COURTESY)
PC World – Unlocked G1: Not (Yet) Worth the Effort
Scott Quilty ’04 – UNH Alumni Association
In early October 2006, Scott Quilty ’04 was seriously wounded in a roadside bombing in Iraq. Read more
Facebook | Scott Quilty
Neighbors Working To Help Family Of Injured Soldier – New Hampshire News Story – WMUR Manchester
Neighbors are reaching out to help the family of an Army soldier from Francestown who was seriously injured in Iraq.
First Lt. Scott Quilty was on foot patrol near Baghdad last week when he was taken down by an explosion. Doctors had to amputate a portion of one of Quilty’s arms, and part of one leg.
“He is really battling infection, so he has a very high fever. He is still in critical condition,” said Raisa Marshall, Quilty’s neighbor.
A MEMORABLE MEMORIAL DAY – KarlfromNH.com Weekly Columns
On October 1st, 2006 after being in Iraq for just six weeks, Scott was struck by a roadside bomb while on patrol. He was a platoon leader, 30 men, and he had trained at Fort Drum in Watertown, New York. They were members of the 10th Mountain Division, a Combat Infantry Unit. At the tender age of 26, Scott was to lose a leg and an arm. He was lucky to have survived at all. Flown first to Germany, and then later to Walter Reed, he is still in rehabilitation there. Not once, through any of this ordeal, did he complain or regret his service. His family stood by him for months as he underwent over 15 surgeries. Skin grafts, closing of wounds, countless procedures undoubtedly painful beyond reason, and still never even a hint of “poor me”.
Does the board wish to help out? – Viper Alley – Dodge Viper Forum
Neighbors are reaching out to help the family of an Army soldier from Francestown who was seriously injured in Iraq.First Lt. Scott Quilty was on foot patrol near Baghdad last week when he was taken down by an explosion.
Doctors had to amputate a portion of one of Quilty’s arms, and part of one leg.”He is really battling infection, so he has a very high fever. He is still in critical condition,” said Raisa Marshall, Quilty’s neighbor.
Quilty is now at Walter Reed Medical Center. His mother and father have rushed to his side. Quilty’s mother quit her job at a New Hampshire Inn, anticipating his need for care when he returns home.”It’s time for the community to step up.
It’s time for the community to take responsibility, help take the burden off of Janet and Scott’s shoulders so that they can focus on their son, not worry about the electrical bill,” said Marshall.Marshall decided to help by writing a compelling letter outlining financial needs.
The letter was emailed to dozens of peo
GI SPECIAL 4J5 – 5/10/06
Francestown Soldier Injured In Iraq
Lt. Scott Quilty, 26, a UNH graduate, had his right arm amputated below the elbow and his right leg removed below the knee.
Oct. 4, 2006 By STEPHEN BEALE, Union Leader Correspondent
Lieutenant Scott Quilty, a native of Francestown, was injured in Iraq Sunday night when an improvised explosive device was detonated while he was on a dismounted patrol with the Army platoon he led.
As a result of his injuries, Quilty, 26, had his right arm amputated below the elbow and his right leg removed below the knee, according to his father, R. Scott Quilty, who said he had not been told where in Iraq the attack had occurred.
“He had only been there six weeks and they have been moving him around,” Quilty said today in an interview. “He didn’t have any permanent station at the time.”
Quilty said that his son was initially taken to a hospital northwest of Iraq and then transported to a military medical facility in Germany on Monday. He is scheduled to arrive a
U.S. President George W. Bush Visits Walter Reed Army Medical Center | Article from Getty Images (by Event) Individuals | HighBeam Research
Francestown soldier injured in Iraq
Lieutenant Scott Quilty, a native of Francestown, was injured in Iraq Sunday night when an improvised explosive device was detonated while he was on a dismounted patrol with the Army platoon he led.
Shindig benefits injured GI’s family
Go back about a month ago, for instance, and put yourself in the shoes of Scott and Janet Quilty, well-known residents of the tiny Monadnock village of Francestown. Early one Monday morning, some of that dreaded news found them: Their son, Army First Lt. Scott Quilty, 26, a college scholar who’d gone to Iraq just six weeks before, had been seriously injured when a roadside booby trap blew up his platoon.
Survivor Corps US Program Update
Last week was a busy one for the Survivor Corps US Program. On August 18th and 19th, Survivor Corps hosted a round table discussion for organizations serving the recovery and reintegration needs of US Veterans. Participants discussed the value of connecting newly returned service members and veterans with other veterans who had been through the same experience for support. This type of relationship helps both individuals to overcome traumatic experiences and participate in community.
A Day in the Life of President Bush (with the troops at Walter Reed): 3-30-07
A Day in the Life of President Bush (with the troops at Walter Reed): 3-30-07
The long road back for a wounded warrior
Scott Quilty has always been a leader who shows us how to beat our own doubts
Hosted by Siteleader.com
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Roger Wolfson: Why Obama Supporters Need to Do More than Vote
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Sarah Palin Comment Thread Par Excellence

Chris Abraham — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:52:16 +0000

If you have not been keeping on top of all of the great comments streaming in to the AH Poll entitled “If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Palin be competent to be President?” 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’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 go visit them where they love and breathe. Read below for the most amazing Sarah Palin comment thread of the Internets!

Palin = MORON

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/10/2008 – 12:58.

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.

reply to KB in IA

Submitted by ab (not verified) on Fri, 10/10/2008 – 08:52.

KB,
Sorry, I don’t usually reply to these remarks, but I couldn’t resist……..
What message of “hate” are you talking about?
If someone doesn’t agree with your worldview, that doesn’t
mean they hate. Where is your tolerance?
AB

Palin

Submitted by Walter Arndt (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 – 22:23.

Only a person with his head in the sand would vote for a democrat.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by KB in IA (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 – 21:54.

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 www.adn.com). 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…if they even want her back.

Re: Palin

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 – 18:06.

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.

Qualified?

Submitted by Leo (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 – 17:17.

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.

Pailin

Submitted by GE Mayer (not verified) on Thu, 10/09/2008 – 16:53.

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 “newby” above several well qualified, experienced women who have served the country and the Republican party.
I expect my Comander in Chief to Carefully sellect an individual more qualified than him/herself to take over. It shows John’s thinking.

Palin? Presidential material? No, doggone it!

Submitted by Krissi (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2008 – 21:35.

While I admire Sarah Palin’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’d see that she doesn’t even have a good grasp of the issues.

In addition, she’s been caught in numerous lies and distortions. For example, she did not sell a jet on eBay — 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%.

And her famous, “I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves” line? More spin. Congress’ requirement that funds be spent on that bridge (aka the ‘earmark’) 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.

