Comments on: Open Sarah Palin Thread

By: nick s

nick s — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:19:45 +0000

The difference is that we don’t need them in order to go to the beach or to go skiing.

Such finely detailed geographical knowledge also feeds into one of the stereotypes the British tend to hold about Americans.

By: Bloix

Bloix — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:23:21 +0000

I don’t know about senators, but Brits often express amazement that most Americans don’t have passports. The difference is that we don’t need them in order to go to the beach or to go skiing.

By: bicycle Hussein paladin

bicycle Hussein paladin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:48:58 +0000

Tony makes an excellent point about education. Education and experience are more complements than substitutes.

I actually consider Obama’s having been raised in Hawai’i and Indonesia and having gone to international schools a big point in his favor. It seems like he actually interacted from kids from different cultural backgrounds, and had an Indonesian stepfather for a while if I understand correctly. As far as I know that’s very uncommon for people in US politics.

I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that something like 2/3 of US senators don’t have passports, i.e. they have never left the country.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:50:26 +0000

Check this out.

“Sarah Palin on Foreign Policy:
No issue stance yet recorded by OnTheIssues.org. ”

http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:44:12 +0000

The issue of experience vs. education is interesting.

Obama has twelve years experience as a lecturer in Constitutional Law at Columbia. How come no-one seems prepared to contrast that with Palin’s bare BSc. in journalism?

Does 12 years lecturing in constitutional law not count as experience?

Does having a higher level of general knowledge and education not make you more suitable for what is the world’s most challanging job?

Were I American, the least thing I would expect from a candidate for high office is that he or she had taken the time to formulate an opinion on Iraq.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:48:24 +0000

Similar?

I don’t think so. Rove’s bit tells you a whole lot more about Rove himself. It’s probably the case that to some people “X is graceful” – an innocuous and true statement in the case of Obama – means “X is a FAG!” but those are unlikely to be the folks a Democrat needs to win over in any case.

By: David in NY

David in NY — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:21:35 +0000

“tall thin man from Harvard in a beautifully tailored suit”: Slocum

“He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.” : Rove

Similar? Similarly inspired? We report, you decide.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:53:54 +0000

Obama has a urban, elegant kind of coolness. It’s an attractive image, and it fits him.

Let me agree with Slocum just for fun, while noting that it’s not hard to look polished next to the current occupant of the White House, or the current incarnation of John McCain for that matter.

By: Slocum

Slocum — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:29:36 +0000

“I was talking about Obama’s image, which is one of elegance…” #183

Oh give me a f…..ing break. He’s a skinny black guy with big ears. Quit trying the Rove trick of making him into the snooty guy at the country club. It won’t work.

So is this kind of thing some sort of Karl Rove-inspired hatchet job, then?

http://news.scotsman.com/barackobama/Obama-The-GQ-candidate-.4310033.jp

Or this:

“An Obama victory in November would, of course, constitute a far more remarkable historical breakthrough, with the election of the first African American to the White House, a prospect utterly unimaginable in John Kennedy’s day. Both are young – indeed a President Obama would be five years older than JFK when he took office. Both have grace, charm and elegance. They share a cool, at times sardonic, detachment.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-echoes-from-another-era-of-american-liberalism-909599.html

Who knew that Rove’s sinister influence extended to ‘The Independent’ in the UK?

I’m not sure why you’re getting your shorts in such a twist. Obama has a urban, elegant kind of coolness. It’s an attractive image, and it fits him. So far, he hasn’t tried to change it in ways that seem phony or silly, and that’s to his credit.

By: David in NY

David in NY — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:52:36 +0000

“I was talking about Obama’s image, which is one of elegance…” #183

Oh give me a f…..ing break. He’s a skinny black guy with big ears. Quit trying the Rove trick of making him into the snooty guy at the country club. It won’t work.

By: David in NY

David in NY — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:49:23 +0000

I don’t get this “executive” experience thing. A couple of my favorite Presidents are Truman and Kennedy—they did fine with as little executive experience as Obama. And Lyndon Johnson, too, though he lacked good judgment with regard to Vietnam. (Does being a Vice President who is not Dick Cheney count as executive experience? If not, then there’s Nixon, too—deeply dishonest but certainly competent. And Gerry Ford.) And on the other hand, there’s Carter and Bush II as examples of former “executives” who didn’t do so well as Presidents. I call BS on this factor, as they say.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:18:31 +0000

if we get to November and still have no idea what Palin’s position is on those issues, or find she has no position, or feel that she generally doesn’t know what she’s talking about

Quite right. It’s September and we are not allowed to have opinions yet.

By: bicycle Hussein paladin

bicycle Hussein paladin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:30:23 +0000

I find the claim that one of Obama’s principal qualifications for president consists of running a presidential campaign and being generally exposed and known … not very convincing.

I don’t know who would say that it’s one of his principal qualifications, but how somebody runs their campaign, especially in comparison to Obama’s competitors and other campaigns over the years, could speak very well about Obama’s management skills. Clinton also ran a nation-wide campaign, but it was a mess, a real train-wreck. You get these anecdotes leaking out about how the people running it hate each other’s guts, and that the campaign was running out of money but the person (Patti Solis Doyle) in charge of their finances (I think) didn’t tell this to Hillary Clinton until they were near the point of broke (and promptly resigned). I at least haven’t heard anything comparable to that about Obama, or about McCain, other than his recent VP pick and anecdotes about how his handlers have to keep him in check. Then there are the stories about Rove’s tactics during Bush’s 2000 campaign, especially against McCain in S Carolina. That Obama has managed to run a campaign this long with this much scrutiny, without any stories like that coming out, that is at least encouraging evidence about his management skills. You might say, “well of course he has good management skills, that’s a minimum we expect from a presidential candidate,” but some of these campaigns reveal that they don’t have great management skills, or other troubling things about them.

By: roy belmont

roy belmont — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:58:16 +0000

Better than regular:
http://tinyurl.com/5jjlge

By: Slocum

Slocum — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:32:01 +0000

If you honestly believe that an 18 month stint as governor in Alaska equals running a national campaign and years of public exposure on national and international issues…

I find the claim that one of Obama’s principal qualifications for president consists of running a presidential campaign and being generally exposed and known … not very convincing.

There is no doubt that we know Obama better than Palin and have a much better idea of his ideas about national and international issues—and if we get to November and still have no idea what Palin’s position is on those issues, or find she has no position, or feel that she generally doesn’t know what she’s talking about, that would be a reason to vote against the ticket.

WTF? Thin is what? – Elitist? ‘beautifully tailored suit’ – well, it’s true that Obama looks better than Bush, even when Bush is in his $3,000 bespoke suits from Scotland.

No, tall and thin is just what Obama looks like. I was talking about Obama’s image, which is one of elegance—in dress, manner, and background (Harvard Law, University of Chicago). He does look better than Bush in a suit. He hasn’t cultivated a ‘regular guy’ image (faux or genuine) nor even one as a yuppie outdoors enthusiast in the ‘what white people like’ sense:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/11/87-outdoor-performance-clothes/

So Obama’s coolness is of a particular and different type than Palin’s ‘loading the family and the fishing gear into the seaplane’—that’s all.