Rees-Mogg: Sarah Palin has just 65 days to prove herself ********
Posted on 01 September 2008 by Jack
Senator John McCain’s choice of a running-mate was always going to be crucially important. He is 72 years old and has had episodes of skin cancer. From a medical and actuarial point of view, there must be a significant risk that he will not live to complete his first term as president, if elected. Whichever contender he chose for the vice-presidential nomination was bound to be scrutinised as having a real possibility of becoming the next president by right of succession.
Nobody is assuming that Senator Joe Biden will succeed Barack Obama; he is 18 years older - though there is an assassination risk. Yet all American voters in November will be conscious that a vote for the McCain-Palin ticket could put Governor Sarah Palin into the White House. Will the voters see her as adequate for that role? That is the measure of the risk that John McCain is taking. He is staking his whole campaign on the ability of a young woman whom he had met only once to convince the American people she could handle the jobs of commander-in-chief and president of the United States. She has precisely 65 days in which to do it, starting from last Thursday. That is a tall order.
The obvious argument against the idea of a Palin presidency is her inexperience. This argument is blunted because it has already been used against Barack Obama, both by Hillary Clinton and by the Republicans. In fact, most American presidents come to office without adequate previous experience. Indeed, one could say that there is no sufficient experience for the presidency, except by having been president before, and the Constitution forbids a third term.
Of the last five presidents, the older George Bush was a long-term Washington insider, and Ronald Reagan had been Governor of a big state, California, but Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the younger Bush had little experience of international affairs or indeed of large-scale administration. The Governor of Texas does not have the powers of the Governor of California. If one substitutes Alaska for Arkansas, Sarah Palin is about as well qualified for the presidency in terms of experience as Bill Clinton in 1992.
See Also: Kristol: A Star Is Born?
Update: Wilson: Palin Pick Makes Everyone Happy
Update: Palin Made an Impression From the Start
Update: Steyn: The hostess with the moosest
Update: $10 Million Woman: Palin a Hit with GOP Donors
Update: McParland writes Palin is not experienced enough. It’s arguably the worst column he’s ever written in my view. After all, they made Bill Clinton President didn’t they?
Update: de Souza: McCain unveils a secret weapon for culture
Update: America’s Future
Note: 6:05 pm and I’m gone. If anyone has missed the point I support Sarah fully and I look for her in time to become a US President.
The first female and well earned. Think about that.
Goodnight everyone.
Popularity: 19% [?]
September 1st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
She may be in a bit more trouble than being inexperienced. It seems to me the Reps. did not do a good job of vetting her…Check this out
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4647965.ece
September 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Check my Daily Blogger spot today. I’m all over it.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Or….. a very good write up by The New York Times, which is usually a left wing smear merchant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/opinion/01kristol.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
September 1st, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Nice to know McCain still retains the ability to shock. The Dems and the media didn’t see this coming. Their reactions will be rather telling.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
The pregnancy thing is bad enough, but I was refering to to an ethics problem. This from the same timesonline article, bottom of the first page and into the second…
The biggest cloud on the horizon is an Alaskan ethics investigation into allegations that, as Governor, she, her husband and her aides, pressured and ultimately fired Walter Monegan, the public safety commissioner, for not sacking her brother-in-law, an Alaskan state trooper involved in an ugly divorce with Mrs Palin’s sister.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I think they probably checked that issue closely during the vettng process. It may be a problem — or not.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:16 pm
agree - where are you on the friendship between Bill Ayers and Mr. O? This new scrap of pemmican that the demo/msm dwellers keep snapping and howling about pales to the point of albino in comparison. Terrorists friends send chills down my spine, women and men who defend abused women (esp. their sisters) make me PROUD to know them.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
The plot thickens …
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/index.html
Not quite the rumor, but damaging enough. Palin should have abstained from accepting this position, as David Frum noted in a recent column.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
If America doesn’t want her, Canada will take her! A good shot in the arm(and a kick in the pants) like this to wake voters up is a huge motivator.
The McCain/Palin ticket has done that AND is moved Obama/Biden
right off the radar.
Excellent decision and I’m betting Palin can handle the critics just fine.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
“Excellent decision and I’m betting Palin can handle the critics just fine.”
I think so too.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
“Truth be told”…I watched the video for perhaps the fifth time and she breaks my heart because I know she can do the job.
You can see it and “Puty,Puty” has a big problem coming down the pipe.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
The media, especially cnn females, are trying to tear her apart. They keep asking, is she ready to be POTUS should something happen to McCain. I thought they all assumed the big O would win in November, so it should not even be a question.
