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<STRONG>Being able to "connect to people" is not a quality worthy of "respect". . . . nor is being a sex object.</STRONG><BR>
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<STRONG>And that Palin/Biden thingy wasn't a debate. . . it was a debacle. The moderator was totally unable to keep Palin from going off on her own tangent rather than keep to the issues presented to her. That's because she can't form a thought and then put it into a sentence.</STRONG><BR>
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<STRONG>She has abused her power as Governor. She went on a spending spree and left her town in debt when she was mayor. And we could go on and on and on. . . . .</STRONG><BR>
<STRONG></STRONG> <BR>
<STRONG>Oh, but let's give the little lady some respect. . . . why? Because she has a nice ass?</STRONG><BR>
<STRONG></STRONG> <BR>
<STRONG>Not in this lifetime, buddy. </STRONG><BR>
<STRONG></STRONG> <BR>
<STRONG>Ellen A. Roskovich</STRONG><BR>
<BR><BR>> Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:49:50 -0700<BR>> From: no.weatherman@gmail.com<BR>> To: vision2020@moscow.com<BR>> Subject: [Vision2020] To Know Her Is To Respect Her<BR>> <BR>> To Know Her Is To Respect Her<BR>> The great Palin divide.<BR>> by Fred Barnes<BR>> <BR>> Lorne Michaels is the longtime executive producer of Saturday Night<BR>> Live. Sarah Palin appeared on SNL in mid-October, after which Michaels<BR>> noted, "Her politics aren't my politics." But that wasn't all he said.<BR>> "I think Palin will continue to be underestimated," Michaels told<BR>> EW.com. "I watched the way she connected with people, and you can see<BR>> that she's a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious<BR>> woman. This was her first time out and she's had a huge impact. People<BR>> connect to her."<BR>> <BR>> Randy Ruedrich, the Republican chairman in Alaska, is someone you<BR>> might suspect would be a friend and ally of Palin. He isn't. She<BR>> helped drive him off the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,<BR>> criticized him publicly, and later tried to get him ousted as party<BR>> chairman. Ruedrich is part of the "body count" of male politicians<BR>> Palin left behind as she rose to become governor of Alaska. Yet<BR>> Ruedrich says Palin is smart, very capable, and a political star.<BR>> <BR>> Ruedrich isn't alone among Alaska politicians who take a cold-blooded<BR>> view of Palin. Another Republican who has followed her career closely<BR>> believes Palin has a ruthless streak. Yet this person, too, regards<BR>> Palin as a rare talent with the skill and self-confidence to be a<BR>> national political leader. And Palin's Alaska acquaintances were<BR>> certain, from the moment she became John McCain's vice presidential<BR>> running mate, that her acceptance speech would be a smashing success<BR>> and she'd have little trouble in her debate with Joe Biden. Turned out<BR>> they were right.<BR>> <BR>> But that didn't matter. The positive assessment of Palin by those who<BR>> know her or have worked with her has come close to being drowned out<BR>> by her critics, from the right and the left. Kathleen Parker, a<BR>> conservative columnist, wrote last week that McCain was seduced by<BR>> Palin's attractiveness into picking her as his running mate. The basis<BR>> for Parker's conclusion was a comment by her husband about Palin,<BR>> seconded by a friend ("I'm sexually attracted to her"), and a magazine<BR>> article. Palin doesn't recall ever having met Parker, much less been<BR>> interviewed by her.<BR>> <BR>> Peggy Noonan, the former White House speechwriter for President Reagan<BR>> who now writes for the Wall Street Journal, has run hot and cold on<BR>> Palin, mostly cold. What appears to be her final judgment is that<BR>> Palin's nomination for vice president is "no good, not for<BR>> conservatism and not for the country. And, yes, it's a mark against<BR>> John McCain." Palin and Noonan have never conversed either.<BR>> <BR>> David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, has rendered an even<BR>> harsher verdict, calling Palin "a fatal cancer to the Republican<BR>> party." So far as Palin knows, she's never met Brooks or been<BR>> interviewed by him.<BR>> <BR>> And then there's the view of Matthew Dowd, a top strategist for<BR>> President Bush's reelection campaign in 2004. He's been quoted as<BR>> saying that McCain actually knows now that Palin is unqualified to be<BR>> vice president. By choosing her, McCain "put the country at risk."