Tonight, Thursday night, ABC anchor Charlie Gibson is set to air the first of his interview segments with Sarah Palin. (The second is scheduled for Friday.)
In anticipation, all over the print and electronic media writers, editors and bloggers have been madly suggesting questions that they think Gibson ought to ask the Alaskan governor:
For instance, the editors of Foreign Policy magazine have 20 questions that are really more of a foreign relations quiz, a list that could be retitled “A few facts you bloody-well ought to know if you want to be the freaking VP, girlfriend!” To wit:
What’s the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?
What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?
And then here’s Slate’s list of ten questions. It’s a pithy, interesting list that anticipates her answers and divises firm follow ups. For example:
What Bush administration policy do you disagree with most, and what would you have done differently?
She’ll praise the president before damning his increased spending. To that answer Gibson should volley:
Then how much smaller would the McCain budget be and where precisely should he cut?
If she tries to vague Gibson out, which she will, he need only restate his request for specifics. It will be like pouring sand into her gears. No Republican president has ever delivered on the promise to shrink the federal government, and no Republican president ever will.
Maureen Dowd also has a list with some serious questions, some tongue-in-cheek and some just plain tongue-releated). (No. I’m not going to explain. Go look for yourself.)
So, wishing to do my part, I’ve put together my own modest list of only three questions, which you’ll find below:
1. You have used the line about how you saved taxpayers money by saying “no to the Bridge to Nowhere” multiple times. It’s even in a McCain Palin commercial released on Monday. Yet nearly every major news organization, including the Wall Street Journal, has found that claim to be misleading at best. You not only originally supported the $223 million bridge, when you killed the project, you killed it, not because you didn’t want it, but because Congress declined to allocate additional funds to build a bridge that was going to cost a great deal more than $223 million. And, yet, even when you finally said no, you kept every dime of the $223 million. So the tax-payers saved nothing.
We all understand, that during a campaign politicians tend to exaggerate. But what would you say to voters to convince them that they should trust you in the face of a repeated statement that looks to be—to put it in the nicest possible way—designed to deceive?
And as a follow-up: How much truth does the President or Vice President owe to the American people?
2. In your convention speech, you were scathing about Barack Obama’s views on Islamic terrorists saying “he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.” The U.S. Supreme Court has confirmed that that suspects—even those suspected of terrorism— should be able to challenge their confinement before a judge: Do you disagree?
Follow-up: Are there any rights to which you believe detainees are entitled during this war on terrorism? If so, what are they?
Follow-up 2: In that same vein, if our soldiers are captured by a foreign government, or a terrorist organization, for perceived acts against that government or organization, to what rights do you believe they should be entitled?
3. You recently told the conservative news site NewsMax that you doubted if global warming was caused by human activity—even though it is the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community that climate change is caused by human activity. What are your reasons for disagreeing?
Follow-up: If you’re wrong about the causes of global warming, and the majority of scientists are right, but we fail to act on their increasingly dire predictions—- there could be grave consequences. With this in mind, do you believe that we should play it safe and institute an agressive energy policy as people like Al Gore suggest we should do? If not, why not?
Okay, now over to you. What do you want Gibson to ask?
(Or do you think that all these questions are irrelevant, because Palin is a sexy pitbull with lipstick wrapped in gobs of charisma—and that’s all that matters, dude!)
The duly constituted authorities have 3 questions for you, Celeste:
Why are you trying to tear down a woman ?
Are you aware of the fact that John McCain was POW ?
Who put you on the list of media deferential enough to be approved to ask our candidates questions ?
Now, please leave this press conference or we are going to have to call security.
Thank you so much for asking me about being fiscally responsible and the Bridge nicknamed the Bridge to nowhere which is a perfect example of what wrong with Washington and why it needs change.
As governor of Alaska, I would like to see ALL of our infrastructure needs met, because roads and bridges can be the difference between life and death in our sparsely populated state during an emergency especially for children and elderly, however I told congress “THANKS†for the money for badly need infrastructure, “BUT NO THANKS†to the “BRIDGE FROM NOWHEREâ€Â. With the help of the Alaska DOT, I redirected that money to some desperately needed projects which connect remote towns and residents to hospitals schools and care facilities.
