By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Sarah Palin's announcement on Friday to step down as Alaska's governor looks even more bizarre the day after.
Now, even Republicans are speaking out about how Palin cut and run from political office. In other words, they are painting her as a quitter.
Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said: "I am deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to abandon the state and her constituents before her term has concluded."
Others were coming to the same conclusion, that Palin's decision to quit as governor wasn't exactly a profile in political courage.
As they point out, Palin didn't give any concrete reasons for quitting, other than not wanting to face the heat of ethical accusations over the coming months.
And her decision to be the "point guard" who passes the ball so her team can win doesn't make much sense. Sure, the point guard can get an assist on a crucial basket or two.
But in the political world, the governor is the leader, with plenty of political power to make things happen. If Alaska really were humming along under the Palin regime, her decision to quit would be a great loss to the state.
Unfortunately for Palin, her foray into the 2008 presidential contest as John McCain's vp pick exposed her to plenty of bad publicity and -- yes, as she said Friday -- to the liberal media who are trying to put everything she does under a microscope.
For now, Palin is choosing the road less traveled if she hopes to be the GOP standard bearer in 2012. She can raise private funds for the campaign, while not having a real job as the governor of Alaska.
But quitting that job probably won't help convince Americans in the long run that she would be up to the task of being president. Last time I checked, serving in the White House is a lot tougher job than being the governor of Alaska.
Delicious
Digg
If you love fashion,you must
If you love fashion,you must konw abercrombie and fitch
and you are a abercrombie manor
abercrombie womensand
hollister clothingis also very fashion.
And you know RuehlNo.925
I also like abercrombie outlet,and you?
ugg boots
Good ! I like it ! Welcome to read following news: ugg boots,Nike dunk sb,discount ugg boots, uggs ,nike dunk low,ugg boots sale,UGG Bailey Button boots,new nike sb,UGG Classic short boots,UGG Nightfall boots,cheap nike dunks,UGG Classic tall boots.
CLICK
.0003946 cents.
Walk a mile in a Conservatives shoes
You will notice the liberal slant much more keenly.
WOW Apop! I did not know this was Opin. Sec! Thanks dude!
It should be a BALANCED Editorial Board!
The Editorial and the News are both run exclusively by liberals. That isn't healthy. Just ask the stockholders of McClatchy if they think it's a good business model for a community newspaper.
I agree it should be balanced
The Editorial and the News are both run exclusively by liberals. That isn't healthy. Just ask the stockholders of McClatchy if they think it's a good business model for a community newspaper.
I don't dispute that. But I disagree that it is run exclusively by liberals. I suspect that as another poster said, you are so extreme far right that you just don't see the variety of views posted here.
I will also tell you once again what I have said before. If it's so bad, then don't post here. Every time you click on this newspaper's website, you are helping them.
A newspaper in the community should be fair and balanced
NOT promoting one side of the multidimensional political realm.
Once again, Dan
This is the Opinion page. Every newspaper has one. It's where the editors get to post their 'opinions'. Complaining about them doing exactly that is silly.
I keep saying it!
If only they would stop promoting agendas and be more fair and balanced, they might turn it around and survive another day.
Beyer
You have no agenda, right Dan Beyer?
Would you consider yourself to hold mainstream points of view?
Vegas -
Please name the newspaper that DanBeyer is publisher.
Isn't a newspaper supposed to be objective?
Journalism
Isn't a newspaper supposed to be objective?
Twas,
A newspaper should be objective in it's coverage of news. If it is not, it should be called out. They all make mistakes but I don't believe that they purposely try to be unethical in its journalism.
I think the fact that many lean more left than right in their editorial/opinion, reflects our changing society/demos. too many people, and several on this board, cannot make the distinction between news and commentary/opinion.
With Regards to Dan Beyer:
A reflection on his posts indicate not just a "conservative", but rather an extreme and dangerous ideologue. The WSJ and Fox News are not far enough right for him. I just don't think that he represents a majority on what can be considered "objective journalism". He is the consummate one-issue voter that has hijacked the GOP and someone not willing to reach compromise on anything, he holds to be true. There is no common ground there.
