Republican John McCain officially accepts the nomination to be his party’s presidential candidate tonight, but many in St. Paul, Minnesota, are saying he already has been eclipsed by his running mate, Sarah Palin, whose speech September 3 was praised by delegates and many in the news media.
A nearly record-setting 37.2 million people watched Palin’s speech on television, 1.1 million fewer than watched Barack Obama’s speech. In comparison, 24 million watched Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden’s speech.
Throughout the week, party leaders have called the Alaskan governor a “reformer,” and “a woman of action.” Republicans say she has more executive experience than Obama or Biden, who, as senators, have never run a city or state. (See “Republican Leaders Call Sarah Palin a Reformer.”)
Democrats are criticizing one particular point in Palin’s speech: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer except that you have actual responsibilities.” Obama launched his career as a community organizer and his supporters argue that that type of work has proven his leadership ability.
What do you think? Can community organizing work prepare one for governmental leadership? And what do you think of Sarah Palin – do you agree with McCain that she’s the right person for the job of vice president? Post your comments below.
Comments (24)
Omo
5 September 2008 at 16:39 EDT
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Sarah palin is called a christain, a reformer and the lots. I believe charity begins at home. Sarah Palin cannot bring her own children up in a christain way. Now they are forcing Bristol’s boyfriend into a marriage he is not ready for. It shows that Sarah Palin cannot be trusted with our children. Having twenty children is not enough, how well mannered they are, is very important. I will not expect my 17years old to pup in and out of bed without any regard for family planing, christain or not. Follow family planning rules or abstain. Like mother lack child.
Rod
5 September 2008 at 21:26 EDT
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Sarah will be perfect. This woman will bring conservatism back to the white house along wil McCain as pres. Best choice.
ully
6 September 2008 at 07:56 EDT
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no doubt to choose sarah!it’s the best choice to be vice president!the combination john with sarah will birng american people strong and great!God bless mc cain ans Sarah!
Mike
6 September 2008 at 09:29 EDT
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Do you seriously think a person who enjoys shooting animals, who cannot educate her own children in sex education and believes in creationism is fit to represent America? America, you deserve better! Please elect someone with real intelligence like Obama.
Steelsil
6 September 2008 at 15:07 EDT
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In the hills and hollows, up crick and down dale
Throwback revenants gnash teeth and send up a hail
The hicks from the sticks each one and each pair of
with a frenzied howl cry out for darlin’ Ms. Sarah
With a beating of drums and a blare of brass horns
The hillbillies and trailer trash are wailin’ for Palin!
Marion Testart
6 September 2008 at 17:05 EDT
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I think Obama would make a superior president. He has shown leadership qualities in his judgment (his minority stance against the war in the early days), his track record in Senate voting, his ability to pick and coalesce a huge political campaigning organization where there is little in-fighting (like there was in Hilary Clinton’s organization); his ability to motivate and inspire not only American voters but people outside USA; his ethics (re the types of issues he has been promoting, type of work he has done - community work; his concern for American law as he taught in university, and the fact that he doesn’t accept corporate donations for his election campaign. He, instead, has gone to people over the Net. He even found money to pay Clinton’s campaign debts of $20 million. He is intellectually superior, as his academic track record in Harvard shows as opposed to McCain’s almost boasting of his being at the bottom of his university class. Obama’s superior intellect and thought processing is clear in his speeches, which he often writes himself. His in-depth treatment of subjects, eg his race speech, is among the best given this past century. He is cool (something one wants in the man in the Oval Office) as opposed to McCain who has oft flown off the handle. Obama recognized the pulse of the American people in their need for change (anti war, and Washington lob byists, pro the economy, health care, and education), which he has been fighting for since he left university. McCain copies the change slogan and applies it to distancing himself from Bush and the Washington insiders. But he does this as an appeal to get votes when he was down in the polls after the Democration convention. IAfter often lambasting Obama as not having the experience necessary to lead, and after he had said that he wanted to choose a vp with experience, McCain switches his ideas in an attempt to get much needed votes after the Democratic convention. Thus his choice for Palin was in his self political interest rather than in the interest of the American people. McCain wanted the young and the women’s vote and also he needed to distance himself from a very unpopular Bush Administration.
