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#5641 Re: The Garden » Even democrats now starting to doubt » 922 weeks ago
Funny how you skipped over the article that was on the front page of that same website in the OP about GOP not feeling safe about Palin's experience.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13368.html
In state after state, rally after rally, Sarah Palin is generating record levels of enthusiasm among the Republican base. Crowds chant her name, congressional candidates cite her in their ads and there are numerous reports of a surge in grass-roots volunteers for the McCain campaign.
The acclaim for the vice presidential nominee is all but deafening within the GOP, except in one small but influential corner: the party's foreign policy establishment. Among that mandarin class, the response to Palin's nomination has been underwhelming, marked by distinctly faint praise or flat-out silence.
Consider Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who currently serves as the committee's top-ranking Republican.
The day Sen. Joe Biden was announced as Barack Obama's running mate, Lugar, while en route to Tbilisi, Georgia, quickly issued a statement praising the choice.
"I congratulate Sen. Barack Obama on his selection of my friend, Sen. Joe Biden, to be his vice presidential running mate,' he said. 'I have enjoyed for many years the opportunity to work with Joe Biden to bring strong bipartisan support to United States foreign policy.'
See Also
Autumn Angst: Dems fret about Obama
The Arena: Why does the press cover the trivial?
Pre-Game: Today's strategies
To date, Lugar has been silent regarding Palin.
In a CNN interview over the weekend, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declined to defend Palin's foreign policy credentials when asked whether Palin has 'enough experience to handle the kinds of things that you need to handle?'
Rice replied: 'These are decisions that Sen. McCain has made. I have great confidence in him. I'm not going to get involved in this political campaign. As secretary of state, I don't do that. But I thought her speech was wonderful.'
While none have come out and publicly questioned the Alaska governor's level of experience in foreign affairs, few have been willing to make the case that Palin is well-versed in the field.
John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and conservative hawk on foreign affairs, segued from questions of Palin's inexperience to McCain's experience.
'You want your strength on national security at the top of the ticket,' Bolton told Politico at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. 'I feel very comfortable with her as a vice presidential nominee, how it plays politically beyond that, I don't know."
'As somebody who spent a good part of his professional career on foreign policy matters, I was delighted by her nomination,' he later said. 'What you have to look for is extensive executive experience.'
Last week, prior to Palin's acceptance speech, former Secretary of the Navy and former Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) chose to accentuate the positive.
He told the Richmond Times Dispatch that Palin is 'intelligent, she has a lot of tenacity, she is a risk taker and she is plenty energetic,' but he added 'only time will tell' if Palin is the smart choice for McCain.
A McCain policy adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged hearing from several worried GOP veterans immediately after Palin's selection.
'To a lot of people it was a surprise choice, so there was caution,' the adviser said early last week. 'There was a pause because they didn't know her. My own personal view is I'm feeling more and more enthusiastic and I think they will too.'
Robert Kagan, a foreign policy adviser to McCain, derided criticisms of Palin as elitist.
'I don't take this elite foreign policy view that only this anointed class knows everything about the world," he said. "I'm not generally impressed that they are better judges of American foreign policy experience than those who have Palin's experience.'
One top conservative foreign policy wonk who declined to be named said he believed some of the questions surrounding Palin's experience are sexist.
'I don't see why Tim Pawlenty has any greater knowledge of foreign policy, and nobody would have raised a peep about him,' he said
Max Boot, a Council on Foreign Relations fellow who also advises the McCain campaign, said that upon hearing McCain had tapped Palin,'like most people, I don't think I had any impression at all."
Boot said he soon decided that 'she was a great way for McCain to generate excitement and interest in his campaign, one day after the Democratic convention.'
'I don't know what her foreign policy views are. I'm not sure how important that is,' Boot continued. 'No one thinks that a McCain administration would be guided by the foreign policy of a vice president. The office of the vice president is not set up to be a second national security adviser or secretary of state.
'The lesson of the last eight years is that we had a president who was not that well versed on foreign affairs coming into office and we had a vice president who was supposed to make up for that deficiency,' Boot added. 'It seems to me the Obama campaign is trying to establish the Bush model.'
#5642 Re: The Garden » Charles Gibson interviews Sarah Palin » 922 weeks ago
Did you guys watch it?? She failed. Gauranteed she doesn't do another interview before the VP Debates.
For starters she had no idea what the Bush Doctrine was:
GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?
PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?
GIBSON: The Bush -- well, what do you -- what do you interpret it to be?
PALIN: His world view.
GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.
PALIN: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent 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 democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.
GIBSON: The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?
PALIN: I agree that a president's job, when they swear in their oath to uphold our Constitution, their top priority is to defend the United States of America.
I know that John McCain will do that and I, as his vice president, families we are blessed with that vote of the American people and are elected to serve and are sworn in on January 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the American people.
When asked about foreign Policy all she talked about is "Oil" and "Being able to see Russia from Alaska"
And she stuttered & came up with a half assed answer about her "Mission from God" statement comparing it to something Lincoln said. Totally different.
