Palin Refuses to Cooperate
 

Palin won't meet with 'Troopergate' investigator By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
10 minutes ago



A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.

The campaign insists the investigation has been hijacked by Democrats. It says it can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues — not because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/...in_troopergate

Sounds like Cheney and Bush all over again :shrug:

If I were Obama, I would get on this like white on rice. I would say Palin obviously thinks she is above reproach and the law. Moreover, if anyone "can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues," then let them come forward and show their evidence to the Commissioner.

Plain makes me sicker by the hour. I sure an glad she is such a devout faux Christian because Christ sure never practiced this type of lying and then persecuted anyone who dared call Him on it :rolleyes:

So she has sociopathic tendancies of entitlement along with all the other "fun " things about her..I hate to say it but W has finally moved out of my head and this treacherous b*tch has taken up residence in it.:laugh:But really if some people are too dense to realize how W has f%cked up this country then let them vote in the geezer and the snowbilly..I don't want to see them win of course but it may be the final nails in the coffin of the onetime GOP.Just at what price though?

Sarah Palin=No Good for America.:distress:

I like her....

































Easier to make fun of compared to the Hill-Billy Clinton :D

More....
 

I have to say all of those are hilarious :laugh:..I needed a laugh today thanks!

Hmmm...
 

Hehehehe...
 

Those are good!The scary thing is that so many people are actually buying into this trick.Sarah Palin .I can only imagine what the rest of the world is thinking right now..as if W and his idiocy hadn't embarresed us enough.

Hmmm...
 

best one yet:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Oopsie...
 

When magazines go to hell...
 

Revlon introduces...
 

McSame wants some???
 

See Palin is funnier than Clinton...
 

but easier on the eyes to:

:Really I'd have loved to see Hillary debate the ice bumpkin though..I think she'd turn that barracuda into a blowfish.

A Classic movie...REVISITED!!!
 

If ONLY that would've been true...
 

I remember...
 

when this fake quarter was shown on Late Night with Conan O'Brien - And days later they started to show up on eBay POing the Secret Service:

And finally...
 

Presidunce Shrub needs some Viagra/Cialis it appears, tsk, tsk, tsk...Ya know, Shrub rhymes with STUB, ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise, surprise...

Brian J. - you are da man for these :cool:

Also, I am so glad McCain refused the cover of People - I mean I would not want him to be thought of as a celebrity or anything since he obviously is more than willing to falsely apply that status to others and state that that status negates the ability to be an effective President :rolleyes:

I think he points out the hypocrisy quite well!

Four more years indeed :mad:

____________________________________________________

McCain/Palin offer insight to how they would govern

By Jay Bookman | Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 08:13 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So Sarah Palin, the “reformer” advocating greater transparency in government, is now refusing to take any part in a state investigation to which she once pledged total cooperation. She is also trying to squelch release of emails and other evidence in the case.

The issue is stark: Did Palin abuse her authority and fire her state’s top public-safety official because she did not get her way in a personal family dispute? Her record as mayor of Wasilla suggests she is prone to such high-handed behavior; the fact that after just a year and a half as governor, she already found herself embroiled in another such controversy is telling.

We have had almost eight years of an administration that believed that rules were for other people, an administration that has acted as if it was immune to outside oversight. It is not “change” to replace that administration with another just like it. It is not reform.

The McCain campaign claims Palin can prove that Walt Monegan was fired as part of a budget dispute. If so, the investigation established by the Alaska Legislature — a process set up with Palin’s full support — offers a forum in which that evidence can be viewed and weighed.

But Palin refuses to do so. Is this how a McCain/Palin administration would be run, arrogantly and secretly?

The latest - if I am not mistaken, a special prosecutor was appointed by the Legislature via the bipartisan process. That special prosecutor surely has the right to subpoena witnesses. So, I am unsure where the Alaskan AG gets the authority to refuse to comply with the subpoena. In any event, there must be something really damning for Palin for the R's to use this technique. Again, why is Palin, the great champion of transparant govt., refusing to set the record straight?

