The New York Times magazine had a great article on the re-branding of John McCain. This particular quote stuck out at me.
Reviewing the tape, it didn’t concern Davis that Palin seemed out of her depth on health-care issues or that, when asked to name her favorite candidate among the Republican field, she said, “I’m undecided.†What he liked was how she stuck to her pet issues — energy independence and ethics reform — and thereby refused to let Rose manage the interview. This was the case throughout all of the Palin footage. Consistency. Confidence. And . . . well, look at her.A friend had said to Davis: “The way you pick a vice president is, you get a frame of Time magazine, and you put the pictures of the people in that frame. You look at who fits that frame best — that’s your V. P.â€
Shameful. The very next paragraph:
Schmidt, to whom Davis quietly supplied the Palin footage, agreed. Neither man apparently saw her lack of familiarity with major national or international issues as a serious liability.
This is not a man who showed good judgement. This is not a man who put his country first. This is a man who let the most base and political advisers pick his vice president because she looked good.
Reagan vs. Palin — please! Reagan emerged as a national force for the Republican party in the early 60s. He was governor of the largest state in the union for 8 years. He ran for president and darn near won the nomination in ’76. That was his resume entering the 1980 election — nearly 20 years of political prominence at a national level. Compare that to being a small-town mayor and governor of a rinky-dink state for
I don’t understand the question about Ronnie Reagan. What are you getting at? Palin is unqualified because she doesn’t know the first damn thing about anything important at the national level, nor does she seem to care to learn anything. There is absolutely not a shred of evidence that she does. That is a prime reason why so many prominent Republicans are jumping ship, and they are explicit about it. The fact that she is popular in AK is just irrelevant. Reagan had already been on the national stage and been dealing with national issues for a long time. He already had an ideology that he was comfortable with and could coherently match up against any other ideology out there, even it was expressed in folkese. Palin has so far given exactly zero press conferences, failed miserably in her three interviews, given opinions that are self-contradictory, contradict McCains campaign planks, contradict her own executive history, etc… Seriously, how can you even argue this? They won’t let her talk freely to the press because they know she’s not up to it, she’ll get destroyed.
I am not a huge fan or huge detractor of Reagan’s. I think he was never a towering intellectual, but Reagan was a hundred times more qualified to be president than Palin. They’re not even in the same league.
how would you classify Ronnie Reagan? of course, CA is much larger than AK…Ronnie was an actor…but turned out to be one of the most popular and effective presidents ever! don’t get me wrong, don’t believe palin is qualified, but muttrox, your posts haven’t been as objective these days as they normally are…
“The highest approval rating of any governor in the USA is not enough of a success to qualify her as a VP pick?”
No. A thousand times no.
The highest approval rating of any governor in the USA is not enough of a success to qualify her as a VP pick? Let’s bash her because she was given a duty, focused on the duty, and led the state successfully. Maybe if she was unfocused on her duties as governor and only concerned about her political aspirations (ala Hillary), than she would be able to talk about the Bush doctrine. He chose her because she is different and fresh and he believes Washington needs a fresh face – just because that face is pretty just doesn’t mean anything.
This guy was on Fresh Air today as well. Great interview.