#5643 Re: Guns N' Roses » The Chinese Democracy Saga Joke Thread » 922 weeks ago
Hmmm, what does waiting for CD to come out & a girl with a lollipop have in common?
#5644 Re: The Sunset Strip » Looking for good Rock with Swing and Groove elements » 922 weeks ago
Check out a band called "Silkworm", they were an indie 90's band who a few years ago met an untimely demise. Their album Libertine was their best, and describes that swing/jazz rock you describe. I checked Amazon & they have sound bites, (Song 4 'Yen & Janet Forever' is one of the saddest songs I've ever heard).
http://www.amazon.com/Libertine-Silkwor … 158&sr=1-3
Also Morphine if your up for it. It was a 3 piece band with sax, bass & drums. Good band though.
#5645 Re: The Garden » Knockout blow to the Obama campaign? » 922 weeks ago
This backfired massively. Even Bill O'Reilly called it for what it is. By tomorrow it's non-issue.
Quick someone made fun of Palin, someone call a Wahhhhhhmbulance.
#5646 Re: The Garden » Sarah Palin has no clue about Economics » 922 weeks ago
"Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers."
Gotten is past tense, not future tense. I'll see if this is on youtube.
Haha, is worse than I imagined. She's blatantly wrong on it .
#5647 Re: The Garden » How Obama Blew It » 922 weeks ago
That Gallup poll was released several days ago & ended 9/7.
2 out of the last 3 have Obama up 1.
#5648 Re: The Garden » Palin: Rape Victims should pay $1,,5000 for test kits » 922 weeks ago
Read the OP James, it's THE ALSKA NEWSPAPER. HAHAHA. Now you're trying to deny her hometown newspaper is BS.. Nice try. (Oh yeah, for the record, you never pasted your source about Biden or Obama voting for the Bridge to Nowhere either. Guess that was false)
And you're going off about budget cuts?? WTF, I'm all for budget cuts but shit, I don't wanna be charged every time the trash, cops, or firemen have to come by.
"Oh shit, I got into a car accident"
"Well, that's gonna cost you $500 for a police officer to show up"
Anyway, as I said, "You can't defend this"
#5649 Re: The Garden » Knockout blow to the Obama campaign? » 922 weeks ago
Karl Rove is EVERY reason to be under the impression it will be 4 more years. McCain has sold out. Also, Karl Rove was the guy who helped Bush win by calling people in South Carolina saying "John McCain has a black child outside of wedlock" when in fact he has an adopted child from Indonesia. Yet now he teams up with him?? Sad, the mans pairing with anyone & everyone to win.
#5650 The Garden » Sarah Palin has no clue about Economics » 922 weeks ago
- PaSnow
- Replies: 7
She states "Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac became too big for the taxpayers & were a burden on them"
Hey Einstein, they're private firms, not taxpayer funded.. Jeez how stupid is this woman.
Palin Makes Her First Gaffe
stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust mixx.com
September 8, 2008 11:50 AM
Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.
Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."
Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, which came before the government had spent funds bailing the two entities out, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.
"You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country's mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn't speak well for her, I'd say."
Added Andrew Jakabovics, an economic analyst for the progressive think tank, Center for American Progress: "It is somewhat nonsensical because up until yesterday there was sort of no public funding there. Even today they haven't drawn down any of the credit line they have given to Treasury. 'Gotten too big and too expensive' are two separate things. The too big has been a conservative mantra for a while and there is something to be said of that in that they hold about half of the mortgage guarantees that are out there. And in the last year they have been responsible for roughly 80 percent out there. The 'too expensive to tax payers,' I don't know where that comes from."
Even conservative analysts acknowledged that the statement simply did not hold true.
"Heretofore, if the treasury had a balance sheet there would have been a liability but there was never a taxpayer payment before [the bailout]," said Gerald P. O'Driscoll, an economist with the Cato Institute. "[Fannie and Freddie] were not taxpayer funded. They had taxpayer guarantee, which is worth something, especially in the stock market..."
The Palin misstatement comes as Fannie and Freddie are set to be placed under control of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, created by President Bush in late July to help regulate the two housing giants. Both presidential candidates have been critical of Fannie and Freddie but neither is opposed to the government's plans for the companies. The treasury is hoping that the government's role will help stabilize credit markets and incentive more mortgage lending.
"With the takeover they will be taxpayer funded," said O'Driscoll. "As I understand it they get to withdraw funds with permission going forward."
How politically significant a "gaffe" it is remains to be seen. The major concern about Palin's position on the ticket is that she lacks the economic and foreign policy wherewithal to serve as vice president. This certainly doesn't help on that front. At the same time, the remark went almost entirely unnoticed over the weekend and discussions on the developments of the housing market can be difficult to process for even the most attuned voter.
There are varying explanations that could be offered for Palin's defense. As O'Driscoll noted, both Fannie and Freddie "were hybrid institutions because they had private ownership but... an implicit government guarantee which people thought at the end of the day was explicit." Meanwhile, as Baker noted, as of July the two lenders were being offered low market interest rates by the fed again, theoretically, at the taxpayer's expense. But, he added, "I kind of doubt she had any sense of that."
