HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Sept. 15, 2008 First of all, I have no particular problem with hard questioning of my Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates. I actually WANT them to be questioned pointedly and required to explain previous statements, activities or positions and asked what their policies WOULD be on all sorts of subjects if elected. The only thing I require of those purporting to ASK such questions for me--members of the so-called "forth estate," if you will--is that they ask the SAME questions, in the same manner of all the interviewees. Charlie Gibson's grilling of Governor Palin was fine, as far as it went, although he COULD have been considerably less condescending and arrogant. However that MAY be asking too much of one of these left-wing media ideologues. If one were to run his interview with Obama immediately followed by his interview with Palin, the starkness of the differences would be apparent to all. In his Obama interview, Gibson was obsequeous in the extreme, concentrating on what Gibson called "the remarkable journey" of Obama's rise to fame instead of trying to find out what he had accomplished in his political career, as slim as his resume most assuredly is, that qualified HIM to be President. Gibson's treatment of Obama in that interview was considerably more polite than the interview with Palin, as well. Former Clintonista, Stephanopolis' interview with Obama was even MORE obsequeous and obviously designed to help the candidate seem less confused and far left than he actually is. He even corrected Obama's gaffe in which he referred to "my Muslim faith," something neither he nor Gibson would have even considered doing for either McCain or Palin had they made a similar mistake. As I said, I don't have a problem with "hard" question. I DO have a problem with asking hard questions of the conservative candidate and puff-ball questions of the liberal. All in all, I think Governor Palin did remarkably well, considering the tone and aggressiveness of the questioning. She refused to be trapped by Gibson into committing us to the notion of our "approving" or "disapproving" what Israel may feel it needs to do to protect itself from a future nuclear attack by Iran. It's as if Gibson assumed that the U.S. government HAS the authority to veto what Israel thinks it has to do. I realize that's what much of the Islamic world believes to be the case, but I wouldn't expect our own media to make that same assumption. Israel is an autonomous nation, and our only true ally in the Middle East...so far...and is NOT subject to the whims or direction of the American government. Governor Palin also made Gibson look like the fool he apparently is on the "Bush Doctrine" questions. HE didn't even know what the "Bush Doctrine" is and misquoted it to her in his questioning. She was absolutely correct to ask him for a clarification of what the Bush Doctrine even is. It IS, in fact, a construct of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer and isn't official policy in any case. Even Krauthammer has since indicated that Gibson got it wrong and that the Bush Doctrine evolves from month to month as circumstances in the world evolve. I was pretty impressed by Governor Palin's aplomb in the face of such aggressing questioning and condescension by Gibson. It makes me even more confident that McCain has made a brilliant choice in selecting her to be his running mate. I haven't been all that impressed with Sen. McCain's campaign and have been critical of the GOP's choice of him as their standard bearer because of his tendancy to thumb his nose at the GOP and "reach across the aisle" to try to engage in "bi-partisanship" only to have Democrats regularly pick his pockets. To Democrats, "bi-partisanship" has always meant "do it OUR way, or else." There hasn't been any compromise in them, and the only example I can think of in the past 20 years was Clinton's signing the welfare reform bill (after vetoing it 3 times before) when polling showed him that it was a popular idea among voters in both Parties. McCain's choice of running mate seems to be the future for the GOP and that future is, as it's been before, in conservative principles of frugality, strong military, low taxes, less government and both individual freedom AND individual responsibility. I'm anxiously looking forward to a Palin Presidency eventually and maybe she'll be smart enough to select Bobby Jindal of Louisiana as HER running mate when the time comes. ------------ About the author: David A. Jared is a news junkie, semi-retired and an avid golfer who's been writing his first book, "4000 years of chopsticks" for the last 20 years. Email: jaredland@sbcglobal.net ------------- All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