Yes, the President and Vice President always owe the truth to the American people; just as the press owes the truth instead of lies and smears.
Poklin – are you running on empty or was that a parody.
Palin didn’t oppose the bridge UNTIL AFTER Congress had defunded it and it was a scandal. She vigorously defended it running for Governor and after. Please come up with better bullshit. Alaska under Palin is the #1 “pork” state per capita in the country. It’s also the only state in the union that sends checks to it’s residents rather than vice versa, thanks to collective ownership of oil leasing rights. It’s the closest thing to an oil emirate in the USofA and yet the taxpayers of the lower 48 are expected to send money to these folks at levels unsurpassed by any other state.
If Palin is not, in rude parlance, a “pig” with lipstick, she has been as mayor and governor – to borrow her own term – a pitbull with lipstick gnawing at the US taxpayer’s legs. Now she’s put forward as the icon of ant-earmarks reform. I’m used to getting played for a fool by Republicans, but this is a stunt of Barnumesque proportions.
Oh, I’m sure there will be the usual “gotcha questions” by liberal Charlie Gibson. Can you name the last three presidents of Alabamastan…in order of their ages?
Hey, news alert! Obama and Biden both voted for the “bridge to nowhere.”
I can’t resist this one. My questions for Palin:
Do you consider yourself a feminist? If so, how do you explain your approval of a practice for women to be charged for their own rape kits, or your idea that women should not have a choice when it comes to reproductive rights? If you don’t consider yourself a feminist, why not? Give us your definition of feminism.
Can you explain why Senator McCain’s speech at the Republican Convention made fun of Senator Obama’s experience as a community organizer? What is your understanding of what a community organizer does? How has your experience given you similar knowledge and background of people who live in poverty in the U.S.?
And finally, just for good measure: have you ever had a pit bull as a family pet? Why do you have the nickname “Pit bull with lipstick”? Are you making the common mistake of assuming pit bulls are aggressive and prone to fighting? Would you re-consider changing your nickname to something more accurate, like “idiot”?
Okay, maybe that last one won’t fly, journalistically.
2 . Obama want to read them their rights.
Alaska can be a dangerous place just as the world with terrorists has become a dangerous place. As a young girl growing up with wilds of Alaska, I learned that you cannot take time to negotiate with an attaching Grizzly bear or a pack of hungry wolves.
Al Qaeda terrorists want to destroy the USA and would like to turn cities like Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago in to a nuclear wasteland murdering every single person in those cities.
Obama may want to read a charging Grizzly or homicide bomber his rights but my priority is to ensure the safety of the American people from terrorist aggression on US soil first.
All captured terrorists hare the right to be treated humanely and not tortured, but these are not common criminals or US citizens. Al Qaeda’s stated goal is to murder our citizens and destroy our way of life and they have to be taken seriously. Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi who was released from Guantanamo in 2005, later killed seven soldiers in Iraq on April 26, 2008 in a suicide bombing. There are more than three dozen former Guantanamo detainees confirmed to have returned to terrorist activities according to Defense Intelligence Agency. See Washington Post – http://tinyurl.com/5gyrks
Regarding the treatment of our soldiers like my son. Our soldiers if captured by Al Quada are usually found tortured, dead with their head cut off.
Pte Menchaca’s body is face down, the backs of his legs have strips taken from them. The body of Pte Tucker is decapitated, but his blood soaked head is still recognisable. His lower body is virtually naked, what is left of it.
One of his arms has been removed. But his chest has been opened up, so that his ribs are exposed, and organs appear to have been removed. The flesh around the exposed ribs appears to have been burned.
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002540.html
Yes Reg, I did support the bridge, but when Congress removed the earmark, I was able to fund higher priority and less wastefull projects with the same money.
how do you explain your approval of a practice for women to be charged for their own rape kits
While mayor of Wasilla, I never approved, nor was aware that the police department were charging a rape victims DNA test to the victim’s insurance company, until it became public knowledge. There are still hundreds of small towns where this practice continues and is something that must and will be changed under a Palin/McCain administration.
Feminism when it comes to rights?
I am a “Feminist for Life†http://www.feministsforlife.org/ and believe that every life is precious and the right to life of a baby is greater than any reproductive right.
