DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Religious Dick on September 01, 2008, 03:37:50 PM
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Sarah Palin -- Dream Girl
A Commentary by Debra J. Saunders
Sunday, August 31, 2008
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MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL -- Bingo.
For weeks, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been the Republican whom conservatives barely dared to hope could become John McCain's pick as his running mate.
For Republicans angry at Washington's big-spending bonanza when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, Palin, like McCain, is an antidote. She is the Alaskan who pulled state support for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere and bucked Alaska's congressional and state Republican leaders.
For social conservatives, the mother of five has impeccable credentials. She's a member of Feminists for Life, who walked the walk in April when she gave birth to a son, shown by genetic testing to have Down syndrome. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," she said of her son, Trig. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"
For conservatives, who felt that McCain has been at times too cozy with the Washington left, Palin is a conservative's conservative -- a moose hunter and co-owner of a commercial fishing operation.
As an Alaskan, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Her husband works for BP on an Alaska oil field. Yet, as the Almanac of American Politics has reported, she stood up to Big Oil when she supported a natural gas pipeline instead of an oil pipeline backed by the state's major petroleum interests. McCain has been too much of a wishful thinker when it comes to energy policy. Palin could champion a more grounded approach to energy.
As a female candidate, Palin just might attract disgruntled Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters -- or at least give them pause before voting for the Obama-Biden ticket.
After Barack Obama picked Joe Biden as his running mate, I began to steel myself for the possibility that McCain might make a similarly uninspiring, but seemingly safe, choice. The top pick of Beltway insiders was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a strong campaigner with solid economic credentials -- but flawed by what seemed an opportunistic shift to the right on social issues in order to win the GOP primary. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge supports abortion rights -- a plus for me -- but he likely would be the butt of late-night talk-show jokes because of the color-coded federal warning system devised to alert Americans to the likelihood of terrorist attacks when he was director of Homeland Security. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty looked OK -- but he wasn't Sarah Palin.
Is she short on experience? Yes. Voters will have to watch her performance on the campaign trail to judge how she responds to high-stakes politics and the international arena.
That said, as a governor, Palin she has more experience running a government than Obama, who began serving his first term in the U.S. Senate in 2005. And unlike Obama, Palin has shown herself willing to challenge her jaded ethical policies within her party. That's change.
As McCain said Friday, Palin is "exactly who this country needs" to help him confront "the same old Washington politics of me first and country second."
On the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, she investigated fellow commission member Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, in an effort that led to his resignation and paying a $12,000 fine levied by Alaska's attorney general. In 2006, she ran against the incumbent Republican governor, Frank Murkowski -- and won.
She is not a hard-core social conservative. For example, Palin supported awarding benefits for same-sex couples. But she is a good fiscal conservative, who used her veto power to reduce her state's budget by $124 million.
Palin is a maverick, like he's a maverick. She complements McCain's ardent opposition, not only to congressional earmarks, but also to the pork-rich farm bill and ethanol subsidies supported by Obama.
Pollster Frank Luntz told me in Denver that the key to victory for McCain is to trumpet one theme -- "accountability." McCain, he said, should promise government that does what it is supposed to do, punishes bad actors who break the rules and ends "wasteful Washington spending." On that score, Palin was made to order.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_debra_j_saunders/sarah_palin_dream_girl (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_debra_j_saunders/sarah_palin_dream_girl)
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<<Pollster Frank Luntz told me in Denver that the key to victory for McCain is to trumpet one theme -- "accountability." McCain, he said, should promise government that does what it is supposed to do, punishes bad actors who break the rules and ends "wasteful Washington spending." On that score, Palin was made to order.>>
The Troopergate scandal indicates that pressure from the Governor's office was brought to bear on state police to fire an individual for reasons personal to the Governor's tangled family affairs. Allegedly the Gov. personally was not involved but her staff was.
Question: what disciplinary action, if any, was taken against gubernatorial staffers who intervened to inject Palin's family troubles into the workings of the state police? How "accountable" was the Governor's own staff?