AG says state employees won't honor subpoenas

By STEVE QUINN, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago

Alaska's investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power, a potentially damaging distraction for John McCain's presidential campaign, ran into intensified resistance Tuesday when the attorney general said state employees would refuse to honor subpoenas in the case.

In a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, Republican Attorney General Talis Colberg asked that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He also said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature votes to compel their testimony.

Colberg, who was appointed by Palin, said the employees are caught between their respect for the Legislature and their loyalty to the governor, who initially agreed to cooperate with the inquiry but has increasingly opposed it since McCain chose her as his running mate.

"This is an untenable position for our clients because the governor has so strongly stated that the subpoenas issued by your committee are of questionable validity," Colberg wrote.

Last week, French's Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed 13 people. They include 10 employees of Palin's administration and three who are not: her husband, Todd Palin; John Bitney, Palin's former legislative liaison who now is chief of staff for Republican House Speaker John Harris; and Murlene Wilkes, a state contractor.

French did not immediately return a telephone call Tuesday for comment.

Earlier in the day, Harris, who two months ago supported the "Troopergate" investigation, openly questioned its impartiality and raised the possibility of delaying the findings.

Like Colberg's letter, the surprise maneuver by Harris reflected deepening resolve by Republicans to spare Palin embarrassment or worse in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

And it marked a further fraying of a bipartisan consensus, formed by a unanimous panel before Palin became McCain's running mate, that her firing of the state's public safety commissioner justified the ethical investigation.

In a letter, Harris wrote that what "started as a bipartisan and impartial effort is becoming overshadowed by public comments from individuals at both ends of the political spectrum," and he urged lawmakers to meet quickly to decide on a course.

"What I may be in favor of is having the report delayed, but only if it becomes a blatant partisan issue," he told The Associated Press, while indicating he already believes it has become politically tainted.

Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of the Legislative Council, the 14-member panel that authorized the probe, had no immediate comment on Harris' request. Under an unusual power-sharing agreement, the council is made up of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

At issue is whether Palin abused her power by pressing the commissioner to remove her former brother-in-law as an Alaska state trooper, then firing the commissioner when he didn't.

The matter risks casting a shadow on Palin's reputation, central to her appeal in the campaign, that she is a clean-government advocate who takes on entrenched interests — not a governor who tried to use her authority behind the scenes to settle a personal score.

Palin has defended her behavior and said she welcomed the investigation. "Hold me accountable," she said. But she and the McCain campaign have taken actions that could slow the probe, possibly past Election Day.

Also Tuesday, five Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit against an investigation they called "unlawful, biased, partial and partisan." None serves on the bipartisan Legislative Council that unanimously approved the inquiry. They want it pushed past the election or top Democrats removed from the probe.

Making clear the dispute has ramifications beyond Alaska, Liberty Legal Institute, a Texas-based legal advocacy group, was working on the lawsuit. The institute has taken on a variety of cases in defense of conservative Christian positions.

Elton called the lawsuit "a distraction."

"The silver lining in this action initiated by the five lawmakers is that some of that debate now has been kicked to the judicial branch which, unlike the Legislature and the governor's office, is more insulated from the red-hot passion of presidential politics," he said.

Palin fired public safety commissioner Walt Monegan in July.

Weeks later, it emerged that Palin, her husband, Todd, and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten, who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister before Palin became governor. While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, he says their repeated contacts made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.

Palin maintains she fired Monegan over budget disagreements, not because he wouldn't dismiss her ex-brother-in-law. She has sought through her lawyer to have the matter investigated in a more favorable forum, the state personnel board.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/palin_tro...ZgpFMWPFZh24cA

To me, the circling of the wagons indicates there is more to this than the public information indicates. I think the facts should be given. Again, this is the c*nt who is all for "transparent government" -- moreover, she agreed to the investigation in July and in August she stated that although initially in July, she denied that there had been any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, either from herself or from anyone in her administration - in August, Palin acknowledged that "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it."

