Hagel On Palin: ‘I Think It’s A Stretch To…Say She’s Got The Experience To Be President’
Hagel On Palin: ‘I Think It’s A Stretch To…Say She’s Got The Experience To Be President’
In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) questioned whether John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, has the experience to be president of the United States:
“I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world,” Hagel said. “I think that’s just a requirement.”
So is Palin qualified to be president?
“I think it’s a stretch to, in any way, to say that she’s got the experience to be president of the United States,” Hagel said.
In a recent interview with ABC News, Palin explained her national security credentials by claiming, “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” Hagel said that such answers are “insulting to the American people”:
“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’” he said. “That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.”
Hagel, who is retiring from the Senate, concluded that Palin “doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials.” “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”
Hagel has traveled to Iraq six times, most recently accompanying Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Jack Reed (D-RI). While on the trip, Hagel repeated his calls for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. “It is now time for the United States to start accepting the sovereignty of that country in ways that are real,” he said. “And that means for us to responsibly start unwinding our military presence.”
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September 18th, 2008 at 9:29 amThe blush is coming off the rose.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:35 amActually the Palin lamprey finally turned on her running mate. With all the redefinitions, Sarah is finally sucking the life out of John McCain:
National Security = Energy
Economy = Energy
Therefore, Economy = National Security
As John doesn’t know doodly about the economoy, his national security credentials are now in question. Where that commission on Iran? Welcome to the McCon-Pulin’ campaign.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:35 amIt’s insulting to the Russians too.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:35 amI am waiting for the Pallid backlash. The Obama/Biden focus should and must stay on McBush. They should hammer away on how this would be a third Bush term. Pallid is a distraction and a tool (albeit a dangerous tool) to attract the Christian Right voting block.
The Tina Fey theatrics are wearing thin.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:37 amSen. Hagel prove that Republicans are not as stupid as we’d all like to believe they are.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:37 am“She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel said in an interview. “You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”
September 18th, 2008 at 9:42 amInsulting to the American people and especially to those literally thousands who have the experience and qualifications and expertise that McCain COULD have chosen if he hadn’t wanted a gimmick. The Republican slogan at their convention was “Country First”. What a hoot!
September 18th, 2008 at 9:44 amAnd those few, and there are damned few of them are distancing themselves from what they are describing as nothing less than dishonesty……no honor mccain. Did you learn to lie in the hanoi hilton?
September 18th, 2008 at 9:45 amIn a recent interview with ABC News, Palin explained her national security credentials by claiming, “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” Hagel said that such answers are “insulting to the American people”.
Hagel makes a good point. If ever there was proof that the Unstable/Unable ticket is connected at the hip to GDumbya, this is it.
GDumbya insulted the American people for eight years. McNumbNuts and Failin’ Palin are carrying on his great tradition. I think they have underestimated the intelligence of a majority of the U.S. population and just how fed up we all are with the BS of the past eight years.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:45 amThis morning I heard Palin say the new repug line about how the fundamentals of the economy consist of….the workers! Well I guess I’m a worker and I sure don’t feel “sound”! So, what’s sound again?
September 18th, 2008 at 9:45 amI think Jon Stewart said it best night-before-last on TDS, when he was featuring quotes from all four of the candidates in a “Generic-Off” (highlighting speech phrases that contained words, but basically said nothing). When he got to Palin, her snippet was so vacuous that it made the other three look positively statesmanlike in comparison — even McCain — and Jon commented, “did she win a contest or something?”
Yeah. She won a contest. She most fit the appearance of what the McCain camp was looking for. Unfortunately (for the GOP), the more she speaks, the more it will be apparent how truly unready for the big time she is.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:46 amSenator Hagel correctly points out that there is no
‘Being President for Dummies’ book.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:46 am“Has she proven herself trustworthy?” is the question that maybe ought to be pressed.
In the three weeks we’ve all heard her and read about her, we’d have to respond with a resounding, “thanks, but no thanks” on the lies to nowhere.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:48 amWhile I am normally not sorry to see a Republican leave their congressional seat, I think I will miss Senator Hagel.
He has shown himself to be an honest and objective thinker on the issues, and bold enough to speak his mind and not some script given to him from the radical right-wing, evangelical, conservative enclave of the party.
