Is Sarah presidential material?
By Ted Belman
There’s no denying this love affair.
Palin Still Wildly Popular with Republicans
Despite the onslaught of unflattering stories being leaked to the media from McCain staffers about Sarah Palin’s allegedly unsavory behavior behind closed doors through the campaign, she remains incredibly popular among Republicans.
Rasmussen Reports found a whopping 91 percent of Republicans retain a favorable view of the former vice presidential candidate.
Palin’s name also ranked at the top of those Republicans would consider to become their GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee. 64 percent said Palin would be their top choice. Mike Huckabee came in far behind at second with only 12 percent and Mitt Romney netted 11 percent.Bobby Jindal, Charlie Crist and Tim Pawlenty were also mentioned as future contenders, but only ranked support in the single digits.
And these numbers come on the heels of a campaign to discredit her by McCain staffers, not to mention the disastrous Couric interview. Rush Limbaugh in a recent program argues that the attempt to discredit Palin by parts of the McCain and Romney camps is an attempt to discredit the conservative base in order to take control of the Party. Rush on the other hand wants to get rid of the RINOs, i.e., the anti-conservative Republicans.
I have been a supporter of hers from the getgo but I am not convinced that she is presidential material.
She is totally ignorant about national and foreign policy issues. She has a lot to learn. She has to spend the next two years being tutored daily. Perhaps she needs to become a Senator in two years and then be exposed to Washington. It may be that 2016 is the year she should focus on.
If she wants to head the GOP ticket in 2012 she has to begin now for her run. This is subject to whether she has the intellectual gravitas that is required for the job. It is not enough to be an honour student in high school. What recommends Ivy School candidates for high office is the fact that they must be in the top 2% of the population, intellectually, to be admitted. This is no small matter. Does Palin fit the bill? I doubt it.
Listening to her answer questions has been for me a turn off. Her answers ramble on and are not succinct at all. She takes ten sentences to say what should have been expressed in three sentences. She uses a lot of verbiage and unnecessary phrases. Can she be trained to be more articulate and precise. I doubt it.
Having said all that, the fact remains that she made the transition from small town Mayor to Governor seamlessly and successfully.
“the fact remains that she made the transition from small town Mayor to Governor seamlessly”
Exactly. She seems like someone who can rise to the challenge. Is she presidential material? No. But neither is Obama.
And her only job over the last couple of months was to help McCain keep Obama out of office. She had the communication skills, the passion, the ambition, the record to do that. But she cannot do it all by herself. If she had been paired with Romney or Huckabee, she would have pulled it off.
Comment by Kim Hartveld — November 8, 2008 @ 11:22 am
“she is totally ignorant about national and foregin policy issues”/ “not presidential material”.
ted, these comments are inaccurate and unacceptable.
the woman is astute and knowledgable. she is more qualified than osama/slidin.
she has more basic leadership instincts and moral foundation than carter and clinton combined!!!
i suggest you rethink this and respectfully request that you reconsider those comments.
you have a great blog, i read it all the time. i have alot of respect for the hard, dedicated work you do. but this, to me, is unacceptable: to use this language to characterize someone who can and will revitalize not only the republicans but the american people.
see: jewsforsarahpalin.blogspot.com
Comment by bugsy — November 8, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
It can only be uphill for ANYONE, even a child to lead America after a vote like Obama!
ANYONE can do his job now!
Sarah Palin? If Obama can do it, she CAN CERTAILY BE PRESIDENT and this week I shared her tears - she is an awesome woman - I love her, but perhaps being with her family would be better than a presidential seat - God bless her!
Heck, I could have been President, but I would have ordered the dismantling of the democratic party and blown up all of Israel’s enemies right away - so I could only be worse than Hitler was because at least Hitler was merciful to SOME of his enemies, and I wouldn’t have been merciful to any of Israel’s enemies.
Sad.
Comment by Michael Sunstar — November 8, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
Any Mafia Don would be a better choice, Dead fish in a box? small potatoes
Comment by yamit82 — November 8, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Yes Sarah is presidential material. If obama can be president then certainly she can. Obama is more ignorant about national and foreign policy issues. Obama I don’t believe is in the 2% of the population intellectually either. Nor did Obama even complete one term in the senate, so he has scant exposure to Washington. Sarah in 2012!
Comment by Laura — November 8, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
Ted, you went overboard this time. Perhaps a Canadian can not see what we in the states see. One does not get to where she is today as Governor of Alaska, with her dealings with big oil, with the distribution of excess wealth to her citizens without being astute in her duties. She has a fresh down home approach to politics that we have missed since Reagan and that, my friend is certainly something we do not get for Obama who has far less accumen than she.
