Palin Discussion [split]

[Fire Fly]

The New Yorker had an interesting article on how Palin became the VP pick. Its a bit long so I'll just post the end part.

The Insiders
How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin.
by Jane Mayer October 27, 2008

[SNIP]

The thoroughness of the campaign’s vetting process, overseen by the Washington lawyer and former White House counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr., remains in dispute. The campaign insists that Palin’s record and personal history were carefully examined. (Culvahouse declined to comment for this story.) The Los Angeles Times, however, reported that the campaign never contacted several obvious sources of information on Palin, including Lyda Green—a Republican state senator in Alaska, and a former ally turned opponent. Also in dispute is whether Palin disclosed to the campaign, as she and officials have said, that her unwed teen-age daughter was pregnant. “I am a hundred per cent sure they didn’t know,” McCain’s longtime friend said. Another campaign source, however, insisted that McCain’s team knew about the pregnancy.

The selection of Palin thrilled the Republican base, and the pundits who met with her in Juneau have remained unflagging in their support. But a surprising number of conservative thinkers have declared her unfit for the Vice-Presidency. Peggy Noonan, the Wall Street Journal columnist, recently wrote, “The Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It’s no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain.” David Brooks, the Times columnist, has called Palin “a fatal cancer to the Republican Party.” Christopher Buckley, the son of National Review’s late founder, defected to the Obama camp two weeks ago, in part because of his dismay over Palin. Matthew Dowd, the former Bush campaign strategist turned critic of the President, said recently that McCain “knows in his gut” that Palin isn’t qualified for the job, “and when this race is over, that is something he will have to live with. . . . He put the country at risk.”

Palin initially provided the McCain campaign with a boost, but polls now suggest that she has become a liability. A top Republican close to the campaign said that McCain’s aides have largely kept faith with Palin. They have been impressed by her work ethic, and by what a quick study she is. According to the Republican close to the campaign, she has sometimes discomfited advisers by travelling with a big family entourage. “It kind of changes the dynamic of a meeting to have them all in the room,” he told me. John McCain’s comfort level with Palin is harder to gauge. In the view of the longtime McCain friend, “John’s personal comfort level is low with everyone right now. He’s angry. But it was his choice.”

She really was a Hail Mary pass. People will blame McCain's strategist Steve Schmidt but ultimately it was McCain's decision and he chose poorly. This entire campaign, the general and primary, McCain has been choosing poorly. There was a reason why his campaign nearly died in 2007: poor management. He never fixed the core problems with his campaign, which I think is himself.

[Darth Wong]

What could be more unprofessional than bringing your entire family into staff meetings? You couldn't get away with that if you were working at a fucking Wal-Mart, and she does it while running for the position of Vice President?

[General Zod]

What could be more unprofessional than bringing your entire family into staff meetings? You couldn't get away with that if you were working at a fucking Wal-Mart, and she does it while running for the position of Vice President?

With as much money as they spend on Palin's wardrobe, you'd think they could spend some of it on a baby-sitter.

[Galvatron]

You know what's really fucked up about Palin's statement wrt God? Is that she's effectively endorsing dictatorship.

Isn't that the end-goal for Christianity with the whole establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth?

[Haruko]

Remember guys, the Vice President is in charge of the Senate.

My favorite part was Mrs. Palin's spokeswoman's attempted defense of her stupidity in the CNN article titled "Palin takes heat for saying VP 'in charge' of the Senate":

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Palin, said the Alaska governor was simply answering the question in a way a third-grader could understand.

"Governor Palin was responding to a third grader's inquiry," she said. "She was explaining in terms a third-grader could understand that the vice-president is also president of the U.S. Senate."

[Alyrium Denryle]

I am pretty sure that a third grader can understand that the vice president's only role in the senate is to break tie votes.

[Civil War Man]

I am pretty sure that a third grader can understand that the vice president's only role in the senate is to break tie votes.

My mom sent me the article. My response was "When I was a third grader, what would my response have been if she gave that answer to me?"

Her answer: "That's not what it says in the Constitution."

[Darth Wong]

I don't think it particularly matters whether a child or even a high school student should know that. What matters is whether a candidate for vice president should know that. I totally reject the notion that the bar for educational qualification should be set so low that any high-schooler should qualify. I want presidents and vice presidents who are much more knowledgeable and well-educated than a high-school graduate. We set the bar too low when we need to find a vice presidential candidate guilty of not knowing things a high schooler should know. We should expect a vice presidential candidate to know more about government than 99% of the population knows.

