Conservatives question whether Sarah Palin is smart enough to be president

Both a former Republican Governor from Florida and a conservative host from Fox recently questioned whether Sarah Palin has the intellect to occupy the oval office.

In a recent Newsmax interview, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was asked whether he thought Sarah Palin, the former less than one-term Governor of Alaska, was a viable candidate for president. Bush said he believes that Palin certainly has charisma but “her success depends on her willingness to add a depth of understanding of the complexity of life we're living in today to her rhetoric”. He said that public leaders need to have intellectual curiosity.

Fox News on-air personality Bill O'Reilly was asked about Palin’s prospects for a presidential run in an interview today with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America show. O'Reilly said that Palin wants to run but she needs to go to college, a world-affairs college first.

These comments suggest that Republican Party power brokers might be questioning Sarah’s intellectual heft and her capacity to handle complex issues.

More Republican Hypocrisy in the U.S. Senate on the jobs bill.

On Monday the Senate voted to end debate on the $15 Billion jobs bill put forth by the Democrats. This cloture vote passed 62-30 along party lines, with all the no votes coming from Republicans. Today the Senate took up the bill itself which resulted in a final vote of 70-28 to secure its passage. On this tally every no vote but one also came from Republicans.

The $15 Billion jobs bill mainly comprises of payroll tax breaks for businesses that hire new full-time employees, and business tax credits for each new hire who is retained for one year.

What is confounding is that six of the Republican Senators who first voted against ending debate, a now much frequently used republican means of stalling legislation, then switched their votes on the bill’s final passage.

What changed? Once these “principled” Senators determined they couldn’t stop the bill, did they realize that their constituents would finally recognize them for what Republicans have shown themselves to be, obstructors to America's economic recovery?  

The Republican vote switchers are as follows:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 
Thad Cochran (R-MS) 
James Inhofe (R-OK)
George LeMieux (R-FL) 
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Congressman Frank calls McCain cowardly for claiming he was misled on TARP

Rep. Barney Frank (D. Ma) called Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) “cowardly” on MSNBC Monday evening in response to a recent Arizona Republic newspaper story that McCain claims he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to secure his support for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In a story published Monday McCain told The Arizona Republic that he was told the TARP funds would only be used to address the meltdown in the housing industry.

But, the Arizona senator, who is facing a strong primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, told the newspaper, "obviously that didn't happen."

When MSNBC's Rachel Maddow asked about McCain's claim, Frank said it was a "pathetically, obviously untrue statement."

The Massachusetts Democrat said he has gone beyond being disappointed for John McCain to feeling sorry for him.

"For him to blame Paulson or Bernanke is cowardly," Frank continued, "This was Bush, Paulson and Bernanke were acting for former President George W. Bush"; suggesting that it was Bush, not Paulson nor Bernanke, who ultimately determined how the TARP funds were disbursed.

Frank went on to say that McCain has got a very conservative primary opponent. He said McCain voted for the TARP money, he clearly supported it, and he's now just trying to reinvent history. Rep. Frank said it was unseemly for a man like that to blame other people, because he changed his mind for political reasons.

Watch the interview here: 

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35531558

(the Rep. Frank-McCain segment starts at about 3::22)