There are more examples, of the fibs and many examples of her poor insight into our nation’s problems. I could list them all, but I encourage you to do your own homework (forwarded emails DO NO COUNT)!

If MCCain and Palin win this election, I’ll probably be hoping for a lengthy, overseas assignment — maybe four years or more!

Palin is Failin

Submitted by GA for Brains in the White House (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2008 – 21:02.

W – below C student
McCain – at the bottom of his class
Are we really electing the best? Shouldn’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 “that one”. McCain left right away after the debate – seniors do go to bed early, probably past his bedtime. As for integrity, check out McCain’s involvement in the S&L bailout, he was right there along side W’s brother Neil. All working to steal investors’ money. Just like King Henry is doing now, rewarding his Wall St. buddies.

And we wonder why this happens to us???

Palin

Submitted by Ed Sherrill (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2008 – 10:49.

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’t screw up the country so bad over the next four years that it can’t be fixed.

Is she for real?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 – 22:13.

If Joe Biden winked at the camera 5-6 times during the debate, wouldn’t we be calling him a pervert? Come on people, get serious. Sarah Palin is a joke — an embarrassment to Americans who take our politics — and the plight of our country — seriously.

Is Sarah Palin Qualified to be President?

Submitted by Joi (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 – 13:34.

To be sure, Sarah Palin doesn’t deserve the crucifixion the media and entertainment world are giving her (and her family). McCain might deserve some of it, after all – he picked her. Why? She’s female. I admire the man completely – he is an American hero and I can’t even begin to imagine the hell this brave man endured.

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.

I THINK that he lost the race with his choice. I KNOW he lost my vote.

Surprising VP choice

Submitted by olivier blanchard (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 – 13:30.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Perhaps Gov. Palin’s weaknesses weren’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… on the surface, at least. But honestly, weren’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’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’t get it. There are plenty of smart, competent, experienced women in the Republican Party who would have made a great running mate.

Don’t confuse appeal with competence

Submitted by DBStevens (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 – 12:21.

Too many people in this country confuse personal appeal with competence, and make decisions based on who’s the most charming or even who’s sexiest. Or they make decisions based on generalities such as “we need a woman in the White House.” A COMPETENT woman in the White House would be a great asset to this country. There is no doubt of that.

But we can’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…she shows signs of being rather ruthless). During these times of uncertainty and fear, it’s natural to want some comfort, to feel that the person leading our country is down-to-earth and “real.’ 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’s the actions that matter, and in the time following 9/11, both Bush and Guiliani’s true nature was revealed… incompetence and self-serving.

Sarah Palin acts cute and has a pretty face. That’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 “on-the-job-training” 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.

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’t act quickly enough at all…stalling and deflecting decisions (as she does with many questions, or with such events as the investigation dubbeed “Troopergate”).

I also worry about the demands of her family. During times of her family’s need, do we want someone faced with the dilemma of either neglecting her family’s needs because of her duties as Vice-President, or neglecting the VP duties because of her family’s needs? Neither of those are good choices….Sarah Palin has too many personal responsibilities.

Palin also shows all the signs of behavior very similar to Bush’s…including a tendency toward cronyism, abuse of power, and self-serving decisions that flout the law.

She even mispronounces the word “nuclear” just like Bush. Certainly that’s a small point, and that pronunciation is commonly recognized as a sub-standard metathesis of the word, but it’s very annoying to listen to.

So wake up American. Move your responses from your gut to your brains, and make sure you understand the repercussions of your vote.

I’m moving…

Submitted by Andy Osier (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2008 – 10:15.

John McCain himself isn’t capable of running the country; I shudder to think of the train wreck a Palin administration would be. If they win, I’m seriously considering a moving. How’s the January weather in Berlin, Chris?

Big State……little experience!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 18:11.

Granted, we’ve got plenty to worry about at home!
But we’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)
The world is smaller than ever and so is our standing in it. We don’t need “a little Wasilla in Washington”. We already have a narrow minded view of the world with our current administration.

Palin for presidnet?

Submitted by Joyce (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 16:49.

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’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.

Re: If McCain dies is America Screwed?

Submitted by Allison (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 15:10.

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’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 – regardless of the presence of McCain. Allison

Re: If McCain dies is America Screwed?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 15:08.

Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 12:47.

She didn’t ride in on her “own merits” She rode in on her SEX. PERIOD.

If McCain dies is America Screwed?

Submitted by RisingFromDecadence (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 12:17.

It’s the most frightening and compelling reason to not elect McCain to date. It’ clear that the choice was to win vs. what’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’t do justice to the feminist movement.

I couldn’t agree more with “Double Standard’s” comments about education, and intelligence vs. the “experience” of a low-population governor. Has it somehow become a negative trait for our president to be articulate well educated and even published?

I think its safe to now say, like every great civilization, America has grown from it’s indestructible, can-do “adolescence,” and has entered it’s “decadent” 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’t lose the real values we’ve grown up to believe are American such as truth, innovation, compassion, charity and vision.

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’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 “Proud Again.”

Answer the question

Submitted by Jaz-Michael King (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 10:40.

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?”, the arguments spin off to why the opponent isn’t. Maybe that will be the next question, but like I wanted to yell at Palin while watching the debate… answer the question posed to you.

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’s a good reason hockey moms and joe sixpacks don’t run. No-one wants regular folk in charge. You all want a ruling elite no matter how much you profess to the contrary.

There are plenty of strong, competent women on both sides of the aisle in the USA. Gov. Palin is not one of them.

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’s political career started off in the living room of a terrorist (all of a sudden, he’s been a politician a lot longer than two years according to the Republicans) has pulled her from the absurd to the surreal.

Don’t get me wrong, Obama seems to pander to some vaporous “change” mentality, but that wasn’t the question.

Palin Unqualified

Submitted by Anonymous jones (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 – 09:16.

The difference between Obama and Palin is that Obama thinks. He’s smart enough to go to Harvard, graduate high enough in his class to be president of the Harvard Law Review there. He’s a thinker who doesn’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—she doesn’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?

Just because she could, does not mean she should.

Submitted by Bjshazam (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 22:34.

Does it not trouble anyone who has been posting here that we have reached this point at all? I’ve been writing draft after draft of posts here, trying to find the right balance that won’t come across as too ideological, or that won’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’t do it. She’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’s running mate.

Consider:

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?

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 — with no recourse by anyone.

Most of the time, this isn’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.

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’t understand the job the Constitution has laid out. That this is somehow an asset to a campaign makes me ashamed for my country.

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.

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.

I don’t want a hockey mom or joe six-pack running the country. Hell, I don’t want anyone like me running the country. I want a president. And she is not it.

make that Palin UNQUALIFIED PERIOD

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 22:25.

Darn, brain outrunning my fingers.

