Karl Rove on the VP
Less than a month ago, on Face the Nation, Karl Rove said this about Gov. Tim Kaine, the person he thought Obama might chose for his vice president:
With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?
So was Rove behind the choice of Sarah Palin (governor of Alaska for 20 months; former mayor of Wasilla (population 8,000)?
Like others in his profession I think Rove gets comfortable with a wide brush- my team good- the competition bad.
My guess is President Bush, Karl Rove and Tom Noe are/were powerful party forces John McCain may not want to hang out with anymore.
I read that she was often referred to as the “Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard” this morning on the talk shows. A Fox News person said she has foreign policy experience because Alaska is located up there next to Russia (and near Santa Claus, Jon Stewart point out).
Update: Rove has said she’s qualified for the same reason that Kaine wasn’t: “She’s a former mayor. She’s the mayor of, I think, the second largest city in Alaska before she ran for governor.”
Actually it’s the fifth largest city, about the size of Tecumseh.
With this election, not even the Onion can keep pace with real life.
No doubt Rove is politically motivated to put a positive spin on the Palin nomination. Have you heard Keith Oberman or Chris Matthews lately? Obviously,the McCain camp thought she could pull in some voters. She has more executive experience than Obama. A low bar for indeed.
I think you have to answer this question: are you ready for Sarah Palin to be the next president? It could happen before the end of the year, you never know what might be ahead.
The Intrade betting pool from Dublin is taking bets on her being eliminated from the ticket before November.
Or put anouther way: Are you ready for Obama?
Very much. With four years in the U.S. Senate, he’s had to consider and research a very large array of issues facing the country.
I’m not suggesting that a small-town person can’t succeed in the White House, but Sarah Palin concerns me. When she was asked about the vice president possibly on a TV broadcast this summer, she said something like, First of all, they’re going to have to tell me what a VP does all day.
When asked about Iraq policy, she said she hadn’t thought about it. At another time, she described the Iraq war as “a task from God.”
I know she’s being paraded as being better prepared for the job than either Obama or Biden (and by extension, McCain), but there are a lot of things about her that worry me in the “heartbeat away” consideration.
As I first wrote in this series I whole-heartedly agree that the VP picks are largely about shoring up your own election.
Context is everything when quotes are given. I can see the VP question as a flippant laughable comment or as someone that wants to know the details of what would be expected of them.
Conversely, I cannot put a reasonable context to why Obama would vote “present” in the state house over 100 times in his short career there. What is the purpose of that? The president has to be able to make the tough decisions and equally important, live with their consequences.
From Green’s Blog July 16, 2008: The Washington Post’s Capital Briefing blog notes that the ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy has now voted more times in recent months than Sen. John McCain. Kennedy only voted once. McCain hasn’t shown up for work since April 8.
There’s not much to cheer about from Barack Obama, either.
McCain: Missed 374 votes (61.8% of total)
Obama: Missed 263 votes (43.5% of total)
Go back to the start of this post, about Rove first saying the governor of Virginia was too inexperienced because he was a city council member and mayor of a city of only 200,000 people and he was only a governor for three years. And then he turns around and celebrates Palin’s experience because she was a council member and mayor of a city with less than 10,000 people and governor of a low population state for 20 months.
All the reasons that are our candidate is so wonderful are exactly the same as why your candidate is so ill-suited.
It’s this kind of duplicity that turns many people away from having an interest in politics. A healthy democracy needs to have its citizens interested in the political process. I probably have a very low threshold for what I consider dirty politics, so I find the GOP campaign sickening.
Now teen pregnancy is celebrated as a wonderful family event, because it was one of ours who became pregnant.
Don’t mention that earlier this year Palin used the line-item veto to cut funding for a state program that helps teen mothers in need of a place to live.
You can shrug if off and say that it’s just politics. I find it disgusting and showing a great lack of character. Lies, deceit, disingenuous pandering, the smears based on no facts - they’re all a challenge to democracy.
I’ve listened to “We have to have Experience in these Dangerous Times” speeches this week. Then the followup- “the competition is weak and doesn’t even understand the problem”.
I loved the Lone Ranger TV series when I was a child, these speeches seem similar- everything painted black or white. I expect more from our leaders.
I think the only thing that we are holding differently is that I believe self-serving, (dirty politics as you say) applies to both parties and it appears you believe [green] it only applies to the party you are in opposition to. I don’t shrug it off, I play the hand I’m dealt.
when I read Green’s last comment, I knew he would get comment about both sides doing it. That’s true to some extent, but you have to be either blind or unwilling to admit the obvious to not see the vast differences in the way the two parties campaign. The Republicans are all about trashing the opponent.
Rather than experience, let’s talk about judgment.
I must fall into the blind camp. I don’t think I am unwilling. So much of what we think is a result of what we read and hear. I’m tring to be more careful to hear more than a single viewpoint. Some of the comments I read make me think others should do the same. Burying ourselves in the same biased web-sites and news channels really does blind our viewpoints.
This topic has brought the most comments of anything I’ve seen on this blog. I’ve enjoyed it but I’m done. I’m content to have been able to express my views even if I haven’t convinced other readers.
You had a good last line Buster.
There was mention above about SP saying that Iraq is a task from God. A McCain campaign spokesperson agrees:
“This is an incredibly humble statement, a statement that this campaign stands by 100%, and a sentiment that any religious American will share — the hope that our country’s actions are indeed righteous,” a campaign spokesman, Michael Goldfarb, said.
“The Republicans are all about trashing the opponent”? Buster, Buster, Buster. Perhaps a little history lesson is in order. The start of “Trash” campaigning is generally recognized as beginning with the Democrat’s “Mushroom Cloud” ad in 1964, meant to scare the people into thinking Barry Goldwater would drop the bomb if elected. Instead, LBJ won by landslide and got over 50,000 Americans killed the old-fashioned way. I love the Dems latest anti-Palin ad. Palin hates wolves! And somehow that should disqualify her from being VP? There’s plenty of this stuff going on on both sides, just open both of your eyes.
I got a phone call over the weekend from my union saying “John McCain doesn’t care about you, he wears $500 shoes.” Well, my special order Red Wing work boots aren’t cheap, either. Bill Clinton got at least one famous $200 haircut. Like McCain’s shoes, that should be his business, not ours. Have we run out of real issues to be concerned about???
PE,
The wolf issue goes far beyond wolves.
Twice, Alaskan citizens have voted against aerial hunting of wolves and bears in a large majority. In return, Alaskan legislatures (including Palin) have continued to allow it.
State citizens continue to speak out in disagreement of the hunting, yet the government continues to go against what the citizens want. Elected officials are supposed to represent the values of our majority.
Here’s a short documentary on the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mu_rqmFpL8
Thanks for that YouTube link, rshadbolt. I find it hard to believe Alaskan elected leaders have not agreed with their citizens to stop aerial hunting. But then, things Alaskan Senator Tedd Stevens has said and done are equally amazing to me.