Sarah Palin says she will not run for president

This decision to run/not run was a farce from the get-go. She has only one goal: fame and fortune.

pity she's not running - that would have guaranteed another 4 years without the republicans in the white house...

Palin Decides Not to Run: ‘I Want to Go Straight to the Quitting Part’

She is a country divider, not uniter in the time we all need to work together to pull ourselves out from the mess.

Our city (red city) blocked her coming in May. I knew then she could not run.

Good. The national prominence this woman and candidates like Bachman and Trump achieved was made possible in part by the media's transformation of a neo-Marxist community organizer into a secular demi-god, enabling his installment in the White House. Any old kook now thinks they can do a couple years at the state level and then be president.

" Any old kook now thinks they can do a couple years at the state level and then be president."

Such as two candidates from Texas and Massachusetts?

Well, the Republicans have that much more chance of winning as a result, for if this lady were running a Democratic win would have been guaranteed. Still is, given whom they've got running, but still.

Golly, now who'm I gonna vote for?

She's probably cursing Steve Jobs now....

"Sarah...You are the one we are waiting for. "

The second coming of the messiah won't happen after all. Hilarious stuff.

I will never forget one of her classic comments, What is the difference between a pitbull dog and a hockey mom?? then she points to her own mouth and say, LIPSTICK! Is this what Americans want to represent them around the world?? Thank god she is going back to worship god and stick to taking care of her family, her husband looks like a real parasite, so she should have her hands full.

"Parasite" was harsh Elbuda. Todd could be supporting the family on his snowmobile race winnings for all we know. My main concern now is, how do they satisfy their hunger for moose flank in Arizona? Switch to eating mule deer?

"Sen. John McCain plucked Palin from relative obscurity"

Now she can return there.

I think most sensible Americans knew she never had a chance.

I wonder whether she'll now return all the donations she received through SarahPAC and other sources and sell her house in Arizona...?

Now that Sarah has done what she does best and QUIT, Americans on the Right are left with a pale, clueless bunch of goofballs to vote for.

Good luck with that! :-)

Now that Sarah has done what she does best and QUIT

Ummm, usually one has to actually announce that they are actually running before they actually quit a campaign.

Good call on her part not to enter the Presidential race after all. Our current political landscape doesn't need another highly divisive polarizing candidate. Obama has that role covered as it is already.

" Obama has that role covered as it is already."

Radicals are always divided.

There's plenty of crazies left in the Tea Party line-up, though none will be as unintentionally funny as sarah.

Sailwind - "Good call on her part not to enter the Presidential race after all. Our current political landscape doesn't need another highly divisive polarizing candidate."

Did it really take you 3 years to figure that out? Wow..... I thought snails were slow. :-)

I would have loved to see a Palin - Bachmann ticket. Or a Bachmann - Palin ticket.

Not that the order would have any effect on the near negative combined IQ of this pairing.

It's just tough luck for the comedy shows that never the twain shall it be. :-)

What will Saturday Night Live do without her?

Sailwind - "Good call on her part not to enter the Presidential race after all. Our current political landscape doesn't need another highly divisive polarizing candidate."

Did it really take you 3 years to figure that out? Wow..... I thought snails were slow. :-)

Nah, I figured that out two years ago after he pushed his version of Health Care Reform into Law.

"What will Saturday Night Live do without her?"

Heck, they've still got Obama.

"Golly, now who'm I gonna vote for?"

You couldn't vote in this election anyway, Nessie, you have to be an American citizen.

"There's plenty of crazies left in the Tea Party line-up"

There's plenty of incompetent liberals left in the Democratic Party line-up.

"Now that Sarah has done what she does best and QUIT..."

She never announced her candidacy, Sushi. You have to start something before you can quit, dontcha know.

"She is a country divider"

That would be Obama.

I wish she had run.

Now she's free to put out ridiculous "documentaries" and reality TV shows and disrupt actual political discourse in her crazy sideshow van for the next decade.

"Americans on the RIGHT are left with a pale, clueless bunch of goofballs to vote for"

Sushi, Cain is not only not pale, he's not a clueless goofball, unlike your boy Obama.

I was wondering what that gigantic sigh of relief was about ...

For the American mainstream, Sarah is beyond the Palin.

How fitting that Palin bows out at about the same time Obama sinks to being unelectable. Both of them will one day seem like curious aberrations to all but their most devout fans. Some of the noises she made intrigued libertarians and strict constitutionalists but both groups tend to also judge candidates on their grasp of the history of the republic in its earliest political battles and how the framers of the Constitution approached the big issues and it's there she came up woefully short, and with a reply she had already famously shot herself in the foot with:

Glen Beck: "So, whose yer fav'rite founder [as in Founding Father] ?

Palin: "Um, well, y'know, all of them!"

Well, the Republicans have that much more chance of winning as a result

smithi, you are thinking like a QB miles a head. I agreed.

