Sarah Palin In 2012? Not So Fast

There are those within the Republican Party who are ready to anoint Sarah Palin as the chosen one for their hopes in the 2012 Presidential Election. Others are less certain than ever about her fitness to lead the country. So which group is right?

Put simply…both.

With the release of “Going Rogue”, Palin’s memoir that’s as much an attack on the McCain Campaign staff as it is a look behind the curtain at their run for the White House, many are calling into question just who’s telling the truth in this war of words. Front and center is McCain Campaign Manager Nicolle Wallace who told MSNBC in a statement, Palin’s book is “based on fabrications”.

For her part, Mrs. Palin is claiming that the campaign set her up for numerous falls, including the now infamous interview with CBS Anchor Katie Couric that she says was given to Couric by Wallace because she felt Couric needed “a career boost” due to low self esteem. Wallace denies the interview was any sort of favor and says “…Katie Couric was selected because we did evening anchors … I did not advocate an interview for anyone I am friends with.”

Palin is pictured on this week’s cover of Newsweek in shorts and an unflattering headline, a picture she says was taken for a feature article in a runner’s magazine.

The issue here seems to be one of both credibility and character as well as competence. If Palin is factual in her account of events in her book, she could easily be labeled as vindictive against members of McCain’s Campaign staff, not exactly a quality many people would say is something they want in a President.

On the other hand, if Wallace and others who have seriously questioned Palin’s accounts or claimed outright lying by the former Vice Presidential candidate and Governor are right, Palin is at best deceptive or painting a fictional portrait of the events. Also not a quality endearing to voters.

Still, Mrs. Palin WAS a candidate for the Vice Presidency and has a following that’s hard to deny. That experience takes the once green former Governor and makes her a more viable option than she was in 2008.

The current administration’s policies remain uncertain but so do the 3 years before voters go to the polls for another Presidential election. Time will tell whether this enhances or diminishes Mrs. Palin.

One thing seems certain; for now, she is a force to be reckoned with, positively or otherwise.

We Get The Government We Choose

Yesterday, in many cities including mine, it was election day. I didn’t bother to pay attention to the county initiatives or candidates that were on the ballot and, consequently didn’t even remember to cast a ballot. It would have been a bad ballot full of uninformed choices even if I had taken the time.

This is NO excuse and just plain pathetic!

I am, as most who know me, VERY quick to gripe about political issues and the politicians in office but when the chance came to make my voice and choices heard, I didn’t bother to participate in the process.

The moral of this short story…we get the government we choose. If we all stood up on election day EVERY time our leaders come up for re-election and their policies come before us for consideration and vote, we could MONUMENTALLY change the course of the people and policies that I and others complain about. We can’t govern the nation but we can CERTAINLY influence the direction and hold those who do accountable for their decisions.

To put it more bluntly, Democracy is possibly the ULTIMATE game of “put up or shut up”; I don’t have any right to complain about anything or anyone who got elected, ousted, passed or defeated yesterday unless I exercised my right to make my voice heard.

Am I saying that my vote can change the course of politics and our government? Who knows? What I DO know is that enough of us take the time to cast our ballots and participate in this Democracy more actively, we won’t have to sit back and accept sub-par government and politicians. One man rarely changes the world but empires have been built and leveled by armies of them.

For my part, I’m going to commit to paying closer attention to the issues and making sure that NEXT time and every successive chance I get, I will NOT let my apathy get the better of me!

Politics is rarely a fun game but it’s one that we ALL must play and if enough of us make the effort, it’s one that we just may win!

OBAMA RECIEVES NOBEL FOR 12 DAYS

Last week, President Barrack Obama became a Nobel Laureate when the five member committee in Oslo awarded him the world’s formerly most prestigious prize for World peace and substantive accomplishment.

What was Obama’s contribution to the World that warranted this “honor”?

He served as President of the United States for 12 days.

That’s right, the President’s first 12 days in office represented his ENTIRE elligibility period for Nobel consideration. Nothing he has done (and that’s not much) since could be considered by the esteemed committee in Oslo.

So what exactly did President Obama do during those 12 days to warrant an award usually given for a lifetime of work or a monumental change for the good of mankind?

He showed up.

In statements following this disgraceful mockery of their own prize, members of the committee stated that President Obama had restored a climate of positive change and renewed security that was lacking in the unilateral military actions taken by President George W. Bush in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks against this Nation.

So Obama gets the Nobel for NOT being President George W. Bush? That seems to be a large part of the criteria, as speculated by David Greggory, Moderator of NBC’s “Meet The Press” in the video below:

Despite the facts that President Obama didn’t have his rival, Senator Hilary Clinton confirmed as Secretary Of State, hadn’t made his first international trip, to Canada, hadn’t met with a single foreign leader or addressed the UN General Assembly, he apparently achieved such monumental future potential that he “earned” the Nobel Peace Prize. This is like giving a quarterback the Super Bowl MVP trophy before the end of training camp because, someday, he will accomplish amazing feats in the championship, if his team wins the playoffs, makes it to the game and wins it.

To say that the Nobel Peace Prize lost its significance and importance last week is hardly a stretch. I feel genuinely bad for this years other winners because they have been overshadowed by a purely political sham that detracts from their lifetimes of work and GENUINE accomplishments in their respective fields.

To be fair, the President didn’t feel he deserved the award either and stated so publicly but he still intends to pick it up in December as “an affirmation” and a reminder of the job ahead…as if an ongoing recession and millions of Americans losing jobs and health care isn’t sufficient to show him what needs to be done.

The simple fact is that the five members of the Nobel Committee either hated President George W. Bush enough to flip him the bird with their “prize” or they like the ideal of President Obama enough to award him an undeserved award based on potential accomplishments.

Either way, the Nobel is not a prize anymore…it’s a trinket or a political statement and not a very shiny one anymore.