Zakaria : Palin Should Leave Ticket

Sarah Palin has lasted about two weeks longer than I thought she would. Recent weeks have seen considerable divisions among conservatives about her qualifications. Partisan politicians and a few ideologues hail her praises. For many of the right wing intellectuals, Palin is John McCain's Harriett Meyers. Finally, with the help of Katie Couric and Tina Fey, the illegitimacy of this candicacy is exposed further by Fareed Zakaria should mean that her days are numbered. Is is really possible that she will survive the Veep debate?

The McCain candidacy reveals over and over again the bankruptcy of conservatism and the Republican label. It's not only McCain who tries to hide from being a Republican. Democrats in Oregon are has taken Republican to court to force them to display their party label. See Rossi Campaign

The polls seem to show the race to be close and it may be. However, it is clear that Barack Obama is the superior candidate for the American people. Even so, there is considerable concern and, among some downright pessimism, that white America will elect a black man president of the U.S. At issue is whether or not for many whites their racism will trump their intelligence, their self-interests. Not only is McCain running away from being a Republican, he is so desparate that his candidacy is losing all of its coherence. The Palin selection is just a recent example of the wheels coming off.

While the skeptics and naysayers remain, Barack's historic break throughs -- winning in Iowa, winning the nomination in competition with the most powerful name in the Democratic party, historic voter registration drives, record-breaking fundraising, and his winning the foreign relations debate -- all demonstrate America's readiness for his message of change.

While I may be proven wrong, of course, there is reason to remain optimistic that Obama will not only win, but will win by a landslide. My 50-state victory might be a bit over the top, the McCain campaign and the Republicans continue to bolster the possibility. As problematic as the "investment" bill may have been, it was defeated for the very reason that we are in this mess to begin with. The Republican opposition wants more deregulated unfettered free market capitalism!!

Congressman Darrel Issa of California said the "investment bill" spelled the end of "the Reagan Revolution." For very different reasons he is correct. It's not the so-called bailout that spells the end of the Reagan revolution. That the nation is on the brink economic disaster is a direct result of a mentality and ideology that the government is the problem. The irresponsility of the Republiicans make just make the 50 state goal a possibility.

The brink of economic disaster spells doom for the Republicans. As Pat Buchanan has admitted, the Republicans face as disaster. The debacle of Sarah Palin being the candidate for Vice President is nothing more than a wreck on its way to happen. RGN

FAREED ZAKARIA
Editor of Newsweek International, columnist
PostGlobal co-moderator Fareed Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International

Palin Is Ready? Please.

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where--where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to--to our state."

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. "It is from Alaska that we send out those ..." What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. ("We mustn't blink.") But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.

Couric asked her a smart question about the proposed $700 billion bailout of the American financial sector. It was designed to see if Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and liquidity in the financial system has dried up, and that that's why, in the estimation of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the government needs to step in to buy up Wall Street's most toxic liabilities. Here's the entire exchange:

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the--it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

This is nonsense--a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head. Some commentators, like CNN's Campbell Brown, have argued that it's sexist to keep Sarah Palin under wraps, as if she were a delicate flower who might wilt under the bright lights of the modern media. But the more Palin talks, the more we see that it may not be sexism but common sense that's causing the McCain campaign to treat her like a time bomb.

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. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.

Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless curtailed, will bankrupt the federal government. Social Security, immigration, collapsing infrastructure and education are all going to get much worse if they are not handled soon.

And the American government is stretched to the limit. Between the Bush tax cuts, homeland-security needs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the bailout, the budget is looking bleak. Plus, within a few years, the retirement of the baby boomers begins with its massive and rising costs (in the trillions).

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.

POSTED BY FAREED ZAKARIA ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2008 10:56 PM