Palin qualified period

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 22:22.

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).

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!

jim

Palin Not Qualified

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 22:01.

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.
Palin attended five different colleges before she was finally able to stick out a degree program. She majored in journalism and communications and couldn’t name ONE newspaper or magazine that she reads on a regular basis. She minored in political science and doesn’t know what the Vice President’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.
In short, she’s not smart, she’s lacks integrity, she has gotten most of what she has attained on her looks and charm and these things don’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.

qualifications.

Submitted by Crazy Politico (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 20:10.

If Gov. Palin isn’t qualified to “POSSIBLY” become president, then what of Barack Obama?

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 “Here” on controversial issues so as to keep a rather neutral record when running for the next higher office?

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 14:49.

Does she have enough political experience for the position of president? I would say not….. but then again, there’s nothing like a long run of a president that can’t even string a sentence together in English to remind you that you don’t really need much skill for the job. It’s whose behind the president that counts no?

Is Palin Qualified to be President?

Submitted by Thoughtful_Independent (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 11:49.

I’m a registered independent. I was waiting for the VP picks to be made before making my mind up. VP’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.

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’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’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’s. Quayle’s accomplishments at the time he was selected as Bush’s running mate dwarf Palin’s.

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, “negotiating” 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.

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.

I find the argument that Palin has more “executive experience” 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’s that comparisons are impossible. The same can be said with respect to experience in matters of the economy. Ironically, Mr. Romney’s biggest shortcoming appeared to be that he was a Washington outsider. Now being from our most remote state is a strength for Palin?

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.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 06:15.

@ CanIGet2NewZealand

What does it take to satisfy people like you?
or… is this a display of jealousy ? Ms Palin does make a rather impressive appearance on a simple ‘ride in from the Wilds of Alaska’.
Instead of complimenting a person on a job well done you prefer to show the “cat fight” attitude.
What has Obama more than Palin?

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!

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by REB 84 (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 – 00:35.

Would John McCain be a competent president? This is a question you should be asking.
QuestionItNow – Will America lead?

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by CanIGet2NewZealand (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 19:28.

Palin has been governor of a state with the population of Poughkeepsie, New York .

The State of Alaska, despite its conservative appearance has been giving out money to its citizens from its oil dividens (Alaska Permanent Fund) (http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2003/sharing_alaska_style) since the 1970′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?

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.

Palin was a mistake for McCain in the 1st Place

Submitted by FranklinB (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 16:52.

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:

Did John McCain have good judgement?
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-72657

Sarah Palin is not my Vice President
http://digitalseller.tblog.com/post/1970016179

Sarah Palin is just another pretty face
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-86323

McCain will have to pick a new VP
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-94699

VP Debate was great, for Biden and Obama
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-102625

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’t care who is in that position as long as that person is republican, conservative and can walk & 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’t believe I didn’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.

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

You’re Kidding, right?

Submitted by Shelly Roberts (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 14:04.

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.

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.

Palin’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.

I’d pity her for the position for which she has been recruited if the holder of that position didn’t stand such a strong chance of becoming the leader of the free world with a 79 year old unhealthy running mate –shudder– a horrifying thought.

It shouldn’t be enough merely that she didn’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’s way too much like watching Animal Planet and proclaiming veterinary competence with elephants.

Did Sarah win the debate? She wasn’t ever even qualified to enter the race.

Is she qualified to be President regardless of the state of John McCain’s health? You’re kidding, right?!

Dummy be gone! THINK!

Submitted by Skillet Marimba (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 11:27.

The G.O.P. targets DUMMYS but DUMMYS are finally starting to wake up. Dummy be gone.

If McCain Died, Is Sarah Palin Qualified To Lead This Nation?

Submitted by Patrick Pearce (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 09:33.

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: http://legalconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/obama-biden-a-winning-ti…

Palin Better than Most

Submitted by thescoundrel (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 09:21.

I tend to disbelieve anything that comes out of any politicians mouth. Politicians are liars& cheats. While they are kissing your baby they are picking your pocket at the same time. The President’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.

If John McCain died…

Submitted by Pat Baker (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 08:21.

To Anonymous:
I have been hollering “Double Standard” all summer”. You hit the nail on the spot. When Obama was trained by the late great Saul Alinsky & 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, & the 60′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′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 “double standard”. Thanks, Anonymous for reminding me that I don’t need on the job training vp by McCain/Palin ticket.

my vote

Submitted by joe (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 07:35.

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.

This Election is More Irritating than Usual

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 07:26.

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 http://abcnews.go.com/politics scroll down to the Match-o-Matic II game. It is ver interesting.

Does Being Governor Make Governor Palin Qalified?

Submitted by artbcpa (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 – 01:54.

In “Third Out of Four” the commentator points out that Clinton and Reagan were both Governors before becoming President. We shouldn’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?. …NOTHING.

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.

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.

We had several such Presidents in the prior century – 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.

Palin is not our woman.

Submitted by Pam (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 23:59.

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.

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.

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?!?

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?

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.

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.

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.

So, I don’t like Sarah, but, who do I like? And, the bigger question for me, why?

Re: Poll

Submitted by FD (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 23:24.

To King of Chatalot: I’m an independant, but I voted once and the poll will not allow me to vote again.
The only way someone could vote twice is through a proxy, but I tested that idea fater reading your comment.
It didn’t work.
I tried several different proxies, I reset my ip, and nope, it would not allow me to vote again.

Take off the tin foil hat.

Poll

Submitted by King of Chatalot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 22:11.

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………..so to make it appear as if they are the winners……….

…but then………considering that they will ultimately lose in November I’m not totally surprised……..

…..merely amazed………

Palin’s hand on the “Nukular” button?

Submitted by Media Concepts (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 21:39.

I can’t decide whether that’s hilarious, or horrifyingly frightening. I think it’s both. Based on McCain’s age alone, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says that there’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’s age, and those odds increase markedly.

Something to think about.

It’s about leadership

Submitted by Shane from PV (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 20:30.

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’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’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 – I don’t trust him to be able to distinguish from among a bevy of poor advisers the advice least damaging.

Obama supporters, like so many on this comment board, have no idea who Obama really is – 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’s a charlatan, but his supporters don’t care. That’s why this question is so ironic. 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 “this war is lost” quote by Harry Reid comes to mind – 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.

Palin is more qualified than most…

Submitted by Greg (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 20:24.

I’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’ve seen an honest person make it this far in politics. Usually they get creamed by the media – Palin is still holding her own. What you see is what you get – nice change of pace especially since I’m originally from Delaware. No doubt this isn’t true for Biden – he’s all over the place telling you whatever it is you want to hear whenever you want to hear it.. I don’t dislike Biden and yes, he is qualified to continue the same old Washington politics; not what I’m looking for this year at least.