"about the same time Obama sinks to being unelectable"

Ha ha, who can the Republicans put up who could beat Obama? Romney? Ha ha Perry? Ha ha Bachmann? Ha ha Cain? Ha ha

Who else ya got, Republicans? lol

Thank you for that announcement, Half-Governor Palin.

A sorry person in a very sorry lot.

Sad day all around.

She is not running, Many JT posters will no longer have the chance to show their superior intellect by how many times they can insert the word "dolt" and "Idiot" into a post about an article involving her.

I will miss the deep thoughts that I have reading in the past on articles about her and I will just have to move on since she has bowed out.

"Many JT posters will no longer have the chance to show their superior intellect by how many times they can insert the word "dolt" and "idiot" into a post about an article involving her"

Or yabits' "Half-Governor Palin"

yabits - I'm laughing at the superior intellect.

It is a great pity - the campaign would have been so much more entertaining for the rest of the world if this women of limited ability and crass ignorance had run for president. Now we are going to have to put up with some sensible Republican candidate...boring.

Boo! Now the election is not going to be as funny... then again, Romney is warming up nicely.

Ah so,

Only in Alaska could a woman with so much limited ability and crass ignorance could ever get herself elected as Mayor of her town and then elected Governor of her state and do such such a good job that she became a vice presidential candidate.I would have to say the men in Alaska are pretty much wimps......your thoughts?

Sailwind,

I don't care which adjectives are used for palin, whether it be the radical left getting excited or you gents on the far right. She had no place being on a VP ticket. And as her laisse-faire attitude to her home state of Alaska that she clearly couldn't be bothered with goes a long way to illuminating the lady's moral character.

Me myself, I'm glad she's finally bowed-out of the is she or is she not situation. I'm sure it is a blow for her, but at least the writing on the wall for her team was clear, as it should be. Her presidential ambitions were always laughable.

She can't be a total idiot. There's money to be made and she's milking it.

Not being an extremist for either breathless camp, I'm just saddened we won't have the humour she brought us in 2008. The world needs more laughs, and dang, that girl was talented.

@ sailwind - that's pretty much what my embarrassed Alaskan relatives have been saying the past few years. Unfortunately, the doubt that she will crawl back under the rock from whence she came. It ain't over till the fatuous lady sings.

"It ain't over till the fatuous lady sings."

Bah, that's how she might end up, singing in some reality bollocks. Either way it's more befitting than her bumbling through those interviews and looking that dumb.

"Palin later seemed overwhelmed by the national spotlight"

According to some in the media. I guess they missed the vice presidential debate in which Palin more than held her own against Biden.

yabits: "Serrano, if you laugh at those whose intellects are superior to yours, that must be one lifelong laughing jag"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So much for yabits' vaunted superior intellect!

The GOP/TP are in a tight spot.

They have pretty much no one - no one - with the business nous, intelligence or rhetorical superiority to stand up to Obama.

Ie: none of the candidates on the Right are seriouosly electable.

And now, for the bad news......

No GOP/TP presidential candidate has any serious foreign policy experience, except for Sarah Palin (bless her heart), whose impressive foreign policy credientials were built on the concrete foundation of being able to see Russia from her window.

But she's just qut.

So now we've got a former pizza CEO, a Wall St derivatives slicker, a jock from Texas who doesn’t believe in climate change while simultaneously missing a presidential candidates debate to return to watch his state burning up, and Michelle Bachmann, whose campaign has already burnt up.

Looks like the community organizer from Chicago is going to win reelection just by waking up on Election day.

ha ha ha . :-)

Got it,

Getting ones start in politics as a PTA mom in a very small town in Alaska warrants being called dumb. jannetto, I hope your relatives have survived the pain of being subjected to her Governship.

Getting ones start in politics as a PTA mom in a very small town in Alaska warrants being called dumb.

I think it is very dumb and disingenuous to attempt to spin things that way. It's hard to see how being a PTA mom in a very small town in Alaska warrants being considered a political genius.

Palin has had many opportunities to display her brilliance of the lack thereof.

Here's what McCain's advisors had to say about her, the first time they got a look at her:

In public, Palin looked like the game changer McCain had wanted, but in private, the authors say she was struggling to learn too much too fast.

“ Her foreign policy tutors are literally taking her through, ‘This is World War I, this is World War II, this is the Korean War. This is the how the Cold War worked.’ Steve Schmidt had gone to them and said, ‘She knows nothing,’” Heilemann told Cooper. “A week later, after the convention was over, she still didn’t really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11. And, literally, the next day her son was about to ship off to Iraq. And when they asked her who her son was going to fight, she couldn’t explain that.”

Those who read such accounts, and look at how Palin carries herself, have some very solid basis for castigating any Republican for thinking she is qualified to lead the United States. The real dolts and idiots are the people who would support such a person.

It is making much more sense as time passes:

The Republican candidates are so bad, that the only strategy left to them is to work overtime to continue to backbite, slander and disparage President Obama -- in hopes that they can somehow pull him down to their extremely low level.

Sailwind - "Getting ones start in politics as a PTA mom in a very small town in Alaska warrants being called dumb."

