And what makes her particularly right for the job is the fact that she can see Russia from Alaska :dance:.
I wonder how she would have handled the Cuban missile crisis:eek:
She never said she could see Russia from Alaska. You guys watch too much late night American comedians. Here is what she said, and it's actually TRUE.
In her Sept. 11 interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin had this to say about Russia: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Remember this? Correlation between IQ and voting preferences in the USA:
http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/iq-and-voting-2004-us-election/
In a way it's a shame it turned out to be a hoax, I first read it in New Scientist. Just goes to show that there's no difference between the main parties that appeals to people on the basis of intelligence alone. Or else voters for both parties are just as easily fooled. Or something...
This, on the other hand, isn't a hoax - Green party and Liberal Democrat voters have higher IQ. This was before the 2010 election, of course.
You know who else has higher IQ's and better educations? Tea Party voters. So there goes your theory out the window.
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2010/04/16/copy/tea-party-supporters-have-money-education.html?sid=101
Really, it seems incredible to have to say, but Bush Jnr was surely much better than Palin. He had a team around him whom I didn't like but who were knowledgeable and capable (if only of doing the wrong thing capably).
There appears to be an actual chance that Palin might become president of the USA? As she might have done had she been VP this time round? It's incredible, and so scary. She has less knowledge of geopolitics I'd think than the average person, at least in the UK.
But - it's not her fault, huh? The American electorate via democracy can back whomever they choose. To even consider Palin for any kind of political office speaks realms about the state of democracy in the USA, and the level of awareness of geopolitics (LOL) within the average US citizen.
The problem being of course that this is not Georgia, Portugal, or Ecuador (just nations I named at random). The US President is fully capable of ruining or half-destroying the world if he/she is of such a nature, by war, ridiculous economics, even ridiculous social policies. So her even being considered effects us too in the UK of course.
Simply unbelievable. Monty Python would not have made this up. Well - just about.
V
Palin actually was governor of a state and had to balance budgets. She has actually worked in the private sector also, two things that Obama has never done. If anyone wants to say Palin is unqualified, they have the right to, but in my mind Obama was more unqualified than Palin, and it's showing.
Palin is actually changing American politics for the better with the Tea Party, but she is being fought by the establishment candidates even within the Republican Party.
The upcoming Uranus-Pluto transit from 2010 through to 2016 means that politicians who present themselves as anti-establishment are more likely to succeed. Palin has strong support from the "grass roots" Tea Party Movement who present themselves as for the common man and against the Washington/hollywood/intellectual/liberal establishment. These people feel oppresed by big Government, affirmative action, etc etc, they even see Obama's Health Insurance plans as a monstrous communist oppression.
Obama could only win if he presents himself as even more radical than Palin and secures support of people who are genuinely oppressed as opposed to those who like to think they are. But Obama daren't do this cos he's terrified of identifying too closely with blacks, muslims, foreigners, etc for fear of alienating the white majority. Plus which he appears too intellectual, which the Americans hate. Clinton is as intelligent as Obama, but he managed to appear more like an ordinary bloke.
So I predict Palin for President, and a war in 2013-2014 when she gets going. If not her then some other right wing fundamentalist Christian fanatic.
She's got the common touch, she's physically attractive, has five kids, has had her own problems eg kid with Downs syndrome, other kid who is unmarried mum, son in army, so a sympathetic character in that sense- and she shoots things- America would love her!
And as reiki pixie says, she will be a puppet like GW Bush and to a lesser extent Reagan, so it doesn't matter if she's thick. She can employ someone like Condoleezza Rice to point out North Korea on the map so she doesn't nuke the wrong country.
Obama already has alientated the white majority, in large part because he has seemed like he has favored blacks and Muslims and really all minorities. The Justice Department has thrown out cases involving any whites who are plantiffs when minorities are defendants. People who have left the Justic Dept. have complained about this. Obama also automatically, like a trigger reflex, blamed a white cop for an incident with a black professor without knowing the facts. When speaking in front on black audiences Obama has had no trouble dividing with race...the Democrats have always used race and class to divide people, not bring them together...as long as it can get them votes.
Obama lost everyone here with the massive government healthcare bill, called Obamacare. It's not so much even the bill, but the way it was done. Partisan, behind closed doors, locking out Republicans, two 1AM in the morning votes Christmas week, and at least 10 bribes within the bill. It was supposed to bring down costs but it did just the opposite. Americans don't like a bill that accounts for 1/6 of the economy being passed on a purely partisan basis. This never produces good bills. Obama himself has admitted he should have tried to work more with Republicans, but instead we have a bad bill that will cost the country for decades...unless it is reversed.
Palin is actually changing American politics for the better with the Tea Party, .
Ace88, just so you know, the fact that no one has replied to you doesn't mean your arguements are accepted. Most people on this site are British, and the NHS is one thing that still makes us proud of that identity. Obama's just trying to give you people something like our NHS. Your life expectancy in some parts of the USA is lower than in Third World countries, despite huge expenditure on private health care. Your state mental hospitals are hell holes, with patients strapped down to their beds like in the early nineteenth century. Your prisons likewise- I judge a country by how it treats its most vulnerable citiizens, not by how it treats the rich and famous.
As for Palin, most of us Brits found it hard enough to beleive that you guys elected Reagan. Then you elected GW Bush. And now you're getting ready to elect Palin. We're just not on your wavelength, and nor is anybody else.
