The Next Vice-President?

[Haggis@wk]

Play Palin Bingo tonight!

I'm curious. Is there ANYTHING she could do to win your respect? (not vote for her, I realize that's impossible)

[Serenity]

Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates have been a disappointment. Both sides just spew partisan rhetoric and meaningless statistics. In the end....the polls show that each party thinks their own side won!

It's time for revolution! It's time to dismantle the "machine". It's time to disperse the lobbyists, special-interest groups and their dirty money!

[OperaTenor]

Play Palin Bingo tonight!

I'm curious. Is there ANYTHING she could do to win your respect? (not vote for her, I realize that's impossible)

No, there isn't. She's in way over her head(the debate tonight reinforced it, even though she essentially won by not losing [it]), she's as incurious as Incurious George, your beloved President, as narrow minded as POFD Cheney, and about as smart as that Miss South Carolina that made the rounds awhile back.

I know you think she was *stellar* tonight, but that's probably more because your expectations were lowered than you'll ever want to admit. Let's face it, some part of all of us was expecting or afraid she would drool on her shoes at some point, and that didn't happen. If it had been a 30-minute debate, it would have been a draw. However, as she went on, she kept going back to the same platitudinal talking points, and every answer looped back to them, regardless of the question, with a couple of glaring exceptions. Her interpretation of Vice Presidential duties was abysmal. While Biden missed it technically, he was correct in the core function. She *never* delivered on any specifics to back up her glittering generalities, while Biden was more substantive as the evening progressed.

While Biden was more solid, Palin will get the credit and the biggest payoff, because this should silence the grumbling in the Republican base about her suitability for the job.

[Haggis@wk]

Okay

[Serenity]

I say they were both "full of it".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/debate_fact_check

[analog]

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a.

[Shapley]

[she's as incurious as Incurious George, your beloved President, as narrow minded as POFD Cheney, and about as smart as that Miss South Carolina that made the rounds awhile back.

You accuse me of partisanship (which I've argued is not a bad thing), but you will note that I have always given Sen. Obama the respect due to him by virtue of the office he holds. I disagree with him, I think he is absolutely wrong and that he is dishonest (to be expected, given his profession), but I refer to him as Sen. Obama, excepting when quoting headlines. I could resort to the name-calling that you find so popular when referring to the current President, Vice-President, and others (Obama been Lyin' is a favourite I have seen, but I've not repeated it 'til now). I respect the dignity of the office they hold, and try to afford them the requisite honours their election to high office has earned them. I have probably slipped a time or two, out of anger, frustration, or fatigue, but I always strive to give them their due. I believe I can disagree with them, even think them guilty of serious infractions, without resorting to name calling. But then, I'm an undereducated Midwesterner, so you'll perhaps have to overlook my obvious lack of understanding of the niceties of proper debate language.

I refer to Former President Bill Clinton as such, and to Sen. Clinton appropriately as well. Even Ex-President Carter (I use 'ex' in place of 'former' for President Carter, although I don't really know why). My own view is that Carter did a worse job in doing his Presidential duties, but he did attempt to maintain the dignity of the office. I believe President Clinton was a more effective President than was President Carter, but was a disgrace to the office. It is, I believe, a symptom of our generation.

V/R
Shapley

[Haggis@wk]

From my hypersensitivity to all things Middle East Biden said the strangest and most ill-informed thing I have ever heard about Lebanon in my life.

Nobody – nobody – has ever kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon. Not the United States. Nor France. Not Israel. And not the Lebanese. Nobody.

Joe Biden has literally no idea what he’s talking about.

I wish Ifill had asked; When did the United States and France kick Hezbollah out of Lebanon? . . .

Like many who watched the debate, I was bracing myself for Palin to say something off-putting about foreign policy. She’s the one who needed the crash course, allegedly; Biden is supposedly Mr. Foreign Policy. He’s supposed to be the experienced elder statesman Obama chose to help him govern and fill in some of his knowledge and experience gaps. He’s supposed to know far more about foreign policy than she does.

THIS DEBATE "FACT CHECK" from ABC News notes that Sarah Palin fluffed the name of a general in Afghanistan but ignores Joe Biden's multiple Constitutional mistakes. Putting the President in Article I, and claiming that the VP only presides over the Senate in case of a tie would seem to be at least as significant, especially given that Biden has been in the Senate since before I thought leisure suits were cool, and is, you know, running for Vice President.

Perhaps he should study up on what the job involves -- remember, the rap on Sarah Palin was that she didn't know. And perhaps the press should try reporting on what he says more . . . .