<BR>> <BR>> The difference of opinion here, between those who know Palin and those<BR>> who don't, is unusual. The criticism of Palin is personal. Normally in<BR>> politics, campaign operatives are called on to make excuses for a dull<BR>> and uninspiring candidate. Invariably, they explain that in private,<BR>> especially face-to-face with a small group of voters, the candidate is<BR>> dazzlingly likable and enormously persuasive.<BR>> <BR>> With Palin, it's the opposite. No one questions her ability to excite<BR>> a crowd. Simply by stepping on stage at rallies, Palin rouses<BR>> audiences, and her speeches are frequently interrupted by chants of<BR>> "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah."<BR>> <BR>> It's the private Palin, the person — who she is, what she knows, her<BR>> lack of experience — that has provoked both the strongest criticism<BR>> and most legitimate doubts about her readiness to be first in the line<BR>> of succession if the president dies or is incapacitated.<BR>> <BR>> A media person I know dismisses her as "a journalism graduate of the<BR>> University of Idaho." This is pure snobbery. I asked him to name his<BR>> favorite president of the past 60 or 70 years, and he chose Harry<BR>> Truman. Truman never went to college but became a pretty good<BR>> president nonetheless when he succeeded FDR after only a few weeks as<BR>> vice president.<BR>> The issue of experience is more serious. Palin, a governor for less<BR>> than two years, has no record in national affairs, with the exception<BR>> of one issue — energy. And with gasoline prices falling, that issue<BR>> has become less important than expected in the campaign.<BR>> <BR>> On foreign and national security affairs, Palin has a knowledge gap.<BR>> Indeed, if she knew more, she might have skewered Biden for the<BR>> whoppers he told — about the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan,<BR>> Pakistan — in their debate on October 2. The press, while critical of<BR>> Palin, didn't notice the inaccuracies either, or at least failed to<BR>> draw attention to them.<BR>> <BR>> Lack of experience is a recurring issue not only for vice presidential<BR>> candidates, but for presidential nominees as well. Barack Obama has<BR>> been attacked for his limited experience in foreign policy. And though<BR>> Biden, his running mate, has spent 36 years in the Senate, he seems to<BR>> have learned very little from this experience.<BR>> <BR>> Palin is in a familiar situation. Governors who run for national<BR>> office automatically face questions about their inexperience in<BR>> foreign affairs. Ronald Reagan did. Bill Clinton did. So did George W.<BR>> Bush. Had Obama picked Virginia governor Tim Kaine as his veep, Kaine<BR>> would have been hit with those questions. If McCain had chosen<BR>> Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (as he came close to doing), Pawlenty<BR>> would have faced the same doubts. So the qualms about Palin's<BR>> experience are merely par for the course.<BR>> <BR>> Palin's record is another critical test of her personal skill as a<BR>> leader. What has she done? A lot more than Kaine or Pawlenty or most<BR>> governors. She ousted an incumbent governor of her own party,<BR>> successfully fought corruption in the party, and tore up a deal with<BR>> oil companies, forcing them to accept a less lucrative agreement on a<BR>> new natural gas pipeline.<BR>> <BR>> In judging Palin, it comes down to who is more credible. Is it those<BR>> who've worked with her, or know her, or have at least met and talked<BR>> with her? Or those who haven't? The answer is a no-brainer. Okay, I<BR>> may be biased on the subject of Palin, having been impressed after<BR>> spending nearly two hours with her on one occasion and an hour on<BR>> another.<BR>> <BR>> My advice is ignore the critics who know far less about Palin than she<BR>> does about foreign policy. A good example is Ken Adelman, who headed<BR>> the arms control agency in the Reagan administration. Adelman recently<BR>> endorsed Obama and said he "would not have hired [Palin] for even a<BR>> mid-level post in the arms control agency." Well, I know both Palin<BR>> and Adelman. And Ken, I'm sorry to tell you, but I think there are an<BR>> awful lot of jobs in Washington that Palin would get before you.<BR>> http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/749yrvfv.asp<BR>> <BR>> =======================================================<BR>> List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR>> http://www.fsr.net <BR>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>> =======================================================<BR><BR><br /><hr />Stay organized with simple drag and drop from Windows Live Hotmail. <a href='http://windowslive.com/Explore/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_102008' target='_new'>Try it</a></body>
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