Palin a lightning rod, pro and con

Editorial page readers had strong opinions about Sarah Palin and expressed them at the ClickBack section of the BDN Web site, bangordailynews.

com. They also felt strongly about our question about the so-called elite liberal media. A selection of comments posted at the ClickBack page follows.

From now until Election Day, ClickBack will feature at least one election-related question. Look for questions in Tuesday’s editorial column. Comments may be featured on Friday’s OpEd page.

Was Sarah Palin a good running mate choice for John McCain?

Actually, when comparing her resume to Obama’s she has more executive experience then he does. Also, after studying the “Bridge to Nowhere,” Palin reversed her decision and decided to go against it.

Unfortunately, when Obama and Biden had a second chance to vote against the “Bridge to Nowhere” they supported it.

– ckc1996

Gov. Sarah Palin collected travel per diem from Alaska while living at home. She collected over $10,000. Sure, it’s chump change, but I do not think the American people like to be the chumps she is taking advantage of.

– rickew

Sarah Palin is far to the right – opposed to abortion in all cases, opposed to stem cell research, in favor of teaching Creationism in school, and denying that humans have anything to do with global warming. Her experience is minimal, and in my opinion she plays fast and loose with the truth, continuing to claim she said “Thanks, but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere when in fact she supported it until it became a cause celebre, then used the money. It’s a sad commentary on the Republican Party that a truly qualified female vice presidential candidate such as Olympia Snowe wouldn’t be considered because she wouldn’t satisfy the right-wing base.

– marytina

Sen. McCain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin to be potentially one trans-fat deep fried chicken wing away from the presidency smacks of tokenism. Just because she is a woman doesn’t excuse her one-dimensional, self-assured, right wing tunnel vision which is symptomatic of the arrogance that has gotten us into the botched mess we are in today.

– Keith132

As time goes on there will be greater scrutiny of the so-called achievements of Gov. Palin. I believe she’s distorted her record, and when the truth is revealed she will ultimately hurt McCain’s chances for election. Will people vote for her just because she’s attractive and feisty? I hope not. This pit bull in lipstick is vicious and dangerous. If people like electing an Ann Coulter as vice president, then I guess they will, but I believe people have more brains than that. If McCain-Palin get it, then I think the Republicans should change the symbol of their party from an elephant to a pit bull. Woof woof.

– Sylvia

Charm, how a person looks, and popularity do not make my vote. I have witnessed too much of this irrelevant foolishness in high school, college, office politics and other places on life’s roadways.

– johninphilippines

What is the ‘liberal, elite media’?

O’Reilly and Olbermann are commentators. A listener knows what they are getting when listening to them. Yet news outlets such as NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and The New York Times portray themselves as being objective while fixing the news to meet their own political agendas and templates. Fox is probably about as balanced as a news source is going to get.

CNN did a fact check on Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech to the Republican National Convention but not on Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden’s speech.

The New York Times continuously labeled Sarah Palin as a conservative, which she is, during the convention but would not label Barack Obama as a liberal, which he is, during his convention.

Also, The Associated Press’ Ed White had a long story on Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s legal issues and never mentioned his party affiliation once. Yet how many times did we hear the party affiliation of Sen. Larry Craig?

Most of the bias can be very subtle.

– ckc1996

When the media spend more time investigating the Democrat presidential candidate and not the 17-year-old daughter of the Republican vice presidential candidate, maybe, just maybe, the media can lose the “elite liberal” media moniker.

– ShawnDaily