Bombs and Dollars – American Foreign Policy Blog – China, Afghanistan, Pakistan

The sheep on the right wing are at it again, coddling Palin once more.

I shouldn’t say “again”; they’ve been coddling Palin every day since she her epic fail last November.

The latest thing is that these people think she’s qualified to be president. Among some of the polls that have continuously come out documenting how no one thinks she’s qualified is the one by CNN showing that only 29% think she’s qualified, including a majority of Republicans.

Conservatives4Palin takes these polls to be an “attack” on her (which means that the polls showing only 45% support for Obama’s takeover of healthcare are a vicious attack and shouldn’t be taken as news). (But every writer at Conservatives4Palin feels a chill up their leg each time she does anything, so I’d say that MSNBC is a more accurate news source for Palin news–very accurate indeed.)

Now we have James V. DeLong saying that Palin’s 2 years of experience as governor make her more qualified and experienced than Lieberman with his 20 years of experience as Senator.

James DeLong in Palin and the Dysfunctional Political Class compares her to such recent and prospective candidates as George Bush, John Kerry, Lieberman, Barack Obama, John McCain and Joe Biden, all of whom have many times more experience and qualifications than her.

Let’s start with the least experienced of the bunch: B-Rock Obama. B-Rock had served in Senate for 4 years. Falin Palin had served as governor for 2 years. Governor and Senator are roughly on the same level when talking about political experience, Senators having to win a state-wide vote then govern on national issues among a body, governors having to win a state-wide vote then govern on state issues, with executive authority.

So however unqualified B-Rock is, Palin is twice as inexperienced.

Bush served a full term as governor before running. McCain, Lieberman, Kerry and Biden all have decades of experience in Senate, Lieberman being the least experienced among them, having taken office in 1989. His six years as Attorney General of Connecticut itself are three times as much as Palin has had as governor.

DeLong says that Lieberman is one of the few qualified candidates among the list, but he notes that Palin’s executive experience gives her supremacy.

Right, two years as an executive who couldn’t take the heat outweights 20 years as a Senator. By this calculus, being governor is at least 10 times more valuable as experience than being Senator, while Senators actually make judgments on national issues.

Palin’s ignorance on any issue outside of drilling is evident in her response to Katie Couric’s question about bailouts:

“Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy– Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.”

Conservatives4Palin says that Palin has a “willingness to lead under fire,” but no one mentioned thus far has more of such willingness than Lieberman who first bucked his party in support of national security, supporting the War against terrorism, endorsing John McCain at the Republican National Convention, almost costing himself a leadership position, and now threatening filibuster against the job-killing, freedom killing, “baby-killing”–as Palin would have it–government takeover of healthcare.

(Cons4Palin then goes on to say some stuff about how being against ObamaCare and abortion is kind of like tearing down the Berlin Wall.)

The Cons there were linking to Doctor Zero’s article on Hot Air’s Greenroom, wherein Dr. Zero makes the absurd argument that Palin is qualified.

Early on Zero refers to Palin as a “private citizen,” as if that is supposed to protect her from attacks. I suppose if she was a private citizen, that would be true, but seeing as Mr. Zero thinks speaks praisingly of her in her constant political campaign, I would have to question why Zero thinks a private citizen with no qualifications is qualified for president?

Someone who gives speeches at pro-life rallies on the day of the ObamaCare voting, slamming ObamaCare as euthanasia, who endorses candidates with power (NY-23), who was a VP candidate last year and earlier this year was a real politician, is not a “private citizen” but a politico.

Some people have called Rush Limbaugh a private citizen, too, and anyone who the insane liberals attack, but if that is true than conservatives should stop attacking private citizens like Keith Olbermann, Roland Martin, Katie Couric, Chrissie Matthews and David Frum.

Anyway, Zero says the polls that continue to confirm Palin is an unqualified buffoon are not important because she isn’t really in presidential campaign mode yet.

This is an important point, because poll numbers never change, especially for private citizens (politicos whose attacks on the ObamaCare bill as a “death panel” make the headlines everywhere) who haven’t declared any intention to run for office, three years before the elections.

(The insertion in parenthesis was my own, obviously.)

The public already saw her spew her nonsense to Katie Couric, about how bailouts were going to help healthcare, and similarly to others, and she hasn’t done anything since then to change her tone or improve her knowledge of the issues, so her public perception won’t change.

As noted, she still has the same ignorant personality, and furthermore, even if she did change, she wouldn’t change the public’s perception much, because first impressions (especially extreme ones) leave a lasting impact.

Palin has developed a base of followers who will praise her by calling her “one of us,” a common person, a hockey mom, and all the rest, none of which has anything to do with the issues.

They will say, Oh, the media’s trying to bring her down (not that the media was the one of said that the bailout helps out with healthcare), but the fact that the media did hurt her so much is just more evidence that she’s unqualified as a candidate. Candidates, you must remember, are responsible for controlling their image, and if you can’t control your image, you can’t get elected. I’d challenge one person to tell me that Palin did a good job of controlling her image last year. These people are complaining that her image is bad because of the media, so obviously she didn’t control her image.

Zero Zero Zero notes that her qualifications are more than academic, though:

Palin’s qualifications are not merely academic. She’s been a lonely pair of boots on the ground…

Oh, is that an understatement. How bout, “Her qualifications aren’t academic at all.”

Yes, she does have lots of sway as a conservative activist. As noted, she has become a pity fetish, a messiah, to her unthinking followers, having been hung on the cross by the media, replacing Jesus in the conservative Christians’ mind.

That she has succeeded as a conservative activist is not a qualification for president but a qualification for conservative activist. Presidents are asked by the American people to take on tough policy issues and do so in a “bipartisan” nature (however well they actually do so, or however much “bipartisanship” is actually liked by Americans, it is at least a campaign issue that people support in theory). Being a conservative activist necessarily takes away your bipartisan image.

Moreover, activists don’t engage in policy, they engage in politics. Saying, we want Hoffman in NY-23 not Scozapalooza is not the same as coming up with a solution to balance the budget and eliminate entitlements.

Palin has no qualifications after half a term as governor yet these people will point out any number of ghost qualifications (never actually referring to things she has done, just things she has said) because they think that just getting attacked by the media is a qualification.

If she gives a good speech, she’s just as qualified as B-Rock.