Posted on 07/03/2009 10:57:15 PM PDT by pissant
With respect to many of the Palinologists below, I think they're getting way too hepatomantic over the entrails.
As a political move for anything other than the 2010 Senate race, today's announcement is a disaster. And I'm not sure it's a plus for the Senate - and, even if it were, the manner and timing suggest it was not a professionally planned event and therefore is unlikely to have any grand strategy behind it.
So Occam's Razor leaves us with: Who needs this?
In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You're a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they're tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who'd never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a "cancer".
Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it'll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You've got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who's given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.
Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what's the word? - "empathize"? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you'd have to turn into under that scenario?
National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.
Obama wasn’t handicapped by McCain, Bush and you.
You feel the way you feel, don't apologize. I had all the same questions, but I think I can see the wisdom of her choice, I my be wrong, you may be wrong. I am just saying we don't need to chop her up until we see where she is going with her decision. Lot of unanswered questions, for both of us, but let's at least give her until her last day, and see where she is going. I won't belabor this with you, I respect you more than that.
Sarah wasn’t running for pres. McCain made at least 20 million voters stay home on election day. He lost to .obama. Sara brougt in more votes than biden.she beat Biden hands down.
“...(in)ability to deliver electoral success...”
You give much more influence to the VP position than anybody else. Let’s put your theory to the test and see how well she does at the top of the ticket.
Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
Since Mar 18, 2009
You don’t know a thing about Sarah or anything that she has acomplished in this state. She is not a quiter.
There is some other reason for her departure from office in Alaska.
Those are excuses from the PalinChoir.
If she was so suppressed by McCain, why then is the PalinChoir alone able to see through it?
The fact is, people vote for the person, not the campaign.
They assess the politicians, and they vote on that.
People summed her up based on her performance in interviews and the debate, and they found her lacking. they did not think she was informed or prepared for the job. They did not find she had a command of the issues or the facts. This was not the fault of the McCain staff. They tried to hold her back because they discovered she wasn’t ready for prime time after it was too late. It had nothing to do with her politics, it had to do with her knowledge and coherence.
Like Mondale?
You need to point out in that graphic that counterpoint is a Romney troll, that is what drives him.
Romney trolls are a special breed.
Nice attempt to deflect though.
What does it matter how long a person has been a member?
It’s not as though they were born the day they signed up.
Or does this have something to do with them not yet being beaten into conformity by people like you?
I have enjoyed the total frizzy (that is a combination of a frenzy and a tizzy) the MSM, GOP and DNC seem to be having.
Does she have some big problem not yet announced? Is she tired of the ethics cases that are unwarranted? Does she have BIGGER political aspirations that serving as governor hinder? Is she going to help a party that has pretty well thrown her to the wolves by stumping for them?
I don't know.
Myself, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would want to serve in politics.
If it were I, the media's unprecedented savage attacks on my family would make me rethink the whole situation. I can't think of any attack on the children of previous politicians that has equaled this. As a parent, they would be my first responsibility.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Listen loser, most of these noobs who signed up from November 2008 onward are nothing more than Romney trolls (like yourself) who are trying to emulate Axelrod’s astro-turfing technique. You guys aren’t fooling anyone.
Oh, you must not be paying attention. Palin’s the leader of the GOP if she wants to be. She’s drawing 20k in upstate NY now, after the election. Today, Bush could do that, maybe, anyone else? Would 20k go to a Steele speech? 10k for anyone? 5k?
Palin is the most popular Republican right now, no doubt about it.
I’m not going to argue the point. What’s done is done.
I think Palin supporters are going to think she was just great today. I don’t think Independents or Democrats will.
That’s where the rub comes.
I appreciate discussing it with you. Often times I say I hope I’m wrong. In this instance, I believe this will come back to haunt us years after the fact, so it will be a very iffy situation, something we thought was handled, until the campaign is in full swing, and sticktuitiveness becomes the ace in the hole.
I dont’ know about this one.
You take care.
Get serious Troll. Nobody credits Carter’s defeat on his VP pick. Nobody credits Reagan’s success because of his VP pick.
By your logic Nixon would never have won after his performance in 1960 and Reagan should not have run after his primary defeat in ‘76.
Sarah is going to lead the ticket. In fact there are no other contenders that can be taken seriously by conservatives.
You are a lying Romney tool, now you pretend elections rest on the veep, not the presidential candidate himself.
"Whatever combination of votes that gives McCain the biggest coalition is alright in my book. McCain will have a center-right coalition.
McCain understands the first rule of VP picks, everyone does. Do no harm. He knows that Lieberman at best would attract the same kind of voters that he himself already attracts, and it would be at the price of a significant chunk of his coalition.
I’ll break down the dynamics of the VP selection: most people don’t know who the Vice President is, nor do they care.
The VP pick gets only two big nights: the acceptance speech at the convention, and the VP debate, which gets a very small audience compared to presidential debates. Other than that, the VP is invisible, and most people don’t start paying attention until after the convention where the VP is nominated.
The people who actually care who is picked or could pick the guy out of a lineup are hardcore political junkies, who just like football fan, already have picked their team. They’re not persuadable.
This is why a VP pick can not help and can only harm. The only people who care or follow the VP drama are people that are already onboard, and thus can only be lost by a bad pick.
Obama didn’t understand this. The only people who care about his VP choice are die-hard Hillary supporters, and he lost a good chunk of them by not picking her.
No one else cares who he picked. After all, he should know, he’s Barack Obama! Why would they care about the other guy on the ticket? It’s all about him, not the other guy. Obama fans have a hard enough time keeping up with the Kardashians, let alone Paris, Britney, Ashton, Brad and Angelina, this season’s American Idol, the Lohans, the Simpson sisters, and not one Corey, but two. They certainly don’t have time for some uncool windbag with bad plugs like Joe Biden.
45 posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:52:47 AM by counterpunch (John McCain - For the LOVE of Country)
Swell, let’s play word games. I think you know what I mean.
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