Enjoy your upcoming bankruptcy, Star employees
And I really do mean that ... I cannot wait for you newspaper liberals who have always thought your jobs and pensions were secure to find out otherwise ...
"Chief Executive Gary Pruitt is slashing costs and playing chicken with bondholders, hoping the competition goes bankrupt before he does."
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/29/mcclatchy-pruitt-recession-business-media-newspapers.html?feed=rss_business_media
If liberals are this fearful of Palin,
...that they have to attack her like 6th graders, then the Republican Party definitely needs her!
There is something about this woman that has the liberals squirming like snakes!
I love it!!!
I love it, too!
I love it!!!
Palin is like the gift that keeps on giving!
?
The United States was founded by the wealthiest white men in the colonies, and voting was restricted to landowning white males. The Electoral College was instituted to PREVENT the lower sort of landowning white males from electing someone unsuitable to the wiser, wealthier elite. How obtuse do you have to be to claim that the Founding Fathers wanted our leader to be "a common person from the people"?
citizen4honor: Country not founded on diatribes
You have submitted nothing but a diatribe. You can't be forgotten quickly enough!
you forgot to mention
Apop, you forget to mention the great leadership he showed by voting "present". Yeah, you are right, he is a true leader.
I also just threw up in my mouth a little bit after reading the comment from NormalNorm that Obama was brilliant. Yikes!
I will give Obama credit though, he said unemployment would not get above 8 percent. Using the same Obama math that touted the fiscal responsibility of cutting $18 billion from the budget while adding $81 billion, 9.5 percent probably is less than 8 percent. Yes we can!!!!!
Not only that Yael...
Being President is tougher then being a "community organizer" as the big 0, the messiah was...
16 months until sanity returns
Wasn’t there another governor who cut and ran?
Oh yeah. Now I remember. Barb Shelly wrote this on Feb. 4: “You couldn't blame Sebelius for thinking about packing it in and taking a high-profile post in D.C. But I don't think she will. It's not her style to cut and run.”
Of course, the Star later told us that it was a good thing that Sebelius decided to cut and run.
Oh well. Maybe the governor of South Carolina will follow the examples of Sebelius and Palin.
Palin, Sebelius and Nixon
As to the size of the various states Kansas annual budget is about $13.5 billion (more than twice Alaska’s (accepting Citizen’s figure because I feel a nap approaching) and Missouri’s over $20 billion (nearly four times Alaska). Sebelius and Nixon certainly have more experience than Palin, though they also have more than Obama.
So how did we elect a President with no experience
Which brings us to the most important question.
How did American elect Obama to the Presidency - a candidate with zero experience?
Change, hope are not strategies for a winning country.
Answer: Media made Obama, hugh financial backing. Obama is a created star.
We didn't elect him
Citizen4honor asks "So how did we elect a President with no experience?"
The answer: We didn't. The Supreme Court overruled the People of America by installing "lil'dictator" Bush, with a 47.9% vote minority, into the Presidential office. Where is the honor in that?
I wonder how "citizen4honor" feels about Lincoln's experience
Ah, the old "Obama has no experience" baloney once again. Let's compare him to Lincoln.
Prior to being elected president, Lincoln’s previous experience in public office consisted of one term in the U.S. House, several terms in the Illinois Legislature and a brief tenure as postmaster of New Salem, Ill. He was also an unsuccessful merchant, a successful lawyer and twice an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Lincoln’s immediate predecessor, James Buchanan, served 10 years in the U.S. House, 10 in the U.S. Senate, 4 as secretary of state and represented the United States in Britain and Russia before winning the White House in 1856. Yet historians are almost unanimous in portraying him as a president who dithered ineffectively while the country raced toward the precipice of civil war.
