Posted on 02/17/2010 8:27:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Republican presidential nominee, an Arizona senator, was a maverick, which was part of his charm. He spoke and acted impulsively, which was part of his problem. Voters thought his entertaining dimensions might be incompatible with presidential responsibilities. For example, he selected a running mate most Americans had never heard of and who had negligible experience pertinent to the presidency. This was 1964.
Barry Goldwater, whose seat John McCain occupies, chose to run with Bill Miller, a congressman from Lockport, N.Y., near Buffalo. Miller, Goldwater cheerfully explained, annoyed Lyndon Johnson. After the Goldwater-Miller ticket lost 44 states, Miller retired to Lockport, where he practiced law and lived in dignified anonymity until his death in 1983. Although he had served as an assistant prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg and spent seven terms in Congress, no one suggested he should be considered for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination.
Yet Sarah Palin, who with 17 months remaining in her single term as Alaska's governor quit the only serious office she has ever held, is obsessively discussed as a possible candidate in 2012. Why? She is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states.
Conservatives, who rightly respect markets as generally reliable gauges of consumer preferences, should notice that the political market is speaking clearly: The more attention Palin receives, the fewer Americans consider her presidential timber. The latest Post-ABC News poll shows that 71 percent of Americans -- including 52 percent of Republicans -- think she is not qualified to be president.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Are you trying out for FRidiot?
Alaska is economically and strategically one of the most important states. California, New York, and Texas are the only ones that can trump it in any significant way.
Worshipping couch potato polls is so ... YOU!
No. He just has standards. Why is it so unreasonable to expect the leader of the free world to be widely read and well-educated?
Why so many people who fancy themselves to be conservative have such a strong resentment toward the educated and professional classes? The class envy I see in Palin supporters isn't much different from that of the Marxists of old. And yet they fancy themselves conservative.
Go figure.
That makes her the most qualified of the 4 candidates that stood for president and vice president in 2008.
This executive experience mantra is tiresome. Using this logic, why don't we just find the longest serving mayor or governor in the country and appoint him/her President, since they're obviously the "most qualified".
Now why don't you tell us how many cities in this country have a population that is bigger than the population of Alaska?
The answer is 17.
Look, she served as mayor of a city that is smaller than the high school I went to, and then served as Governor of a small state for two years.
This doesn't alone disqualify her from possibly being a good leader, but quit trying to fool yourself into thinking she has an impressive resume. Most people aren't impressed by resumes anyway; they're impressed by ideas.
LOL. The only thing strategically important about that place is the oil industry, and that's all managed managed and regulated by the Feds.
The primary education our president needs is a solid understanding of God's word; then everything else falls in seamlessly.
Wow!
Neener, neener neener!
Do you play keep away too?
Correct. That is one of the things that puts Palin on top.
Yes! I'm so happy someone else has noticed it!
It amazes my how our side is just as susceptible to the cult of personality as the other side.
The super-star status of first Obama, and then Palin, is truly frightening. Our obcession with celebrities has now invaded every aspect of public life, and it frightens me immensly.
Palin? Ideas? LOL. Okay, sparky, which ideas of hers, specifically, are you so impressed with?
Her political talent is undeniable, but that doesn't impress me. I'm amazed that anyone can listen to Reagan's speechmaking from the 1964 keynote speech to his 1980 campaign stumps, and then hear Sarah Palin and think there's a comparison. She's been on the mainstream political stage for 18 months, and people are ready to throw the entire conservative movement behind her.
What ideas does Palin symbolized other than "getting the government back on the side of the people", whatever that means?
What impresses you so much that I'm not seeing, outside of her obvious political talent and good looks?
Would you consider a CEO for a company with 17,700 employees capable of running a company with 100,000 employees?
I know I would. And so would every headhunter in the country.
P.S. The State of Alaska has 17,700 employees for all that "empty land".
It's a false argument. If you can run a state, you can run a state.
Elitist Dumb Bastard
Wow. Just wow.
