Here's a Time article on how the Obama campaign plans to deal with Sarah. I was struck by the very first graf.
Nobody was more surprised by John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate than the people who run Barack Obama's campaign. "I can honestly say that we weren't prepared for that," says David Axelrod, Obama's top strategist. "I mean, her name wasn't on anybody's list. It was a surprise to a lot of Republicans as well."
Well, why weren't they prepared for it? A lot of the non-left blogs have been speculating about her for months. Rush reportedly was talking her up months ago, and there have been threads at Free Republic about her. She had come to Arizona to visit McCain's house there. It was no big intellectual challenge to figure out that she was on the list, if not the short one.
Is this kind of intelligence cluelessness the way they plan to run the country?
Well, why weren't they prepared for it? A lot of the non-left blogs have been speculating about her for months.
They probably don't read anything outside their own circles.
Much like all the government officials after 9/11 who went around saying, "No one ever imaged a civilian airliner being used as a weapon" -- despite the fact that Tom Clancy had written a bestseller about it.
But everyone laughed at Dan Quayle for quoting a Clancy novel.
I can't find it now, but I was pretty sure that in the days prior to Palin's pick I had even seen an MSM article which described McCain's shortlist as consisting of Pawlenty, Lieberman, Ridge, Romney, and Palin.
Maybe they weren't prepared for it because she's manifestly unqualified for the job.
Mayor of a 7,000 population village, and governor of a small population state for just 15 months -- with a legislature that meets for how many days out of the year? Sounds like they just over-estimated the wisdom Maverick McCain.
DaP,
I get the impression that you think you'd have to be clairvoyant to predict a strategy of energizing the base and getting your opponent talking about the area where he's weakest (experience).
Misunderestimating your opponents has been such a successful strategy for you guys. I am honestly happy to see that you're proud of it - that you think it's an expression of intelligence.
Please, keep it up!
It's like Barak woke up with a moose head in his bed......
DaP: You're right. We weren't as surprised, though, that your team would run someone with even LESS experience, ties with organized crime, and an unrepentant terrorist as a BFF. It's kind of what we expect of you, after all.
Yeah Joe, you got us right where you want us. Man, we're really sweating bullets now. Good thing we've got two weeks of Palin not talking to the press while she tries to actually learn something about foreign policy and national politics.
Hey Bland Simberg, thanks for changing my name to Desperate And Panicked. Projecting just a little, don't ya think? November's gonna be a ton of fun.
Palin has more relevant experience than Obama and Palin's experience is an issue?
Obama and Biden have more experience shoveling pork to their associates. Is that the change we can believe in?
I think Palin would have taken them by surprise anyway even if she was on someone's list. Given how fast the mudslinging started, they seemed very prepared in some ways.
"Is this kind of intelligence cluelessness the way they plan to run the country?"
Well, yeah.
I love all the foreign policy nonsense. Palin comes from the ONLY state to border two foreign countries. One of whom is currently reasserting itself as a pain in our asses after a seemingly short hiatus. Not to mention, she helped run a business fishing in contested waters, alongside Russia's old Soviet era trawlers and their military escorts.
Obama thinks fish comes from a 4 Star Restaurant kitchen.
She has more time seeking working agreements with Canadian Officials and Canadian businesses than Obama has in the Senate. She's not a D.C. insider, she owes nothing to anyone already there, she's been a reformer and a corruption buster, she's a whistle blower and she not only supports gun rights, she herself hunts and eats the kill!!
In short, they've gone after her because she scares them shitless.
Dinsdale and other wish to talk about experience,
I don't know what motivates you. It may be panic. The manic nature of the discourse, the attacks on children and the fact that you insist on discussing experience while you have to pad Obama's resume with his "Editor of the Havard Law Review" type experience makes panic a possibility (BTW, what grade did he get for his fourth grade science project on "The Volcano?"). Another possibility is that you put aside your volumes of Chomsky long enough to derive a "lack-of-experience" based attack using only deductive logic and the axioms of Obamatics. Perhaps the commandments of the Religion of the One lead you to believe that raising experience will cause the immolation unbelievers in a pillar of Secular Fire.
Perhaps it's a Wiccan spell.
I'd like you to know that - and this is from the bottom of my heart - I don't give a shit what motivates you. I just want you to keep it up. Be sure to do it in the presence of undecided voters.
If you must do it on blogs like this then, please, forgive the ridicule. It's cruel I admit. I'm pretty sure you can't help yourselves and it's like making fun of someone with a handicap. But until you're able to stop, all I ask is that you be sure to do it in front of people who are on the fence. You'll be doing the country a service.
And be condescending about it.
Regarding Senator Dan Quayle's famous defense of the ASAT program, "But that is how we win the war", referring of course to Clancy's "Red Storm Rising."
