Sunday, August 31, 2008

McCain: She Has Experience She Was A Member Of The PTA

Not much of a convention tomorrow

Responding to a question after his hurricane-related remarks, McCain made a ringing defense of Palin, who Democrats argue has less experience than their presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

"I thin Sen. Obama, if they want to do down that route, in all candor, she has far, far more experience than Sen. Obama does," McCain said.

He cited Palin's stint as governor of a "state that produces 20 percent of America's energy" as well as her previous membership in the PTA and her time spent on the city council and in the mayor's office in Wasilla,a town of fewer than 7,000 people outside Anchorage.

By contrast, he said Obama "was a community organizer when she was in elected office. He was in the state Senate and voted 130 times present. He never took on his party on anything. She took on a party and the old bulls and the old boy network and she succeeded."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh! Ooh! I wrote grants to fund an afterschool program in a town of 3,000 people. Make me Secretary of Education! If anything, I'm OVER-qualified!!

This BS won't have a very long shelf-life. Too many in the GOP base feel baited and switched by the pick, and the rest of us see through it as the shameless tokenism that it is.

Didja see McCain's announcement about the suspension of Monday's convention program? AMERICAblog calls it all but comatose, which is about right.

Anonymous said...

I think I speak for many when I say that you would make a much better candidate for VP than runner up Miss Alaska. You would get my vote for president over McCain, just about any Republican you cane name and many Democrats... no question.

Anonymous said...

Hee! Most kind, Count. Having lived abroad for three years now and traveled to at least a dozen more countries than she has, I guess you could argue that I have more foreign policy experience than Miz Sarah. But I must say that the price of running alongside Gramps would be rather too high to pay...

It can't be said too many times: it's an impulsive, unthoughtful choice calculated to steal the news cycle from Obama's stellar finish in Denver, but though it has succeeded in that short-term objective it will end up costing his campaign the long-term prize.

And many of the blogs have been saying today something that I hope Biden picks up on for the VP debate. He doesn't have to attack her as an individual. All he has to do is attack McCain's policy positions and let her come along for the ride. It tacitly reinforces her role as a campaign footnote while getting the job done in terms of refuting the GOP game plan, and it sidesteps the inevitable "Shame on you, you hit a girl!" stuff that the McCain camp will trot out if Biden plays personal hardball with her.

Once we get past the posturing and crocodile tears that will follow in Hurricane Week ahead, we'll all know better where we all really are in what's left of this interminable election.

It's odd to think that, here in Canada, elections could be called next week and decided almost a month before the U.S. contest ends. I think I approve - fiscally, among other things - of this creature called the Parliamentary system...

Anonymous said...

The only foreign countries I have ever been too are Canada and Missouri. :)

Anonymous said...

Hmm...where have I been...bearing in mind that as a trade show manager for quite a few years I more or less lived out of a suitcase, and loved it...

In the US:

Juneau, AK
Seattle, Spokane, etc. in WA
Portland and all over OR
SF, LA, SD and all over CA
All over AZ, my birth state
Las Vegas in NV (too often)
SLC in UT
Denver, CO
Dallas, TX
New Orleans, LA
KC and St Louis and in-between, MO
Chicago, IL
Milwaukee, WI
Upper Peninsula, MI (as a kid, tho)
Nashville, TN
Orlando, FL
Atlanta, GA
Atlantic City, NJ
NYC, NY
Boston, MA
Kauai, Maui & The Big Island, HI

Overseas...

Canada (duh! Victoria, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto)
UK (multiple times, incl. Scotland & Wales)
Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne & Montreux)
Italy (Rome)
France (Paris & Evian)
The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
Sweden (Stockholm)
Finland (Helsinki)
Singapore
Hong Kong
Australia (Sydney & Melbourne)

and if I count places I only transited, as Palin does her half-hour stop in Shannon, Ireland, we can add:

Korea (Seoul)
Japan (Tokyo)
New Zealand (Auckland)

Time to play that exciting game show, Dueling Passports!

I'm not saying that you need to travel abroad to grasp foreign policy...but it sure helps, if your only other claim to fame in that regard is that your state is right across an ocean from Russia!

A game of Trivial Pursuit between herself and Biden in the Geography category would, I think, be pretty telling.

Mr. Brown said...

Oh Jesus.
If there's any indication that John McCain will be nothing more of a third term of Dubyah, McCain's choice of a VP with less than zero experience both in executive and national policy tells me that's she's going to be nothing more than a yes woman, bobbing her head up and down the same way Monica was with Bill.

Horrible Clinton-getting-blown joke aside, McCain's move also leads me to believe that McCain will govern and chose a cabinet, George Bush style, which is to hire the most unqualified, incompetent dumb motherfuckers and put them in positions of power to a.) make yourself look like the smartest dim-lit bulb in the room, and b.) to surround yourself with people who are almost guaranteed to kiss your old, wrinkly white ass at every turn and never have a cross word with you on domestic and international policy.

To quote Joe Biden - "That's not change! That's more of the same!"

Anonymous said...

Indeed, Jonathan. I want the next person in the Oval Office to be someone who prefers being surrounded with windows over being surrounded with mirrors.

Also, I forgot Macau in my list. :p

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