Is Sarah Palin fit to be Vice President of the United States

[Frong]

Anyone who watched the VP debate and still thinks Palin is stupid or nuts is either himself nuts or has such an irrational hatred for the woman that they're ignoring the reality of the matter. She came across as perfectly normal and informed, didn't say anything outrageous or ignorant, and sounded particularly intelligent when talking about matters on which she really does have personal experience, like energy policy. In short, it was the complete opposite of the sound bites from her interview with Couric. I still don't think she has enough national-level political and diplomatic experience to properly succeed the presidency yet, and yes, her comments on Alaska's proximity to Russia were nonsensical, but that's not any worse than some of the gaffes Biden has made in his career. For that matter, it doesn't make her any worse than Obama. He has next to no experience, either, and last I checked, being a good speaker only qualifies you for a career in public speaking.

I do have one gripe about Palin, though, of which I was not aware until I watched the debate: she says nukyalur like Dubya. I had to hear her say it like a dozen times in the span of two minutes when they were talking about the subject. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

[punkypower]

Yes, she read the script quite well, didn't she? I don't think she's an idiot. I just don't think she's VP material.

[Lagoon Bug]

She'd be good as a daytime talk show or cooking show host. She'd be up there with Jenny Jones and Rachel Ray. Infact I'd even mean that comment in a good way to her.

[Kevinator]

I am sure this has been mentioned in this thread at least once. We are not electing the vice president. However, McCain did have his choice of 2 or 3 other potential woman VP candidates. My guess he wanted one to have more appeal to America.

Now the real issue for me is Obama's ability to lead a country. He had never been anything more than a state senator in Illinois before he became a US Senator. This makes me nervous. He has not been a head of any organization or state government. He got his senate seat be default because the Republican candidate drop out because of a high profile divorce he was going through.

John McCain on the other hand is man of honor who was basically tortured almost to death in a Vietnam POW camp (Hanoi Hilton)for 5 plus years. He with stood numerous beatings all because he would not sign any anti-American statements for the North Vietnamese. While others gave in he didn't. He did have a chance for early release because his Dad was an Admiral but he turned it down because the North Vietnamese refused to release other prisoners in the POW camp with him. To me this is a guy who is of honor and integrity. This is a man in my opinion will not back down from a tough fight and lead through times.

[Frong]

Yes, she read the script quite well, didn't she? I don't think she's an idiot. I just don't think she's VP material.

It is true that you could easily tell when she was just repeating what she was told and when she was speaking from actual experience. Most of it was pre-coached, yeah, but whenever they touched on anything that she had to deal with as governor in Alaska, she immediately became more confident and more persuasive. While I still say McCain should probably have picked somebody with more national-level experience, she certainly isn't lacking in intelligence when it comes to things she knows first-hand.

For the record, it's not just Obama's lack of experience that worries me. As I mentioned before, his limited voting record is extremely liberal on all matters, yet he claims he can "bring people together." I fail to see how. He personally has absolutely nothing in common with the vast majority of Americans, and his policies would alienate half the government, not to mention stifle business growth and send the federal deficit through the roof. The McCain campaign has been doing a terrible job, IMO, by not pointing out the obvious fact that Obama wants to spend insane amounts of money, yet he also promises to cut taxes. Know who that sounds just like? Bush. So much for change.

[punkypower]

Okay, do you think anybody would really cut taxes for real? Of course not. Hell, we have a $700B bill to pay now. McCain is talking about a $5000 insurance credit that we would never actually see, but would be taxed on. No matter who's on office, we'll be paying taxes. It's not like anybody's going to come in and be the savior for us all.

I'm in Michigan and McCain pretty much gave up on us, which kinda tells me what kind of consideration my state would get if he were president.

[Diofan]

I'm in 110% agreement with Kevin's assessment. Obama is all hot air and no substance!

[wavemeister]

I live in close proximity to the Pacific Ocean. I've never studied marine life or ocean geography in college. But I just live near an ocean. That makes me an expert on oceans and ocean life.

Guess I know about volcanoes since I live about 75 miles from one.

I agree that this woman is just crazy. Anyone got a straight jacket for her????!!!!!

I can only tell you this: let a woman* get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up.

And believe me - I do speak of experience.

(* DISCLAIMER: of course, this is no general statement - for example, my g/f would make a very good gouvernor of our country. At least she would also take care of the 90% of citizens currently not being represented by the current administration.)

