Palin's Words Raise Red Flags

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Registered: 09-08-2008
Palin's Words Raise Red Flags
4
Mon, 09-29-2008 - 3:39pm


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/381031_herbertonline30.html

Palin's words raise red flags

By BOB HERBERT
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

The country is understandably focused on the financial crisis. But there is another serious issue in front of us that is not getting nearly enough attention, and that's whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president -- or, if the situation were to arise, president of the United States.

History has shown again and again that a vice president must be ready to assume command of the ship of state on a moment's notice. But Palin has given no indication yet that she is capable of handling the monumental responsibilities of the presidency if she were called upon to do so.

In fact, the opposite is the case. We know that there are some parts of Alaska from which, if the day is clear and your eyesight is good, you can actually see Russia. But the infantile repetition of this bit of trivia as some kind of foreign policy bona fide for a vice presidential candidate should give us pause.

The McCain campaign has done its bizarre best to shield Palin from any sustained media examination of her readiness for the highest offices in the land, and no wonder. She has been an embarrassment in interviews.

But the idea that the voters of the United States might install someone in the vice president's office who is too unprepared or too intellectually insecure to appear on, say, "Meet the Press" or "Face the Nation" is mind-boggling.

The alarm bells should be clanging and warning lights flashing. You wouldn't put an unqualified pilot in the cockpit of a jetliner. The potential for catastrophe is far, far greater with an unqualified president.

The United States has been lucky in terms of the qualifications of the vice presidents who have had to step in over the last several decades for presidents who either died or, in Richard Nixon's case, were forced to leave office. Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson became extraordinary presidents in their own right. Gerald Ford successfully guided the nation through the immediate aftermath of one of the most traumatic political crises in its history.

For those who think Sarah Palin is in that league, there is no problem. But her unscripted public appearances would lead most honest observers to think otherwise. When asked again this week about her puerile linkage of foreign policy proficiency and Alaska's proximity to Russia, this time by Katie Couric of CBS News, here is what Palin said she meant:

"That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land -- boundary that we have with -- Canada."

She went on, but lost her way midsentence: "It's funny that a comment like that was kind of made to -- cari -- I don't know, you know? Reporters ..."

Couric said, "Mocked?"

"Yeah, mocked," said Palin. "I guess that's the word. Yeah."

It is not just painful, but frightening to watch someone who could become the vice president of the United States stumbling around like this in an interview.

Couric asked Palin to explain how Alaska's proximity to Russia "enhances your foreign policy credentials."

"Well, it certainly does," Palin replied, "because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there -- "

Gently interrupting, Couric asked, "Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?"

"We have trade missions back and forth," said Palin. "We do. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to our state."

It was surreal, the kind of performance that would generate a hearty laugh if it were part of a Monty Python sketch. But this is real life, and the stakes couldn't be higher. As Palin was fumbling her way through the Couric interview, the largest bank failure in the history of the United States, the collapse of Washington Mutual, was occurring.

The press has an obligation to hammer away at Palin's qualifications. If it turns out that she has just had a few bad interviews because she was nervous or whatever, additional scrutiny will serve her well.

If, on the other hand, it becomes clear that her performance, so far, is an accurate reflection of her qualifications, it would behoove John McCain and the Republican Party to put the country first -- as McCain loves to say -- and find a replacement for Palin on the ticket.

Bob Herbert is a columnist with The New York Times. Copyright 2008 New York Times News Service.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Mon, 09-29-2008 - 4:48pm

Even Fox had to admit this.lol.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/28/analysis-pressure-builds-palin-ahead-vp-debate/

Analysis: Pressure Builds on Palin Ahead of VP Debate

Pressure is building on Sarah Palin to demonstrate her leadership credentials when she faces off in the vice presidential debate against Washington veteran Joe Biden next week, as Democrats and even some Republicans lob criticism of her latest latest interview performance.