Republican or Democrat, we really do need more like Chuck Hagel in leadership positions. I hope others see his qualities and the need for his type and will emulate him in their own actions and statements.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:55 amMcSame/Palin…Thanks but No Thanks
September 18th, 2008 at 9:56 amChuckie is probably the ONLY Republican that I have any measure of respect for. He would have been a far better candidate for his party than the current ticket.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:57 amMcSame/Palin…Thanks but No Thanks
I like the way they’re referring to the bobsy twins at the Daily Kos this morning — “Johnah McPalin”.
It’s true . . . just like Wrigley gum, they’re “two, two, two mints in one”.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:59 amHagel, who is retiring from the Senate, concluded that Palin “doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials.”
Why is it that most politicians are only this honest on tehir way out? Perhaps term-limits might get us this kind of honest on a more regular basis?
September 18th, 2008 at 10:03 am“I think it’s a stretch to, in any way, to say that she’s got the experience to be president of the United States,” Hagel said.
20 second pause….
In what way, Charlie?
;)
September 18th, 2008 at 10:04 amI agree. He’s far from a progressive on any issue, but he’s proven himself valuable in that he and he alone, it seems, will stand up to the Republican spin machine and call them on their crap. In fact, I think the paucity of figures like Hagel is a big part of the reason this nation is in the shape it’s in.
He’s like a bizarro Joe Lieberman, except that Hagel is free from the desperate need to be loved that drives Holy Joe into the arms of people who put him up to embarrassing stunts and who snicker at him behind his back.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:06 amNear the end of last night’s Hardball, Chris Matthews said should McCain win, he’d surround himself with the same folks as George W. He almost dejectedly noted, “it would be more of the same.”
Assuming he truly believes in “conservatism”, he’s appalled by the party’s current “bait & switch”. He’s almost berating Repugnicants for not running with their colors, with their clan banners held high.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:08 amUncle Ho Says: Chuckie is probably the ONLY Republican that I have any measure of respect for. He would have been a far better candidate for his party than the current ticket.
You know, Republicans spend so much time trying to steal Democratic votes that they failed to notice that the most important election for them to have stolen was their own primary.
They couldn’t have done better than McCain? Maybe they should have disenfranchised their own idiot Republican voters who picked him….
September 18th, 2008 at 10:10 am“You think”…come on Chuckie, you aren’t running for re-election, just tell us how you really feel about Palin, like she doesn’t have the experience to be a cashier at a Gas Station let alone have the experience to be president.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:17 amPalin can’t even run or control her family properly and yet we are expected to believe that she can be VP or President?
September 18th, 2008 at 10:20 amsatirev @ 29, speaking of Fat Karl, I heard that some hacker hacked into Palins e-mails. Hmmmm this sounds just like a Rovian tactic to try and distract from the issues and to make poor little Sarah look like a helpless victim to the braindead sheople who support her.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:21 amI hope that there are many Republicans like Hagel, who on Nov 4, will pull the lever for Obama in the privacy of the voting booth. No one has to know, but they will feel good that they put the country first above a party that seems bent on destroying this great country.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:22 amUncle Fester Lurks Says:
Palin can’t even run or control her family properly and yet we are expected to believe that she can be VP or President?
September 18th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Be fair, Uncle Fester. The First Dude helped her run that family into the ditch. ;)
September 18th, 2008 at 10:23 amthe people don’t really need to witness more self-destruction of this pathetic candidate
Speak for yourself, satirev! Personally, I am looking to more self-destruction of both McNumbNuts and the Pentacostal Pork-barrel Princess of Wasilla. Karma’s a b*tch, isn’t it?
September 18th, 2008 at 10:24 amYeah,or deathbed conversions:
September 18th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Chris Matthews is on MSNBC right now, talking about “what if Bush had succeeded” in privatizing Social Security?
Now if he will only remember that McStain was one of the biggest supporters of that “plan”.
PEACE
September 18th, 2008 at 10:30 amlooks like sarah-cuda is going to get eaten by sharks – this will be fin to watch
September 18th, 2008 at 10:37 amaagghhh – my spelling sucks – I meant to say “fun to watch”
September 18th, 2008 at 10:38 amFred Says: It is funny to note that you never hear of a deathbed conversion or renouncement of life activities from progressives. It only comes from the right who know they are doing wrong and do it anyway. See George Wallace also.
Mother Teresa is another good one. In the end, she died an Atheist.
I’ve heard of false conversions about people like Darwin. And, of course, there’s that nonsense about Winston Churchill claiming that you’re an idiot if you aren’t a conservative as an adult. All the stuff you ever hear about liberals converting to conservatives are pure lies. It’s what we’ve come to expect from Conservatives.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:40 amHagel was the only Republican who could have given Barack or Hillary a run for their money.