[Frong]

Palin is a different kind of woman from say, Merkel, though. Does Merkel own a bunch of firearms and probably command the loyalty of hordes of gun nuts? I have my doubts. Of course, that fact means that Palin could cause even greater insanity than Merkel ever could in a position of power.

[punkypower]

I live in close proximity to the Pacific Ocean. I've never studied marine life or ocean geography in college. But I just live near an ocean. That makes me an expert on oceans and ocean life.

Guess I know about volcanoes since I live about 75 miles from one.

I agree that this woman is just crazy. Anyone got a straight jacket for her????!!!!!

I can only tell you this: let a woman* get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up.

And believe me - I do speak of experience.

(* DISCLAIMER: of course, this is no general statement - for example, my g/f would make a very good gouvernor of our country. At least she would also take care of the 90% of citizens currently not being represented by the current administration.)

Yeah, and don't forget that when wimmins get their PMS during their lady days, they're bound to be completely over emotional and irrational! Why, it would throw this country into a tizzy! She'd probably spend all our money on shoes and purses!

So exactly what did you mean by "let a woman get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up?" Why is that because you're dissatisfied with the woman running your country, that means that most women would mess it up too? I know plenty of men in politics who eff stuff up all the time and nobody says "yeah, but a MAN in office and see how they screw it up."

[punkypower]

I am sure this has been mentioned in this thread at least once. We are not electing the vice president. However, McCain did have his choice of 2 or 3 other potential woman VP candidates. My guess he wanted one to have more appeal to America.

Now the real issue for me is Obama's ability to lead a country. He had never been anything more than a state senator in Illinois before he became a US Senator. This makes me nervous. He has not been a head of any organization or state government. He got his senate seat be default because the Republican candidate drop out because of a high profile divorce he was going through.

John McCain on the other hand is man of honor who was basically tortured almost to death in a Vietnam POW camp (Hanoi Hilton)for 5 plus years. He with stood numerous beatings all because he would not sign any anti-American statements for the North Vietnamese. While others gave in he didn't. He did have a chance for early release because his Dad was an Admiral but he turned it down because the North Vietnamese refused to release other prisoners in the POW camp with him. To me this is a guy who is of honor and integrity. This is a man in my opinion will not back down from a tough fight and lead through times.

So, being in prison and not being a snitch makes you presidential material? If that's the case, there are thousands of people in the finest of state prisons who would qualify.

I'm still waiting for somebody to tell me all the fantastic things our "experienced" government people have done for us lately. Everybody talks about Obama's inexperience, but nobody can speak to the evidence that lots of years in office equals awesome choice for president.

I realize this is on a much smaller scale, but I just want to make a point: When I was hired at my current job right out of college, I didn't have a lot of experience and some people didn't think I could do the job. Since then, I've been given lots of extra projects because my boss respects my ability and trusts me to get things done. I successfully secured over a million dollars in grant money, created policies and procedures, streamlined how we do a lot of things within the organization, revamped systems so that we're working smarter (not harder), been selected by the CEO to represent the organization at national conferences, been invited to be a presenter at several conferences, and I'm being considered for a big promotion that would almost double my salary. I've been commended repeatedly by our CEO, my immediate supervisor, our grantee and the federal government itself for the quality of my work. I've also received awards for leadership and staff of the year within the last couple years. Sometimes you gotta take a chance on people.

[wavemeister]

I can only tell you this: let a woman* get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up.

And believe me - I do speak of experience.

(* DISCLAIMER: of course, this is no general statement - for example, my g/f would make a very good gouvernor of our country. At least she would also take care of the 90% of citizens currently not being represented by the current administration.)

Yeah, and don't forget that when wimmins get their PMS during their lady days, they're bound to be completely over emotional and irrational! Why, it would throw this country into a tizzy! She'd probably spend all our money on shoes and purses!

That would be still better than sending soldiers into a country "to defend the homeland" (I'm speaking of Afghanistan and the Bundeswehr) with insufficient training and equipment to be attacked without the chance of adequate response...okay, this decision was initially conceived by men, but I didn't heard the women voicing any opposition. Probably because it's not their own sons and daughters in the dirt...

So exactly what did you mean by "let a woman get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up?" Why is that because you're dissatisfied with the woman running your country, that means that most women would mess it up too? I know plenty of men in politics who eff stuff up all the time and nobody says "yeah, but a MAN in office and see how they screw it up."

I hope that you had read my disclaimer.

