Palin Is Ready? Please.

The whole idea that americans will prefer to vote to someone who looks like and thinks like their friendly bubba, the beer drinking, pool shooting and simple minded oaf is ridiculous. I know several guys and girls like that and I occasionaly have a drink and share few jokes with them but I will never vote for them if they were to be picked by Mac Cain or Obama as veeps.

I've been a longtime reader of Fareed Zakaria's but this may just be the most important article, IMO, that he's ever written - underlining everything that's wrong with Palin as a VP candidate. How many more interviews with Katie Couric will it take to reveal the truth that Mrs Palin is utterly unqualified? Zakaria's piece hits the nail on the head and, together with Rebecca Traister at salon.com, and Cafferty at CNN, has perfectly outlined what's wrong with Palin as a choice. Mr McCain dares to suggest in the first debate that steps in foreign policy taken by the cool-headed and thoughtful Mr Obama would be "dangerous"? Preposterous! What's dangerous, truly dangerous is Mrs Palin potentially (a heartbeat away) becoming America's 45th president.

An insult to the people of Alaska? Sarah Palin is an embarrassment to many of us Alaskans. The righteous ridicule heaped upon her for her unblinking ignorance has tarnished the whole state, demeaning her office here and portraying this great state as a bimbo backwoods. The real insult to the state was delivered by Palin herself when she accepted the nomination.

Sarah Palin is a fraud. She was pregnant before she got married, has had an affair with one of her husband's friends, her 19 year old son is rumored to have serious drug problems, her 17 year old unwed daughter is pregnant, and she has used her political power to get even with people who disagree with her, yet all she talks about is being a "good Christian" and doing God's will. As a Christian she is a hypocrite who can not walk her talk, and as a politician she is completely unqualified to be Vice President. Her interview with Katie Couric showed her to be a woman with a disorganzied mind, a woman who is in over her head, utterly unprepared for the twist her fate has taken.

Even committed Republicans who support McCain have to ask themselves if they really would take the risk of putting our country into Palin's hands. Sure, being VP doesn't necessarily take a lot of skills, but being President requires great intelligence and a clear-eyed world view, one untainted by religious fanaticism. Look at the mess we got with the under qualified Dubya, and even he seems smarter and less fanatical than Palin. McCain is 72 years old, with high cholesterol and high blood pressure; his father and grandfather each died of heart attacks at age 72. McCain's Vice President HAS to be ready to lead. And by lead, I am not referring to a full speed charge into Armageddon.

For those of you who don't know, Palin belongs to a fundamentalist church that believes the end of the world is near: that war, financial distress and famine will kill off the sinful non-believers, and that when this holocaust occurs all good Christians will be taking refuge in Alaska. Furthermore, her church conducts witch hunts -- they actually use prayer to locate "witches" in their community, then publicly brand them as witches, and hold them responsible for everything that goes wrong in town. (Honestly, I think the long winters must be getting to their minds.) You can go on YouTube and watch videos of Palin participating during sermons like this. She stands on the altar facing the members. The congregation stands with outstretched hands, trancelike, speaking in tounges while the priest prays to "keep Sarah safe from all forms of witchcraft."

Could you REALLY feel comfortable knowing that a woman who holds these beliefs would have the power to declare war and deploy nuclear missles?

You say "Palin Is Ready? Please." What an insult to the people of Alaska. There are many who feel Governor's are better qualified than Senators to run a government because they are singularly qualified to make executive decisions based on experience. She may be better qualified than McCain whose decision making has been via committee consensus.

I keep thinking that if the Republicans had been smarter, they would have had Sarah Palin make a speech at this year's convention, much as Obama did in 2004 at the Democratic convention, then groomed her for four years, giving her chances to meet world leaders and study important issues. Then they could have nominated her in 2012 for vice president or event president. Instead they squandered her potential by nominating her way before she was ready. But then again, the way things are going they may not have much of a party in 2012.

For me, the best line in this editorial is "She has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start." Unlike any senator or the governor of states like Texas, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, Georgia, or Maryland (who have been the presidential or v.p candidates over the past 40 years), the current governor of Alaska does not have to deal with such national thorns as budget deficits, urban issues, or illegal immigration. The state only has one city with a population greater than 35,000.

As for the hope that Gov. Palin could learn on the job, there is little in her resume that would support that hope. Her unscripted remarks indicate that the power of her mind falls quite short of the power of her heart.

As for the insignificance of the vice-presidency, during an election, it is quite significant because the choice of a running mate is a serious indicator of the presidential candidate's judgment of who would be capable of carrying on under unfortunate circumstances. John McCain sincerely believes that Gov. Palin is capable of running this country after running Alaska for just 18 months after running a city with less than half the population of the average NBA arena. That's like saying that the manager of your corner drug store would be ready to run CVS.

