Sarah Palin is named McCains VP

[gardenweasel]

That's the best point I've seen made all day about her! As a mother of a 5 month old myself, I know how much time and attention it takes - 90% of my energy goes to my daughter! And I can only imagine a child with special needs.

She is "pro-life", but really being pro-life means that you have to take full responsibility for the life you create (including personal involvement).

she`s a committed public servant.....kennedy had young chidren...and i doubt she foresaw this when she became pregnant...

the v.p. makes enough to hire some help...and her chidren are old enough to help....not to mention her husband...

pretty lame argument..imo

some feminist you are....:SIB

 

[Agent 0659]

animals are not = to humans. That's a core belief for me and for most people on this planet. If it's not for you, then so be it, and you should check into PETA because that's what they believe.

If you came to my house and shot my dog, of course you should be accountable and everything I could legally do to you would be done. What a morAnic statement by you.

So, it wouldn't be murder though? So what would it be?

 

[kosar]

barack has literally no experience...he had more non-votes than any senator in his short tenure....164 days.....in congress...he was chronically absent...

I'm pretty sure that someone, about 6 or 7 months ago, showed that McCain was absent more than Obama since Obama has been in the senate.

Where do you get '164 days', anyways?

 

[smurphy]

would you rather have it at the top or at the bottom?

nevermind - looks like they already got to it....

 

[Happy Hippo]

she`s a committed public servant.....kennedy had young chidren...and i doubt she foresaw this when she became pregnant...

the v.p. makes enough to hire some help...and her chidren are old enough to help....not to mention her husband...

pretty lame argument..imo

some feminist you are....:SIB

Yea, she can just follow Georgie's example and take extended vacations. Or just hire some help - because of course anyone can do the job of being a parent. No need to be involved in your own child's life :nooo:

 

[Toledo Prophet]

HH, 6/5:

I hate Moose and Squirrel!

--B Badenov.

 

[kellyindallas]

Being a mother of a 5 month old with Downs wouldn't you think that child demands a lot more attention than the Vice President of the United States can afford to give it?

That's why she has a husband.

 

[StevieD]

Yea, she can just follow Georgie's example and take extended vacations. Or just hire some help - because of course anyone can do the job of being a parent. No need to be involved in your own child's life :nooo:

And at the same time we will hear from the media what a wonderful mother she is!

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Wayne,

Is *this* the cattle that you speak of?

How about this experience issue? Kinda dissipates at this point, I suppose.

I mean, I know you will do and say anything to defend anything these guys do, but you can't tell me with a straight face that you would be comfortable with her being a heart attack away from being President.

Please tell me you wouldn't.

Click on Judges link http://www.mceades.com/
to see wher he's coming from.

No Matt -- cattle are her accomplishments as Gov in 2 short years-- Pretty impressive if you check--the people must like them as she has 90% favorbilty rating there--of course Obama hAS 90% himself

Accomplishments --something you have already did--not say you will do id elected.

Might be new slogan -"Yes we did."

--on more serious note not sure how this VP pick will pan out--between the 4 on character and qualification I rate mac and biden nip and tuck then the lady and several notches down Omama.

The biggest thing against her is could she step in effectively if something happened to mac.

But from logical prospective at Mac age (72 today I believe) from mortality tables his chance of dying in next 4 yearsis about 18%. So we have 18% chance of have someone short in experience as pres--if O is voted in we have 100% chance.:SIB

 

[kellyindallas]

And at the same time we will hear from the media what a wonderful mother she is!

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive....How many dads are out there that work crazy hours and are said to be "great" dads?

I think BOTH parents need to be very involved. With five kids, it does seem to be quite a chore, though. You can't do EVERYTHING and do it well, that's the truth...applies to both men and women.

 

[RAYMOND]

:00hour

First time i've ever used that stupid emoticon. It just seems right in this case.

:00hour :00hour :00hour :00hour :00hour

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

That's why she has a husband.

Tell em Kelly Didn't history teach them anything--

Billy and Barney took care of the children.:tongue

 

[gardenweasel]

I'm pretty sure that someone, about 6 or 7 months ago, showed that McCain was absent more than Obama since Obama has been in the senate.