I’m still wondering why Obama thinks Biden represents change? Not even close.

Sarah Palin’s much sharper than Obama or Biden

Submitted by Al Barger (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 20:08.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Sarah Palin’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’s vice presidential debate.

Of course, this ain’t from lack of media attempts to Quayle-ize her. Look at the double, triple, quadruple standards. It’s supposedly some proof that she’s a moron that she didn’t choose to spit up a list of newspapers she reads for Katie Couric.

But Joe Biden says the most ignorant nonsense day after day, and it doesn’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’t president, and there was no television then. This nonsense didn’t make the news. Imagine if Palin said something that stupid.
=====================================
Little known Palin fact:
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.

More Palin fun facts I just made up, and a couple hundred pictures of our girl
http://www.morethings.com/images/sarah_palin/sarah_palin-photo_gallery00…

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 20:00.

Joe Biden, VP (Vice and Plagiarist)

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ethel W (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:50.

Obama has done much good thru working for ACORN. Remember, from tiny acorns, might oak trees grow.

Barack’s leadership skills in government?

Submitted by Mike Lanza (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:43.

Please folks – give us an example. And please, make it a good one.

If this were an election for Student Body President, I might vote for the dude, but he’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?

This ain’t no popularity contest…

Palin as Prez? No Way

Submitted by Janet Johnson (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:41.

I’m tired of Sarah Palin. I’m tired of kicking her around, of waiting for her to have a public brain freeze, of hearing her droppin’ g’s and bringing nuc-u-lur back into the lexicon (I hope we’re almost finished with that coming out of the White House).

At the same time, I’m proud that she’s the second legitimate woman who’s a running mate on a presidential ticket, the first to “electrify” a country. I’m mortified as I write that, but I’m proud of that big ol’ crack in the glass ceilin’ she’s added to Hilary’s 18 million others. (sigh)

As most of your poll-takers agree, no way is she qualified to be president. God help us all if she’s a heartbeat away.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Stevie (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:35.

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….
Do I feel that someone who will terminate people who disagree with her is worthy to be in the White House? No…….
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…..
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……
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.
what we really need is a Margaret Thatcher type.. the closest we have is Hilary Clinton.
Anita Palin is no Hilary Clinton
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’s .. and they aren’t running for President– though John Kerry did.. and he wasn’t a POW.. he served his country. Don’t bank on that one being the ACE..

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:29.

Or maybe Obama would want his friend Tony Rezko to advise him on ethics in government.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:28.

Or maybe Obama would like William Ayers for his Secretary of Defense, since he knows how to blow things up.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:25.

Maybe Obama can install Rev. Wright as Secretary of State. All the other nations of the world will love his philosophy: God damn America!

Re: amazing 75% believe Palin cant be President

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:23.

I think where the logic breaks down is that you’re assuming all Governor’s are created equally. An American Governor’s principal job is running the state, and to be honest, I’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’s dangerously ignorant of world affairs and issues around a global economy.

And frankly, I think we’ve had enough of that already.

On the other hand, Obama and Biden are far more savvy. If you watched the debate, you’ll have noticed how rarely Palin answers a direct question. She’s not dumb, but she’s not worldly either. And worse, she revels in her inexperience.

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’t scare you, it should.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:21.

Don’t you love it when a public relations man calls people degrading, hateful names?

That is just dumb

Submitted by Dan Keeney, APR (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:16.

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.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:15.

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.

double standard

Submitted by Jason Preston (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:12.

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’t see the difference here, perhaps you’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’m not tall enough to slam dunk doesn’t mean I push for the NBA to hire more short people! The Presidency’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’ votes when I make my run for high office.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Cowboy X (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:10.

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!

amazing 75% believe Palin cant be President

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 19:00.

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’t qualify. The logic here escapes me completely.

Sarah Palin: Unfiltered

Submitted by John Schuller (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:50.

CLICK ON MY NAME TO SIGN THIS PETITION

To: CBS News

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.

The people of the United States of America deserve to see the CBS Katie Couric interviews with Sarah Palin in their entirety.

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.

Let us see an edition of “Sarah Palin: Unfiltered”.

This will allow Americans to see the real Sarah Palin.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Seriously…

Submitted by newyorkmoments (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:49.

regardless of the VP candidates…are we really going to vote in a Hussein???? Seriously?? I’m saddened that I’m not going to be able to vote Democrat this election.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:43.

I sent John McCain a $1000 in September 2007…when his campaign was flailing. I believed his voice needed to be in the debate. Until Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech I did not send a penny to any other candidate.

I was so outraged by the poor judgment demonstrated by McCain — 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.

Whether “Joe six-pack” likes it or not…we live in a Global Society, not an igloo nation. We already had Joe-six pack from President for the last 8 years. Doesn’t any one remember – “George W. Bush is the guy I want to have at my BBQ”???…Well – we got him– only we got bbq’d.

Re: Would it be so much to ask…

Submitted by Eric (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:35.

Would it be so much to ask for a Presidential nominee who actually had some experience?

Would it be so much to ask…

Submitted by Ian Thomas (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:32.

…for a VP nominee who actually had some experience *before* she takes office?

Third out of four

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:30.

Stack rank all four candidates — Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin — in terms of experience, and she comes out 3rd out of 4. Obama is last.

Stack rank all four candidates in terms of executive experience — meaning, ‘has the candidate ever managed a budget before, had headcount before, and had to make decisions as opposed to provide advice’ — and she incredibly comes out first amongst the four, as she’s been both governor and mayor.

Being the governor of a state was good enough for Clinton, good enough for Romney, and good enough for Reagan.

Those who attack her experience must feel terrible that Obama is the leading candidate for the Dem’s, given his extraordinarily thin resume.

If Barack Doesn’t Die, Is He Qualified?

Submitted by Mike Lanza (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:29.

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.

Barack Obama has the least leadership or executive skills of *any* of the major candidates for president or vice president.

Not a fan, but c’mon

Submitted by Dan Keeney, APR (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:21.

I’m not a Sarah fan, but she has a solid foundation — 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 — 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’t have any doubt that she would. I will not be voting for the GOP ticket, but the fear mongering about Ms. Palin’s ability is baseless and perhaps sexist.

To Pat Baker, Actually, she

Submitted by The Sensible J. (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 18:01.

To Pat Baker,
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.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by The Sensible J. (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:58.

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’s scary. Why was that the first and foremost reason why she was picked?!

We are not running a popularity contest here for god’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’m all for the “women can do the same if not better job than men” ideal, but come on, she isn’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’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.

It is scary when our (by that I mean the republicans) expectations have sunk so low.

