Palin: She's Not Ready

D

deleted15807

Guest
She’s Not Ready
By BOB HERBERT

While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might actually prevail.


How is it that this woman could have been selected to be the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket? How is it that so much of the mainstream media has dropped all pretense of seriousness to hop aboard the bandwagon and go along for the giddy ride?


For those who haven’t noticed, we’re electing a president and vice president, not selecting a winner on “American Idol.”

Ms. Palin may be a perfectly competent and reasonably intelligent woman (however troubling her views on evolution and global warming may be), but she is not ready to be vice president.

With most candidates for high public office, the question is whether one agrees with them on the major issues of the day. With Ms. Palin, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing. She doesn’t appear to understand some of the most important issues.

“Do you believe in the Bush doctrine?” Mr. Gibson asked during the interview. Ms. Palin looked like an unprepared student who wanted nothing so much as to escape this encounter with the school principal.

Clueless, she asked, “In what respect, Charlie?”

“Well, what do you interpret it to be?” said Mr. Gibson.

“His worldview?” asked Ms. Palin.

Later, in the spin zones of cable TV, commentators repeatedly made the point that there are probably very few voters — some specifically mentioned “hockey moms” — who could explain the Bush doctrine. But that’s exactly the reason we have such long and intense campaigns. You want to find the individuals who best understand these issues, who will address them in sophisticated and creative ways that enhance the well-being of the nation.

The Bush doctrine, which flung open the doors to the catastrophe in Iraq, was such a fundamental aspect of the administration’s foreign policy that it staggers the imagination that we could have someone no further than a whisper away from the White House who doesn’t even know what it is.

You can’t imagine that John McCain or Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman would not know what the Bush doctrine is. But Sarah Palin? Absolutely clueless.

Ms. Palin’s problem is not that she was mayor of a small town or has only been in the Alaska governor’s office a short while. Her problem (and now ours) is that she is not well versed on the critical matters confronting the country at one of the most crucial turning points in its history.

The economy is in a tailspin. The financial sector is lurching about on rubbery legs. We’re mired in self-defeating energy policies. We’re at war. And we are still vulnerable to the very real threat of international terrorism.

With all of that and more being the case, how can it be a good idea to set in motion the possibility that Americans might wake up one morning to find that Sarah Palin is president?

I feel for Ms. Palin’s son who has been shipped off to the war in Iraq. But at his deployment ceremony, which was on the same day as the Charlie Gibson interview, Sept. 11, she told the audience of soldiers that they would be fighting “the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

Was she deliberately falsifying history, or does she still not know that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

To burnish the foreign policy credentials of a vice presidential candidate who never even had a passport until last year, the Republicans have been touting Alaska’s proximity to Russia.
(Imagine the derisive laughter in conservative circles if the Democrats had tried such nonsense.) So Mr. Gibson asked Ms. Palin, “What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?”

She said, “They’re our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska. From an island in Alaska.”
Mr. Gibson tried again. “But what insight does that give you,” he asked, “into what they’re doing in Georgia?”

John McCain, who is shameless about promoting himself as America’s ultimate patriot, put the best interests of the nation aside in making his incredibly reckless choice of a running mate. But there is a profound double standard in this country. The likes of John McCain and George W. Bush can do the craziest, most irresponsible things imaginable, and it only seems to help them politically.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Beryn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Posts
197
Media
0
Likes
14
Points
238
Location
Birmingham (Alabama, United States)
Gender
Male
Sargon20....Do you know what the Bush Doctrine is? I will admit I have no clue what it is.

"Palin didn't know what it is. But neither does Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know--while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain."

"Wrong," writes Krauthammer. "I know something about the subject because, as the Wikipedia entry on the Bush doctrine notes, I was the first to use the term" way back in 2001

So, looks like it was Charlie Gibson's gaffe on Bush doctrine, not Sarah Palin's | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times
 
D

deleted15807

Guest
Charles Gibson is not running for Vice President. Palin is. She is expected to know things like this if she has any foreign policy experience. Oh, i forgot see can she Russia from Alaska. Now that's experience. For a tour guide.

Charles Krauthammer is a neo-con Bush lover. A love that dare not speak it's name.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Beryn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Posts
197
Media
0
Likes
14
Points
238
Location
Birmingham (Alabama, United States)
Gender
Male
Sargon20....Do you know what the Bush Doctrine is? I will admit I have no clue what it is.

"Palin didn't know what it is. But neither does Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know--while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain."

