Katie: What is your favorite color Mrs. Palin? Sarah: Well, let me tell ya. It's all about the color of the sky in the morning over Alaska. But really as a maverick taking on the Good Ole Boys network I will work to provide jobs with health care for all witch hunters. Katie: (blank stare)
This is going to be the national anthem under president palin <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nE11Zrrp24I&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nE11Zrrp24I&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I'll admit she was terrible in the Couric interview, but I find it insulting that a woman whose job consists of reading stuff off a teleprompter presumes to act like she is somehow intellectually superior. As far as I know Couric doesn't have a Harvard PHD, and frnakly, I doubt she stays up nights reading articles in Foreign Affairs. But then, I'm pretty sure Reagan didn't either and he was the greatest president of my lifetime. Palin's problem is not that she's dumb. It's that she's too honest. A Biden would have rattled off a half dozen serious sounding publications he saw on the rack at the newstand, while he was under fire in Afghanistan. You look back at presidents, and I defy you to draw a correlation between intelligence and how successful they were as presidents. Two of the smartest were Nixon and Clinton. No one would say they were great presidents. One got forced out of office, the other almost did and disgraced his office in numerous ways. No one would put Reagan and Truman at the top of any list of intellectuals, and they acquitted themselves very well in office. JFK was polished but not overly bright either, and people loved him. Jimmy Carter was a brilliant, accomplished man but a terrible president. I could go on. Qualities like judgment, courage and the ability to inspire trust are far more important than mastering a lot of arcane facts. Choosing a good staff is essential. Being lucky helps a lot too.
What was so great about Reagan? The cult of personality of Reagan requires republicans to build a mausoleum since they seem to be stuck in the 80s. Reagan was an old man (possibly with Alzheimer's at the time of his presidency) who liked to talk tough, tripled the national debt in the name of "fiscal responsibility" repealed the fairness doctrine that gave rise to douchebags like Limbaugh and Hannity and cut the taxes deeply for the rich. Let's take what they say about him and compare it to reality: 1. Regan won the Cold War. Technically Soviet Union dissolved during Bush I presidency but let's take the point head on regardless. The foundation for US victory in the Cold War was laid during WWII and its aftermath. US got the nuke first(and thermonuclear weapons and neutron bomb...) which was crucial but even more importantly EVERY single major power other than US was bled dry or bombed out or both. Soviet Union was utterly devastated by WWII, USA was unscratched and better than ever. All of this meant that Soviet Union started Cold War WAY behind and other than accomplishments in certain areas (getting first man into space for example) was ALWAYS behind. Establishment of NATO and policy of containment along Marshall plan (all acomplished during Truman presidency Kennan authored that policy) were instrumental in making sure US and Western Europe would not lose the Cold War. All of this does not address the main reason why Soviet Union lost the Cold War which was that the Soviet Union had a Communistic economy that was a stillborn child and that it vastly overextended itself beyond its economy's ability to sustain such imperialistic delusions. It is said that it was because of Reagan's arms race that Soviet Union collapsed. That would be a distortion. The whole Cold War was an arms race. There were periods of superificial thawing (Detente) but insane amounts of money were spent on arms by both sides. The problem for Soviet Union was that it could no longer sustain its expenditures after 70 years of communism(and lower prices for commodities). Soviet Union got used to revenues that were artificially high as a result of the Arab OIL embargo and got itself into Afghanistan (War in Afghanistan started during Carter administration Brzezinski tricked them there) When OIL prices returned to normal levels Soviet Union got jacked up. Saying that Reagan "lowered" the oil prices is a bit silly. Saudi Arabia was interested in pumping as much oil as possible because the oil embargo clearly did not work (Soviet Union was selling a lot of oil while Arab states did nothing) In essence the situation is similar to what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela. His socialist state is on the verge of collapse and the only thing that keeps it from dying is the high price of oil. When and if Venezuela gets economically ruined it would not because of Uncle Sam's belligerence it would be because Hugo is a moron who could not keep expenses tied to the revenue. 2. Second myth address the greatness of the Reagan economy. Here too it is important to realized that Carter got screwed by the financial aftermath of the Vietnam war and the oil embargo. He never had a chance. Reagan railed against the size of government but increased its most wasteful component (the military) to insane levels, tripled the national debt and cut taxes while increasing spending. Brilliant strategy. My grandchildren's grand children will still be paying it off. Btw, I believe Soviet Union would have collapsed anyway, it is just that long term economic damage to US would be smaller. So what was "special" about Reagan. He kept saying things like Good Morning in America, Soviet Union is an evil empire Our good days are ahead of us, etc. His tough talk appealed to red necks, and general feel goodism was just what the doctor ordered after "weak" days of Carter. I personally believe that if you switched Carter and Reagan presidencies chronologically Reagan would be a miserable failure and Carter would be more successful. I am not even going to go into Iran-Contra and other crap, it is not important. P.S My favorite republican president is Eisenhower.
You are a smart man. After Eisenhower, the GOP turned into shit, and with GWB, it's turned into something that even shit looks down on.
A) dumping a VP pick would be political suicide. B) i like her. totally different. we need totally different.
'Different' is great when you're trying a new restaurant or something. I don't believe you are being intellectually honest if you like this kind of different near the nuclear football.