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Monday, September 08, 2008

Who is running Alaska?

A big deal has been made of the demands of running Alaska in recent weeks. How it gives one such rounded executive experience. It naturally begs the question who is running the place right now while Gov. Palin is criss-crossing the lower 48 campaigning to be VeeP?

Hang on, it’s got to be the Lt. Gov - Sean Parnell right? but hang on a minute he’s in a slow death march of a count for the republican primary for a congressional seat. If he wins through there then he's got an election campaign for the congressional seat to work at between now and election day in Nov. So, if Alaska can be let on auto pilot for so long then is being Governor of the place really all that demanding? After all, if it's not a real full time job, if it is like a time share thing then how much worth can we put in doing it for 18 months before become your party's nominee for the vice-Presidency? The last Governor the US elected who wasn't a full time hands on type of guy was W. and look where that got the US.

Seriously, if McCain was really all that gone on executive experience then that nice Mike Huckabee chap was governor of Arkansas for over a decade and his views on many social conservative issues overlap with those of Governor Palin. And Chuck Norris had endorsed him so he had the gun club folks too.

16 comments:

THE EMERALD ISLANDER said...

Good points. And I agree. Sarah Palin is about the worst possible choice anyone could have made.

But as far as I was told by some of my US contacts, she wasn't McCain's personal choice at all.
The selection was made for him by his right-wing minders.

You can find the details on my blog "Views from the Emerald Isle" in the entry from August 30th.

And by the way, there is more and more coming out about Mrs. Palin. I am preparing a further piece, which should be ready by the weekend.

Admin said...

If neither Palin nor Parnell were Governor, then the Alaska state-senate president would probably take over, with the new one being the new Lieutenant-Governor - after all remember that the NY state-senate president Joe Bruno became Lt-Governor when Elliot Spitzer was forced out.

Unknown said...

Yes, but right now Palin is 'supposed' to be running the state but is she?

John Barry said...

Obama has been an absentee senator for the last 18 months as he campaigned for the nomination. He has NO executive experience. Palin has two years executive experience as governor of Alaska. The GOP number two is more experienced than the Democrats number one.
Sarah Palin has been demonised by the liberal media.

Unknown said...

Now, nowm John. I'm sure you know that Gov. Palin was elected in 2006 and only took up office on December 4, 2006. That is not 2 years ago.

I'm sure you'd be more than happy to tell us all about the % of votes that Sen. Obama has missed over the last 18 months compared to say Sen. McCain or Sen. Clinton. Do tell us, do.

If executive experience is the one single be all and end all of being qualified for being President than why didn't Sen. McCain pick former governors Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney or why is it that the founding fathers didn't make it a requirement that you had to serve as a governor first? Come on you can tell us.

I think that Obama has a goodly quantity of hot air about him, and if the John McCain of 8 years ago was running then he'd be a done deal, but sadly for us all that guy ain't running this time. Unfortunately the decent, straight talking McCain of 2000 was broken by the republican party's sale of its soul to people who think the government should concentrate on running people's personal lives and took their eye off protecting the nation's security and economy.

Is Obama the best possible choice for the US? Possibly not, but he's got to be better than a McCain in hock to people who think that if you believe it hard enough that 2 + 2 might be equal to 5 and perhaps it should be taught in schools.

John Barry said...

I have major difficulties with Obama. He promises to increase public expenditure by 1000 billion dollars over 4 years and to raise the capital gains tax from 15% to 28%.He is too far to the left. He is much further to the left than Clinton. He has said that he will invade Pakistan in pursuit of Bin Laden. The Pakistani government would fall and Moslem extremists would then have access to the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.
McCain is a safer bet in my view.

Unknown said...

John, I note you answered none of the specific questions I asked. Might that be because what you wrote earlier was without foundation?

John Barry said...

Everything which I have written has a basis in fact. Your original point was in relation to Palin's absence from Alaska now that she has commenced campaigning. My response to that was that Obama has been absent for 18 months. I agree McCain has been absent also. Palin's absence has just commenced. It is not for a period of 18 months. In actual fact Palin is the only one of the four who has executive experience. Biden has none, Obama has none, McCain has none.

However McCain is a Senator with a powerful track record on issues such as the deficit and pork barrel spending. He has taken on his own party on these two issues. He is pro life. Obama is on the left wing of the Democratic Party. He also supports partial birth abortion. I have already referred to his plans for capital gains tax and for a huge expansion in government controlled programmes-price tag 1000 billion dollars.
His policies are far removed from those of FG.

McCain's choice of Palin over Huckabee can be explained quite easily.
Both appeal to the conservative wing. But Palin has greater appeal because she can bring in more women voters also. She balanced the budget in Alaska and took on the oil companies and rooted out corruption. She was not slow to challenge members of her own party.
She has been subjected to a vicious character assassination campaign. Much of it stems from the fact that she is pro life.
The main US abortion agencies are planning to pump an extra 30 million dollars into the Obama campaign.