Obama has always cared about kitchen table issues; McCain made a comment as to how ”the economy” was not his area of strength.
McCain says that Obama will increase taxes, but he never mentions that the cost of the war which he fully intends to continue costs much more than any health care or educational costs.
I also didn’t like Palin’s approach of attack rather than talking about issues. The label a ”pitbull with lipstick” was both amusing and relevant. Her very first public national speech she gives she spends time on belittling Obama. Something that he does as little as possible.
Obama is often criticized for being a good orator: However, his thoughts are those that HE CREATED rather than read.
I think Obama would be much better world statesman as well. Certainly the world is definitely pro Obama rather than McCain. And reaching out to your opponents is always better than just bullying them, going to war, killing.
What really frightened me in McCain’s acceptance speach is the percentage of time he spent in talking about war, rather than dealing with kitchen table issues. At least 50% of McCain’s acceptance 49-minute speech was devoted to his military track record, praising the military, praising his insurgence . And he does so often in a very tired old-man way. He seems somewhat energy-less.
To conclude: I think Obama is a better leader. I like the way he listens, thinks, speaks, his values of service to country as a politician rather than as a militarist. I like the way he has mobilized both the American as well as the world citizenzry. Somthing America should also paid heed to after the Bush’s disaster of world leadership.
Nancy
6 September 2008 at 17:20 EDT
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CNN is not giving much information on Palin concerning women’s rights. Is it true that she’s o.k. with teaching Creationist theory in public schools? That she opposes contraception, including for married couples. Is she against abortion, even in cases of rape and incest? If all or most of this were true wouldn’t that put her views far right-wing of middle America? Whatever news I’ve seen on TV, including CNN, has soft-peddled their résumé on Palin. Is she a courageous reformer or a fundamentalist, or both and in what degree? Just want the real picture. Isn’t that the business you’re in?
steve hilling
7 September 2008 at 02:54 EDT
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The obvious choice to me is Obama or Palin,McCain’s health record sugests he will either die in office or be a one term president effectivly handing the position to Palin.This in my opinion would be a dire situation and not in the best interests of the American people.
melissa
7 September 2008 at 12:14 EDT
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Sarah palin is a breath of fresh air to the republican party i can´t think of a better VP good choice mccain!
kingsley
8 September 2008 at 06:05 EDT
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she is not a good choice, she dose not have experience in foreign policy.
aimee
8 September 2008 at 12:40 EDT
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I am concerned with Mccain’s pick for VP. In Sarah Palin, we have a far right fundamentalist whose opinions will surely marginalise and isolate those who do not follow her ideals.
She is pro-life, which is all well and good until you consider the harsh reality that denying women the choice of abortion would mean so many children being born into families that are unable to support and provide for them. To think that abstinance is a viable form of contaception is completely unrealistic - case proved with her daughter.
She believes that global warming is not man-made, which ultimately will mean that reducing carbon emissions would not be a concern of hers. I am shocked that she is able to so plainly disregard what has been scientifically proven, and concerned what this will mean about her politics on such issues.
She believes that gays and lesbians can be ‘cured’ through prayer! Cured? Are we really going to take such a step back and think of homosexuals as inferiors who are to be fixed? We have come so far (sure, there is further still to come) in accepting difference and minority - with views such as this we can assume that her politics will surely rebuild barriers and encourage discrimination.
She wants to teach creationism as part of the science curriculum in schools. I personally disagree with the concept, but that is not why I have issue in this case. Creationism is a belief of the Christian religion. Aside from the fact that this would isolate and disregard other belief systems, it is not science and thus has no place being on a scientific curriculum. If it is to be taught, it should be taught under religious studies. And why not, I am all for broadening the minds of our children by giving them information about all different beliefs, for this is how we create open-minded and accepting citizens.
