Most recently, the former governor, has written a best selling book, joined Fox News as a news analyst, and served as the keynote speaker at the Tea Party Convention. Many speculate that these moves have been designed to keep her in the public eye as she positions herself as a GOP favorite to oppose President Obama in 2012.
Washington Post political reporter David Broder recently wrote that Palin is someone who needs to be taken seriously:
Blessed with an enthusiastic audience of conservative activists, Palin used the Tea Party gathering and coverage on the cable networks to display the full repertoire she possesses, touching on national security, economics, fiscal and social policy, and every other area where she could draw a contrast with Barack Obama and point up what Republicans see as vulnerabilities in Washington.
Time magazine's Joe Klein takes a somewhat different view:
The speech was inspired drivel, a series of distortions and oversimplifications, totally bereft of nourishing policy proposals — the sort of thing calculated, carefully calculated, to drive lamestream media types like me frothing to their keyboards. Palin is a big fat target, eminently available for derision. But I will not deride. Because brilliance must be respected, especially when it involves marketing in an era when image almost always passes for substance.
Recent polling data still suggests a bit of skepticism about what Sarah Palin has to offer:
VIEWS OF SARAH PALIN
Now 11/2009 7/2009
Favorable 26% 23% 23%
Not favorable 41 38 37
Undecided/
Haven't heard 32 37 39
Though among conservatives she is a very popular figure:
VIEWS OF SARAH PALIN
All Liberals Moderates Conservatives
Favorable 26% 16% 15% 46%
Not favorable 41 58 47 26
Undecided/
Haven't heard 32 25 37 27
How do you view Sarah Palin? Is she someone we should take seriously? Does she offer what is needed in Washington?
Sarah Palin is exactly what we do NOT need in office. Her political experience consists of being mayor of a town about the size of Rocky Mount, and then the governer of Alaska, one of the least populated states we have, and oh I forgot- a sports reporter.
ReplyDeleteObviously her policies don't work (abstinence only sex education, when studies have shown they are ineffective- look at her knocked up 17 year old daughter for example.) She doesn't believe in abortion even in the case of rape.
Her education goes only as far as a journalism degree, and apparently the republicans think a journalist is educated enough to run the damn country.
She is ANTI-ENVIRONMENT. Great idea Palin, screw over the polar bears and take them off the endangered species list, just so we can drill some oil. Wait, where exactly is that oil coming from?..A NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESERVE. She doesn't even believe in global warming, and thinks creationism of all things should be taught in science classrooms. She wants to ban LIFE SAVING stem cell research. I swear, if you asked half of the people that are even against stem cell research they wouldn't even know that you don't have to retrieve them at an embryonic stage of life.
Sarah Palin is an insult to human-kind. The apocalypse will be well on it's way if Sarah Palin is elected in 2012. This country is already in the toilet, so we may as well just let her flush it down the drain.
- Hillary Moore.
While I believe that Sarah Palin should not be president, the apocalypse is a little far fetched. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and abortion is a big-time gray area. She is NOT an insult to human kind, she just shouldn't run for president with what little experience and ability she has.
ReplyDeleteAnd if studies are used as an argument, cite the source. I think I have seen the sex-education one, but everyone needs to know that it wasn't something pulled out of a sleeve. 87% of statistics are made up on the spot.
On my view of Sarah Palin: she should not run for office.
-Luke Coury
VikTorious says:
ReplyDeleteWell said Hillary!! I do not think that Sarah Palin is what this country needs as president. Unfortunately, I think we need to take her seriously because I do think that some people are crazy enough to nominate her for the next presidential election. She has made clear that the option is not out of her plans yet. What this means to me is that we must take action quick!!
The fact that she needed hand notes to speak for the Tea Party Convention only fostered her reputation as incompetent. I could almost guarantee that she did not write her own book. She is working for FOX NEWS and it is no surprise to me. It is an obvious ploy to keep her in the eyes of America.
The entire reason she was brought into the political picture is because she was a woman who looks the way an American would view a perfect female politician. Ludicrous. My grandmother says that she is a very smart woman, but I believe that she is a complete bogus. A first class puppet!
Take her seriously?... ha I think not.
ReplyDeleteSo I ask you, Mr.Saleeby, can we write key notes on our hands for some extra assistance on tests!?
-Sarah Hughes
:-)
ReplyDeleteI think it is honestly impossible to take her seriously as a threat to the Presidency. There are Palin supporters out there,but even if she runs I doubt that she'll have enough support to win it.
ReplyDeleteShe can deliver speeches well,but now that we know she writes notes on her hands,everytime she glances down the American people will laugh, she has lost her last bit of credibility with that simple mistake. I mean,she lost a lot of it a long time ago,but this really hit her.
She might be taken seriously as a news analyst,but for President? No.
Nicole McKernan
I don't think anyone really takes Sarah Palin seriously. Everything you see about her is negative and making fun of her. She has a bad reputation therefore I do not think she will accelerate in our government without changing her image around.
ReplyDelete-Katelyn Matherly
I think selecting Sarah Palin - who undeniably means well - as a running mate was sort of a last-ditch effort made by John McCain to rain on Barak Obama's parade to presidency. Let's be realistic here: McCain chose Palin because she was a woman not because of her polital prowess.