On the subject of the ASAT weapon system, some recent time ago, there were these Air National Guard recruiting billboards showing an F-15 with the caption, "Dual exhaust, fully loaded" as an inducement to sign up.
But the F-15 in the billboard was one odd bird. It had this odd looking missile munition on a centerline hardpoint, and it had what looked like a Star Trek inspired graphic on the tail as the squadron insignia.
Was this the ASAT -- you know, the F-15 that was supposed to enter a zoom climb under ground radar guidance, launch a suborbital "popup" missile that would have a collision with a satellite in a low orbit? Was that ever deployed, or was it removed by treaty or by budget cut? If it ever was deployed, was it ever part of an ANG squadron, or are the ANG recruiters funning young recruits that they would ever operate that thing?
As far as a National Guard unit having some major weapon system, there was a time in our nation's history when National Guard units on U.S. soil were armed with tactical nuclear munitions. The Army Nike Hercules, with a base in Northbrook, Illinois had a nuclear warhead, and there was a time when Madison, Wisconsin had an ANG F-106 squadron, and while no one talks about the day when Madison had a nuclear arsenal, the mission of the F-106 pilot was to fly out over Canada, connect the aircraft autopilot to the SAGE GCI computer, launch a Genie tactical missile in the direction of an approaching bomber, and execute a tight turn back to Madison to get out of the way of the blast.
Was this the ASAT -- you know, the F-15 that was supposed to enter a zoom climb under ground radar guidance, launch a suborbital "popup" missile that would have a collision with a satellite in a low orbit? Was that ever deployed, or was it removed by treaty or by budget cut?
It was deployed briefly with the 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron aka Green Dragons.
It was not removed by treaty. There is no treaty to ban ASATs, and if there were NASA would have to stop flying the Shuttle because the Soviets considered the Shuttle an ASAT weapon. Quite correctly, too, since any system that can rendezvous with an uncooperative target has de facto ASAT capabilities.
There is a model kit available on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Only-1-in-eBay-Hasegawa-1-48-F-15A-Eagle-ASAT-Hi-Grade_W0QQitemZ380060310630QQihZ025QQcategoryZ50297QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Yeah right Steve.
Are you referring to this Sarah Palin?
[comment snipped as spam by proprieter--repeat of other desperate anti-Palin comment]
I can't believe people keep citing Alaska's position between Russia and Canada as *the* example of Governor Palin's foreign policy experience.
Imagine you walked up to any US governor and asked a question which any US president needs to be able to answer:
"If President Zardari can't control the ISI, what policies can the United States undertake which might help?"
Most governors would a) not know what country you are talking about; b) not understand what the relationship between Zardari and the ISI; and c) almost certainly not have anything thoughtful to say about United States policy.
On the other hand, all US Senators ought to be able to identify the country in question and understand, at least to some extent, why Zardari might being having trouble right now. Most still won't have a good answer about US Policy, but hopefully they were already trying to formulate an answer before the question was even asked.
Former Gov. Ridge, thought to be a possible VP pick by McCain, might actually have something interesting to say about the question. Unfortunately, he wasn't picked. Gov. Palin might secretly be a foriegn policy buff, and might have lots to say too. Given what we've heard from her so far, this seems extremely unlikely. Also, the McCain camp would have trumpeted her foreign policy knowledge if Palin had any. I think she would have nothing worthwhile to say if you asked her such a question, and I'd like to hear from anyone who thinks otherwise on why they disagree.
Senator Obama would certainly be able to answer the question about Zardari. He might even draw on lessons he learned about the cultures of Pakistan from his visit to a friend's family there as a young man. Senators Biden and McCain would almost certainly have thoughtful answers to the question as well.
Being able to answer this kind of question doesn't demonstrate that one has the foreign policy experience needed to be the president of the United States. But if it is laughable to even imagine a particular politician answering such a question, the politician isn't qualified. And the issue for us is to wonder why McCain felt it was ok to pick someone unqualified for the Presidency to be the Vice Presidential nominee.
> And the issue for us is to wonder why McCain felt it was ok to pick someone unqualified for the Presidency to be the Vice Presidential nominee.
It's less of an issue than the fact that the Dems picked someone unqualified to be their Presidential nominee.
As Biden pointed out, the presidency doesn't lend itself to on the job training and Obama isn't ready. On the other hand, the vice presidency does lend itself to on the job training for the presidency.
Obama's only real accomplishment is not making too many gaffes while David Axelrod got the MSM to turn on Sen. Clinton.
Meanwhile, Palin is running a state.
> On the other hand, all US Senators ought to be able to identify the country in question and understand
Is there any reason to believe that Obama can? He chairs a subcommittee with jurisdiction over Georgia, for example, and didn't bother to even have a meeting.
