Well, I think I shot down that whole Obama-celebrity thing with the Palin-Beauty Queen thing!

Flop sweat.

Who needs experience when you've got breasts?

:)

This is just the type of gimmick that the media LOVES!

Perhaps he had to choose her because nobody else wanted the job.

It seems really short sighted- grab the news today, and then what? McCain, I think, is in big trouble. Could it be that no one wanted to be on this ticket?

Yeah, but all those millions of Hillary voters who FLAT-OUT REFUSE to vote for Obama will now run to McCain/Palin because she's a lady...

Ah, Republicans... Thanks for the Labor Day comedy routine!

PRESIDENTIAL PRECEDENT

NEWSWIRE--With John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, voters will elect either the first black president or the oldest elected president and the first female vice president.

Is it race, sex or age? That's a mystery.
But superlatives can be unpleasant:
Although someone's assured to make history,
They can still make a mess of the present.

www.newsandverse.com
Light verse, ripped from the headlines

Is she related to Michael Palin of Monty Python? She should be good for some laughs.

One of the objectives all along was to distract the press away from Obama's speech. Mission accomplished.

Aww, I so wanted it to be Michael Palin. *That* would be change I could believe in.

By the way, isn't "Change we can believe in" poor grammar? Shouldn't it be "Change in which we can believe?" :)

Hil-ar-i-ous! Supporters of Barrack "Jay Gadsby" Obama whining about a candidate with all image and little experience? The only thing the Democratic nominee has ever run is his mouth. (And for the next office, of course.) Even his strongest supporters can't come up with a single substantive accomplishment for their guy. You are the ones who made having a pretty face and a compelling personal story enough to move into the White House. Live with it.

Obviously...this is a ploy to get the allegedly disgruntled Clinton supporters. She will get creamed by Biden in the debates.

on paper, it makes sense:
1) she's a woman - if maccain believes there is enough mad HRC people out there, he can hopefully get them to vote for a woman cause she's a woman
2) Alaska was looking less than certain, and three electoral votes may be all it takes for Obama to win. Mccain has to thread such a narrow needle to pull this off, keeping AK is actually that important.
3) the house thing totally blew up in his face, and Romney could not be chosen. Pawlenty is unknown and probably not helpful, and lieberman would have been hari-kari
4) she's young, and apparently relatively talented as a politician

of course, lots of things make sense on paper: communism, the laffer curve, my plan to retire at 35...

No, I think the media is going to run in the opposite direction. They know it's intended to manipulate them (announce day after Obama's speech, and make it a WOMAN, hahahaha, they can't ignore that, historical choice, etc.)

And while the media has cheerfully been manipulated for a long time, they hate it when it's so obvious. And that worm has been slowly turning over the last few months.

And the "we love McCain" bus has started to leave the station over the last two weeks, and McCain isn't noticing (did you read the Time Magazine interview -- they really made it a point to discuss his prickly and abrasive manner).

I think this is going to backfire in a big way.

Looks like I can finally get rid of my prescription for Ambien.

According to Wikipedia, she has done well for the State of Alaska, but that's not a representative state by any means, this is clearly supposed aimed to get the PUMAs on his side.

Good to note: McCain loves young and pretty. If she had blond hair and lots of $, she could be wife #3!

Chuck Todd on MSNBC is already giving Palin a pass for her ethic trouble because he says she was just protecting her sister.

And he has already portrayed Joe Biden as a bully that can't "beat up on her.

Uh oh.

The McCain immunity has just been extended to his lady friend.

Obama picked Joe for foreign policy heft and to appeal to whites. John picked Palin for reformer/outsider cred and to appeal to women.

The choices are strangely symmetrical.

McCain will suddenly be a champion for women. With the snap of a fingers he can now say things like "It's time to take the 'men only' sign off the White House."

Shrewd. Unexpected. This will be a hard-fought campaign.

She has a four month old baby with Down's syndrome...why in the world she would want to spend the next two and a half months on an airplane as part of a doomed VP run is beyond me.

It really does seem like a desperate pick. Someone will have to ask her in the VP debate if she shares McCain's opinion of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act proposed legislation.

Offbeat choice, and I sense McCain figured he had to do something bold to get his base energized. But will an economically conservative, pro-gun, anti-abortion woman genuinely appeal to the Hillary crowd? Probably only to those who supported Clinton solely because of her gender, and there aren't many of those.