No. Have you not been reading any political news at all for the past 3 years?

Sarah Palin comes across as dumb for not being woefully unprepared for presidential debates, for thinking Africa is a country, for saying that dinosaurs co-existed wth humans, for saying she reads a whole raft of publications while being completely unable to name a single one, and apparently thinking that she can make a presidential campaign fly just by winging it.

The Left have been right all along – Sarah Palin is – and always has been – an unelectable joke.

I find it hilarious that so many Americans are disappointed in her decision not to run.

It’s taken them THIS long to see she was unelectable???? The only main reason she was “popular” was because it’s common practice for Alsaskan governors to dole out oil money to all residents.

America wins if palin doesn't run. The only losers in a palin presidency are stand-up comedians.

I almost feel bad for all of her worshippers. Those stupid saps sent her money thinking she would run for president and she used it for an all expenses paid trip around the country, on their dime.

She played them like a bass fiddle.

What a horrible, immoral person.

Taka

"The GOP/TP are in a tight spot"

While the Democrats are way ahead in the pools, right, Sushi?

"So now we've got a former pizza CEO"

Something wrong with being a former pizza CEO, Sushi? Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were both former college dropouts, and they both did all right, didn't they, Sushi?

"The Republican candidates are so bad"

None of them are anywhere near as bad as the Democratic candidate.

Yabits - "A week later, after the convention was over, she still didn’t really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11. And, literally, the next day her son was about to ship off to Iraq. And when they asked her who her son was going to fight, she couldn’t explain that.”

Yabits, Yabits,Yabits, I seriously think you misunderestmatedly mischallenged the Right's mindset - if I was a typical U.S. conservative, I would take one read of this (above) and say - "She's brilliant. I'll vote for him." :-)

What we need to understand here is that the politicians currently in the public eye are a reflection of the people who voted for them.

I’ll repeat that: What we need to understand here is that the politicians currently in the public eye are a reflection of the people who voted for them.

This might sound like a put-down, but it is nothing of the sort – simply a statement of reality: The Right put up such clueless candidates because people with similar ideals, standards and intelligence see themselves in those candidates, believe those candidates hold the same ideals, and therefore vote for them.

The Left, on the other hand – that’s Liberals – have been verifiable proven for years to simply be better educated, more worldly, have a wider range of opinions, and be concentrated in large cities where there are more opportunities for career and educational enlightenment and advancement.

Liberals often look down on conservatives in many cases for being “uneducated”, and Sarah Palin’s prance in the public eye provides more than enough proof of this assertion.

It’s just that the Right don’t tend to see it that way – they simply see themselves.

Psychology 101 lesson over. Class dismissed. 

Palin a few weeks ago was asking her supports to contribute money to her website so she could make up her mind on running for President. I guess she has enough money now from the right wing rubes so that she could say no. Amazing how gullible conservatives are. Hey rubes, send me money too so I can decide not to run as well.

This means its obama-romney now for the 2012 election.

Here is a recent quote from Romney, he apparently is just as stupid as Palin.

“I’m not a big-game hunter. I’ve made that very clear. I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times.”

Sarah - she's taken the money and bolted. :-)

If either Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann left America, the net IQ of the nation would increase. :-)

One of the dangerous things about conservatives, imo, is not so much that they don't know what is going on, it's that they don't know that they don't know what's going on.

Don Rumsfeld's 'known unknowns' speech is an appropriate analogy of the mindset of the typical conservative.

And it goes a long way to explain why conservative types get so uprtight when a liberal questions their intelligence.

This news is finally tangible proof that there is a god. Now we only have to listen to her occasional­ly as she struggles to get a monthly sound bite to try and stay relevant before she slides into obscurity.

She'll always be a has-been who never was. :-)

If she could actually - for once - be honest with the American people, she would say: "I finally realized that I was never qualified to run for this position".

Now that Sarah has done what she does best and QUIT, Americans on the Right are left with a pale, clueless bunch of goofballs to vote for.

If this were uttered by someone from the right and under a different context, it would be immediately denounced as racist. What, you have to be of color and not 'pale' to be seriously considered for office?

No GOP/TP presidential candidate has any serious foreign policy experience, except for Sarah Palin (bless her heart), whose impressive foreign policy credientials were built on the concrete foundation of being able to see Russia from her window.

This compared to President Obama's vast foreign policy experience prior to his election.

The Republican candidates are so bad, that the only strategy left to them is to work overtime to continue to backbite, slander and disparage President Obama -- in hopes that they can somehow pull him down to their extremely low level.

No need, he's pulling himself down quite nicely on his own, hence his current approval rating, and obvious 'success' in his job.

The Left, on the other hand – that’s Liberals – have been verifiable proven for years to simply be better educated, more worldly, have a wider range of opinions, and be concentrated in large cities where there are more opportunities for career and educational enlightenment and advancement.

Do you actually believe that self-righteous, self-serving elitist bullsh#t or are you just having one over on us?

