GOP VP thread: Palin is the pick

So according to Mike Huckabee, literally every mayor, town council president, county administrator and governor in the country is more qualified to be president than Obama. Even if that person had no ideas whatsoever. Executive experience is all that counts.

What pisses me off so badly about the criticism of Obama for having dreams and goals and whatnot that seem unattainable is that it's depressing to see us not strive for what seems unattainable. Yes, we have no idea how he's going to pull some of this stuff off. Yes, some of his ideas will probably fail. But Jesus. What happened to taking a fucking chance every now and then?

There was no reason whatsoever in 1961 to expect we could put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. None. Now, nearly FIFTY years later, with as far as we've come since then, we're LESS courageous than we were then. Why is that? And I know, I know. The money. But if a lack of funds were the excuse for everything, no one would ever own their own business. You have to take chances. You have to acknowledge that failure is a possibility, but you have to have faith that you won't fail.

Do I think Obama's going to solve every problem in four or eight years? Of course not. But I know he's not going to be afraid to try. And I think we'll be closer in 2012 or 2016 than we are now. I just don't get that from the other side.

 

But there's also a huge difference between a "no" vote on something as one of 100 and having to decide when the bill gets to your desk to either sign it or veto it. Obama never has had to take such responsibility.

 

All I know is that in the last six hours - I keep checking out websites figuring something is going to break on Palin. I've read the inch-deep profiles playing up her life story written in the last 18 months, and I admire her for what she's done and accomplished. I respect her (apparently more than Rush Limbaugh). That said, the DC and NY media, not to mention TMZ, the National Enquirer, US. etc. will find stuff that may not reflect so well on her. I fear that in keeping this thing hush hush, McCain's camp may not have done due dilligence. Lets be clear, McCain and Palin still have to prove she belongs. Ask Obama, Edwards and Clinton and McCain and Romney the stuff that can seep out in a campaign. How long questions lingered about Obama's faith, Romney's faith, McCain's health. She's not going to get a free pass. I actually think Palin's selection is a result of the GOP's thin bench and Bush's low approval ratings more than anything else. Palin may simply have been the last best option.
A book, perhaps several books, will be written about this week in our history, and they should be good reads.

 

Is there really? Or is that what you're telling yourself? I'm not buying that either Obama or McCain will face a panic attack when a bill lands on their desk.

 

JFK was never governor. Dubya was.

Case closed.

 

"Five kids. Doesn't anybody in this party get the concept of pulling out?"

Bill Maher

 

If only Bill Maher's dad had done that just before he was conceived. What a vile person.

 

If only Bush I had done it in October of '45 . . . a better world it would be.

 

All those needlessly murdered and maimed young men and women.

These right-wingers need to get their asses to a military hospital to understand that "injured", a euphemistic term that we attach normally to sporting events, means that, instead of being dead, these young shining stars have "only".... lost a leg....been paralyzed.... taken shrapnel to the brain... etc.

Asshat Supreme has the nerve to call Maher vile.

 

McCain had about 6 months to choose a VP candidate. And he decided on someone whom he met with once?

Not exactly reasoned judgment.

 

Given Pawlenty's whackjob wife, it seems clear that Rove and the Money tried repeatedly to shove Romney down his throat, and John spat the Ken Doll right back at them, at the eleventh hour.

He then grabbed the individual who best-passed the social conservatives' litmus tests -- no matter that he barely knew her, and was thus flying blind through heavy cloud cover.

Lotsa luck.

 

In the cool light of morning, I believe there's a lot of overthinking about this. Most VP choices throughout history have been compromises (Aaron Burr being the first), and Palin is no different. McCain had a list of picks composed of people he personally favored whom his advisers told him were unacceptable to big elements of the Republican party, and a list of picks acceptable to those elements whose guts he, John McCain, hated.
Palin is acceptable to those elements of the party, and McCain didn't know her well enough to have a personal relationship. So she's the pick.
There's nothing WRONG with this per se. Some compromise VP picks became good Presidents. Some were, well, Aaron Burr and Richard Nixon.