Palin had some good moments; she seems genuine and bright. Overall, I think the interview was a good one.

Disappointed that Sean had to steer her to admitting that part of the problem was Freddie/Fannie and not those mean old corporations. This is typical GOP; try to look like you’re not beholden to capitalist institutions, lest the Dems call you a stooge for big business. Instead of being honest and talking about the whole high risk loan mess as well as ‘corporate greed’, it was ALL corporate greed until Sean brought up Johnson and Obama’s lobby dollars from Freddie and Fannie. I noticed one of the commenters later had trouble explaining Obama’s Fannie lobby money. Ha!

I think they have Palin on a bit of a leash. Really, she should have taken that opportunity to say “You know, we need to have investigations, particularly in light of Sen. McCain trying to reform the system 3 years ago and there was tons of pushback, including some from those who benefited the most from the F/F lobby”. The Dems like to make hay of McCain’s ‘lobbyist’ connections, but I’ve never seen a more egregious and co-ordinated acceptance of corruption than that displayed by Dodd, Frank, et al. Where is that Fed investigation that the WSJ was calling for?

Really sick and tired of being the party of wimps.

As for someone that makes me sick, the way O’Reilly talked over and bullied Cavuto the other night just reinforced why I don’t watch him. He’s a total fake and didn’t want Cavuto’s points to get out, because O’Reilly would be shown to be WRONG and couldn’t set himself up as champion of the little guy. The fact is oil companies aren’t part of some huge cabal to gouge; I’ve heard figures all over the place about how much money it actually takes for the Saudi’s to pump oil out of the ground, and it usually hovers around a few bucks. By the time they price it up (which everyone knows they do… OPEC is the cabal) and the cost of refinement and shipping (and taxes) is added on, it’s an expensive endeavour. Record profits can come from one of two ways; volume or high prices. The profit margin for ‘big oil’ isn’t egregious, it’s average, so O’Reilly is dead wrong about it being all company greed, but if that’s true then he doesn’t have his shtick.

What a tool.

Gov. Palin has shown, in short order, she is not afraid of and welcomes the tough problems facing this country. She also shows her leadership by not ducking the tough questions

Yes, she’s agreed to 2 interviews over a period of over 3 weeks. Now that’s the kind of bravery and leadership that this country needs. As for tough questions, in some cases she’s demonstrated candid ignorance. Only a candidate like George W. can handle a more demanding interview schedule.

I did not watch this. Until the memory fades, there isn’t enough money in the world for me to put up with that show.

Obama’s dream is to play Joshua’s trump to tumble down the walls and to bring in vast international investors purchasing gross amounts of American real estate, banks, investment firms and insurance institutions.

Until mortgages are paid in full, the bank owns title; and who owns the bank, and who owns the insurance company? American stock holders or China, or even Russia? Democrats want a financial crisis so as to destabilize the American population, government and America’s business and political interests internationally.
maverick muse on September 18, 2008 at 1:42 AM

Spot on!

A good right hand/partner is able to offer solutions without demanding credit and has a sense of what their partner is thinking and has a response available and provides that response when asked, not before.

She also exemplifies her leadership by being a great follower.

So, what can she do as the vice president to make us more “energy independent”, “more prosperous”, “safer”, etc.? Send_me

Send_me,

Having the full weight of the executive branch behind her gives her power to do a great deal.

If you are not familiar with how the three branches of federal government work, here’s a link to “Ben’s Guide to the Branches of Government.”

If you find that site a little to simple, here’s another link to the executive office. Take a look at the Executive Departments over which the President, and by extension, the Vice President have control. I bet you’ll find at least a couple there that might have something to do with “energy”, “prosperity”, and “safety”.

I do like the populist tone about reform and whatnot but I would like to hear less of this “wall street corruption” business and more focus on the government corruption, esp. with regard to Fannie and Freddie.

The lease fees are based in part on barrels of oil produced, the difficulty in producing it, and the price of oil.

Alaska does not take money from the oil companies and give it to its residents. Those refunds are based on excess “profits” the state has accumulated after all costs have been deducted from the revenue received from the oil production.

Most, if not all, of the money distributed to Alaskan residents last year was due to the high price of oil.

The “lease” arrangement that the oil companies have with Alaska is the most common arrangement that oil companies have for production of oil and natural gas. While they most certainly do own vast tracks of their own oil and gas fields, for the most part, they lease the rights to production from federal, state, county, city, and individuals.