Headline of this article should be "SARAH QUITS - AGAIN!" :-)

Is Biden one of your liberal geniuses? He's one of the reasons I lay awake and night praying that nothing ever happens to the President.

TigermothII - "Do you actually believe that self-righteous, self-serving elitist bullsh#t or are you just having one over on us?"

Look at an electoral map of the U.S.

See the big cities? They are blue.

See the countryside? Until Obama whumped the GOP, most of it was red.

sushi you can't quit something if you haven't set out to do something.

Sarah is far less worrying than the Bachmann's of the (flat) world.

"He's one of the reasons I lay awake and night praying that nothing ever happens to the President."

Heh, I think the majority of voters imagined that scenario in 2008 with old-man McCain behind the wheel. Probably best not to sleep in that situation, it could take weeks to dry the sheets :)

I'm wondering if anyone of sarah's worshippers will pull a palin and threaten to sue, now that she's not going to run. She presented herself as a candidate and they donated thinking her as a candidate and then she took their money and spent it on a summer vacation for her and her family. I know the right is all about tort reform but they're also the biggest hypocrites on the planet too, so I would expect someone will threaten to sue sarah over this.

sarah will obviously counter-sue, and take to Facebook to defend her name.

What an immoral person she has turned out to be.

I'm glad I have never shown any support for her. It would feel icky.

Taka

Actually Sushi in one way you are correct. Typically bastions of liberal thought tend to cluster around young people and academia, and thus are often in areas centered around universities and colleges. Impressionable young people go off to school, and as the majority of their professors and teachers are liberal, they too become liberals, as certainly their wise professors speak the wisdom of truth (note sarcasm). The towns themselves become communities of liberal thought where ideas are pontificated at the local coffee shops. Think Berkley as prime example. These same college professors haughtily claim themselves to be wise sages in the ways of political thought. Unfortunately for a vast majority of them, their 'life experiences' do not go much outside of the university campus - despite your claims of worldliness. Oh, yes they might have studied in Paris for a semester or spent time hiking the Austrian Alps.

But then the kids who have been trained in liberal thought graduate. Some continue to live in those liberal bastions and their thought processes remain in what we shall call the world of 'faux intelligentsia' propagated by said professors and teachers. But many others go on to real life where the world doesn't revolve around political coffee shop suppositions, and protests against the evil corporation that allows the young to live out their fantasies of being great fighters for social change and justice. No, real life involves trying to make a living and surviving everyday happenings. They discover that everybody's not 'cool' and freeing Tibet or saving the whales - however nobly perceived in the relatively carefree existence of youth - is not nearly as important as making the car payment. And hey, if the 'corporation' wants to hire you to utilize that degree you managed to get, and it makes you a living and feeds the family, so much the better. Romantic ideals of youth give way to tough realities of the real world, and liberals turn into conservatives.

I'll give you that it does not always turn out that way, but I know a lot of folks that were a lot more idealistic about such things in their younger days when the general lack of responsibility can allow one to be an idealist rather than a realist.

Yeeaahhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!! Good News !!!!!

the world is saved. the world is saved the world is safe again

"Good News!!!!"

Is it good news for Obama? Palin was supposed to be the most un-electable Republican candidate...

I'll give you that it does not always turn out that way, but I know a lot of folks that were a lot more idealistic about such things in their younger days when the general lack of responsibility can allow one to be an idealist rather than a realist.

Very good post, TigermothII. The reverse may be true.

A good example is a former Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'connor from Arizona.

When she was chosen to serve, her ideology was very conservative. By the time she was ready to retire, many of her decisions were liberal. You can google and read her decisions. She basically transformed herself from conservative to liberal while she was serving for the US Supreme Court..

Life long experiences and sufferings are actually an eye opener tool in life. They provide us with an ability to see and question many injustice in society. We mature with more understanding, compassion and love in daily life.

I would like to admit I am a good example. All my answers were a black and white because I was projecting issues from one side while I was a student with no responsibilty and obligation in real life. Many years passed by, and my answers are not always a black and white today, and they are sometime gray as I understand a complexity of human nature and many social injustice in society. I was transformed from conservative to libera as I aged as well as Sandra O'connor..

Posted in: Protests against Wall Street spread across U.S.

I would expect someone will threaten to sue sarah over this.

Taka, I do not think there is no case as they were all DONATIONS and she did not even declare her.candidacy. She has not received any PAC money. All she needs to do is to fulfill he fiduciary duty to the IRS.

globalwatcher,

She has not received any PAC money

True, but this is America and it's 2011 so I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to sue her for not running for president. And don't you think, honestly, that she was stringing those people along? She just happens to be taking her family on a all expenses paid trip across America and lo and behold ends up in Iowa during the Straw Polls...with a podium...and a microphone. Funny that. A little later, Mitt Romney declared himself for president and palin made an ass of herself in Boston, with her Paul Revere reference, but what everyone forgets, is that she was trying to steal Mitt's spotlight and ended up...well...pullin' a palin (of course it was all a liberal media conspiracy against her). But wherever the political spotlight has been, there has been palin...with a podium...and a microphone....and a stump speech....and her hat in her hand.