Just askin.
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The Troopergate scandal indicates that pressure from the Governor's office was brought to bear on state police to fire an individual for reasons personal to the Governor's tangled family affairs.
The guy tasered his own kid. Glad to see you're holding up the cream of the human crop as your front piece.
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Desperation calls for desperate measures for the left apparently. Then again, you have to consider the source
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<<The guy tasered his own kid. Glad to see you're holding up the cream of the human crop as your front piece.>>
It's just hilarious how to a real conservative no cop ever tased the wrong guy, but suddenly they explode in righteous indignation over a tasing. THIS tasering. The guy tased his own kid. (It was his stepson, I believe, so that should make it OK for a conservative, since no blood relationship was involved.)
Whatever the guy did, there is a legal mechanism in place for dealing with accusations of that kind. Really. Cops, courts, prosecutors, defenders, juries - - honest, even in Alaska. What there is no place for is personal interference by the Governor or her staff. Which is what apparently happened here.
This has got to be hammered at by Obama. Also, get the cop's story - - WHY did he taser "his own" stepson? What was the kid up to? What kind of danger was he presenting? Hopefully the tasering can be defended as not only fully justified but a humane alternative to shooting the kid.
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It's just hilarious how to a real conservative no cop ever tased the wrong guy, but suddenly they explode in righteous indignation over a tasing. THIS tasering.
I don't believe I've ever defended tasering children (or old folks).
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<<One day -- maybe a year or two before the investigation -- Wooten showed his stepson his Taser. He had just been to Taser instructor school. Wooten told Sgt. Wall that the boy was fascinated and pleaded to be tased.
<<"So we went in our living room and I had him get down on his knees so he wouldn't fall. And I taped the probes to him and turned the Taser on for like a second, turned it off. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world, wanted to do it again," Wooten told the investigator. The boy flinched but nothing more, he said. The boy was about 11 at the time.
<<In his interview with troopers, the stepson said it hurt for about a second, according to Wall's report. The boy said he wanted to be tased to show his cousin, Palin's daughter Bristol, that he wasn't a mama's boy. The probe left a welt on his arm, he said. His mother was upstairs yelling at them not to do it, the boy said.>>
http://www.bartcopnation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=2&topic_id=440218&mesg_id=440285&page= (http://www.bartcopnation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=2&topic_id=440218&mesg_id=440285&page=)
Not the brightest bulb on the marquee, but WTF, the guy's a cop.
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The Troopergate scandal indicates that pressure from the Governor's office was brought to bear on state police to fire an individual for reasons personal to the Governor's tangled family affairs.
The guy tasered his own kid. Glad to see you're holding up the cream of the human crop as your front piece.
His kid, how wife's kid, any kid. It's abuse.
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<<One day -- maybe a year or two before the investigation -- Wooten showed his stepson his Taser. He had just been to Taser instructor school. Wooten told Sgt. Wall that the boy was fascinated and pleaded to be tased.
<<"So we went in our living room and I had him get down on his knees so he wouldn't fall. And I taped the probes to him and turned the Taser on for like a second, turned it off. He thought that was the greatest thing in the world, wanted to do it again," Wooten told the investigator. The boy flinched but nothing more, he said. The boy was about 11 at the time.
<<In his interview with troopers, the stepson said it hurt for about a second, according to Wall's report. The boy said he wanted to be tased to show his cousin, Palin's daughter Bristol, that he wasn't a mama's boy. The probe left a welt on his arm, he said. His mother was upstairs yelling at them not to do it, the boy said.>>
http://www.bartcopnation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=2&topic_id=440218&mesg_id=440285&page= (http://www.bartcopnation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=2&topic_id=440218&mesg_id=440285&page=)
Not the brightest bulb on the marquee, but WTF, the guy's a cop.
This is very poor advertiseing for the effectiveness of the Tazer.