Where do you get '164 days', anyways?

sorry...i was wrong...it was 143 days...

"From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working."


http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/votes/missed/

check the missed votes for yourself...

quite a few...

 

[LetsMakeMoney]

Well, thanks, crabby-ass, vienna sausage boy.

 

[gardenweasel]

i`m takin` a rest...

man,say what you want,look at the interest the "little point guard" created.....

:142smilie

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I don't need to repeat the accolades Barack Obama has received on his acceptance speech the final evening of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Suffice to say that neither those who love Obama's soaring oratory nor those hungry for hard, specific detail were disappointed. The climax of a highly successful convention with all the right kinds of drama and none of the wrong kind, Obama's speech shot him and running mate Joe Biden out of Denver on a rocket straight to the White House. Obama's choice of the tough, experienced senator from Delaware seems also to have been a home run: a ticket, not of making up for weakness as Republicans have suggested, but of combined strength.

John McCain, on the other hand, has made the choice of a vice-presidential running mate on the same basis he has made all of his political decisions in this campaign: pandering. In his choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, McCain is clearly pandering to woman Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries and whom McCain hopes will now vote for him insead of Obama. Stupid right-wingers, without a doubt, will proclaim loudly that McCain "hit it out of the park" with this choice, and that Democrats had better be running scared. They will think what they like, of course (if what right-wingers do in their little heads can truly be called "thinking"), but a closer look at Palin reveals a choice that could hardly have been a more superficial one. Sarah Palin has scarcely half the experience as governor of Alaska that Barack Obama has in the US Senate, and before becoming governor less than two years ago was the mayor of a town with a population of around 8000. Before that she was a sportscaster.

As the running mate of a 72-year-old presidential candidate whose mental acuity seems to fade almost by the day, Sarah Palin is hardly prepared to step in and take over as president. With precious little experience even in state politics, Palin has no experience whatsoever in national politics, and no background in foreign affairs. Finding Republican women governors and senators with more experience than Palin would have been easy for McCain; finding one with less experience would been the difficult task. It is obvious that McCain chose Palin not on the basis of any qualification to serve as president on day two if necessary, but only because she is a woman.

This will all become apparent, of course, when Gov. Palin has to face Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debate scarcely a month from now - hardly enough time for her to make up for the vast knowledge gap between herself and her Democratic opponent. It will be a little sad to watch poor Sarah get disassembled by Biden (certainly far less satisfying to watch than McCain being taken apart by Obama), but it will be a reflection on McCain's judgment America needs to see.

Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com

Since got opinion from the left how about we balance it from the right.

Obama Offers a Beautifully Packaged Lie
By Robert Tracinski

There was a fair bit of talk about Bill Clinton's speech Wednesday night to the Democratic convention, and Peggy Noonan even went so far as to declare that "The Master Has Arrived." But she is wrong. When it comes to political oratory, the master arrived last night at Invesco Field. Bill Clinton can give a glib speech, but there has always been something missing from his delivery. Try as he might--and he really did try--he was never able to convincingly fake sincerity. Barack Obama can fake sincerity, and that, more than the words of a speech or the pageantry that precedes it, is the key to his power as a speaker.

His speech last night was brilliant and perfect. It is too bad that the whole thing was a lie, which depended on the smoothness and apparent sincerity of Senator Obama's delivery to lull the listener into a state of credulity and prevent him from asking too many questions.

Here's an example that is small but revealing. Obama led with the best sales pitch he has to offer: that he is not George Bush. But of course, Obama is running against John McCain, not Bush. So he attempted to justify the substitution by claiming that "John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time." This statistic has been used throughout the Democratic convention, but it makes no sense. Bush is not a member of Congress and casts no votes there--so how can you compare his voting record to that of McCain?

But don't examine this folly; ask only what it accomplishes. It allows Obama to run against an unpopular president who will not defend himself because he is not actually in the race.

When it came to making the positive case for himself, Obama's first goal was to address the public's concerns about his background, particularly his patriotism and how much he identifies with American values. So he drew, not from his own biography, but from that of his family.

n the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships....

And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard work....

I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me.


