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McCain believes we are stupid. Is he correct?

Larry Kummer, Editor

Given McCain’s age and health history, the choice of Vice President has unusually great significance.  He chose someone who looks good, sounds good, and fits his marketing needs.  She is, however, grossly unqualified to be President of the United States.  Perhaps her primary qualification is to make Obama look over-qualified.   

McCain treats the election as if it were a reality TV show, to be won by tricks.  It mocks the McCain campaign’s slogan of “Country First.”   This choice not only demonstrates his well-known erraticness plus, in my opinion, displays contempt for the American people.  Are we as stupid as he believes us to be?

America will survive whoever wins.  Electing unqualified people with good marketing worked for us in the 19th century, it might prove disastrous in the 21st.   (Although the song “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” may have won the Presidency for Harrison in the 1840, he had prior service as Governor, Representative, and Senator). 

Content

  1. Compare and Contrast Palin and Obama
  2. Is executive experience like homeopathic medicine?
  3. Interviews, the “troopergate” scandal, and other data about Palin
  4. Update: Palin giggles as radio hosts mock a cancer-surviving legislator as a ‘bitch’ and ‘cancer’.”
  5. Where to go for more analysis of McCain’s choice of VP
  6. My posts about the candidates

1.  Compare and Contrast Palin and Obama

Obama might become President.  So might Palin.  Note that several of the details in the mainstream stories are either mis-leading or incorrect about her background.

Sarah Palin

Education

Political Offices

About the O&G Conservation Commission:  She is listed in their 2004 report as the “public member”, the other members being the geologist and the engineer.  Some news reports describer her as the “chairwoman”, but this appears inaccurate.  In 1969 the commission was reduced in size; after then it no longer had a Chairman or Executive Secretary.  Sources:  history, 2004 annual report.

Saying that she has good executive experience because of her time as part-time mayor of a tiny village seems a stretch.  How many employees does it have?  In 2002 it had an operating budget of $5.8 million (source).

Professional Career (dates and details differ about this info)

I have found nothing describing her role in what appear to be these two family businesses.  Was she, as many reports say, really a fisherman?

Barack Obama

Education

Political Office (aprox 1/2 of this time spent campaigning)

Professional Career

Scandals

There are many rumors about Obama’s relationship with Rezko, which are too complex to review here.  See Wikipedia for a brief and more links.

2.  Does executive experience work like homeopathic medicine?

The belief that Palin has substantial “executive experience” is odd, IMO.  As if scale has no meaning, both in the time spent governing and the size of the organization she ran. Is this like Homeopathic medicine: executive experience has an effect irrelevant to its concentration? One drop, one molecule, is all it takes?

Or is executive experience like most things in life, where the scale matters?  A village of 5 thousand people has a part-time mayor, but that is not comperable to being Governor.  Being a senior executive legislature of a state or nation for 20 months gains less experience than doing so for 5 years.

Legislative experience is slightly different.  For example, a US Senator’s experience has nothing to do with the size of the State he or she represents. They all cast one equal vote; they all do similar things in the Senate.

3.  Interviews, the “troopergate” scandal, and other data

The “troopergate” scandal sounds ugly.  Very ugly.

  1. “Palin staff pushed to have trooper fired“, Daily Anchorage News, 14 August 2008 — “Governor says she’s learned calls were made about Wooten’s ouster”
  2. “Interview with Sarah Palin“, Time, 14 August 2008 — Slow pitches to Palin.
  3. “Why Walt Monegan got fired: Palin’s abuse of power“, Andrew Halcro, posted at his blog, undated — A brief description of the troopergate story, accuracy unknown.

4.  Update: Palin giggles as radio hosts mock a cancer-surviving legislator as a ‘bitch’ and ‘cancer’.” Summary: “Hear Sarah Palin giggle as radio hosts mock a cancer-surviving legislator as a ‘bitch’ and ‘cancer’.” 

Youtube recording of an interview with Sarah Palin, “Bob and Mark” show, Bob Lester and Mark Colavecchio, broadcast on radio station KWHL, 15 January 2008.  The shock jocks crudely mock Lyda Green, President of Alaska’s State Senate.   Governor Palin giggles in response.  {Update:  that youtube link no longer works; use Google to find others, as the Palin staff will seek to keep this hidden.  See comments for other links).

This must be heard to be believed, as interviews with Governors go. Esp bizarre are her giggles. If McCain-Palin win, we will have an interesting time ahead. If McCain dies or become incapacitated, we’ll have quite a ride ahead of us.  We will have no excuse, no basis to complain.

The only report I can find from the time of the incident:  “Palin’s responses on radio talk show very unbecoming“, Anchorage Daily News, 27 January 2008.

