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Globe editorial

Gifted, but not qualified

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 11:49 PM EST 05/09/08

Appealing as she may be, she's still the wrong choice as the Republican vice-presidential nominee ...Read the full article

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  1. Jonny Quest from Canada writes: Too early to jump to conclusions. Let's see how she does in the debates with Biden and on the campaign trail.
  2. Bill Garrison from Tuttle, Oklahoma, United States writes: Is Mrs. Palin qualified? All the Consitution calls for is to be 35 years of age and native born. Same goes for the other three candidates.
    End of story.
  3. Vern McPherson from writes:
    We would all like to know if the expense for these latest campaign adds will b eposted against the COns add budget for the campaign ????

    Or is harper underhandedly playing tricks on election law in our country - A G A I N !!
  4. Vern McPherson from writes:
    Wrong thread. Sorry friends .......
  5. Richard E. Gower from Ottawa, Canada writes: Wonder why the G & M would take an editorial position on this. Oh, I know. It must have been written or assigned by a woman. Meow, meow.
  6. J.C. Davies from Canada writes:
    Don't recall the G&M proclaimining John Edwards to be unqulaified for VP four years ago when he was on the John Kerry ticket, at that time Edwards ony political experience was 18 months in the Senate, 12 of which he spent campaigning for president.
  7. grover station from Hamilton, Canada writes: Sarah Palin is an attempt by the Republicans to gain votes by shock and awe.
  8. Patrick Thoburn from Toronto, Canada writes: Winning American political biography includes archetypes such as the warrior hero (Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower), seasoned legislator from humble roots (LBJ, Bill Clinton), blue blood (FDR, JFK).

    Add one to that list: small town mayor domestic goddess hockey mom.

    http://patrickthoburn.wordpress.com/
  9. Dean Quinton from Canada writes: Dear Editorial Board, if she is too inexperienced to be the V-P, please explain to me how Obama is so qualified? I have heard about the memoirs, is there anything else?
  10. Sammy Whammy from Financial offer to Cadman means Jail time for Harper! see Crim. Code s. 119, Canada writes: I think the remarkable thing about imPalin is that McSame has selected a potential successor who is diametrically opposed to many of his own known positions.

    That seems so strange to me that I wonder how it can be. Any explanation seems to be a problematic scenario:

    -he didn't know her positions;
    -he was forced to choose her;
    -he has chosen her for pure cynical vote-getting; or
    -his own opinions are not as formerly presented.

    "Change you weren't expecting"
  11. Ed Long from Canada writes: WOW ... the cynicism and ignorance is at warp speed, now.

    Vancouver Sun ran dueling editorials and the anti-Palin was harping on the same wrong assumptions of lack of experience. The real issue is that Palin has no use for the press or "liberals".

    She does run a state, Alaska, with 670,000 people, 47th in the U.S., 24,000 state employees and a budget of $10Billion. Her state also has a Permanant Fund of $32Billion derived from oil revenues.

    Palin did raise taxes on oil profits to collect $1.5Billion to offset Alaskans' energy cost increases, and pushed through the long dormant proposal for a $30 - $40 Billion natural gas pipeline to be built by TransCanada Corp.

    And how does this compare to the real world pre-election experience of Obama, the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter or U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher?

    The real issue is that Palin is an unapologetic in-your-face real person who does not kowtow to the media or traditional social democratic victimhood and accommodation. That means Canada lala land and righteous media and liberals are hitting warp speed.

    For that alone, I thank the Americans and congratulate the Republicans on making such an interesting and provocative choice for their VP candidate thus making their whole election process obviously globally captivating.

    Meanwhile, Peter Mansbridge and panel analyzes the policies of ........ zzzzzzzz.

  12. Mariposa Belle from Leacockland, Canada writes: The only qualification necessary to run on a ticket as Veep is to deliver states unlikely to swing behind the Presidential candidate. As Governor of Alaska, and her personal beliefs, she is likely to deliver the Pacific Northwest to McCain. She puts Colorado into play and I would say that she could be influential in Minnesota.

    A surprise pick perhaps, but even the G&M had her in the mix in their slide show of potential Veep candidates last week.

    Oh, and when does the candidate require knowledge of Foreign Affairs to be selected - Canada has had a few FA Ministers who didn't know anything when put into the job.