How about the July letter from former U.S. Attorney Wevley Shea, who had acted previously as an informal advisor to Palin, wrote her a letter in which he urged her to apologize for "overreaching or preceived overreaching" to get Wooten fired, and warned that the matter could snowball into a bigger scandal. The letter said that she should fire any aides who had raised concerns with Monegan.

No wonder the McCain team is circling the wagons :eek:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_...oner_dismissal

_______________________________________________________

McCain campaign clamps down on questions in Alaska
By ANNE SUTTON, Associated Press Writer

Wed Sep 17, 3:11 AM ET

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska's governor to John McCain's political campaign, part of an ambitious Republican strategy to limit any embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country.

Republican efforts include dispatching a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York, Ed O'Callaghan, to assist Palin's personal lawyer working to derail or delay a pending ethics investigation in Alaska. The probe, known as "Troopergate," is examining whether the governor abused her power by trying to remove her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.

O'Callaghan is just part of a cadre of high-powered operatives patrolling Alaska as reporters and Democrats scrutinize every detail of Palin's tenure in government, plus her family and friends. One strategy: Carefully coordinate any information that's released. The McCain campaign is demanding that it becomes the de facto source for answers about the operations of Alaska's government during the past 20 months.

Palin's normal press secretary, for example, now turns away inquiries from any reporter who isn't permanently based in Alaska, referring questions to the presidential campaign. Trouble is, some of McCain operatives only recently have arrived in Alaska and struggle to explain Palin's positions on arcane state issues.

When a reporter for The Associated Press asked the state's Department of Health and Social Services about lawsuits involving state health policies, he was directed to call Meg Stapleton, a former spokeswoman for Palin now working for McCain.

"In general the state is sending media inquiries this way because we're just inundated with hundreds and hundreds of phone calls," Stapleton said. "It provides for the most expeditious channel to get stuff out there."

O'Callaghan, who helped prosecute terrorism and national security cases for the Justice Department until a few weeks ago, was sent to Alaska to handle "legal issues that are affecting the political dynamic of the campaign," said Taylor Griffin, a former Treasury Department spokesman in the Bush administration. O'Callaghan is expected to leave after this week.

Translation: O'Callaghan is helping ratchet up the heat on the Troopergate investigation, a probe with which Palin once promised to cooperate. O'Callaghan was the one who threw down the gauntlet during a news conference this week: Palin herself was unlikely to talk to the Alaska Legislature's investigator.

McCain's campaign has sent at least one dozen researchers and lawyers to Alaska to pore over Palin's background, ready to respond to questions about her tenure as governor and mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. Griffin has been leading the team in Alaska, which includes operatives of the Republican National Committee.

Republicans are rebutting what they describe as smears against Palin. Last week, McCain's campaign formed a "truth squad," which includes current and former GOP politicians who agree to speak with reporters. Heading up the effort from Arlington, Va., are Mark Paoletta and O'Callaghan, both Republican lawyers, and Brian Jones, a former communications director for McCain.

Democrats, meanwhile, are relying on Palin's homegrown critics in Alaska. They call themselves "Alaska Mythbusters," a nod to the popular television show. The team is made up mostly of elected officials who have opposed or know Palin and who criticize her work, such as the mayor of tiny Ketchikan, Bob Weinstein. Ketchikan was involved in Alaska's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," a construction project that Palin initially supported but now says she opposed as an example of wasteful spending.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/...ain_operatives

Oh yeah. This is typical behavior on their part. The law doesn't apply to them.

The smear job on the alleged victims has been completed by the R's. Again, that they two guys were jerks is irrelevant to whether Palin inappropriately tried to get Wooten fired because of a personal issue and then fired Monegan because he would not fire Wooten for Palin's personal reason. Moreovoer, it is disingenuous to assert that Palin was justified in firing Monegan anyway because he was a jerk. Again, Plain offered Monegan a high level state job after firing him. Why would she do that if she fired Monegan for being a jerk in his personal life? the answer is she did not fire him for those reasons and the R party is throwing them out there to attack the alleged victim on an irrelevant point to change focus from the actual issue, which is whether Palin fired Monegan because Monegan refused the pressure to carry out Palin's personal vendetta.

