Sarah Palin to resign as Governor of Alaska

Started by Avi, July 03, 2009, 05:25:18 PM

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Jude

I too used to think that MSNBC wasn't as bad as Fox.  The worst commentator they used to have for bias was Keith Obermann, and I can tolerate him well enough until he starts doing his insulting impressions of people (which are completely unnecessary).  But Ed Schultz absolutely boils my blood with the degree of slant he puts on things.  Since they put him up there I think they've reached Fox levels on commentators.

But as a whole the Network probably isn't as biased towards the left as fox is towards the right, I mean at least MSNBC actually has a right-winger with a successful show and a big personality on it (Joe Scarborough).  The only lefties on Fox are ineffectual punching bags for the predatory right, they exist only to make the right look better.

OldSchoolGamer

I don't think the Left or Right have much of value to offer us during the incipient energy crisis (said crisis being at the root of most of the political and economic problems we face).

Palin certainly has nothing of worth to add to the discourse.  Her "drill baby drill" was just a sound-bite, right-wing version of the bailout ideology of pretending we're still in the 20th century and any energy shortage can be alleviated by drilling more holes, just like any "money shortage" can be solved by printing more money.

The problems we face today are not of distribution of wealth and industrial policy (which is what the Left and Right exist to perpetually quarrel over) , but rather one of resource finity.  And Sarah Palin is even less intellectually equipped to deal with this than the average politician, which is rather dismal.

CWand

the real solution would be alternative energy sources like wind, hydroelectric, and solar power although solar power does run out of energy after a few decades/centuries depending on the exact nature of the panels that absorb the sunlight from what i understand. since the atoms can only donate so much before they 'spend' their energy. and the plates/cells become useless.  On that foundation we could use electric cars, or hydrogen powered cars, and alot of our economy could be converted over to use non-fossil fuels.  it doesn't solve all our problems but it would solve some.  The drilling only creates a short term solution.
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The Overlord

Quote from: CWand on July 05, 2009, 08:23:11 PM
The drilling only creates a short term solution.

What it would do is buy us time. The question is, are we intelligent and wise enough to use it correctly?

TheVillain

Quote from: RandomNumber on July 05, 2009, 07:54:47 PM
I too used to think that MSNBC wasn't as bad as Fox.  The worst commentator they used to have for bias was Keith Obermann, and I can tolerate him well enough until he starts doing his insulting impressions of people (which are completely unnecessary).  But Ed Schultz absolutely boils my blood with the degree of slant he puts on things.  Since they put him up there I think they've reached Fox levels on commentators.

But as a whole the Network probably isn't as biased towards the left as fox is towards the right, I mean at least MSNBC actually has a right-winger with a successful show and a big personality on it (Joe Scarborough).  The only lefties on Fox are ineffectual punching bags for the predatory right, they exist only to make the right look better.

I agree that Ed Schultz is a dick. I respectfully disagree that his left-slanted douchebaggery reaches Fox-worthy proportions, but I do agree that he's a jerk. So, once again, I disagree with a fine point enough to feel it's worthy of mention but agree with tone and overall point.

Okay, one of us has to stop being reasonable. This is the internet after all, it's supposed to be flamewars, idiots, and pornography.
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Paradox

Quote from: TheVillain on July 05, 2009, 09:26:26 PM


Okay, one of us has to stop being reasonable. This is the internet after all, it's supposed to be flamewars, idiots, and pornography.

Then start debating the merits of Palin in skimpy swimwear. Opinions are sure to be divided!


"More than ever, the creation of the ridiculous is almost impossible because of the competition it receives from reality."-Robert A. Baker

Sabby

What about Palin in Merceneries 2: World in Flames?

Oniya

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TheVillain

Somehow I doubt Michael Palin would look very good in skimpy swimwear.
My O/O's / My A/A's / My Ideas
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Oniya

Much better in 'pepperpot' than in skimpy swimwear, I'm sure.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Kurzyk

Reminds me of something John Cleese said regarding Sarah Palin. He thought Michael Palin was the funniest Palin on the planet but not anymore.

Brandon

Gonna drag this thread back on track for a moment. I dont usually respond in here because well I hate politics but I do want to point something out about her career so far. She was elected in 2006 so shes held office for about 3 years now with that in mind, lets take a look at her approval rating over the years. The first percent here is the percentage of people that believed she was doing a good job, the second is the percentage of people that believed she was doing a bad job as govenor.

May 30, 2007 89%  ?
June 21, 2007 93%  ?
November 4, 2007 83% 11%
April 10, 2008 73% 7%
May 17, 2008 69% 9%
August 29, 2008 64% 14%
October 7, 2008 63% 37%
March 24-25, 2009 59.8% 34.9%
May 5, 2009 54% 41.6%

Now I got these numbers from Wikipedia and they corrisponde with many news reports about her over the years. You will notice that her approval rating first starts dropping dramatically in November 2008, this was the same time in which the Troopergate thing happened. Her approval rating continued to fall during the election and still does during the media feeding frenzy up till she decided to resign.