Obama's 12 years in elective office, including eight in the Illinois state senate (representing a constituency of over 200,000 people) before being elected to the U.S. Senate, is nothing to sneeze at. Neither are his experiences as a community organizer combating poverty, successful attorney, and instructor in constitutional law at one of the nation's premier law schools, after having graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and serving as the editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Interface
After reading your post
Obama's 12 years in elective office, including eight in the Illinois state senate (representing a constituency of over 200,000 people) before being elected to the U.S. Senate, is nothing to sneeze at. Neither are his experiences as a community organizer combating poverty, successful attorney, and instructor in constitutional law at one of the nation's premier law schools, after having graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and serving as the editor of the Harvard Law Review.
.
While I was reading that I got a warm feeling running up my leg. You?
.
Oh, by the way - I'm still waiting!
Experience
Obama's 12 years in elective office, including eight in the Illinois state senate (representing a constituency of over 200,000 people) before being elected to the U.S. Senate, is nothing to sneeze at. Neither are his experiences as a community organizer combating poverty, successful attorney, and instructor in constitutional law at one of the nation's premier law schools, after having graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and serving as the editor of the Harvard Law Review.
.
While I was reading that I got a warm feeling running up my leg. You?
.
Oh, by the way - I'm still waiting!
GW had more exec experience than Obama. In light of that, does exec experience really count? Obama is brilliant. Palin is not. All she can do is cry "poor me" and blame everyone else for her stupid actions.
Obama is brilliant?
According to what? We've seen no documentation of that. He has restraining orders against releasing any of his degrees.
As far the first 6 months all we've seen is him campaigning again.
His brilliant stimulus that was going to keep unemployment under 8% well ---- that didn't work out now did it?
His money to GM to prevent them from going bankrupt - well we dumped another $30 billion into them and they still went bankrupt and now sells are down another 33% - that's not going real well is it?
No earmarks - transparent gov't - 48 hours to review all bills - well none of those are going real well.
What has he done that worked out really well for generating jobs anytime in his career?
See we needed a job creator, not an orator. We got a teleprompting orator who is incapable of holding a live unstaged press conference or townhall meeting.
I believe the Obama you voted for doesn't exist. He was a made up TV character.
Obama..., the big 0, the messiah
Well, he has done an outstanding job of bowing to the Saudi King and telling the world how terrible America is. That takes some kind of brillant mind, doesn't it???
Also, he signed the porkulous bill and led us to a national debt of over 11 TRILLION dollars. I just hope nobody tells the big 0, the brillant one, what comes after a TRILLION.
laughing Come on flop....
Either answer twas or be a man about it and say you don't have an answer.
nice try...
el rushbo would be so proud of you... but why do you guys hate America so much???
With so much of our economy and world standing in a shambles after 8 long years of cheney/bush it seems to me that Hope and Change were just about all that was left.
I applaud Palin's decision to resign, but why so quick??? One would wonder why such a sudden departure was announced on a friday except to exclude those mean old media people from having a week to discuss the thing. Make no mistake with her announcement... sarah comes first, not Alaska. I'm reminded of some of the bumper stickers selling up there: "Sarah, the job's in Juneau!"
Why the haste, hmmnnnn...
There can be no doubt that she's setting her sights on the 2012 race, which should give plenty of time to learn up on, oh I dunno . . . THE WORLD!!!
RUN SARAH RUN!!!
s. in mission
Palin was more qualified then Obama .
yael ,
you work for a Liberal left wing tabloid like the "RED STAR" you have no Crediblity at all . Ever wonder why your paper is getting smaller and smaller ?
Palin was a Governer who ran a state , what did Obama do ? he was a Junior Senator from Illinois and community Organizer . Palin had a payroll employees and budget to run also Alaska is not in the toilet like the rest of the states in the United States.
Qualified?
you work for a Liberal left wing tabloid like the "RED STAR" you have no Crediblity at all . Ever wonder why your paper is getting smaller and smaller ?
Palin was a Governer who ran a state , what did Obama do ? he was a Junior Senator from Illinois and community Organizer . Palin had a payroll employees and budget to run also Alaska is not in the toilet like the rest of the states in the United States.
Did you forget state senator, constitutional law professor, president of the Harvard Law Review, etc. Oh, Sarah was mayor of Wasilla (and almost bankrupted it with her questionable dealings), and a local news sportscaster. Impressive. And her tenure as governor is just a few months. Not even close to a full term. Winning an election in Alaska is no big honor either.