In any event, Palin now is complying with a separate investigation she requested from the state Personnel Board, the members of which she is able to fire. Palin is not, however, cooperating with the Legislature's investigation (the members of which she cannot fire) - which she agreed to cooperate with. She has asserted that she withdrew her cooperation (and the cooperation of the state employees under subpoena as well as that of her husband) because the investigation became a partisan affair. The passages in bold below indicate her assertion of partisanship is undupported and false.

Again, this is the person who alleges she will bring reform to Washington and wants to establish a transparent government whose actions can be judged by the people. Interestingly, like the current Bush Admin., she cannot apply those rules to herself.

Finally, the statement "This governor cannot wait for her story to be told," Stapleton said. Asked why the governor did not air that story publicly, she said, "We are working with her schedule right now." -- is utter cr*apola -- she sat down for two national interviews and discussed this. Moreover, she has a staff who could prepare her statement. Does she and the RNC actually expect anyone believe this turd pile?

In the end and again, I do not care if she is innocent or gulity. Moreover, no one can really make that judgement until all of the facts are known. Her actions, however, suggest she is covering up something, which make her look the very picture of the corrupt person alleged. She needs to clear her name publicly.


Trooper probe now 'confidential,' Palin aides say

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Republican campaign officials indicated they are done answering questions about an investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner Tuesday, citing a request by a state investigator.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is being investigated for the possibly improper firing of a state official.

"He has asked to keep things confidential, so we will respect those wishes," campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton told reporters.

Palin has dropped an earlier pledge to cooperate with a probe by the state Legislature, with aides arguing it has been "tainted" by partisan politics since she became Sen. John McCain's running mate. But Stapleton said Palin's lawyers have agreed to "general parameters of immediate cooperation" with the investigation she requested from the state Personnel Board, which has hired Anchorage lawyer Timothy Petumenos to conduct the inquiry.

"The governor waived confidentiality, and Mr. Petumenos has just stated as of this moment that he would like for things to remain confidential," Stapleton said. "So that is why we are telling you as of today, we are no longer going to be discussing aspects of this as directed by Mr. Petumenos."

Stapleton said Petumenos -- a registered Democrat -- has pledged to run a "fair and impartial" investigation. She said Palin's staff is working to schedule interviews for the governor and her husband, Todd, who refused last week to comply with a subpoena issued in the legislative probe. And Petumenos has asked for a list of documents and e-mails from her lawyer, she said.

"This governor cannot wait for her story to be told," Stapleton said. Asked why the governor did not air that story publicly, she said, "We are working with her schedule right now."

Monegan says he was fired after he refused to fire the governor's ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper who was involved in an acrimonious divorce from Palin's sister. Palin has denied any wrongdoing, telling Fox News last week that Monegan was "insubordinate" in disputes over budget issues.

The Legislature's inquiry is scheduled to be completed by October 10. The state senator managing the probe, Anchorage Democrat Hollis French, has been under fire since a September 2 interview with ABC News in which he said the inquiry could lead to an "October surprise" for the GOP ticket.

No date has been set for completing the personnel board probe, which Palin's campaign argues is the proper legal venue for the investigation. Under state law, those investigations can take as long as two years.

Campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said he believed Petumenos would act in "an expedited manner," but that results may not emerge before the November elections.

"If that is concluded before the election, so be it. If that is concluded after the election, so be it," he said.

O'Callaghan, a former federal prosecutor brought in by the McCain campaign, said it was "frankly irresponsible" for investigators to set a deadline. But a leading Republican lawmaker told CNN that the legislative investigation into Monegan's firing needs to go ahead despite the increasingly heated opposition of the campaign.

Rep. Jay Ramras, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he still has confidence in the special counsel hired by the state Legislature and said there was "zero chance" that efforts to shut down the probe would succeed.

"There's no question the report is going to be produced," he said. "There is a question of which folks will participate in it and which ones won't."

For more than a week, Stapleton and O'Callaghan have held routine "truth squad" press conferences to criticize French and accuse Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign of attempting to manipulate the probe. Ramras discounted the criticism as a result of national politics.

