Sarah Palin.........?

[The O.C.]

I simply CAN'T believe I'm the first one to throw this up on The Lounge.....

I friggin' love her.......sometimes I can't pin my finger on why I do......but I see some surprising strength in the way she carries herself, in the way she speaks (scripted or not)....and I see strength in the many things she has accomplished as Governor of Alaska. (I'll admit I had to do my own research on her to know much....)

In addition, she seems like a "normal" working woman with a "normal" family.

And, she has charm a-plenty, I think......VERY un-Hillary-like.......(and I'm somewhat of a Hillary fan, believe it or not....)

I think Obama has been knocked off kilter quite a bit by the recent announcement by McCain of Palin as his running mate.....I really don't think Obama saw this coming....at all....and I think he's kicking himself because he could've had Hillary.......(but alas he was too proud to ask her to be his V.P. running mate.)

Many criticize that McCain is old.....and should he pass away, she would be the President. And many feel she wouldn't be able to handle it, or wouldn't be effective in foreign affairs.

Well, first of all, McCain has to die FIRST for her to get the top job. And secondly, I think I'd rather have her experience as a mayor and governor than I would have Obama in the FIRST place....!

She is supposedly quite conservative, but time will tell if she's conservative to a detrimental effect.....I'm betting she won't be.

[The O.C.]

OK.....maybe you guys are talking about her in "McCain's Trend?"

[NOS2006]

I think she's awesome. Just watching her speech at the RNC was enough to make me back her. Given, I do like many of the things she is for, so don't say I'm voting on her character. I do think she has a great charisma about her and I, too, like the fact that she seems like a normal American citizen who was picked out of the blue.

Seeing McCain pick somebody way off the charts like this shows that he's still got "it" and he obviously does his research before making decisions.

[Drew Dowdell]

Forget about Obama, I don't think McCain saw her coming.

Her biggest problem is that she tells easily refutable lies. All politicians lie, but at least be smart about it.

I'm curious why the media hasn't called her out on the "I was always against the Bridge to Nowhere" lie the way they did with Clinton's "Ducking under sniper fire" lie.

[Drew Dowdell]

Seeing McCain pick somebody way off the charts like this shows that he's still got "it" and he obviously does his research before making decisions.

Speaking of easily refutable......

[DetroitNut90]

She is supposedly quite conservative

And that's why I don't like her.

[Oracle of Delphi]

I'm from Texas, I know White Trash when I see it, even when it comes from Alaska!

[Robert Hall]

And that's why I don't like her.

Ya...the whole 'skin a moose and make mooseburgers' shtick or whatever, 'NRA life membership', and 'extreme pro-life' stance I find disgusting.

Inexperienced in government (a mayor of podunk and governor of a remote state don't count) and the far right wing angle is a total turn off.

[Intrepidation]

Ya...the whole 'skin a moose and make mooseburgers' shtick or whatever, 'NRA life membership', and 'extreme pro-life' stance I find disgusting.

Inexperienced in government (a mayor of podunk and governor of a remote state don't count) and the far right wing angle is a total turn off.

+1

[G. David Felt]

Ya...the whole 'skin a moose and make mooseburgers' shtick or whatever, 'NRA life membership', and 'extreme pro-life' stance I find disgusting.

Inexperienced in government (a mayor of podunk and governor of a remote state don't count) and the far right wing angle is a total turn off.

+1

+2 This girl needs to go home and focus on her family instead of trying to tell others how to live their life and then like so many neo conservatives, double standard do what I say not what I do crap. She is a total white trash, lying more of Bush politics. Why would anyone want a person who took a town with NO DEBT and left it with 22 million in DEBT! She is now trying to do the same thing with the State. That is the type of person they DO NOT NEED! Our Country DOES NOT NEED Her or McCain. That ticket is all about more of the current same BS, Porkbarrel spending and double standards to make a rich and poor cast system here in America.

[Intrepidation]

Something I found on the web, from someone's myspace page...

