A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days: Quotes That Catch My Fancy

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Quotes That Catch My Fancy

Posted by Pejman Yousefzadeh on Sun Aug 31, 2008 at 10:32:58 PM EST

So John McCain is no longer a maverick. Here is one Democratic talking point that will need some work, and it is by no means the only one. In naming Sarah Palin - the young and only recently elected governor of Alaska, a small-town mayor before that - as his Republican running mate in the US presidential race, Mr McCain has taken an extraordinary risk. It was certainly the act of an unorthodox politician. Was it, though, the act of a reckless and stupid one? I think not.
The instant reaction among Democrats was astonishment. Quickly that gave way to outrage. James Carville, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, said he was "vexed, completely vexed" by the choice. Paul Begala, another friend of the Clintons, in almost his first sentence on the matter, sneeringly attributed Mrs Palin's poise to her time as a beauty queen. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House of Representatives' Democratic caucus, said: "On his 72nd birthday, this is the guy's judgment of who he wants one heartbeat from the presidency? Please." The prevailing attitude was a hair's breadth from laughter at the bimbo from a state that does not count.
Will these people never learn? Let me try to walk the experts, with their many years of experience, through this thing.

The McCain campaign staff could not have scripted a more helpful response. They are anything but embarrassed by a focus on Mrs Palin's inexperience, and the more spluttering, condescending and incredulous it is, the better. The reason is obvious: Democrats' amazement at the suggestion that Mrs Palin is fit to be vice-president has disturbing implications for Barack Obama's own fitness to be president. She, after all, has had two years running a state. He has had no years running anything. Also, if experience matters as much as the Democrats now say, you want it at the top of the ticket, do you not?

--Clive Crook. Whatever my concerns regarding Palin's selection as McCain's running mate, Crook's political analysis is dead-on accurate.

< Underwhelmed | Sarah Palin And Pat Buchanan >

Quotes That Catch My Fancy | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)

Obama and Palin (none / 0) (#1)
by robspe on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 03:30:46 PM EST

I do not agree with Crook about Obama's character. Where is any evidence for that? He seems a normal Chicago pol. What reforms, what innovations are traceable to him? He is the very essence of non-change. What is a "community organizer" anyway? Who pays for one and what does he do? What did Obama do for those years he "organized" Chicago? What did he accomplish? No one has mentioned a single thing. Is Chicago more "organized" now? So many other questions pop up for Obama he comes off like all the recent Dem candidates. What's needed is a Republican candidate who can break through the stonewalling.

Palin appears to be a happy, uncomplicated woman. By all accounts and judging from her nickname - Barracuda - she has the vitality and killer instinct that McCain obviously admires. As for Biden, he'll wind up praising her hygiene and hairdo. I smell landslide - but not for Obama.

Quotes That Catch My Fancy | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)

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A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days