Roundup: Palin’s first days on the campaign trail
By Josh Richman
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm in Elections, General, John McCain, Republican Party, Sarah Palin.
Wow. What a first few days for Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate:
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She has hired a personal lawyer to represent her in the Alaksa Legislature’s investigation of whether she abused her powers by pressuring a cabinet member – whom she later fired – to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a nasty divorce with her sister.
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She quashed rumors that her son, born in April with Down Syndrome, is actually her 17-year-old daughter’s son by revealing that her daughter is pregnant now.
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Her husband for years was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, which wants to call a vote on having the state secede from the United States.
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Though a crusader against political pork-barrel spending now, she had no problem a few years back hiring a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for the town of 6,700 where she was mayor. Also, she apparently was for that famous “bridge to nowhere” before she was against it.
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And questions remain about her experience in foreign policy and military matters should she be required to step into the Oval Office in John McCain’s place (or even to confer with and advise McCain in times of crisis.) The campaign has argued that Alaska’s proximity to Russia and Palin’s status as commander-in-chief of Alaska’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard demonstrate her experience.
Yet former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who chairs the Republican National Committee’s RNC Victory 2008 effort and so has been a prominent proxy for McCain, today implied questions about Palin’s experience are somehow off-limits:
“The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a Mayor and Governor than Barack Obama has made in his life. Because of Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the Presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms. They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Governor Palin.”
Is “keep drawing the fouls” the whole strategy behind the Palin pick? I’d guess her speech to the Republican National Convention tomorrow night will have a very large television viewing audience.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Yup - I’d place high value on Carly’s thoughts -
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America, is leaving the troubled computer maker after being forced out by the company’s board.
Shares of HP (Research) jumped 6.9 percent in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday on the news. But at one point, the stock was up as much as 10.5 percent.
“The stock is up a bit on the fact that nobody liked Carly’s leadership all that much,” said Robert Cihra, an analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners. “The Street had lost all faith in her and the market’s hope is that anyone will be better.”
Fiorina, the only female CEO at a company in the Dow Jones industrial average, had been with HP since 1999. But the company’s controversial deal to buy Compaq in the spring of 2002 — after a bruising proxy fight led by one of the Hewlett family heirs — has not produced the shareholder returns or profits she had promised
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I really have a tough time with the PROCESS of selection as seemingly exhibited by John McCain.
This was by all assessments I’ve seen tonight a “crap shoot” - by our future PRESIDENT.
This is probably one of the most important decisions a prospective President can make - and everyone is in agreement that it was made quickly, is routinely accepted as “risky”, and made with little in the way of discussions between the two. . . . .
There’s a time and place for a “crapshoot” - when, for example, the relative risks are minimal - But selection of a Vice Presidential running mate should garner some strong review and consideration. . . . which was lacking in this case.
The prospective Presidents’ first, and one of his most important, decisions was made in too much haste in my opinion.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I am so surprised that no one brings up the fact that being mayor of such a small town is a part time position.
There is no way when she was on the council or was the mayor that she was putting in a 40 hour work week.
She has only been working full time the 20 months she has been the governor.