Maybe it is just Germany, but if you see the "efforts" of female politicians, you can't help thinking - regardless of the gender - that they do some extra work to screw things up really good. We have a female Minister of Health who has absolutely not the slightest inkling of what she's supposed to do, just to name one of the many examples, and even our former local town mayor had almost rushed our town into multi-millions of additional debts by her vision of her own "commemorational swimming-pool" while the paint is peeling of the walls at our schools.
My guess is that most women in politics are either misused as "trophy wives", or they are that kind of bitch that they should never be ranking higher than cleaning women if there would be something like universal justice. The same appliees to men, of course - I'm definitely not a misogynist, on the contrary.

And don't make me start about Maggie Thatcher. Not German but one of the most incompetent female politicians in post-war history. The UK never recovered from her "administration" until today. Like I said...extra works.

[punkypower]

I can only tell you this: let a woman* get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up.

And believe me - I do speak of experience.

(* DISCLAIMER: of course, this is no general statement - for example, my g/f would make a very good gouvernor of our country. At least she would also take care of the 90% of citizens currently not being represented by the current administration.)

Yeah, and don't forget that when wimmins get their PMS during their lady days, they're bound to be completely over emotional and irrational! Why, it would throw this country into a tizzy! She'd probably spend all our money on shoes and purses!

That would be still better than sending soldiers into a country "to defend the homeland" (I'm speaking of Afghanistan and the Bundeswehr) with insufficient training and equipment to be attacked without the chance of adequate response...okay, this decision was initially conceived by men, but I didn't heard the women voicing any opposition. Probably because it's not their own sons and daughters in the dirt...

So exactly what did you mean by "let a woman get a grip on political power and see how your country's getting even more screwed up?" Why is that because you're dissatisfied with the woman running your country, that means that most women would mess it up too? I know plenty of men in politics who eff stuff up all the time and nobody says "yeah, but a MAN in office and see how they screw it up."

I hope that you had read my disclaimer.

Maybe it is just Germany, but if you see the "efforts" of female politicians, you can't help thinking - regardless of the gender - that they do some extra work to screw things up really good. We have a female Minister of Health who has absolutely not the slightest inkling of what she's supposed to do, just to name one of the many examples, and even our former local town mayor had almost rushed our town into multi-millions of additional debts by her vision of her own "commemorational swimming-pool" while the paint is peeling of the walls at our schools.
My guess is that most women in politics are either misused as "trophy wives", or they are that kind of bitch that they should never be ranking higher than cleaning women if there would be something like universal justice. The same appliees to men, of course - I'm definitely not a misogynist, on the contrary.

And don't make me start about Maggie Thatcher. Not German but one of the most incompetent female politicians in post-war history. The UK never recovered from her "administration" until today. Like I said...extra works.

I just assume that anybody in politics is out for their own agenda - not because they really care about their constituents. And for some reason, being in politics makes you lose your friggin' mind and things always end up 1000 times more complicated and difficult than they really need to be. That's why it doesn't matter to me how much experience people have because things wind up all messed up no matter who is in office.

[wavemeister]

Another example of her lack of common sense: She built an indoors sports complex on land that didn't belong to the city and ended up costing a fortune in litigations. Wasilla -a small town with a small budget -ended up having to shell out an extra $1.3 million. She should have done her homework and secured that land before they started construction!

She is not by chance related to our former town mayor?

She's a phoney, power hungry hypocrite.

At least she's showing her intentions openly...our dearest Ms.Federal Chancellor always acted secretly in her ways of grabbing more and more power (for example, by stabbing her political mentor in the back). And then, when she was supposed to act, she did nothing (except for travelling around the world while the home roof was on fire).

I really do wish that the people would finally wake up and see that the overwhelming percentage of politicians are only devoted to their own agendas (being fueled/financed by the minor percentage of those they actually represent), but I guess that it's more likely that Papua New Guinea is becoming the next Football World Champion (currently ranking at #200 of the FIFA World Rankings, representing the last place).

Hooray for idiocracy.

[Diabolique]

Like I said before, Brian...I am not interested in getting into a heated debate over my views. I haven't criticized your opinions even though there are many MANY things i don't agree with, but I've respected you. I expect the same in return.

I made a post about MY views...but I won't add more to this discussion because I can just see this thread turning into an ugly battle I am not interested in being a part of.

I've left this thread open so that everyone could state their views about PALIN and hope that it'll stay that way.