That popular touch: Palin vs. Obama
Back in June, Barack Obama was seen as much more qualified than Sarah Palin for the presidency, if this Rasmussen poll of likely voters is any guide. Fifty-one percent considered him qualified, but only twenty-six percent said the same of her.
That’s quite a difference, although you may not agree with it and you may not like it. Personally, I don’t think either of them is especially qualified, although I think Palin has more qualifications for the job than Obama due to her previous executive experience.
Nor do I think Hillary Clinton is particularly qualified for the office she so covets, despite the fact that she beat them both on that score, with 57% of voters considering her qualified. Mitt Romney was the Republican closest to Obama’s rating (49%, which is within the margin of error) among the three queried about (Palin, Romney, Gingrich) by the pollsters. Although I’m not wild about him as a candidate, he does seem pretty well-qualified to me.
The poll was mum on the question of why Palin was seen to be unqualified: was it her lack of experience on the national scene, which could be remedied over time? Or was it something deeper, some perceived characterological flaw?
It was with Independents that Palin’s scores were especially telling on the dimension of qualifications: two to one of Independent respondents said Palin is unqualified, and it’s Independents who usually swing elections. But even Republicans were only equally split on the matter, while Democrats were very strongly in the “Palin-unqualified” camp.
A new Rasmussen poll presents an interesting contrast, although one that is not necessarily in opposition to the June poll results. The question was a different one: “Who’s [sic—Rasmussen, for shame!] views are closer to your own”¦Barack Obama’s or Sarah Palin’s?” Fifty-two percent said Palin versus forty percent for Obama. What’s more, Palin showed strength among Independents on this question, with 59% answering that her views were more like theirs than the President’s are.
I can only conclude that, so far, it seems that people like Palin (unless those people happen to be Democrats) and think that she represents their viewpoints quite well. She’s a populist with the common touch—unlike elitist Obama, who seems to have never had one.
But that’s not the same thing as wanting to vote for her over him if it came to a showdown. Her strength at the moment still appears to be as spokesman (woman?), rallier, gadfly, thorn in Obama’s side, and candidate-endorser. And at those things she’s doing very well indeed.
When the media shouts in your ear 24/7 that someone is unqualified, that;s the first answer you are going to get.
Once people see that she is not, that answer will no longer qualify.
Mike Mc.: the question is if and when that will happen.
But that’s not the same thing as wanting to vote for her over him if it came to a showdown.
After nearly TWO years of experience of Obama and his administration, will somebody PLEASE explain to me just what he has accomplished to even allow that to remain a question?
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One way to look at the poll results on Palin during the election cycle of 2008 is to consider whether the poll numbers were a result of voters seeing something in her they distrusted regarding experience levels, or were the polls the result of a smear campaign the media – from the news organizations down to Tina Fey – inflicted upon her reputation?
If the former, then one could conclude that Palin has rehabilitated her reputation.
That could be the case, but it means she’s a fast learner and not the slow witted individual we had portrayed to us in the media.
Evidence supporting this is the fact she’s gone from a dim-wit who couldn’t speak clearly to a king-maker in the republican party in the space of less than 2 years.
That’s quite a leap for someone who was supposed to be rather un-intelligent.
The other possibility is that the image portrayed of her was never really based in reality, and was nothing more than a hit job on her reputation and now the true Palin colors are showing – and sending the lefties into fits as they realize just what they have unleashed.
I recall some sort of saying about how you never try to wound a king, you either kill them or leave them alone.
In the case of Sarah Palin, the media foolishly was content to simply wound her and then leave for juicier targets after the perceived danger to their chosen candidate was over.
At any rate, if the latter possibility, her reputation would improve as the media spotlight shifted to other things after the elections.
The day-in/day-out attacks on her intelligence abated as the media stopped seeing her as a threat, and she began to control her image in the public in her own manner rather than in the manner a bunch of political handlers for a RINO insisted for her.
If this is the case, then the public has had a chance to re-familiarize themselves with Sarah Palin, and may be coming to the conclusion that she was judged too harshly the first time around.
