‘Sarah Palin, the woman poised to become the most powerful female politician in the free world, disproves that once and for all.
The gun-toting, Iraq war-supporting Governor of Alaska may decide the next U.S. presidential election.
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At a recent rally in the swing state of Virginia, she was greeted with crowds chanting ‘Sarah, Sarah, Sarah’ as though she was a cross between Madonna and the Pope.
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If Palin can keep this momentum up, it could take her all the way to the White House.
For what started out as a contest between Barack Obama and John McCain has, instead, become a fight between Obama and Palin - at least for now.
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So how is it that this smalltown gal (some would say redneck woman) has captured the imagination of the American public to the extent that three weeks after being chosen as McCain’s running mate, she continues to dominate the national conversation?
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In short, she’s an ad man’s dream for an all-American role model. As a frontier woman who fought corruption and won, she’s the embodiment of independent womanhood.
As the hunting and fishing beauty queen who got her man and went on to have five children, she’s a potent symbol of the apple-pie American mother-figure.’
‘Barack Obama is overwhelmingly Britain’s choice to be the next US president, five times more popular than his Republican rival, John McCain, a Guardian/ICM poll shows today. Carried out ahead of the Democratic candidate’s visit to Britain next week, the poll reveals that 53% feel certain he would make the best president, with only 11% favouring McCain; 36% declined to express an opinion.’
Looking in the UK for current news on ‘Palin’ leads either to stories criticising her, or to news about her daughter:
‘She was accused of violating ethics rules when she fired the state’s top law enforcement official, allegedly because he refused to sack her former brother-in-law. Mrs Palin denies any wrongdoing.
Analysts, meanwhile, expressed concern about her lack of experience on the national or international stage.
She had travelled little overseas, having made trips to Canada and to Kuwait and Germany, where she visited US troops.
Gaffe-filled interviews were seized on by critics as reasons why she was not up to the job.
In one she cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as evidence of her foreign policy credentials, in another she appeared unsure of what constituted the vice-president’s role.
Comedians mocked her on prime time television and some members of her own party rounded on her.’
Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has split from her fiance, Levi Johnston.
I don’t understand why they made some of the statements they did. The people in charge put the words in her mouth, and did the ward robe mess. Two countries border my state. I can see Russia. Really dumb, and she was scripted.
Why not say that if she got the call at 3 in the morning, they would just work the plan. That is what most managers do. No one can really believe the country is ran from the cuff, do they?
Maybe Shodan will come in and state that since she’s VICE Presider, that means she’s in charge of vices. Or that since he is the President, Obama is THE presider over Congress too.
I represent myself, and no one else. And certainly not the Daily Mail. For the record, my politics are all over the place.
FWIW I was presenting a dispassionate view. It is a matter of public record that she inspired Republicans. You may not like it, but if you take a step back from partisanship, you will have to admit it. She also inspired Democrats. Never have I seen such loathing, such a deluge of slime, not even against Mrs Thatcher.
As Starving Artist mentions, it is mildly amusing to see the assertion that Obama does preside over the executive branch of the federal government* because he is the President but the VP does not preside over the Senate because he/she is the President of the Senate.
Oh, and Captain Carrot - might I trouble you not to mis-attribute quotes?
Regards,
Shodan
*For Obama voters - there are three (3) branches to the federal government - legislative, executive, and judicial. And water is wet.
Fair enough. Your support for Margaret Thatcher was why I assumed that.
I agree that Palin inspired and energised the Republican fundamentalist base. As my Daily Mail quote shows, she had the same effect on the Thatcherite right-wing here.
However you said:
There is no evidence that Palin appeals to the current UK Conservative party leadership, let alone to the centre or the left here.
Obama is sensationally popular in the UK, whereas Palin is known as a figure of fun for her gaffes.
Yeah! And we all know a judge in a Federal court is very powerful, so we also know that we shouldn’t mess with a judge in a beauty competition!
That must mean that if you make light of the Miss America pageant, David Hasselhoff could send you to jail for contempt! Because… he’s a judge, too! Just like that John Roberts guy! They’re both judges, so don’t fuck with the Hoff or the Roberts.
Because they’re both called judges.