The top 10 things you should know about Sarah Palin:

1. She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power
2. She believes creationism should be taught in public schools
3. She is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest
4. She strongly supports big oil (her husband works for oil company BP)
5. She has no federal or international experience. Prior to being governor (for less than two years) she was only the mayor of a small Alaskan town and a beauty queen!
6. She believes global warming is a farce and is opposed to listing the polar bear as an endangered species
7. She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and anywhere else big oil wants
8. She supports Pebble Mine which will destroy the richest salmon run in the world
9. She supports aerial shooting of bears and wolves even though Alaskans voted twice to ban the practice.
10. She used $400,000 of state money to fund a media campaign in support of aerial shooting of wolves and bears

Bear viewing in Alaska generates $100,000,000/yr. yet Palin refuses to even learn about the industry

her families living room

Now, I haven't starting looking up sources for every one of those points, but I have seen several of them across the web.

The last thing this country needs is another radically conservative, redneck/white trash bible thumping ignoramus in power.

Edited September 11, 2008 by Dodgefan

[Robert Hall]

+2 This girl needs to go home and focus on her family instead of trying to tell others how to live their life and then like so many neo conservatives, double standard do what I say not what I do crap. She is a total white trash, lying more of Bush politics. Why would anyone want a person who took a town with NO DEBT and left it with 22 million in DEBT! She is now trying to do the same thing with the State. That is the type of person they DO NOT NEED! Our Country DOES NOT NEED Her or McCain. That ticket is all about more of the current same BS, Porkbarrel spending and double standards to make a rich and poor cast system here in America.

+1

[G. David Felt]

Now, I haven't starting looking up sources for every one of those points, but I have seen several of them across the web.

The last thing this country needs is another radically conservative, redneck/white trash bible thumping ignoramus in power.

Actually I ran across the full story on Newsweek web site that this is quoted from. All the listed facts are true. One can only hope America will wake up finally and not allow 4 more years of destruction to our country.

[FAPTurbo]

Her social policies piss me off, and make it suck for me to be a 'conservative' . I like her attitude, and personality, but the fact that she opposes contraception, and the teaching of it in school is worrying.

[Croc]

Don't forget that Wasilla was the only municipality in Alaska during her tenure as mayor that charged victims of rape and/or sexual assault for the rape kit DNA testing--until Alaskan legislature made that illegal specifically because of Palin/Wasilla.

[Enzora]

Well, for starters, she's certainly made it obvious over the last few weeks that she has no idea what a community organizer is.

Policy-wise, she's pretty much the exact opposite of what I think our country needs right now.

[mustang84]

Not a fan. Even though the banned books thing turned out to be false, the Wasilla sports complex controversy does not bode well for her political career, or the fact that she was nearly ousted as mayor in her first year. Yeah she seems to have energy and is charismatic, but she is far too tied to her evangelical Christian values to be taken seriously as a Vice President of the United States.

[ocnblu]

She sure is getting a lot of people talking. And from what I understand, the polls look promising. After the DNC, Obama/Biden enjoyed no bump, but after the RNC, McCain/Palin took a sizable jump, and are in the lead in a lot of polls.

[Satty]

Worst. VP pick. Ever.

She has no business running for national office, if she were actually the person people were voting for, it would a landslide loss of record proportion. She knows nothing about governing, all she knows is how to read the speeches McCain's people write for her attacking Obama. Why do you think she hasn't done a single live interview yet? Her ABC interview is going to take place (or has taken place, may have been yesterday and today) over the course of a few days, which gives her a ton of time to prepare for questions and to leave and come back to "clarify" what she may have said earlier. Has any other VP pick been protected from the media so much? Just awful and an insult to Americans.

[trinacriabob]

I'm from Texas, I know White Trash when I see it, even when it comes from Alaska!

I had to bite my lip, but now I can go with the flow. Don't kid yourself, the PNW has plenty of white trash. Can you spell "Tonya Harding?" The local trash up there resented the fact that transplanted Californians and Northeasterners actually lifted the cultural profile of the place...not to mention adding more attractive people to their ranks than the local inbreds.