Sarah is very likable as a populist, but she does not have a sufficient mix of education. experience, and gravitas to be a serious presidential candidate. Hillary had it for a short time, and has since lost it. Honduras was her tell. Of course a stuffed cabbage could probably win over Obama if the elections were held today.
I noted before, Ms.Palin is shrewd to the point of being Machiavellian. Perhaps a third world populist could understand her better; their credo is “which way is the mop going because I am its leader”. A true phenomena; and far more deserving of respect than the flim-flam man now serving as President.
BTW, I would like to know the results of a Palin versus Obama match up. Also an Obama versus a dead parakeet match. I figure he would lose decisively in either race.
Remember the oil spill in the Gulf? Remember how clumsy and inexperienced the administration looked while dealing with it?
According to her book, “Going Rogue” Sarah Palin spent an enormous amount of time as governor dealing with the oil industry in Alaska.
She says every Alaskan was affected by the Exxon Valdez accident.
She reformed the way it did business. And she paid a lot of attention to establishing safeguards to protect the environment. She goes into great detail about it.
So remind me again who is more experienced?
I am much less interested in a person’s qualifications for high office than I am the disqualifications.
Take Poppy Bush; exremely qualified:
Congressman, CFR director, UN Ambassador, CIA head, VP. Yet he did not take Bahgdad and Saddam, let many tens of thousands of Kurds and Shias die, made Iraq II necessary. And so on. Extremely qualified, yes. An extremely competent POTUS, No.
For the obvious disqualifications, do I need to cite examples? Clinton? How about Castle voting for Cap-and-Tax (er, -Trade)?
How about Truman as VP or POTUS? Qualified? No. Did a good job? Yes, by most accounts.
And the obvious Baraq, with his incredibly obvious disqualifications.
Principles matter more than qualifications. Disqualifications matter more than qualifications.
Bob from Virginia: When I was writing this post, I looked up a bunch of Obama vs. Palin polls where people were asked who they would vote for in a matchup between them. I couldn’t find a really recent one, but up until a couple of months ago Obama led all of them by a significant amount. Unless something has changed very recently, that may still be the case.
Tom is right about principles.
By definition, a leader takes care of the most difficult issues, some of which are not anticipated.
Those which are anticipated are dealt with by those in place whose jobs are devoted to taking care of stuff that happens from time to time.
It is said that Frederick the Great had a mule he rode on forty campaigns. Didn’t see the mule having a seat at staff meetings.
Principles are how we determine who will be most likely to handle that which is new and unknown at the time of the vote.
Her strength at the moment still appears….
as what they want it to be, as long as its not the right image for success… so they will, as they have been doing, hammer, her and others.
today i saw an add with a swastika on ny times website,and it led to a report that shows the parallels to the anti socialist tea party and the socialist nazis and the nuclear war that the document is preventing.
however, as a summary of how the left sees wwii, its great…
as it directly and very closely parallels the competition between hitler and stalin over warm bodies…
I have a nephew who absolutely despises Palin. He’s all of 13 years old. Obviously, he gets his opinions from the media– he’s just wants to be cool. Most people, unfortunately, operate on about the same level. Hilary was thought a leader because she’s been on people’s TV screens for 20 years, and treated respectfully by the talking heads. Personally, I hope Sarah uses Fox News and all the new social networking tools to get her points across. I loved how she got “death panels” into the healthcare discussion with one Facebook entry.
Neo,
Mike Mc.: the question is if and when that will happen.
I think it is already happening, big time. Palin has had quite a summer.
The only real time we’d see is if she ran. That process would make the very question of competence recede into the background as it did with Obama, until he got elected and started governing. Then we saw that he really had no competence, except in bullying things through.
The biggest thing would be more people being exposed to her. It is easy to see that she is competent in the important areas once you actually look at her and get over the accent.
At the very worst, she’d know what she does not know and have the humility to ask who did know and the rest.
That is not a big issue to me, and one she convinces enough people she’d do a good job for them, she’d be the winner. If she ran. This is because of one thing people would have no doubt – that she wants to do a good job for them and America because she loves them and America.
