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Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
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 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 5:23 am Post subject: What would you like to ask Sarah Palin? |
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Sarah Palin has to be a reasonably intelligent and articulate person to have gotten as far as she has in politics.
I don't agree with her ideology or her ethics, but that's another matter.
But she would have to be an absolute genius with a photographic memory to survive the next 60 days.
How the heck can McCain expect her to learn about the issues, McCain's positions on them, and memorize the answers to an almost infinite range of questions, all while campaigning?
This column in the atlantic.com by James Fallows makes this point well:
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My prediction about Sarah Palin
29 Aug 2008 07:20 pm
Unless you have seen it first first-hand, as part of the press scrum or as a campaign staffer, it is almost impossible to imagine how grueling the process of running for national office is. Everybody gets exhausted. The candidates have to answer questions and offer views roughly 18 hours a day, and any misstatement on any topic can get them in trouble. Why do candidates so often stick to a stump speech that they repeat event after event and day after day? Because they've worked out the exact way to put their positions on endless thorny issues -- Iraq, abortion, the Middle East, you name it -- and they know that creative variation mainly opens new complications.
If someone is campaigning for the presidency or vice presidency, there's an extra twist. That person has to have a line of argument to offer on any conceivable issue. Quick, without pausing in the next ninety seconds, tell me what you think about: the balance of relations between Taiwan and mainland China, and exactly what signals we're sending to Hamas, and what we think about Russia's role in the G-8 and potentially in NATO, and where North Korea stands on its nuclear pledges -- plus Iran while we're at it, plus the EU after the Irish vote, plus cap-and-trade as applied to India and China, and what's the right future for South Ossetia; and let's not even start on domestic issues.
The point about every one of those issues is that there is a certain phrase or formulation that might seem perfectly innocent to a normal person but that can cause a big uproar. Without going into the details, there is all the difference in the world between saying "Taiwan and mainland China" versus "Taiwan and China." The first is policy as normal; the second -- from an important US official -- would light up the hotline between DC and Beijing.
The further point is that not even the most accomplished person knows all this off the top of his or her head. Example: Barack Obama. He is a quick study and has been campaigning very hard for 18 months. But this summer, when he tried to offer a reassuring message about his commitment to Israeli security with his AIPAC speech, he made a rookie error by getting the standard phraseology slightly wrong.
Let's assume that Sarah Palin is exactly as smart and disciplined as Barack Obama. But instead of the year and a half of nonstop campaigning he has behind him, and Joe Biden's even longer toughening-up process, she comes into the most intense period of the highest stakes campaign with absolutely zero warmup or preparation. If she has ever addressed an international issue, there's no evidence of it in internet-land.
The smartest person in the world could not prepare quickly enough to know the pitfalls, and to sound confident while doing so, on all the issues she will be forced to address. This is long before she gets to a debate with Biden; it's what the press is going to start out looking for.
So the prediction is: unavoidable gaffes. The challenge for the McCain-Palin campaign is to find some way to defuse them ahead of time, since Socrates, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz reincarnated would themselves make errors in her situation. And the challenge for Democrats is to lead people to think, What if she were in charge?, without being bullies about it. |
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/my_prediction_about_sarah_pali.php
So, my question for you is, What questions would you ask Sarah Palin if you were a member of the press, the moderator of a debate, or if you were the opposing candidate?
And what questions wouldn't you ask, or shouldn't be asked? Are there questions that should be off limits?
And my question for McCain: "What the hell were you thinking?" |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:22 am Post subject: |
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My second question would be: Now that Poland has signed on to a missile shield agreement with the US, and Russia is unhappy about it, how would you plan to get the evil godless Ruskies out of Georgia and what would you do when they drag their feet or outright refuse?
This is too easy: My first question: If a presidential nominee of either party announced he was choosing a person with 4 or 5 years on the city council of a tiny town, a couple of years as mayor and less than 2 years as governor of a small state as the only political experience, what would your reaction be to that choice?
My real first question: What role, if any, does the federal government have in the private sexual lives of private citizens? Where do you find this power in the Constitution? Follow up: What role, if any, does the federal government have in a case like that of Teri Schiavo? Where do you find this power in the Constitution?
Next question: The federal government is trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. How would you solve this problem? |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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McCain was probably thinking this:
If I choose someone with top notch resume like Liberman. Romney , or Tom Ridge or even Palenty well I am not going to win.
If the election were about having a top notch resume well then it would not be Obama for the Democrats.