In addition to identifying himself with the lower-income, blue-collar types who have so far refused to vote for him, Obama is also painting himself as someone with uncontroversial, traditional American values, someone who believes in fighting for your country and improving your life through hard work and perseverance.

This is supposed to make us forget that Barack Obama launched his political career under the spiritual guidance of a pastor who delivered far-left tirades calling on God to damn America--and he launched his first campaign under the patronage of a former domestic terrorist. Theirs are the stories that also shaped Barack Obama--but he wants to write Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers out of his biography.

Worse, he wants us to stop asking questions about this sort of thing.

These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain. But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism. The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain.
It's awfully generous of Obama to refrain from questioning the patriotism of a war hero. The real purpose of this statement, of course, is not to protect McCain but to protect Obama. Its purpose is to declare off-limits any further questions or discussion about his past association with Wright, Ayers, and all of the other shady characters from Obama's past.

On another area where he is particularly weak, foreign policy, Obama decided that the best defense is a strident offense. He projected a righteous self-confidence intended to make his viewers forget his opposition to the surge and his weak and stumbling response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. In this section, note again the gap between rhetoric and reality--and the willing suspension of critical thought that he requires of his listener.

For example, here is what he has to say on Afghanistan.

When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell--but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
Obama criticizes McCain for allegedly going soft on al-Qaeda--it's a good thing he's not going to question anyone's patriotism--yet all Obama can offer is precisely the policies we are already pursuing: more money and troop for Afghanistan and one-at-a-time special forces strikes against al-Qaeda leaders "if we have them in our sights," which we have been doing for years. What Obama is presenting as a tough and visionary new policy is his support for the Bush administration's status quo. Does he really think that no one will notice?

His statement on Iraq is an even more brazen evasion. He boasts that "today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration,...John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war." But all of the current discussion about drawing down troops from Iraq is possible only because of the success of the surge--which John McCain advocated and Barack Obama opposed. He is presenting the success of a military buildup as vindication for a policy of military retreat.

Perhaps his worst line, however, is this one: "You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances." This is a reference to NATO--which has been conspicuously useless in the Georgian conflict, refusing even a symbolic resolution to suspend military cooperation with Russia. This statement is evidence that Obama is not even paying attention to world events. But he expects the viewer to be carried forward by the certainty and stridency of his tone. He asserts with an air of conviction, "don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country"--but he depends on the air of conviction, not any actual evidence, to sway the listener.

Addressing criticisms that he offers soaring rhetoric with no specifics, Obama replies "So let me spell out exactly what...'change' would mean if I am president." But what he presents is mostly a list of aspirations, such as "Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it." Or: "for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East." How is that to be achieved? Is it even possible to achieve it? Obama offers no answer.

Obama's list of specifics continues in this vein, promising everything to everyone in a way that would make the Clintons blush--but with such an earnest sincerity of delivery that it somehow doesn't seem like pandering.

In foreign policy, he promises the miraculous: "I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease." He's going to defeat terrorism with "partnerships"; face down Russian and Iranian aggression with diplomacy; and while he's at it, he will end poverty, disease, and changes in the weather. All of these promises are equally implausible.

As to domestic issues, here is what he promises on energy policy:

I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy--wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
Five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced! He'll just snap his fingers and the laws of economics will bend to his will.

Oh yes, and he will "cut taxes for 95% of all working families," but he'll "pay for every dime." How? "I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less--because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy." Does anyone remember the Grace Commission in the 1980s or Al Gore's task force in the 1990s? Eliminating "waste, fraud, and abuse" is a perennial promise made by politicians, but it will never produce significant results, because you can't pare down a $3 trillion federal budget by squeezing out dimes.

But the biggest contradiction papered over in Obama's speech is not about Obama's background, his record, or his policies. It is an ideological contradiction. The theme of his speech is "The American Promise." Here is how he defines it.

What is that promise? It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.

Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves--protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology....

That's the promise of America--the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.


So we'll be free to run our own lives--except that we are also required to be our brothers' keepers. We will have a free market--except for the vast network of regulations needed to force businesses to live up to a long list of "responsibilities." We will take responsibility for solving our own problems--except those relating to roads, education, health care, water, toys, science, and so on and on.

