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Psst. Sarah Palin is the next Harriet Miers. Pass it on....Please read my 10
hilarious articles on Sarah Palin at mybarackobama.com; Wasilla Alaska
photo: http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/wasilla.jpg
The most ludicrous choice possible for McCain-Must-Be-Losing-his-Marbles at
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/stephenfox
[the Harriet Miers connection is an original thought but apparently Art
Levine at Huffington Post got it published there earlier today, so hats off
to Art! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/sarah-palin-the-new-
harri_b_122582.html]
Your comments are always most welcome; this choice spells doom for
Republicans....Not only will this choice pave the way for Obama, but it will
help across the entire ticket, especially in the Senate Races and regaining
a filibuster-proof majority of 60!
Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor Santa Fe Sun News
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Scholars question Palin credentials David Mark, Fred Barbash
Sat Aug 30, 12:24 PM ET
John McCain was aiming to make history with his pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin, and historians say he succeeded.
Presidential scholars say she appears to be the least experienced, least
credentialed person to join a major-party ticket in the modern era.
So unconventional was McCain’s choice that it left students of the
presidency literally “stunned,” in the words of Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis
University law professor and scholar of the vice presidency. “Being governor
of a small state for less than two years is not consistent with the normal
criteria for determining who’s of presidential caliber,” said Goldstein.
“I think she is the most inexperienced person on a major party ticket in
modern history,” said presidential historian Matthew Dallek.
That includes Spiro T. Agnew, Richard Nixon’s first vice president, who was
governor of a medium-sized state, Maryland, for two years, and before that,
executive of suburban Baltimore County, the expansive jurisdiction that
borders and exceeds in population the city of Baltimore.
It also includes George H.W. Bush’s vice president, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle,
who had served in the House and Senate for 12 years before taking office.
And it also includes New York Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, who served three terms
in the House before Walter Mondale chose her in 1984 as the first woman
candidate on a major party ticket.
“It would be one thing if she had only been governor for a year and a half,
but prior to that she had not had major experience in public life,” said
Dallek of Palin. “The fact that he would have to go to somebody who is
clearly unqualified to be president makes Obama look like an elder
statesman.”
And Alaska is a much smaller state than Illinois, the political base of
Barack Obama, whom Republicans have repeatedly criticized for being
inexperienced, having served nearly four years in the U.S. Senate after
eight in the Illinois state Senate.
“Not to belittle Alaska, but it’s different than the basket of issues you
deal with in big, dynamic states.” Dallek said.
Palin has no experience in national office. Before becoming governor in
December 2006, she served as a council member and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska,
which had a population of slightly more than 5,000 during her time in office.
Brad Blakeman, who ran the 1988 Republican convention for GOP nominee George
H.W. Bush, turned the experience question on its head, suggesting
accomplishments in office mean more than time accrued.
“Here’s a governor who may have served two years, but her accomplishments
are worth eight,” said Blakeman, citing Palin's work as governor on ethics
reform and an Alaska oil pipeline. “She’s got as much experience for being
vice president as Barack does to be president.”
But other students of presidential history said that In choosing Palin as
his running mate, McCain has reached back to a time when few actually
seriously contended that the vice president should be demonstrably prepared
to assume the presidency from day one.
If elected vice president, Palin would appear to have the least amount of
experience in federal office or as a governor since John W. Kern, Democrat
William Jennings Bryan’s 1908 running mate, who had served for four years in
the Indiana state Senate and then four more as city solicitor of
Indianapolis. The Democratic ticket lost to Republican standard bearer
William Howard Taft and running mate James S. Sherman by an Electoral
College spread of 321-162.
More conventionally in modern times, running mates could boast decades of
experience in Washington, from ballot box winners like Dick Cheney, Al Gore,
the elder Bush and Mondale to also-rans such as Jack Kemp, Lloyd Bentsen and
Joseph I. Lieberman.
These super-credentialed candidates were sometimes chosen, like Joe Biden,
to shore up the resumes of candidates with little or no time in Washington,
such as Jimmy Carter (Mondale) Bill Clinton (Gore) and Michael Dukakis
(Bentsen.)
Palin, on the other hand, is a total “wild card,” said Stanford historian
David Kennedy.
“If she had been around for two terms as governor — or been a senator — it
would have been an incredible choice,” said historian Doris Kearns
Goodwin. “Who else could he have found who appealed to the conservative base
… and as someone who was a reformer?”
That’s not to say Palin will be a dud on the campaign trail.
But out-of-the-box picks in recent years have not usually worked out too
well for the top of the ticket. Consider independent candidate Ross Perot’s
1992 running mate, former Navy Adm. James Stockdale, who famously asked at
the vice presidential debate with Gore and Quayle, “Who am I, why am I
here?”
“He took the wind out of Perot’s sails, and Perot could have done even
better” than the 19 percent he garnered, Dallek said.
A bad running mate pick can even put a successful presidential ticket in
question. The 1988 Bush-Quayle victory over Dukakis and Bentsen came in
spite of Quayle’s frequent campaign trail gaffes and questions about his
military service in the Vietnam era and other controversies. Bush handlers
largely relegated Quayle to small town audiences that would attract little
media attention.
“Quayle — it threw off the momentum for some weeks,” said Goodwin. “One has
to hope for McCain’s sake that [Palin] has been fully vetted.”
“The first thing that hits me,” said Stephen Hess of the Brookings
Institution," is that it suggests that John McCain is a gambler. This is a
high roller decision.”
“The next thing you have to ask yourself: Is it worrisome to have a gambler
in the Oval Office? That’s an important question," he said, “perhaps more
important than anything else today.”
Update: After reading this article, the McCain campaign issued the
following statement: "The authors quote four scholars attacking Gov. Palin's
fitness for the office of Vice President. Among them, David Kennedy is a
maxed out Obama donor, Joel Goldstein is also an Obama donor, and Doris
Kearns Goodwin has donated exclusively to Democrats this cycle. Finally,
Matthew Dallek is a former speech writer for Dick Gephardt. This is not a
story about scholars questioning Governor Palin's credentials so much as
partisan Democrats who would find a reason to disqualify or discount any
nominee put forward by Senator McCain."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/13001&printer=1;_ylt=Avq83MozM5d4dJRN9ga7O.v
Cw5R4
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