Just remember that. All judges are the same, all presidents are the same. Otherwise they wouldn’t be called judges and presidents.
“She’s a maverick. like McCain, with her breaks with Don Young and Ted Stevens.”
That’s such a bullshit term. Perhaps she was astute enough to recognize an opportunity to jump in the gap left by aging slime balls, but that’s about it.
She makes my skin crawl. Her nomination was nothing more than a desperate ploy. America will really truly be over should she win the Presidency.
I will try typing slowly, to see if that makes it easier to understand. I actually never made any claim at all regarding the powers or authority of the VP as to the Senate. My point is that simply making a linguistic argument doesn’t work here. The VP presides over the Senate. That word does not require “control”, as shown by the large number of ceremonial Presidents, who have little or no actual control.
Where the verbal slight of hand occured was in Shodan’s claim that this was an open and shut argument - that because the VP “presides over the Senate” it is ridiculous to claim that he is not “in control” of the Senate. That is a huge jump from a word which, as used on multiple occasions, simply does not imply automatically that the person is “in control.” It may be that the VP is “in control” of the Senate. But that isn’t because of the use of the word “presides.”
And to then, as Shodan does, imply others need civics lessons, makes it all the more laughable.
Not really true. She excited one particular segment of the Republican party – namely, the religious conservatives – outside of that particular demographic, she became increasingly unpopular during the campaign with everybody else. She turned off centrists and even moderate Republicans in droves. Don’t let the crowds of yokels at her rallies (which still never approached Obama numbers) fool you into thinking she was broadly popular. She repulsed far more people than she attracted. She does not have mainstream popularity. The mainstream perception of Palin in the US is that she is a dimwitted church lady with a mean streak, not that she is a person of substance.
The worst slime of the campaign came from Palin herself. Most of her own wounds were self-inflicted. Her campaign and her supporters reacted with over-the-top indignation at the slightest criticism. Katie Couric asking her what kind of newspapers and magazines she liked to read became a “gotcha” question. Legitimate questions about her ethics investigation, her lack of qualifications, her bridge to nowhere lie, her nutball church, her seccessionsist history, etc. all got characterized as “personal attacks,” even as she was accusing Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists,” and “not seeing America the way the rest of us do.”
As I recall, the “in charge of the Senate” remark was made to school children. I can give her a pass on that one. My qualms are more due to her performance elsewhere, such as, for instance, the Vice Presidential Debate, where she was asked basically the same question:
IFILL: Everybody gets extra credit tonight. We’re going to move on to the next question. Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day. You, senator, said, you would not be vice president under any circumstances. Now maybe this was just what was going on at the time. But tell us now, looking forward, what it is you think the vice presidency is worth now.
PALIN: In my comment there, it was a lame attempt at a joke and yours was a lame attempt at a joke, too, I guess, because nobody got it. Of course we know what a vice president does.
BIDEN: They didn’t get yours or mine? Which one didn’t they get?
PALIN: No, no. Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that’s not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I’m thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president’s policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. John McCain and I have had good conversations about where I would lead with his agenda. That is energy independence in America and reform of government over all, and then working with families of children with special needs. That’s near and dear to my heart also. In those arenas, John McCain has already tapped me and said, that’s where I want you, I want you to lead. I said, I can’t wait to get and there go to work with you.
See, I think her comment there is more or less gibberish. Shodan, you want to explain how that is a coherent, cogent statement of the powers and responsibilities of the Vice President of the USA?
So all those Palin supporters would agree that Vice President Biden has the Constitutional authority to make sure the Senate is supportive of President Obama’s policies, right?
Type as slowly as you like, but it doesn’t change the fact that you drew from Shodan’s question as to whether you would deny that Obama is in charge of the executive branch of the federal government, that he was saying the same thing as to assert that the President of Ireland is “in charge” of Ireland, the President of Israel is “in charge” of Israel, or the President of Germany is “in charge” of Germany.
It isn’t my fault if you framed your argument in an erroneous way and your typing slowly does not magically make that erroneous argument correct. Leaving aside completely the role of the vice-president in the Senate, the President is indeed in charge of the executive branch of government just like Shodan said, and his statement (or question, really) was correct as spoken and does not equate to his saying the President of Ireland in charge of Ireland, etc.