FOXNews.com

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Pressure is building on Sarah Palin to demonstrate her leadership credentials when she faces off in the vice presidential debate against Washington veteran Joe Biden next week, as Democrats and even some Republicans lob criticism of her latest latest interview performance.

Biden, too, spent the past week tripping up his own campaign -- bungling facts on the Great Depression and even criticizing a Barack Obama ad.

Biden's gaffe-prone ways, though, are well-documented and tempered somewhat by a perception that he is seasoned in national affairs, while Palin still is making her debut on the national campaign stage.

Her interview earlier this week with CBS News' Katie Couric was scrutinized closely in the run-up to the vice presidential candidates' one-time debate Thursday in St. Louis.

In some cases, the criticism runs beyond liberal blogs and tabloids. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker wrote a scathing article in the National Review Online lamenting that she could no longer defend the first-term Alaska governor's placement on the Republican presidential ticket.

"Palin's recent interviews ... have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League," she wrote. "No one hates saying that more than I do."

Parker said the interviews revealed "there's not much content there," and she called on Palin to leave the Republican ticket.

FOX News analyst Bernard Goldberg said some of the criticism Palin is fielding is unfair, since Biden's gaffes regularly receive a pass.

"The preconceived notion about Joe Biden is that he's an expert on foreign policy no matter how many mistakes he's made," he said.

But Goldberg said Palin's latest interview did not "instill confidence" and Parker "may be right" in saying she's out of her league.

The criticism stems from a few answers Palin gave during the wide-ranging CBS interview. She seemed to struggle when asked to explain her claim that Alaska's proximity to Russia bolsters her foreign policy credentials.

"Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side the land boundary that we have with Canada," she said, before turning the question back on the media.

"It's funny that a comment like that was kind of made to -- I don't know, you know, reporters," she said.

She then said her foreign policy credentials are enhanced because "our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of," and that "we have trade missions."

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska," she said.

Palin also struggled when asked to cite specific examples of when McCain led the charge for more oversight of the finance industry -- aside from supporting stricter regulations for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you," she said at the end.

Geraldine Ferraro, the history-making Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984, told FOX News that Palin "has until Thursday" to brush up.

"She has got to sit down and go over all of John McCain's votes," she said. "If she doesn't know it, she is going to be in a disastrous position against Joe Biden."

The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol placed some of the blame on the McCain campaign for sheltering Palin from the media, and in turn placing an inordinate amount of pressure on her to perform well in the few prime-time interviews she's been given so far.

Historian Douglas Brinkley said that after the first presidential debate Friday ended in what he called a "draw" even more attention will be on the vice presidential candidates' face-off Thursday.

While Biden needs to "watch his tongue," Palin needs to show that she's ready to be president, Brinkley said.

"She's cunning and smart and people who underestimate her could be sorry," he said.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2006
Mon, 09-29-2008 - 4:56pm

And Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/fareed_zakaria/2008/09/palin_is_ready_please.html

I sure don't like helping the other side, but if McCain happens to win, i surely don't want Palin as VP. I'm sure they can find someone who will be better for their campaign, even if McCain loses a few votes because he used poor judgment in his first selection.

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http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Mon, 09-29-2008 - 5:09pm

((I'm sure they can find someone who will be better for their campaign, even if McCain loses a few votes because he used poor judgment in his first selection.))

There aren't any DO OVERS in the WH. McCain chose wrong...there should not be a 2nd choice. Out of all of those qualified women GOPers, he chose Sarah. His judgment is in his pants. We already had POTUS that used the wrong "brain". America deserves better.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Wed, 10-01-2008 - 1:10am

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a2zkznweF1fk&refer=home

Palin Heads to Debate as Advantage Wanes Among `Wal-Mart' Moms

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin achieved the objective of energizing the party's evangelical and social-conservative base. The other goal, winning over women voters, is fizzling.

From her hairstyle and her one-liners to her teenage daughter's pregnancy and her work-family balance, Palin's life has been dissected by the media, in coffee shops and at office water coolers since she was nominated as John McCain's running mate last month.