"The hyperbole from the truth squad is a little farfetched," he said. "To those of us who have monitored this thing from the front-row seats, it's a misnomer."

Stapleton said she had no comment on Ramras' remarks.

Ramras said he is supporting the McCain-Palin ticket, though he and Palin have clashed on other issues. His committee concurred with the September 12 decision to issue subpoenas to Todd Palin and a dozen others, and the swing vote in issuing those subpoenas was a state senator he described as "a conservative, pro-life Republican."

"We all took an oath of office, and this is an important report to come out," he said. [Comment - why is she scared of these R's. I get that French should have kept his mouth shut, but Ramras and crew are supporters of Plain. Why should she fear that they are partisan? ]

www.cnn.com

Palin Should Step Down, Conservative Commenter Says
 

Palin should step down, conservative commentator says
Posted: 04:27 PM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Palin was in New York City Thursday.

(CNN) – Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is "out of her league" and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party.

The criticism in Parker's Friday column is the latest in a recent string of negative assessments toward the McCain-Palin candidacy from prominent conservatives.

It was fun while it lasted," Parker writes. "Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is clearly out of her league."

Palin's interview with Couric drew criticism when the Alaska governor was unable to provide an example of when John McCain had pushed for more regulation of Wall Street during his Senate career. Palin also took heat for defending her foreign policy credentials by suggesting Russian leaders enter Alaska airspace when they come to America. Palin was also criticized last week for appearing not to know what the Bush Doctrine is during an interview with Charlie Gibson.

“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself," Parker also writes. "If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true."

Parker, who praised McCain's "keen judgment" for picking Palin earlier this month and wrote the Alaska governor is a "perfect storm of God, Mom and apple pie," now says Palin should step down from the ticket.

“Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves," Parker writes. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first. Do it for your country."

Parker's comments follow those by prominent conservatives David Brooks, George Will, and David Frum who have all publicly questioned Palin's readiness to be vice president.

"Sarah Palin has many virtues," Brooks wrote in a recent column. "If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she'd be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness."

I saw that, but what it amounts to is that each candidate has a gaffe machine for a running mate. No more, no less. Either running mate stepping down would be disastrous for either candidacy. The big problem with this is that Palin set the base on fire and it would be suicide to throw her under the bus at this point. She is still extraordinarily popular and attracts crowds of Obama magnitude at her rallies.

Yeah, I agree. And besides, she is a big help to Obama, the more she goes out there, the more popular he will be:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Eh, I doubt it. Obama is seeing a surge because, as Americans, we don't understand how the economy works. For some odd reason democrats get the edge on this issue. I've never really understood it. Frankly, any president has little to do with the economy besides setting tax policy. If we boom or bust, it's because of market forces and not the president either way.

The President can control what the oversight situation looks like. And besides, 10 billion dollars a month freed up and who knows where that money could have been put to use.

Unfortunately, government money tends to "crowd out" private money and in the end hurts market forces. It's vastly less efficient than private money because government cannot really create wealth, it more or less redistributes it. If you factor in the money multiplier, it gets even less efficient, etc.

I meant places like bridge building (remember that horrible collapse everyone?) and government things rather than the economy. Maybe some tax cuts for working people or alternative energy. We have sent so much money there that hurts to think what else we could have used it for.

I favor tax cuts for all sectors of the population: rank & file employees, shopkeepers, corporations, blue-bloods, blue collars, white collars, butchers, bakers, & candlestick makers. But I also favor a complete overhaul of the tax code -- initiation of flat or fair or consumption tax on goods & services, elimination of sneaky loopholes & gross kickbacks & entitlements, regulation of lobbyists & PACs -- as well as a very drastic reduction of wasteful spending at all government levels.

Smash the tyranny of the two major parties by not voting for either of them!!

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL part 2
 

aka "WTF did she just say?"

a parody of a parody ..how odd.:lol:

This is the best argument I've seen yet for people to come to their senses.
Palin will never do it and McCain can't, at this point, admit he was wrong. Of course, let's see what happens after the debate on Thursday.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/p...dy_please.html

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