There's no better illustration of everything wrong the conservative movement today than that statement above.
A heck of a lot more..like 10 years more, and a whole state more. 0bama has essentially never run anything in his entire life, or made a payroll before. By just running her and Todd's fishing business alone, and making payrolls, and taking a her business through tightening budgets and hard times alone, Sarah Palin already smokes 0bama in the real life executive expereinece department, even before she became governor.
“. I would hope our standards would be a tad bit higher than that”
Our standards ARE higher. 10 years executive experince worth higher.
“Which isn't saying very much, now, is it?”It is.
It makes her better than anyone else amongst the 4 candidates that voters selected to run this country.
“Population and economic importance are both important factors. Britain has a smaller population than Nigeria, but it has a much higher GDP”
Alaska has a much bigger GDP than most cities in this country. Not to mention being one of the top oil producing states in the country. The governor of Alaska has to manage vastly huge national resources across vast lands, which is more than you can say for the mayor of our biggest city, New York or any other city for that matter.
“Using Google, I came up with 17.”
That makes your statement “she governed a state with a population smaller than an average city” FALSE doesn't it, given that there are approx 30,000 cities in the US, no?
“Unfortunately for Palin, Alaska is a backwater in both categories”
Unfortunately for you, Alaska happens top be one of the top oil producers anywhere on the planet, and if you count the reserves at ANWR, probably has more oil reserves than anywhere else in the US, plus the biggest natural reserves in the country.
Frankly, her looks are ok, but far from impressive.
I’m most impressed by her deep understanding of how current events link up with Bible prophecies, her understanding of real world economics, and human nature in general.
None of the other candidates or potential candidates commonly mentioned here seem to really have any firm grasp in those areas. The other areas all require specialists anyway, and she has some of the best of them in her circle too; especially in the military, and in foreign affairs areas.
the deinition of populism si as follows:
“A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.”
That may or may not involve the use of the government to achieve those ends depending upon the form of governemnt and the ideology of the populist. We live in a constitutional republic in which the rights of the people (and the more responsive political organism, the individual state) are protected by the Constitution.
A conservative populist seeks to protect the individual from the power of the central government, which is dominated by the elites, by requiring the central government to limit its powers to those enumerated in the Constitution, all other powers being reserved to the states and to the people.
Populism per se does not require state action. The fact that you equate populism with state action demonstrates how little you understand about conservatism or the constitution.
Reagan constantly attacked the Eastern Establishment and sought to force the central government (which was dominated by the elites in the media, Wall Street, etc.) to respect the rights of the people as the Constitution required.
It involved the appointment of constitutionalist judges, a rduction in the size of government and deregulation, as well as tax cuts all of which are goals of conservative populism.
It's not. What is unreasonable is, say, suggesting that one must graduate from a particular set of Universities in order to be widely read and well-educated.
It is also unreasonable to suggest that a college graduate, entrepreneur, former mayor, commissioner, and Governor is not widely read or well-educated. Only so much can be excused as luck before it looks like you're grasping at straws.
Will's “standards” became evident the moment he took time to point out a college degree from the University of Idaho as a weakness. It is precisely that Plutocratic attitude that one needed blue blood to govern that compelled the Founders to pen “Of the people, for the people, by the people.”
The Founders did not show anywhere near the disdain for the common man that the so-called GOP “elites” have for any candidate who made a name for themselves without having attended Yale or Harvard.
Perhaps you have a point, however, and folks like me and many of the Freepers at FR should accept that the standards of the GOP are too high for our liking, and that there is perhaps a better fit for the pitchfork and banner crowd. If Sarah Palin is beneath them, then so are we; and I would sooner back an intelligent person of genuine Conservative principle that an intellectual with no genuine connection to the grassroots.
You're right csty; I think this kind of statement shows that the word conservative is quickly becoming meaningless.
It also runs counter to the No Religious Test clause of the Constitution.
But it fits up tight with common sense!
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