So, it they have changed their mind, and McCain is going to win, be sure that by Jan 20, 2009 she will be up to speed on everything. Seems one guy was surprised she knew the name of a few of the Prime Ministers of mid east countries. They have set a very low bar for her in the debate, bet she fools them.
Anyone know what happens if a candidate dies before the election. Media is so sure McCain is going to die, but O could be in a car accident or have a heart attack.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
heart attacks and car accidents happen to Democrats too though.
The only reason those same CNN females bothered with this today is because the hurricane fizzled and there is not death and destruction to report on…..so they’re trying to deal destruction to the Republican ticket.
Truth be told. I don’t think this is going to hurt McCain much at all. What’s happened to Palin’s family happens to lots of families.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
The attempt to portray this as something terrible is ridiculous. Not so very long ago you were considered to be an adult at this age. Marriage, children, career, civic responsibility all started by the time you were 20. My parents were married and having kids at 18 and they were not the exception but the norm.
Here we have a young lady who has unfortunately gotten pregnant before taking her wedding vows, but those will follow so no big deal.
The Palin family sounds like they would be comfortable living a frontier life with frontier values. And in that environment you were a grown up at 17.
I would be willing to bet that this 17 year old daughter is emotionally mature and ready to step into this unexpected role.
Democrats are no doubt shocked since most of them still have not grown up regardless of their age.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Ward:
What year were your parents married? What level of education was needed to sustain a lifelong, independent career during those days? And did you say MARRIED?
Instead of partisan jabs, maybe you can consider why people are actually attacking Palin. Is it because her 17 year old daughter had a child or because she has made her career on pontificating about 17 year old, unmarried girls who have children?
If Al Gore was caught investing in a Chinese coal factory I bet you’d get the principle just fine.
Mary:
The Big O has called off the dogs from attacking Palin. That was a classy move that will probably go uncredited, especially considering the way you all attacked his wife and accused him of being a Muslim (which is next to witchcraft in today’s environment). McCain had little or nothing to say during those initial attacks.
September 1st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
So the left wing smear merchants want to attack Palins kids, then
I guess B. Hussien Obamas wife and both kids are now open season
for the media and ALL right wingers.
When I see a Lib or a Dem I see grease dripping off them !
September 1st, 2008 at 11:58 pm
timwest:
Do you not recall “Obama the Magic Negro” and charges that O’s wife was anti-American for talking about her experiences with discrimination? Also some of those friendly folks under the “ALL right wingers” banner plotted to kill Obama. One could say it’s literally been open season on Obama for quite some time. Did you miss all that?
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 am
Just watched Larry King, being very moral, he with 7 wives. How many democrats have got kids in jail, or been caught with drugs, how about the scandals in the Kennedy family-rape, murder, leaving a woman to die in a car, and so many other things. If O wins in November you can bet that every member of his team will have their family watched very closely. I imagine the National Inquiry will have lots of scandals to uncover. If McCain wins the media will be vilified for their attacks. I am sure there are democratic women out there who are very upset by all this. Wonder how many of those female witches are living with their other, not married, how many have been divorced, or are gay/homosexual and not out of the closet.
As one poster said somewhere, if McCain got the vote of all pregnant brides he would win by a landslide.
McCain knew about the daughter, and expected the attacks, to show the public just how low the democrats and media will sink.
Expect a change in the staff at many media outlets. Can’t wait for Cafferty’s outrage tomorrow. But, Wolfe has been chastised by Bennett. How long before some male or female come out of the woodwork to admit affairs in highschool with O or Michelle.
Those hollywood babes better change their ways as it is now known, the media does not agree with unmarried mothers and will vilify them to no end. Anyone remember the scandal, and almost career ending scandal when Ingrid Bergman got pregnant.
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 am
Cynapse:
You are truly the gift that keeps on giving.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 am
Obama’s Mom did not abort the child she had out of wedlock at the age of 18.
That may explain why Mr. Obama has taken a rather more balanced view than some on these matters.
As usual it will take the left side of the MSM a while to recognize this corundum but when they do, the matter will go “of the air”.
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“Barack Obama’s Mother Was an Unwed Teenager and Other Random Thoughts About Sarah Palin”
September 01, 2008 06:29 PM ET | John Aloysius Farrell | US News & World Report
Okay. Not the greatest launch, but not the worst either. Let’s not forget, Barack Obama’s mom got pregnant as an unmarried teenager, and look how he turned out…..