The McCain Problem
"Above all, the John McCain I covered in 1999-2000 was -- he said -- convinced that two factors were undermining the interests of the United States: its cultural wars, causing political gridlock in Washington and civic discontent across the land; and the unbending agenda of the right-wing of the Republican party that, in his view, had been captured by the Christian conservative movement and bore disproportionate responsibility for the poisonous state of American politics."
-Carl Bernstein
The internal culture wars in American politics are weakening the American experience at home and abroad. Palin represents McCains willingness to go the way of Karl Rove and leave his Maverick brand in shatters.
Remember what McCain said about the same people who identify with Palin? He stated,
"Governor Bush is a Pat Robertson Republican...political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value. The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country. Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right. We are the party of Ronald Reagan, not Pat Robertson. We are the party of Theodore Roosevelt, not the party of special interests.We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, not of Bob Jones...we will be a party as big as the country we serve."
The Palin pick is a direct contradiction to the McCain of those days. Instead of a party as big as the country it is as small as the faction it serves.
"Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory.
Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true."
-Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek International
Matt Damon expressed his deep concerns about the Palin pick that more people are coming to grips with...
"She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.”
-David Brooks
-Carl Bernstein
The internal culture wars in American politics are weakening the American experience at home and abroad. Palin represents McCains willingness to go the way of Karl Rove and leave his Maverick brand in shatters.
Remember what McCain said about the same people who identify with Palin? He stated,
"Governor Bush is a Pat Robertson Republican...political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value. The political tactics of division and slander are not our values, they are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country. Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right. We are the party of Ronald Reagan, not Pat Robertson. We are the party of Theodore Roosevelt, not the party of special interests.We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, not of Bob Jones...we will be a party as big as the country we serve."
The Palin pick is a direct contradiction to the McCain of those days. Instead of a party as big as the country it is as small as the faction it serves.
"Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory.
Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true."
-Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek International
Matt Damon expressed his deep concerns about the Palin pick that more people are coming to grips with...
"She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.”
-David Brooks
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