Chuck Hagel On Palin
September 18th, 2008 by Jon Taplin
Senator Hagel, one of the great foreign policy experts in Congress, on Sarah Palin.
“She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”
“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 added. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.”
“Republicans engage in what I can only call “structural lies.” To understand what this means consider this: Just about every significant lie uttered by Republican politicians is designed to make them seem less conservative than they really are.
The current lie du jour of the McCain campaign is that their man will aggressively take on the greed that is causing the collapse on Wall Street. Given McCain’s lack of interest in the economy, wealthy campaign contributors, and ideological hostility toward government regulation, this stance is laughable. But McCain’s lie unconsciously reveals an important truth, which is that when the economy goes into a tailspin, the public prefers a solution long identified with liberalism. McCain could tell the truth, which is that he is all for the free market and can barely wait until the crisis passes so the rich can go about the business of becoming ever richer. But if he does that, he will lose. McCain wants to win. Therefore he lies.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/18/lies/
“Republicans engage in what I can only call “structural lies.” To understand what this means consider this: Just about every significant lie uttered by Republican politicians is designed to make them seem less conservative than they really are.
The current lie du jour of the McCain campaign is that their man will aggressively take on the greed that is causing the collapse on Wall Street. Given McCain’s lack of interest in the economy, wealthy campaign contributors, and ideological hostility toward government regulation, this stance is laughable. But McCain’s lie unconsciously reveals an important truth, which is that when the economy goes into a tailspin, the public prefers a solution long identified with liberalism. McCain could tell the truth, which is that he is all for the free market and can barely wait until the crisis passes so the rich can go about the business of becoming ever richer. But if he does that, he will lose. McCain wants to win. Therefore he lies.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/09/18/lies/
From this and other comments Hagel has made, I suspect he’s going to play a role in Obama’s administration if Obama is elected. I don’t agree with his domestic policy views, but he seems very reasonable and pragmatic regarding foreign policy.
From this and other comments Hagel has made, I suspect he’s going to play a role in Obama’s administration if Obama is elected. I don’t agree with his domestic policy views, but he seems very reasonable and pragmatic regarding foreign policy.
John,
I’m begging you. Please turn off the “Snap” plugin.
And I’ve got big, big love for your blog; I am not a troll.
Chris
John,
I’m begging you. Please turn off the “Snap” plugin.
And I’ve got big, big love for your blog; I am not a troll.
Chris
Chris- What is the “snap” plugin?
Chris- What is the “snap” plugin?
He’s referring to the SnapShots plug-in that provides a preview of the link.
He’s referring to the SnapShots plug-in that provides a preview of the link.
They’re the little preview windows that pop up whenever you mouse over a link to an external page.
If they loaded with the main page, and provided the previews immediately, they’d be useful, but they never do, so it’s just clutter – especially when they take ages to load.
You can disable them in Wordpress by going to dashboard / design / extras, and un checking ‘enable snap shots on this blog’.
Hope this helps.
They’re the little preview windows that pop up whenever you mouse over a link to an external page.
If they loaded with the main page, and provided the previews immediately, they’d be useful, but they never do, so it’s just clutter – especially when they take ages to load.
You can disable them in Wordpress by going to dashboard / design / extras, and un checking ‘enable snap shots on this blog’.
Hope this helps.
Chris- Done
Chris- Done
My dead father knew more about foreign policy from the point of view of Alaska than Palin does. He fought the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands in WWII. The most basic foreign policy may be shooting back when foreigners with guns occupy your soil. The Russians were bought off a long time ago. Maybe Sarah didn’t read that chapter when she was in high school…
My dead father knew more about foreign policy from the point of view of Alaska than Palin does. He fought the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands in WWII. The most basic foreign policy may be shooting back when foreigners with guns occupy your soil. The Russians were bought off a long time ago. Maybe Sarah didn’t read that chapter when she was in high school…
This is an excellent blog.
This reminds me of Calculated Risk, an excellent housing blog which took off in readership last year after a few obscure years and now has well over 100 comments per entry (used to be about 15). It’s still an excellent housing/financial blog just too many comments to read.
I predict that something similar happens here.
Hagel is being honest about Palin. I admire his honesty. I don’t agree with him on many social issues, but I think he has the decency to speak the truth about the nominee’s credentials
Yesterday, Sean Hannity asked Ms. Palin about Mr. McCain’s saying that, “the fundamentals of the economy are strong.” She answered using the word “verbiage” to refer to McCain’s words, saying, “Well, it was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use…” and “… so, that was an unfair attack there, again, based on verbiage that John McCain used.”
From a Thesaurus:
verbiage
noun
verbosity, wordiness, prolixity, long-windedness, loquacity, rigmarole, circumlocution, superfluity, periphrasis.
Wow, she really has been cramming for the debate with Biden, hasn’t she?
Jon, I have to second the comments of others in this thread. Please, keep up the good work. I look forward to checking out your site every day, gives me a breath of sanity.
Cheers,
Andrew
Chris–THANK YOU for pointing that out! I hated that Snap thing. I never realized that asking for things worked.