If it walks, talks, quacks, and swims, like a candidate, well in this case it's not. It was just meant to appear that way....with hat in hand.

Anyway, while I was checking to see if she had taken any Pac money, I ended up finding out a little about sarahpac.

Good stuff It really didn't do much to erase my opinion of her. She is a very immoral almost human being. Here's the goods:

Ex-AK Gov. sarah palin's (R) PAC spent more money buying copies of palin's best-selling book than it gave in contributions to political candidates, according to new FEC reports. The papers filed over the weekend show sarahPAC spent $47,777 on copies of "Going Rogue" during the last 6 months of the year. Meanwhile, she handed out just $43K in donations to candidates seeking federal office.

What a wonderful steward she is of the money she is given. Sterling example of fiscal ethics.

Taka

Yabits,

Governor Palin never claimed she was a foreign policy expert. If she had ever proclaimed she was strong in foreign policy and then made a weak impression on her knowledge of the subject then the folks that derided her would actually have case. Her expertise actually was in energy policy a subject the Media did not really ask her about at all.

You quoted this,

In public, Palin looked like the game changer McCain had wanted, but in private, the authors say she was struggling to learn too much too fast.

I guess this would be considered a "bad thing" to a Liberal's view of her.........Studying and trying to learn as much as she could in a short time on a complex subject she really never had to use or really deal with in her life up to that point.

Taka,

You forgot to mention that she is a lousy tipper also when the family goes out to dinner.

Wow, Taka.

You did a good job in finding this. Let's see what the election law say on that. Thanks.

Taka, I am pasting political finance law listed below. The law has been changed since 2002, I myself need to read it. Please let me know if Palin violated the law on PAC money. You and I are doing some reserch on this topic.

http://www.votesmart.org/resource_govt101_07.php

The books are given as gifts to donors that contribute 100 dollars or more to her PAC.

A re-education camp is where she should go,after we take over Wall Street.

Taka, I went to Federal Election Commission and Vote Smart Finance websites. Her name was not even listed as a Presidential election list. As far as books given as gifts to donars who contributed more than $100 is not breaking the election law in my opinion. It is a GIFT. That's my findings.

Sarah Palin would be almost unelectable anyways. 70% of Americans do not consider her Presidential material. She's better as a kingmaker than a king anyways. Though, who knows, she may still be Vice President. (Her? Taking orders from someone higher up?)

But now without Christie and Palin, the Tea Partyers are at a crossroads. They're still not satisfied with the Republican field they got, and they're still looking for that perfect candidate that will not come. And they're pretty fickle, moving first to Bachmann then Perry and now Cain. They're looking for the anti-Romney. Would they be ever satisfied enough to settle on someone and vote?

globalwatcher,

Indeed it may not be breaking the law, but is it what the people donated to her wanted the money used for?

She's been running around campaigning, or at least pretending to campaign, and she's gladly taken people's money.

She's been giving campaign speeches, with podiums and banners and a big bus, just like a candidate has.

If you are truly honest with yourself, I think you will agree with me that sarah palin has been acting like a candidate. She's never declared and until yesterday, she didn't say anything about it either way, but she never did anything like what Chris Christie did to let people know she wasn't running.

I truly believe she has been happy to play along like a candidate and as I have stated, I think that's pretty immoral. There are a lot of really slow people in America who look up to her and gave her money with the expectation she would run. There are quotes in the story to prove it. She took advantage of those people

People who do that are highly immoral.

Taka

Taka,

Agreed. First of all, she was never qualified to be a president to run this country in my humble opinion.

As far as syphoning money from innocent people, she knew exacty what she was doing. Rememer, she has made an announcement of no candidancy on the same day when the day FOX News offered her a job. She cannot hung her whole family dry as her husband Todd has never worked as a bread earner. That's how I see it.

globalwatcher - good point. I went from very conservative, to fairly liberal while at school and in my early twenties, and find myself now more often in between, depending upon issues. I think too many - and far too many on here - form their opinions based upon party lines or beliefs that they have to be 'totally liberal' or 'totally conservative' and life simply does not work that way. And it seems even more frowned up on to be somewhere in the middle - you're labeled as 'wishy-washy' on issues. I don't think giving clear consideration to both sides, and seeing merit in or detraction in arguments either way as being wishy washy but rather the sign of a healthy, thinking brain. That's why it cheeses me off so much to see the labels so readily applied here. The laws of common sense and intelligent thought should dictate that no one is either completely liberal or completely conservative. Those that claim to be are not being honest with themselves. but hey -that's just me. What do I know? - I'm mostly conservative so according to many on here that makes me a stupid, cracker, racist, uncaring psychopath.

"She was never qualified to be a president to run this country"

But Obama is? Veteran Senator John McCain thought she was qualified.

Governor Palin never claimed she was a foreign policy expert.