Bob the Unlicensed Plumber can go fuck himself.

[The Yosemite Bear]

hey I heard Levi (Palin's son in law) say that she had damn well better win, so if she doesn't get the new job what sort of appointments are there for a high school dropout?

[Aratech]

Hmmm, le'see here. Well, there's burger flipper, ground crew for a college (the guys who are always mulching, trimming the hedges, that sort of thing), probably a dog catcher, home maker, industrial factory worker (lower end of the totem pole), and probably a few other just-above-poverty level 'professions.'

Anyone else got some ideas?

[The Yosemite Bear]

well somehow I bet if she were to win, he would get some job, like director of FEMA, or FCC chairman....

[Aratech]

well somehow I bet if she were to win, he would get some job, like director of FEMA, or FCC chairman....

Hmmm, just when I thought FEMA couldn't get any worse. On the other hand, that could simply be a clever right-wing ploy to attempt to discredit and therefore, dismantle, another "government handout."

[sketerpot]

In one of the more stunningly pig-ignorant developments in this campaign, Sarah Palin denounced genetics research as a waste of time. Specifically, at a speech she used "fruit fly research" (said in an incredulous tone) as her prize example of pork that doesn't help the public.

In case anybody doesn't get it, fruit flies are a standard lab animal for genetics research. They're cheap, they're one of the best-understood animals genetically, they have a short life cycle, and you can make a lot of them quickly. It was as if she was jeering at "research on rats". And you can bet that her base lapped it up as eagerly as the mythical "cock-hungry XXX sluts" whose descriptions flood our spam folders daily.

[The Yosemite Bear]

she also brought up french/eu bashing in the same sentance as well.

[SirNitram]

In one of the more stunningly pig-ignorant developments in this campaign, Sarah Palin denounced genetics research as a waste of time. Specifically, at a speech she used "fruit fly research" (said in an incredulous tone) as her prize example of pork that doesn't help the public.

In case anybody doesn't get it, fruit flies are a standard lab animal for genetics research. They're cheap, they're one of the best-understood animals genetically, they have a short life cycle, and you can make a lot of them quickly. It was as if she was jeering at "research on rats". And you can bet that her base lapped it up as eagerly as the mythical "cock-hungry XXX sluts" whose descriptions flood our spam folders daily.

I can top that. This was during her.. *VOMIT* ..Special Needs policy speech. The one where she sweeps all evidence of her atrocious record on such, and McCain's steadfast refusal to fund IDEA, under the rug and bloviates.

The specific research funded there made discoveries in Neurexin, a protein that has been linked to Autism.

Waiting for her to support institutionalizing and tortur-.. I mean, ABA.

[Guardsman Bass]

You know what was hilarious about that comment on the provision of government help for private schools for special needs kids by Palin? Obama had brought up something like that in the last debate, where he pointed out that disability activists had been trying to get more funding on this type of thing, and they needed it - and McCain criticized him for only wanting to throw and spend money on problems like this.

It's not really a bad idea on Palin's part, in my opinion; there are kids who have special needs who aren't getting the attention and help they ought to get in public schools, and a program like this would probably allow their parents who couldn't avoid otherwise to put them in schools with the proper facilities (if they exist).

[Alyrium Denryle]

In one of the more stunningly pig-ignorant developments in this campaign, Sarah Palin denounced genetics research as a waste of time. Specifically, at a speech she used "fruit fly research" (said in an incredulous tone) as her prize example of pork that doesn't help the public.

In case anybody doesn't get it, fruit flies are a standard lab animal for genetics research. They're cheap, they're one of the best-understood animals genetically, they have a short life cycle, and you can make a lot of them quickly. It was as if she was jeering at "research on rats". And you can bet that her base lapped it up as eagerly as the mythical "cock-hungry XXX sluts" whose descriptions flood our spam folders daily.

I cannot even watch that without vomiting a little bit in my mouth. And since fucking when was the NSF and NIH pork-barrel spending?

[General Zod]

In one of the more stunningly pig-ignorant developments in this campaign, Sarah Palin denounced genetics research as a waste of time. Specifically, at a speech she used "fruit fly research" (said in an incredulous tone) as her prize example of pork that doesn't help the public.

