Durenberger not high on Palin. Wonders whether POTUS race shifted on economy.
In his most recent commentary (no link provided) Former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger (a Republican) didn't have flattering words for Sarah Palin. He also wondered whether the recent corporate bailouts of the financial sector has changed the race for President:
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN The ground under the campaigns for President is shifting as we the people watch the genie of Senator Phil Gramm's "you're the problem not us" escape the Wall Street - Washington DC bottle he now works in, and shift both the blame and the financial liability to we the people and our already drained pay checks and check books. An ear to the ground this week is beginning to hear, "It is no time for old men and hockey moms in America." It's these old men that got us into this problem and it stretches Main Street credulity that they can get us out. God has no plan that includes the growth of greed and the decline of governmental oversight we have experienced. A different kind of "experience" seems needed in the White House. Events, not clever campaign canards, are beginning to shape the election of President of the United States.
Durenberger wrote several items on Palin. Here's the first:
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COMMUNITY A lot of people I know were quite impressed by Sarah Palin's speaking debut on a national stage in St. Paul last week. I was not. As one who has spent a lifetime in community service and 16 years in professional national service I resented being lectured by a self styled pit-bull from Alaska. I was particularly angered by her attack on Barack Obama's work as a community organizer, suggesting that it lacked "the actual responsibilities" she undertook in the course of hoisting herself into elected office. There was a day not so long ago when Republicans like me were the champions of community organizing as a responsible citizenry's alternative to government jobs and programs (" actual responsibilities" ) approaches to community development.
Here the other (check last line):
WIRED FOR THIS JOB is a phrase Sarah Palin made famous last week. In public service it means an informed belief system best articulated as principles against which leaders measure their positions on issues like the appropriate role of government in a constitutional democracy. Sarah Palin didn't blink when John McCain asked her to marry him on their second date. She says she won't blink when he prescribes reforming the country and victory in our many wars. She won't blink in delegating our security in the Middle East to Israeli politics or defining threats to our national security to Russian leaders. She would have us believe that the God who wires her life has a plan for all of the above and leaders like Bush and McCain are his capable surrogates. There must be a limit to Sarah Palin's self-confidence, but we've yet to see it.
Give Sarah credit for giving a lot of Americans someone they can relate to. Those rally crowds are real. The demand by Republican Congressional Candidates fro her appearance is greater than the supply. Interestingly that is a role John McCain played for the 14 years the GOP lurched to the far right.
This election is really about John McCain and Barack Obama's ability to change the course of this nation's history. If anything happened to President Obama we know Joe Biden is qualified to be President because he has already demonstrated what leadership and accountability for national and international leadership means. You may not agree with him, but you'll always know where he stands. Is it possible in seven weeks to qualify Sarah Palin for similar responsibilities?
After admitting she knows nothing about what a vice president is/does, she is stretching the truth of her understanding of the world we know and exaggerating her meager accomplishments in a state we don't. Whether or not there is a chance that a President McCain may not survive his term, history tells us that vice presidents are assumed to be qualified to be president or we shouldn't trust them with our vote.
Question of the Day: Does this analysis change anyone's mind?