So in other words, you’re totally full of shit when you and your handlers use this not just as a talking point but as “character-defining” i.e. putting lipstick on a pig. Worse, you have such contempt for the electorate – or at least the demographic you claim to speak for – that you think they’ll buy this crap. Nice…
#9 was a response to #7
Don’t call me a pig!
If the pork fits…
Woody, saying that Obama and Biden voted for the B2N is the kind of GOP spin we’ve seen the past 8 years. That earmark was lumped onto an omnibus spending bill, and like most earmarks, carefully added as secretly as possible. McCain and several of his colleagues voted for it too. The issue is Ms. Palin’s deceptive description of her position. Of course, it was a huge deal when that cloak was draped on Kerry by the GOP, but when the tables are turned, Republicans contort themselves to rationalize it.
Question…..
What are you thought in the hypocrisy of some bleeding heart liberals who are so enraged by your desire to save the precious life of all innocent beautiful babies but are so opposed to the death penalty when it is applied to individuals such has Tookie Willaims or Ralph Steven Flores.
What are you thoughts on spending millions of dollars of the hard-earned taxpayers’ money on such sociopaths as Ralph Steven Flores, whose life is “On a Bridge to Nowhere� Wouldn’t these millions of taxpayer dollars be better spent on poetry and literature books for deserving and struggling art students than prison space for a sociopath?
Ralph Steven Flores murder victims ……
“Christopher Lynch, 16, of Valinda, who was shot to death while attending a party on May 14, 1999. The jury found shooting was racially motivated because Lynch was black.
Claudia Chenet, 23, of Azusa, who was shot to death on Nov. 19, 2003, because Flores mistakenly believed she had helped the police in a narcotics investigation.
Miguel Reyes, 20, of Covina, who was shot after being asked his gang affiliation at a Christmas party on Dec. 26, 2004.
Fenise Luna, 28, of Azusa, who was strangled and beaten to death on Dec. 28, 2004 because of a financial dispute. Jurors also convicted Flores of the special allegation torture in her death.â€Â
Regarding Crime and Death Penalty
I support adequate funding for a strong public safety presence in Alaska. Feeling safe in our communities is something we cannot accept any compromise on. This includes policing in all its forms, the court system, prosecutors and corrections. If the legislature passed a death penalty law, I would sign it. We have a right to know that someone who rapes and murders a child or kills an innocent person in a drive by shooting will never be able to do that again.
above from – http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Sarah_Palin_Crime.htm
2 . Obama want to read them their rights.
Alaska can be a dangerous place just as the world with terrorists has become a dangerous place. As a young girl growing up with wilds of Alaska, I learned that you cannot take time to negotiate with an attaching Grizzly bear or a pack of hungry wolves.
Al Qaeda terrorists want to destroy the USA and would like to turn cities like Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago in to a nuclear wasteland murdering every single person in those cities.
Obama may want to read a charging Grizzly or homicide bomber his rights but my priority is to ensure the safety of the American people from terrorist aggression on US soil first.
All captured terrorists hare the right to be treated humanely and not tortured, but these are not common criminals or US citizens. Al Qaeda’s stated goal is to murder our citizens and destroy our way of life and they have to be taken seriously. Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi who was released from Guantanamo in 2005, later killed seven soldiers in Iraq on April 26, 2008 in a suicide bombing. There are more than three dozen former Guantanamo detainees confirmed to have returned to terrorist activities according to Defense Intelligence Agency. See Washington Post – http://tinyurl.com/5gyrks
Regarding the treatment of our soldiers like my son. Our soldiers if captured by Al Quada are usually found tortured, dead with their head cut off.
3. Global Warming
There is no question that the planet earth is warming, but so is every planet in our solar system including Mars Jupiter and Pluto. This changing environment is affecting Alaska more than any other state.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070312_solarsys_warming.html
It is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages. Geological, archaeological, oral and written histories all attest to the dramatic challenges posed to past societies from unanticipated changes in temperature, precipitation, winds and other climatic variables. We therefore need to equip nations to become resilient to the full range of these natural phenomena by promoting economic growth and wealth generation.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/reprint/UN_open_letter.pdf
Energy Policy of McCain / Palin
A – Commit Our Country To Expanding Domestic Oil Exploration.
