Sarah Palin: Ready for Nation's Top Posts?
Many News Columnists and Editorial Writers Say No
Sep 14, 2008 Rosemary E. Bachelor
A September 13 New York Times editorial questions McCain’s choice of Palin: “If he seriously thought this first-term governor—with less than two years in office—was qualified to be president, if necessary, at such a dangerous time, it raised profound questions about his judgement. If the choice was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible.”
Palin Has "Thin" Resume
Several writers expressed concern about her confusion when interviewer Charles Gibson referred to the “Bush doctrine” and about how she fudged about having insight into how Russia should be handled by noting she can see Russia from her state.
The day after Palin’s convention acceptance speech a Washington Post editorial said: “The fact is that Ms. Palin has an astonishingly thin résumé -- mayor of a small town, governor of a sparsely populated state for less than two years -- for someone hoping to ascend to national leadership.”
Unanswered Questions
Here are some rhetorical questions columnists articulated:
- Do references to “God’s Plan” show that she can isolate her faith enough to make objective policy decisions?
- If she thinks she can win by making disparaging remarks about experience and qualifications, then what tools would she use to run the country?
- If politicians with “fat resumes” aren’t needed in Washington, then what credentials does she think are needed to turn around the economy, dispel the threats of terrorism, deal with a restless Russia, win a war in Iraq and relate to China, a rapidly emerging super power?
- Many people want change in Washington. If she does, then why was the team coaching her for the Gibson interviews composed of so many former Bush policy makers and campaign leaders?
- Why did she put out a press release about her teenage daughter’s pregnancy, then continually attack the press for covering the press release?
- Does she really not know that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11?
Pretends to Be a Reformer?
Protestors at a recent anti-Palin demonstration in Anchorage carried signs saying “Bush in a Skirt” and “Candidate to Nowhere”.
”At some point, Ms. Palin must face questions without scripts and without chaperones. Voters must hear her talk, not in vague bromides and generalities, but in specifics. She must offer details, not fuzzy denials, about why a pork-barreling mayor and governor now pretends to be a reformer.” So writes the editorial board of St. Louis Today.
“While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U. S., but that it might actually prevail,” wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in his Sept. 13 column titled “She’s Not Ready.” He said McCain made an “incredibly reckless choice of a running mate.”
“Is she ready? I think not,” writes Teresa Puente for the Chicago Sun-Times. “She has been a governor for only two years -- less time than Obama has spent in the Senate -- and before that was the mayor of a town with a population of fewer than 9,000,” Puente continues, adding that she hopes criticism aimed at Palin is directed “at her credentials and her ideas and not the fact that she is a woman.”
Companion articles compare Palin's qualifications with those of the 19 most recent vice presidents, discuss a negative letter that appeared in Palin's hometown newspaper and give criteria for selecting effective leaders.
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