Who needs experience when you've got breasts?

Geebus. Do we really need the misogyny?

Her problem isn't that she's a woman or that she's attractive. Her problem is she's on the wrong side of the issues and a complete unknown. I guess if we go back to the "warm bucket of spit" model for VP, the choice makes sense. But the importance of that role has been increasingly significanct since Gore.

However, I will borrow your construction for a McCain critique that attacks his "experience":

Who needs temperament and judgment when you have a wattle?

In fact, its arguably a good pick in part because Joe Biden will NOT be able to beat her up too much.

The one thing we must all remember is that this Veep is very likely to become president.

Are you frightened yet? You bloody well should be!!

Talk about unqualified, untested, not able to be president. McCain is 72 flipping years old and THIS VP MAY VERY WELL BECOME OUR NEXT PRESIDENT!

Christ, I'm feeling ill.

This is too good to be true.

Biden will frag her mercilessly.

This is a much stranger pick than Dan Quayle. Quayle had been a congressman/senator for twelve years when picked to run with GHW Bush. Maybe it's the strangest VP pick EVER.

This undercuts McCain's argument of Obama's inexperience, totally and completely. The oldest president ever (at 72) needs a credible running mate. If Palin had decided to run for president, she would have been laughed out of the building.

Wow! This is great news.

orange

Oh, I see. NOW we're worried about someone being qualified to be in the White House. Got it.

In fact, its arguably a good pick in part because Joe Biden will NOT be able to beat her up too much.
I thought women wanted to be on an equal playing field.

She's Fox News Ready.

after last night, the obama campaign is set to kill her with kindness. they can welcome her to the race, and welcome the republican party to the 21st century, and then return to noting that the ideas she represents are proven failures and not the change we need.

in the bigger scheme of things, had theresa laporte designed a better ballot in palm beach, we could argue that lieberman tipped the 2000 race to gore, and in making that argument, we would be identifying the only post-world war ii race where the veep choice made a winning difference.

PS. and even on the losing side, the only veep choice that helped croak a ticket was mcgovern's pick of eagleton, and he wasn't going to win anyhow.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Maybe he's chosen her "from the heart" because he couldn't have used any other criteria. This is great news and proves McCain doesn't really want to be elected. I think, after last night, even he's voting for Obama.

The Alaska/Hawaii exotic state rivalry just got a lot more heated.

"McCain barely knows Palin..."

And he desperately hopes we don't know her either, or won't come to know her.

Palin, somewhat of a whistleblower, helped put an end to Stevens 'bridge to nowhere'. This COULD help explain why the Rove DOJ [snark] is going after Stevens.

msw, WE do. But it is not widely accepted.

And you're bordering on my giving you a hearty Fuck You...just sayin'.

Obama delivers a speech of vision, maturity and vision. McCain's responce: stunt casting. Practically speaking, will anyone be comfortable with a 72 year old President who looks like walking death who's Vice President is an ethically challenged hack from Alaska with no practical experience?

Biden will pick his teeth with her bones at their debate, and he's charming enough to look nice doing it.

Extremely pro-life...that certainly lure female votes away from Obama.

In a time of true crisis we have on one hand one of the most inspiring candidates in recent memory, on the other we have pathetic political vaudeville. Is there really a choice?

lobbygow,

As a proud owner of breasts myself, I am certainly not trying to be a mysogynist.

I'm just trying to figure out what does she bring to the ticket OTHER than her breasts - or her femaleness - not that there's anything wrong with that!

Do we want Palin meeting with Putin was my point - guess my humor may have missed the mark.

Nashville_fan is right. An old man and a "girl". You can't beat up on either one of them.

That's Just What I Said

...AND her husband is connect to big oil. Perfect, perfect.

Correction:

PUMA = Palin understands my angst.

"Looks like I can finally get rid of my prescription for Ambien"

That's some funny stuff there ohollern! Snarkety snark! Biden will cream her and Obama will pwn McSame. I feel better too!

Well, msw, I certainly support that. By all means, let Hairplug Joe unload on the pretty governor with the downs syndrome baby. Make sure he flashes that creepy smile he has between broadsides. Should work out just fine.

This strikes me as a tremendously desperate move

Desperation is right. No one else wants to go down with McCain's ship.

What in the hell is Kay Bailey Hutchison babbling about on MSNBC? They didnt even give their hacks the talking points!!