B – Expanding The Use Of Our Domestic Supplies Of Natural Gas.
C – A $300 Million Prize To Improve Battery Technology For Full Commercial Development Of Plug-In Hybrid And Fully Electric Automobiles
D – Supports Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) – Note: Pokey would require ALL new vehicles by 2010 to be FFV.
E – Must Become A Leader In A New International Green Economy
F – Commit $2 Billion Annually To Advancing Clean Coal Technologies
G – Construct 45 New Nuclear Power Plants By 2030
H – Encourage The Market For Alternative, Low Carbon Fuels Such As Wind, Hydro And Solar Power
http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/Issues/17671aa4-2fe8-4008-859f-0ef1468e96f4.htm
Note: Pokey likes Obama’s Energy Policy better.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy
Bob, the information about Obama and Biden voting for the Bridge to Nowhere is correct and more accurately presented than Democratic claims that Republicans cut spending for children when spending goes up, only because they didn’t go with the full bloated Democratic plan. The inforamtion is more accurate than Obama saying for two years that we were in a recession when we never were. It’s more accurate than Obama saying that Bush is responsible for manufaturing jobs going overseas. It’s more accurate than Democratic ads showing a black man dragged behind a pick-up truck and saying that Bush allows these things.
In any event, shouldn’t Obama shut up about the bridge if his vote helped put it through, no matter how it was packaged?
I’ve lived long enough to know that Democrats lie more, a lot more, and they do it because the press wants them to win. And, I’m sure you don’t believe your own lies but want others to.
CNN is doing profiles of the two veep candidates this week. Biden gave an interview. Palin refused. But there’s this intersting note: “CNN got access to her family members and friends, which suggests that the McCain campaign and/or Palin were willing to cooperate all the way up to the point where she would have to answer a single question. It was okay to allow her family members to face questioning. Just not her.”
The hyocrisy reeks…
It’s really pre-mature to ask Palin certain questions until she has been briefed on classified information, as has Obama, by the NSA. After all, she just joined the campaign and has four months to get up to speed before she goes into office in January.
A good interview would concentrate on who Palin is and what are her values rather than what she doesn’t know now but is learning.
From the buddies of Marc Cooper and Celeste comes this article on what to ask Sarah Palin: The Nation – Lipstick on a Wingnut.
The first paragraph starts with this classy comment:
(Palin)uses her newborn, Trig, who has Down syndrome, as a campaign prop.
So, now I know what a lot of you think. Why didn’t you come out and say it?
That was a great, honest article by Pollit. Thanks for the link.
Of course Palin used her newborn as a campaign prop throughout the convention. There was no reason for a 5-month old child to be there except to be flaunted. Most disgusting was watching Republicans cheer as a redneck punk who knocked up his teen girlfriend took the stage. Were this the family of a Democratic candidate – especially if it were a black family – the rightwing would have had a field day eviscerating them. The liberals reaction was muted in comparison to what the Limbaugh’s and O’Reilly’s would have launched.
You’re a disgusting hypocrite Woody. The good news is that you’re going to burn in Hell.
Wow, reg is really working himself into a lather over this. Not only is the bf “a redneck punk who knocked up his teen girlfriend” whose welcomed appearance was “disgusting” but he’s now certain that Woody is “going to burn in hell.” Isn’t that stealing the rightwing fundamentalists’ line — the kind of absolute judgment lefties like reg find “disgusting” when it comes from religious conservatives?
Personally I find it appalling on both sides, and don’t think shotgun marriages are a good thing. The hasty groom (just an average teen, nothing clearly redneck punk about him) should’ve been allowed to grow up and choose his future. Maybe this IS his choice, maybe it’s to save face for Sarah Palin — we won’t know maybe for years. But it’s terribly ironic that anti-Ivy League reg, who thinks it’s elitist when anyone other than Obama touts their education, sounds more judgmental and anxious to denounce people he sees as white trash (Woody’s term) than does Woody.
Now that Palin has been interviewed, we see she knows absolutely nothing about foriegn policy (“Bush Doctrine ? Huh ?) EXCEPT that we may need to go to war with Russia – yeah, Russia – over Georgia.