Re the OP, I respect what she's accomplished but she ain't the best thing since sliced bread. Yeah, look at her husband and some of her kids. They'll have to go to "charm school" for execs and first families, I guess.

Palin comes from Sandpoint ID. It's a neat little town between Coeur d'Alene and the Canadian border. Look her up on NNDB. It indicates she was baptized Roman Catholic (you know, normal), but then went "fundy."

I had pretty much decided on McCain until this came along. He needed to have a person with strong charisma AND good experience. I'm not convinced.

Edited September 20, 2008 by trinacriabob

[Satty]

I had pretty much decided on McCain until this came along. He needed to have a person which strong charisma AND good experience. I'm not convinced.

you mean a 72 year old man with a history of cancer should have picked someone qualified to be the leader of the free world?

[regfootball]

she's more genuine than hillary and has the demeanor to accomplish more. she also has the tenacity to be a bulldog and not a pussy on foreign policy and on capitol hill. margaret thatcher with a rifle.

she makes hillary look like a hack, hillary never did anything.

i doubt i'd agree with all that she professes, but she picks a route and goes with it. and i don't think she'll put up with bull$h! and gridlock.

i can't wait for a WWF style matchup between her and Pelosi. hair pulling, commence!

now the x factor is the same thing that got bill clinton elected. since so many women wanted to have sex with Bill, they put him in office. Its the same thing here, in reverse. Its not a crime for men who find her fetching to allow that to affect their vote a little, when that's how clinton got in office. i sure think she's got some style that's fer sure. But she's not a nut job like hillary.

this election is like 'the apprentice'. i think what we'll have to evaluate on here is more about 'mental makeup' than actual experience.

by that litmus, hill already showed she was a wuss with her little campaign estrogen moment.

Edited September 12, 2008 by regfootball

[trinacriabob]

now the x factor is the same thing that got bill clinton elected. since so many women wanted to have sex with Bill, they put him in office. Its the same thing here, in reverse. Its not a crime for men who find her fetching to allow that to affect their vote a little, when that's how clinton got in office. i sure think she's got some style that's fer sure. But she's not a nut job like hillary

I know more than a handful of pissed-off Republicans right now...specifically about the Palin choice.

Bill Clinton looks like, has always looked like, and sounds like a hick, despite lofty pedigrees. Go to one of those bohemian stores that have the nasty greeting cards. There's one birthday card with Bill and Hillary on the cover, showing them as college students, and inside it says "You haven't gotten older, you've gotten better." They did NOT look good.

[the_yellow_dart]

[the_yellow_dart]

...and on a similar note I'd also like some time with:

Maybe if somebody could arrange for those, it might change my mind about Republicans... LOL

[Satty]

She's lucky she didn't get her mother's creepiness. But that appears to be an American beer.

Edited September 12, 2008 by Satty

[usonia]

Oy, where to begin? I’m not an Obama supporter. I’m a very disillusioned republican. I believe McCain’s choice of Sara Palin as his running mate was an act of political expediency without regard for her knowledge or ability to assume the presidency. I believe it was a last minute choice and there was no significant investigation into her background before the decision was made.

She read a speech at the republican convention. Since then, all she does is repeat sections of that speech and repeat claims about her record where the evidence indicates that she is being less than honest. All the while, the McCain campaign severely limits her access to the press. They have decreed that any interaction between Palin and the press is off the record so she doesn’t have to defend her record.

I think she is a religious extremist and would be willing to bend the law or outright ignore it to get what she wants or what she thinks god wants. I would not want her or anyone like her to be in the position to make the decisions the president has to deal with.

I was talking with a friend of mine about this the other day and he proposed an interesting hypothetical situation. Assume that McCain had picked someone else as a running mate who was totally non-controversial and they went on to win the election. Now assume that within days after taking the oath of office, his vice president died. In this situation without the pressure and hoopla of a campaign, do you think McCain would choose Palin and do you think she would actually make it through the confirmation hearings? I don’t.