Jon, I’d like to take inches off hips, thighs, bust, in the comfort of my home, no unpleasant bending, and add value to my synthetic CDO while I play away the day.
What kills me about Palin is the shrill, lecturing, angry tone of her voice when she talks. She reminds of nothing so much as an irate citizen who is speaking to her local village hall for the first time who lets her anger run away with her, and pours all of her emotion out in one big glop.
She sounds like a clumsy amateur. That’s what passes for “genuine” in the base, I guess. Everything else is elitist.
@Dan // September 19, 2008 at 5:26 am
_____
I could not have stated it better. Sometimes I feel like I’m trapped in a bad dream.
I agree, Dan. She speaks as if the whole world is “special needs”.
Or Alaska.
Some one has to be the contrarian.
This week:
o Federal crime. Emails hacked. Obama supporters only disappointed that dirt wasn’t found. Guess what? There isn’t any. Palin is a good egg.
o CBC columnist Heather Mallick says Palin’s look is that of a “toned-down porn actress.” husband is Todd a “roughneck,” son Track is “terrified,” and pregnant teenage daughter Bristol is a “pramface,” her boyfriend is a ‘ratboy’, Palin’s supporters, “white trash”, Alaska is a “frontier state full of drunks and crazy people.” and “Canada’s ugly stepchild”.
Meanwhile, Obama says nothing as usual and goes camping with celebrity advisors until Pelosi sends him instructions while the American economy melts like cheese on a flame-broiled burger.
This isn’t that complicated. We’ve been ripped off and we want
1. Our money back.
2. Heads on pikes in front of the White House.
Get a clue. Accountability.
http://www.youtube.com/v/sqxW6E24Jh8&hl=en&fs=1
Some one has to be the contrarian.
This week:
o Federal crime. Emails hacked. Obama supporters only disappointed that dirt wasn’t found. Guess what? There isn’t any. Palin is a good egg.
o CBC columnist Heather Mallick says Palin’s look is that of a “toned-down porn actress.” husband Todd a “roughneck,” son Track is “terrified,” and pregnant teenage daughter Bristol is a “pramface,” her boyfriend is a ‘ratboy’, Palin’s supporters, “white trash”, Alaska is a “frontier state full of drunks and crazy people.” and “Canada’s ugly stepchild”.
Meanwhile, Obama says nothing as usual and goes camping with celebrity advisors until Pelosi sends him instructions while the American economy melts like cheese on a flame-broiled burger.
This isn’t that complicated. We’ve been ripped off and we want
1. Our money back.
2. Heads on pikes in front of the White House.
Get a clue. Accountability.
http://www.youtube.com/v/sqxW6E24Jh8&hl=en&fs=1
What if the un-thinkable happens? What if Palin knocks it out of the park on Oct 2? I think too many may have their fingers crossed hoping Biden will bury her. My fear is, what if Biden is, well, Biden? If he’s not careful, she’ll go right over him and into the living room of every viewer – “Palin Bounce II”?
Len sometimes you remind me of Hugo.
I have no idea what kind of point you were trying to make.
I’ll take that as spoken, Dan. No rejoinder. Better to put one fewer reason to contend on the table.
If Palin is going to blow it, it will be precisely because she swings for the fences. If Biden is measured, polite and to the point, he can easily win.
I like the woman. She is fresh and she is normal. On the other hand, she can sound fascist and that can creep out people who haven’t made their pick yet. The risk is she is a very quick study with a reputation for having a savant’s sense of the moods of her consituency and it has served her well. What she loses in oratory skills she makes up in looking straight at the camera and coming off with the “I feel your pain” Momness.
Biden simply needs to be correct. The debate may be won or lost in the fact check afterward. The one thing we can probably be sure of is she will draw a big audience and that is something Biden should see as an opportunity.
Anomalies notwithstanding, I don’t think the debate will be won or lost on the accuracy of their responses.
The metric worth watching is “connectivity”; particularly the level they connect on with the emotionals and undecideds.
Biden’s problem is that he’s Joe; an old pol with hair plugs and a penchant for inopportune rambling, who unfortunately generates minimal “buzz”.
Like her or not, Palin resonates like Obama used to. If she’s smart, she’ll figure out how to not only get into your living room, but also how to hold your hand during the debate.
If that happens, “Palin Bounce II” could easily dwarf “Palin Bounce I”. And if that happens, it may be time to read the fine print on the refund policy.
What’s the difference between Sarah Palin and Dick Chaney? Lipstick
What’s the difference between George Dubya Bush and John McCain’s judgement in selecting a Vice President? LIPSTICK!
It’s probably true, Roman, that people will connect more emotionally than by issues, but at this point, they are arguing over less than 10% of the voters unless there is another structural shift.
It’s fourth quarter and Obama is up by a field goal. Unless he fumbles, fouls or is intercepted he only has to hang on to that field goal. I’d stick to defense and a ground game.
For those celebrating with JT at this time, enjoy the buzz. It might not last. The Republicans are also out registering new voters and not saying much about it.
I heard about the Dead concert in Pennsylvania. I wish I could be there. Who does Garcia’s parts?