Yeah yeah you hate FDR.

No.  Because the Cuban Missle Crisis would of been avoided by most presidents.  The Cheifs of staff were for nuking Russia.  The Chiefs of Staff were for Nuking russia for the entire cold war.

Why isn't Harry S Truman higher then Kennedy on your list?  He also didn't nuke russia when his chiefs of staff told him to... at a time when we were actually at war already.

Truman's plan to not go along with the McArthur plan was a more bold and bigger move then Kennedy not invading Cuba.  Which was what it was about.  Invading Cuba.  Not nuking anyone.

Had we invaded Cuba, Russia likely would of did nothing.

I mostly agree with where you stand.  With a couple differenes.

Tax cuts favoring the wealthy = Tax cuts favoring buisnesses so they can create jobs.

Republican course in Iraq = Democratic course in Iraq more or less.

US forces will be out of Iraqi cities by the end of 2009, regulated to emergency duty and missions they choose.  Ready to be pulled out in 2011. 

This is the plan the Iraqi's want... and the plan the Iraqi's agreed on.  Does this not make it the policy we should follow, since this fuckup of a war hurt them more then us?  Rather then selfishly pullout and shift their country into the 3rd world, possibly even causing another genocide as the religious groups vie for control.

This is the republican plan... which is a lot safe then Obama's plan of yanking them out.... and putting them back in if the country goes back to hell.

i dont think so.   although Palin doesnt have a lot of experience, her experience is better than Obamas.   So she would have an advantage over him if they were going for the same job...  but they arent.   She doesnt need something like foreign policy experience, because of John McCain.   Its John McCain who would president,  she would add to what hes about.   

This wouldnt be the case with Obama and Biden.  Obamas inexperience would always have him looking to Biden for help.    Biden doesnt add to Obama...Biden highlights all the flaws in obama.  It shoudlnt be too hard to show that effectively.

thanks for staying on topic.

IMO.

-Gun control - I agree.  i don't think she wants to get rid of any gun-control.  I think gun=control laws makes it harder to good citizens.

-Abortion - I agree.  Again, I don't think she wants to get rid of abortion but control some of the nonsense like late=term abortions.

-Capital punishment - I agree

-for creationism in schools - i need to read on what she said, but I don't think this is a good idea.

-Tax cuts for the wealthy - agree.  I never had poor people give me a job before.  I liked Reaganomics so . . .

-Republican course in iraq - What is Republicans course in Iraq?  What is democrats course in Iraq?  I don't know about this one.  Even Obama doesn't know what to do with Iraq.  No way he pulls troops out quickly - I think he changed his position on this so . . .

- Drilling for oil - Yes please, but also invest on alternative energy.  But please drill - she wants to drill in Alaska - it's there so get it out!  Let's not pay so much for energy.

Overall, I like her political positions.

Good job McCain - his choice for V.P. made this election more interesting.

Well that was suprising but i think it is a good choice for Mccain. It opens few possibilities for him; especially among women, they've been with republicans in previous elections and they might be there again. Also a fair share of Clinton's voters might consider this ticket. I'm yet to learn about Palin's policies but i'm going to do some reading 2moro.

The CNN political team thinks it is a pretty mediocre choice. They give McCain an average of a C:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/29/reportcard.palin/index.html

Apparently he has only met Palin one time as well, which while I don't think Palin is a bad choice, I think is pretty sketchy.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

How McCain chose Palin
Posted: 09:01 PM ET

From CNN's Dana Bash and Alexander Mooney

McCain only talked with Palin once before choosing her.

(CNN) — John McCain first met Sarah Palin only six months ago and had just one conversation with the Alaska governor before offering her the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket, the Arizona senator's campaign said Friday.

The move appears to be a marked departure for McCain — a man known for his tendency to surround himself with a close circle of advisers and politicians he has long felt comfortable with.

But according to the McCain campaign, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee first met Palin in Washington at a February 2008 National Governors Association meeting. He was immediately impressed with the 44-year-old rising GOP star, and decided to consider her for the vice presidential slot.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis had several conversations with Palin throughout the vetting process, but McCain himself didn't speak with the Alaska governor until last Sunday — one day after Barack Obama named Joe Biden to his ticket. It was then McCain reached Palin by phone while she was at the Alaska State Fair to discuss the possibility of joining the ticket.

Palin then traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona Wednesday evening, where she met with top McCain advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter. On Thursday Palin traveled to McCain's Sedona, Arizona home where the Arizona senator had another conversation with her, and formally asked her to be his running mate.