Instead we got Ulysses S. Grant and the Church Lady.
My belief is that the higher-ups in the Republican party never intended to win this election–and so didn’t want to humiliate an up-and-comer who might have a shot in 2012. So they gave it to the guy who was prostituting himself, he wanted it so bad, and who was biologically incapable of running in 2012.
Of course, they’d try anyway–but wasn’t it amazing that Romney and Giuliani bowed out so abruptly? They got the word.
As the War Hero’s running mate, they were down with Lieberman, who was just a turncoat–but Sarah was perfect: no loss at all to the party, and someone they could blame the loss on. It’s all in place.
Contemplate, on the other hand, a ticket of Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe. That would have been a race they might even have won.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:41 amBut that would have been a real maverick ticket–and they couldn’t have that.
Chuck Hagel would make a good Democrat. Palin would make a very bad president, but let’s focus on how to get Obama home to the White House. Make very sure that voters understand that McCain represents a continuation of the same economic, foreign policy, juridical, and anti-oversight policies of the current regime and that it is in each voter’s PERSONAL INTEREST to elect Obama! Focus!
September 18th, 2008 at 10:44 amThat’s okay, muzz; “fin to watch” was kind of an intriguing freudian slip.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:44 amI don’t think it’s really accurate to say Mother Teresa “died an theist”. As I understand it, she expressed doubts, as most people of faith experience, and those doubts have been magnified into a rejection of faith that never really happened.
As for Darwin, he was a trained minister, or at least, had trained for the ministry before science took his fancy. I don’t think he would have recognized the divide between his work and the church that today’s Christianists proclaim exists.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:48 amWhat about all the gravitas?
September 18th, 2008 at 10:52 amIsn’t that a big thing anymore?
Remember when dickjob picked himself and gave the big scoop of gravitas to the dip mix?
How does this pick stack up to that?
Or is gravitas out now?
Or was it ever in?
So the McCain / Pain ticket doesn’t even get firm support from the bigwigs of his own party ?
And in answer to Rove – I do think Biden knows a little more about national issues than the good Mayor of Wasilla.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:04 amChuck Hagel is one of the only men in DC with (R) after his name who is honest. The rest are liars, crooks, and cowards who will sell their mothers down the river. There is not one of them who is earning the hard earned tax dollars they are being paid.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:04 amralph the wonder llama Says: I don’t think it’s really accurate to say Mother Teresa “died an theist”. As I understand it, she expressed doubts, as most people of faith experience, and those doubts have been magnified into a rejection of faith that never really happened.
I read her final words, and some letters from the days before she died. They sounded like a very solid rejection of her faith to me.
As for Darwin, he was a trained minister, or at least, had trained for the ministry before science took his fancy. I don’t think he would have recognized the divide between his work and the church that today’s Christianists proclaim exists.
He became an Agnostic, and I’m pretty sure that the current Catholic view on Evolution is different from Darwin’s by only a certainty in a Creator (Darwin was uncertain).
September 18th, 2008 at 11:08 amHonestly, I don’t think the choice of Biden is even on the same wavelength as Palin. There might be others that some would have liked over Biden, but it’s not a decision that would only help up until the election. That’s about all Palin is.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:11 amsatirev Says
September 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Besides, this female “tool” of the rightwing who flashes her legs around during all of the interviews as though they mean something, denegrates qualified women everywhere. This is like some sick takeoff on “9 to 5? or something….teased up bouffant, Tammy Faye makeup three layers thick, CFMN pumps, and the crossed legs. Why doesn’t Sycophant Sarah wear a pantsuit?? We know that answer. But now all of this “staging” is totally working in reverse with american women as well as the men who see her for what she is….An Airhead with Legs!
_________________________________________________________
What makes this whole scenario truly hilarious for me is that it’s the woman from Alaska who’s wearing the skirt.
I used to be a sales representative for a major company — one that was very conservative, and required “professional business dress” for all of their sales and marketing personnel.
Our representative who had been assigned the Alaska territory dutifully started calling her on customers when she first arrived in Anchorage, wearing a professional virgin wool suit — with a skirt. She was received politely by her customers, but got a bunch of rather odd looks from people until finally one of her customers clued her in. “Uh…you’re obviously new here, and you probably don’t know that the only women who wear skirts in these parts are the hookers.” Needless to say, this rep started wearing sharp, business-like pantsuits.