In case anybody doesn't get it, fruit flies are a standard lab animal for genetics research. They're cheap, they're one of the best-understood animals genetically, they have a short life cycle, and you can make a lot of them quickly. It was as if she was jeering at "research on rats". And you can bet that her base lapped it up as eagerly as the mythical "cock-hungry XXX sluts" whose descriptions flood our spam folders daily.

I cannot even watch that without vomiting a little bit in my mouth. And since fucking when was the NSF and NIH pork-barrel spending?

Because according to the McCain campaign, anything that receives earmarks is pork barrel spending, and they promised to get rid of earmarks, remember? In their deluded mindset it doesn't actually matter whether or not the projects receiving these earmarks are useful or not.

[Alyrium Denryle]

In one of the more stunningly pig-ignorant developments in this campaign, Sarah Palin denounced genetics research as a waste of time. Specifically, at a speech she used "fruit fly research" (said in an incredulous tone) as her prize example of pork that doesn't help the public.

In case anybody doesn't get it, fruit flies are a standard lab animal for genetics research. They're cheap, they're one of the best-understood animals genetically, they have a short life cycle, and you can make a lot of them quickly. It was as if she was jeering at "research on rats". And you can bet that her base lapped it up as eagerly as the mythical "cock-hungry XXX sluts" whose descriptions flood our spam folders daily.

I cannot even watch that without vomiting a little bit in my mouth. And since fucking when was the NSF and NIH pork-barrel spending?

Because according to the McCain campaign, anything that receives earmarks is pork barrel spending, and they promised to get rid of earmarks, remember? In their deluded mindset it doesn't actually matter whether or not the projects receiving these earmarks are useful or not.

Which is just fucking rediculous. The NSF and NIH are independent arms of the federal government, not subject to direction or orders from the executive branch. So of course funding them is an earmark!

[Guardsman Bass]

You know what annoys me about it? The fact that they keep bringing up these things as examples of wasteful spending, when there are probably plenty of far-more-deserving-of-criticism examples out there (like the Bridge To Nowhere, except that that would hurt Palin now).

[Alyrium Denryle]

You know what annoys me about it? The fact that they keep bringing up these things as examples of wasteful spending, when there are probably plenty of far-more-deserving-of-criticism examples out there (like the Bridge To Nowhere, except that that would hurt Palin now).

Probably? No. Definitely. Scientific research is NEVER wasteful spending. You want wasteful spending? Faith based initiatives, the war in Iraq, those are wasteful spending. Genomics is not wasteful spending

[Darth Raptor]

I'd wager the "useless" rhetoric is just a smokescreen. They don't really believe that research in genetics won't render results, but rather that said results will be an abomination before Jesus.

[ray245]

In one of the more stunningly pig-ignorant developments in this campaign, Sarah Palin denounced genetics research as a waste of time. Specifically, at a speech she used "fruit fly research" (said in an incredulous tone) as her prize example of pork that doesn't help the public.

In case anybody doesn't get it, fruit flies are a standard lab animal for genetics research. They're cheap, they're one of the best-understood animals genetically, they have a short life cycle, and you can make a lot of them quickly. It was as if she was jeering at "research on rats". And you can bet that her base lapped it up as eagerly as the mythical "cock-hungry XXX sluts" whose descriptions flood our spam folders daily.

I wonder what will Palin respond when someone told her the founder of genetic research is a priest. That might cause her to be shocked that a devote christian is the one who started it. Those bible thumpers will be unable to say anything in regards to genetic research when they know that a priest is the one who founded such a field of science.

[General Zod]

I wonder what will Palin respond when someone told her the founder of genetic research is a priest. That might cause her to be shocked that a devote christian is the one who started it. Those bible thumpers will be unable to say anything in regards to genetic research when they know that a priest is the one who founded such a field of science.

Her objections have nothing apparent to do with religion, so pointing this out would be utterly useless.

[Darth Wong]

I wonder what will Palin respond when someone told her the founder of genetic research is a priest. That might cause her to be shocked that a devote christian is the one who started it. Those bible thumpers will be unable to say anything in regards to genetic research when they know that a priest is the one who founded such a field of science.

So? Occam's Razor was devised by a monk, yet the Christians still reject it.

The fact is that Sarah Palin is a national politician with a small-town mindset. In her mind, she still thinks of government spending in terms of "what would I want to do with government money in Wasilla". So she would approve of bridges, sports complexes, and payoffs to local businesses, but of course, nobody in Wasilla even knows what genetic research is, so she dismisses it as "pork".