I honestly think a lot of political "experts" have looked at the running mates in the same way analysts look at videogame consoles, and I think their response to this could be as wrong as most videogame analysts predictions ... There are quite a few motivating factors that pushes people to vote, and most of these factors can be classified as either an emotional or an intellectual response. My non exhaustive list of these is as follows:

Emotional

• Party Loyalty
• Historical Importance
• Values and Beliefs
• Appearance
• Charisma

Intellectual

• Policies
• Experience
• Issues of the day

So far in the campaign Obama has been dominating the emotional side of things because he is a more attractive candidate, who will make history when elected, he is very charismatic, and the Republican base was not exactly thrilled with McCain. At the same time McCain has been able to hold his own because he is far more experienced than Obama, and his policies and approach to many of the issues of the day generally match up with conventional wisdom on how to handle the country.

Now, Palin is a very attractive woman who seems (at this point in time) to be very charismatic, she seems to practice and preach a lot of values and beliefs which are of key importance to the conservative base as well as most moderate Americans, and because she is a female Vice Presidential nominee she would make history if McCain is elected.

On the intellectual side of things, while Obama talks about transcending parties and brining change whith little to back it up while McCain and Palin both have demonstrated experience working outside of party lines in order to bring about change.

Here are a few other reaction articles. Reaction to the choice seems generally negative from what I have gathered:

McCain’s ‘Hail Sarah’ Pass
His choice for veep is all but set up for failure in the fall.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156258

Commentary: Palin is brilliant, but risky, VP choice

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/29/rollins.palin/index.html

An Astonishingly Arrogant V.P. Selection

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/08/29/an-astonishingly-arrogant-v-p-selection.aspx

McCain V.P. pick younger, less experienced than Obama

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/29/mccain-vp-pick-younger-less-experienced-than-obama/

Here’s my question to you: Does John McCain undercut his own message by naming someone even younger and more inexperienced than Barack Obama to be his running mate?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Rebecca from Santa Barbara, California writes:
As a life-long Republican soccer mom living in an affluent community, I was impressed with Senator Obama’s acceptance speech last evening. Having my morning latte with a few of my Republican friends, I almost spit my coffee out when I heard the news. Is McCain really putting the best interests of our nation first? To me, he is pandering to women, trying to obtain their vote. It seems he wants another ‘trophy’ to parade around with. What is wrong with this man?

Dave writes:
Jack, The fact that absolutely no one in or around her or McCain’s inner circle had not even the smallest clue this would happen shows it was a last minute, desperation pick. McCain is falling all over himself after the Dems’ convention and grasping at straws.

Mitch from Michigan writes:
I think McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as V.P. is very similar to Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. It shows how much a McCain presidency would be like the Bush presidency with the selection of totally unqualified individuals for government posts. We’ve seen the disastrous results of such picks by Bush. We can not let McCain continue this saga.

Horatio writes:
These negative comments about Palin’s inexperience are hilarious. She’s a whopping 3 years younger than Obama, and has about the same amount of experience (his in the legislature, hers in the executive). If she’s an irresponsible choice, Obama as president is even worse — since he’s at the top of the ticket! Palin is a great balance for the ticket: young, smart, and has an independent streak a mile wide.

Christine writes:
I am a true-blue Hillary supporter, but I am sure Hillary did not mean to put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling so that a pro-life, pro-gun, home-schooling nobody from the frozen tundra of Alaska could slide in. Go Obama.

Doug writes:
Had I known that being a hockey mom, being under 45, and having virtually no political experience was the desired VP running mate for McCain, I would have asked my wife to throw her hat into the ring… McCain has just handed the presidency to Obama.

Meagan writes:
Cafferty, For once, and probably the only time, I actually agree with you. Better than I could’ve said it.

Glenn writes:
It was a bold move by John McCain to reach out to the Eskimo vote, which has been totally ignored by the media.

So isn't the combined experience between Obama and Biden now way higher than the combined experience between McCain and Palin?

There goes the Republican experience argument.

I look forward to commercials showing McCain attacking Obama's experience, and then describing how McCain picked a woman who was mayor of a town of 9,000 and governor of a state of 680,000 to be a bullet away from the presidency.

Chicago alone almost has 3 million people in it. I know Obama wasn't the governor of Chicago, but... he's got experience with big city politics and big state politics and federal politics.

I'd vote for Biden over Palin or McCain.

She's a desperate plea for the hypothetical sexist Hillary voters who will vote solely on gender, and has the one kid in Iraq and the other kid with Down's Syndrome.

McCain wanted somebody with a kid in the army to compete with Biden.

This reeks of desperation so much that I expect the polls to tip a few points more towards Obama for the next few days while the dust settles.



Word up. There's my 2 cents. Rubang out.