Andy Freeman asks:
Is there any reason to believe that Obama can?
Yes. Read the transcript of the interview Senator Obama had with Fareed Zakaria in July:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/13/zakaria.obama/
When Gov. Palin can speak with nearly as much as authority as Obama did, I will be less concerned.
The interview with Zakaria also touched on the fact that Obama majored in international affairs in college.
In contrast, Palin was a journalism major. If you want to see really cutting criticism of journalism majors, look through the archives of Transterrestial Mustings! Rand has written some really witty critiques of journalism as a major, and of journalists who only study journalism in school.
If you want to see really cutting criticism of journalism majors, look through the archives of Transterrestial Mustings! Rand has written some really witty critiques of journalism as a major, and of journalists who only study journalism in school.
Heh-Heh..comes back to bite hims, doesn't it!??
Listen guys, Sarah Palin may be hot, Sarah Palin may win McCain his shot, but quit glorifying her conservatism. She is a social conservative, yes, but that's about as far as you can reach.
It's just not there. I bet the Paulites are going to see her for what she is, after they get thair current hard-on under control.
I've read it. While it's true that Obama spoke with "authority" (except that he's not actually president), that doesn't imply anything about his foreign policy expertise. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/authority)
He's well spoken but still hasn't said or done anything that distinguishes him from an empty suit. And that's being nice - his "community organizing" was basically a disaster, which is why he doesn't talk about accomplishments.
He did a press conference. The US presidency demands more than being there, aka voting "present".
Andy, I can't figure out whether you are
a) trying to prove that Obama doesn't know anything about foreign policy (or alternatively, asking me to prove that he does).
or
b) trying to prove that Obama "hasn't done anything" (or alternatively, asking me to prove that he has.)
Either way, the anti-proliferation legislation drafted by Obama and Lugar speaks to either assertion. As Rand has noted in a recent blog entry titled "Senator Obama's Legislative Accomplishments" Obama has been treated unfairly by those asserting that he has done nothing. You can also visit the following website to see an analysis of Obama's accomplishments in the Senate from 2004 to 2006: http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/10/barack_obama.html
This website, along with Rand's post, completely puts to rest the notion that Obama is an empty suit or that he hasn't done anything. He isn't, and he has.
You can quibble (incorrectly) with my choice of the word "authority", but I'm going to stick to the central point: I don't think Sarah Palin has much foreign policy knowledge. Talking about how Alaska is near Canada and Alaska is about as good as most of Palin's defenders can give, although Mike Puckett mentioned working on a fishing deal, and perhaps also a pipeline routing deal with Canada. Pipleline and fishing deals are not evidence of wide-ranging knowledge about the world, knowledge that is necessary to be US president.
Palin will do an interview with ABC News this coming week. It will be interesting to see if she can demonstrate much knowledge of the world.
But in the meantime, I've cited webpages listing some Obama's accomplishments (not that this was on-topic), and I've listed websites demonstating Obama's knowledge of the world (which was on-topic). Do you have any evidence that Palin knows anything about foreign affairs?
Palin will do an interview with ABC News this coming week. It will be interesting to see if she can demonstrate much knowledge of the world.
Are you kidding, she'll smile and give Charlie a hard-on. That's about the only thing questionable. I mean what the hell is he going to ask her? He'll probably grovel so that he isn;t accused of media bias.
The people are being fooled big-time. She is George Bush in female form. This ain't no real conservative.
A great future awaits America with Sarah Palin. Kind of like the $3000 in debt per person she racked up as mayor for her town of Wasilla in that ultimate welfare state of Alaska.
Hey for a governement that just absorbed $5 trillion in debt with Fannie and Freddie, who cares, right?
We are on a road to stupid. At least Obama clearly has the inteliigence to handle this stuff. I sincerely think McCain-Palin will be a huge mistake.
"Obama clearly has the inteliigence to handle this stuff."
Why, he's so inteliigent he gets 2 i's instead of one.
Yes, Obama clearly has the ability to untie his tongue, gaffe after gaffe.
> Either way, the anti-proliferation legislation drafted by Obama and Lugar speaks to either assertion.
No, it doesn't. Lugar was pushing it before Obama's senate tenure.
As Obama said, freshmen senators, especially from the majority party, are thrown bones so they can look good. This is an example.
While that legislation is obviously a good thing, it's not much of an accomplishment because there really wasn't any opposition.
Once again, Obama is taking credit for the sun rising because he happened to see it.
Palin has struck deals with foreign countries. Meanwhile Obama can't even handle questions from Stephanapolus. Iran and Putin will eat him alive. (Yes, Putin scammed Bush. Obama is even more credulous.)