At TaxProf, a roundup of tax gaffes from last night's debate, more from Palin than from Biden.

[jamiebk]

The woman is unfit to hold the office of POTUS. I cannot even conceive of her in a dire event of attack on the US. McCain in Air Force One (if he's still alive) and her on the ground in a bunker with her finger on the button of our nukes. It's not scary...its horrifying.

I do not believe her for one single solitary momemt when she speaks of "tolerance" She and McCain will stack the US Supreme court. My mind is made up...it was locked and loaded after the debate last night. If this is the best the Reps can do, its an embarassment, especially when there are so many other phenominal women in politics.

[Shapley]

At TaxProf, a roundup of tax gaffes from last night's debate, more from Palin than from Biden.

Palin also repeated the exaggeration that Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes. That number includes seven votes that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on corporations or affluent individuals; 23 votes that were against tax cuts; and 17 that came on just 7 different bills. She also claimed that Biden and Obama voted for "the largest tax increase in history." Palin is referring here to the Democrats' 2008 budget proposal, which would indeed have resulted in about $217 billion in higher taxes over two years. That's a significant increase. But measured as a percentage of the nation's economic output, or gross domestic product, the yardstick that most economists prefer, the 2008 budget proposal would have been the third-largest since 1968, and it's not even in the top 10 since 1940.

The pro-Obama fact-checkers use this one often, even though it is technically correct. He has cast 94 votes on measures that would raise taxes. They cite the fact that some of these measures, even though they raised taxes on some, lowered taxes on others as though that is not a tax increase. I'm afraid it is. They also claim that, just because some of the votes were on the same, revised, measure, that they don't seem to count. He voted for the measure to raise taxes. the measure failed, it was revised and sent to the floor again. He voted, again, for the measure. That's two votes to raise taxes, no matter how you look at it.

V/R
Shapley

[Haggis@wk]

This is just wrong! but I can't quit giggling....

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Sarah Palin my left elbow - that's Our Miss Brooks! I recognize her!

Or am I the only one old enough to remember Our Miss Brooks? Surely not...

And if you have two ittybitty doggies, can you Halloween costume them as George Burns and Gracie Allen? How cute would that be?

[Giant Communist Robot]

The "Sarah-cuda" doesn't look so tough, now.

[OperaTenor]

[OperaTenor]

[she's as incurious as Incurious George, your beloved President, as narrow minded as POFD Cheney, and about as smart as that Miss South Carolina that made the rounds awhile back.

You accuse me of partisanship.......blah blah blah - a whole bunch of indignance at my lack of proper respect - blah blah blah ........a symptom of our generation.

V/R
Shapley

Hey, it's one of the reasons I would have never made CPO in the Navy. A person's title doesn't automatically get my respect - they have to earn it from me.

[Shapley]

Hey, it's one of the reasons I would have never made CPO in the Navy. A person's title doesn't automatically get my respect - they have to earn it from me.

I never said I respect the person. A Liar is a liar, a thief a thief. But they hold office and as such, are entitled to the respect owed that position.

Sen. Obama has earned your respect how? Gov. Palin has earned your disrepect how? Your respect is your own, and you are free to bestow it as flippantly as you choose, but your enmity for Gov. Palin seems to stem only from the fact that she is a Republican running for high office. Yet, somehow, my partisanship is a discredit.....

[jamiebk]

but your enmity for Gov. Palin seems to stem only from the fact that she is a Republican running for high office. Yet, somehow, my partisanship is a discredit.....

Correction....she is a Republican running for high office for which she is not qualified...

[Shapley]

but your enmity for Gov. Palin seems to stem only from the fact that she is a Republican running for high office. Yet, somehow, my partisanship is a discredit.....

Correction....she is a Republican running for high office for which she is not qualified...

As someone pointed out when Haggis and I questioned the qualifications of Senator Obama to be President, the only Constitutional qualifications for the office are:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

I'm afraid she's as qualified as Senator Obama, and she has executive experience to boot...

[jamiebk]

OK Shap please then tell me that you are 100% and totally convinced that she is the right person to be a POTUS? You have no qualms whatsoever about her holding the total executive power of the office including going nose to nose with Putin and other US dretractors? That she is truly qualified to put her finger on our nuclear button? That she could easily step into the shoes of the Commander in Chief? What's she gonna do if she's confronted with a real threat? Offer them a plate of home made cookies and tell them "I'll get back to ya"? Please don't tell me that you would actually vote to put our country in her hands. Do you honestly believe that she is the strongest person McCain could have picked?

[Serenity]

Oh come one, Jamiebk, he's gonna reply "Ya betcha', for sure!"