And it’s even more scary when people are voting for republican SIMPLY because she’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.

Sarah Palin Qualified

Submitted by Don S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:54.

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?

Being a governor is a proven road to the White House. Alaska is a strategic state. Let’s see: Clinton was from Arkansas — 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 “Bush is intellectually challenged.” Of course, there was no evidence to support the claim.

Obama is currently more likely to become president than Sarah Palin and that’s something that should concern all clear-thinking Americans.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Jerome Schindler (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:53.

How could she possibly be any worse that what we have been subjected to recently. I am sure Harry Truman’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.

Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah

Submitted by Bill Platt (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:45.

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?

The only delusion is that Obama’s experience is greater than hers.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:31.

Palin is absolutely not qualified – anyone who thinks so is deluded.

Re: pailin would shove her heels up putin’s a…

Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:29.

The point was she won’t take no crap.

Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah

Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:27.

Too bad they don’t have a minimum test for people to take in order to qualify for the job.

Then James they should do the same before becoming parents. Maybe then we won’t have so many libetards. Bunch of whiners don’t know a good thing when it slaps them upside the head.

Re: Re: Palin is a Disgrace Which Makes McCain a Fool

Submitted by Gerald (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:26.

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’s service to his country McCain himself has admitted that he collaborated with the enemy and signed documents condemning America’s.bombing of Hanoi as being war crimes.

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.

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’s experience had to be horrible and I’m sure that the scars, mental and physical, must still be with him.

However, I wasn’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’s role?

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’t even handle soft ball interviews. Who wants a President just like an average Joe? In case you haven’t noticed there are very complicated problems that America faces that will require outstanding leadership to solve.

I’m not a big Obama fan either but at least the man has first class intelligence and a first class temperament. He doesn’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’s conservative base and in that the move was successful. But at what risk to the country if McCain and Palin are elected?

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.

That’s putting country first? Please! Give me a break.

ldaught2 AHEM ! ! !

Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:24.

ldaught2

AHEM ! ! !

Re: Competent?

Submitted by ldaught2 (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:16.

//Until then, keep reading all the world’s magazines and Newspapers. They actually can teach you a lot.//

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!

To answer the question…Could Palin be President?…yes yes and yes….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!!

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:15.

Lady Coveted….another woman that feels threatened by good looking successful women.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:14.

James flew in from that alternate universe that Joe Biden lives in. Maybe the Missouri Truth Squad can help him.

pailin would shove her heels up putin’s a…

Submitted by lady coveted (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:14.

being as putin’s no longer president of russia.

dmitri medvedev succeeded putin back in march, she’s so out of touch she’d probably miss that point too.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by James (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 17:08.

She’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.

No wonder repugs love her so much, she’ll fit right in..*L*

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.

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.

Too bad they don’t have a minimum test for people to take in order to qualify for the job.

Re: Re: Pansies? then what…

Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:54.

Palin would shove her pretty heels up Putin’s ass. Then make him beg for more.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Ken S (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:52.

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’ve suffered through.

Re: People around you

Submitted by Chemosapien = Idiot (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:52.

No he’ll bring them in from the hood.

Shooting wolves from a Copter

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:50.

is not the kind of Hunter i respect…..and margaret Thatcher is on her way over their to whoop your ass for comparing her to Palin….Thatcher was one of the most intelligent and tough politicians in modern times….Palin doesn’t have a college education and she can’t even stand up to KATIE M*^#ATHERF%*#KING COURIC….stop comparing her to Thatcher

People Around You

Submitted by Matt Sanchez (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:49.

Obama will have the flag stomper and terrorist, Dick Ayres and the God D@*$ America Reverend Wright. Both these gentlemen have doctorates!

People around you

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:46.

it is very important who the president brings into their admin…..I’m certain Obama isn’t going to fill his cabinet from his high school yearbook like little miss Palin

Obama Qualified

Submitted by Matt Sanchez (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:46.

A one-term governor who is the most popular governor in the country.

Of course, that’s one more term than former “community organizer” and one-term senator.

Re: Pansies? then what…

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:46.

Obviously you haven’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….Russia would beg for forgiveness from Palin and Putin would be licking Sarah’s boots in red square….

Moron.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Chris Meirose (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:45.

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.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Scott Pullins (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:43.

She’s clearly not competent.

http://pullinsreport.com/2008/10/03/scott-pullins–online-poll–do-you-h…

Pansies? then what…

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:43.

russia calls us a bunch of homos, and Putin slams his shoe on the desk? ……if Palin were president Putin would literally rape her mouth on live telivision then claim he thought she was the “entertainment”

Re: Re: Palin isn’t competent to wipe my ass

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:42.

The answer is YES, she has run something, SHE has more experience RUNNING a government than ANY of the candidates… So yes she is Qualified.

Obama isn’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…

Re: Margaret, its me God

Submitted by Margaret (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:41.

I didn’t say NO degree. I said not an “Ivy League Degree”. I was just giving my opinion – “If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Palin be competent to be President?” My answer is yes.

Palin

Submitted by Matt Jones (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:40.

Clinton’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.

go to Canada you commie bastages!

Re: Palin is a Disgrace Which Makes McCain a Fool

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:39.

and an Obama/Biden victory will make us look like a bunch of pansies…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?

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.

Re: Palin isn’t competent to wipe my ass

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:35.

The US is going to hell because McCain’s buddy George Bush set us on that course. 4 more years of that?

BTW, the question was if McCain kicks, is Palin qualified? And the answer is no.

Instead of attacking Obama, how about telling why you think Palin is qualified? Is it because even you know she isn’t? Typical Republican.

“College Education”

Submitted by Matt Sanchez (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:35.

All those “economic experts” have great post-grad degrees from high end schools. Hopefully, that will help them as they look for a new job.

Palin is a Disgrace Which Makes McCain a Fool

Submitted by Gerald (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:34.

Palin makes a big deal about her “six pack joe” 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.

I for one don’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.

If McCain and Palin are somehow elected American’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.

It’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.

Re: Re: Palin isn’t competent to walk my dog

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:33.

“You idiots care more about a donkey and an elephant than you do about the stars and stripes. You get what you deserve.” The truest statement since Reagan stated the most scary thing ever was “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”

I wouldnt be so dead set against OBAMA if he were more Country first, rather than Blame everyone else… 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 “Tolerance” and forgiveness of their own….

Re: Margaret, its me God

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:31.

you mean like the modern day general who doesn’t have a college degree? are we suddenly recruiting presidents from third world countries? because EVERY American General has a college degree……lets not pretend we live in the world of 2 centuries ago

Re: Palin isn’t competent to walk my dog

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:28.

Nothing like partisanship. That’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.

Re: Palin isn’t competent to walk my dog

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:28.