I have no doubt that Sarah Palin is a woman of action, and this is partly what concerns me. We know that she tried to have a librarian fired, for questionable reason. And she had public safety commissioner Walt Monegan dissmissed, allegedly because he refused to fire her former brother-in-law. Circumstances aside, what both of these things suggest, is that anybody who disagrees with her or stands in her way, will be knocked down. These are not the ethics of someone who is willing to build bridges and enter discussions and negotiations. These are the ethics of someone who will go in all guns blazing, fighting what appears to me, a personal and religious agenda.
So, together with her far right opinions, her questionable ethics and her lack of experience, I think she’s an appauling choice for VP.
I am curious also, as to why Mccain would select a VP whos views are so much further to the right than he claims his own are. Would we find that he and Palin would clash? Would she really be supportive of anything that opposes her own opinons? Or perhaps we would find that Mccain has been less than truthful about how far to the right his own politics lie? I’m hoping Obama will be elected and we won’t have to find out.
jimrogers
8 September 2008 at 22:21 EDT
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President Palin? A voter for McCain-Palin must accept that there is well over a 12% medical likelihood Palin will become President or acting President within the next four years. It is more likely 20 to 25% likely, given the number of vice-Presidents who have become President, and McCain’s age. Do people seriously think she has the training and experience, let alone the skills, to be President??
For a patient with a prior melanoma that had already previously spread through the lymphatic system like Mr. McCain’s there is still an ongoing chance of recurrence, which is still over a 2% risk per year, with secondary melanoma sometimes appearing in the brain, lungs or elsewhere. Add the risk of death from other causes such as cardiovascular disease (2% risk of myocardial infarction or cardiac death per year at his age with raised cholesterol history) and risk of stroke or other malignancies, and other medical conditions, and you have at least a 3% yearly risk of death, with a considerably higher risk of significant morbidity, debility and ill-health. Add the risk of assassination, which is considerable, and possibly about 9%. Add the risk of worsening mental function in a man in his seventies. Is it worth the risk voting for McCain-Palin??
Republican supporters must think of Palin as President before voting. She is an unknown cannon. Do Americans want her hand on the trigger of global politics and running the world’s biggest economy?
So picture McCain incapacitated, maybe with secondary melanoma in his brain, now swollen after radiotherapy, confused and septic from infection after immune-suppressing chemotherapy, followed by a heart attack, breathless on oxygen in hospital. Another major world political crisis looms. The world turns to America. Who is in charge? Palin, an inexperienced Hicksville politician with no foreign affairs knowledge, no world economic credentials, and a red-neck, fundamentalist, narrow view of the world. You must be joking. A President Palin who went through no major nomination process and vetting by the party or the public, and gets handed the Presidency of the United States on a plate! Lucky girl, but would it be an unlucky country and world.
Sharon
9 September 2008 at 09:03 EDT
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As Richard Cohen said in his column in the Washington Post after McCain announced the nomination of Sarah Palin as VP at the Republican convention: “The sum effect on the diligent news consumer is a feeling of consummate contempt [from the Republicans] for the intelligence of the American people…”.
This was my first, second and ongoing reaction. The Republican Party has fed the American people a mountain of half-truths and sugarcoated lies for the past 7 years, but this one takes the cake. If Sen. McCain thought that this individual could capture the votes of women who were disappointed by Sen. Hilary Clinton’s loss in the Democratic Party primary, I am truly insulted. I could list my disagreements with her values and describe how her beliefs/actions are not in the best interest of America, but Aimee (on 8 September 2008) described it all quite clearly and concisely. I agree with everything discussed in that post regarding Palin’s ultra-right fundamentalist opinions and if they are put into practice will take us back decades, not help us re-establish our leadership in today’s global environment. Sarah Palin is the worst choice for a Republican Vice President, not least because there is a very reasonable possibility she could replace McCain, and that could only be described as a US/Global Disaster.
bill
9 September 2008 at 10:00 EDT
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Everyone is commenting on the lack of
foriegn policy skills, global knowledge, etc that Sarah Palin has in regards to her choice as VP and possibly having to take over as President. Please explain to me where/how Brack Obama is more qualified, especially to be in the role of President to start with.
