Palin’s creationist/hard-line fundamentalist views are a huge concern to me, though.

But hey: someone whose opinion I respect has just posted on the Obama/carterland post to say that they say something totally different in the O’Reilly debate from what I saw. Funny how perceptions work.

Granted, you have a point with the campaign issue, even if I would stress that most of it only can be applied in the formative phase of it. It shows that a candidate can pick useful people (which, for example, Fred Thompson did not).

I’m also not too hot on the whole Sarah Palin issue, mostly due to her leanings towards creationism and her absolute stance on abortion. I mean, I very much consider myself a political conservative, but for someone socialized in the European political environment stances like some of Palin’s are just way out there. Still, I also would not make her worse than she is. Even if she became President rather quickly, she’d still have to deal with a democrat majority in Congress.

And on Palin: it’s tough for me to have a lot of confidence here when the McCain campaign won’t even let her talk to reporters right now. It seems pretty clear to me that if the Dems had put forward someone of Palin’s credentials, the GOP would be all over her.

What is it about Obama’s understanding of world affairs/history that’s lacking for you? (If anything, I would have thought he had TOO nuanced an understanding.)

As for the campaign issue: bear with me, I’m not an American, but honestly, how does running a campaign qualify you for the job you are running the campaign for? Obama isn’t managing that, and neither is McCain – their campaign staff and campaign managers are. All both candidates have to enter to the mix is their unwavering will to run, and their personality – and, especially with Obama, their empty platitudes.

“Change”, “Hope”, my ass. I give you economic crisis, a resurgency of authoritarianism, a destabilizing Pakistan and an Iran lusting for nukes, and the choice is between an old hawk with fragile health and a man styling himself as the second coming who is eager to apply the inefficient and devastating policy recipies of the 70 ies all over again.

And I truly would not make light of the whole experience argument. Yes, McCain is old and probably his health has seen better days, but he’s had 25 years in Congress and an awful lot of experience and insight with long terms in many quite important Senate commitees. He’s worked on countless laws and legislative initiatives. And Palin’s been running a state with 25,000 employees, and a town before that. Yeah, she’s small-town America, and she has some very conservative ideas, but she’s the right thing to bring onto the ticket for the Republicans because for most conservatives McCain simply was too centrist.

And Obama? Sorry, but in my book just being relatively young and black and full of messianic imagery is not enough to qualify for the position of POTUS, especially if it means you have to deal with people like Medvedev, Putin or Hu Jintao who are likely to turn the guy inside out before having had their breakfast. I have higher demands to the leader of the militarily and economically most powerful nation of the world than being someone who can sell himself well but has absolutely no legislative nor executive nor business leading experience and quite frankly, whose shown understanding of world affairs and history is severely lacking.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/03/peggy-noonan-mike-murphy_n_123647.html