Russell recently received the following article in an e-mail...
Palin as the president-in-waiting of our nation? Really?
By MIKE DOOGAN
Published: August 30th, 2008 12:28 AM
John McCain looked all over the United States to find the single Republican who is qualified to be, as the saying goes, a heartbeat away from the presidency, and he came up with Sarah Palin.
Really?
Sure, I suppose that many Alaskans are feeling a surge of pride that someone from our state has gotten a spot on the big stage. And most Alaskans like Palin. I know I do.
But let's be honest here. Her resume is as thin as the meat in a vending machine sandwich. I'm thinking being mayor of Wasilla doesn't qualify her. And she's less than two years into her first term as governor. Except for her high-profile gas pipeline legislation -- which I like a lot -- she doesn't have much to show. Oil taxes? Most of that work was done by the legislature. Ethics? Ditto. And her role in killing the much-touted Bridge to Nowhere? Talk about coming in after the battle is over and bayoneting the wounded.
And there's a growing sense that the government isn't running all that well, that all that's keeping the wheels from coming off is that 25,000 state employees show up for work every day.
The long and short of it is this: We're not sure she's a competent governor of Alaska. And yet McCain, who is no spring chicken, has decided she's the best choice to replace him as president if he should win and then fall afoul of the Grim Reaper.
Sarah Palin?
Really?
I can see that it makes some sense in terms of the election campaign. McCain's hard up against it. He's dragging eight years of George W. Bush -- hands down the worst president in American history -- behind him like the ball and chain it is. He's not the most engaging person himself. And he's facing an opponent in Barack Obama who shows all the earmarks of being a transformational candidate, someone who is rewriting the rules of American politics just by being who he is. I've seen two others like him in my lifetime, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and Obama looks like the real deal.
So McCain needs help, and Palin brings some. She's a woman. She's young. She's good looking. She's got a good story to tell, and a knack for dealing with the media. McCain's choice of her came out of left field, but at least it was in the ballpark.
But debating foreign policy with Joe Biden? What's she going to do? Hit him with her briefing book? If Palin has two thoughts about foreign policy, she's managed to keep them to herself. Ditto health care. National energy policy. Fiscal policy. You could make a long, long list, but I'll stop there. She's going to need a lot of handlers feeding her a lot of talking points, and she's going to have to hope that the discussion only goes about yay-deep.
She's also going to have to hope that the national media is as pliable as Alaska's has been. Palin doesn't like people criticizing her, and she's as competitive as any linebacker you ever met. If the campaign gets a little rough and tumble, that could be a bad combination.
So she could be great as a candidate. Or so so. Or blow up on the pad. But if the McCain-Palin ticket should win? Yikers. There's no way on God's green earth that she's prepared to be president of the United States. The only consolation for me is remembering that J. Danforth Quayle once held the job she's trying to get, and the world didn't end.
But Sarah Palin?
Really?
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Mike Doogan is a Democratic state representative from Anchorage. He is a former columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.
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Here is Russell's response, true to form.
(fyi: PUMA stands for "Party Unity My A**" - a disaffected Hillary group)
Thanks for the forward, it reminds me again why I am voting for
Hillary (go PUMA). I can't believe that this democrat state
legislator from alaska is not a big fan of the rebublican vp
candidate, what is this world coming to. Thank goodness that obama is
coming in to change washington, at least he was smart enough to pick
an old white guy who helped build the current mess to help him change
it. Biden should be good at cleaning up washington since he has been
there for 30 years, now that's change we can believe in. Even if
Hillary is not elected I can feel good about voting for her since the
misogynistic media and democrat party buried her, she at least had
some experience. Isn't it great how people make fun of Palin but
Obama has no more experience then she does. At least she was in
elected office while he was still a community organizer. At least she
stood up to the republican party machine in alaska while he rolled
over for the democrat machine in chicago and washington. If only
Hillary had been picked by the democrats she could put this spring
chicken from Alaska in her place, I would like to have seen how
Hillary would have handled Palin if she was the candidate for
president. Now she is going to have to go out and try to defend these
two guys who buried her in the primaries, if there is any justice in
the world she will say that her calendar has suddenly filled up and
that she doesn't have time to campaign against the woman from alaska.
To see her going along with the democrat party doing the same thing to
Palin that they did to her would be just to much. How can any
democrat say that Palin is not experienced enough for the job when
their candidate is a man who has been a senator for a total of 3 1/2
years. At least she has had executive experience, has stood up to
stodgy white men (have you seen the list of white men that she has
beat? it is long), has fought tough choices. Obama has gone with the
flow for all of the years and then buried the first woman with a
serious chance of being our first female president with the help of
sexist language and a media biased against her from the first. Let me
guess the columnist that wrote the article was a man, no surprise
there is it. This will be an interesting year if people will stand up
to the status quo, heavens knows obama never has. That is why I am
voting for Hillary, go PUMA.
Thanks for sending the article.
Russell
I appreciate that Russell is finally showing some sense in these matters.