Can you outline major achievements of Obama as a senator that qualify him to be president?
Finally do you agree with his plans on spending and on capital gains tax? Do you agree with his stance on partial birth abortion?
Can you outline any examples of Obama challenging his own party in the senate? Has he a track record of independence?
How do you see his track record on pork barrel spending?

Unknown said...

John, John, John. My post had a question and it was to query if running Alaska is such a big hands on deal then who is doing it now? And you might have noticed I answered my own question in the post itself.

You however went on to said "Obama has been an absentee senator for the last 18 months as he campaigned for the nomination." and I asked what % of votes he had missed - a question you still have not answered two comments later. So I reckon you just don't know nor does it matter to you.

I believe that executive experience has value but it's ain't the be all and end of all of someone's CV. You admit that her experience wasn't the reason she was chosen but because "Palin has greater appeal because she can bring in more women voters also." So, there we have it she was picked to assist McCain in getting elected not because she is up to the task of assuming the office if something should happen. People had done that before, it's not illegal. Kennedy did it, as did Eisenhower. In contrast, at least Reagan and Clinton picked someone they thought could do the job if the need arose. McCain's choice is more like that of Bush I.

I'm at a loss as to what Obama's compatibility with Fine Gael has to do with anything unless you think I've compelled to view everything through a prism of the party's making. As for your talk of $30 million coming from pro-choice groups. I doubt that's true; they're fund raise for sure but $30 million? And I think your own bias shines through there.

One other thing, since you mention pork barrel spending, what you do think of someone who travels at the expense of the public to lobby for pork for her own town and allows the police force to charge rape victims for the use of evidence in the course of investigating a crime? I doubt you'll answer those question either.

John Barry said...

I note that you have failed to specify Obamas achievements that might qualify him to become president. Simple fact is that he has none.
Barack Obama has missed 293 votes (45.7%) during the current Congress
You misquote me in relation to Palin. She was chosen for two reasons
(1) She has a strong record as a conservative governor. I outlined her achievements already. She has executive experience. Biden or Obama have NONE.
AND
(2) She would appeal to women voters.
She is the GOP number Two. She has achievements to her credit. The GOP number two is better qualified than the Democratic number one. Why not just admit it. She is better qualified to assume leadership than Obama.
Will you now give a straight answer to the following question.

Name 3 unique achievements of Obama that would qualify him to become president.
Palin is pro life. Obama supports partial birth abortion. She rooted out corruption in Alaska and took on the oil companies. She took on her own party. She has an 80% approval record in Alaska. That is good enough for me.
How could you support a candidate who defends partial birth abortion?
This is the ultimate crime.

Unknown said...

John, finally some facts. I'm curious why you didn't answer the original question in full though? I had asked what % of votes Obmama had missed compared to Sen. McCain and Clinton. So we can compare his absenteeism rate to the others running.

I'm at a loss as to where in my post I suggested I'm a supporter of Sen. Obama. My post wasn't about him, so I don't see why I have to do any cheerleading for him here. My pick from the respective fields was Sen. Edwards back when the Dems. started out because he had substance and presentation ability and Sen. McCain as he was most able and experience in foreign affairs and his domestic focus of allowing the states to decide on most issues was more consistent. And I think that Rep. Ron Paul had some interesting things to say too.

I accept completely that the Republican ticket has more executive experience, I do not accept that executive experience trumps all other qualities. Plain fact is that Sen. McCain was a considerably more qualified and better fit for the requirements of the Presidency in 2000 than his opponent but George W. Bush was the nominee.

As for abortion, which is obviously what this is really all about for you. I think it should be rare but if it going to happen then it should be safe and for that to be the case then it needs to be legal. If the likes of Gov. Palin really cared about the rate of abortion in the US then she would be prepared to countenance doing everything that would reduce it. Her support of abstinence only sex education shows that she is not.

Unknown said...

John, I decided to save you the bother. The leader in votes missed is no other than Sen. McCain! so is he not an absentee Senator too by your standard?

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 410 votes missed (64.0%), 231 votes cast

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) 293 votes missed (45.7%), 348 votes cast

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) 207 votes missed (32.3%), 434 votes cast

John Barry said...

You still have not answered my questions.
(1) Name 3 unique achievements of Obama that would qualify him to become president.
(2) Do you support his stance on partial birth abortion?
(3) Do you support his plan to raise public spending by 1,000 billion dollars and his proposal to raise the capital gains tax from
15% to 28%.

Unknown said...

John, I asked my questions first and you didn't answer them and the topic of discussion is Gov. Palin not Sen. Obama. It is entirely logical and possible to be opposed to the McCain/Palin ticket and not be in favour of the Obama/Biden ticket you know.

Anonymous said...

Good grief.
Anyway, I want to know who is looking after Palin's disabled tiny baby, the one she would never have aborted, it's proof of her essential goodness, I'm sure she's at home with it right now ... oh

John Barry said...

Ivan Pope said:
"Good grief.
Anyway, I want to know who is looking after Palin's disabled tiny baby, the one she would never have aborted, it's proof of her essential goodness, I'm sure she's at home with it right now ... oh"
Who looked after Nancy Pelosi's five children? Would you ever ask this question of a man? Shocking.