Vice-President Picks

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NOG,

I really don't think that comparison works. While I guess you can call me an average Joe, Palin is a politician, while I have no such aspirations. If you look at Palin's personal career, especially given her relatively young age, I would say that she is an ambitious person. She held her first elected office as a city council person when she was just 28 years old. She became a mayor (albeit of a small town, but still a mayor) at 32, and she was elected governor when she was 42.

I doubt that in all of these cases she was just taking the opportunity that was offered, and was not instead making a concerted effort to advance her career. While I will concede that she was not considered a front runner for the VP slot, it is considered improper in both the Democratic and Republican party to actively campaign for the VP slot. That's why you usually hear a potential VP candidate say when asked if he/she thinks he/she will be picked, "While I think [fill in name of presidential candidate], can select someone better suited to the position than I am, if it were offered to me, I would humbly accept." So I'm not sure her lack of an actively campaigning for the VP slot is an accurate measure of her ambition either.

 

NOG - Yes, she was. Your comment was the way it was played by the media at first; that was a narrative crafted to make Palin appear something she wasn't. She WAS hunting for the slot and hired a personal promoter to help her get it. I guess that phony narrative stuff in the media really works....

http://theroguewave.blogspot.com/2008/10/state-paid-for-palins-pr-consultant.html

 

Ok, I think this pretty much settles the "Is Palin ambitious" issue for me:



She is, deal with it. Personally, I don't mind politicians being ambitious - it's not an easy job (if you want to do it right) and requires a lot of motivation and confidence to succeed. They can be too ambitious, however, and I'm wondering if Governor Palin is not overreaching herself.

Edit: I seem to have problems with linking to the clip, it is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXrasDT7YH0

 

Palin 2012 - it appears she'll have to duke that out with Romney. Some of the voices that said she is a walking embarrassment are said to belong to Romney staffers now working on the McCain campaign. What she will have to deal with after her remarkable statement is the argument it was her who killed the McCain campaign. She, of course, will blame John McCain for being lacklustre and lacking her ... campaign temperament. It will be interesting to watch.

 

Well now, sorry for the thread necromancy - but there's something about Palin I'm not sure about. It appears that, as http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/03/palin-campaign-stonewalls-on-medical-records/ states, she won't be releasing her medical records. I take it that this is customary in US politics, as both presidential nominees and her counterpart on the Obama ticket, Joe Biden, have done so.

Is this important? I can imagine it being useful to know if a possible country leader suffers from certain health problems, but is there anything more to that?

 

Yes, it is very important. It is the most basic issue of transparency. Considering that one of the biggest problems with the Bush adminstration was their LACK of transparency, for Palin to stonewall like this while still being considered for the office should give everyone pause.

There are two things, actually, that are customary: VP candidates are expected to provide full transparency in their medical records, and they are expected to attend press conferences. Unscripted questions with followups, one of the most basic functions of any candidate for public office in our country. Palin has refused to attend a even single one of these since her selection. This is absolutely unprecedented in modern times. People like to complain that the press is unfair to her, but how can they be when a candidate shows such disdain for accountability? Before she's even put into office?

 

DR, while I'll agree that her medical records are very important, last I heard, Biden hadn't released his most important records, either: his brain scans. For Palin, there is no commonly known history of medical problems, so it'd basically be looked at as a confirmation of good health (odds are) which have frequently been bypassed. Even Obama hasn't released much on his medical history. For Biden, however, it's a critical issue, as he's already had something like four brain aneurisms.

On that matter, how customary is full transparency for a VP? I can't really remember much being made of it that wasn't already common knowledge (Gore is old, wow) in previous campaigns. Then again, I don't think most recent campaigns have been as fierce as this one.

As for Palin's ambition, I guess I was wrong. I'm not sure I like that. I don't think here ages of accomplishment are particularly young, though.

 

From what I understand, earlier today her campaign released a doctor's letter that confirmed that she was in good health. I presume that this close to the election nobody would care that much about it, anyway.

 

This isn't entirely accurate. It is true that Biden has released no recent brain scans, but that's because there aren't any to release. There simply isn't any indication that Biden's doctors sought follow-up tests after the serious aneurysms he suffered in 1988. Medical experts are divided over the need for such precautionary brain scans, but many feel it is the only way to be sure a patient is out of danger. You can't fault Biden for failing to release records that don't exist, can you?

 

I couldn't care less about Palin's medical records really. As NOG commented, unless you have some reason to believe otherwise, there's no reason to suspect that a 40-something mother of five (one of which she gave birth to earlier this year) is not in good health. I had a much bigger problem with McCain only allowing the press to access several hundred pages of his medical records (and even at several hundred pages the records were said to be incomplete) for a couple of hours, and allowed no photocopies to be made to be reviewed later. Palin is young enough to be given the benefit of the doubt - not so when speaking of a 72-year old cancer survivor.

 

But you see, to me, that's all the more reason for Palin to have released them and been done with it. If you're young and the picture of health, why not be forthcoming? It's not that I care about her health, obviously she's young and healthy. I care that she thinks she's above even the most basic forms of public transparency.

In a televised interview a week ago, after repeated requests from her interviewer, she promised to release her medical records. Last night, on the eve of the election, her doctor released a two-page letter. This is Bush nonsense all over again, and we cannot continue allowing people like this to occupy the White House. We'll find out tonight if America agrees.

 

Which, in all likelihood, she won't be. At least not prior to 2012.

 

God, I hope not....

 

DR, how much has Obama released? Last I heard it was a one-page letter from his doctor.

Hmm, anyone seeing similarities between the health debate and the experience debate? The two with any issues to cover are dodging them and the two without any are getting away with no having anything to back up their claims.

 

Well hopefully obama is suffering from a deadly disease & will die soon(oh we can only hope) before he completely f@cks the country.

 

Good grief martaug - have you spewed enough venom yet over Obama's election? You're really a sore loser. I was depressed when Bush won, but I didn't throw a hissy fit.

 

Yeah martaug, chill out dude!
{my turn to gang up on someone}

They'll probably move on to better jobs, so by all means...

Congratulations America!

 

Doubtful as i have the exclusive right to sell & build the unique types of homes & custom kitchens that we build. The nearest competitor is almost 250 miles away
So unless they wish to up & move there job oppurtunities are whats left in the general building market.(which isn't doing too well)

No aldeth i haven't, as the stupid sheep in this country that get all their info from the news just f@cked us for 4 years. Read the tag-line

 

Firing people for voting in a way contrary to your will isn't defiance. Petty, yes. Spiteful, yes. Vindictive, yes. Cruel, perhaps. Defiant, no.

 

You know, the company I work for is also in a mutually at will agreement with its employees. Despite being "at will", a former employee sued the company for wrongful termination when he was fired last year. He won. Fortunately, when you work for a Fortune 500 company, a single wrongful termination lawsuit doesn't sink the whole operation.