Palin is probably the nation's leading energy expert - McCain

[russ_watters]

This is your response to McCains statement? Come on Russ, you have to admit that this must be one of the dumbest thing that a politician has ever said. In fact it goes beyond dumb and rises to such as level that one has to question his sanity.

At face value, it's pretty bad. But since we can be pretty certain this was an off-the-cuff remark, that just makes it a misspeak. People misspeak all the time and most of them sound spectacularly bad. It's not delusional or insane or any other of the things being thrown around - it's just human.

Here's a list of a some Obama gaffes (and mention of a couple of the most famous others), and some of them are real doozies:

“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.

“We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.

*Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”

http://www.webloggin.com/barack-obama-misspeaks-from-the-democrats-perpetual-gaffe-machine/

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/21/barack-obama-gaffe-machine/

Most famous politician gaffe? "P-O-T-A-T-O-E"

Those are really, really stupid. So should we conclude from them that Obama is really, really stupid?

The commentary on that first blog isn't bad, though it goes too far. Obama is human and he misspeaks like everyone else. But they are right that there is a double standard both in the media and visible here: McCain must be perfect. Every gaffe is evidence of stupidity or insanity. But Obama's are just let go. Worse, though, is that Obama isn't even held accountable for the calculated lies. Hillary got hit hard for hers (the Bosnian sniper one unleashed a flurry of op-eds), but Obama has not. Yet Obama is every bit the story teller that Hillary is, and like Hillary, if the story doesn't work on it's own, change it to make it better! There was some mention of the nonexistent Life story/photo and some about flipping some dates to connect his parents to the civil rights movement, but neither of those were hit that hard. But like Hillary's sniper story, it is tough to accept that they were mistakes of recolection, since they were prepared remarks - real thought went into crafting those stories and speeches have speech-writers and books have editors and fact checkers.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

At face value, it's pretty bad. But since we can be pretty certain this was an off-the-cuff remark, that just makes it a misspeak. People misspeak all the time and most of them sound spectacularly bad. It's not delusional or insane or any other of the things being thrown around - it's just human.

I can see from the Obama quotes where it was he misspoke and what he was likely trying to say.
I'll give you that McCain misspoke but just what was he trying to say?
I'd bet money that my Governator has had more experience dealing with energy management, policies, and legislation than Palin has. I can't imagine in what respect she can be called an 'expert' on energy. So what do you think he was trying to say that may have actually bore any resemblence to reality? I doubt anyone here thinks that either of them believe she is the foremost energy expert in the country or that they really intended to pass it off as truth but believe that he was likely (once again) making a lame attempt at inflating her credentials and stuck his foot in his mouth.

 

[LowlyPion]

These days it looks like Palin is as much an expert on energy as McCain is an expert on the economy.

As the country reaps the whirlwind of McCain's career as a DE-regulator, now he discovers religion on regulation?

Why should the county have to suffer through an energy crisis, born of the shortsighted Palin manta of drilling, drilling, gas pipeline, and more drilling and wait for her to come to a conclusion that if acted on now might serve to secure the US, instead of drive it toward a precipice?

 

[LowlyPion]

At face value, it's pretty bad.

Unfortunately, McCain's statements are just sounding senile. Certainly Palin is not any more qualified on energy than anyone that reads energy reports and as far as that goes, I have little confidence that she understands all that much of what she reads in any reports.

Her espousal of pipelines and drilling and savaging the arctic environment look to be self-serving for her constituents. Meanwhile they sip at the oil trough to the tune of about $7B in state revenues this year and still go begging to Washington for as much pork barrel as they can cart away. This doesn't make her an energy expert, so much as just a chiseler advancing her career on the crest of whatever popularity she can buy from gouging the oil companies and begging from Washington. This is not responsible stewardship of our resources. It's purchased populism.

 

[Gokul43201]

At face value, it's pretty bad. But since we can be pretty certain this was an off-the-cuff remark, that just makes it a misspeak. People misspeak all the time and most of them sound spectacularly bad. It's not delusional or insane or any other of the things being thrown around - it's just human.

Here's a list of a some Obama gaffes (and mention of a couple of the most famous others), and some of them are real doozies:

“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.

“We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.

*Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”

Typically, the Obama campaign follows up and explained what caused the gaffe.