5.  For more analysis of McCain’s choice of VP

  1. Zenpundit — who has collected many links on the topic! 
  2. Also drop by Sic Semper Tyrannis, the blog of Patrick Lang (Colonel, US Army, retired) — esp note the comments, which typically run from good to excellent.
  3. “What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.“, by AKMuckraker, posted at Mudflats, 29 August 2008 — A seemingly fair look at Palin.
  4. Most esp, see National Review Online’s The Corner — a stream of wildly enthusiastic posts.
  5. “Palin the irresponsible choice?” David Frum, National Post, 29 August 2008 — A conservative dissents from the enthusiasm about Palin.
  6. “Palin touts stance on ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ doesn’t note flip-flop“, Anchorage Daily News, 31 August 2008 — IMO a fair review of her record as Gov.

Skimming #4, the NRO site, is fascinating.  Pure identity politics:  she’s one of us, we love her.  They like her for who she is, not what she can do.  Almost zero discussion of her training, experience, or ability to function as President.  Strange, very strange for conservatives.  And it show the moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party.

Not about Palin, but useful analysis:   “Foreign Policy and the President’s Irrelevance” by George Friedman on Stratfor, 5 Feb 2008 

Update:  Update: an interesting perspective on the experience debate

“No Experience Necessary“, Michael Kinsley, Slate, 31 August 2008 — “How Sarah Palin made the GOP change its mind about presidential qualifications.” Excerpt:

The whole ‘experience’ debate is silly. Under our system of government, there is only one job that gives you both executive and foreign policy experience, and that’s the one McCain and Obama are running for.

Nevertheless, it’s a hardy perennial:

When Republicans aren’t complaining about someone’s lack of experience, they are calling for term limits

… In fact, it’s not about experience at all. It’s about honesty. The question should be whether McCain—and all the other Republicans who have been going on for months about Obama’s dangerous lack of foreign policy experience—ever meant a word of it.

And the answer is apparently not. Many conservative pundits woke up this very morning fully prepared to harp on Obama’s alleged lack of experience for months more. Now they face the choice of either executing a Communist-style U-turn (“Experience? Feh! Who needs it?”) or trying to keep a straight face while touting the importance of having been mayor of a town of 9,000 if you later find yourself president of a nation of 300 million.

Please share your comments by posting below (brief and relevant, please), or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).

6.  My Posts about the Candidates

1.  How the Iraq and Vietnam wars are mirror images of each other  (7 February 2008) — Now we have McCain, the leading Republican Presidential candidate, talking of an open-ended commitment to victory in Iraq.

2.  What do blogs do for America?  (26 February 2008) — As our problems reach critical dimensions and our economy sinks into what is (at best) a severe recession, our national leadership will likely move into the hands of someone with astonishingly little capacity to govern. 

3.  A look at the next phase of the Iraq War: 2009-2012  (1 March 2008) — What is next in Iraq?  None of the leading candidates have expressed any intention of leaving Iraq – except in the distant and vague future.  McCain intends to fight so long as (or until) we suffer few casualties, then stay for a long time (perhaps a hundred years, as McCain said here and here) ).  On the other hand, Obama has been quite explicit…

4.  Our metastable Empire, built on a foundation of clay (3 March 2008) — We can elect leaders with vast ambitions (foreign for McCain, domestic for Obama), but can no longer afford them. 

5.  How long will all American Presidents be War Presidents? (21 March 2008) — The Presidential campaign rolls on in the seventh year since 9/11, with the only debate about the Long War being in which nations America should fight. We see this even the speeches of the most “liberal” candidate, Senator Barack Obama.

6.  American history changes direction as the baton passes between our political parties  (18 May 2008) – Importance of the November 2008 political landslide.

7.  President Obama, an Muslim apostate?  (2 June 2008) — Nope.

8.  Is Obama running for the office of Chief Shaman?   (6 June 2008) — Weirdness from our next President.

9.  Does America need a charismatic President?   (15 july 2008)

10.  More about charisma, by Don Vandergriff…(#2 in the “getting ready for Obama” series)  (16 July 2008) — About charisma:  know it before you buy it!

11.  Obama might be the shaman that America needs  (17 July 2008) — At what point does criticism of Obama’s charisma and rhetoric become criticism of leadership itself — and blind faith in technocratic solutions so loved by policy nerds?  Michael Knox Beran crosses that line in “Obama, Shaman“, City Journal, Summer 2008.

12.  Obama describes the first step to America’s renewal, 8 August 2008 — Obama’s statement about America may be the simple truth; this may be why so many find it disturbing.

13.  A powerful perspective on the candidates for President of the US, 28 August 2008 — John Derbyshire expresses what I have said about the candidates dreams of saving the world.

For interesting articles about the candidates from other sources, see About the candidates for President of the United States.

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