    Given the Globe's criteria, they probably dumped on a poor boy from a log cabin in a second tier frontier state running for President. They might even find the editorial in their archives.
  13. William Godfrey from Calgary, Canada writes: Hard to believe the Republicans would choose a candidate for VP without first getting the approval of the Globe and its incredibly sophisticated big-city columnists. Shocking!
  14. Michael Sharp from Victoria, Canada writes:

    Sarah Palin is more Canadian than any Liberal woman in the GTA.

    And that just rots their socks.
  15. Jonny Quest from Canada writes: well put Ed Long and Michael Sharp
  16. Bryan Fulsom from Menlo Park, writes: "all the more so when she is the running mate of a 72-year-old with health problems"

    Very poor taste for the G&M editorial board to repeat this allegation. At most, McCain will have one term in office. Research the life expectancy of a white male aged 72 in good health (as McCain has recently been assessed). It ranges around 12-15 years. What's the life expectancy of a middle-aged, lifelong-smoking, African American male, I wonder? I expect the chance of either man dying in office to be remote.
  17. Hendrick Larose from Canada writes: The brilliance of choosing Palin is that her shortcoings are Obama's shortcomings and he is at the top of the ticket. When the pundits argue experience matters and disqualify Palin for it they have doubly damned Obama. There is no question that this was strategic choice not a choice about the best qualified VP. Who cares though? The VP is very valuable during the election run but not all that valuable once elected. Strategy was the motive and it was brilliant
  18. A J from Canada writes: Mariposa Belle from Leacockland, Canada writes: The only qualification necessary to run on a ticket as Veep is to deliver states unlikely to swing behind the Presidential candidate. As Governor of Alaska, and her personal beliefs, she is likely to deliver the Pacific Northwest to McCain. She puts Colorado into play and I would say that she could be influential in Minnesota.
    _______________________

    Mariposa Belle, I don't think there is any evidence that she will help McCain with any of these states.

    Alaska was likely GOP to begin with. Washington and Oregon are likely Dem, according to the polls, and I don't see any way that she will turn those two states red. Minnesota is likely Dem right now, and indeed none of the recent state polls shows McCain in the lead.

    Colorado has gone Republican in recent years, but is leaning Dem right now. I don't think Coloradans are likely to forget that McCain wants to steal their water.

    McCain shored up his base, at least that part of the base that is socially conservative. He's not going to attract many independents or Democrats. However, the polls will tell us more in due course.

    In the meantime, I hope that the traditional media makes some fast progress in doing the vetting that the McCain campaign didn't bother to do. I'd like voters to know Palin's record of accomplishments and shortcomings before going to the polls on Nov. 4.
  19. Emma Hawthorne from Canada writes: To the sexist media, Palin will always lack a basic qualifying appendage for any job it values. The media hounds may bark, but the caravan moves on!
  20. Mariposa Belle from Leacockland, Canada writes: A J - my point was that she could deliver the PNWER states, with a few others thrown in.

    Whether or not she can do it is for the voters to decide.

    As for the intensive media vetting - it would not surprise me to have a story break that she favours red lingerie, based on credible reports of observations watching the family clothesline.

    We all know the media isn't biased and the posters on these boards don't have an axe to grind.
  21. Hendrick Larose from Canada writes: Watch CNN these days and you can see that Palin is the ongoing item of discussion. No one talking about Biden. This focus is great free advertising for the Rebublicans.
  22. A J from Canada writes: Mariposa Belle from Leacockland, Canada writes: A J - my point was that she could deliver the PNWER states, with a few others thrown in.

    Whether or not she can do it is for the voters to decide.

    As for the intensive media vetting - it would not surprise me to have a story break that she favours red lingerie, based on credible reports of observations watching the family clothesline..

    __________

    It is early days yet. There's been one day's worth of tracking polls, I believe, and some national polls on the question of voter response to McCain naming Palin. Eventually we'll have some more data, and see how things unfold.

    Myself, I think that Palin will do well with the Republican base, but she won't attract Dems or independents.

    As to the media:

    The National Enquirer sent reporters to Alaska, but that's not what I had in mind. I don't care about her daughter's situation, as her daughter is not a candidate and how she lives her life is her own business, and none of mine.

    However, how Palin handled her jobs in government, as governor and as the mayor of her town, is something that interests me. There was one complaint that was underway before she was chosen by McCain, which will be resolved before the election, and a new complaint concerning access to a a confidential personnel file. And there are more controversies that the media is looking into: controversies that have to do with her job performance as governor.

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