Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for November 12, 2008 GIVING NEW MEANING...

...to the term "a desperate woman!"

I know, I know...I said I was done with Election 2008.

And...I am! This is all about 2012!!!

(Of course, all bets are off is Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens who was indicted but (maybe) re-elected gets expelled from the Senate. THEN Sarah can run for his seat and reach the national stage afterall!!!)

I couldn't resist THIS story...talk about having NO PRINCIPLES!!! I mean, if you beg to pal around with a guy who pals around with terrorists, doesn't the "birds of a feather" principle kick in at some point???

SARAH, please show some shame and some sense. You lambasted Hillary Clinton for "whining" about media coverage...saying that it was demeaning to womanhood! So...STOP already with the "jerks" and "stinkers" and that they wouldn't let you give a speech on election night after America had spoken!!!

Get out of the spotlight (as much as it obviously pains you to do so)...and STUDY! Decide what office you want to run for, find out the knowledge required for the office...and STUDY! It wasn't your fault that you were ignorant... (Well, okay, I kinda fibbed on that one, but it WAS more the McCain folks fault since they picked you and shoved you out on stage without properly vetting you.) So, you COULD still redeem yourself...reinvent yourself...dazzle us in a couple of years with your mind as well as your beauty queen looks. However, before it's too late, get out of the headlights...and STUDY!

I'm sorry...just had to get that off my chest!!!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Okay, I added an Op-Ed piece below the first article...just for fun!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday that she would be honored to help President-elect Barack Obama in his new administration, even if he did hang around with an "unrepentant domestic terrorist."

The Alaska governor said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she would be willing to help if Obama asked her for assistance on some of the issues she highlighted during this year's campaign, such as energy or services for special-needs children.

"It would be my honor to assist and support our new president and the new administration," said Palin, whom Sen. John McCain chose as his running mate in August.

"I speak for other Republicans and Republican governors, also," she said.

"They would be willing also to seize this opportunity that we have to progress this nation together, in a united front."

But asked moments later about some of the tough rhetoric she hurled from the stump, she said she was "still concerned" about Obama's ties to former Weather Underground member-turned-Chicago college professor William Ayers. Watch Palin discuss how she could help Obama »

"If anybody still wants to talk about it, I will," she said. "Because this is an unrepentant domestic terrorist who had campaigned to blow up, to destroy our Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol.

"That's an association that still bothers me, and I think it's fair to still talk about it," she continued.

"However, the campaign is over. That chapter is closed. Now is the time to move on and make sure all of us are doing all that we can to progress this nation." Watch Palin talk about Ayers »

Palin was attending the annual Republican Governors Association convention in Miami, Florida. She was interviewed for CNN's "The Situation Room" -- the latest of several high-profile appearances for the ex-VP candidate. She will also appear Wednesday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

There's speculation that Palin, as well as other incumbent governors at the conference -- such as Charlie Crist of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota -- could all have designs on the Republican presidential nomination in the next race for the White House. All three governors were on McCain's list of possible running mates before he selected Palin. See how past VP candidates have done in their presidential bids »

As the 2012 buzz takes off, a new poll suggests that just less than half of all Americans have a favorable view of Palin.

Forty-nine percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday have a favorable opinion of Palin, with 43 percent viewing her unfavorably.

That is lower than a previous poll, suggesting that favorable opinions of Palin are dropping among Americans.

"In early September, just after the GOP convention, her favorable rating among registered voters was 57 percent, and only a quarter of all registered voters had an unfavorable view of her," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

"Palin is less popular than Vice President-elect Joe Biden, with a 64 percent favorable rating, or her boss on the GOP ticket during the just-completed campaign, John McCain, who is seen favorably by 61 percent of the public."

The poll also suggests that men have a slightly more positive view of Palin than women, with 51 percent of males viewing her favorably, 3 percentage points higher than female respondents. Forty-one percent of males have an unfavorable opinion of Palin, compared with 45 percent of female survey respondents. Watch what McCain says about Palin »

"With fairly high negatives and lower support among women, who should be a natural constituency for Palin, she's not starting off from a position of strength," Holland said. "The question is no longer whether Palin was a drag on the McCain ticket but whether her unfavorables could be a drag on a future Palin ticket." See how Americans view Palin »

Among Republicans, though, Palin's rating remains high, with 86 percent of Republicans questioned in the poll holding a favorable opinion of her. That number drops to 48 percent among independents and 27 percent among Democrats.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted November 6 to 9, with 1,246 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

From The Washington Post...

Sarah Palin's Next Act

"I'm like, okay, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere — this is what I always pray — don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is, even if it's cracked open a little bit, maybe I'll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it." -- Gov. Sarah Palin to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren

I'm like, okay, Gov. Palin, you need to disappear.

Her selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee was her open door. Palin's performance in interviews with ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS' Katie Couric proved that she is capable of "maybe prematurely plow[ing] through it." Her slew of interviews -- both scheduled and impromptu -- since she and Sen. John McCain lost their bid for the White House last week prove that she will keep plowing through that open door whether anyone likes it or not. She's gotta stop.

Look, I don't begrudge Palin one bit for continuing to ride the huge wave of notoriety she's received from her vice-presidential quest. But if Palin wants to be known for more than shopping sprees, seeing Russia from her house and not understanding the Bush doctrine, she has to start getting serious. She need look no farther than to Rudy Giuliani for the perfect Republican role model.

Giuliani was a crime-busting U.S. attorney who ran for mayor of New York City in 1989. He narrowly lost to Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins, who became the Big Apple's first black chief executive. But Giuliani turned defeat and his apparent weaknesses into a teachable moment. According to a 2003 article for Gotham Gazette by Joshua Brustein, soon after his loss, "Giuliani was looking for vision and attended a Manhattan Institute conference on crime." Over the next four years, he would be tutored on and his views would change and harden on issues of crime, "quality of life," homelessness, and welfare.

By the time Giuliani ran again in 1993, the squishiness of his proposals and the unformed, yet lofty, vision of taming the ungovernable city that were the hallmarks of his '89 run were replaced by a clear program of action that was firmly rooted in conservative principles. Faced with skyrocketing crime and disappointment with Dinkins' stewardship of the city, New Yorkers turned to him for bold leaderhip in 1993. And they got it (good and bad). Giuliani's startling success in crime reduction led to his landslide reelection in 1997 in a city that has 2 Democrats for every Republican.

How would the candidate who slammed Barack Obama for "palling around with terrorists" and extolled the virtue of "real Americans" in the "pro-America" parts of the country reach out to the moderates and independents who found such talk objectionable, mean-spirited and out of touch with their economic concerns? Does Palin think the Grand Old Party can survive as a national party with only the support of older, southern white voters? Does she even care? These are questions she must give serious thought to. No doubt her fellow governors gathered in Miami this week for the Republican Governors' Association conference have given all this some thought. And in style and in substance, they are light years ahead of her.