Editorial reaction to Palin selection: Not impressive

[book_worm]

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: IS PALIN READY?

Palin, 44, has been governor of a geographically remote, sparsely populated state for less than two years, and, until Friday, she had a negligible national profile. She manages one of the nation's smallest and most oil-dependent state budgets -- one that, unlike most states, has been running whopping surpluses since oil prices soared.

Her only previous state service was an 11-month stint as chair of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She was mayor and a city council member for 10 years in Wasilla, population 9,000. She's a former television sports reporter, a participant in a family fishing business, a former Miss Wasilla, a high school basketball star (nickname: "Sarah Barracuda''), a hockey mom and a PTA leader.

Those are the credentials of an active citizen and a beginning governor. The McCain-Palin ticket has its work cut out for it to convince Americans that those credentials meet the presidential readiness test.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/27677239.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsX

Anchorage News: A GREAT DAY FOR ALASKA, BUT FOR COUNTRY?

Alaskans are delighted because the eyes of the world will be on Alaska as Sarah Palin campaigns for the vice-presidency.

And it's stunning that someone with so little national and international experience might be heartbeat away from the presidency.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/510705.html

Boston Globe: MCCAINS CALCULATED CHOICE

PERHAPS JOHN McCain's choice of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate will prove to be a masterstroke of political demographics. At the least, the surprise move reveals a willingness to take a major risk. Yet gutsiness isn't everything. In picking a first-term governor with no foreign-policy record, the Republican presidential candidate undermined his own central themes - experience and national security - and exposed the deep fault lines within his campaign.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/08/30/mccains_calculated_choice/

New York Times: SEN. MCCAIN'S CHOICE:

Governor Palin’s lack of experience, especially in national security and foreign affairs, raises immediate questions about how prepared she is to potentially succeed to the presidency. That really is the only criterion for judging a candidate for vice president.

She has had less than two years in Alaska’s Statehouse — elected as a long-shot insurgent admirably willing to take on her party leaders, decrying Republican involvement in Alaska’s Statehouse corruption scandals. Before that she served eight years as council member and mayor in small-town Wasilla, outside Anchorage.

The McCain campaign is eagerly citing Governor Palin’s appeal to Christian conservatives, as a Christian and mother of five whose oldest son is in the Army and will leave for Iraq on Sept. 11. “She’s exactly who I need,” said Mr. McCain, a Capitol insider who is trying to make the case that he can shake up Washington as president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/opinion/30sat2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

San Jose Mercury News: PALIN CLEARLY UNQUALIFIED

Twelve hours after Democrats ended their national convention in Denver with fireworks and a stirring ovation for presidential nominee Barack Obama, Republican John McCain stole back the spotlight and some of their thunder. But his wild-card choice of the unknown and untested Sarah Palin as his vice president will backfire if voters see through it.

Picking an obscure first-term small-state governor was bold, and it may prove to be shrewd. But for the sake of the country should McCain win, it was unwise.

The decision was quintessential McCain. Hemmed in by Washington wags who warned him not to choose the vice president he liked — Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman — and urged him to choose one he didn't — primary nemesis Mitt Romney — McCain defied them with an anti-establishment conservative from outside their orbit.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10346888?source=most_viewed

The Guardian: EXPERIENCE NOT REQUIRED AFTER ALL:


John McCain went out and found himself a vice-presidential candidate today, but as is often his way, he made sure that political gain was his master, while potential to lead this nation during troubled times was placed on the back burner.

And he accuses Barack Obama of "not putting his country first"?

McCain's choice was governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, a former mayor of a town the size of the building where I grew up in New York. More recently, she has been performing her gubernatorial duties for an entire 1.5 years since her election in November of 2006. In other words, compared to her, when it comes to foreign policy experience, Obama is practically Napoleon.

Meanwhile, she is what you might call a bit slow on the uptake. When asked on CNBC's talkshow Kudlow & Co about some of the vice-presidential speculation surrounding her only a month ago, Palin's reaction really speaks for itself:

"But as for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell ya, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me, what is it exactly that the VP does every day?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/29/sarahpalin.johnmccain

Des Moines Register: PALIN COULD BACKFIRE ON MCCAIN:

Sarah Who?

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin to be his running mate is an out-of-the-box decision. It may be off the wall, too.

Not since President George H.W. Bush chose Dan Quayle to be his running mate in 1988 has a vice presidential choice been so unexpected.

But just as Quayle ultimately didn't cost Bush that election, Palin may be irrelevant to the November outcome. The choice is another reason the 2008 election is historic. The country will either have its first black president or its first female vice president.


The Palin choice is risky. 2008 isn't 1988. The times are different and this pick could backfire on McCain. The maverick candidate may have been a little too quirky with this decision, one of the first presidential decisions a candidate must make.

First, it undercuts the Republican charge that Barack Obama lacks experience. Many voters are concerned about that and it seems to be holding Obama back. Now, when McCain and the Republicans want to raise this issue, Democrats can counter: What about Sarah Palin?

Second, it accentuates McCain's age. He's 72. Palin is 44. By trying to ease voter concerns that he's too old, he may have simply underscored it. Those who think McCain may be too old may not be reassured that some 44-year-old, who has been governor of a sparsely populated state for less than two years, is competent to take over the nation's foreign policy or lead the country in wartime.

After all, McCain has said the war on terrorism is the central issue of our time. She's the best American he could find to help him fight that war?

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080830/NEWS09/808300331/-1/ENT06

[vanderBeth]

1. ...and common sense prevails.

:thumbsup:

[Muttocracy]

3. :)

[CatsDogsBabies]

2. This was a good line from the Guardian ...

"McCain's choice was governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, a former mayor of a town the size of the building where I grew up in New York."

[woolldog]

4. Great compilation.

Thanks for the effort you put in here. This is useful.