I don't think she claimed to be an expert in anything. I am trying to emphasize that it is not about this woman and her PTA, small-town mayor experience, not nearly as much as it is about the people who thought she possessed the knowledge and experience to sit as the next-in-line to the presidency. The party chose her and, despite her obvious lack of knowledge and astuteness, the conservative base fawned over her as the second coming of Reagan.

Her expertise actually was in energy policy

Then she might have been a better choice to lead the Department of Energy. But Vice President to a man as old as McCain? Give us a break.

The fact that Half-Governor Palin chose to up and quit her office to cash in on her notoriety speaks volumes about her basic character and attitude towards public service. She has had ample time to prove she was an unfit choice and that she certainly has proven.

But Obama is? Veteran Senator John McCain thought she was qualified.

They no longer speak, Serrano. What does it tell you?

The laws of common sense and intelligent thought should dictate that no one is either completely liberal or completely conservative.

I can promise you this: If you genuinely, honestly, and sincerely seek the truth about things, you will be utterly rejected as a liberal by modern conservatives.

I became a liberal many years ago, and it has nothing to do with political parties. I found that when I researched things in depth from both sides, I found that the writers on the liberal side were FAR, FAR better at presenting their opponents' side of an argument before rebutting it point by point. The conservatives failed in that time and time again. I can't think of a more important "law" of intelligent thought than the ability to portray all sides of an argument fairly.

So many who argue from the conservative side can't even portray documented history accurately. (For example, a poster made the comment that it was Barney Frank who was responsible for the whole collapse of the housing market -- but they completely fail to explain how that could have possible given the fact that Republicans controlled all of the House committees making legislation from 1995 to 2009.)

Those that claim to be are not being honest with themselves.

Those who are being honest with themselves are extremely rare. Are you sure you aren't one of the many? The very meaning of the liberal position is one who can change when presented with credible evidence. And that means that they must first be open to evidence.

No, real life involves trying to make a living and surviving everyday happenings.

I don't believe that life is any more "real" than academic, scientific, or artistic pursuits. Survival is but one aspect, but a society that compels a fast percentage of its people to resort to survival mode most of the time is one that is fit to be overhauled or overthrown.

They no longer speak, Serrano. What does it tell you?

It tells me that if you asked "veteran" Senator John McCain today about Palin's qualifications, he'll give you a vastly different answer than the one Serrano implies.

Get John over a couple of shots of Bushmills and I'll bet he'll tell some great stories about her.

I guess they missed the vice presidential debate in which Palin more than held her own against Biden.

Serrano - I think I missed that one, too. The only debate I saw between her and Biden, she came across as a shambling, incoherent halfwit.

researched things in depth from both sides,

Yarbit, you hit a nail here.

I read all issues as much as I can before going to a poll. Unlike many congressmen who failed to read the Heatth care bill, I ended up reading an ENTIRE bill. It was so laughable to watch some congressmen were aurguing some vogus issues that were not even included on the bill.

I go to smart vote.org to see all candidates past voting records to see what they are truly standing for.

When I see a candidate is speaking AGAINST an issue what he had voted previously FOR the same issue, he just becomes an entertainer from a political candidate to me. Also he is sending me a message he cannot be trusted.

Thanks to a computer age, all these resources are available. They are all public records. We just need to understand issues more and educate ourselves as a responsible citizen in democracy. Nobody dictate how I should vote. Only the written documents DO

I am trying to emphasize that it is not about this woman and her PTA, small-town mayor experience, not nearly as much as it is about the people who thought she possessed the knowledge and experience to sit as the next-in-line to the presidency.

I know this is beaten to death, but the whole point is by your argument it does become a relevant point. When you speak of the lunacy of electing someone as inexperienced as Palin to either first or second chair in the White House then you have to know that the argument is going to center around the relative inexperience of our President. And despite not being a fan of his administration, I'm not saying this to simply deride him in any way. But look, as a junior Senator Obama did not really qualify as having the experience necessary to take on the job given. I'm not saying he's not bright, I'm not saying he's not personable, and I'm not saying he's not a competent or effective leader. What I am saying is that given that the US Presidency is arguably one of the most important positions in the world, giving him the job was paramount to letting the guy from the mail room become the CEO. Yet democrats readily did this, voted him in as their choice and elected him as President. So you can argue that Palin is an idiot and have a leg to stand on, but arguing experience is a difficult road to travel given the circumstances. Even if you do love the man and think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, he did not possess the experience that should be necessary to take on such a responsibility. Now then, the question is 'who does?' and 'are any of those that do competent?'. Valid points and questions - but purely based upon experience your argument is hollow.

I can't think of a more important "law" of intelligent thought than the ability to portray all sides of an argument fairly.

You actually think that liberal writers present all sides fairly - without any bias or bent? Seriously??

Are you sure you aren't one of the many?

I must be one of the many because if I were one of The Few I'd be a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain. But no seriously I'm honest enough to admit to myself that there are many flaws in my thinking. Unlike the average liberal I don't suppose myself to be second only to Solomon in wisdom. Man is flawed I am just one of the many.

