Much press regarding Palin, when not mentioning that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant, is about how she has “energizes” the Republican “base.”
“I think Sarah Palin can do a one-two punch better than Muhammad Ali,” Kansas state senator Karin Brownlee said after the speech. “And I think she delivered it just square on the opponents’ face. I think she has energized the Republican Party like we haven’t seen in a long time.”
Giving a rousing speech and being aggressive is, I guess, fun to watch. But why does the Republican Party need energizing? And why does it have to come from a vice presidential pick, instead of their candidate for the presidency? Most agree that the vice presidential pick adds very little to the popularity of the president. George Bush won, not because of Cheney, but because he is a good politician (in the winning votes sense). Either Obama or McCain will win based on who they are, not who the vice president is.
Speaking of which, I’m not very happy with Obama’s pick, but I am less so with McCain’s. This has nothing to do with Palin’s private life. This has everything to do with a presidential candidate who has a history of severe health problems choosing someone who no one in their right mind would want as the Leader of the Free World. Palin has almost zero foreign policy experience, as the Anchorage Daily News reports:
Later, when questions were raised about Palin’s lack of experience in national and international affairs, the McCain campaign pointed again to her military command experience as governor. Some reporters have tried to follow up. “Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard?” CNN journalist Campbell Brown asked Monday while interviewing McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Just one?” Bounds couldn’t, because Palin has never personally ordered the state guard to do anything.
And, in an age when overseas travel is relatively inexpensive, Palin has only been outside of the U.S. to visit four countries:
Palin has also visited one fewer country than originally acknowledged by her Alaska office. Earlier in the week, the governor’s Alaska spokeswoman was quoted as saying Palin had traveled to Iraq, Kuwait, Germany, and Ireland, McCain campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella acknowledged yesterday that Ireland was only a refueling stop on a trip in July 2007 to visit Alaskan National Guard troops in Kuwait and Iraq. Comella said today that the 2007 trip was her only foreign travel apart from visits to Canada. Comella said Palin first received a passport in 2006.
Someday Palin might make a good president, but that time is clearly not now. Heaven forbid something happens to McCain, you would have President Palin, passport issued in 2006. I realize that Obama is criticized for lack of experience, but he has traveled extensively (his last trip not included) and has had as much foreign policy experience as George Bush had in 2000 — maybe more, considering he had to make some foreign policy decisions as Senator. In a globalized world, experience abroad matters. He was also smart enough to choose someone with more foreign policy experience than McCain as VP.
The Republican base needs energizing because McCain was never a terribly attractive candidate.
As for choosing someone who no one in his right mind would want as Leader of the Free World, one only has to look at the Democratic nominee for the ticket. At least the Republicans had the good sense to put someone with minimal experience on the bottom of the ticket.
So the gauge of foreign policy experience is countries visited and how many orders given to the National Guard? That’s setting the bar pretty low. Obama’s having lived in Indonesia at age 4 isn’t foreign policy experience. Nor is his huge record of voting “present” during his short term as a senator foreign policy experience. Any moron could do that. He’s made very very few decisions when it comes to foreign policy, and when it comes to the war in Iraq, he was one of the few who voted against the surge (considered a success by most). Hence, his decision-making process, when it is there, is horribly flawed.
I myself am not wealthy enough to consider travel abroad to be “relatively inexpensive.” How many countries does the Vice Presidential candidate have to visit before the quota is reached? How long per visit? Learning to eat with chopsticks isn’t foreign policy experience. Nor is having visited the Louvre. Let’s not conflate travel with experience.
And it might be more appropriate to wait for McCain to actually die before fitting Palin for a new chair in the Oval Office. It’s a popular criticism to levy against any VP pick for McCain due to his age, but it doesn’t make it any more relevant. We don’t have Obama’s health records, just a doctor’s note. How do we know what his health is like?
Obama looks pretty fit. He plays basketball and runs and stuff quite a bit.
I think it’s pretty brave of you to point out that Obama plays basketball.
Pret-ty brave, indeed.
Joshua is so racist. Next he’ll tell us Obama enjoys eating fried chicken and waffles so that makes him qualified to oversee the Food and Drug Administration. McCain owns so many houses, he’s not sure how many there are. He’s rich, so that must mean that he is qualified to balance the country’s budget.
Actually, McCain didn’t know how many houses he owns because his wife is the rich one. She owns the houses. While I’m sure McCain is himself wealthy, it’s his wife who has the majority of the money.
Even better. We all know the wives call the shots.
HAHAHA! Just got it. She energizes “the base”!
Apparently, if I miss a comment thread, I have the possibility of being called a racist and, by my silence, show that I agree.
I am responding and do not agree.
There are many pictures of Obama playing basketball:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=obama basketball&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
In fact, in his autobiography, he says that he was a good basketball player.
I know that you don’t really think I’m a racist, but this gives me the opportunity to show the pictures of Obama playing basketball.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=obama basketball&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
All I have to say on the basketball thing is that you’re pretty brave to say it.
Brave, indeed.
It’s not something I would have said, that’s for sure.
It’s all part of my plan. I don’t visit for a while, and then pop in at opportune times to sneak in insults…if they happen to be true…that’s your problem…
Look, Obama played basketball when he was in high school. Lots of people play basketball. I’m sure even George Bush shot hoops when he was a youngster. It just so happens that there are pictures of Obama on the campaign trail playing basketball.
Look, here’s a picture of Sarah Palin playing basketball:
http://www.serendipit-e.com/photos/uncategorized/sarahheathstatebb1982.jpg
This photo does NOT engergize the base.
I admire your courage, Josh.
You just keep that up.