john maddente | midwestern clarity

I'll simply provide a link to a CBS poll, taken this month, that reports an astonishing share -- 51% -- of the GOP views Ms. Palin as unqualified to be an effective President.  I guess I posted too early.  Here's the link , if you care to review the poll description. I'm seeing more evidence to support my suspicions and I'll probably post no more about Ms. Palin as a VP choice because -- as the data increasingly shows -- I don't need to.

Glad I'm not alone. A recently-released ABC News/Washington Post poll with a sampling error of plus or minus 3% shows that not only is Ms. Palin's support waning across the political spectrum, it is also slipping among Republicans as a whole . Like the 83% of Republicans surveyed, I believe that Ms. Palin shares our values. However, almost four out of ten Republicans (and 57% of Americans overall) also say we doubt her ability to "understand complex issues." Which is another way to say what I first wrote last November - that, as much as we like what she stands for, she lacks credentials for national office. Sarah Palin, Wikipedia The Washington Post quoted one gentleman, thus : "Rick Buila, 38, of Sharonville, Ohio, who works in finance and voted for the McCain-Palin ticket in November, said his opinion of the governor has changed. `I don't think that she is cut out to be on the national stage,' he said. `I look at her education and her backgroun...

F orward-thinking Republicans might thank Peggy Noonan for explaining what too few of us have the courage to say -- Sarah Palin -- was unhelpful for the party. I can't match Ms. Noonan's eloquence, but I can identify with what she says in this piece entitled, "A Farewell to Harms" in which she pours some truth serum with her signature wit. Peggy Noonan, Wikipedia If you are one of my five  six readers, you may recall when I just couldn't take Ms. Palin's performance any longer and consoled myself in this November 8, 2008 post . Yesterday morning, I called in to a local radio program to express similar Palin-related thoughts (Joy Cardin takes my call @ approximately 9 minutes and 42 seconds into the 8 AM program on this tape if you care to listen). Look, I recognize and deplore the torrent of abuse leveled at Ms. Palin and her family by the vicious Left, but we can't trot out unqualified national candidates and expect the jerks that take cheap...

I wrote a piece for a colleague (minus a byline) to express views concerning Wisconsin's recently-enacted budget bill.  Several of my passages on our state tax system and our well-funded education system, had to be deleted for my colleague's political purposes. I understand. However, I'll publish below some thoughts that didn't make it into the published version: "The largest recipient of state appropriations from the general fund continues to be publicly-funded elementary and secondary schools. According to a fall 2008 analysis by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, enrollment in public schools declined for five consecutive years and declined precipitously (greater than 20%) in 51 districts. Yet, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects a statewide $200 per student increase in the current biennium. Due to the manner in which public schools are funded, that increase in spending, coupled with a decrease in state aid, will be back filled by higher sch...