New York Times: Palin pick raises serious questions about McCain's judgment and leadership skills

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If John McCain wants voters to conclude, as he argues, that he has more independence and experience and better judgment than Barack Obama, he made a bad start by choosing Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

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Mr. McCain’s snap choice of Ms. Palin reflects his impulsive streak: a wild play that he made after conservative activists warned him that he would face an all-out revolt in the party if he chose who he really wanted — Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

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As far as we can tell, Mr. McCain and his aides did almost no due diligence before choosing Ms. Palin, raising serious questions about his management skills ... There are ... very serious questions about her political past and her ideology, including her links to a party advocating Alaska’s secession from the nation.

If Mr. McCain wanted to break with his party’s past and choose the Republicans’ first female presidential candidate, there a number of politicians out there with far greater experience and stature than Ms. Palin., who has been in Alaska’s Statehouse for less than two years.

Before she was elected governor, she was mayor of a tiny Anchorage suburb, where her greatest accomplishment was raising the sales tax to build a hockey rink. According to Time magazine, she also sought to have books banned from the local library and threatened to fire the librarian.

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Some of the things Ms. Palin has had to say in the recent past about foreign policy are especially worrisome. In a speech last June to her former church in Wasilla, Ms. Palin said the war in Iraq was “a task that is from God."

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The Republicans are presenting Ms. Palin as a crusader against Mr. Stevens’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” The record says otherwise; she initially supported Mr. Stevens’s boondoggle, diverting the money to other projects when the bridge became a political disaster. In her speech to the Wasilla Assembly of God in June, Ms. Palin said it was “God’s will” that the federal government contribute to a $30 billion gas pipeline she wants built in Alaska.

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This country needs a leader with sound judgment and strong leadership skills. Choosing Ms. Palin raises serious questions about Mr. McCain’s qualifications.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/opinion/03wed1.html

[GaryC 7]

The NYtimes. What a joke. Real unbiased opinions there. No wonder their readership has tanked.

[MichelleN 0]

The NYtimes. What a joke. Real unbiased opinions there. No wonder their readership has tanked.

Who peed in your corn flakes? Seems you're awfully angry every time you post in a thread...