Oh and I’m qualified because I am a black community organizer.. Don’t look at the communities I organized or anything, just trust me for CHANGE… 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….good plan.

Re: Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah

Submitted by Karl (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:27.

It’s ironic that if you guys had listened to Carter in the 70′s you would not be as f**cked as you are now and you would probably have energy independence.

Palin isn’t competent to walk my dog

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:24.

Say what you want about Obama, he’ll make a much better President than either “I’m qualified because I can see Russia from my pooper, yah, you betcha” or “I’m qualified because I was a POW a million years ago, wait, what was the question again?”

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Matt Sanchez (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:19.

Palin Derangement Syndrome is alive and well as the media blitzkrieg is desperate to discredit the Palin/McCain presidential ticket.

Palin handily beat Biden down last night, and that causes severe swelling in the liberal frontal lobe.

Competent…OBama?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:19.

So you say go back home hockey mom… Wow… your complete lack of what a hockey mom is.. basically a communtity leader…hmmm Let’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!

Re: Margaret, its me God

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:19.

You mean like George Washington?

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Incognito (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:14.

and how about looking at it this way… with all Biden’s asinine gaffes would people be thrilled to have him as president, if Obama were to die? I’d be much happier with a Palin presidency than either an Obama or Biden presidency.

She’s done very well for Alaska…thank you very much.

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by GolfBlogger (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:10.

It’s not saying much, but I think Palin’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.

The only logical ticket is Biden-McCain — one which, during the primaries, Joe Biden said he wouldn’t mind.

Margaret, its me God

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:09.

you would not make a good president nor would anyone who doesn’t have an University Degree…..watch that sassy little Katie Couric if you want to know why Sara Palin is completely incompetent

What the…?

Submitted by CJ Grisham (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:07.

If Palin isn’t competent enough to be President, then Obama is even LESS competent to hold the position!!

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Margaret (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 16:03.

Why won’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.

I didn’t go to an ivy league college. I haven’t served as a PTO chairperson or any other office but I think I would make a darn good president. I’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.

Margaret

experience or education ?

Submitted by James (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 15:57.

While one could argue all day long about the experience factor between Obama and Palin, one can’t argue much about the difference in education. I would rather have someone educated in the highest office of the land.

Thanks, but no thanks for that sweet talkin’, well read gal from Alaska.

Don’t YA know?

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 15:55.

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.
If Obama wins we ALL lose….Oh and a preemptive dismiss to those that say it’s because he is black…Its not because he is black its because he is a communist/socialist libtard baby killing gun taking no leadership other than “ACORN” type skills…. 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.

NFW

Submitted by rebaaron (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 15:54.

Sarah Palin is a poser. She’s so enamored with Ronald Reagan I believe, in part, because she’s just like him – an actor. Reagan wasn’t a president as much as he was able to act like a president. The VP debates last night showed this – Palin is all show and no substance. What’s really scary is she believes that she’s capable. I think she really has no idea and is not capable of getting it. I think some call this sociopathic tendencies?!

Palin Did Better Than Expected

Submitted by The Atheist Jew (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 15:53.

She proved to me that she doesn’t have an IQ of 75. It is more like 90 or 95.

National Level Experience (NLE)

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 15:53.

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’t have the time or will to keep up with what is going on in this country…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 “loose nukes” in the former USSR….compare that to Palin who apparently could not even pass a seventh grade civics test (doesn’t know any supreme court cases besides Roe v. Wade?)

All the PAlin supporters are the same , pardon my french, IDIOTS who supported GW because he’s a guy they can drink a beer with…..Palin sure is a regular joe…Joe Retard that is

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by brad (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 15:53.

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!!!

And Barack is Qualified?

Submitted by J (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 14:33.

I love how people point out how Palin’s not qualified SHOULD something happen to McCain. And what makes Barack qualified? He’s been in the Senate for 2 years? And if he is elected, he’s it. At least with McCain, we’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’t walked it at all.

Re: Re: McCain’s “Cancer”

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 13:32.

Source please. Media previously said superficial Basal cell.

Re: McCain’s “Cancer”

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 13:15.

He has had MELANOMA. The deadliest form of skin cancer

Competent?

Submitted by rusmayse on Fri, 10/03/2008 – 00:48.

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 “catch on quickly”. I’m just particularly concerned and unsure she has any idea what she is doing. Period.
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’s magazines and Newspapers. They actually can teach you a lot.

Not as a woman, or a man

Submitted by TomCollins2100 on Thu, 10/02/2008 – 23:33.

Are you kidding? The notion that she’s being unfairly judged as unqualified because she’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 – let alone foreign policy – qualifications.

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.

RELEASE THE MEDICAL RECORDS

Submitted by chemosapien (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 16:02.

what you say is partially true, superficial skin cancers are not fatal, especially with decent healthcare, but WE DON’T KNOW THE EXTENT OF MCCAIN”S CANCER because he won’t release ALL of his medical records……don’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.

Palin needs to read a American History Booko

Submitted by pat baker (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 15:41.

I’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 “quick learner” Do I need a vp who is a quick learner? She’s just a Gov for a few years, no national experience. She can’t answer straight question. These photo opts with people from the MiddleEast aren’t getting on my nerves, they are making me sick Who cares if she’s cute while my 401 K might go down the tubes!. Hillary Clinton would run rings around her. I don’t need a ” on the job VP during these troubled times..

McCain’s “Cancer”

Submitted by Omar Hamada (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 15:33.

Enough of the cancer stuff!!! Talk about spin and/or ignorance! When’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 – BUT IT’S NOT!!!!!!

but seriously, she reads ALL the newspapers

Submitted by Dave (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 00:55.

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.

Don’t Fret

Submitted by Chris A (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 00:48.

Don’t worry about Palin. If you saw her interviews, you would know that the… 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.
She knows what everyone needs…

Re: If John McCain died or became incapacitated, would Sarah Pal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/01/2008 – 00:45.

uh hu …..uh hu !!!

come on, hes only had cancer

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 09/30/2008 – 22:59.

come on, hes only had cancer 3 times. plus, its not like hes old or anything

And, here’s an embed of the poll, if I’ve piqued your interest by now:

Sarah Palin is New Feminism According to Camille Paglia

Chris Abraham — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:01:32 +0000

I would have never guessed that Camille Paglia would be in awe of Sara Palin or perceive her as follows, “Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.” Whoa. (Via Salon.com)