ReplyDeleteHer inexperience in foreign policy and simple-minded approach to politics ultimately led to her downfall. While she's popular with the suburban housewives and soccer moms, she's not, in my humble opinion, fit to run our country.
~Trecek
Going to have to go with the majority on this one, I definitely agree that Palin is not ready to be considered a presidential candidate by any means at this point, Fox News analyst? Sure, why not, but I'm not quite prepared for the 'mavericky' soccer-mom to be running our country. She still has a bit more to prove before convincing me that she is ready to be president, much less vice-president.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the main reasons Palin recieves so much support is because the Republican party does not currently have majority support in Washington. The party needed a figure to rally around - actual substance optional. I wonder if all of Palin's recent activities are her own doing, or if she is being manuevered and supported by her party? If Republicans gain more ground in mid-term elections as it seems they may do, the leaders in the party might begin to see her as too volatile to be useful. Which would not bother me in the least. I think if Palin were to take the presidency any time in the near future, she wouldn't be anything more than a figurehead.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Teeple
Sarah Palin was brought into national spotlight in a wild stab at more balanced ticket: a young, energetic woman as a runningmate with an older, more sedentary man. While her image might LOOK good for the Republican party, her credentials do not. She's simply not up to scratch. She's not educated for the job and she doesn't have enough experience with mass politics to work high up in the national government. Her PR might be good with conservative Republicans, but for the most part, she has very sharp edges and a kind of wishful mavericky attitude that puts her at odds with most everyone else. She might have been good for Alaska, but I wouldn't want her in the White House. Some people just aren't cut out for it, and she's one of those people.
ReplyDeleteKristin Sicher
T Gore
ReplyDeleteI personally do not believe Palin should even be considered for the Presidency. As we have discussed in first period, she is a very polarizing person. You either love her or hate her. I happen to fall into the latter category. It seems to me that she doesn't really have a real opinion on anything. The woman can't even pick her favorite President for God's sake. I don't think she is what America needs right now, or ever for that matter.
Honestly, I believe she is washed up. I don't know how one could recover from such a bad reputation in her spotlight. Palin wasn't just gradually leaked into the spot light. Palin was thrusted into the light, and honeslty I think this country and even HERSELF couldn't believe it. I think she might have a play in our federal government down the road, but my friends that is a LONG HARD ROAD that most definitely does not lead to president. I just don't have much respect for her, and after running with McCain everytime I see her I think I chuckle inside a little bit. Palin has a lot to work to do, and don't worry people WE WILL NOT see Palin in the oval office.
ReplyDeletePeace Out
-Andrew !
No Way Sarah Palin should become president because to me she dont know what she is doing or talking about. She does not have the experience to run for the president because Governor of Alaska is not very populated so how would she jump form that to the whole United States. I think she just tells people what they want to hear and gain popularity because she knows that she is not well liked and she used the Tea party for political popularity. She wants things to go her way it seemed to me from the Tea party speech to do this and that, that her ideas are going to change the nation. When she speaks I just dont want to hear it bacause Iam just one of those people who just dont like her and I cant take her seriously. First woman as president will not be her and if she does become president Im moving to Canada.
ReplyDeleteWatson
Sarah Palin will never be taken seriously. She is trying to prove to people that she can work in the government. She will have to do a whole lot to prove that. She can start by remembering what she has to say without writing it on her hand.
ReplyDeleteGary Goad
I have to agree with the majority on this one.
ReplyDeletein my opinion its not just the idiotic things she has done lately, which have kept her in the media spotlight, but her past. most of our past presidents have had deep political education; often going to an amazing university and law school. Look at obama for instance, graduated from columbia then went to harvard for law. Palin however has not, since she has only partially ever gone to Hawaii pacific University and then north idaho college. she does not have her degree in law or politics, but rather journalism. So i think she may have finally found her correct spot in the world, fox news. but regardless, definitely not president.
John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the 2008 Presidential election. I do not believe she was neccessarily his top choice nor his best choice. It was a strategic move. Either we would have the first African-American President or we would have the first female Vice-President. Obviously, we got stuck with the former and I have yet to figure out if we really got the lesser of the two poisons.
ReplyDeleteNow for all of you who believe she is ignorant and stupid, i agree she is not be the brightest bulb on the tree.
Now unlike some of you who throw her under the bus, she was literally thrown into the national spotlight when McCain selected her as his running mate. Granted she may not be Harvard Educated with a PHD is B.S. but to be in our government nowadays all you have to be a elected to a political office is be good at making false hopes and blowing smoke out your hind end.
I do not believe it would be in her best interest to run for President in 2012. Even if she does i believe she will not be on the Republican ticket. She would be too much of a risk to run against Obama and considering the past election in Massachusetts she would be a liability to the Republican Party. Especially when you have obvious favorites such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in your "stable".
If she does run it will be on an Independent ticket through the Tea Party.
Her new position on Fox News is a way to keep her in the limelight and I also believe to allow her to experience and view some of the different aspects and parts of the federal government that she has not experienced.
But i do agree that right now she is not the best thing for America.
Musick
Sarah Palin may not be the ideal government official such as president because she does not fit the traditionally role. She has demonstrated to America that she is somewhat ditsy and does not know key political information. She has repeatedly has messed up in the national spotlight. However, I believe that with more experience in the trade or with a veteran political advisor she would be perfect for VP or President.
ReplyDelete-Tori