For the people saying Palin is incompetent, and especially the one who said she does not have sufficient “gravitas”, is it too much to ask for evidence for your assertions?
Gravitas? That strikes me as so obviously false, so clearly the opposite of the case, that I’m tempted to ask what the person can possibly mean when they say “gravitas”?
Richard Aubrey; Here is the story about Frederick the Great’s mules.
Frederick was setting up a military school to teach military theory. An officer protested by saying that only through experience could one learn the art of war.
Frederick shot back, “there are two mules in my army who have been through 40 campaigns, but they are still mules!”
Principles matter more than qualifications. Disqualifications matter more than qualifications.
Thanks, Tom. Very nicely put; I’m going to have to remember that.
BTW, I would like to know the results of a Palin versus Obama match up. Also an Obama versus a dead parakeet match. I figure he would lose decisively in either race.
Bob, I’m reminded of the joke from 1980, that the American people were voting against Carter, not for Reagan… and that if Reagan had run unopposed he would have lost. (Fortunately, we will never put that to the test, and see President Obama run unopposed…)
I like Mrs. Palin a lot, and I do think she’s grown incredibly as a resault of her baptism-by-fire in 2008. If she’s as shrewd as many people here (including me) think she is, she’ll understand that, unlike Hillary et al, she has plenty of time to run for President; she’s 17 years younger than Hillary, for example. She’s far more valuable right now as a kingmaker. (I also don’t think she’s consumed by ambition to become our first female President, as Hillary seems to be. If personal glory and credentializing were important to her, she’d have stuck it out as governor of Alaska.)
Mind you, if she became the Republican nominee in 2012, I’d vote for her in a heartbeat.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Neo: I hope other Palin fans take into account that she would lose to Obama in a match, regrettably I fear it will take defeat in Nevada and Delaware for reality to sink in.
Nicely put Dan in B., and accurate about the 1980 election.
Stark, are you saying obama does have those qualities? I would say she beats him on all of the above. What exactly has his gold plated ivy league education gotten us so far?
This may sound snarky but I don’t intend it to be.
Is it even possible to be “qualified” to be president now? Government has become so pervasive and the duties so comprehensive that no one person has the skill set or experience required.
Perhaps the best we can hope for is someone that can appoint an effective team of advisers and then have the good sense to listen to them carefully before making a decision. More than anything else that requires a basic knowledge of our history and an ability to understand our culture. It also requires an ability to talk to the American people so they feel some confidence that you know where this country is and where it needs to go.
Those were Reagan’s strengths. And that is why he was so very effective.
It’s more than just a matter of experience. I agree that Palin has more experience than Obama and Hillary Clinton as the result of her stint in Alaskan executive positions (mayor, governor).
In my mind the real question is how rapidly and willing is the candidate to learn? The only candidate who can come to the presidency with the requisite experience is someone who is running for his/her second term. Everyone else is a neophyte.
Obama has clearly demonstrated that he can not learn or does not have the willingness to learn. He repeats the same mistakes over and over because IMHO he is an ideologue. Palin, on the other hand, may be a diamond in the rough. She has shown an ability to respond to the political environment.
Granted she has tapped into a decisive public will, and she currently has the benefit of a nemesis in Barck Obama. This, I think, makes it easier for her to stand out. By contrast, realize that Obama has not shown the ability to tap into Sarah Palin as his nemesis; instead, he chose Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and John Boehner.
roc scrrcs gets it. Media from day one has turned the gullible away from Palin purely on the notion that in step fashionable thought requires media approval. Or else risk the pop culture ridicule machine. Many people can’t handle ridicule from appearing out of fashion.
kaba: the ability to pick good people and know what to delegate to them is a qualification in and of itself.
Mind you, if she became the Republican nominee in 2012, I’d vote for her in a heartbeat.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Daniel, I think you’re more correct than you know – I’ll wager that our fellow Bay Staters will side with her in 2012, much like we twice sided with the Gipper long, long ago.
I think that it is far less complicated than what is being portrayed. Palin’s political theory lies with the Founders. If you believe in the Founder’s legacy, then you are likely to be on Sarah’s bandwagon.