"Wrong," writes Krauthammer. "I know something about the subject because, as the Wikipedia entry on the Bush doctrine notes, I was the first to use the term" way back in 2001

So, looks like it was Charlie Gibson's gaffe on Bush doctrine, not Sarah Palin's | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

“There is no single meaning of the Bush Doctrine,” Krauthammer noted in a forthcoming column. “In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration — and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today.

Palin’s Definition of ‘Bush Doctrine’ Hits the Gibson Mark - America’s Election HQ
 

D_Davy_Downspout

Account Disabled
Joined
Dec 5, 2004
Posts
1,136
Media
0
Likes
18
Points
183
Krauthammer is a conservative pundit and regular commentator on Fox News.

I am shocked, shocked I say, that he's coming out on Palin's side.

He also claims to have invented the term, so he gets all pissy if someone uses it in a different way than he.
 
D

deleted15807

Guest
Beryn keep on excusing her ignorance. If Obama or Biden had blundered like she did Faux News would have halted all regularly scheduled programming to have a 24 hour laughfest on how the Obama/Biden team were unprepared to lead.

Ms. Palin talked repeatedly about never blinking. When Mr. McCain asked her to run for vice president? “You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission,” she said, that “you can’t blink.”

Fighting terrorism? “We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.”

Her answers about why she had told her church that President Bush’s failed policy in Iraq was “God’s plan” did nothing to dispel concerns about her confusion between faith and policy. Her claim that she was quoting a completely unrelated comment by Lincoln was absurd.

she's a distraction. the more we talk about her and make her a "real" issue, the more distracting she becomes.

Of course she is. She's affirmative action nothing more.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Beryn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Posts
197
Media
0
Likes
14
Points
238
Location
Birmingham (Alabama, United States)
Gender
Male
Charles Gibson is not running for Vice President. Palin is. She is expected to know things like this if she has any foreign policy experience. Oh, i forgot see can she Russia from Alaska. Now that's experience. For a tour guide.

Charles Krauthammer is a neo-con Bush lover. A love that dare not speak it's name.

1) I would agree she does not have the foreign policy experience of Sen. McCain or even Sen. Biden. But she has as much as Sen. Obama.

2) And since we want to compare Foreign Policy experience....I wish Sen. Obama's staff would have clued him into Russia having 'Veto' power on the UN Security Council.

In his written statement that marked a toughening of his rhetoric toward Russia, Obama also said the United States should call for an immediate meeting of the U.N. Security Council to condemn Moscow's decision in coordination with European allies.

"The U.S. should lead within the U.N. and other international forums to cast a clear and unrelenting light on the decision, and to further isolate Russia internationally because of its actions," he said.

Although Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, it could not stop closed-door consultations among the members. It could, however, use its position to block the council from issuing a statement or resolution critical of Russian actions in Georgia.

3) Bob Herbert is a racist anyways.
 

Beryn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Posts
197
Media
0
Likes
14
Points
238
Location
Birmingham (Alabama, United States)
Gender
Male
Krauthammer is a conservative pundit and regular commentator on Fox News.

I am shocked, shocked I say, that he's coming out on Palin's side.

He also claims to have invented the term, so he gets all pissy if someone uses it in a different way than he.

Yeah I'm sure Al Gore, the 'inventor of the internet' gets a little pissy when someone uses the internet in a different way than he designed it for.
 

Beryn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Posts
197
Media
0
Likes
14
Points
238
Location
Birmingham (Alabama, United States)
Gender
Male
To be fair, in the interest of accuracy, he never said that, but he is one of the men most responsible for it.

I agree the quote is a bit inaccurate, he only stated..."During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

March 9, 1999 during CNN's "Late Edition" show
 

B_New End

Experimental Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Posts
2,970
Media
0
Likes
20
Points
183
Location
WA
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
Anybody who has paid attention to foreign policy knows the Bush Doctrine is the doctrine of pre-emptive war. Yes there is no real consent on it, but that is what it boils down to.
 
D

deleted15807

Guest
Holy shit, you're trotting out a talking point from 2000?

Amazing.

Whenever a Republican candidate gets in trouble you have to either bring out Clinton or Gore. It's the LAW. You gotta do it.
 

Beryn

Experimental Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2006
Posts
197
Media
0
Likes
14
Points
238
Location
Birmingham (Alabama, United States)
Gender
Male
Whenever a Republican candidate gets in trouble you have to either bring out Clinton or Gore. It's the LAW. You gotta do it.

Actually I have no problem with Clinton (Bill or Hillary).

Actually, both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton did very good jobs as President, being they were only Governors of a State and having No Foreign Policy Experience.

To bad I can't say that about Jimmy Carter. He just SUCKED.