When I see a candidate is speaking AGAINST an issue what he had voted previously FOR the same issue, he just becomes an entertainer from a political candidate to me. Also he is sending me a message he cannot be trusted.

Exactly. I see this happening time and time again.

Everyone remembers the "Death Panels" that Sarah Palin and other Republicans jumped all over. But the recommendation for end of life decision-making and counseling was first inserted into the bill by a Republican from my home state of Georgia.

But look, as a junior Senator Obama did not really qualify as having the experience necessary to take on the job given.

I can agree with that. And it was up to him to demonstrate that on the campaign trail up against more experienced Democratic candidates. He was running against a number of good ones.

On the other hand, Palin never had to test herself against a Republican field -- who probably would have torn her to shreds.

You actually think that liberal writers present all sides fairly - without any bias or bent? Seriously??

I don't think of the question in that way. Every writer is going to have a frame of reference as well as a bias. But take any issue -- and one I chose years ago was whether or not we should be doing business with South Africa under the apartheid regime -- and you have to dig carefully into each of the points made by each side -- and their counter-points until you come to a conclusion as to the "right" side.

What I started to find was that, in most cases on the conservative side -- the response to a point would be met with some mumbo-jumbo about "the fear of communism" taking over, or "that's a socialist idea." In other words, the point could not be met with a valid counter-point but with a label.

Unlike the average liberal I don't suppose myself to be second only to Solomon in wisdom

Here is that way it actually works:

We believe that a better quality of thinking will bring about better ideas -- which will bring about better results to the actions we take as a nation. Nostrums and unfounded superstitions such as "keep lowering taxes and cutting deficits" being stated as though they are the cure-all for every situation is not very high-quality thinking.

Secondly, I can only improve my thinking if I'm up against an opponent who really has done their homework on an issue and understands it very well. The Founders, whom the conservatives like Palin keep appealing to, were almost unanimous in their regard of an education that dove deeply into the classics of Rome (Latin) and Greece. Most of the founders were not that much older than President Obama, but I think it's that classical education that gave them such a broad perspective and the ability to reason effectively.

Globalwatcher,

Agreed. First of all, she was never qualified to be a president to run this country in my humble opinion.

I concur. She made that abundantly clear during the 2008 campaign.

As far as syphoning money from innocent people, she knew exacty what she was doing.

Again, I concur. That's what makes it so immoral. She is knowingly swindling these people (sheep) while calling Pres. Obama a crook. Ain't that a hoot.

She just skeeves me out, to be honest.

Taka

We believe that a better quality of thinking will bring about better ideas -- which will bring about better results to the actions we take as a nation.

No offense. Define and clarify your vision of better quality of "Thinking" and your plan to bring it to the masses.

No offense. Define and clarify your vision of better quality of "Thinking" and your plan to bring it to the masses.

None taken.

As for definition, if people will seriously look back at the founders -- as Palin and so many other conservatives claim to do -- the "founders" that they had to look back to were the philosophers, playwrights, poets, etc. of Rome and Greece. Higher quality thinking is actually a process -- and it begins with the willingness to seriously consider all sides of an issue while recognizing one's own biases.

I don't think I need to worry about a plan. When problems become so severe, human beings will naturally gravitate back to a higher form of reasoning, which success and affluence degrades. The ancient Greeks had a saying: "Those whom the god wish to utterly destroy, they first send 30 years of unbroken success."

Define and clarify your vision of better quality of "Thinking"

sailwind, I take this one. They need to be experienced in law and economics. Both of them go together in public policy making. We do not need anyone with a car sales background.

Nostrums and unfounded superstitions such as "keep lowering taxes and cutting deficits" being stated as though they are the cure-all for every situation is not very high-quality thinking.

Along with considering the tax rate and whether or not it is raised or lowered, one has to consider what said tax money is being used for, and therein lies the crux of the problem. It comes down to a matter of whether or not your average American wants to see their taxes raised, and their tax dollars spent on ill-conceived ways of 'leveling the playing field' and punishing those who dare to succeed. It basically comes down to whether Americans want a capitalist democracy or something that while you are petrified to admit it more closely resembles socialism. Let's call it a sort of economic socialism if that makes you more comfortable. There I go - labeling again! But you constantly label conservatives as dullards, so I think I'm taking the higher road here.

The Founders, whom the conservatives like Palin keep appealing to, were almost unanimous in their regard of an education that dove deeply into the classics of Rome (Latin) and Greece. Most of the founders were not that much older than President Obama, but I think it's that classical education that gave them such a broad perspective and the ability to reason effectively.

Oh I would agree, but don't blame conservatism on decline of classical education. I dare say that if more funding is provided to schools through taxation by a liberal administration, it's not going to be spent on teaching our kids Latin and the Socratic Method, but rather more likely forcing them to learn Spanish and provide diversity training. I'm certain that you will conclude I'm a typical racist conservative with a remark like that, but it doesn't change the fact that my child spends at least two weeks in school learning about MLK and maybe one day understanding the industrial revolution and it's impact on western democracies.

