Sarah Palin ? (Part 2)

[Palmer Stoat]

Re: Sarah Palin?

Some well made points, Palmer, but I think you overestimate Mitt Romney; this guy had to change his ideological bent radically to even get as far as he did. He even got his NRA card FFS! That's a politician in search of a constituency if I ever heard it.

Huckabee ran out of money long before he ran out of steam, so I think he is the front runner. If Palin can keep herself nice for two years she still ticks all the boxes for the GOP, even if she has anyone within shouting distance of political moderacy running for the hills right now.

It's not that I have a particularly high opinion of Romney. In fact, I pretty much agree with your assessment of him. But you'd have to concede that he's smarter and more knowledgable and more polished than anything we've seen from Palin.

I think you've also identified Palin's problem: she could, in theory, get a lot of social conservatives behind her. I suppose, if the GOP constituency were fragmented between several candidates, she might even fall across the line. But good luck selling her in a general election. It's hard to imagine her being a stronger general-election candidate than either Huckabee -- or even Romney.

And IMO she'd be brutally exposed in an actual no-holds-barred primary campaign anyway. (Then again, Dubya managed to win twice, so I guess anything is possible...)

 

[Z_K]

Re: Sarah Palin?

And IMO she'd be brutally exposed in an actual no-holds-barred primary campaign anyway. (Then again, Dubya managed to win twice, so I guess anything is possible...)

That she posesses an IQ simmilar to that of a watermelon has been outed earlier than W obvious affliction IMO. If memory serves, he actually debated quite well and presented a clean, statesmen type image quite effectively.

4 years to work on the gaps in her knowledge (as cavenous as they are) and to further shape a message to rally the inbred types might work, but it would have to a hugely pissed off middle class to toss out Obama for another dullard.

 

[GuruJane]

Re: Sarah Palin?

But anyway, IMO -- regardless of how Obama fares -- I don't think Palin's got the goods to win the GOP nomination. If the economy does go to hell in a handbasket and -- fairly or not -- Obama's blamed for it, I don't think Palin will be the one in the position to take advantage of it. There are far more capable GOP politicians in line who I can't see her climbing over.

Well, you know, Palin's never even put her mind to national issues until she was parachuted in. Over the next 4 years I think she might ... as she goes on governing.

Must say, given her lack of national experience or interest, I rated her well in the vice presidential debate. Like a barrister mastering a complicated brief in just a few weeks. But since then it has been spectacularly demonstrated what a Total Idiot Biden is - and he's a lawyer!

Ah Joe, Joe ... a monument to my misjudgement. My gosh, how Team Obama must have been gagging at having to give the fool the gig.

Still, take comfort the Obots will arrange to have him suffocated or poisoned in the second term if another anuerism hasn't solved their problem already.

 

[GuruJane]

Re: Sarah Palin?

It would be nice if Obama fought wasteful spending (one of McCain's redeeming qualities). But intra-party fights on core Democratic programs like tax and healthcare? Surely not.

How big is that deficit again?

 

[Joffaboy]

Re: Sarah Palin?

How big is that deficit again?

last poll about 52-41.

 

[Palmer Stoat]

Re: Sarah Palin?

Well, you know, Palin's never even put her mind to national issues until she was parachuted in. Over the next 4 years I think she might ... as she goes on governing.

If she has ambitions for 2012, I'm sure she will be going to summer school. But her problem, as I see it, is that she's just not that bright -- and that's just an honest assessment of what I've seen so far. And George Bush aside, that's a huge disadvantage for anyone aspiring to the Oval Office. Whatever you might think of previous occupants, nearly all of them have been very intelligent. (Some might argue the case on Reagan, I guess, but however you rate his raw brain power he was a gifted performer and on a different plane altogether than Palin.)

Must say, given her lack of national experience or interest, I rated her well in the vice presidential debate. Like a barrister mastering a complicated brief in just a few weeks. But since then it has been spectacularly demonstrated what a Total Idiot Biden is - and he's a lawyer!

