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Palin’s Ro(t)e American History Lesson

October 2nd, 2008
By TONY CAMPBELL, TMV Columnist

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I just watched the Palin Supreme Court answer from Jonathan Martin’s Politico blog and I have to say that I am not surprised by her answer. As many of you know, I am a Republican and it is sad that my party’s nominee for Vice-President didn’t know the duties of the office until a few weeks ago. Is it any wonder that she did not know any Supreme Court cases besides Roe v. Wade?

This crash course in American civics is not going well for either Palin or McCain. However, I do not blame Palin for her miscues. I blame McCain for putting her in this position. After all, we all know that George W. Bush is not the most eloquent speaker in the world, but in 2000, his staff (Karl Rove and Karen Hughes) did not allow Bush to be placed in compromising positions with reporters.

Clearly, cramming American political issues into Governor Palin is not going to be enough. As we have seen, the strategy of “answer by rote” is not going to work. I have worked with some of the people who are working on Palin’s staff (Greg Jenkins) and they are talented and experienced people who can manage her public profile if given the opportunity.

So, there are two choices: either manage Palin better or replace her on the ticket. There are rumors that Palin may withdraw her name if she does not perform well tonight. If she does, that leaves the “Maverick” in the interesting position of whom he picks to replace her.

For my two cents, I say McCain should pick Paris Hilton for the following reasons:

Paris Hilton is hotter, better versed on the issues, can raise money, has extensive foreign policy experience (hotels in every country), has experience dealing with reporters, and she already has a good rapid response team (she cleaned McCain’s clock this summer).



This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under You Tube, Paris Hilton, Newsweek Blogitics, Sarah Palin, Katie Couric, At TMV, 2008 Elections, John McCain, Columnists, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Viewing 21 Comments

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    I think Palin will do pretty well in tonight's debate. She'll come across as sympathetic to voters' beliefs.
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    It'll certainly be interesting to see how she does tonight because she has strengths but also some obvious weaknesses (a couple of the Couric questions were absolutely disastrous, particularly the SC question.) But as some pundit noted this morning, the debate format tonight should work to Palin's advantage with short response times and little follow up (it's usually on those follow up questions where she gets tripped up because she seems pretty confident with short initial responses but then hesitates to get into too much detail- which obviously reflects some potential lack of knowledge as well as probable concern about stepping into traps.)

    I am on the fence about her and ready to be convinced one way or the other. As a McCain supporter I was enthused by the energy she brought to the campaign and the polishing of reformer image for the ticket, but so far I'm not convinced she'd be ready to be POTUS (I think it's a position she could easily grow into though.) At this point I intend to vote for McCain because I believe that his health is good, but I will be concerned if his health fails during the early part of his term.

    I do find it annoying that some of the negative perceptions of Palin are based on false information which is being repeated often enough until it's been accepted as true. For instance, in this article Tony Campbell cites that she didn't know what the duties of VP were, when actually in the interview response that that's based on what she was obviously saying is that she would want to know from a presidential candidate what HIS expectations were for his VP. The context of the question was whether or not she'd consider VP which meant leaving her post as AK governor, and she was saying that she felt what she was doing there was important and she'd have to know that leaving that position would put her in place to do more for the country (not be a do-nothing VP.) Although we've come to think of VP as an important job now, in the very recent past it was considered an almost purely ceremonial position (with the main duty of attending funerals.) When you hear the interview in it's entirety it's obvious this is what she was referring to.
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    Bill Press (liberal talk show host) has said she'll likely do fine, and that nobody should expect a disaster with her. I.e., don't be overconfident or underestimate her despite her recent problems with Couric. I agree with Press. Biden needs _not_ to attack Pain in any harsh or vicious manner. (Will Biden be asked about his family's ethical problems, I wonder, if he mentions ethical failures by Republicans?)
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    The VP role is being deliberately "scrutinized" this year as another example of liberal hypocrisy. More irritating (in addition to the scummier examples of hatred we've seen and related childish-smart-ass juvie junk such as on stupid Stephanie Miller's junior-high-school-level or lower show) has been the repetition of "mayor, mayor, mayor" (like the Bloomberg so beloved by so many play-pen people out there?) Palin rather than _governor_ Palin, _governor_ like Clinton, Carter, Bush, et cetera, i.e., one with more relevant experience and qualifications than Obama to be President.

    If you don't like her or her politics, fine, but try behaving yourselves for a change. Scummy attacks only will result in a backlash from higher-quality individuals and _voters_.
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    Unfortunately though, DLS, I don't think maturity is prevailing these days (have you seen the latest get-out-the-vote effort, for instance, in which Sarah Silverstein's informs us that we can literally register to vote while we poop if we have a laptop?)

    We're in the midst of an economic meltdown, a war on two fronts, record deficits and exploding healthcare costs just as the demographic timebomb of babyboomer retirement is about to go off, and scarcely anyone seems to be able to reason with any higher faculty than a sixth grader. Say what you will about McCain's age, but in my view his generation represents the last gasp of grownup thinking.
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    At this point I intend to vote for McCain because I believe that his health is good, but I will be concerned if his health fails during the early part of his term.

    You sure are a high stakes gambler!
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    Maybe it wouldn't be so scrutinized if Cheney didn't make such a hack job of it.
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    CStanley

    Say what you will about McCain's age, but in my view his generation represents the last gasp of grownup thinking.

    I would amend that last statement to "last gasp of outdated grownup thinking"

    20th centruy values need to be updated, just like 19th century values were in the 20th.

    and how can you call McCain the grownup when he's been having temper tantrums? He's sounding more like Bill Hickey in Creepshow every day "Where's my cake Bedelia?"
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    CStanley said: "Say what you will about McCain's age, but in my view his generation represents the last gasp of grownup thinking."

    It seems you don't think much of yourself and your peers.

    Every time I meet someone that has such negative and self-depreciating opinions about themselves and the world they live in if feel both sad and sorry. CStanley, You're O.K... I'm O.K... The world's O.K. and the sky is not falling.
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    I'm a center-right independent (pro-life) who voted for Bush twice. I won't be voting Republican again for quite a while, it seems. The reason? The party is no longer serious about governing. I was appalled by the Palin pick from the get-go when it seemed McCain had put very little into vetting her and (more importantly) seemed