Somebody who fired a subordinate for not firing her ex-brother-in-law? How Nixonian can you get? John McCain has his Dick Cheney.

Bwahahahahahahahhahhahahahahhahaha...

AHHHHHAhahahhahahahahhahahahhaha...

Whew--

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHhahahahhahahhahahha!

lets see, Obama's age and even less experience. that takes away the young and inexperienced argument McCain had been making.

if Hawaii isn't really a state, as the right seems to argue, Alaska ain't any better.

after 8 years of turning the country over to Oilmen, and getting nothing but record gas prices out of it while Exxon gets record profits, we now get a woman tied to Big Oil whose only real experience is on the oil and gas compact commission?

this is like stealing candy from a baby. McCain grossly overestimates the number of hardcore PUMAs, and this pick is an admission of a desparate need to try a game-changing move before it is too late - that they are too far behind to take a safe but non-newsworthy pick like Pawlenty.

he'll get a brief bump out of this, and then they got nothin. no one has ever heard of her, Alaska's issues are not like those in any other state, she has had no practice on this big of a stage, and some on the right will recoil at (a) any woman on the ticket and (b) a woman with 5 kids taking this on. And I doubt her husband will be as much help as a surrogate as Jill Biden.

Bold, unexpected and I can see why they did it; I just dont think it will work.

I really think they are throwing this one away ...and hoping that Obama will have difficulty cleaning up the Bush mess.

Pick a laughable unknown from the most corrupt state in the Union.

Brilliant!

Wow, according to the news analysis he seems to have picked Palin because she is attractive and her choice is most likely to take away attention from Obama's speech. Can there be a more obvious case in point that Republican only care about politics and don't give a damn about effectively governing the nation?

Her problem isn't that she's a woman or that she's attractive. Her problem is she's on the wrong side of the issues and a complete unknown.

Posted by: lobbygow on August 29, 2008 at 11:05 AM

Funny, isn't it how the same thing can be said about the One. lol

I agree with everything that you've said. She's the pick that scares me the most, because I'm unsure of how they'll go after her. But we're less than 80 days away from the election. Unless she is a Meryl Streep-like actress, it's going to be a very, very tough sell for her to look presidential. There's light experience, and then there's almost no experience. She fits the latter. She is, as you said, in a league of her own. But since I'm not yet paid to worry about this, since they've been right about all of their moves thus far, I'm not going to lose any sleep over this.

George H.W. Bush didn't have any trouble manhandling Ferraro. Of course, the media was on his side.

Ooh la la! That McCain just loves the ladies!

Stewart and Colbert must be jumping up and down for joy.

I don't think a McSame supporter really wants to compare creepy smiles with anyone

There was an episode of News Radio where the eccentric billionaire Jimmy James ran for president. His ulterior motive was to get his name out there and pick up women. Somehow, this reminds me of that episode. You know, if I were McCain's wife, I'd be very nervous.

I can sort of see the logic. She's young, which helps with the "Angry old man" vibe that McCain has. She's a woman, which might help with the disaffected HRC die hards. McCain's obviously banking on his experience balancing out her inexperience. This still looks like a dumb choice to me.

Andrea Mitchell cracks me up!

She's telling Bill Burton from the Obama campaign about the woman who brought some tea to the hotel room thought Obama was "too mean" to John McCain and now she's still undecided. (Funny how John McCain can say ANYTHING he wants about Barack Obama - and no one is bothered in the least! )

You can't make this stuff up!

Biden will frag her mercilessly.

I doubt it for two reasons.

1. He cannot be sen to be bullying a young woman. I know that is a pretty archaic attitude but that is the reality of modern gender relations.

2. The bar will be set pretty low for her and it is really pretty unlikely that she won't exceed expectations. The truth is that all the experience stuff is nowhere near as important as people make it out to be and that doesn't expose itself in an actual debate. Anyone who is intelligent and reasonably well briefed will hold their own in a foreign policy debate just fine. I don't know much about Palin but I suspect she is pretty bright. So if we (meaning Democrats) go into the debates with the expectation that she is going to make some sort of a fool of herself than we will lose the expectations game badly and that is really all that matters in terms of electoral perceptions.

The same is true for McCain by the way. If we bank on him falling flat in the debates, we are likely to be greatly disappointed. It never, ever works that way. Even if he tanks, the media won't play it that way (see Bush v. Gore and Bush v. Kerry).

