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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: microhoogle! who wrote (43051)	8/29/2008 9:48:27 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224704

John McCain's dangerous gamble on Sarah Palin By DAN GERSTEIN Friday, August 29th 2008, 5:22 PM In picking an unknown, untested, half-a-term woman governor from Alaska to be his running mate, John McCain is following in a long line of reckless men who have rolled the dice for a beauty queen. Except in this case, McCain is taking one of the biggest, boldest gambles in modern American political history. He's betting his presidency on a naked political play for holdout Hillary supporters and other female swing voters - and hoping that a large share of these predominantly pro-choice women will ignore or overlook Palin's staunch pro-life, anti-stem cell views. But that's just the better half of it. McCain will now have to pull off a grand slam of cognitive dissonance - trying to discredit Barack Obama as unready to be Commander in Chief while trying to pawn off the least qualified candidate put on a national ticket in our lifetime as the second best choice to lead the most powerful nation in the world. COUNTERPOINT: PALIN WAS GOOD CHOICE FOR WOMEN As a political professional, I have to admire McCain's guts in making such an unconventional pick and taking such an inordinate risk. It shows if nothing else that McCain did not permanently sublimate his maverick streak in his sad, cynical drift to the right over the past eight years. In the best case scenario, it could help reinforce McCain's appeal to and shore up his credibility with the independents who first fell hard for him in 2000 - and who may be feeling a little less loving after Obama pounds home this fall all the ways McCain has flip-flopped and Bush-kissed in trying to win the Republican nomination. At a minimum, it signals that McCain is not going to cede the anti-Washington turf to Obama and plans on doing what he can to neutralize if not outright steal Obama's change message. Indeed, Palin's greatest selling point, much like Obama, is that she just doesn't look or sound like your typical politician, let alone your typical Republican. If McCain is going to stake his fall campaign on a positive reform agenda, which he would be wise to do, Palin could be the most effective candidate of all the VP options McCain was considering to carry that message. She is a reformer with some results - and without the various political baggage that Ridge, Lieberman and Romney were all bogged down with. CLICK TO READ ABOUT McCAIN'S BIG CHOICE But while it's plausible that Palin could prove a fresh-faced asset, the odds are that she will turn out to be a noticeable liability for McCain - if not an outright disaster. Running mates typically have little to no impact on voter decisions, but when they do, they tend to be negative. And Palin has the potential to hurt McCain in multiple ways. First, there is a fair chance that Palin, who just two years ago was the mayor of a town of 8,500 people, will crack under the immense pressure of the national campaign meat-grinder and become a source of serial and damaging gaffes - which will put the McCain campaign on the defensive when they can least afford it. Sure, she looked composed at the unveiling - but wait a couple of weeks. Most Americans have no idea how challenging it is even for the most experienced politicians to sound coherent, let alone presidential, while criss-crossing the country and talking non-stop 15 hours a day. Just ask Wes Clark - a few days into his first foray into presidential politics in 2003, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander was crying out to be rescued by his press secretary during a round of press interviews. Second, there is a fair chance that the Palin pick will backfire with the very women McCain needs to court to win, and not just because of the abortion politics. I suspect that many of the holdout Hillary voters will see the unaccomplished Palin as not worthy of carrying their candidate's pantsuit - and an even greater insult to their cause than Obama's audacity was in the primaries. Third, and most consequentially, whatever points McCain scores with independents for picking an outside-the-box outsider will most likely be squandered and trumped by the hits he takes to his integrity for making such a hypocritical choice. Every time McCain and his surrogates attack Obama's inexperience, watch Joe Biden eviscerate McCain's best argument by throwing Palin straight back in Mr. Straight Talk's face (that's not counting the VP debate, which will make Bentsen-Quayle look like a fair fight). In the process, the Obama campaign will minimize their greatest vulnerability and erode one of McCain's greatest strengths. Just ask yourself: Is it really putting your country first to put Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency? Gerstein is a political consultant and commentator based in New York and the founder of Gotham Ghostwriters.

To: microhoogle! who wrote (43051)	8/29/2008 10:03:44 PM
From: Nicholas Thompson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224704

What happened on the aircraft carrier Oriskiny in the coast off viet Nam around 1967 when a big fire broke out and McCain was summarily transferred the next day? I do not know but this should be answered . It appears the fire may have been caused by a "hot" airplane and 167 men died. Does anyone know why McCain was transferred without papers the next day?