I don’t know if you are following the race for the White House in the US, but I am very concerned about the outcome. Why? Because it affects me and my children.
Despite the influence that Asia is having on the rest of the world and how China will most certainly be the economic “centre of the universe”, we must assume that the US will remain a big influence on our markets. Whether it’s about market fundamentals or just the sentiment of investors, that’s the way it’s going to work for at least a couple of decades.
A good number of Americans have expressed that they wish to vote for NEITHER Barack Obama nor John McCain. And that is fair enough – you are entitled to your feelings.
I would like you to reconsider your decision NOT to vote.
Can you really risk Sarah Palin becoming the President of the USA?
As the vice-presidential candidate of McCain, this is the woman who will occupy the oval office if McCain, a 72-year-old man whose father died of a heart attack at the age of 70 and who is also a cancer survivor is unable to perform his duties. To me this is tantamount to planning a picnic on a weekend with 40% chance of rain.
So why NOT Palin?
At THIS point in time, I’m going to say she is not ready for the job. Some would argue that neither is Obama. But here’s what I think the big difference is – I think he’s actually done the home work necessary for this sort of gig. I hate to put it down to this, but shouldn’t general knowledge be a requirement to be in government?
Not enough to win Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, but enough to answer some pretty basic questions about your own party and if not those then some even more basic questions on what you read to stay current with the news. I would urge you to watch the videos of Palin in action to see what I mean.
I also don’t like that she is a bold faced liar.
She has been saying that the recent independent report on “troopergate” as it’s being referred to completely exonerates her “both legally and ethically”. The only problem is, the report does no such thing. It actually says that she DID abuse her power in the firing of a subordinate who refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law. It did say that she had not broken the law, but HAD broken ETHICAL rules.
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Hi Joe,
I saw on FB that you were bummed at not getting any comments to your article re: Palin as (potential) US President.
Firstly, I will address your comment that China is (or might be) the economic center of the universe in the decades ahead: I agree with this assessment only in the context of the global economy circa. Aug 2008. Given the plunge in consumer confidence, the freeze on credit, and recession since then, I’d argue that China will feel the brunt of these market changes, and not in a good way. Already, Chinese-made products – both food stuff and material – are under intense scrutiny due to repeated quality-control issues. Mix that environment with what we are dealing with now and I predict a precipitous drop in Chinese exports, a run of bankruptcies and factory closures there, and a bunch of over-extended folks who gambled on a future that is no longer there. So, in brief, I think it much more likely that a so-called ‘first world’ conglomeration (such as the USA or the EU) with it’s commitment to pumping cash into their financial and economic institutions will emerge from this situation stronger, healthier and more economically competitive then a China that lacks the simplest of consumer regulations to protect its product.
Now, on to the US presidential race: I can understand folks (republicans/conservatives, I’d guess) who feel they don’t want to vote for either candidate. After all, even if the guy in my normal bracket were constitutionally unfit for the issues facing my world, and his running mate was a moronically-underprepared side-kick, It would stick in my craw to vote for a guy who represents the opposition that I’ve demonized for so many years. That I can understand.
The problem (one of them) in the States, and this is true especially in the last 20 years, is that the power of politics has ostracized disagreement, forcing the line of compromise so far apart that only the most pollyanna-ish person would believe true accomodation can ever happen there again.
It started with ‘Willie Horton’ in the ‘88 campaign, continued with the ‘Republican revolution’ of ‘92 and the subsequent impeachment hearings, and ultimately found it true, pure and unsullied greatness with 8 years of the Bush administration. From just about every analysis of the Bush years it is clear that the goal for that administration has been to make the Judiciary and Legislative branches subservient to the Executive, to control mainstream media by demonizing it, and to align the electoral map of the USA in such a way that elections would become easier and easier for the ruling party to control.
And we (Americans) let this happen. We sat back as we allowed our civil liberties (ones committed to paper in the first amendment of our most precious document, The Constitution of the United States of America) to be curtails, then restricted, and finally open for whole-sale adjustment at the whim of the President. We did nothing when it became clear that our President’s administration had taken us into a war using propaganda, lies and intimidation to stifle debate (for some perspective on this, we impeached a President for lying on a deposition about a one-on-one act, that did not cost American taxpayers a dime or a life). We did nothing when the GAO (General Accounting Office) did an audit on the Iraq conflict a year or so after “the end of hostilities” only to find that hundreds of millions of dollars were either being applied wrongly or had simply disappeared.