Don't fall for it. Its fool's gold.

McCain's pick of Palin, a woman with very little executive experience, a woman who has approved a 26 billion dollar oil pipeline to Canada instead of the United States shows that McCain's decision was made from an adlolescent place of "I'll show you mentallity" instead of one of wisdom and judgment and will be a disaster! Maybe McCain really is senile and confused and incapable of making sound judgments in light of the fact that he is 72 years old and has health issues and if something was to happen to him, this 44 year old woman would be in charge of the highest office in the land with the many huge problems facing us today, because when it comes to doing the people's business, it is not a game but serious, deadly business. If she was Qualified, that would be different but she is not and that is the bottom line. Not to mention that his argument that Barack has no experience And Is not Ready is out the door, his strongest argument against Barack.

However, in this evil ploy to pull Hillary women from Barack with no consideration as to whether or not this woman has the ability and experience to lead the United States here and on a world scale shows a very adolescent way of thinking and as McCain's first executive decision, a disaster!

Talk about your big government programs. If she moves to Washington, will she miss out on her government check just for being an Alaskan? Did they make the announcement on the Exxon Valdez II? Will she be the Silly Walks Czar? (oops, wrong Palin.)

The jokes write themselves.

Why does this remind me more of a Ferraro "just because she's a woman" pick than anything else?

Maybe he's trying to recreate the Mondale electoral success!

Pat, McCain has been the one braying endlessly about the importance of "experience" the past two months, not us.

The Palin pick merely exposes all that bluster as being disingenuous and nothing but political posturing. We simply laugh at the extreme obviousness of the hypocrisy of the McCain campaign here.

I can see her being interviewed by Bill O'Reilly:

BILL'O: So, are there any skeletons in your closet?
PALIN: No.
BILL'O: From your beauty queen days? No sex tapes or compromising pictures that might come out?
PALIN: Absolutely not.
BILL'O: Are there any photos of yourself in skimpy swimsuits? You understand that I'm a culture warrior and I have to know these things.

Biden should just let his wife, Jill, "pick her apart".

She has a four month old baby with Down's syndrome...why in the world she would want to spend the next two and a half months on an airplane as part of a doomed VP run is beyond me.

Comment is beyond the pale. I am a professional woman, have an infant with Down's as well, and am a lifelong Democrat.

What I can tell you already about Palin is she undoubtedly has quite a bit of courage. I already know she has better judgment than you.

Now to Steve Benen's original posting: I disagree strongly. Yes, I if I was a Republican, I would have preferred Olympia Snowe, who I worked with on the Hill and who grew up in an orphanage and who has the same independent mind as McCain.

But I don't think the choice of Palin is "desperate." I think she will give us a run for the money. My undecided friends are all abuzz about McCain's choice. At this point in time she has the best chance of becoming the first woman president through, if McCain should win, her VP incumbency or should the 71 year old McCain pass away in office.

In th next few months Palin will be no more of an "unknown", and no less experienced than Obama.

I will be voting Obama, but I couldn't disagree more with the idea that Palin will detract from the Republican ticket. I think she adds in both substance and electoral strategy. I think it is a very very astute move by McCain.

It's lots of fun, but then again GHW Bush won despite Quayle, so it probably won't matter either way.

But this should be question number one at the debate: Suppose a promising cure for Down's syndrome could be developed through research on embryonic stem cells. Governor, would you still support banning such research, as advocated in your party's platform?

I don't think a McSame supporter really wants to compare creepy smiles with anyone

The Joker

McCain

Two-Face

Yes, this takes away the experience argument, but I think this is a very smart pick for McCain. He's rolling the dice. He's making a play for the disgruntled Hillary supporters and the "change" motif. He's not going to go with the serious, boring "I'm so experienced" campaign. He's going to grab Obama's campaign themes with one hand and sling mud with the other.

Palin is very popular in Alaska because she is a savvy politician with a jocular, straight-talky style. It's possible this pick could backfire on McCain (and it certainly will if the media pooh-bahs call McCain out on the hypocrisy inherent in picking someone so inexperienced as his VP when his life expectancy is so questionable) but nobody has ever gone broke betting against the American media doing its job. It seems far more likely that they'll spend the next two months babbling about how white working class women who liked Hillary will love Palin.

I suspect the theatrics will play to his advantage. God, I hope I'm wrong.

I swear we have a mole in the McCain camp.