He has taken a few trips overseas since beginning his campaign began, other than that I am just not seeing it.
Isnt that why he added Biden on the ticket - to add foriegn policy strength?
Please explain to me where Obama has developed all this wonderful knowledge.
aimee
9 September 2008 at 13:44 EDT
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Bill - We’re not really discusssing Obama in this topic, we’re discussing our thoughts on Palin as VP. Her lack of experience is, as far as I’m concerned, just a minor fact as to why I don’t think she’s a suitable choice.
Anyway….I have faith that Obama is capable of Presidency. He may not be the most experienced, but in him, I have confidence. I have confidence that his world view will make him a good leader. I have confidence that where he may lack experience, he has knowledge, intellect and the self-awareness to understand his weaknesses and take advice (hence adding Biden to the ticket).
I do not believe any of these things to be true of Palin. I see her as being out for number one, concerned only for what directly affects her. She has admitted that she has not been following the War in Iraq for crying out loud!! That really doesn’t suggest she’s at all concened with global politics, does it?
I see all these people saying “Sarah will be perfect”, “Sarah is the best choice for VP”, “Sarah is a breath of fresh air!”, but I see absolutely nothing to back this up. Come on Palin supporters, give me something tangible to work with! I’m trying desperately to understand WHY you think she’s so great. I can’t see how anybody who’s looked any further than the ‘hockey mom’ and researched into who this woman is, and what she stands for, can possibly advocate her as a choice for Vice President. Am I missing something?
Alan
9 September 2008 at 23:26 EDT
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Who do you think she will select for the new position as Creationism Czar? Your suggestions, please.
leo peter
10 September 2008 at 11:46 EDT
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What is going on here, a Reformer, come on, she’s only their to aplease the right-wing of the party, you know, the gun-nuts, the religious zealots in the bible belt,and the rest of the wacko’s that make up the republican party. Get with it, make an educated vote, get to know the issues, and certainly do not vote for someone you will speak in tongues in the white house, our english is bad enough. Perhaps this is the Rapture that Sarah talks about.
sarahpalin
11 September 2008 at 16:22 EDT
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Whats with people inventing garbage like that mccain will die or fear mongering about other sarah palin scandal. Give the woman a break!
abey
17 September 2008 at 03:54 EDT
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When I see how John Mccain is using Palin,
it somehow reminds me of the bible, where,
the old serpant, Satan, uses Eve to get at Adam. for he could not get him directly.
In this case Mccain the old serpant, palin the eve ,adam the electorate & the fruit being the elections.
steve libi
23 September 2008 at 09:33 EDT
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palin infact is being used to gain cheap political mileage. infact it is an offence for the female folk to have one of the own being used as a political tool.
prakash
26 September 2008 at 10:26 EDT
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Sarah Palin is a symbol of American womenhood. She haunts moose to bring
her children up. She speaks like ordinary american ; America understands her.
Now democrates are on run. Time has come to pay injustice , insult done to Hillary Clinton; American surffrgists are on march.In 1984 , they lost; this time; 2008 is their year; Palin going to win; she has shaken America and the world .
Megan Loy
14 October 2008 at 12:44 EDT
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i really like Sharh Palien. i think that she is really cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Liposuction
6 January 2009 at 18:22 EST
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I have to disagree with that last comment…doesn’t make sense
Pete Testart
25 March 2009 at 16:36 EDT
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Marion Testart’s comments about Obama are very accurate.
I wish that the opposition to Obama had taken those observations to heart and put up a real candidate so that the campaign could have been about Ideas rather than personalities.
Hilary vs McCain would have been a contest between similarly ungifted speakers but Obama — no contest