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Holy shit, I missed this part of the story: in the first line,
<<He [Wooten] had just been to Taser instructor school. >>
ROTFLMFAO - - can you imagine this Nimrod instructing other cops on How to Have Innocent Family Fun at Home With Your Taser?
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<<The guy tasered his own kid. Glad to see you're holding up the cream of the human crop as your front piece.>>
It's just hilarious how to a real conservative no cop ever tased the wrong guy,...
If you ever want to pull yourself out of that hyperbolic lie, we'll all look forward to it
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<<If you ever want to pull yourself out of that hyperbolic lie, we'll all look forward to it>>
If you ever want to pull yourself out of your obsessive literalism and start looking for meaning which everyone else seems to get easily enough, we'll all look forward to that a helluva lot more. This isn't elementary school, and most of the posters here seem to be able to read for comprehension at least at the Grade Six level.
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Your problem Tee, as ususal, is the false premise you consistently perpetuate when broadbrushing. Be it Republicans are a bunch of racists, our Military are a bunch of low hanging fruit, or Conservatives have never seen the wrong guy tasered. But hey, if lying and complete uncredibility is your calling card, by all means, continue
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<<Your problem Tee, as ususal, is the false premise you consistently perpetuate when broadbrushing. Be it Republicans are a bunch of racists, our Military are a bunch of low hanging fruit, or Conservatives have never seen the wrong guy tasered. But hey, if lying and complete uncredibility is your calling card, by all means, continue>>
Thanks for being so frank and open with me, sirs. And in return, I would like to address YOUR problem, which is that you appear to be incapable of reading any post for content unless it is dumbed down to a grade six level. Hyperbole, if any, is made to emphasize a point, which sails right over your head while you focus exclusively on the rhetoric and completely miss the point.
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Again, your premise is flawed. Keep up the good work
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Again, your premise is flawed. Keep up the good work
No ,.. I think he is just telling you to reduce the strength of anything he ever says in order to understand his real meaning.
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In order to "reduce" the hyperbole Plane, would be like asking Tiger to just use pitching wedges on the tee. It's doable, but...... The hyperbole is so outrageous, it nearly defies one to take it seriously, even if one were to "reduce its strength" :-\
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No offense gentlemen, but I think y'all really bombed with Governor Palin. I could very well be wrong (and it would not be the first or last time). Yet, I think that as more and more of her natural style of management becomes known. And as people learn more and more about her, the less they will like her. Her record doesn't seem to be a very clean one, nor is it a very good one.
I've heard someone make a comparison to Maggie Thatcher. The difference is that Maggie, as much as I personally loathe the milk snatcher, was a very good MP and shadow cabinet politician. Then she fought her way up the ranks of the Conservative Party. Maggie was seasoned and involved in no real scandals before she became a party leader.
I don't see that with Palin. Though perhaps she'll learn quickly.
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No offense gentlemen, but I think y'all really bombed with Governor Palin.
Hmmm, card carrying liberal, proclaiming a "bombing" with the Palin pick. Now, who'd a thunk that? ;) Seriously though, the more denunciations and proclaimations of just how bad this pick was by the established left, the more I realize just how great a pick it was
Still looking forward to Fatman's & Prince's POV's on the Palin pick
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No offense gentlemen, but I think y'all really bombed with Governor Palin.
Hmmm, card carrying liberal, proclaiming a "bombing" with the Palin pick. Now, who'd a thunk that? ;) Seriously though, the more denunciations and proclaimations of just how bad this pick was by the established left, the more I realize just how great a pick it was
Still looking forward to Fatman's & Prince's POV's on the Palin pick
Socialist, not a liberal.
As I said, I could be completely wrong. My in-laws love her. My father-in-law likes that she is an NRA member and hunts. My mother-in-law likes the fact that she's a woman and against abortion. Yet, they're the opposite of your joke. Card-carrying Republicans who were voting McCain before he chose Palin. Now they are voting with more enthusiasm.
