Palin Doesn’t Have It In Her
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2012 Election, History, Palin
Why?
Because she doesn’t seem to have the curiosity that America needs for a President, especially when it comes to the foreign policy matters.
James Joyner expands that lead…
Bill’s right that it’s inconceivable that she got elected and re-elected to so many offices over the years, culminating with a state governorship, by being an airhead….I saw little evidence, though, that she’s very interested in foreign policy or most issues of American domestic policy. That doesn’t make her a bad person — she’s in the same boat as most Americans on that score — but it made her a bad choice for the vice presidency.This is what Palinophiles — and, to be fair, some Palinophobes too — don’t seem to get. Palin’s problem isn’t that she’s a social conservative, or that she’s an airhead, or that she’s inexperienced. Her big problem is that prior to August 29, 2008, she quite plainly didn’t have the slightest interest in national or international policy issues of any sort. And no matter how much prepping she gets over the next four years, no matter how much better she gets at dealing with the press, no matter how much she does or doesn’t smooth off the rough edges of her social views, conservatives have to ask themselves this question: do we really want our standard bearer to be someone who didn’t become seriously interested in either domestic policy or foreign affairs until the age of 44? What does that say about how seriously we ourselves take this stuff?
I’m still stunned that we actually could have elected this person. It’s not that she’s a bad person. Far from it. Alaskans love her and it’s clear she’s a wonderful mom. But the President? There’s no way she should ever come anywhere close to holding that office. Because I agree with Joyner’s overarching sentiment that if you’re 44 and you’re not a student of history and current domestic and foreign affairs, it’s too late for you.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 and is filed under 2012 Election, History, Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Alaskans love her and it’s clear she’s a wonderful mom.
She is? Why doesn’t she send her kids to school?
This is among the weirder things about Palin and yet among the least-mentioned. Her youngest kids were everywhere on the trail instead of in school. Her oldest two are high-school dropouts.
It’s not like every affluent family has to send its kids to the Ivy League, or to college at all, but the two of them couldn’t muster the parenting skills to insist that they get through public high school. And it’s not like she’s a part-time dental assistant, she’s the bloody governor of a state–a background that most young people would kill for. Through the family’s money and her exceptional contacts, her children could have achieved a lot.
This fact escaped the entire Palin family, and four of the kids are now on target to go on to careers in retail sales. Trig may yet be the highest achiever in the family.
I’m not generally much for “character” issues, but I bristle a little when her parenting skills are brought up as a plus. If anything, they should signal a troubling detachment and poor priorities.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I definitely agree. Besides all that, her educational record shows that she was not very studious to begin with (and did not study government or history). It seems pretty clear to me that before she was selected for VP, she did not have much interest in international affairs.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:07 am
Downs babies generally have iffy immune systems. Why was that baby being carted around and exposed to all those germs like that?