We did nothing when international treaties (treaties on human rights, the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners, the Kyoto Accords) were torn up or ignored. We did nothing when our environmental administrators turned out to be accepting bribes, drugs and sex from the industries they were supposedly regulating. And we did nothing as our home-grown financial institutions became bloated unregulated conglomerates.
So who is to blame? – We are (Americans). We allowed ourselves to be fooled (twice, once if you don’t believe Florida was stolen from Gore) by an administration whose Chief Executive (despite his MBA) shuns deliberation, turns his nose up to study, and does not equivocate even when the most head-in-the-sand idiot can see a change must be made.
Now we have the opportunity to vote again. On the one side is a man who is a war hero; a veteran who showed true courage and spirit during 5 years of suffering that 99% of us will never even begin to understand; man who has a reputation as a quick decision-maker, a maverick who bucks his party’s platform on occasion and is lauded/condemned for that. A man with years of experience in the nitty-gritty of Washington politics and the names, faces and personalities that go with it.
He is also 72 years old and if elected would be the oldest person ever elected. He has a history of melanoma (skin cancer). There is some question as to his temperament, as he is known to be hot-headed. This temperament of what appears to be rash decision-making was abundantly available to all when he plucked a complete neophyte as his running mate (to be fair, word on the street is he wanted Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat, but was outvoted by his party). Initially lauded for the surface value she brought to the ticket, it has become painfully clear in the few weeks since then how embarrassingly underprepared this person is. As the biggest decision he has made as a candidate, one must ask oneself, does this pick represent a window in the mind of Mr. McCain? Will he show the same level of deliberation or impatience with other important decisions? Frankly, Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate is a joke. A bad joke. And the lack of consideration accompanying this decision is, to coin a word, “Bushian”.
Now, on the other side of the equation we have a young (by presidential standards) and inexperienced (again, by presidential standards) man. He burst onto the nationals scene in 2004 with a speech at the Democratic convention that moved and inspired. His rhetorical abilities are on a par with the best leaders of our lifetime. He has shown an ability to organize volunteers, to galvanize enthusiasm, and to surround himself with people who by any standard are ’smart’, dedicated thinkers in their fields. He has also shown himself to be a strong leader, handling the difficult process of bringing his party together after the convention, ensuring that a consistent and hopeful message is being distributed by his campaign, and demonstrating an ability to, for lack of better phrase, ‘carry himself in a Presidential manner’.
Do these qualities of Mr. Obama guarantee great leadership from him? Probably no more than Mr McCain’s heroics as a POW. But the question REALLY is, who will take the reigns of the US government, after 8 years of pocket-lining for the rich, with the global financial situation in chaos, with America over-extended militarily and financially, and with recession/depression and a general feeling of malaise hanging over his country; who will be the one who can inspire, both through word and deed, through thought and action, to lead America back to a position of economic strength, moral respect, hope, opportunity and growth.
I submit to you that of the candidates in question, only Mr Barack Obama carries any hope of reaching that ambitious goal.
Sincerely,
William Ledbetter
Wow!
It would be easier if Hillary was to run for her party. Maybe America is/was not ready for a female president. Would they risk having one as a vice-president, who may have a high chance of becoming president? Palin is a mistake, a joke indeed. They think getting a ‘vase’ would give them the extra votes?
In the words of a Great American, who might just be a Canadian, Bill Murray, from his movie “Meatballs”. “It just doesn’t matter!”(repeat a dozen or so times)
There is a ying for every yang. People will finally get fed up with mediocrity being the leading edge and there will someday be a common sense approach to the ills that plague us today. If not now, then later.
Hey, she might drive us all crazy, but she won’t be hard to look at. (that part is not meant to be taken seriously)
hi joe, i wanted to see her perform this past 2 weeks and she has continued to be a joke, a big disappointment. watched her speeches and THAT interview with katie coric on CBS. i nearly died! didn’t know what she was talking about, neither did ms coric! it’s sad but won’t be surprised the americans will vote mccain cos of palin. hey, they voted ‘W’ twice, and remember quayle?? really hope obama gets in, change is needed.
This is actually a question to William, earlier commenter, and Joe. Why did McCain have to nominate Sarah? Aren’t there any other vice-president candidates that McCain could mention?