If you want to really know who Obama is most like when it comes to qualifications it is George W Bush . Bush only had a second rate resume in 2000 , and like Obama he was really good at giving answers with little or no substance.
So honestly Obama reminds me a lot of George Bush in 2000.
It maybe true that a Palin has only third or fourth rate qualifications to be president . That doesn't change the fact that Obama doesn't have any special qualifications compared with most senators.
Maybe Obama would be up to the job in the future but not now , not while the US is at war.
Going on the US is a very conservative country , and these people vote. And the majority of the voters are women. If McCain gets any kind of help with women then he has a good shot.
He choose the person that would give him the best chance of winning.
Choosing the most qualified person probably wouldn't have done it this year for him.
As I said before Obama's supporters didn't care much about qualifications until about 120 hours ago. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:40 am Post subject: |
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| Ummm...where is your question for Palin, Joo? |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:45 am Post subject: |
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[quote="Ya-ta Boy"]
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| My second question would be: Now that Poland has signed on to a missile shield agreement with the US, and Russia is unhappy about it, how would you plan to get the evil godless Ruskies out of Georgia and what would you do when they drag their feet or outright refuse? |
You deal with Russia later. you do what you can to keep the situation as cool as possible until the US gets the edge in the war on terror.
The US objective ought to be to protect the rest of Georgia . There will be time later to do more.
| Quote: |
| This is too easy: My first question: If a presidential nominee of either party announced he was choosing a person with 4 or 5 years on the city council of a tiny town, a couple of years as mayor and less than 2 years as governor of a small state as the only political experience, what would your reaction be to that choice? |
well since qualifications don't mean much this year , I would say McCain is doing what it takes to win.
| Quote: |
| My real first question: What role, if any, does the federal government have in the private sexual lives of private citizens? Where do you find this power in the Constitution? Follow up: What role, if any, does the federal government have in a case like that of Teri Schiavo? Where do you find this power in the Constitution? |
I don't know. Not something I deal with.
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| Next question: The federal government is trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. How would you solve this problem? |
Grow the economy and raise both the income level for social security contribution and the age when people can get it.
Tax imported oil.
Raise the gas tax.
Obama just wants to tax the oil companies a movie that makes no sense unless there is also a tax on imported oil. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Ummm...where is your question for Palin, Joo? |
I like your questions but I would like to know her plans for defeating the enemy.
If she doesn't have a plan for Iran I would be happy to send her one.
Then I would ask her what she thinks of it.
I would just hope that Palin isn't a (Ron ) Paulian.
Just curious Yata
who would you vote for Ron Paul or George Bush? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:52 am Post subject: |
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| I'd like to know if she plans to hold her crusader sword or AK when Jesus comes back after the enemy has caused world war 3 and it starts to rain frogs. Oh happy day. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:54 am Post subject: |
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| Oh I would also like to know what she thinks of deploying weapons in space. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:58 am Post subject: |
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| Joo, she is a former councilwoman who graduated from the University of North Idaho (communications, no less). What the hell does she know about weapons in space or defeating the enemy. She is an evangelical conservative with a thoroughly unimpressive CV. Ask her how she liked the Left Behind books or how to teach your kids not to f.uck (and fail miserably). |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:14 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| Joo, she is a former councilwoman who graduated from the University of North Idaho (communications, no less). What the hell does she know about weapons in space or defeating the enemy. She is an evangelical conservative with a thoroughly unimpressive CV. Ask her how she liked the Left Behind books or how to teach your kids not to f.uck (and fail miserably). |
you are right on the other hand I really didn't like Obama' answer what he is going to do on the subject of new weapons projects. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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huffdaddy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:42 am Post subject: |
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| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
Maybe Obama would be up to the job in the future but not now , not while the US is at war. |
Cause we all know how bad the last smooth-talking Illinois Congressman with little experience fared. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:37 am Post subject: |
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I would ask her how it feels to have a thread named after her that might just overtake the four-hundred-pager on "evolution," should it keep growing as it does...
Last edited by Gopher on Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:46 am Post subject: |
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I'd ask her that since it appears she's an intelligent individual, when was she planning on having that birds-and-bees talk with her teenage daughter?
The Republican party having the platform of "Family Values" and all.
Or perhaps she's part of the more extreme variety of Republican who thinks contraception is murder too.
But that doesn't really square with the whole "chastity-before-marriage" thing this admin has been trying to shove down everyone's throats...at home and abroad.
Faith-based initiatives.
Right.
I guess if McCain wins, at least we shouldn't be hearing a squeak about that garbage again. |
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