Yet the ``Palin Effect'' -- the notion that the 44-year-old Alaska governor would lure women, especially supporters of Hillary Clinton -- so far hasn't been borne out in the reaction of voters or polls. Following television interviews during which she stumbled, the McCain camp is counting on her debate with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden tomorrow night to rehabilitate her image.

It may not work, said Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

``Nothing whatsoever in the polling indicates women have crossed over to support the Republican ticket as a result of anything, including Sarah Palin,'' said Mandel, a founder of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers.

Unqualified

In a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times national poll last week, 49 percent of women said they planned to vote for the Democratic ticket led by Barack Obama; 40 percent picked McCain and Palin. In addition, fewer women than men said they were more likely to vote Republican because of her presence on the ticket, and a plurality of female voters said she was unqualified to be president; men were evenly split.

Among women who supported New York Senator Clinton in the Democratic primaries, about a third said the Palin pick made it less likely they would vote Republican, and almost four in 10 said it made no difference, the poll showed. Half of female Clinton supporters said Palin isn't qualified to be president.

The survey is consistent with past voting patterns. In every election since a ``gender gap'' was quantified in 1980, women have voted for Democratic presidential candidates more than men have, by an average of almost 8 percentage points.

Social Issues

Palin's record of opposition to abortion and her pro-family image have appeased the evangelical and social conservatives who form the Republican Party's core voters and were mistrustful of McCain. Yet she hasn't been able to hold on to an early bounce with another important constituency: older, non-college-educated white females, many of whom have defected to the Democrats over the last few weeks, said Republican pollster Ed Goeas.

``Many `Wal-Mart suburban moms' who moved to McCain are moving back to Obama,'' Goeas said.

Palin's candidacy, like that of Clinton, 60, has spurred satire and some inappropriate commentary. Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said he wanted Palin to pose nude if she loses the election; CNBC host Donny Deutsch said on air he wanted her ``laying next to me in bed.'' Her fumbles in recent television interviews were parodied by comedian Tina Fey in two consecutive skits on NBC's ``Saturday Night Live.''

Even some conservatives have suggested she lacks experience. Columnist Kathleen Parker, in an article for the National Review Online titled ``She's Out of Her League,'' urged Palin to bow out. ``Do it for your country,'' Parker wrote.

Juggling Career, Family

Still, many Republicans, who for years railed against Clinton for supposedly prioritizing her career and political ambitions over family, hailed Palin for juggling a career while raising five children, including an infant with Down syndrome. And the McCain campaign has condemned the criticism of her scant national experience as sexist.

As women voters learn more about Palin's record -- from the policy while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, of charging rape victims for collecting specimens for police evidence, to her lack of fluency on topics such as foreign affairs and the financial crisis -- her negative ratings have risen.

``The whole notion that she was brought to the ticket to attract Hillary supporters is an embarrassment and insult to Hillary supporters,'' said Jane Gellman, 59, a retired physical education teacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who plans to vote for Obama. ``The fundamental things Hillary supports are diametrically opposed by Palin.''

`Least Worrisome'

Patricia McGrath, 63, a YMCA manager in Asheboro, North Carolina, said she voted for Clinton as the ``least worrisome candidate'' in the Democratic primary, and will vote for Arizona Senator McCain in November because she agrees with him on issues, not because of his choice of running mate.

Linda Basch, president of the New York-based National Council for Research on Women, said the attention generated by Palin ``indicates how strongly women want to see images of themselves in the public sphere.''

Yet Basch said if Palin is ``being put forth as the women's candidate,'' it is legitimate to ask how she would represent women, who by wide margins favor abortion rights, government funding for day care and children's health insurance and equal- pay legislation, which McCain and Palin haven't supported.

The St. Louis debate with Delaware Senator Biden this week will be Palin's chance to convince women voters she will champion their issues, women's advocates said.

``Her record raises questions,'' Basch said. ``I think women in the country will be watching closely to see what stances she takes.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 1, 2008 00:01 EDT