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2008-09-04 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by Mike 2008-09-04 09:15|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 These are just mean-spirited people who have the power of the left behind them. They are the same people who made fun of nerds and fat people in high school to get laughs. If you aren't fun or funny, you can still get attention by being mean. It's how they make themselves feel important.

Posted by Betty Grating2215 2008-09-04 09:30|| 2008-09-04 09:30|| Front Page Top

#2 How experienced is Senator Obama compared to Governor Palin? Through intellectual gymnastics, surrogates explain how Obama has the upper hand. But they mean something more invidious. He is smart and she is stupid. He is Harvard, she is University of Idaho

Theyre both kinda short on the resume compared to most recent past US presidents and Veeps. SO weve got a short term Senator who was mainly running for Prez that time, vs a short term gov of a small (in population, budget, etc) state (and yeah, state size mattered to the GOP when it was Bill Clinton running) whos got like one big achievement on energy. And before that youve got Obamas years in the Illinois legilature vs Palin as Mayor of a town of 6500 (its wonderful to LIVE in a town of 6500, just that the challenges of being mayor of it arent exactly in the Giuliani level of challenge)

But it seems that folks would rather have a Kulturkampf war about small towns vs big citys, state universities vs ivy league (some irony here, eh, for the small govt types) Pentecostals vs UCC.

Feh.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-04 11:50|| 2008-09-04 11:50|| Front Page Top

#3 Obama is running for President. Palin for VP. BIG difference in required experience levels and even judgement. The buck stops at the presidency. VPs stop at state funerals.

Posted by ed 2008-09-04 11:54|| 2008-09-04 11:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Obama is running for President. Palin for VP. BIG difference in required experience levels and even judgement. The buck stops at the presidency. VPs stop at state funerals.

Gerald Ford, LBJ, Harry Truman, Calvin Coolidge, and Teddy Roosevelt say "hi"

And thats just the 20th c.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-04 11:58|| 2008-09-04 11:58|| Front Page Top

#5 I'll admit Palin's administrative credentials aren't so great but neither are McCain, Biden or Obama's.

and even if you ignore the whole involvement with Ayers, Obama's administrative role on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge where they spent $100M to $150M on some few hundred schools, training sessions, cultural promotions and the like and essentially achieve nothing for the kids (although the subgrantees were happy) is simply horrific.

Posted by mhw 2008-09-04 12:06|| 2008-09-04 12:06|| Front Page Top

#6 And after that is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Nice try but no cigar for you.

The VP is a training ground for the presidency. Always has been. The most important qualification for a VP is character itself. If elected, she will have 4-8 years of hands on training for both national and international leadership. Voting present, or missing voting altogether, for 4 years in the Senate is not preparation for the presidency.

Posted by ed 2008-09-04 12:09|| 2008-09-04 12:09|| Front Page Top

#7 LH: I understand your point. However, if Barack Obama had named (for example) Kathleen Sibelius, governor of Kansas, to be his VP nominee, the media wouldn't have raised the issues of being a mom, being a woman, being from the heartland, lack of foreign policy experience, lack of travel abroad, etc.

You see, Gov. Sibelius is one of them.

And Sarah Palin isn't.

That's the difference.

Posted by Steve White 2008-09-04 12:07|| 2008-09-04 12:07|| Front Page Top

#8 she will have 4-8 years of hands on training for both national and international leadership

I'll give her 4-6 months and she can take the training wheels off. Maybe less.

Posted by Besoeker 2008-09-04 12:24|| 2008-09-04 12:24|| Front Page Top

#9 Gerald Ford, LBJ, Harry Truman, Calvin Coolidge, and Teddy Roosevelt say "hi"

Well, that's true, LH, but they were all after a practice period as Veep. And Roosevelt was a short-term Governor, and a really short-term Veep, and I like his work.

Posted by Bobby 2008-09-04 13:36|| 2008-09-04 13:36|| Front Page Top

#10 I'll admit Palin's administrative credentials aren't so great but neither are McCain, Biden or Obama's.

McCain and Biden have both have extensive experience in the Senate, voting, committee work, writing legislation. Admin exp is good per se, but a couple of years in a small state doesnt really trump decades in the Senate, esp when known as smart and effective senators, which AFAICT BOTH McCain and Biden are. Wrt the chosen one, no comment.

#9. The point is, theres no guarantee a presidential death is going to take a couple of years. a sudden illness or assasins bullet could take the president in Jan 2009.

As for TR, he had pretty extensive exp before becoming Gov of NY. He was mayor of NYC, again a rather bigger administrative challenge than being mayor of Wasilla. (hat tip to Giuliani) and before that he was an active reforming member of the NY state legislator (hat tip to Obama) And far from being an outsider to DC, hed served on the federal Civil Service Commission. hes also been on the board running the NYC police, at a time when reforming said org was a huge issue. I mean really talking about TR and SP in one breath is a bit silly.

