The first reaction from the Obama campaign to John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his VP was to diss small town America. His campaign put out a statement which said in part:
Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.
There is a pattern of elitism in the Obama campaign. Remember that this is the same Barack Obama who described working-class voters as Americans who “…get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Now Obama has distanced himself from his first harsh response to the Palin pick, blaming it on a ‘hair trigger’ reaction by his staff. Ben Smith at at Politico.com reports:
At a stop in Monaca, Pa., Barack Obama seemed to distance himself from his campaign’s first, harshly critical response to the Palin pick.
“I think that, uh, you know, campaigns start getting these, uh, hair triggers and, uh, the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments,” he said, according to the pool report, apparently criticizing his staff for going overboard, as he did occasionally in the primary.
He was referring to a more gracious statement of congratulations he issued later with Biden, which he then reiterated.
Let’s see: he tells Rick Warren tough questions are “above my grade grade,” and now he is allowing senior advisers to make ‘hair trigger’ statements. Does this sound like the kind of president we want with his finger on a nuclear trigger?
Seems like Obama’s daily prayer to himself must be —
Give me this day my daily teleprompts… and deliver me from my aides and advisors and friends … I never knew them ..
Going campaigning with his hair-trigger advisors may be worse than going hunting with Dick Cheney.
I haven’t made up my mind yet. I do like Chuck Baldwin because he is the next best thing to my first choice Ron Paul. The more I look at all the issues from the candidates and what they promise, the more agnostic about a choice I become. I like a lot of who Palin is and what she represents, however I think that McCain is, like the left says, another 4 years of Bush. I think if Obama were to win or many evangelicals would vote third party it would reenergize the right and get them focus on doing what is correct for the country(which includes working with the left on issues) instead of falling in lock step with the neocons that run our country right now.
One policy of Baldwin’s that I am very clear on is this war/occupation, I posted recently on that but it got lost in the loads of posts by the moderator.
Jeff….????? What??? Are you spinning donuts in the field of distraction???
I thought you just might pick Baldwin…yet, you haven’t touted his wonderful policies…
Paul,
Well, after the tragedy of Governor Bill Clinton and Governor GWB I am not so sure a Washington outsider is what we need. We need someone who knows the system and can work with it to get things done. Both the past two leaders have promised change and fresh ideas and not the normal Washington way of doing things. Both have been disasters.
Jeff,
“Obama has been involved in politics since 1995,” but he doesn’t have ANY executive experience. You nailed it: Obama is a career politician, the kind of career politician he himself is running AGAINST.
If Obama really wants the change in Washington he touts, he himself will have to vote for McCain/Palin. The Obama/Biden ticket is inside Washington all the way and represents – as you have pointed out – two guys whose only claim to fame is the ability to get elected.
Sarah Palin brings a fresh wind of change to this campaign. She has more EXECUTIVE experience than both Obama and Biden.
Anthony
Obama doesn’t have less experience than Palin, Obama has been involved in politics since 1995.
“Does this sound like the kind of president we want with his finger on a nuclear trigger?”
Throughout this campaign Obama has shown me that he is a very thoughtful person. This comes across as indecisive, it is not. I want someone who will weight tough questions heavily.
I was thinking about this the other day in light of the preemptive tactics of our current leaders. Imagine if they had been there back when our country actually had an imminent threat during the Kennedy administration and the Bay of Pigs. I dare say our world would be much different now without the thoughtful actions of JFK. It is really tough to make any sort of claim about Obama being unprepared for critical issues for anyone who has supported and still supports GWB. This administration actually had an immanent threat once on Aug 6th 2001 in a PDB titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US”, The failed us then, they failed us into a war that had nothing to do with 9/11 and countless other times and the same people think that Obama is not ready to lead. Cooommmmoooooonnn 😉
Yeah, funny that there is SOOOO much concern about putting Palin “a heartbeat away from being Commander in Chief”, while at the same time those same concerned folks want people to VOTE for a guy LESS experience to be Commander in Chief. Unreal.