Why am I not surprised by that? I thought she was barely passable in a debate whose format favoured her about as much as any debate ever will. She was pretty much unresponsive to any question that she didn't have a prefabricated answer to. I mean, you saw how she crumbled into tiny little pieces when Katie Couric (!) asked her a few follow-up questions. She couldn't even answer when asked what newspapers she read. Surely you'd concede that that's not the response of someone with a powerful intellect or great verbal dexterity?

This campaign has shown her to be manifestly out of her depth. I mean, her own staff won't let her talk to the press after the Gibson and Couric fiascos. What does that say about her? How can you run for any kind of national office if your own staff don't trust you to speak at a press conference? And if she's that vulnerable to, you know, people asking her questions, is four years of National Politics 101 gonna fix it?

I predict that many of the conservatives who've stalwartly closed ranks around Palin in the middle of a general election campaign and insisted that they see a political prodigy where everyone else sees an over-coiffed Mean Girl will begin to unobtrusively inch their way toward the exit post-election.

Ah Joe, Joe ... a monument to my misjudgement. My gosh, how Team Obama must have been gagging at having to give the fool the gig.

Somehow I don't think Obama and co are losing too much sleep over Joe Biden.

 

[medusala]

Re: Sarah Palin?

It would be nice if Obama fought wasteful spending (one of McCain's redeeming qualities). But intra-party fights on core Democratic programs like tax and healthcare? Surely not.

isnt there a reasonably sized group of dems who are known to be in favour of balanced budgets? You would think that would cause issues for Obama given health care and the existing deficit.

 

[DaveW]

Re: Sarah Palin?

Yeah, fair point. Clinton couldn't get his health care proposals through a Democratic Congress.

Remains to be seen if Obama can.

 

[medusala]

Re: Sarah Palin?

Yeah, fair point. Clinton couldn't get his health care proposals through a Democratic Congress.

Remains to be seen if Obama can.

very little chance I would think. Circa $100bn a year too steep.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12341986

Fixing health care is a laudable aim, but even on Mr Obama’s own reckoning, it will cost some $50 billion-65 billion a year, and most analysts think that the true price would be a lot more. Mr Obama also promises investment in alternative energy, affordable university tuition, a big push to upgrade America’s crumbling infrastructure and much else. He has admitted, under questioning, that the state of the economy means that some of these promises will have to be “delayed”. He has been, unsurprisingly, reluctant to say which ones.

 

[Qsaint]

Re: Sarah Palin?

leave 2012 to a Bob Dole candidate while they get on with governing their states.

Liz Dole will be looking for a new gig shortly............

 

[Richo83]

Okay fair enough, but what I don't get is that the GOP can then justify spending 120 billion in Iraq every year.

Anyway, US hospitals need upgrading anyway and the US already spends a large amount on healthcare already.

And note that the economist isn't necessarily ideologically opposed to universal healthcare, but pragmatically opposed. Fixing health care is a laudable aim

 

[Juddism]

her ratings keep sliding with the voters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/politics/31poll.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

 

[Jumpin' Jimmy]

her ratings keep sliding with the voters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/politics/31poll.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

She'd still be a shoe-in to lead the Liberal party of Australia

 

[fairdinkum]

She'd still be a shoe-in to lead the Liberal party of Australia

She doesn't have the economic credentials to lead the ALP, hey Jimmy?

 

[Jumpin' Jimmy]

She doesn't have the economic credentials to lead the ALP, hey Jimmy?

Hell no! The ALP has Swanny, Lindsay T and the good Dr Craig all with their hands firmly on the wheel. All they need to do is keep Kevvy occupied waving the flag and junketing around the globe.

The poor old Libs only have Julie, Joe and that Tae Bo chappy. Heaven help us if they ever get to run the economy. They need Costello back in a big hurry! The quicker Turnbull crashes and burns the more likely Pete is to "do a Lazarus". Otherwise they are doomed

 

[Richo83]

Swan is hardly an economic expert. I think we can all agree on that. Tanner should be treasurer. I have seen nothing in the past six months which suggests that Labor are better at running the economy than the libs. The libs wouldn't be a massive improvement either but hey.

