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How Would Sarah Palin Have Fared in the NH-Primary?

by: Dean Barker

Fri Sep 26, 2008 at 05:00:00 AM EDT
I've asked his before off the cuff, but I think it deserves wider discussion.

Because I believe this should be the first question on the minds of every undecided voter in the Granite State.

Three of the four nominees for high executive office campaigned vigorously in our state for months and months, going to house parties, town halls, meeting voters person to person, answering questions at length on specific policy points.

How would Sarah Palin have fared in such an environment, when she can barely handle the very few, softball media opportunities the McCain campaign allows her to have?

Watch these and then - in all seriousness - imagine what her time in the First in the Nation Primary would have been like. Because based on what little we've been allowed to see, I think she would have been laughed right out of our state.

(And in a poll out just yesterday, 51% of Granite Staters say she is not qualified to be president if need be.)

 
Dean Barker :: How Would Sarah Palin Have Fared in the NH-Primary?
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How Would Sarah Palin Have Fared in the NH-Primary? | 5 comments
In particular imagine her (0.00 / 0)
at the Keene Sentinel interview. We've got those on the web. They're not "aggressive," they are actually friendly and human. But the interviewers know their stuff - to a far greater extent than we have any right to expect from a paper of that size. And they ask follow ups.

I can just imagine the awkward pause after she explains to Jim Rousmaniere or Guy MacMillan that she has foreign policy cred because Alaska sits between Russia and Canada.

McCain's Judgment (4.00 / 1)
I showed that foreign policy segment of the Couric interview to a very conservative colleague yesterday, who literally put his hand in his hands because he couldn't watch.  I said, look, this isn't about her, she's been put in a position that she shouldn't be in by the very bad judgment of a man who wants to be president so badly that he will put the country at risk by putting someone so woefully unprepared a heartbeat away from the presidency.  Do you want someone with that kind of judgment to be president?  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

Actually, She Would Have Been Better... (4.00 / 2)
Actually, if she had run in the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary early enough, like getting into it and visiting voters a year or so before the actual primary date, I think she would have been much better than she is now.

One of the many ways our Presidential Primary contributes to the Presidential selection process is that the candidates themselves become better.  We've seen that so often.  I thik Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama became so much better on the campaign trail in large part because of their experiences here.  

Unfortuntely, I think George W. Bush became a better candidate because of the NH Primary in 2000.  He lost some of his arrogance, at least for a while.  Being a Governor of a large state can be isolating, and he had to meet regular folk here.  So we helped launch him to the Presidency, despite John McCain defeating him here in the 2000 Primary.

I think we see examples all the time of U. S. Senators who become more like regular people -- and communicate better as a result -- once they get out of Washington-speak into Portsmouth and Laconia, Pittsfield and Peterborough.  Once our Primary, and Iowa, have passed they find television studios and Hilton Hotel fundraisers to hide in as they visit the bigger states later on.  But here, they have to show they have what it takes to talk "with us" not "to us."  They listen and learn.  They try on their one-liners and messages, and usually discard those that don't work well.

So, Sarah Palin might have been ready for prime time if she had run here from the beginning.  But even though she would have been better than she is if she had run here, I think her last-place showing would have encouraged her to retire back to Alaska and talk about the Earth being 6,000 years old and telling young people in her state to just say "no" to sex, and if the have sex don't use condoms.  

Somewhere between Bush and Huckabee. (0.00 / 0)
But not as experienced as either and not as smart as the latter.
"In my world" (0.00 / 0)
That's what we have to prevent. Sarah's world.
How Would Sarah Palin Have Fared in the NH-Primary? | 5 comments
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