Again, I am not avoiding your questions; I am stating that they are irrelevant to my point. But I have answered them, nonetheless.

2. Google “Jimmy Carter” and “High IQ” and you will get plenty of hits. It’s well known, but remains utterly irrelevant to my question (repeated below).

I do not have to find reasons, but I will make my own opinion more explicit. My dislike for Palin is ideological and principled, and has from little to nothing to do with her intelligence, appearance, sex, race, religion, or weight. Moreover, I consider her poorly-suited in many respects for the position of President.

I will be happy to bet you any amount of your choosing that John McCain will not, in fact, “live forever.” He may live out two terms as president or he may be cut down by a right-wing extremist who is overly eager to see President Palin take office. But this is not an exercise in actuarial science. Rather, it’s a simple statement of fact to say that the Vice President should be prepared to become President immediately upon necessity.

For all the digressions, my question has been and remains as follows. What reasons does a pro-Israel self-described centrist have to be thrilled by McCain’s selection of Governor Palin at a time when her record demonstrated extremist views without any particular affinity for Israel?

Drew

While I did not find your post unkind OR impolite, my finding fault with a politician running for national office hardly places me in the same category of “public persona” as that (or any other) politician. I am merely some guy adding a comment to a blog, and being quite civil about it. I think that I have stuck to the issues here.

Moving along to your questions, I deem Governor Palin unfit to hold the office of President of the United States. And with the oldest first-term potential President in office, that becomes a real possibility.

As for which of the jobs named is more demanding, IMHO that is the wrong question. Perhaps being a brain surgeon or rocket scientist is more demanding than any of these jobs. But that does not necessarily qualify the surgeon or scientist to be President of the U.S. My comments are not, however, aimed at the experience of Governor Palin or any other candidate in the race. Rather, I am merely baffled by why a self-proclaimed centrist has become so gung-ho about defending a right-wing extremist who has demonstrated NO particular resonance with the centrist’s key issues and principles.

And this certainly is not about who is the most intelligent. Lest we forget, Jimmy Carter reportedly tested as having one of the highest IQs of any POTUS. Did that make him our best President while in office? Or is he now our best former President? Is he razor sharp and right on target wrt current foreign policy issues? I think not. Do you?

Drew

*Where I graduated 76th in a class of 85

Suddenly it is all “benefit of the doubt” for this character whose foreign policy positions can most diplomatically be described as enigmatic. Suddenly the principled stands have evaporated, and we hear that the Mayor who pushed library censorship is “live and let live.”

Before we knew much at all, and as information continues to stream in that indicates Palin has been quite manipulative, political (in the worst sense of the word), and petty, she is described as an “open book” because folks in her teeny-tiny town were aware that her teenager was pregnant.

Never mind that Palin is against contraception, sex education, and premarital sex, and pushes abstinence as the answer while her own teenager demonstrates the weakness of that policy. Never mind that her daughter’s boyfriend described himself as an f-ing redneck who never wanted kids, but is now going to be a great teenaged dad/husband in Alaska to his child … in Washington? We somehow just KNOW that Palin is a great mother and doing a tremendous job at balancing it all. She gets the benefit of the doubt, and so does her church, her theoretical foreign policy, her family, her politics, etc.

So let’s all throw away our skepticism and save the Lashon Hara to fling at those who would dare question the obviously right, er … I mean obviously correct choice for Vice President to the oldest first-term presidential candidate. Yes, a few of those folks questioning Palin may be the same nutjobs we must continually battle about Israel and the media coverage of the Matzav.

But even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and the fact that you approve of McCain’s policies and disapprove of Obama’s (for clearly articulated and supportable reasons) does not change the fact that Palin is, to be kind, unfit for the office. Nor does it change the fact that McCain showed himself (once again) to be rashly decisive, but that’s a discussion for another day. And, as I have noted a few times, I am not questioning support for McCain here; it’s the intensity of support for Palin that amazes me.

Drew

Another suggestion that she is live and let live despite her strong convictions.

LGF had this about her. In other words, she doesn’t push her beliefs on others. (I have a commenter who says she belongs to the same church as Gov. Palin, and that that’s part of the program.)