In my research I found that a lot of the complaints that were documented (Ill say 75% or more of them) were not because of the job she was doing in alaska but because of what was said or done during the Troopergate investigation or presidential election. That said, what I see here is bias of people and people allowing their anger effect a fair judging on the job that she was doing. Perhaps Im wrong, perhaps her performance as a govenor acctually went downhill but I highly doubt that the constant spiral of her approval rating dropping at exactly the same times as Troopergate and the presidential election is a just coincidence.

The reason why I quote this is before she came out of obscurity she had an 80+% approval rating. There were points where she even in the 90+% range and thats just amazing to me. You dont gain an 80+ approval rating if you arent doing something right, hell you dont even get a 50% most of the time unless your doing a lot of things right. She's never fallen below 50% her whole carreer and from my point of view thats something all govenors should aspire to.

It makes me feel sorry for the citizen's of alaska because it seemed like she was doing the right thing for her state. The media and by extension the public have hounded her to a point where she cant do her job anymore. Whether for the good of her state or herself she cant make a decision without an entire nation second guessing her and I personally dont think thats fair. When she was up for election as the Vice President I think it was fair for anyone to speak up but when it comes to just Alaska, guess what? Most of us are not voters there so we dont get a say. Just like how the people in Europe dont get to vote on things that effect our country.

Maybe I made sense here, I kind of doubt it, but maybe people can see what I see through the bias, media feeding frenzy, and political bullshit.
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Jude

#62
Quote from: TheVillainI agree that Ed Schultz is a dick. I respectfully disagree that his left-slanted douchebaggery reaches Fox-worthy proportions, but I do agree that he's a jerk. So, once again, I disagree with a fine point enough to feel it's worthy of mention but agree with tone and overall point.

Okay, one of us has to stop being reasonable. This is the internet after all, it's supposed to be flamewars, idiots, and pornography.
Schultz certainly isn't as bad as Hannity, I'll grant you that.  I'm not even sure if he's as bad as O'Reilly honestly.  I just think he's in the same camp as the crazy fox commentators.  I see similar tactics and attitude.  But it is always funny when he says something crazy during his psychotalk segment.  One guy over at MSNBC I honestly do think is pretty centrist in his coverage is Chris Matthews (ironic, since he's actually had the opportunity to become a Democrat officially), but I don't think he gets credit for being as level-headed as he is.  I know Laura Ingram loves to take unfair potshots at the guy.

One thing that's really amusing about Fox in my city is that they claim they're fair and balanced, etc.  And yet they are officially partnered (in every capacity) with the ultra-conservative talk radio station in my town.  So if there was any doubt before...

I could really get over Fox's bias if they'd just admit they have it.  That's the only thing that pisses me off about them anymore.  Reporting from an ideological slant is fine, but when you claim you don't when you obviously do, you give ammo to the "liberal media" argument (which is insane by the way) that nearly every Republican in the country takes on faith.  I guess it's not surprising that the Republicans are convinced the channel which almost directly spouts their views is "fair."

And don't worry I'm sure we'll find something to violently disagree on eventually :P

Quote from: Brandon on July 05, 2009, 11:14:41 PM
The reason why I quote this is before she came out of obscurity she had an 80+% approval rating. There were points where she even in the 90+% range and thats just amazing to me. You dont gain an 80+ approval rating if you arent doing something right, hell you dont even get a 50% most of the time unless your doing a lot of things right. She's never fallen below 50% her whole carreer and from my point of view thats something all govenors should aspire to.
It's possible to have a 90% plus approval rating and still be making mistakes.  It could be that you're charismatic, saying and doing things that makes people happy, but they haven't seen the logical conclusion of things.  I gotta say that where I think Sarah Palin was.  Before the recent round of things she actually did seem like a decent candidate, especially from an Alaskan's point of view.  She was known as a watchdog up there for reporting a member of her own party for corruption.  And when she was actually in office she was giving out checks to the people of Alaska.

Then the election came and they all got a hard and fast look at how she feels about the entire United States.  Couple that with the inevitable failure of her policies, the myriad of scandals not related to trooper gate you failed to mention (like the controversy over pipeline bidding), plus all of the rest of the stuff I've mentioned.  I think she was good at winking and shutting up until the election.  Then she saw a chance to become VP, pulled out all of the stops, and destroyed her governorship by playing too hard.