Fresh blood for the vampire
Rip tide! Is the Obama campaign shooting out to sea like a paper boat?
It’s heavy weather for Obama fans, as momentum has suddenly shifted to John McCain — that hoary, barnacle-encrusted tub that many Democrats like me had thought was full of holes and swirling to its doom in the inky depths of Republican incoherence and fratricide. Gee whilikers, the McCain vampire just won’t die! Hit him with a hammer, and he explodes like a jellyfish into a hundred hungry pieces.
Oh, the sadomasochistic tedium of McCain’s imprisonment in Hanoi being told over and over and over again at the Republican convention. Do McCain’s credentials for the White House really consist only of that horrific ordeal? Americans owe every heroic, wounded veteran an incalculable debt of gratitude, but how do McCain’s sufferings in a tiny, squalid cell 40 years ago logically translate into presidential aptitude in the 21st century? Cast him a statue or slap his name on a ship, and let’s turn the damned page.We need a new generation of leadership with fresh ideas and an expansive, cosmopolitan vision — which is why I support Barack Obama and have contributed to his campaign. My baby-boom generation — typified by the narcissistic Clintons — peaked in the 1960s and is seriously past it. But McCain, born before Pearl Harbor, is even older than we are! Why would anyone believe that he holds the key to the future? And why would anyone swallow that preening passel of high-flown rhetoric about “country above all” coming from a seething, short-fused character whose rampant egotism, zigzagging principles, and currying of the gullible press were the distinguishing marks of his senatorial career?
Having said that, I must admit that McCain is currently eating Obama’s lunch. McCain’s weirdly disconnected persona (beady glowers flashing to frozen grins and back again) has started to look more testosterone-rich than Obama’s easy, lanky, reflective candor. What in the world possessed the Obama campaign to let their guy wander like a dazed lamb into a snake pit of religious inquisition like Rick Warren’s public forum last month at his Saddleback Church in California? That shambles of a performance — where a surprisingly unprepared Obama met the inevitable question about abortion with shockingly curt glibness — began his alarming slide.
As I said in my last column, I have become increasingly uneasy about Obama’s efforts to sound folksy and approachable by reflexively using inner-city African-American tones and locutions, which as a native of Hawaii he acquired relatively late in his development and which are painfully wrong for the target audience of rural working-class whites that he has been trying to reach. Obama on the road and even in major interviews has been droppin’ his g’s like there’s no tomorrow. It’s analogous to the way stodgy, portly Al Gore (evidently misadvised by the women in his family and their feminist pals) tried to zap himself up on the campaign trail into the happening buff dude that he was not. Both Gore and Obama would have been better advised to pursue a calm, steady, authoritative persona. Forget the jokes — be boring! That, alas, is what reads as masculine in the U.S.
The over-the-top publicity stunt of a mega-stadium for Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention two weeks ago was a huge risk that worried me sick — there were too many things that could go wrong, from bad weather to crowd control to technical glitches on the overblown set. But everything went swimmingly. Obama delivered the speech nearly flawlessly — though I was shocked and disappointed by how little there was about foreign policy, a major area where wavering voters have grave doubts about him. Nevertheless, it was an extraordinary event with an overlong but strangely contemplative and spiritually uplifting finale. The music, amid the needlessly extravagant fireworks, morphed into “Star Wars” — a New Age hymn to cosmic reconciliation and peace.
After that extravaganza, marking the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s epochal civil rights speech on the Washington Mall, I felt calmly confident that the Obama campaign was going to roll like a gorgeous juggernaut right over the puny, fossilized McCain. The next morning, it was as if the election were already over. No need to fret about American politics anymore this year. I had already turned with relief to other matters.
Pow! Wham! The Republicans unleashed a doozy — one of the most stunning surprises that I have ever witnessed in my adult life. By lunchtime, Obama’s triumph of the night before had been wiped right off the national radar screen. In a bold move I would never have thought him capable of, McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his pick for vice president. I had heard vaguely about Palin but had never heard her speak. I nearly fell out of my chair. It was like watching a boxing match or a quarter of hard-hitting football — or one of the great light-saber duels in “Star Wars.” (Here are the two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, going at it with Darth Maul in “The Phantom Menace.”) This woman turned out to be a tough, scrappy fighter with a mischievous sense of humor.
Conservative though she may be, I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.
In the U.S., the ultimate glass ceiling has been fiendishly complicated for women by the unique peculiarity that our president must also serve as commander in chief of the armed forces. Women have risen to the top in other countries by securing the leadership of their parties and then being routinely promoted to prime minister when that party won at the polls. But a woman candidate for president of the U.S. must show a potential capacity for military affairs and decision-making. Our president also symbolically represents the entire history of the nation — a half-mystical role often filled elsewhere by a revered if politically powerless monarch.
As a dissident feminist, I have been arguing since my arrival on the scene nearly 20 years ago that young American women aspiring to political power should be studying military history rather than taking women’s studies courses, with their rote agenda of never-ending grievances. I have repeatedly said that the politician who came closest in my view to the persona of the first woman president was Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose steady nerves in crisis were demonstrated when she came to national attention after the mayor and a gay supervisor were murdered in their City Hall offices in San Francisco. Hillary Clinton, with her schizophrenic alteration of personae, has never seemed presidential to me — and certainly not in her bland and overpraised farewell speech at the Democratic convention (which skittered from slow, pompous condescension to trademark stridency to unseemly haste).
Feinstein, with her deep knowledge of military matters, has true gravitas and knows how to shrewdly thrust and parry with pesky TV interviewers. But her style is reserved, discreet, mandarin. The gun-toting Sarah Palin is like Annie Oakley, a brash ambassador from America’s pioneer past. She immediately reminded me of the frontier women of the Western states, which first granted women the right to vote after the Civil War — long before the federal amendment guaranteeing universal woman suffrage was passed in 1919. Frontier women faced the same harsh challenges and had to tackle the same chores as men did — which is why men could regard them as equals, unlike the genteel, corseted ladies of the Eastern seaboard, which fought granting women the vote right to the bitter end.
Over the Labor Day weekend, with most of the big enchiladas of the major media on vacation, the vacuum was filled with a hallucinatory hurricane in the leftist blogosphere, which unleashed a grotesquely lurid series of allegations, fantasies, half-truths and outright lies about Palin. What a tacky low in American politics — which has already caused a backlash that could damage Obama’s campaign. When liberals come off as childish, raving loonies, the right wing gains. I am still waiting for substantive evidence that Sarah Palin is a dangerous extremist. I am perfectly willing to be convinced, but right now, she seems to be merely an optimistic pragmatist like Ronald Reagan, someone who pays lip service to religious piety without being in the least wedded to it. I don’t see her arrival as portending the end of civil liberties or life as we know it.