In essence, Obama is declaring simultaneous loyalty to individualism and to collectivism, to independence and to dependence, to free markets and to state control.

If you wonder which half of this self-contradictory agenda will win out, Obama doesn't leave you in suspense. He criticizes McCain because "For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy--give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else." The references to "two decades" and to "trickle-down economics"--a derogatory term for Ronald Reagan's pro-free-market policies--make his meaning clear. It is the free market that he wants us to regard as "discredited."

What he wants us to forget is what was actually discredited two decades ago by the collapse of the Soviet Union. What was discredited was socialism, not capitalism.

That is what makes this the most dangerous election in many years. It has been almost half a century since the left's ideas have had such an intelligent, charismatic, and appealing advocate. He is now preparing to lead the left's effort to reconstitute itself in the first serious way since the Fall of Communism. He must be defeated.

Obama's acceptance speech is likely to be effective, and we should expect him to have a solid "bounce" in the polls now that the convention is over. But there is a way to defeat Obama. His whole campaign is a beautifully presented illusion, and the way to defeat it is to keep hammering on the difference between illusion and reality. Because the more grandiose the illusion, the more thoroughly it will be rejected when it is revealed as a lie.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/barack_obama_offers_a_beautifu.html

 

[Chadman]

Some interesting tidbits from the Wiki-Bio:

(My personal favorite - Wayne, please note): Palin has also helped pass a tax increase on oil company profits.

Palin's first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees. In effect, her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples.

(Hmm, she veto's for homo's? That won't play well with the righties...)

Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska.

(Global Warming stuff?!? Blasphemy!!! Welcome, conservatives, to your Vice President!!!)

In 1984, after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, Palin finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant which won her a scholarship to help pay her way through college. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

(Okay, now THIS IS getting interesting. A congenial FLUTE player? Are you starting to see what John sees in her? How do you think Bubba must view her experience!?!)

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. Briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband.

(She's a media member?!? We all know what that means - a closet liberal. And evidently the business experience she has is commercial fishing? Wow, that IS some executive training.)

In all seriousness, it sounds like she's the kind of gal I'd like to see out at a bar on her one night out per month, throwing 'em back and dancing with strangers (like me on my one night out per month). But her governing experience and decisions are a stark contrast in theory. When some of this becomes common knowledge, it can't help with true conservatives, which is what McCain really needed to cement, IMO.

 

[StevieD]

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive....How many dads are out there that work crazy hours and are said to be "great" dads?

I think BOTH parents need to be very involved. With five kids, it does seem to be quite a chore, though. You can't do EVERYTHING and do it well, that's the truth...applies to both men and women.

Well again we have a wealthy Pro Lifer who will hire nannies and what not to watch her kids. I don't want to get into the abortion battle, because to be honest with you I don't know where I fit in, but it does make her seem a bit of a hypocrit before she even gets started. As for Dad I know even less about him.

 

[Blackman]

the actress jeri ryan

Ok back to business :0corn

 

[jer-z jock]

jeez this thread exploded, so I didnt bother to read it....but how in the hell can McCain pick a woman hotter then his wife? Didnt Cindy learn anything, he will be running with this VP within 1 year of service, he left his 1st wife for a younger hotter woman, so history is repeating his self, and how does McSame name a SOCCER MOM as VP knowing we are on the brink of war, this was a simple slight of hand trick to try and pull in Hillarys votes, but when the vice president is literally a heart beat away from president we all should worry that she has VERY LITTLE experience nationally and world wide. He screwed himself to me, and what in the hell is gonna happen at the VP debates?? Will Biden be called a sexist when he destroys this *cunt*(as McSame calls women he is closest to)? Good luck Republicans but I think McSame just sealed the deal for Obama and Biden to run away with this.....BTW the picture of her and McSame standing next to one another look creepy. If he had this planned and it WASNT just a last ditch effort to scrap those votes together.....why in the hell have these 2 only had 1 meeting since first meeting in Feb '08. I LOVE POLITICS-----Do whats needed to get elected regardless if its right for the American people or not!!! What kind of president will this MILF be?