PALIN RESIGNATION
“The political air is thick with intrigue about hidden agendas and unspoken scandals. Is she running for president? Was the burden of state office too much of a hindrance to that goal of national office? Is there yet another family problem (please no mas)? Or is there yet another investigation forthcoming, phony or otherwise?
“If she is running for the 2012 GOP nomination assuming there is a Republican Party left by then this has to be the most unconventional method ever of pursuing higher office. . . . This is not advancing in a new direction, at least toward that goal. Other straws, then, must be in the wind.”
www.politico.com
“You most certainly don’t `effect positive change outside government,’ as the soon-to-be ex-governor put it, unless you have the deep pockets of Warren Buffett or George Soros or Bill Gates, or the bully pulpit of Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh or Chris Matthews, or the long-term commitment to some ideal of Mother Teresa.
“Now, maybe Sarah Palin has something in the works along those lines. Maybe the Sarah Palin Show will soon materialize on FOX. Or maybe she’s raised far more money than any of us have seen and will soon start her own philanthropic organization. Or maybe she’s headed off to a nunnery.
“Or maybe, as some would like to believe, there’s a Palin scandal soon to be announced, or a Palin medical problem about to be revealed, or some other sensible explanation out there somewhere. Then again, maybe there isn’t.”
alaskadispatch.com
“Palin paid little mind to her successor. As a viewer, I hardly knew that Alaska’s lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, was standing next to Palin during her announcement. She barely referenced Parnell’s readiness for the job and the continuity he’ll bring. Sure, he got to speak after Palin, but offering extensive, reassuring remarks about him would have gone a long way to comfort Alaska’s citizens.”
blogs.harvardbusiness.org
McNAMARA DEATH
“With him goes a certain perspective on the 20th Century: the perspective of a man intimately involved in the military actions that defined both America and the world. World War II, Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam.
“In 2001, McNamara sat down with documentarian Errol Morris for a series of conversations that would examine the lessons he’d learned over the course of that life – lessons like In Order to Do Good You May Have to Engage in Evil, Empathize with Your Enemy, Proportionality Should Be a Guideline in War – and the result was the exemplary, Oscar-winning film, 2003′s The Fog of War. Some have called McNamara a warmonger; a monster; an unethical, immoral machine. The question of whether he was a necessary monster isn’t one for me to answer, but listening to a man like this take his own measure is transfixing. His vantage point on history was unrivaled.”
popwatch.ew.com
“Despite McNamara’s blunders and the immorality and unwinnability of not only the Vietnam conflict but also the present day Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations, U.S. politicians still cling to the naive notion that they can make foreign countries safe this time around since they are in charge. McNamara’s death should not only commemorate the passing of the late Defense Secretary but also the death of the idea that the United States should exist to dominate or remake the world into its image.”
Freelibertarian.blogspot.com
LOAD-DATE: July 7, 2009
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