 

[fairdinkum]

Hell no! The ALP has Swanny, Lindsay T and the good Dr Craig all with their hands firmly on the wheel. All they need to do is keep Kevvy occupied waving the flag and junketing around the globe.

The Bachelor of Arts (public administration) provided Swan with a well-rounded education in the finer points of economics and fiscal policy.

I understand that he excelled in Inflation Genie De-bottling 101. Apparently he wasn't quite so crash hot at Bank Guaranteeing 201, but his high marks in his Middle Class Welfare minor saw him maintain a credit average.

What more could one ask of a Federal Treasurer?

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Gotta love Alec Baldwin's take on McCain/Palin...

http://celebritygoss.com.au/gossip/?p=29450

"If John McBush and Bible Spice win, we have to find a way to come together as a country, because we can’t let it be the way it’s been the last 8 years where there’s been this acrimony and this bitterness. We have to find a way somehow to do that."


BIBLE SPICE!!!

 

[Jumpin' Jimmy]

Swan is hardly an economic expert. I think we can all agree on that. Tanner should be treasurer. I have seen nothing in the past six months which suggests that Labor are better at running the economy than the libs. The libs wouldn't be a massive improvement either but hey

So you have complete faith in Julie, Joe and Tae Bo? That's blind faith in the extreme

 

[Jumpin' Jimmy]

The Bachelor of Arts (public administration) provided Swan with a well-rounded education in the finer points of economics and fiscal policy.

I understand that he excelled in Inflation Genie De-bottling 101. Apparently he wasn't quite so crash hot at Bank Guaranteeing 201, but his high marks in his Middle Class Welfare minor saw him maintain a credit average.

What more could one ask of a Federal Treasurer?

That he not plagiarise

 

[fairdinkum]

That he not plagiarise

In fairness to Swan, I don't think his policy of middle-class and voter-specific handouts (a la Rodent) can be classed as 'plagiarism'. Copy-catting or even me-tooism perhaps, but not plagiarism.

 

[Jumpin' Jimmy]

In fairness to Swan, I don't think his policy of middle-class and voter-specific handouts (a la Rodent) can be classed as 'plagiarism'. Copy-catting or even me-tooism perhaps, but not plagiarism

You are far too cynical FD

The Rodent only did it to buy votes when an election was looming(see also his "bring back Hicksy old mate" decision). He did so against the advice of the RBA, Treasury and his Treasurer(full marks for awareness, low marks for backbone). Swan has done similar with no election in sight and a global economic crisis unfolding. Entirely different scenarios.

 

[Richo83]

So you have complete faith in Julie, Joe and Tae Bo? That's blind faith in the extreme

Clueless. Just because I don't extoll the virtues of Swan's "economic credentials" every two seconds doesn't mean I support the libs. It is possible to be impartial or in my case critical of both, a skill you seem to be lacking in.

In a few years time when you realise how useless Swan is and how right people like DR are, just make sure to remember that, well, we did warn you.

 

[Richo83]

You are far too cynical FD

The Rodent only did it to buy votes when an election was looming(see also his "bring back Hicksy old mate" decision). He did so against the advice of the RBA, Treasury and his Treasurer(full marks for awareness, low marks for backbone). Swan has done similar with no election in sight and a global economic crisis unfolding. Entirely different scenarios.

Because throwing money at people is soo economically clever. Never heard of that one before. If that's the best thing Swan can think of doing, we're in trouble.

 

[Jumpin' Jimmy]

Clueless. Just because I don't extoll the virtues of Swan's "economic credentials" every two seconds doesn't mean I support the libs. It is possible to be impartial or in my case critical of both, a skill you seem to be lacking in.

In a few years time when you realise how useless Swan is and how right people like DR are, just make sure to remember that, well, we did warn you

I've heard it all now........ you are advocating DR for Treasurer