We are witness to the most thorough vetting of a presidential candidate in American history. From the day she was introduced to the rest of America (aficionados of Palin already knew her well) she was descended upon like chum in a school of sharks. All that can said negatively about her are, in fact, lies and distortions of the Saturday Night Live caricature created by Tina Fey.
I am confident that Palin will continue to grow as a potential candidate in her Baptism-by-Fire, resulting in her election in 2012.
And thank the Lord for that. We will most certainly need a champion of American Exceptionalism once The Won has finished with us.
You made my point neo. Judging by the number of primary winners Palin has selected she would appear to be fairly adept at picking the “right” people.
At this point, we need a POTUS who won’t do anything. Speaking of domestically, and with a bit of rhetorical flourish.
I agree with kaba and neo’s latest comment.
It’s not necessary for a President to have the highest IQ in the land, or a law degree from an Ivy League school. They merely need to have good values and instincts, and pick good advisers.
I’m not sure I even understand the discussion of who is “qualified” to be President. I don’t know how to go about determining who is “qualified”. The Constitution only lists two qualifications: you must be at least 35 years old and born in the United States. So Palin clearly qualifies; Obama…well, maybe.
I think the Framers deliberately left it open-ended, rather than compiling a list of educational qualifications, prior offices held, etc. Basically it boils down to being willing to run, and enough people being willing to vote for you. I’m sure there are plenty of qualified people who don’t want the job.
The failure of the Bush 41 & 43 Presidencies may have reduced the value of experience as far as American swing voters were concerned. Not only did they decisively put a first-trimester first-term Senator into the Oval Office, but for the first time in decades neither general-election candidate was from the executive branch of government.
The failure to date of the Obama Presidency may give those voters second thoughts about the relevance of experience.
Such second thoughts could work to Palin’s disadvantage if she runs for President without a prior stint as VP.
Gravitas for political purposes is best described as being quick witted and serious so that you project a command appearance. Visualize Winston Churchill. Sarah comes off as shrill and folksy, no match for a Putin. Obama doesn’t have it either. He is campaign preachy and can only read a teleprompter to a captive audience.
Proper education and experience develops leadership skills. A degree in marketing without significant big league experience is a weak foundation for a winning populist personality to be a success in the most demanding public job in the nation. Ivy league is not necessary, but serious intensity is a requirement. Gingrich is a better example of carrying one’s self with gravitas.
“”Sarah comes off as shrill and folksy, no match for a Putin.””
The guy who poses monthly killing an animal with his shirt off? Sarah couldn’t help but have that frauds number.
Yup SteveH, you pretty much have it. Putin could show one of his pictures and Sarah could respond with a picture of herself dressing a moose with Trig strapped to her back.
One of the reasons I voted for McCain was that I really really really did not want to see the executive and legislative branches in the hands of the same party.
I am thankful that Obama is incompetent! If he were not (along with Harry Reid) we’d be in much worse shape than we are now.
Nancy Pelosi is competent, but she’s wrong (OK… evil! 🙂
Unintended results: The MSM would have been better off ignoring Sarah Palin. Half of what she is today, a potent political force, has been unintentionally manufactured by the hysteria she continues to set off in Lefty circles.
Without all the legal harassment when she went back to Alaska I suspect she would never have resigned. She decided to fight back — which she couldn’t do sitting in the Governor’s office. Fighting the bastards is a full-time job. She’s paid them back good and proper and there’s probably more payback to come.
In a certain important sense the Left in America has become institutionalized and institutions frequently find it difficult to respond creatively to new situations.
Contrast this with the spontaneously spawned, still decentralized Tea Party. Who do you buy? Who do you pay off? Who do you offer political favors to? Who do you attack to bring them down? The Tea Party has dozens, if not hundreds of ‘leaders,’ and a multitude of spokespersons.
All these extreme ‘nannystate’ tendencies of the Left, the desire to CONTROL everything, to make society over, that have been present and growing since the 60’s might partly be a manifestation of their anxiety about losing their hold on opinion.