The ‘friendly’ environment may have done her more harm than good; she needs to watch those, since they will always give her more time to talk. In her case, not sure if that was a good thing or not.

Personally, I thought she was too eager to talk, yet too reluctant to say anything. That’s gotta change, and soon. I look forward to her next “grilling”-style interview, since she won’t have a rat’s chance there of running too long! ;-)

Takeaways:
. relax and feel comfortable. Hannity’s trying to help you!

. “ruflle feathers” – can’t use that phrase more than twice in a single interview, ever again! Get Dennis Miller’s help on the thesaurus.

. needs a more thought-out answer in response to “what are you going to do SPECIFICALLY”. The “Change Washington” phrase was wielded defensively in response to a follow-up question from Hannity, when he was trying to *help* her – not good IMHO.

It’s okay if she or McCain don’t know precisely what they’ll do – in fact, that’s a good thing, given that one has to *analyze what’s wrong* first – but then SAY that; don’t make it look like you’re dodging the question!

“You’re hiring me for my ability to come in, analyze a problem in detail, figure out what’s wrong and *then* fix it, *not* for my psychic abilities. I won’t have the kind of access needed to really study the problem until you put John McCain and me in there so we can start focusing on it. Until then, it’s pointless for us (and that includes Obama!) to pontificate or speculate about things about which we know too little.”

“I have a proven record of doing just that, at multiple levels of government. Obama doesn’t have that record, so all he *can* do is pontificate… what would you rather have, a talker or a doer?”
Anyhow: Sarah had better hope as few people as possible base their first impression off of this thing. She’s much better than this, and it’s not coming through. I think maybe the campaign *should* have held her back a little more, give her some more time between interviews to compose herself. Just a .0005-dollar opinion -

“Please Do Not Feed the Troll” -Zookeeper

I would still like to know just where in the hell all of Obama’s money’s coming from.

Seriously. There is no way the grassroots crowd could even remotely raise this kind of doughage.

FiveWays on September 17, 2008 at 10:55 PM

I bet you he is getting it through foreign sources laundered through individual U.S. paypal accounts.

He has many friends from oil rich islamic states.

Democrats created Fanny/Freddy. Democrats fed Fanny/Freddy to become obese. Fanny/Freddy paid Democrats to keep the growth cycle going. Democrats legislated punitive damages to banks/s&l for NOT giving away mortgages to non-qualified buyers. Democrats want to perpetuate the obese feeding habits of Fanny/Freddy so as to perpetually bloat the Democrat coffers to simultaneously finance and activate their goal: The Downfall of America. Obama’s dream is to play Joshua’s trump to tumble down the walls and to bring in vast international investors purchasing gross amounts of American real estate, banks, investment firms and insurance institutions.

Until mortgages are paid in full, the bank owns title; and who owns the bank, and who owns the insurance company? American stock holders or China, or even Russia? Democrats want a financial crisis so as to destabilize the American population, government and America’s business and political interests internationally.

Democrat Marxists unite and revolt to make Obama’s Mean Dream to get him to his promised land of progressive desolation: TEAR DOWN EVERY WALL that constructs our Constitution and independent Free Enterprise.

By the way, there is nothing wrong with railing against Wall Street when those chumps drive perfectly good companies into the ground.

And, remember, the Repubs. in Congress, not just the Dems, had something to do with many problems we have financially. Although, the Fannie/Freddie mess is 85-90% the fault of Dems over the years.

Just keep going after all the money Obama received from Fred/Fan and that McCain at least tried to do something back in 2005.

stonemeister on Sept 18,2008 12:18AM.

stonemeister: SOMEBODY IS GOING TO GO BLIND!!!!!!!!!! haah:)

I think we may have veered slightly off-topic.

stonemeister on September 18, 2008 at 12:19

Well, it is open thread. Ok, last one.

Peter (after Lois tells him he’s childish): “If I’m a child that means you’re a pedophile, and I’ll be damned if I’m going stand here and take this from a pervert.”

trailboss on September 18, 2008 at 12:17 AM

I think we may have veered slightly off-topic.

stonemeister on September 18, 2008 at 12:15 AM

I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.

trailboss on September 18, 2008 at 12:13 AM

Peter to daughter Meg: Soon you’ll be beating guys off with both hands!