If "Ace" asked me who to pick, I'd suggest someone in a blood red state with very recent experience and, if I could get it past him... make it from THE MOST CORRUPT REPUBLICAN DOMINATED STATE POSSIBLE.

You think this pick won't shine a bleedin' spotlight on Stevens and Young and tar the whole crew?

3 electoral votes! 3!!!!

All the geographic strategy of the Biden pick with none of the policy chops.

As P.A. likes to say... "The mind reels."

Bit too distracted by the prospect of Gustave bearing down on us (Lafayette LA) to process this, but first reaction is: Palin Who?

Getting in storm supplies. Batteries, chocolate and drinking water...ain't we got fun.

pat = concern troll

keep it up, pat. so far everything you've said on this post has been backward, and wrong.

better trolls please!!

orange

Yet Another Big Oil connection for J. McCain

Yet Another Big Oil connection for J. McCain

It is a great pick, he now adds Alaska to Utah and Idaho in the win column

Anent Shel and 11:23AM

Shel's "undecided" friends are all abuzz and have communicated this to Shel in the minutes since the pick became known. Apparently, his "decided" friends knew that the "undecided" ones were going to want to communicate their buzzedness to Shel and haven't tied up the airwaves to Shel with their own reactions. I bet they'll communicate their buzzedness to Shel eventually.

I will be voting Obama, but I couldn't disagree more with the idea that Palin will detract from the Republican ticket. I think she adds in both substance and electoral strategy.

Personally, I love how this pick emphasizes how John McCain is incredibly close to death.

How's that for electoral strategy, concern troll?

Palin has ZERO foreign policy experience.

Zero.

Spin that.

Dale:

You can't beat up on either one of them.

I think after last night those days are over with. Barack and Biden are going there. This is clearly about taking the country back. I am talking passion and compassion.

A limp gauntlet didn't get thrown down last night.
Rockets got fired...

anyone notice that she has admitted to smoking weed? http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/governor06/story/8049298p-7942233c.html

Why can you not be tough on a woman in a debate?

How can be the leader of the free world but not handle tough talk in a debate?

I'm confused.

Pick a laughable unknown from the most corrupt state in the Union. Brilliant!

Umm, she is rated by Democrats in her state (including me!) as an excellent reformer who took on the massive corrupt that the oil and gas industry brought to both parties elected officials there.

She has been undaunted in going after Big Oil and fired all the political appointed they had placed.

You may not want to vote Republican -- I won't -- but I seriously suggest you refrain from voting at all if you insist on reversing your facts.

So it's McCain/Quayle.

But Marilyn Quayle.

Why is the media already running with the theme that Palin CAN'T be attacked BECAUSE she is a woman?

You think that Russia and Iran are going to follow this rule too?

Do you all not see the hand of Karl Rove in this?

First Rove works against McCain's instinct of picking Lieberman and (most importantly) works on McCain's staff (to whom he is connect to) to argue against picking Joe.

Then he gets the staff to play up Palin even though McCain doesn't know her nor was she a supporter of his in the primaries. Why?

Because Rove sees Bob Barr cutting into McCain's vote in the West and the Atlantic South. He sees Ron Paul's gathering in Minneapolis being more exciting than the GOP Convention. McCain has to do something to fire up the base and take the wind out of the libertarians sails.

Palin is a cost-cutting, reform governor of Alaska, a maverick against the state's corrupt GOP establishment, a perfect sidekick for McCain. How can the libertarians, reform Republicans and economic conservatives complain now that McCain picked a like-minded person to be his VP?

Of course Palin is a pro-war as they come and that's the catch. She'll be the darling of the cosmo libertarian crowd from Eric Dondero to Reason to CATO. She doesn't offend the neocons or the Christian conservatives.

So it will be important for Bob Barr, Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin to emphasize a non-interventionist foreign policy. It's the fundemental difference between them and the GOP. Always has been.

Palin dissed veep job

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12969.html

In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.�

In fact, she said she doesn’t know what the vice president does.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.� asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain ticket mate.
Palin replied: “[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P .slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.�

She reminds me of Anita Bryant.

This is an appalling choice, and she will withdraw within the week, I predict.

Sarah Palin appears to be the Vice Presidential nominee for the Party of Family Values, the Party of Family first, the Party of take care of your children.

The reason is simple: This decision is a total contra-family values decision.