1. Obama meant to say something like 10 people died ... thousands of homes destroyed - it got mangled up . Obviously, Obama wasn't trying to dupe the people into thinking there were thrice as many deaths in KS as there had been during 9/11.

2. This one is a blatant and shameful misquote and doesn't deserve explaining. I guess that's what you get if your news source is Michelle Malkin!

3. Watch the youtube video. Obama starts to say fifty... and midway through, tries to correct that to forty seven - it comes out as "fifty ... seven". Note the long pause in the video between "fifty" and "seven".

http://www.webloggin.com/barack-obama-misspeaks-from-the-democrats-perpetual-gaffe-machine/

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/21/barack-obama-gaffe-machine/

Textbook examples of the kinds of sources that do not pass muster in the P&WA subforum.

Most famous politician gaffe? "P-O-T-A-T-O-E"

That probably wasn't a gaffe. It was more likely that Dan Quayle really did not knowing how to spell the word. But the Republican crowd here love to have intellectual gadflies running the country so long as they're good company over a barbeque or to go rabbit hunting with.

The commentary on that first blog isn't bad, though it goes too far. Obama is human and he misspeaks like everyone else. But they are right that there is a double standard both in the media and visible here: McCain must be perfect.

This is completely unsubstantiated and sounds like hogwash. A couple months ago, there was a report by The Center for Media and Public Affairs, which showed that McCain was getting more positive media coverage than Obama. But if Michelle Malkin says that's not true, who am I to object?

So, in any case, what did McCain mean when he said Palin "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America"? I haven't heard any kind of explanation from the campaign. Have you?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So, in any case, what did McCain mean when he said Palin "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America"? I haven't heard any kind of explanation from the campaign. Have you?

Yes, is he lying about the qualifications of someone who could be the President; someone that we will have known for 60 days at election time?

 

[syano]

Yes, is he lying about the qualifications of someone who could be the President; someone that we will have known for 60 days at election time?

You'll be singing a different tune after you hear this!

Oil of coal, of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, y’know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first.

 

[Art]

McCain seems to have upset Spain now. It appears he thinks Spain is in Latin America or at least their PM is Latin American

McCain 'confused' over Spain PM
By Lourdes Heredia
BBC News, Washington

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has raised suspicions in Spain that he thinks the country's prime minister is Latin American.

Asked by a Miami radio station if he would meet PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Mr McCain spoke of his record with leaders in "the hemisphere".

His answer led some to suggest he thought Mr Zapatero was Latin American.

Mr McCain's campaign team denied any gaffe, but did say the candidate had refused to commit to a meeting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7624143.stm

 

[Astronuc]

McCain could have chosen someone better, BUT, it would have just been two Republican white guys. Ho-hum.

Umm - no. There are any number of women in the GOP who McCain could have chosen, and they are eminently more qualified than Palin. Of course, they wouldn't appeal to the extreme right.

 

[LowlyPion]

Umm - no. There are any number of women in the GOP who McCain could have chosen, and they are eminently more qualified than Palin. Of course, they wouldn't appeal to the extreme right.

Yeah, he could have chosen Carly Fiorina even.

 

[WheelsRCool]

This is apparently a matter of your belief. Your definitions as regard abortion and conception may be faith based and not necessarily universal nor accepted by the Supreme Court as a basis in Law.

Well, it hasn't anything to do with belief for me or faith, it has to do with science. Arguing whether an embryo in first trimester being aborted is murder, I can see that being debatable. But voting to support live birth abortions, claiming that doing so otherwise infringes on "a woman's "right" to choose," is pure murder to me. It is a child by then, with arms, legs, and a brain. The Supreme Court may claim it is still a "fetus" and thus not a "human" but to me that is a nonsensical argument. Killing a human life is killing a human life.

 

[LowlyPion]

I've withdrawn my comments because I realize this is off the thread topic.

Before carrying these comments too much farther afield, if you want to raise these issues elsewhere, feel free to start a thread.

 

[LowlyPion]

I think it's time to remove this discussion from this thread to somewhere else. This thread is about McCain's representation that Palin is somehow an energy expert. I realize that I was bated into responding off topic, but I voluntarily removed my posts, because this was fast becoming a multi-front discussion about far too many things not related to Palin and her limited experience in energy.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The off-topic discussion was moved to the Obama thread.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=241143&page=12