Quote from: Brandon on July 05, 2009, 11:14:41 PMIt makes me feel sorry for the citizen's of alaska because it seemed like she was doing the right thing for her state. The media and by extension the public have hounded her to a point where she cant do her job anymore. Whether for the good of her state or herself she cant make a decision without an entire nation second guessing her and I personally dont think thats fair. When she was up for election as the Vice President I think it was fair for anyone to speak up but when it comes to just Alaska, guess what? Most of us are not voters there so we dont get a say. Just like how the people in Europe dont get to vote on things that effect our country.
You do realize she kept feeding the media frenzy, right?  She kept herself in the spotlight purposely by constantly going to speaking engagements, having personal sit downs with the media, and other high profile actions.  Of course she remained in the national spotlight, but it wasn't unwanted, she really thought she could handle it (and by many's account she has).  I don't think her quitting has anything to do with the media at all.  If she wanted them to leave her alone, all she had to do was stop appearing on their shows or flying out to the "lower 49" to give speeches about her crazy brand of conservatism.  Shutting up isn't that hard.

Quote from: Brandon on July 05, 2009, 11:14:41 PMMaybe I made sense here, I kind of doubt it, but maybe people can see what I see through the bias, media feeding frenzy, and political bullshit.
I think you craft a decent argument, but it's kinda hard to feel sorry for the woman, because even if she is a victim like you claim (which I doubt to the nth degree) she's been in the driver's seat all along.  It was her attitude and rhetoric during the campaign that torpedoed McCain's chances of winning, then she has the nerve to start an media image makeover and grab power in the Republican party (by attending C-Pak among other things), she's even sent her daughter around campaigning on abstinence.  And if you don't think Sarah's behind that, watch the first interview where her daughter actually admits she isn't for abstinence only, suddenly she 180s and starts touting mommy's position?

She's gearing up for a larger position of authority in this country.  The sad thing is she might have a decent bid at all if people's attention spans are short and they fall for her "boo hoo poor me" bullshit.  The David Letterman thing was ridiculous, and in that light this particular event isn't anything special either.  She's always looking for sympathy and attention to round out her hopes of running for higher office.

Inkidu

I think she's just been put through the political strainer and has had enough of it.
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Will

I'm really hoping that's the case!  But, with how vocal she's been lately, I really believe she's aiming higher. :-(
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kylie

#65
Quote from: Brandon on July 05, 2009, 11:14:41 PM
In my research I found that a lot of the complaints that were documented (Ill say 75% or more of them) were not because of the job she was doing in alaska but because of what was said or done during the Troopergate investigation or presidential election...
...
It makes me feel sorry for the citizen's of alaska because it seemed like she was doing the right thing for her state.

     I'm not sure which complaints you gathered exactly, but there are obvious complications to this idea.  Troopergate was about the Alaska Public Safety Commission and Palin's actions in capacity as governor.  Several other matters publicized during the presidential race, such as the "bridge to nowhere" and her positions on oil and the environment, have also been very much about the Alaska experience.  While it is not unknown for there to be some distortion of the record in a national campaign, I haven't heard anything to suggest Palin's record has been grossly misrepresented to produce false negatives.   

Quote from: BrandonYou dont gain an 80+ approval rating if you arent doing something right, hell you dont even get a 50% most of the time unless your doing a lot of things right.
If the people of Alaska are paying attention --as your explanation for why they would give her positive numbers would imply they must be... then they shouldn't be easily fooled by some press smoke and mirrors anyway.  Unless you simply believe people automatically judge her performance based on what the strongest media outlet or more successful candidate's campaign on the subject says.  If the polls were driven that way, then her high ratings earlier could also be a response to state media and her own PR apparatus, and not a reflection of her performance.

     I tend to agree with Random's post.  You can have high ratings and actually have serious issues.  It's also possible that the scrutiny generated by the presidential campaign simply brought the issues to people's attention, drew closer research, etc.  Or that some festering problems actually came to a boil during that time.   You could still be right in one sense:  Perhaps, for a while it seemed she was doing some things right.  There are plenty of cases of ill-thought (or deceptively marketed) "best intentions" and moral causes, initially popular but disastrous misadventures under charismatic leaders, and generally policies that feel cozy in the short run but haunt us later.       

     

Serephino

I think when she was just the Governor of a sparsley populated state she had her head screwed on straight, for the most part anyway.  As others have pointed out, she made a few mistakes, but I guess people were willing to overlook the mistakes if she was doing good things too.

During the Presidential Campaign she made herself look like an idiot.  I saw actual footage of her calling President Obama a terrorist...  That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my entire life.  Also, I don't know if this is true or not because I didn't pay much attention to her after the first few weeks, but I heard when they were making fun of her on SNL, they didn't change her speeches at all.  Tina Fey did them exactly as she did, with maybe a few parts exaggerated. 

The debates I did watch she did ignore the question asked and started rambling about the economy and terrorism and such.  It was clear she had no clue what she was talking about half the time, but she thought she did. 

As far as the media, she invited reporters into her home to do interviews.  She whined that she was made the scape goat for McCain's  failure, and she was bullied and forced to act the way she did....  I didn't buy any of it. 

My gut tells me that she isn't through with the spotlight.  It's been confirmed she has a book deal.  Most likely having to continue to be a Governor was holding her back, so she quit so she could stay in the spotlight without having to deal with Alaska.  Of course that's my opinion...  Still, I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of her.