Actually, I don’t disagree greatly with many of your criticisms of Palin. But, she can fill in many of those gaps over the next two years. Her real test is in assembling a solid team of knowledgeable loyal people in those areas where she is lacking. Reagan certainly did. If she has the wisdom to choose the right people and uses her authority to provide the political will to move the best ideas from these people forward she could be an excellent President. A President doesn’t have to know everything - and simply cannot. What makes an excellent President is having the wisdom to recognize other people who do have good workable ideas and putting them into action.
She is clearly a shrewed politician and it takes brains to do that well. I don’t doubt her brain power in the political arena. You can’t fake it this long.
Time will tell on the bigger picture.
She has shown little inclination from what I've seen. Instead she throws her weight around indiscriminately. She went way too far backing McCain and had no business backing Fiorina.
Her real test is in assembling a solid team of knowledgeable loyal people in those areas where she is lacking. Reagan certainly did.
Reagan spent years traveling the country learning how real business works in the company of a GE manufacturing expert Lemuel Boulwars:
But Reagan learned more in his GE years than a set of prepared remarks. He became familiar with such diverse thinkers as von Mises, Lenin, Hayek, and the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. He read and reread the practical economics of Henry Hazlitt. He quoted Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton. He observed GE’s vice president Lemuel Boulware, whom many leaders in corporate America regarded as the most successful labor negotiator of all time, and Reagan himself sharpened his negotiating skills during this period when he served another term as president of the Screen Actors Guild.
That is what I mean by learning. Reagan didn't spend two years; it was eight years of immersion in free market economics and manufacturing at the side of an exert and outstanding communicator. Palin shows no such inclination; she's running around shooting off her ignorant mouth, not learning. Now, we many need her attractiveness to put the spotlight on local candidates, but I'll feel a lot better if she's spotted with a dog-eared copy of "Road to Serfdom" or better yet, one of MY books. :-)
If she has the wisdom to choose the right people and uses her authority to provide the political will to move the best ideas from these people forward she could be an excellent President.
The wrong people will be throwing themselves at her from every side, all breathing pleasing prose. I can only imagine.
A President doesn’t have to know everything - and simply cannot. What makes an excellent President is having the wisdom to recognize other people who do have good workable ideas and putting them into action.
It takes a foundation upon which to build discernment. She's showing me little inclination to acquire one, preferring to be clever instead of knowledgeable.
She is clearly a shrewed politician and it takes brains to do that well. I don’t doubt her brain power in the political arena. You can’t fake it this long.
Unfortunately, when the audience is star-struck and as long as you keep moving, yes, you can.
Obama did. It was only when he was confronted with the reality of daily decisions that he showed himself. Palin is nowhere near so thin there, but I would call her performance stellar as she has shown weakness in making decisions that are problematic. It's easy to look good with that much oil revenue.