What the MSM does by attacking Sarah Palin is nothing less than promoting her. They KNOW this, either consciously or instinctively, but they are incapable of anything else and it is blowing their minds.
I would want someone who can think and talk on their feet, from principles. Reagan was pretty good at this earlier, because he had put 20 years of effort into reading, thinking, writing, and talking from principles. Gingrich can do this; Rudy too (had his own talk show!). Looks like Christie can. You can’t do it without putting in your 10000 of reflective practice, though. A quick study can pick up the words and phrases, even do pretty good for a while, but after a while those who really understand the subject see there’s no there there.
A common touch or a contempt for democracy, solipsism of the masses. I’m beginning to feel like to many Tea Partiers would put Christian values above classical American values. I think Conservatives will do well in November but not a well as they could have.
OMG
You certainly have your “button” Nyom. It’s protrudes so far that almost everybody touches it.
In fact, quite the contrary. Either is nigh unto disqualifying, in my book.
It’s alright it’s OK, I’m just one little person.
Occam
Certainly, the Ivies we’ve had in office have not burnished the brand.
Stark,
Gravitas for political purposes is best described as being quick witted and serious so that you project a command appearance. Visualize Winston Churchill. Sarah comes off as shrill and folksy, no match for a Putin…
Proper education and experience develops leadership skills. A degree in marketing without significant big league experience is a weak foundation for a winning populist personality to be a success in the most demanding public job in the nation. Ivy league is not necessary, but serious intensity is a requirement. Gingrich is a better example of carrying one’s self with gravitas.
Sorry. That is shallow.
How can a shallow person talk about the “gravitas” or lack thereof of someone else?
You are describing a movie you saw once. You are buying into a NYT view of what it is to be educated and a leader.
You are going on accent, and presuming that you ear, and Putin’s are the same.
gravitas is as gravitas does.
Palin has it truly more than any other major political figure on the scene right now, especially over the males of either party.
Most people see this, and that is why she is hugely popular. Sorry man. You need to adjust your thinking on what is deep and what ‘aint.
“Proper education” is that which has no stain of the Ivy League. I taught in the Ivy League, and without extremely thorough and skeptical vetting wouldn’t trust any of the students there to give the dog his dinner.
I’ll go further. We need people who ideally did not grow up within 500 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The Northeast is a political Love Canal, a a philosophical Chernobyl. We need to leave residents of the Northeast out of the political process for a few half-lives until they no longer glow in the dark. People in the Northeast are, virtually without exception, much too provincial to be entrusted with serious national responsibility. They seem unaware of the existence of anything east of the Catskills. Ever wear Topsiders without socks? Keep moving, Bucky.
Unfortunately, all too many former residents of the Northeast have moved to California, and so sadly I include California in the same group. The Midwest (e.g., Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska) down to Texas is our best hope.
nyomythus
FEEL.. FEEL .. FEEL .. FEEL ? Are you a screaming groupie at a rock star concert? Is this the way you make decisions about politics? Why don’t you try thinking for a change?
Why don’t you use logic and information to support your point of view? In what way do “Christian values” clash with “classical American values?” That would also involve defining those values. Inquiring minds want to know.
The Tea in Tea Party stands for Taxed Enough Already. It does not stand for Theology Energizes America. I suspect some of your attitude towards the Tea Parties is that you see that some of those yucky Bible-Thumpers are in the Tea Parties, and you don’t want to be associated with those yucky Bible-Thumpers, even if those yucky Bible-Thumpers say nothing about religion while they are associated with the Tea Parties.
In what way did Sarah Palin act against the First Amendment when she was governor?
For 20 of the 28 years from 1981 to 2009, Republican Presidents who had ties to the religious right occupied the White House. Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and a Southern Baptist, occupied the White House from 1977 to 1981. In what way has the First Amendment been abrogated during this time?
Disclaimer: I have never been a churchgoer.
Yeah, what Beard said!
Well.
Mike Pence’s speech at Hillsdale College.
This is great stuff. I have to admit that I don’t know much about Pence, but he is now on my radar screen.