Most people on this site are British, and the NHS is one thing that still makes us proud of that identity. Obama's just trying to give you people something like our NHS. Your life expectancy in some parts of the USA is lower than in Third World countries, despite huge expenditure on private health care. Your state mental hospitals are hell holes, with patients strapped down to their beds like in the early nineteenth century. Your prisons likewise- I judge a country by how it treats its most vulnerable citiizens, not by how it treats the rich and famous.
Yes, agree. The danger is going off-topic with the thread re Palin; but the inequality between not even "rich and poor" but middle-class and the low-waged in the USA is appalling. It's kept in place largely BY the middle-classes and also by the fact that compared to most nations (e.g.) in Europe, America takes the work-ethic to an unholy extreme, where profit is more important than people. As a generalisation, those who "have" have a lot, but again as a generalisation, those who "have" want to keep, not help others.
There are a thousand contradictory examples one could easily find, but anyone who's lived in both the USA and Europe knows this is true. (As an aside, what amounts to selfishness perhaps is a cultural thing and not limited to the USA: to me, a very different kind of nation, India, is the same: those who "have" don't help even the starving as a rule, and there's the same widening class divide.
V
She never said she could see Russia from Alaska. You guys watch too much late night American comedians. Here is what she said, and it's actually TRUE.
In her Sept. 11 interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, Sarah Palin had this to say about Russia: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
Hmmmm, so not a great deal of difference to my original quote.:cool: And actually Ace, I make a point of not watching ANY American comedians, late night or otherwise.;)
One of Plato's criticisms of democracy is that rather than producing the best leaders, it elects those who are best at influencing public opinion. Quite prophetic in the cases of GW Bush & Palin.
One of Plato's criticisms of democracy is that rather than producing the best leaders, it elects those who are best at influencing public opinion. Quite prophetic in the cases of GW Bush & Palin.
Yes, but I'd say democracy works with a more "educated", world-wise and politically astute public. So with the correct kind of savvy and knowledgeable public, democracy works better. Could you see the British public ever voting in GW Bush or, even more so, Palin? I think not. We don't have the knee-jerk American Bible belt, who also have very little real knowledge of the outside world and have rarely travelled.
I think I once asked an above poster if he'd ever been abroad, and I don't recall getting a positive answer. Oh, I remember, something like he'd "seen" some Muslims locally. :p
V
Are you sure, V, that he didn't see some Muslims from an island in Alaska? 😉
Yes, agree. The danger is going off-topic with the thread re Palin; but the inequality between not even "rich and poor" but middle-class and the low-waged in the USA is appalling. It's kept in place largely BY the middle-classes and also by the fact that compared to most nations (e.g.) in Europe, America takes the work-ethic to an unholy extreme, where profit is more important than people. As a generalisation, those who "have" have a lot, but again as a generalisation, those who "have" want to keep, not help others.
There are a thousand contradictory examples one could easily find, but anyone who's lived in both the USA and Europe knows this is true. (As an aside, what amounts to selfishness perhaps is a cultural thing and not limited to the USA: to me, a very different kind of nation, India, is the same: those who "have" don't help even the starving as a rule, and there's the same widening class divide.
V
People scream about the difference between the rich and the poor, but what they miss is this. When the rich were at their richest in the US, so were the poor! As the rich have lost income in this country, the poor are far more in number and far worse off. So for all you might say about the income gap, it stilll results in being better for the poor than socialistic ideas and high taxes. The poor in the US are a lot better off then the poor in other countries...
Ace88, just so you know, the fact that no one has replied to you doesn't mean your arguements are accepted. Most people on this site are British, and the NHS is one thing that still makes us proud of that identity. Obama's just trying to give you people something like our NHS. Your life expectancy in some parts of the USA is lower than in Third World countries, despite huge expenditure on private health care. Your state mental hospitals are hell holes, with patients strapped down to their beds like in the early nineteenth century. Your prisons likewise- I judge a country by how it treats its most vulnerable citiizens, not by how it treats the rich and famous.
As for Palin, most of us Brits found it hard enough to beleive that you guys elected Reagan. Then you elected GW Bush. And now you're getting ready to elect Palin. We're just not on your wavelength, and nor is anybody else.
isn't the NHS pushing the UK towards bankruptcy? Seems like these programs make the uninsured for some time but they all eventually bankrupt the country and are not economic. There is no doubt health care in the US needs fixing, but there are other ways to do it besides a public, one payer system with more government control. We need tort reform, insurance across state lines, perhaps personal health saving accounts, etc...
You gave no answers to the false attacks against Palin.
Are you sure, V, that he didn't see some Muslims from an island in Alaska? 😉
Taken off of anothers misquote from what Palin actually said. Palin never said she could see Russia from her house. What she actually said was you can see Russia from an island of Alaska, which is TRUE.
isn't the NHS pushing the UK towards bankruptcy? Seems like these programs make the uninsured for some time but they all eventually bankrupt the country and are not economic.
You don't know the history of the NHS. We may grumble about it, it ain't perfect. The NHS is over 60 years, it's bigger and stronger than it's ever been. Going through another reform as it does everytime there's a new government.
It seems to me that it was the banks that were driving the UK towards bankruptcy. Paying to fight the USA's wars doesn't help, or carrying US weapons on our ships to feed the US's defence industry.
But the NHS would be more efficient if it didn't have to pay the rip off prices of some the Global drugs companies.
Myarka.
What she actually said was you can see Russia from an island of Alaska, which is TRUE.
It was a pretty pathetic thing to have said all the same. I'd just guess she's never been there and done it; and she probably doesn't even know what system of governance Russia even has. That kind of real basic savvy is what any major politician has to have.
Has she ever been abroad?? Just asking. IMHO if you don't travel and know much of the world first-hand, you can't deal with it or be a politician of worth.
V