Brad Sallows
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It doesn't really matter when the gaffes took place. All politicians make gaffes; some get a media pass.
U.S. 2012 Election
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Brad Sallows
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There is nothing Palin said or did which I find makes her less qualified or prepared than Mr-Lost-Without-A-Prepared-Speech-and-Teleprompter, or his elected sidekick. She's schoolteacher/journalist grade material, but the presidency doesn't need a policy wonk because no policy wonk would ever have enough time. It needs someone who can choose reasonably objective competent advisors, make decisions, and maintain presidential demeanour in the face of criticism and resistance. Palin scores less than fair on presidential conduct due to some of her stunts, but I think Obama scores poorly on all three. Most of his advisors are too far into their ideas about how the world should be and too far away from how the world is, and he manages to punt most of what should be his decisions and projects. His thin skin and petulance are beyond all doubt.
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Brad Sallows said:
I'm sending a bill for a new keyboard for this. I don't know if it was written sarcastically, but I hope so.
Palin as schoolteacher/journalist grade material? You must be joking. She displayed an ignorance of issues that was stunning. Yes, I accept that no one knows everything, and that sometimes people misspeak. One needs to be able to overlook that for all people, within reason anyhow. It's not as though Palin was tripping up on "gotcha" questions, they were relatively mundane ones in a lot of cases.
I'm amazed that we're still going on and on about teleprompters. So he uses them. So do plenty of other politicians and figures. Does he sound more polished using them? Yes. THAT'S THE WHOLE BLASTED IDEA. Can he speak without them? Yes, he can. Best speaker ever without? No, probably not. Fine.
Does he choose compentent advisors? I guess your perception of that depends on how you see the world. I'd probably find any advisors chosen by a GOP adminstration troublesome, since they'd probably resort to their purveyors of their usual slate of failed bad ideas. I guess there's no way to objectively assess that.
Is the guy the greatest politician that ever walked the Earth? I don't think so. But can you compare Sarah Palin to him? Not even a little bit.
Redeye said:
So you expect someone else to pay for your problems . . . explains your infatuation with POTUS Obama.
Although it won't happen, I would love for Newt to get the nod just so he could engage Obama with those seven proposed debates. As Newt says . . . Obama can even use a teleprompter.
He would eviscerate Obama in one-on-one debates. Because Obama without someone writing his words for him is really quite sad to watch.
Which is why Obama will never let it happen.
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I'd like to focus on the part I highlighted in yellow. And this is not a blast at President Obama or any other politician, but I would offer that the ability to speak publically is a necessary skill for politics, but it's not sufficient. I don't mean that people must sound polished (as the example states above), but that they must be effective communicators. Looking back in Canadian politics, Prime Minister Chretien was at his best as a communicator when he was not doing a speech (think back to the 1995 Referendum, if you're old enough). Even President G.W. Bush was an effective orator. I would offer that any politician who needs "polish" to effectively communicate probably isn't the best communicator, ironically enough.Redeye said:
So, when we elect politicians to office, we must remember to sort through the "how" and focus on the "what" of the messages they send.
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Agree Haletown.
Media screams about Rush the mouth using an analogy about a thirty year old political activist who demands her entitlement for free birth control from a university she enrolled at, knowing it was against the university's code when she enrolled. (Would she want the government involved if she got pregnant ?)
Then there is the HBO's Bill Maher (who just gave one million dollars for Obama's re-election, as is his right) who called Sarah Palin a four letter word starting with the letter "c". Also called her a "Dumb Twat".
See that splashed everywhere?
Media screams about Rush the mouth using an analogy about a thirty year old political activist who demands her entitlement for free birth control from a university she enrolled at, knowing it was against the university's code when she enrolled. (Would she want the government involved if she got pregnant ?)
Then there is the HBO's Bill Maher (who just gave one million dollars for Obama's re-election, as is his right) who called Sarah Palin a four letter word starting with the letter "c". Also called her a "Dumb Twat".
See that splashed everywhere?
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Rifleman62 said:
Despite Bill Maher's delusions, he has nowhere near the audience of Rush Limbaugh. That makes the latter's comments far more newsworthy.
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The article highlights the dangers of "narrative". The article simply demonstrates the factor that ultimatly scuppered the McCain camaign was the decision to "suspend" the campaign, not Governor Palin. Now Senator McCain may have had the best of all possible motives to do this, or perhaps thought it would be the best campaign gimmick ever ("he's so concerned about America he is dropping the campaign!") or something in between, but in the end, the loss of momentum was never recovered.
Of course when people become too caught up in the "narrative", they are at a loss to explain things that don't fall into the narrative. The 2010 midterm results and Governor Palin's continuing popularity are impossible to explain using the Legacy media "narratives" about the TEA Party movement or Governor Palin's qualifications, so expect some real "wow" moments as the campaign continues and things don't fall into the neatly packaged "narratives" of either side.
Of course when people become too caught up in the "narrative", they are at a loss to explain things that don't fall into the narrative. The 2010 midterm results and Governor Palin's continuing popularity are impossible to explain using the Legacy media "narratives" about the TEA Party movement or Governor Palin's qualifications, so expect some real "wow" moments as the campaign continues and things don't fall into the neatly packaged "narratives" of either side.
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My personal opinion about providing birth control as a medical entitlement is about the same as providing marajuana for recreational purposes.Rifleman62 said:
In our "First World" version of "rights", I think we've jumped the shark.
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Technoviking said:
The problem - and the whole point that Ms Fluke was trying to make - is that hormonal contraceptives are not solely used for birth control. They are a medical necessity for many women for a variety of reasons. Not covering them, when insurers cover things like Viagra, makes no sense.
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Bill Maher has posted a tweet on Rush:
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And there ladies and gentlemen, is what civilizd discourse looks like. While I don't think Rush will be having Bill over for a beer any time soon, the response is far more gracious than anything else that has come out of this affair to date.
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Thucydides said:
Actually, no. That's Bill Maher seizing the moral high ground. I suspect Rush Limbaugh still wouldn't know civilized discourse if it punched him in the face. I don't particularly have problem with people communicating with Rush's sponsors to say, "Is this really what you want to be associated with?" Businesses have to be wary of this sort of thing, after all.
I'd love it if there were more intelligent, decent people in the commentary business on the right - but it seems like the ones I find most insightful, especially David Frum, are throwing up their hands and saying "what the hell happened to our party?" That's basically what happened to me a few years ago, I just got sick of what conservatives had to say, so I walked.
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If a drug is prescribed for a medical condition, then it's no different than cannabis being prescribed to say chemo patients to help their appetite, for example. I would also include Viagra as a recreational drug, by the way.Redeye said:
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