Sarah Palin has been criticized for making light of the office she is now running for. Let's consider that in context. by Dave Nalle
(libertarian)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
In the brief time since Sarah Palin became the Republican Vice Presidential nominee and the number one target of the left-wing smear machine, one of the criticisms being leveled at her is that she trivialized the office of the Vice President and what the job entails in an interview about rumors she might be a candidate during an interview earlier this year.
The video of her interview with some tool from CNBC can be seen to the right. The salient quote is:
"What is it, exactly, that the VP does every day. I'm used to working very hard and being very productive in administration. We want to make sure that the VP slot would be a fruitful kind of position.
That's being presented as making fun of the Vice Presidency or minimizing its importance, or being flippant or trivializing it - basically as not taking the job seriously. But the truth is that up until the became politically convenient for some to make an issue of it, no one took the job seriously. It was given to Dan Quayle and Spiro Agnew of all people. Who in their right minds would give those two idiots a job that they thought was important.
And many experienced Vice Presidents didn't think any too highly of the job either. Consider what some of them have had to say about it:
"The vice-presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss" - VP John Nance Garner
"[The Vice Presidency] is the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." - VP John Adams
"A little over a week ago, I took a rather unusual step for a vice president...I said something." - VP Spiro T. Agnew
"Look at all the Vice Presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow's fifth teat." - VP Harry S. Truman
"The Vice Presidency is a most honorable office, but for a young man there is not much to do." - VP Theodore Roosevelt
So what Palin said about the Vice Presidency echoes almost exactly the opinions of most other Vice Presidents, including three who went on to become among our greatest Presidents. She's in pretty damned good company. Is anyone taking Teddy Roosevelt or Harry Truman to task for not taking the Vice Presidency seriously?
For a lot of Vice Presidents the job is an opportunity to learn and get more exposure and improve their political resume. At best it's a job for a president-in-training. At worst it's a job for a hatchet man or ceremonial show pony. That's the way it's been since the time of John Adams to the current moment, and that Palin should echo the opinions of those who went before her is a tribute to her sound judgment and her awareness of the history of the office.
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The Dems know Obama cannot win without misquoting, half-quoting and twisting the words of Republicans. All that guy has ever done is talk - endlessly. And worse, he only has a handful of his own rhetoric to depend on, so he even adopted Huckabee's tactic and borrowed, heavily, the words and ideology of Ron Paul. "We borrow from China to pay Saudi Arabia." Gee, at least we know Obama was a fan of the guy he helped bury.
The Dems have only quoted the "I don't know what the Vice President does" portion of her statement. I think McCain should take that entire clip from CNBC and use it as an ad.
Heck, I don't know if CNBC would agree, but McCain should buy the rights to Maria's AWESOME interview with Sarah Palin on the economy and energy independence and send it out to every home in America. That woman knows more about the economy and energy than half the economists in this country. And she speaks in a way that ordinary Americans can understand. I'd actually love to see her debate Warren Buffet - talk about losing your mind in old age!
The funniest thing was when McCain, during the Saddleback Forum, said that he believes every American is "rich" if they are happy, that he does not believe in taxing people for success and that every American should have the chance to become millionaires, because that is the American Dream. Then, obviously jokingly, he said "You want a number, fine, 5 million dollars, that is rich... I know that will be taken out of context."
The next day and every day since, Obama has said that McCain thinks 5 million dollars makes you rich. During his acceptance speech, he really spun it and said "McCain thinks that you are middle-class if you make 5 million dollars."
Now, I may hate McCain, but I will take an honest person with whom I disagree over a liar who promises me the world any day. McCain has one thing going for him: He is not a liar.
Obama is such a skillful liar, that he blows every single politician who has ever lived since the history of humankind out of the water. And that makes me very BITTER!
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