What are your opinions of the respective VP picks? - Page 2

As for the Russia flying into Alaska - it's just a total joke.  She's arguing that her foreign policy experience is entirely hypothetical.  If Russia were completely stupid and forgot the Cold War were over, then they'd fly over Alaska.  OMG!  It's just amazing that Palin/McCain won't drop this stupid 'Alaska is close to Russia...and Canada!' ruse.  People just aren't that stupid.

Palin is proving to be a really stupid choice for VP.  Every time she has an interview she comes off looking waaaaay out of her league.  So the McCain campaign tries to keep her away from the media, but that's not doing her any favors when it comes to the debate next week.

Plus after the presidential debate, Biden was interviewed on every major network.  Palin was nowhere to be found, McCain's camp instead represented by his campaign manager.  She can't even handle talking to the press about how the presidential debate went!  That's the easiest job ever - all you have to do is babble about McCain's experience.

I really can't wait until Thursday.  I just hope Biden doesn't come off as condescending or too harsh and make people feel sorry for Palin.  That's pretty much her only chance.

Or that asking her any hard questions is sexist behavior.  Which is bizarre, because it's okay to ask Hillary tough questions, but not Palin.  Nice double-standard.

Palin scares me.  She may have attempted to ban books in Wasilla, she was blessed against witchcraft by a pastor who had persecuted a woman he proclaimed to be a witch in Kenya, a pastor and blessing who she credits for playing a big role in her becoming governor, she signed a budget which made women pay for their own rape kits and medical exams in Wasilla - but she never has to answer questions about this stuff.  She's frightening.  For all we know she's a complete nutjob, but because she avoids the media, there's no way to know!  And because she's a woman, she can get away with avoiding the media by playing the sexism card.

I agree - this year the VP picks are more important than usual.  The main criticism of Obama is that he's too inexperienced, so it was important for him too choose a VP who could help advise him.  He did that.  One main concern about McCain is his age and health.  There's a significant chance he could die in office, so it was important for him to pick a VP who would be ready to take his place.  Clearly he did not do that.

Further, the choices reveal a lot about the candidates' judgement.  Obama made a wise choice.  McCain made a rash, risky choice.  Since then, he's made a series of other similarly rash choices (i.e. suspending his campaign to address the bailout - except he didn't actually suspend anything).

So it's not just the VP nominees themselves, but also what their choice tells you about the presidential candidates.  That McCain was willing to put politics over country is enough in itself to make me question whether I could vote for him.

President is a slightly more demanding job than manager ;-)  Palin doesn't know diddly squat about any aspect of foreign or national policy.  She's not just inexperienced, she's unprepared and unqualified.

Well, I certainly hope Palin did hesitate in reality, but as a politician she's just putting up the front that 'oh no of course I didn't hesitate because I'm just so damn prepared to be VP'.  It's one of those answers where you have to say no, because if you say yes, it gets people thinking 'well if she's not even sure she's ready to be VP, then maybe she's not'.  It would be nice if politicians could be honest about that sort of thing.

As for the magazines/newspapers - that's definitely sketchy.  Her answer was basically 'oh I just read so many of them...', but come on.  I read a lot of newspapers, but I could name at half dozen of the top of my head too.  How can you not name any?  And why not name a few even if you don't really read them?  She was probably scared that she'd be judged by what she reads (for example, if she cited the NY Times [liberal] or Washington Times [conservative]).  My guess is that her lack of response here was due to her history of screwing up answers in the few interviews she's done.  The less you say, the less you can screw up.  Once again we go back to the fact that she never offers details in any of her answers, and the few times she tries to go beyond her talking points, she says something stupid.

As for global warming, that's a bunch of malarkey.  She changed her position because it went against McCain's position and it's a politically untenable stance.  And if we're not causing global warming, there's nothing we can do about it!

Hah yeah I saw that the other day.

And comedians thought Bush gave them great material.  All you have to do to make fun of Palin is repeat what she says verbatim!

One day to the debate.