One reason I live in the leafy suburbs of Philadelphia and have never moved to New York or Washington is that, as a cultural analyst, I want to remain in touch with the mainstream of American life. I frequent fast-food restaurants, shop at the mall, and periodically visit Wal-Mart (its bird-seed section is nonpareil). Like Los Angeles and San Francisco, Manhattan and Washington occupy their own mental zones — nice to visit but not a place to stay if you value independent thought these days. Ambitious professionals in those cities, if they want to preserve their social networks, are very vulnerable to received opinion. At receptions and parties (which I hate), they’re sitting ducks. They have to go along to get along — poor dears!
It is certainly premature to predict how the Palin saga will go. I may not agree a jot with her about basic principles, but I have immensely enjoyed Palin’s boffo performances at her debut and at the Republican convention, where she astonishingly dealt with multiple technical malfunctions without missing a beat. A feminism that cannot admire the bravura under high pressure of the first woman governor of a frontier state isn’t worth a warm bucket of spit.
Perhaps Palin seemed perfectly normal to me because she resembles so many women I grew up around in the snow belt of upstate New York. For example, there were the robust and hearty farm women of Oxford, a charming village where my father taught high school when I was a child. We first lived in an apartment on the top floor of a farmhouse on a working dairy farm. Our landlady, who was as physically imposing as her husband, was an all-American version of the Italian immigrant women of my grandmother’s generation — agrarian powerhouses who could do anything and whose trumpetlike voices could pierce stone walls.
Here’s one episode. My father and his visiting brother, a dapper barber by trade, were standing outside having a smoke when a great noise came from the nearby barn. A calf had escaped. Our landlady yelled, “Stop her!” as the calf came careening at full speed toward my father and uncle, who both instinctively stepped back as the calf galloped through the mud between them. Irate, our landlady trudged past them to the upper pasture, cornered the calf, and carried that massive animal back to the barn in her arms. As she walked by my father and uncle, she exclaimed in amused disgust, “Men!”
Now that’s the Sarah Palin brand of can-do, no-excuses, moose-hunting feminism — a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.
Here’s another example of the physical fortitude and indomitable spirit that Palin as an Alaskan sportswoman seems to represent right now. Last year, Toronto’s Globe and Mail reprinted this remarkable obituary from 1905:
Abigail Becker Farmer and homemaker born in Frontenac County, Upper Canada, on March 14, 1830
A tall, handsome woman “who feared God greatly and the living or dead not at all,” she married a widower with six children and settled in a trapper’s cabin on Long Point, Lake Erie. On Nov. 23, 1854, with her husband away, she single-handedly rescued the crew of the schooner Conductor of Buffalo, which had run aground in a storm. The crew had clung to the frozen rigging all night, not daring to enter the raging surf. In the early morning, she waded chin-high into the water (she could not swim) and helped seven men reach shore. She was awarded medals for heroism and received $350 collected by the people of Buffalo, plus a handwritten letter from Queen Victoria that was accompanied by £50, all of which went toward buying a farm. She lost her husband to a storm, raised 17 children alone and died at Walsingham Centre, Ont.
Frontier women were far bolder and hardier than today’s pampered, petulant bourgeois feminists, always looking to blame their complaints about life on someone else.
But what of Palin’s pro-life stand? Creationism taught in schools? Book banning? Gay conversions? The Iraq war as God’s plan? Zionism as a prelude to the apocalypse? We’ll see how these big issues shake out. Right now, I don’t believe much of what I read or hear about Palin in the media. To automatically assume that she is a religious fanatic who has embraced the most extreme ideas of her local church is exactly the kind of careless reasoning that has been unjustly applied to Barack Obama, whom the right wing is still trying to tar with the fulminating anti-American sermons of his longtime preacher, Jeremiah Wright.
The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances.
Let’s take the issue of abortion rights, of which I am a firm supporter. As an atheist and libertarian, I believe that government must stay completely out of the sphere of personal choice. Every individual has an absolute right to control his or her body. (Hence I favor the legalization of drugs, though I do not take them.) Nevertheless, I have criticized the way that abortion became the obsessive idée fixe of the post-1960s women’s movement — leading to feminists’ McCarthyite tactics in pitting Anita Hill with her flimsy charges against conservative Clarence Thomas (admittedly not the most qualified candidate possible) during his nomination hearings for the Supreme Court. Similarly, Bill Clinton’s support for abortion rights gave him a free pass among leading feminists for his serial exploitation of women — an abusive pattern that would scream misogyny to any neutral observer.
But the pro-life position, whether or not it is based on religious orthodoxy, is more ethically highly evolved than my own tenet of unconstrained access to abortion on demand. My argument (as in my first book, “Sexual Personae,”) has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature’s fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive.
Hence I have always frankly admitted that abortion is murder, the extermination of the powerless by the powerful. Liberals for the most part have shrunk from facing the ethical consequences of their embrace of abortion, which results in the annihilation of concrete individuals and not just clumps of insensate tissue. The state in my view has no authority whatever to intervene in the biological processes of any woman’s body, which nature has implanted there before birth and hence before that woman’s entrance into society and citizenship.
On the other hand, I support the death penalty for atrocious crimes (such as rape-murder or the murder of children). I have never understood the standard Democratic combo of support for abortion and yet opposition to the death penalty. Surely it is the guilty rather than the innocent who deserve execution?
What I am getting at here is that not until the Democratic Party stringently reexamines its own implicit assumptions and rhetorical formulas will it be able to deal effectively with the enduring and now escalating challenge from the pro-life right wing. Because pro-choice Democrats have been arguing from cold expedience, they have thus far been unable to make an effective ethical case for the right to abortion.
The gigantic, instantaneous coast-to-coast rage directed at Sarah Palin when she was identified as pro-life was, I submit, a psychological response by loyal liberals who on some level do not want to open themselves to deep questioning about abortion and its human consequences. I have written about the eerie silence that fell over campus audiences in the early 1990s when I raised this issue on my book tours. At such moments, everyone in the hall seemed to feel the uneasy conscience of feminism. Naomi Wolf later bravely tried to address this same subject but seems to have given up in the face of the resistance she encountered.
If Sarah Palin tries to intrude her conservative Christian values into secular government, then she must be opposed and stopped. But she has every right to express her views and to argue for society’s acceptance of the high principle of the sanctity of human life. If McCain wins the White House and then drops dead, a President Palin would have the power to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, but she could not control their rulings.
It is nonsensical and counterproductive for Democrats to imagine that pro-life values can be defeated by maliciously destroying their proponents. And it is equally foolish to expect that feminism must for all time be inextricably wed to the pro-choice agenda. There is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism — one in fact that would have far more appeal to third-world cultures where motherhood is still honored and where the Western model of the hard-driving, self-absorbed career woman is less admired.
But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.
Camille Paglia’s column appears on the second Wednesday of each month. Every third column is devoted to reader letters. Please send questions for her next letters column to this mailbox. Your name and town will be published unless you request anonymity.