This was a new one for me, a resident of the lower 48. And I doubt most of us have heard that wearing slacks is more customary for women up there. I’m wondering what Alaskans are thinking as they see their governor these days.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:11 amunbelievable Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
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A n a l y z i n g
her deeds and achievements, John Paul II asked: “Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart.”[70] Indeed, in private Mother Teresa endured the classic dryness and desolation of mystics, a purgation and test of faith known as the dark night of the soul,[71][clarify] which for Teresa lasted nearly fifty years until the end of her life during which “she felt no presence of God whatsoever”[72]—”neither in her heart or in the eucharist” as put by her postulator Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk.[72] Mother Teresa expressed grave doubts about God’s existence and pain over her lack of faith:
http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Mother_Teresa#Declining_health_and_death
September 18th, 2008 at 11:24 amChuck is one of the few Republicans that I’d vote for.
¶ AIO
September 18th, 2008 at 11:33 amBless you Senator Hagel. A true hero on the battlefield and off. He and his brother were both wounded severely in Vietnam, so he knows what it means to commit troops. After the war, his brother turned left and became a law professor in Dayton, Ohio. His brother stayed far right of center but had common sense. He and his brother were at odds for years, but have made peace. In the old days Hagel would have been a conservative Democrat and we would have been glad to have him. Can you say Secretary of Defense in an Obama Administration?
September 18th, 2008 at 11:41 amunbelievable, those words of Mother Teresa’s can certainly be read as a rejection of faith, as you choose to read them. But they can also be read as a crisis of faith, a questioning of faith, which doesn’t necessarily imply rejection.
Atheism kind of implies confidence in the absence of a God.
Agnosticism implies an assurance that one cannot know either way.
The words you quote don’t sound very confident to me. They sound rather despairing. I can’t speak about Mother Teresa’s spiritual journey, but if her words are any indication, they don’t differ much in kind from those of other spiritual figures and saints throughout history. That’s one difference between truly spiritual people and the pharisees we have running the religious right today — those who have supreme confidence in their faith and the God are generally not in touch with them.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:49 amI think it is a stretch to say Caribou Barbie has the experience to be President of her local PTA
September 18th, 2008 at 12:33 pmralph, you’re practically suummoning up … BARTLEBEE!
September 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pmLike Herr Bousche, Palin is an easy mark for Neo Cons, who rely on latent protofascist mentalities to succeed. Palin is the perfect theobotic tool.
http://www.light-to-dark.com/palin_and_mccain_wage_jihad.html
September 18th, 2008 at 12:35 pmOnce again Chuck Hagel proves himself to be the true Republican “maverick.”
While I disagree with Hagel on a number of issues (primarily stem cell research, a woman’s right to choose & GBLT rights), the US Senate and thus our country will be poorer upon his retirement. Why? Although I wholeheartedly disagree with him on his aforementioned stands, Chuck Hagel is a thoughtful, honest and principled politician not bound by partisan politics.
And in the GOP those are in exceedingly short supply.
-AF
September 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pmAndrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
SecDef Hagel — I like the sound of that!
September 18th, 2008 at 12:46 pmDemocrat Soldier Says:
Sen. Hagel prove [sic] that Republicans are not as stupid as we’d all like to believe they are.
Hmmmmm…. funny, isn’t it, how the SMART Republicans are on *our* side…?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:52 pmI’ve lived in the UK for 25 years – then South Africa for a further 13 years and witnessed the Mandela release and elections at first hand – and have since lived in the US and visited Russia. Does that make me more qualified than Palin wrt Foreign matters ?
By the way Chuck – you would have made a great VP choice – for Obama !
September 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pmI do not agree with Hagel’s social stance, but I really like this guy – He has guts, integrity and not afraid to tell the truth. He is a man of honor. I hope Obama has a place for him in his administration. I think it would be wonderful to have him aboard
September 18th, 2008 at 1:10 pmHmmmm. It occurs to me that perhaps Miss Wasilla was the 2nd runner up because she isn’t “for world peace”…
September 18th, 2008 at 2:04 pmpbg Says:
Hagel was the only Republican who could have given Barack or Hillary a run for their money.
Instead we got Ulysses S. Grant and the Church Lady.
Heheheh, pbg – make that HERBERT HOOVER and the Church Lady and you got yerself a *ticket*!! ;o)
~A
September 18th, 2008 at 2:07 pmHagel is one of the few still honorable Republicans still in Congress.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pmI think it is a strech to say she’s got experience. Full stop!
September 18th, 2008 at 4:26 pm