Still, I tremble to think of how many Americans wouldn’t even understand it. It would sail right over their heads.
Occams, I would roll in Arizona and Alaska. They also seem to be exhibiting common sense in current events. California will be repossessed by china when we default on our debt.
rickl, thanks for the link to Pence’s speech. It was remarkable, genuinely Lincolnesque . I don’t know his record but if his deeds reflect his words, and he speaks like that at the Republican convention then, as you said, he is on the radar. I am certainly going to check up on the fellow.
Rickl also wrote”I tremble to think of how many Americans wouldn’t even understand it. It would sail right over their heads.”
True, but they would all vote for Obama anyway.
“I’m beginning to feel like to many Tea Partiers would put Christian values above classical American values.”
Huh???? The Tea Party has been nearly laser-like in its focus on free market/small government values and has mostly avoided the “social issues”. That is why the Dems and the biased media have been playing up the one TP candidate with a strong socon tinge, O’Donnell, because they are trying to scare away voters who sympathize with the Tea Party but have more libertarian views on social issues.
The same thing happened with Palin – because personally she is an evangelical Christian she was falsely portrayed as a gung-ho social conservative trying to cram her beliefs down everyone’s throat even though she *vetoed* a bill that would have outlawed gay marriage in Alaska. The fact that Palin would do that even though it went against the grain of her personal beliefs shows she is far more thoughtful and sophisticated than she was given credit for being – which is exactly why that fact was largely concealed.
Aside to Gringo – thanks for the praise on the Castro thread, I wasn’t sure if everyone would get it.
I’d like to share a bit of anecdotal evidence about Palin. When she was nominated for Veep, I was taking a van ride from Nashville’s airport to Chattanooga. The driver, an Alaskan named Mike, was quite volubly enthusiastic about Sarah.
“She’s the real deal,” he declared. “She stood up to the oil companies and got us a good deal; she really went to bat for the citizens of Alaska. She’s smart, and she Means What She Says.”
He couldn’t say enough in praise of her. And he was a libertarian, basically, who’d sometimes voted for the Dems, sometimes for the Republicans.
But chiefly, he said she was a woman of her word, not a bullshitter. I like that.
I think that her unfortunate tendency to get her tongue tangled gives the impression of less native intelligence than she actually possesses. (I think in the future that neurologists will find that some people have linguistic “dyslexia” just like others have the ocular variety . . . if she really Were stupid, she wouldn’t have accomplished a fraction of what she has.)
The first thing to think of in pondering someone with twelve years at elite schools is just how much real life education they’ve missed out on or had purged from them.
Here is one Ivy League-educated humanities type who thinks Palin is A-OK. She has a lot of fight in her, and that’s what we need. Another Boudicca, with the Tea Party as the Iceni, I suppose. Boudicca came to a bad end, but not before she rocked the Empire.
Boudicca needed more allies then. Palin needs them now. Whether she becomes President anytime soon is of much less interest to me. For the moment, she is the dux bellorum, and an extremely able one.
rickl,
Here’s another thanks for the Pence link. We definitely need someone to help us see beyond the daily political battles to what we are supposed to be about. I really liked the parts about Coolidge, which I had never heard before.
Palin’s advantage is that she really wants to do what’s best for the USA, and is willing to delegate her authority to more skilled people.
Obama’s advantage is that the mainstream media is 100% in the tank for him, and never says a bad word about him unless it’s to distract people from something he’s actually doing that’s even worse.
For better or worse, the MSM is the lord and master of the USA, and every suggestion by every media authority carries the force of law in our nation, able to even suspend freedom of speech if the speech is not to their liking.
So I’d vote for Palin, but Obama would still win.
What in God’s name are HRC’s qualifications except being married to an ex-Prez? Failed and criminal Whitewater attorney, epic fail 1 on HCR in ’94, carpetbagger 1 term Senator, epic fail 2 on Dem campaign in ’08, ludicrous lies about coming under fire, human gaffe machine as Sec of State, personality of a tin can. Gravitas? Quick-witted? There’s not enough Kool-Aid in the world to swallow that nonsense.