I think that she comes with a lot of baggage. I'm not sure that people want another leader who uses his/her position to do whatever the hell he/she wants whether it is in the purview of that position or not. But maybe they do.
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Yet, they're the opposite of your joke. Card-carrying Republicans who were voting McCain before he chose Palin. Now they are voting with more enthusiasm.
I was planning on sitting this one out if McCain picked a "standard" VP. Palin makes me want to vote for that ticket.
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Yet, they're the opposite of your joke. Card-carrying Republicans who were voting McCain before he chose Palin. Now they are voting with more enthusiasm.
I was planning on sitting this one out if McCain picked a "standard" VP. Palin makes me want to vote for that ticket.
She makes me want to vote for Obama/Biden and I've been planning on a third party or sitting it out as well.
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No offense gentlemen, but I think y'all really bombed with Governor Palin.
Hmmm, card carrying liberal, proclaiming a "bombing" with the Palin pick. Now, who'd a thunk that? ;) Seriously though, the more denunciations and proclaimations of just how bad this pick was by the established left, the more I realize just how great a pick it was
Socialist, not a liberal.
Oh, my apologies.........though in all honesty, I don't see alot of difference between the 2 outside of better civility and efforts at objectivity from our saloon socialist ;)
As I said, I could be completely wrong.
Given the consistent amount of feedback I'm seeing, I'd say my original ..as I see it.. (http://debategate.com/new3dhs/index.php?topic=7247.0) thread, is for the most part, dead on currently. Fatman, a staunch middle of the roader has referenced some good comments. Miss Cynthia, an Obama supporter is now looking towards McCain, via his VP pick. Bt, who had no intentions of voting McCain, is now considering it, based on the Palin pick. Again, pretty much the ones I'm seeing who hate the Palin pick, think it absolutely doomed McCain's chances are those who had no intention of voting for McCain in the 1st place.
My in-laws love her. My father-in-law likes that she is an NRA member and hunts. My mother-in-law likes the fact that she's a woman and against abortion. Yet, they're the opposite of your joke. Card-carrying Republicans who were voting McCain before he chose Palin. Now they are voting with more enthusiasm.
"Joke"? What joke would that be? Sounds alot like my reference to the Republicans that were intending to vote McCain no matter the pick. Just so happens the pick gave them, as you say "more enthusaism"
I think that she comes with a lot of baggage. I'm not sure that people want another leader who uses his/her position to do whatever the hell he/she wants whether it is in the purview of that position or not. But maybe they do.
Now we're sort of back to that point you claimed you were denying last time, about how I asked what VP candidate was going to be everything to everyone. Yea, she has some baggage. Pretty much everyone would have some form. So far, the baggage I see is minimal. Most of it in fact, demonstrates the amount of character and strength she possesses. This "troopergate" if anything is a (+) in my book as well. As more detail comes out, especially if the left keeps trying to villify her family vs her positions, again "doesn't bode well for Obama"
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Oh, my apologies.........though in all honesty, I don't see alot of difference between the 2 outside of better civility and efforts at objectivity from our saloon socialist ;)
I doubt you'll find a lot of liberals who are against the minimum wage. Nor will you find many who support common ownership of land and industry. I'm far more concerned with Trade Unions and jobs than environmentalism and identity politics. Socialism and liberalism are vastly different. You should pay attention.
Now we're sort of back to that point you claimed you were denying last time, about how I asked what VP candidate was going to be everything to everyone. Yea, she has some baggage. Pretty much everyone would have some form. So far, the baggage I see is minimal. Most of it in fact, demonstrates the amount of character and strength she possesses. This "troopergate" if anything is a (+) in my book as well. As more detail comes out, especially if the left keeps trying to villify her family vs her positions, again "doesn't bode well for Obama"
I don't think that anyone should vilify her family. I do have concerns that she is prone to use her power for her own personal desires. That worries me...a great deal.
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Your POV & concerns are duely noted 8)