Nowforthetruth: Here is why the vice presidency is far more important than ever. Sure every VP is a heartbeat away from the presidency but this fact is a little bit more obvious when your running mate is 72 and has battled an aggressive form of melanoma before...hey, President Bush still has some people that give him a positive approval after Iraq, Katrina, GTMO, Valerie Plame, etc, etc......Obviously some people can rationalize anything in the name of partisan politics and that ability has been in stunning display by Palin apologists.

Nowforthetruth: " And John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice President for his first two terms (1933-41), said the job wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit. (Actually, he used a cruder word than that.) "

Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to FDR's Vice President for his next two terms?

Looks like I pulled a McCain. That should be Biden's claim that he was "shot at" in the green zone in Iraq.

Its interesting, the degree of coverage this time around. Dick Cheney notwithstanding, remember what the real job is that Palin and Biden are campaigning for. The vice presidency has been more a target for jokes and ridicule than a sought-after job. George Clinton, who became Thomas Jefferson's Vice President in 1805, called the job a "respectable retirement," after 18 years as Governor of New York. In 1848, Senator Daniel Webster turned down an offer to be Zachary Taylor's vice-presidential running mate, saying, "I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead." And John Nance Garner, Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice President for his first two terms (1933-41), said the job wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit. (Actually, he used a cruder word than that.) John Adams, the country's first Vice President, famously called it "the most insignificant office." Al Gore described the job as that of "the nation's mourner," as one of his main functions was to attend the funerals of deceased world leaders and dignitaries. And McCain correctly stated that the constitutional duties of the job were to cast votes in the Senate in the rare case of a tie and to enquire every morning as to the health of the President, a fairly accurate description. In fact, from a Constitutional perspective, the VP has no other duties or powers. You hear it said in the news all the time: people vote for the top of the ticket. The media is making more of it this time because they think it works for Obama.

As for k2c2knutson@ak.net @ 09/30/2008 11:10:42 PM, perhaps you will also ask for a story or two on Biden's relationship to the credit card industry, or his repeated instances of plagiarism, starting with an F in law school,, where he too was ranked fairly low, even without the F. In particular, lets hear about his two "Hillary" remarks, first that he was "shot at" in the green zone in Iran, and that his chopper was "forced down" in Afghanistan (he forgot to say it was because of weather.)

WOW........Jim Johnson is just ranting! From the misspelled words, the ERRATIC comments its obvious that the McCain campaign is writing this. I read in the Huffington Post that McCain's campaign has 'ghost writers' who write in to newspapers and blogs.

Jim Johnson another far-right-nut-case.

I had to become a member of this blog to make a comment on "Kervacs" the commentator says that they supported Hillary! No WAY!

A Hillary supporter could NOT SUPPORT PALIN, NOT FOR ONE SECOND!

THE REPUBLICANS ARE ON THE BLOGS WRITING UP THESE BOGUS COMMENTS ABOUT 'BEING HILLARY SUPPORTERS' BUT.......NOW VOTING MCCAIN !

SEN. OBAMA'S RESUME AND BIOGRAPHY IS AN OPEN BOOK, HE HAS MORE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE THAN PALIN BY A LONG SHOT!

IGNORANCE IS NOT AN EXCUSE!

Friends, the writing is on the wall. It's time to get behind a new Candidate for Vice President. Support Peter: http://peter-for-vice-president.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-candidacy-for-vice-presidency.html

Of course Palin is ready, she will be the first true evangelical to go to the white house.
GW Bush was a hal fassed evangelical, much too confused.

A true evangelical is never confused, they have faith and a ready explanation for those pesky facts.
Everyone knows the earth is only 12,000 years old and all those dinosaur bones were put here to test that faith.

Palin has the ability and the faith to change America.

She can fix the educational system in a heartbeat. it is after all those with higher degrees that fail the test of faith, so we simply close every educational facility above 7th grade. We only need to be competent at reading and then it's only one book. So we don't need the cost of libraries either.
With the money saved we build a hockey rink for every 5000 people in the country.

Global warming, another one of those hoax's perpetrated by the over educated, just ignore it until it is fixed by the new educational system and ultimate old age of those pesky scientists.

Oil? We have dominion over the beasts, if we make a few extinct so be it, drill baby drill we need fuel for that suburban

Health care, thats an easy one if you get sick just pray, we can send in Palin's Rev Muthee and he will rid you of witches and cure your cancer at the same time. If you die it's because you fell victim to facts. And have gone to a much better place, or a much worse place if you actually believed those facts.

The war in Iraq? It is a mission of God, and besides Iraq was responsible for 9/11 so it's both moral and justified, just stay the course.
The war in Afghanistan? It was the Iraqis did it, just pull out, but fire a few missiles at Pakistan just in case as we leave.

The economy? It has something to do with health care or jobs or something, I???ll get back to ya on that, In the mean time we???ll give bigger tax cuts to the Wealthy and the big corporations, it worked well for Bush so we???ll ???stay the course on that issue as well???

Planned parenthood? No sex education, no contraception, and certainly no abortion.

Foreign policy if we go to war with Russia so be it, God on our side

If Palin is elected it would behoove America to spend a minute in prayer, God help us Amen.