Tatterdemalian wrote “For better or worse, the MSM is the lord and master of the USA…” . Fortunately you are wrong, the MSM has been trying to elect Democrats at least 1968 and usually failing. Their bias in 2008 was so blatant as to make them increasingly irrelevant in Bernie Goldberg’s words. Today there is the Blogosphere and Fox. The Onion had a piece a while ago describing the media’s concern on how they would spin a dual murder committed by Obama in his favor. The MSM is a mockery for anyone but the naive, hopelessly gullible and senile.
Here is a useful quote from Leon Trotsky relevant to the MSM, “to approximate the truth compare the lies.”
A few words about Pence’s speech; I have never seen Obama’s smallness as a man and president so beautifully and concisely articulated. I wonder if Pence wrote that speech himself?
Personally, I do not believe that highly-intelligent, well-educated nor politically experienced qualities neccessarily make for a good President, not even when possessed all together.
Obama is highly-educated, and supposedly highly-intelligent, and no one can say that he did not run a politically adept campaign, but I doubt he will be remembered as a great President. Even with the inevitable historical rewrites.
GWBII, on the other hand, who has been called every distasteful variety of dumb that could possibly be imagined, IMO, will (except for his RHINO spending fetish) be remembered as the President who sent the war to our enemies and kept the USA safe.
Palin has a quality I think all great Presidents should have…..F with the USA at your own extreme peril.
I’d love to see a Palin/Rice ticket, or Rice/Palin.
ART!!
FABULOUS IDEA!!!
It would be tough to figure out how libs could vote against women, especially a woman of color. Boy, the self-twisting they’d have to do….
Darrell, yep. My list wasn’t meant to be exhaustive, but rather exemplary, of the states from which I’d like to see candidates emerge. The South, the Midwest (barring MI, of course, and probably MN), the West excluding CA, OR, and WA are all in the running in my book.
Oblio, there are always back-mutations, and/or instances when the marinade didn’t soak in properly. So, sure, there are Ivy League grads who are perfectly OK. I was speaking in generalities. My first thought on encountering an Ivy League grad is much like that on encountering a used car salesman: watch this joker carefully to figure out whether he’s OK or not.
Having said that, I’d still be extremely skeptical of a candidate who was an Ivy League grad. My reasoning: he moves in contaminated social circles, where his friends and associates likely share the same background. Many of them most assuredly are infected with liberal ideology, and so even if the candidate himself is OK, he will be subject to intense social pressure from them, and can only buck them at the cost of ostracization. Is he strong enough to pay that price? Few are.
Occam’s Beard,
Upon reading this about Ivy League types:
“Many of them most assuredly are infected with liberal ideology, and so even if the candidate himself is OK, he will be subject to intense social pressure from them, and can only buck them at the cost of ostracization. Is he strong enough to pay that price? Few are.”
My first thought after reading that was to imagine them all tied together, ever so tightly, by the same societal interconnections – much like a team of mountain climbers.
However, whereas the line tying together mountain climbers is to provide some protection should a single individual slip, in the case of the Ivy League it may be more a mutual suicide pact if they as a group are sufficiently ostracized by society and expelled vigorously from public office with one or more being sufficiently massive to take the rest of their little group down with them.
Obummer may be just such a sufficiently large political mass to accomplish such a fall for the particular societal group he most identifies with.
Gringo, on Palin’s governorship, the part she finished or the part she quit, and on the 1st Amendment well again it’s how I’ve observed the process by how she thinks, “God’s will may lead me to run for President”. So many questions to ask, how does or can she know God’s will, It’s absurd from the assumption of a deity and then leaps to knowing the mind or will of presumed deity. You’ve made her the poster child for the Tea Party, as others have, along with Glenn Beck and a deep disconnect with a revisionist notion that the founding fathers where Christians and America was from the start a Christian nation when nothing could be further from the truth … it’s just dishonest and perverting.
Hmm….what job was it that Obummer “quit” after sitting there (can’t say he actually did much more than sit) for about half of his term – and what prosperous and challenging enterprise did he involve himself in prior to that?
