Sarah Palin CBS Interview with Katie Couric

Is Sarah Palin Qualified to be one heart beat away from the Oval Office?

I have included both installments of the Palin interview with Katie Couric in this post along with the Saturday Night Live spoof and some additional commentary. You have to see this to believe it. But first I offer a bit of my own commentary.

My first response to John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was that he was making a grab for Hillary Clinton supporters. I soon revised my thinking and began to see that his choice of Governor Palin was a desperate attempt to keep the Republican Convention from blowing up and to shore up the radically right pro-life conservative base that he feels he needs to win the prize of POTUS. No woman who supported Hillary Clinton and all that Senator Clinton stands for would be able to in good conscience transfer support to McCain based on the addition of Sarah Palin. John McCain's first choice for a running mate was Joe Lieberman. His radically right base threatened to walk off the convention floor if any one but a pro-life candidate was announced. Lieberman with his years of experience was dumped. McCain wistfully played with the idea of Tom Ridge, but in the end had to let go of a very qualified pick. Kay Baily Hutchinson who is ranked in the top most powerful women in America and could have brought over some of the Hillary vote was nixed because she was not pro-life. If I could have picked for McCain, I would have suggested Condoleezza Rice but he didn't look my way.

McCain has exposed his ambition and desperation with the choice of Sarah Palin. He wants to be POTUS so badly that he will do anything to achieve victory, even selecting a running mate with no qualifications. McCain shows no concern for America and "even the rest of the world also in the globalization in which we are a part of also even..." in the words of Governor Palin.

Why? Why did he make this choice? John McCain felt he had to, above all else, appease the radically right pro-life constituency. The Family Research Council and James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Phylis Schaffly all applaud the choice of Sarah Palin. These individuals and their followers have no concern that Governor Palin is not qualified to serve as President of the United States. Their only requirement of a candidate is that they are pro-life. This is the same mode of operation that filled our congress and senate with unqualified Republicans and elected George W. Bush to lead them. This is the thinking that produced the past eight years of unqualified leadership that has resulted in a war that is failing, runaway spending, a decline in our economy, a broken health care system, a failed education system, enmity towards the U.S. from the rest of the world and the mortgage debacle for which Congress will now turn to the America public for a trillion-dollar bail out.

John McCain claims the slogan, "America First" and "Country First" but in reality his actions show that it is all about John McCain's own ambition. If McCain continues to decline in the polls will he throw Sarah under the bus as his "fall-girl?" People are already starting to wonder.

Who is most qualified to serve as president? Is it John McCain or Barack Obama? I am not sure either is totally qualified but I will put my bets on the guy that graduated magna cum laud from Harvard Law School over the guy that graduated sixth from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.

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DAY ONE

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DAY TWO

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Chuck Todd of NBC comments on Russia and Foreign Policy Experience

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Jack Cafferty, "Why Sarah Palin should scare the hell out of you."

What viewers had to say: Cafferty File
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As spoofed by Saturday Night Live

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Analysis from T.Y.T


Should Palin step down?
Speculation before the convention:
Huffington Post comments before the RNC.
Would dumping Palin be an Eagleton mistake?
The British betting houses dropped the odds.

More recently:
Prominent conservative commentator suggests Palin should step down.
McCain staff feeling desperate after mock debates with Palin prove disastrous.
GOP Concerns grow: Tony Fabrizio, a GOP strategist, says Palin’s recent CBS appearance isn’t disqualifying but is certainly alarming. “You can’t continue to have interviews like that and not take on water.”
The UK Independent says the Cringe Meter if off the dial.
And in Alaska, some are calling for both McCain and Palin to resign.




I confirm that I am a private citizen and in no way officially connected to the Barack Obama campaign other than personally being in support of the Obama candidacy.

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Sarah Palin's bootcamp interview with Charlie Gibson

One small step back for a woman and one giant leap backwards for womankind.

I preface my commentary by reminding my readers that the McCain/Palin campaign hand-picked ABC's Charlie Gibson for this exclusive and much anticipated interview with Sarah Palin. John McCain said that Sarah Palin would not be interviewed unless the press would handle her with deference and respect. Charlie Gibson did just that and with more grace than I have seen of anyone in the press. Compare this to the lively interviews recently held by Bill O'Reilly with Barack Obama.

Interview Night One


Full Interview Night Two

The stark contrast of the Sarah Palin interview broadcast over the backdrop of the 7th anniversary of 9/11 is mind blowing. I am in shock at the potential of someone so unqualified being elected to the second highest office in the United States of America. In a world that is increasingly dangerous surely the US would not chance putting the reigns of the most powerful seat of rule into the hands of someone who could not succeed in a middle school government class?

I thought that the McCain campaign was grandstanding by keeping Governor Palin out of the press. I figured they were setting the stage by priming the pump and that we would all be surprised at how articulately and intelligently she would handle herself. But the other option proved to be the case. McCain knew she was not ready for the public stage. Sixty days is not enough time for McCain to pull of a Pygmalionesque feat of creating a world leader out of an Alaskan valley girl. "My Fair Lady" was a sweet movie, but we cannot afford to be so nostalgic as to view Sarah as McCain's Eliza Doolittle. And remember, Eliza inevitably rejected the coaching of this kindly professor.

The ABC website is exploding with commentary from viewers. Some are trying to put the blame on Charlie Gibson. They say he was rude and condescending. To me, he looked like a kindly tutor who was giving her obvious questions, gently couching them in such a way that he hoped she would pull off the right answer. Even when she was struggling he repeated questions leadingly to help her understand what he was asking. It was painful to watch and I believe it was more painful for Charlie than it even was for Governor Palin.

Charlie's questions dealt with the most basic information about world affairs that anyone could glean from an afternoon of listening to NPR and BBC news. This was the softball interview that should have buffeted public confidence in the McCain/Palin ticket.

Palin was not the only woman considered for the Republican ticket. McCain could have better distinguished his campaign by picking a woman tried and true such as Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is considered one of the 30 most powerful women in America. She has the experience and qualifications to lead. However, her one disqualification for McCain's base is that she is not in favor of outlawing abortion. McCain made a strategic choice in picking Palin who would energize his pro-life conservative base and create a media splash to strengthen his polling numbers. He was not showing concern for the long-term consequences of serving with Governor Palin if he should win the election. He has proven once again, he will do anything to win this election - even pick a single-issue candidate that is totally unqualified to serve in the office for which she is running and worse yet , a security threat if the worst should happen to him and she had to take the reigns of government.

(this commentary was written by a woman)

Pat Buchanan says Palin NOT Ready to Serve




A Governor or a Mayor is NOT ready to Serve


Palin vs Gibson, Round One: The ABC News Anchor Flummoxes the GOP Amateur.

Hockey Mom VS Vladimir Putin Matt Damon expresses what many in America are thinking.


I confirm that I am a private citizen and in no way officially connected to the Barack Obama campaign other than personally being in support of the Obama candidacy.


Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos


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