SW- I didnt pay much attention to Sibelius. I didnt much care for her myself. And I havent seen anyone attack Palin for being a woman, or a mom, or being from the heartland. And I sure bet everyone but the solid pro-obama pundits would have come down on her for lack of for policy experience. I think that was precisely why neither she nor Tim Kaine were chosen.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-04 14:47|| 2008-09-04 14:47|| Front Page Top

#11 oh, and i really shouldnt say this, but TR attended Harvard, which gave him a certain breadth of outlook, aside from the broad perspective his elite social class gave him - foreign travel, family connections in the South as well is in the Yankee elite, etc, etc.

Compare that to someone very bright from a narrower small town upbringing, like say, Jimmy Carter.

Its just mind boggling that going to a more selective university, having a broader outlook, are looked upon as DISqualifications. And before someone mentions Harry Truman, lets remember how much time he spent in Washington as a prominent Senator. Oh, and how despite being FROM a small town, he was deeply wrapped up in big city politics. There was a time when the GOP talked as much about Truman, and Kansas City's Prendergast machines, as they do now about Dick Dailey and Resko.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-04 14:55|| 2008-09-04 14:55|| Front Page Top

#12 "I havent seen anyone attack Palin for being a woman, or a mom, or being from the heartland."

Been asleep the past few days, LH?

And no, I'm not going to bother finding links for you.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2008-09-04 15:40|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/] 2008-09-04 15:40|| Front Page Top

#13 Exactly, Barbara. Just compare and contrast the covers of Us Weekly for the issues devoted to Obama and Palin.
Oh yeah - and Alaska ain't exactly the heartland. More like the frontier. I know that Governor Palin was born in Idaho, but her parents moved her to Alaska when she was a baby.

Posted by Rambler in California">Rambler in California 2008-09-04 16:38|| 2008-09-04 16:38|| Front Page Top

#14 Palin is closer to Truman than the others listed. Small town background. Limited educational preparation for elite position. Similar reputation for forthrightness. He had a couple of terms in the Senate vs her short tenure as a governor. He had some legal and military 'executive' experience. Both had private business experience. She has the unique (so far) and not insignificant experience of motherhood. He became president suddenly and early. Overall preparation edge goes to Truman, but not by a lot. And though he was an unpopular president I think he did a pretty good job.

Posted by Glenmore 2008-09-04 16:41|| 2008-09-04 16:41|| Front Page Top

#15 I heard one woman say I watched Palin and saw myself. The donks are having trouble with the fact that a lot of people identify with Palin. She seems like just a regular person that has values of mainstream America.

Posted by Joe L. 2008-09-04 16:54|| 2008-09-04 16:54|| Front Page Top

#16 Its just mind boggling that going to a more selective university, having a broader outlook, are looked upon as DISqualifications.

The team known as "Kennedy's Best and Brightest" nod in agreement from the Early Vietnam History wing...

Posted by Milton Fandango 2008-09-04 17:17|| 2008-09-04 17:17|| Front Page Top

#17 Liberal Hawk,
TR is actually closer to GW Bush is the sense that, yes he did have the elite social upbringing and education. However, his time out West caused him to reject much of his earlier upbringing and embrace the values of the "Common Man".

Back east, he was a sickly house bound kid. When he returned he was a healthy athletic outdoorsman.

As for Sarah Palin, being small town just means she has not absorbed alot of the self loathing pathologies of the bi-coastal elites.

Al

Posted by Frozen Al 2008-09-04 18:10|| 2008-09-04 18:10|| Front Page Top

#18 Univ. of Idaho, nice school out in the farmlands, pea and lental capitol of the world. Great place to send your kids for an education, safe, and it is the heartland. Mascot is a Vandal, how fitting. I would not trade even a second of my time there for a Harvard degree.

Posted by 49 Pan 2008-09-04 19:09|| 2008-09-04 19:09|| Front Page Top

#19 Liberalhawk - Harvard and Yale are at the bottom core of half the problems in this country.

Some of us actively wish those two Universities ill.

Posted by 3dc 2008-09-04 19:15|| 2008-09-04 19:15|| Front Page Top

#20 My dad told me that Rockefeller's(?) list of VP duties to Mondale was 3/4 of a page long.

Interesting we have a P/VP argument going.........

and wasn't Truman a failure at his businesses?

Posted by anonymous2u 2008-09-04 19:52|| 2008-09-04 19:52|| Front Page Top

#21 "Broader" perspective...
Is it derived from da word broad, LH? ;-)

Geebus. That may have been somewhat valid half a century ago, but now these institutios became little more than leftist indoctrination centers (xcept hard sci--and even there it goes in that direction in some faculties).

I would say that people that self-study have a much broader and deeper insight into things, these days.

Posted by Spike Uniter 2008-09-04 20:59|| 2008-09-04 20:59|| Front Page Top

23:57 Broadhead6
23:54 Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields
23:50 ed
23:49 rjschwarz
23:49 rjschwarz
23:47 rjschwarz
23:47 ed
23:46 General Comment
23:46 rjschwarz
23:39 Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields
23:39 JosephMendiola
23:37 Broadhead6
23:34 Barbara Skolaut
23:32 Barbara Skolaut
23:31 Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields
23:31 Redneck Jim
23:29 Redneck Jim
23:27 JosephMendiola
23:27 Redneck Jim
23:26 ed
23:20 Broadhead6
23:16 General Comment
23:12 Barbara Skolaut
23:12 General Comment