[Satty]

Palin on the Bush Doctrine:

I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism. Terrorists who are hellbent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though, there have been mistakes made. And with new leadership -- and that's the beauty of American elections of course and of democracy -- is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.

All Bush said as that we have the right to invade a sovereign nation (without a declaration of war) if there is a remote possibility that said nation will attack the U.S. Palin apparently interprets that as...I dont know, we suck at getting terrorists?

[Oracle of Delphi]

but after the RNC, McCain/Palin took a sizable jump, and are in the lead in a lot of polls.

Well when you're in the basement there is only one way to go, now isn't there?

[Satty]

One of the quirks of this year is that the conventions were back-to-back. You can thank the Olympics for McCain getting a big post-convention bump, he was able to prevent an Obama poll bump by announcing Palin the day after Obama accepted, then go into a convention, then further use Palin's charisma to stay at the forefront of the news. McCain isn't dumb, he just has stupid ideas. Like picking someone only marginally more qualified than me to be vp.

[Drew Dowdell]

There is almost always a jump after the conventions. Obama didn't get much of a jump because the conventions were so close together this year and McCain essentially steamrolled over the DNC bounce with his own convention.

Things will level out again in a week after swinegate has run its course. Polls right now are going to be volatile until the debates.

[Satty]

The electoral map favors Obama at the moment, thats with Florida tied (my gut says its going to be red again) and New Mexico red (it had been polling for Obama until the other day).

[Intrepidation]

For contrast, here is how Palin handles an interviews with ABC News. I didn't like her before, but after seeing how she not only handled that interview (you can tell Tom wasn't buying her BS) to the fact that she is another bible thumper...that is not a person I want in office. Go back to Alaska.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/pop...16&src=news

[SoCalCTS]

Apparently you CAN put lipstick on a pig!!! just kidding

Really, she is the most repulsive woman ever. The more you find out about her the more you hate her.

[Intrepidation]

Really, she is the most repulsive woman ever. The more you find out about her the more you hate her.

Agree 100%

[Satty]

Thinking people dont vote for a hypocrite.

[trinacriabob]

Palin on the Bush Doctrine:

All Bush said as that we have the right to invade a sovereign nation (without a declaration of war) if there is a remote possibility that said nation will attack the U.S. Palin apparently interprets that as...I dont know, we suck at getting terrorists?

Yeah, how about if she had to make a decision about pushing "the buttons" while on the rag?

[gm4life]

I simply CAN'T believe I'm the first one to throw this up on The Lounge.....

I friggin' love her.......sometimes I can't pin my finger on why I do......but I see some surprising strength in the way she carries herself, in the way she speaks (scripted or not)....and I see strength in the many things she has accomplished as Governor of Alaska. (I'll admit I had to do my own research on her to know much....)

In addition, she seems like a "normal" working woman with a "normal" family.

And, she has charm a-plenty, I think......VERY un-Hillary-like.......(and I'm somewhat of a Hillary fan, believe it or not....)

I think Obama has been knocked off kilter quite a bit by the recent announcement by McCain of Palin as his running mate.....I really don't think Obama saw this coming....at all....and I think he's kicking himself because he could've had Hillary.......(but alas he was too proud to ask her to be his V.P. running mate.)

Many criticize that McCain is old.....and should he pass away, she would be the President. And many feel she wouldn't be able to handle it, or wouldn't be effective in foreign affairs.

Well, first of all, McCain has to die FIRST for her to get the top job. And secondly, I think I'd rather have her experience as a mayor and governor than I would have Obama in the FIRST place....!

She is supposedly quite conservative, but time will tell if she's conservative to a detrimental effect.....I'm betting she won't be.

The O.C. I totally agree she is great and breath of fresh air. She can totally relate with average people.

[Robert Hall]

Apparently you CAN put lipstick on a pig!!! just kidding

Really, she is the most repulsive woman ever. The more you find out about her the more you hate her.

+2. Agreed.

[Satty]

The O.C. I totally agree she is great and breath of fresh air. She can totally relate with average people.