Two possibilities
I see two distinct possibilities behind Palin's surprise resignation:
1. There are rumors out there that she is about to be indicted - possibly on embezzlement charges based on her term as mayor in Wassila. What I'm hearing most often is that Palin used materials from the gym/community center she had built on her private home. (I tend to doubt this since if they can't bring down Ted Stevens for corruption, Palin would probably have been better off to take her chances in the legal system.)
2. A more likely explanation is that she will become a national commentator on FOX or a similar venue. If Rush Limbaugh polls highest among the GOP as it's "voice," then Palin will likely see a gig as a FOX News correspondent as a way to increase her national following. (Let's face it, Alaska is too far from the Beltway to give her a national stage, but a national TV or radio show would. Plus, if she's successful at it, it would chip away at the "dumb" stereotype. Ordinarily I'd say that a commentator's position wouldn't help, but given that the GOP was smitten with putting a washed up actor in the White House, the whole "cult of personality" may work for Palin.)
Sarah Palin and the Founding Persons
I agree with your point, Citizen, that the Founding Fathers envisioned a country governed by citizen-statesmen (we’ll update this to citizen-statespersons for political correctness). Still, I can’t bring myself to place Sarah Palin in intellectual company of the founders. Maybe she is, but she hasn’t shown it.
Side Note: I am always amused that Palin supports refer to her as the Governor of the largest State and detractors as Governor of one of the smallest (4th smallest in population—between the Dakotas). Both are accurate, though neither is particularly honest. Alaska is far more complex than either of the Dakotas and not nearly as complex as many of the larger States (in terms of population).
Sarah and the Founding Fathers
Side Note: I am always amused that Palin supports refer to her as the Governor of the largest State and detractors as Governor of one of the smallest (4th smallest in population—between the Dakotas). Both are accurate, though neither is particularly honest. Alaska is far more complex than either of the Dakotas and not nearly as complex as many of the larger States (in terms of population).
Govenor is bigger job than junior Senator
"But quitting that job probably won't help convince Americans in the long run that she would be up to the task of being president. Last time I checked, serving in the White House is a lot tougher job than being the governor of Alaska."
And I believe running the largest land state with over a $5.5 Billion budget and 1600 employees is a bigger job than running a community organization of $50 Million with 60 employees and being a junior senator for 143 days.
So in that regard, Sarah Palin was more qualified than Barack Obama in running for President.
Sarah Had A Big Job???
And I believe running the largest land state with over a $5.5 Billion budget and 1600 employees is a bigger job than running a community organization of $50 Million with 60 employees and being a junior senator for 143 days.
So in that regard, Sarah Palin was more qualified than Barack Obama in running for President.
Sarah tried to run a state with built-in revenue and almost no population to worry about. A mayor of a medium-size city has more responsibility. Wow! 1600 employees? Impressive. Oh, she really didn't run Alaska for long, if you count the time campaigning, flitting around the country for publicity, and now quitting her job.
Sarah had a bigger job - Obviously
You missed the point.
The media keep bringing up Palin's lack of experience. But no one discussed Obama's.
Clearly she had more experience than Obama did.
laughing
Clearly she had more experience than Obama did.
It's hard to greet such a ridiculous claim with anything other than laughter. :-D
Don't forget the PTA!
Clearly she had more experience than Obama did.
It's hard to greet such a ridiculous claim with anything other than laughter. :-D
She was president of the PTA before she became mayor.
And after her speech yesterday, I think she also must have been a point guard at some time.
So?
Clearly she had more experience than Obama did.
It's hard to greet such a ridiculous claim with anything other than laughter. :-D
She was president of the PTA before she became mayor.
And after her speech yesterday, I think she also must have been a point guard at some time.
That is still significantly more experience than Obama had. He has never had a real job, of any kind. Running a volunteer organization requires skills that are easily transferred to an executive office.
You guys are too funny
Clearly she had more experience than Obama did.