Yeah, the Democrats would never display a Down’s child or an expecting unmarried teenager. Not because they have class but because those mothers would have aborted those “inconvenient children.” I suspect that there is a special place in Hell for baby killers and thosw who defend them.
Bill Maher read from the kid’s facebook page and he declared himself a “redneck” who liked to “kick ass.” The equivalent would qualify him as a Menace to Society if he were black.
Also wrote he didn’t want to have any kids, so your shotgun wedding POV on this is clearly accurate.
Obama displays that he knows nothing about foreign policy because he takes all military options off of the table. Russia, Georgia is yours, baby.
Sarah Palin
And how are you going to be the vice president of the United States with five kids to take care of? She’s got a four-month-old of her own, she’s about to become a grandmother, and she’s partnered with John McCain?
How many diapers can one woman possibly change?
Also, WBC, do you think my main point about O’Reilly, et.al., displaying an outrageous double standard on this is wrong ?
Watch this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04/jon-stewart-hits-karl-rov_n_123852.html
Charlie Gibson’s Attempt to Twist Sarah Palin’s Words
Fake, but accurate, I suppose.
You guys really do believe that Palin’s Down’s kid is a prop for her campaign. How terribly pathetic…and insulting to decency.
Do I detect jealousy disguised with these attacks?
I will agree that Palin is certainly a polarizing and certainly not a unifying force for the country, as a moderate Republican could have been. Choosing someone who represents the religious right, those who see even earliest-stage abortion as “baby-killing,” and who believes taxpayer money should be spent teaching creationism (which should do a lot to prepare future scientists) scares me. Ditto if it’s true that she wants to ban even moderately “controversial” books, like those about kids with gay parents (Jill Has Two Mommies kind) — you don’t have to approve of gay parenting to believe in teaching empathy for the kids of such unions.
But I believe that if Nancy Pelosi, Dean, and Obama himself had been more concerned with what’s good for the country and party and not just Obama’s ego and the left wing of the party, they’d have chosen Hillary VP instead of trying to squash her candidacy long before she finally threw in the towel. Witness how Woody’s hated her precisely because he knew she represented a bigger threat to the rightwing than the left-leaning, empty talking, inexperienced and whiplash-inducing (with his flipflopping on positions to win various lobbying groups) Obama. Plus a Hillary-Obama ticket would have nullified any women’s equality issues Palin brings to the table.
I wouldn’t say Palin is using her down’s syndrome baby as a prop, nor her pregnant daughter, but it does seem to go against the family-first dogma of the religious right. And I do think that mothering the both of them and her other kids distracts from the job of a Vice President — assuming she’s since figured out what a VP “does every day.” McCain being so medically-challenged with recurring melanoma, war wounds which make exercise impossible make him an OLD 72 (vs. say Gerry Brown or Diane Feinstein, who don’t come off as “told old”) makes me question her as the stable back-up.
I don’t believe Clinton wanted the Vice-Presidency. I think she can become a much more effective and powerful figure in the Senate.
You didn’t hear, reg? Biden is going to fake an illness so that Hillary can take his spot on Obama’s ticket.
If Obama needs to can Biden and get a woman to counteract PalinMania on her strengths, Hilllary isn’t loosey-juicy enough. He’d have to reach out to somebody who could beat Palin in the supermarket tabs, which is where this thing is about to go- I’d suggest Angelina Jolie. Palin’s ticket wouldn’t have a chance.
Well let’s see. Last year, in one of the debates, Obama said that if actionable intelligence pointed to Osama being in Pakistan we should go in and take him out even if the Pakistanis wouldn’t. And now we learn that the Pentagon is conducting raids in the Tribal areas. So once again Woody is blowing smoke up his rectal cavity.
Oh, and you “Law and Order” Types like “Lost Liberal”. Did you know that while she was mayor of the “metropolis” of Wasillia, Sarah Palin authorised the polce to CHARGE rape victims for the production of rape kits? Charlie Gibson didn’t ask because its just coming out now. And, yes, she’s already lied about that – saying she knew nothing (the “SGT SHultz” Defense) despite evidence to the contrary.
So we have Obama at a real disadvantage. He wans to talk issues agains the Joe Isusu campaign.
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