Average people fire a guy because he wont punish their sister's estranged husband? Ordinary people get a per diem from the state to stay in the home that they own? Ordinary people want to tell their neighbors what they can and cannot do with their bodies?

[trinacriabob]

Man, aren't we polarized? Then you wonder why I run a poll like are you "liberal or conservative?" LOL.

Edited September 12, 2008 by trinacriabob

[bobo]

George W. Bush with lipstick

[trinacriabob]

George W. Bush with lipstick

C'mon, bobo, she's a little better looking than that. LOL.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Man, aren't we polarized? Then you wonder why I run a poll like are you "liberal or conservative?" LOL.

Your poll needed more choices.

[Bimmer325]

Man, aren't we polarized? Then you wonder why I run a poll like are you "liberal or conservative?" LOL.

Polarized? Sure looks to me like the majority of people here are against her. And I'm 110% with them.

Just about the LAST thing we need.

[the_yellow_dart]

Man, aren't we polarized? Then you wonder why I run a poll like are you "liberal or conservative?" LOL.

...but this has different meanings in different countries.

I'm sure Europe is on its own scale again, but I will speak of Canada because I know it.

SCALE:  traditional left wing .......................................... traditional right wing
Canada: ....NDP...................Liberals.............Conservatives
USA:    .........................................Democrats..............Republicans

Edited September 12, 2008 by the_yellow_dart

[the_yellow_dart]

ps. I vote NDP, so I'm even further from the Republican ideology than Americans even have a choice of being (unless they want to 'throw their vote away' on green)

[balthazar]

>>"Average people fire a guy because he wont punish their sister's estranged husband?"<<

Anybody bother look into the specifics in this case, or are you all just a bit too eager to add another arrow to your Democrat quivver?

TIMELINE

You talk as if Wooten was some sort of humanitarian model officer, instead of a multiple-reprimand, drunk-driving, child-tasering, murder-threatening, loose cannon with a badge. All 4 of his marriages have ended in divorce- no doubt he's always the soft-spoken, humble father he appears to be when the camera is on & his union rep is at his side. Look at the guy- he's 4 feet wide: imagine the confrontations between him, his trooper ego & his wife- no doubt amicable... so the domestic abuse restraining order is a real puzzler. His actions more than justified his ass getting fired (which it wasn't), yet a mere 10 day suspension for --it can't be for threating to shoot his father-in-law; why was that ignored?-- was, of course, challenged by the police union and knocked down to 5 days. Wow, what a victory for public safety.

Monegan's job as public safety comissioner was an appointed cabinet position under the governor. In other words, he served at her discretion. What portion of his refusal to fire Wooten (Palin never directed Monegan to fire Wooten, only suggested it) was sourced from himself being an ex-officer/ police union member? Does a 5-day suspension for all Wooten's transgressions really serve the public's interest? Does not Monegam's failed judgement of these events & refusal to remove a dangerous cop play a part in his evaluated ability to perform his job as PSC?

Palin did her job justly, IMO. Sure, there probably was a degree of emotion involved on Palin's part, sourced from direct knowledge of the situation, but this pales in comparison to the big picture: public safety. And yes, that rightfully includes Wooten's family, regardless of their relationship with Palin. If Monegan could not reasonably perform his duty as public safety commissioner responsible for ensuring that, he should not hold the position.

[ehaase]

Average people fire a guy because he wont punish their sister's estranged husband? Ordinary people get a per diem from the state to stay in the home that they own? Ordinary people want to tell their neighbors what they can and cannot do with their bodies?

Yes, if they can get away with it.

I am afraid that white rural and working class America prefers a beautiful charismatic lady with little knowledge and experience over an intellectual black man with a funny name.

[Satty]

So a governer is supposed to keep tabs on what every state trooper is doing at home, because it may impact what they may do at work? She had no reason, as governer, to get involved. If the officer in question hadn't been her sister's estranged husband, she probably wouldn't have even known what was going on. Abuse of power.