Comment by Ed D — November 8, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
I feel embarassment for all Republicans and most Americans who chose as leaders 2 Bushes, an Actor, and a dumb exPOW (His service as a POW is is only real claim to fame. He ain’t very bright! Then most choices for President have not been very bright. I used to think the the left and democrats were piling it on and being unfair to Bush but they the left were closer the truth than partisan Republicans. Here is why Republicans don’t deserve to be in office:
Abraham Lincoln 04 Mar 1861 15 Apr 1865
2 Andrew Johnson 15 Apr 1865 04 Mar 1869
3 Ulysses Simpson Grant 04 Mar 1869 04 Mar 1877
4 Rutherford Birchard Hayes 04 Mar 1877 04 Mar 1881
5 James Abram Garfield 04 Mar 1881 19 Sep 1881
6 Chester Alan Arthur 20 Sep 1881 04 Mar 1885
7 Benjamin Harrison 04 Mar 1889 04 Mar 1893
8 William McKinley 04 Mar 1897 14 Sep 1901
9 Theodore Roosevelt 14 Sep 1901 04 Mar 1909
10 William Howard Taft 04 Mar 1909 04 Mar 1913
11 Warren Gamaliel Harding 04 Mar 1921 02 Aug 1923
12 Calvin Coolidge 03 Aug 1923 04 Mar 1929
13 Herbert Clark Hoover 04 Mar 1929 04 Mar 1933
14 Dwight David Eisenhower 20 Jan 1953 20 Jan 1961
15 Richard Milhous Nixon 20 Jan 1969 09 Aug 1974
16 Gerald Rudolph Ford 09 Aug 1974 20 Jan 1977
17 Ronald Wilson Reagan 20 Jan 1981 20 Jan 1989
18 George Herbert Walker Bush 20 Jan 1989 20 Jan 1993
19 George Walker Bush 20 Jan 2001
Nixon ,T. Roosevelt and Taft seem to be the only ones with a demonstrated IQ over 100. Maybe the system is at fault maybe not but with a cast like this there should be little complaining by Republicans. Palin is not and I don’t believe will rise to national importance but if she does, the Republicans will have been marginalized for a very long time.
Comment by yamit82 — November 9, 2008 @ 9:48 am
yamit82
Typical Leftists style arguments, accusations without any substance whatever.
You can’t just post a list, as if that’s “proof” without stating specifically WHY the list “proves” what you claim it does.
It’s also not enough to point out what is “bad” about the elements of your list without showing how, in this case, they compare with their CONTEMPORARY Democrat opponents.
If you want intelligent people to take you seriously, you need to give a LOT more information. It’s like arguing that winters are “bad” because they are… COLDER, ICIER AND DARKER than Summers, and therefore we should always have Summer.
Democrats
Republicans
Jeannette Rankin, the Republican who was the first woman in Congress
get more facts…
here on Republicans
and…
here on Democrats
Palin is head and shoulders over Obama and Biden put together, if not in “intelligence” (though she is definitely highly intelligent) then certainly in decency, because it is not just intelligence that matters it’s being a decent human being. As Rabbi Greenberg, the Chabad Shliach to Alaska, said, “If Sarah Palin were a Chabadnik she would be a Shliach, because she is always doing good things for people.”
You are obsessed with “intelligence” when you yourself either don’t possess it, or, if you do, you are clearly unable to use it properly.
Comment by yonaton — November 9, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
THE PROBLEM WITH PALIN IS…
She’s, …um, well, maybe …uh, …..hmmmmm
I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
But, seriously, if anything she not only outshone O’Bunko and O’Bidet, but she also outshone McCain. Any Presidential candidate needs to be more outstanding than his/her second, otherwise it is impossible to avoid the appearance of disorder, even if there isn’t any (though were there’s smoke there’s fire).
Palin was eminently qualified to be VP, and president if necessary. Neither Obama nor Obiden are. And THAT is the bottom line.
Comment by yonaton — November 9, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION FOR YAMIT82
Democrat history - they are just plain bad
Comment by yonaton — November 9, 2008 @ 3:01 pm
Yonaton, it’s nice to hear from you and getting a new perspective.
Comment by Ed D — November 10, 2008 @ 11:28 am
The argument is neither leftist nor rightist. I was staying on topic re Palin and rebublican love for her.
as per the list yes you are correct that an equal case can be made about Democrats but here we were speaking about Republicans.
Why! should be self evident. Americans should know their own history now, shouldn’t they? They just elected a new president with foreknowledge of their history and all Americans are bright and able to make such decisions based on current realities with a general frame of reference of Americas past history. Right? Americans are bright, knowledgeable, literate, non pulsed, unbiased and always make a rational choice based on rational, educated, unemotional inputs. Right?
Comment by yamit82 — November 10, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
“Can she be trained to be more articulate and precise. I doubt it.”
Mr. Belman, what did Moses complain (among other things) to God about? He said he was a lousy speaker. God said (paraphrase): “So what? Who cares? You are the one chosen.”
I was going into the Whole Foods store in Silver Spring, Maryland, to get my whiff of liberalism, my weekly dose of liberal torture, and lo and behold my “Not-Mark-Steyn” Canadian acquaintance walked in with his “always frightened and wearing a fright wig” wife and little daughter in tow and he starts in with this “Sarah Palin is nothing…she will be a wisp in the wind and forgotten a year from now…” speech and I defended Sarah Palin and told him that liberal men are scared of Sarah Palin because suddenly they are faced with a real woman, a woman with the kind of balls they don’t have. He laughed…and I said, “Has anything good ever come out of Canada?”
We parted amicably enough but my doubts about Palin were Gone with the Wind, with the breaking wind of the American liberal. Sarah Palin IS true grit. She may not talk the way elitists think a presidential candidate should speak, nor does she sound Ivy League. But then again, Abraham Lincoln had a high screeechy voice, Calvin Coolidge was silent, and George W. Bush (and his Dad) have never been able to tickle the ears of the populace with their speaking patterns.
She has the Message. Don’t kill the messenger.
Comment by eugenelevitzky — November 10, 2008 @ 3:23 pm