Hagel On Palin: ‘I Think It’s A Stretch To…Say She’s Got The Experience To Be President’»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/18/hagel-on-palin/

Hagel On Palin: ‘I Think It’s A Stretch To…Say She’s Got The Experience To Be President’»


In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) questioned whether John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, has the experience to be president of the United States:

“I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world,” Hagel said. “I think that’s just a requirement.”

So is Palin qualified to be president?

“I think it’s a stretch to, in any way, to say that she’s got the experience to be president of the United States,” Hagel said.

In a recent interview with ABC News, Palin explained her national security credentials by claiming, “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” Hagel said that such answers are “insulting to the American people”:

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’” he said. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.”

Hagel, who is retiring from the Senate, concluded that Palin “doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials.” “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”

Hagel has traveled to Iraq six times, most recently accompanying Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Jack Reed (D-RI). While on the trip, Hagel repeated his calls for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. “It is now time for the United States to start accepting the sovereignty of that country in ways that are real,” he said. “And that means for us to responsibly start unwinding our military presence.”

[bdamomma]

1. no fooling Chuck

it is insulting to the American people?? they are treating us like fools, is it pitchforks and torches time yet?

[msongs]

2. Obama should hijack the conservative meme - "I'm the REAL conservative in this election" nt

[PRETZEL]

3. I din't know he was retiring,

I like Sen. Hagel. He always seemed more moderate and realistic to me.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Only in America, could someone as unqualified as Palin, potentially a heartbeat away from presidency

with a 72 year old melanoma survivor John McCain--that is not something to be easily dismissed.

[old mark]

5. Now look, Bush is stupid, McCain is senile and Palin is

fucking crazy, and stupid as well.

Then you have Obama and Biden.

Your choice.

How can there be any more Republicans?

I can't understand how so many people here in the US can be such jerks.

mark

[Window]

10. And that's the long and the short of it.

[Inuca]

6. Insulting

it took a republican to say it.

What a sexist!

[medicswife]

7. hahahahahaha You're right, they'll call him one here

before too long!

lmfao

on edit:

"here" not being DU of course.....

just my colloquial manner of speaking.

[Inuca]

8. He is a republican

he is allowed to be sexist (and he obviously he is not up-to-date on the latest memos saying that now defference is in and sexism is out) :-).

[democrat2thecore]

9. He usually calls 'em as he sees 'em - he finally said what needed to be said.

FINALLY, someone of stature in the Republican Party states the obvious. He said it well and even made fun of the sorry attempts to spin it any other way.

[Strawman]

11. We've been numbed to the risk of presidential incompetence

Reagan and George W. Bush accomplished that if nothing else. As mind-boggling as this seems it has almost become a virtue to a broad segment of American culture to be unknowledgeable and even flout it. And these people see that we've (somehow) survived Reagan and Bush without blowing up the Earth, so what the hell? Who wants to turn on the TV for the next four years and listen to all that fancytalk from some smartypants-in-chief? :sarcasm:

That's all this is to alot of people: what person is going to be on TV for the next four years because people have zero faith that the government will help them. Even though they're living in one of these red states that are net importers of federal aid (relative to tax dollars sent to DC) and even if they as individuals are literally being kept alive by virtue of government assistance. It's unfuckingbelievable. That's how effective the RW anti-welfare-state brainwashing has been in this country. People whose asses are being supported by that saftey net that is frayed to the breaking point are among the biggest complainers about "the government." It's total fucking nonsense.