I should add to the last, that's thanks to the liberal PC crowd.

one has to consider what said tax money is being used fo

I could not agree more.

It basically comes down to whether Americans want a capitalist democracy or something that while you are petrified to admit it more closely resembles socialism.

I personally want to see more democracy extended to the sphere of economics.

Oh I would agree, but don't blame conservatism on decline of classical education.

Classical education declined with the growth of corporate industrialism. Factory owners did not want a workforce composed of people who could think independently -- but one which could obey orders without thinking. We see this echoed today when you hear people say that the 1% won't invest in a climate of "uncertainty." Those who want control want predictability in everything -- especially with people.

I'm not sure I buy the last bit. How exactly did corporate industrialism yield a decline in classical education?

How exactly did corporate industrialism yield a decline in classical education?

It had to do with more people gradually leaving farms for cities and company towns for factory work. Mass-education for the children of city-based workers had to be provided, and it had to be geared towards the needs of the employers. The employers considered classical education as something geared towards the elite and professional classes, and frivolous and impractical for the children of laborers.

Her announcement not to run for President has just made me a very happy little bunny

Classical education declined with the growth of corporate industrialism.

The broadest,most successful attack on classical education in America has come from the radical left.

It was not 'corporate industrialists', armed to the hilt, who carried out the takeover of the student union building at Cornell University in 1969.

Palin removes herself from the race and Cain's popularity on a wide range of unofficial polls grows even higher;Perry's drops and Romney's remains unchanged. Her supporters have been mischaracterized.

It was not 'corporate industrialists', armed to the hilt, who carried out the takeover of the student union building at Cornell University in 1969.

It's rather silly, at best, to think that the takeover of a single building on a single campus in the late 1960s doomed classical education. It was actually doomed from the end of the Civil War by the growth of land-grand colleges whose focus was agriculture and mechanics. You're over 100 years too late.

"she was an unfit choice and that she has certainly proven"

Pffft! Your boy Obama is The One who was an unfit choice and that he has certainly proven.

Your boy Obama is The One who was an unfit choice and that he has certainly proven.

A poll of Republicans indicates that a majority does not think Palin was ever qualified to be president -- a number that continues to grow with every publicity stunt she pulls.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Palin is scrambling to figure out how to explain what will happen to all that money she solicited from doners at her SarahPac website, knowing full well she wasn't going to run since at least June 28th.

"Your boy Obama"

Do you call all black people "boy" serrano or just the president?

Taka

What a drag! Think of all the political cartoons and Tin Fey lampoons I'm going to miss!

ooops .... "Tina" Fey

Taka,

"Do you call all black people "boy" serrano or just the president?"

I was going to jump on that as well, except Serrano made that comment while shilling for that belligerent asshat Herman Cain, who is, in fact, black. So perhaps Serrano only reserves these kinds of derogatory comments for blacks he doesn't like.

Back on topic please.

Great white dope is not running ???? So sad !!!!!

Red Rover, Red Rover send Palin right over,

Sarah, you've saved the world. You've saved the world. Don't call yourself a hockey mom again. It was annoying last time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCo_kBJjfS4

Oh no, no more laughs. She was the best stand-up comedian US ever had.

Thank God!!! Now Obama needs to do the seem thing. Bring the president back to middle ground.

Red Rover, Red Rover send Palin right over,

Steve youre not American right? TAKE HER

genji17; Red Rover was on Mars which may be a good place to locate her.

I don't understand all of the hatred towards this woman. Liberals really hate successful conservative woman because they are supposed to be oppressed by conservatives, not supported by them. What has been done to her is the same thing that is about to happen to GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain. Since his rise in polls among conservatives, you can count on Liberals and the media belittling him as an Uncle Tom or some other ridiculous attack.

Wolfpack shes hated by the extreme liberals and most people in the middle cant identify with her policies. The same can be said of Obama, hated by the extreme conservatives and most people in the cant identify with his policies

I don't understand all of the hatred towards this woman.

It isnt hatred. It is just fair criticism of an idiot. She is plain and simple, a moron. She must make the intellectuals of America cringe with embarrassment. Some of the smartest and most well-read people I have met have been Americans and if someone like Sarah Palin challenged them, they wouldnt hesitate to destroy her. They simply wouldnt tolerate someone like her who hasnt read a book since high school.

I am embarrassed for her to be honest. When I see her being challenged by someone with half a brain, she looks like a rabbit on a headlights before acting like a wolverine on no-doze. I have to switch channels because it is so bad.

Anyway, she isnt running next year so I shouldnt have to hear from her ever again. A repulsive, republican Michael Dukakis with half his I.Q. Goodbye Sarah - go get a real job.

What has been done to her is the same thing that is about to happen to GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.

At the debate last night, Cain said "nine-nine-nine" exactly 25 times. That's 225 "nines" in the space of two hours. Guiness reports that this tops the record, previously held by a German virgin.