Consequences of an Obama presidency and how
McCain can thwart it
By CHRIS VARMECKY
STAFF WRITER
CJVSO43@PSU.EDU
With precisely a month left
until the general elections,
the likelihood of McCain
salvaging the Republican name
is rapidly dwindling.
September's
"surprise" (the
cataclysmic turmoil
and uncertainty in
financial markets
that allocated a $7OO
billion taxpayer
backed bailout) has
undoubtedly hurt the
McCain/Palin ticket
as of late.
As September passed
and October began,
McCain's presidential polling
numbers have dropped eight
Sarah Palin a poor judgment call for John McCain
By JOHN LENTINE
STAFF WRITER
JPLIB4@PSU.EDU
Since Senator Barack Obama
clinched the 2008 Democratic
Presidential nomination, Senator
McCain has painted him as
inexperienced and not ready
to lead. His seven years as an
Illinois state senator and minimal
time in the Senate have made him
an easy target. Republicans joke
about his time as a community
organizer. Surely, he could not
match the political experience
that the McCain ticket promised.
Senator Obama's decision to
pick Delaware Senator Joe Biden
as a running mate was no doubt
in response to these attacks.
Joe Biden was elected to the
United States Senate in 1972, at
the age of 29, becoming the fifth
youngest United States Senator
ever elected. Currently, Joe
Biden is chairman of both the
Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations and the Subcommittee
on Crime and Drugs. He
also co-chairs the Caucus on
international Narcotics Control,
and is a former chairman and long
percentage pomts on average,
and the probability of him seizing
the Electoral College is bleak at
best. It seems that unrest on Wall
Street not only has the potential
to damage the economy, but its
ugly head has reared its way into
McCain's momentum, proving to
be quite detrimental to his quest
for the White House.
With so much at stake
-- the fate of capitalism
and free markets, the
war against Islamic
fascism in both
Afghanistan and Iraq,
and a secure future of
energy proliferation --
it seems ludicrous that
the American people
are about to entrust
a critical inflection
point in American history to the
fledgling senator that is Obama.
running member on the Judiciary
Committee. He would surely
make an excellent President of
the Senate, the main job of the
Vice President. Should anything
happen to Barack Obama while
in office; Joe Biden would
make an excellent replacement,
which is the second job of the
Vice President. His long-term
. e .
expnence on the national stage
makes him an excellent person
to have the ear of a President
Obama. If Democrats nominated
Senator Obama for his sound
judgment, his vice presidential
decision should have reinforced
their choice.
Since July, we have heard talks
of Senator McCain's possible
vice presidential choices. Rumors
of Secretary Tom Ridge (former
Governor of Pennsylvania)
and Independent Senator Joe
Lieberman (former Democrat)
would have given the Republicans
a centrist and experienced ticket.
Either one of these choices would
have been attractive to many
undecided voters. Instead of one
of these great choices, McCain's
response to Obama's choice was
to pick Sarah PalM, a second year
Yet here we are, Presidential
Election 2008, ready to hand over
the country to the most liberal
member of the United States
Senate and the most inexperienced
presidential candidate to run for
the office in the last century.
The perceived incompetence of
the last eight years of Republican
administration has soured the
American public, (well undecided
voters and those that seldom
follow politics at least) driving
them to elect anybody that
doesn't have an "R" next to his or
her name.
It's apparent that they will
even vote for a Fabian socialist
(Obama) whose naivety on
dealing with rogue dictators is
flat-out dangerous.
Never mind the facts. Forget
that Democrats in the House and
Senate, particularly Barney Frank
Governor from Alaska. To most,
this came as a big surprise.
Governor Palin began serving
on he Wasilla City Council
in 1992. In 1996 she became
Mayor of Wasilla and held that
position until 2002, when she
ran for Lieutenant Governor
unsuccessfully. In November of
2006 she was elected Governor
of Alaska and in December of
that year, she took office. This
is the person we were told was
supposed to be ready to take
office should anything happen
to the 72-year-old McCain. For
a man who attacks his opponent
for lack of experience, this is
surely a bold move.
Immediately after the
announcement, sure enough,
the McCain campaign was put
on the defensive about Palin's
experience. Surely, it took a
lot out of McCain's experience
argument to choose this person
to be a heartbeat away from the
presidency.
The decision to pick Governor
Palin, in my opinion, was a poor
one. There have been many
obvious backlashes to McCain's
decision to add her to the ticket.
and Chris Dodd, presided over
the biggest financial meltdown
since the Great Depression.
Forget that the dastardly culprits
of this disaster Franklin Raines
and Jim Johnson, former CEOs
who cooked the books to meet
salary quotas while managing
Fannie and Freddy, are now
advisers to Obama. Forget that
liberal policies of relevancy (the
political hijacking of bureaucracy
in order to meet societal equality)
eroded the dichotomy between
bureaucracy and politics,
essentially generating this
calamity.
Despite these inconvenient
truths, the American left and the
media will continue to ignore
them, and Bush, Republicans like
McCain, and capitalism will take
the fall.
So where does McCain go from
Almost immediately after he
announced his decision, the media
began running stories about the
"Troopergate affair." Palin is
currently under investigation
as to whether or not the Public
Safety Commissioner in Alaska
was dismissed improperly for
not firing Palin's ex-brother-in
law, according to CNN. Whether
or not she is guilty of any wrong
doing, the mere fact that she is
under investigation does not say
volumes about Senator McCain's
judgment.
Assuming that she is not
guilty, and this is all just one
big misunderstanding, there are
still serious doubts as to whether
Patin is qualified to be vice
president. Her interviews with
Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric
reinforced these concerns.
When asked why we were
attacked on 9/11, she gave
the same response we have
heard over the past 7 years. In
a nutshell, the old 'they hate
us for our freedoms' answer.
She spoke of Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as
though he holds any significant
power in his country. She used
here? How can a candidate with
so much mainstream opposition
turn the tables on Obama and put
former community agitator on
defense?
In a topsy-turvy race (like this
one has been so far) anything can
happen, including a McCain/Palin
victory.
Well for starters, McCain can
expose Obama's economic policy
and middle-class tax cuts for what
they truly are: welfare.
On the campaign trail, Obama
has been touting that 95 percent
of working families will receive a
tax cut under his economic plan.
However, 40 percent of these
families don't even pay income
taxes.
Please see McCAIN
on page 7
Alaska's proximity to Russia as
a foreign policy credential. Most
alarming to me, was the fact that
she was completely unaware
of what the Bush Doctrine is.
For an average Joe to not know
the Bush Doctrine of foreign
policy is understandable. Most
people never study foreign
policy, or pay much attention
to it. Yet, for the potential vice
president to not know the Bush
Doctrine - the United States has
the right to preemptively strike
another sovereign state in the
international community if we
see them as a threat - should be
more than embarrassing to the
McCain campaign.
It was clear that McCain was
on the defensive going into the
debate, in no small part due to
Sarah Palin, but the tumbling
economy threw everyone off. It
did not help John McCain that
Barack Obama does not come off
as inexperienced in a debate as
he might have hoped. As a matter
of fact, he went toe-to-toe with
McCain in a debate on foreign
policy, the self-proclaimed
`Maverick's' supposed strong
point.