It's hard to greet such a ridiculous claim with anything other than laughter. :-D
She was president of the PTA before she became mayor.
And after her speech yesterday, I think she also must have been a point guard at some time.
That is still significantly more experience than Obama had. He has never had a real job, of any kind. Running a volunteer organization requires skills that are easily transferred to an executive office.
You act like Obama just sat around and twiddled his thumbs for 20 years before he was elected. You always forget he was President of the Harvard Law Review while Sarah hopped from one college to another. And while Sarah was decorating for the prom and coordinating the PTA bake sale Obama was
running a community organization in Chicago and teaching constitutional law at a university.
A Republican with that resume would earn high praise from you Obama bashers.
But the bottom line is he won. He is the president now. And Sarah is nothing. Elections have consequences. Your poutrage is ridiculous.
Obviously you don't know what this country was founded on
Go get an education about what kind of leader our founding father described.
Obama is clearly not the kind.
They wanted a common person from the people.
Not an elitist, arrogant person. That's who runs a monarchy or dictatorship.
Palin is kind of person who made America great.
Remember we the people? We've been forgotten.
So you have dropped the lack of experience claim
Obama is clearly not the kind.
They wanted a common person from the people.
Not an elitist, arrogant person. That's who runs a monarchy or dictatorship.
Palin is kind of person who made America great.
Remember we the people? We've been forgotten.
And you have moved on to the elitist label.
Too predictable.
And too funny.
Laughing - the country is now crying with pain
Clearly Palin had more executive experience than Obama - who had none.
Palin had been elected to office by the people.
Obama became his career by eliminating his competition getting them taken off of the ballot. He ran against no-one.
Palin has results. Obama has thoughts.
I go by results. Not words.
Again - where does Obama have any prior executive leadership from or running anything that has responsibility tied to it that he achieved anything.
There is none.
America the no longer great
When did we become a people whose career is to make fun of others and rejoice at someone's pain or hardships?
Sarah Palin is an accomplished Govenor. She managed the largest state in the nation, took on her own political parties corruption and balanced Alaska's books.
She was a threat to the Democrats and even other long term Republicans. Many would love nothing better than to see her fail.
She is exactly who our founding fathers described as a politican of this great Republic.
A common person who understands people, whose drive is not from the need to be powerful, but the need to represent the people.
Every American should read the 5000 Year Leap which describes what principles we were founded on and what made us the greatest country in the world.
Since American history is not longer being taught in our schools - because it may offend some foreign students, we need to re educate ourselves.
Unless we get back to what made us - we will no longer be a great nation.
Sarah Is A Threat
Sarah Palin is an accomplished Govenor. She managed the largest state in the nation, took on her own political parties corruption and balanced Alaska's books.
She was a threat to the Democrats and even other long term Republicans. Many would love nothing better than to see her fail.
She is exactly who our founding fathers described as a politican of this great Republic.
A common person who understands people, whose drive is not from the need to be powerful, but the need to represent the people.
Every American should read the 5000 Year Leap which describes what principles we were founded on and what made us the greatest country in the world.
Since American history is not longer being taught in our schools - because it may offend some foreign students, we need to re educate ourselves.
Unless we get back to what made us - we will no longer be a great nation.
Sarah's drive is for attention and not much else. A threat to democrats? How about a threat to democracy? A threat to general intelligence? A threat to our nation's reputation and prestige? Thank heavens the Wasilla Hillbillies will never occupy the Whitehouse.
Yael, I find it funny you
Yael, I find it funny you jump to the conclusion that it is ethical investigations that made her quit, yet you forget to mention she has been cleared on all the charges to date, and has amassed $500,000 in legal bills to defend herself against these lies by people of your ilk. Maybe she doesn't feel it is in her families best interest to be bankrupted by false allegations from political opponets. I would say that is much more noble than trying to hang on to power at the cost of your families future. I am sure you disagree, but everyone knows liberals don't care about anything except political power so damn your family and keep going!
It is amazing
How much hatred this little wife and mother can inspire in the likes of people like old alphabet. What did she ever do to you Yael?