Did Obummer actually ever *create* any wealth at all????
Rubbish.
The faith and values of Palin, a book review:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-faith-and-values-of-sarah-palin-what-she-believes-and-what-it-means-for-america-book-review/
Far be it from me to say that I called this one, but this line could have been me:
“Her beliefs make her what we once called normal, at least in flyover country.”
That’s why she is the best right now – she excels in the fantastic virtue of being an exceedingly normal American – which makes her an exceptional person in the true America mold of exceptional normalcy.
Obama is an alien. He prays to an alien God. ALL Dems pray to the same alien God.
ALL who still support him or his party are aliens far more than most Mexican illegals are. The Mexican Illegal is a hard-working true blue Yankee who does not speak English that well yet.
The Democrat is a Euro-Marxist in his soul who will either destroy us or be defeated by us.
And there is no third option there. Wish there was. There isn’t.
As if we didn’t have to take enough shit from Obama, now we have his illegal alien Kenyan Auntie Zeitunie saying that because she was not offered citizenship but, rather, was ordered back to Kenya when she overstayed her visa, she was “abused by the system,” no less, all those years while she was squatting illegally in Boston public housing, and now comes the story that Obama’s mother-in law has been practicing voodoo i.e. Santeria–while she has been staying in the White House (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2593333/posts).
Great! Just Great!
I suppose that next some illegal alien Kenyan Witch Doctor is going to preside over the White House Thanksgiving celebrations–live animal sacrifices, blood spattered on the celebrants, etc., etc..
Here is the quote from Obama’s Antie (http://wbztv.com/local/obama.aunt.zeituni.2.1921954.html ).
Wolla Dalbo wrote “I suppose that next some illegal alien Kenyan Witch Doctor is going to preside over the White House Thanksgiving celebrations—live animal sacrifices, blood spattered on the celebrants, etc., etc.”
I can see it now, a TV special “Thanksgiving with the Obama’s” with Kikiyolo the witch doctor giving a benediction. It would be part of Obama’s multicultural outreach program to cannibals.
Bob From VA–Ya know, it could also be a Nigerian Witch Doctor and, if so, things could get quite interesting up there at the White House, because in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa today there is a belief–testified to by the many Nigerians who have been attacked and/or killed for supposedly indulging in this practice–that a skilled Witch Doctor can just glance at you, or brush against you in a crowd, and “steal “your penis or shrink it down to nothing (http://www.nigeriansinamerica.com/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-12555.html ).
Leave Michelle out of this.
Here is the future President Palin
http://www.therightscoop.com/sarah-palins-new-ad-on-tea-parties
She, among all the major Republicans, was almost the only one to step in front of the tea Parties, to defend it, to support it, to stick her neck out for it and put herself on the line for it.
They, who are the body and soul of America, will perhaps reward her by electing the first woman, first Alaskan, first 2nd American Revolution President in 2012.
The better candidate is…???
Obama has an Ad like this in reserve where…???
Nyomythus, what will it take for you to consider that you might have grabbed the wrong end of the stick. You are broadcasting your narrative all the time, but it isn’t clear that you have a receiver in working order.
OB, you were talking about Ivy Leaguers in general, and I was talking about one in particular. From my experience, I would say you are more right than wrong. No offense taken.
Nyom quit on having reason.
I suppose America gets what it votes for.
Rome will burn.
Nyom and others don’t want economic success and prosperity.
They want to purge politicians from using the word “God”.
Who the hell CARES if somebody mentions “God” when all of the SOLUTIONS they prescribe are the ANSWER to our problems????
How long will it take us to learn???
It’s simple !
Choice 1: Spread the wealth and spread misery.
Or
Choice 2: Spread prosperity and success and personal responsibility.
hmmmm… let me see… what is my name? Oh. My name is Nyom so I go with choice 1.
The tragedy is that from what we are seeing in Nevada and Delaware is that politically motivated right will give Palin the nomination in the primaries, creating a situation where the independents will stay on election day allowing Obama or Hillary to walk into the Presidency.
Palin could re-elect Obama.
America would get what she deserves then.
More virus.