Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Standards for Palin
Joe Biden has a delicate balancing act ahead of him Thursday night. He has to be superior without being a bully, demonstrate his knowledge without cramming everything he knows into a response, & most of all, resist his tendency to tack on the sort of personal "off-the-cuff" remarks that are taken as "gaffes" (on closer inspection, they're rarely gaffes at all). Supposedly, Palin did quite well in her Alaskan campaign debates, a slicky. Be careful. A debate is not an interview.
What is reasonable for a VP candidate to know is less than Biden knows, but far, far more than Palin apparently knows. We don't expect a governor to have the same kind of foreign policy chops as a long term sitting senator.* But we do have a pretty good idea of how accomplished governors should sound, what they understand, or need to understand, about education, health care, energy, trade, economic development, agriculture, complex budgets. The Alaskan economy is so lopsided toward oil (80%) that I doubt if any governor of that state could obtain the well-rounded expertise of the other 49 governors. Palin has been governor for less than two years. So even if the questions focus on what Palin ought to know as governor, she'll still sound uninformed, if the questions are sharp but fair. Vague "reform" won't cut it - a few hirings & firings & redirections of the oil money stream. Any mayor of a medium sized city in America has tougher "reform" tasks than Palin faces. The mayor of Fairbanks probably works longer hours & with more daily headaches.
What standards should we apply to Sarah Palin? These:
Christine Gregoire, Washington M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut Kathleen Sebelius, Kansas Janet Napolitano, Arizona Ruth Ann Minner, Delaware Jennifer Granholm, Michigan Linda Lingle, Hawaii
Seven other accomplished current governors who happen to be women. Heck, to lower the bar I'll even toss former two-term Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman into the mix. Never especially popular, or even that competent a manager, as head of the EPA she quickly alienated her White House bosses by warning them about global warming, & was purged from the Bush administration after two years on the job. Just be as intelligent & informed as those women, Sarah, worthy of being on that list. I don't believe you are, I don't believe you have the capacity. If McCain really was a maverick, he would've gone for the Republican, female, Jewish, prochoice, childless, twice divorced Governor of Hawaii with the cum laude journalism degree from Cal State. The lady wearing the lei.
* Or Supreme Court decisions. Couric stumped Palin on that question. I read a detailed book on the history of religious freedom in America, The Lustre of Our Country by John T. Noonan, Jr., & can generally discuss a number of important decisions without being able to recall an interesting one as Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral, which I just looked up. I filed it away in my mind as "The Case of the Commie Church." But she shoulda said she disagreed with the decision in the one between fishermen & Exxon over the Valdez spill, & agreed with the one that overturned D.C.'s gun ban. Those two came down this year.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
What is reasonable for a VP candidate to know is less than Biden knows, but far, far more than Palin apparently knows. We don't expect a governor to have the same kind of foreign policy chops as a long term sitting senator.* But we do have a pretty good idea of how accomplished governors should sound, what they understand, or need to understand, about education, health care, energy, trade, economic development, agriculture, complex budgets. The Alaskan economy is so lopsided toward oil (80%) that I doubt if any governor of that state could obtain the well-rounded expertise of the other 49 governors. Palin has been governor for less than two years. So even if the questions focus on what Palin ought to know as governor, she'll still sound uninformed, if the questions are sharp but fair. Vague "reform" won't cut it - a few hirings & firings & redirections of the oil money stream. Any mayor of a medium sized city in America has tougher "reform" tasks than Palin faces. The mayor of Fairbanks probably works longer hours & with more daily headaches.
What standards should we apply to Sarah Palin? These:
Seven other accomplished current governors who happen to be women. Heck, to lower the bar I'll even toss former two-term Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman into the mix. Never especially popular, or even that competent a manager, as head of the EPA she quickly alienated her White House bosses by warning them about global warming, & was purged from the Bush administration after two years on the job. Just be as intelligent & informed as those women, Sarah, worthy of being on that list. I don't believe you are, I don't believe you have the capacity. If McCain really was a maverick, he would've gone for the Republican, female, Jewish, prochoice, childless, twice divorced Governor of Hawaii with the cum laude journalism degree from Cal State. The lady wearing the lei.
* Or Supreme Court decisions. Couric stumped Palin on that question. I read a detailed book on the history of religious freedom in America, The Lustre of Our Country by John T. Noonan, Jr., & can generally discuss a number of important decisions without being able to recall an interesting one as Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral, which I just looked up. I filed it away in my mind as "The Case of the Commie Church." But she shoulda said she disagreed with the decision in the one between fishermen & Exxon over the Valdez spill, & agreed with the one that overturned D.C.'s gun ban. Those two came down this year.
Labels: Grandma Palin, THE election