On April 18, 2008, Sarah Palin gave birth to a child with Down's syndrome. This is for some a moment to affirm their family values credentials.

Here is a comment from a publication from a family physician about children with this condition:

The care of the infant or young child with Down syndrome can be complicated and may involve a myriad of immediate and long-term medical problems and psychosocial issues.

The quote is taken from "Primary Care of Infants and Young Children with Down Syndrome", by REBECCA B. SAENZ, M.D., published in American Family Physician, 1999.

URL: http://www.aafp.org/afp/990115ap/381.html

Another quote:

The psychologic benefit derived from the bonding of mother and infant can be extremely important at a time when, because of the infant's disability, the mother may be questioning her own adequacy.

It is clear that Sarah Palin has decided that her own naked ambition and lust for the power of the Vice President have led her to consign this child to the dustbin. What kind of family values are those?

Please, please, please do not make the argument that women will reject her b/c she chose to give birth to a child with Down's. They won't.
I am strongly pro-choice, and strongly pro-Obama.

But I have nothing but respect for women -- and men -- who are true to their beliefs on this issue in welcoming children with disabilities into their lives. The press release she issued about her baby as a precious gift from God was beautiful. Trashing her for this is simultaneously offensive and stupid. I respect the choice she made, even as I insist on the right to make a different one.

From the Great Orange Satan, Governor Palin on the office of the Vice President:

n an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.�

In fact, she said she doesn’t know what the vice president does.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.� asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain ticket mate.
Palin replied: “[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P .slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.�

----------------
Completely unqualified, no foreign policy experience at all, and hard right on issues like choice. She is far less experienced than Quayle.
It's FerrarroII: the sequel.

"make the choice from his heart."

Sarah Palin spent a year working as a commissioner for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

McDodo's heart has a stain darker than any crude oil.

Let's not celebrate. She has more executive experience than anyone else on either ticket!

Quayle? No. I can tell you Palin has a very keen mind.

Maybe someone can give me more information than this, but one of the talking heads said that there was an issue of abuse behind the firing of her brother-in-law. Is there any truth to that--did she try to get the guy fired because he was beating her sister? Maybe I was hallucinating, but that's what I thought I heard.

I disagree with Steve. Makes good sense, overall. A woman Veep might be an attempt to appeal to Hillary Clinton diehard PUMAs. Palin has the advantage of being younger, while I think a young woman will less directly make Schmuck Talk Expressâ„¢ look old than a younger male Veep would have done.

All of you wanna be pundits who claim Palin is an 'astute' or 'wise' choice need to get real.

2 years ago she was a mayor of a town of 6,000 people. No experience at all, nothing, nada, zilch. McCain just gave up a central theme of his campaign, that Obama hasn't enough experience.

She has quite a few ethical problems. She is tied to big oil and gas. More of the same, on a silver platter.

Hillary voters will NOT flood to her in droves simply because she's a woman. Hillary supporters support Hillary, not just her gender.

And Shel, you forget that Obama has been campaigning for Over and year and a half. I seriously doubt she will do what he has done in a little more that 2 months.

I think the pick was targeted to the National Press. I'm assuming the McCain team focus grouped this, so I would be so sure this is an "awful pick.

Shorter upcoming Ron Founier article:

"Maverick McMaverick's pick proves his awesome maverickiness."

"Yeah, but all those millions of Hillary voters who FLAT-OUT REFUSE to vote for Obama will now run to McCain/Palin because she's a lady..."

Millions?!!?! Hahahaa.. that's laughable.

And please stop perpetuating the myth that women are so politically simple-minded that the only reason they supported Clinton was her lack of a Y chromosome.

Direct quote from the McCain PR: "As the head of Alaska's National Guard and as the mother of a soldier herself, Governor Palin understands what it takes to lead our nation and she understands the importance of supporting our troops."

That's her foreign policy cred. They really are desperate here, aren't they?

McCain is just using the VP pick to pick up women. Or he's going with the Harriet Miers model.

That's Just What I Said

Well, Her husband is a production operator on the north slope, hardly an oil big wig.

That said, Palin brings very little to the McCain ticket other than being a whistleblower, which many GOPr's dislike as they see it as unloyal. McCain will certainly call her a corruption fighter especially if Stevens [red meat] gets tossed under the bus.

Sarah Palin spent a year working as a commissioner for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission
McDodo's heart has a stain darker than any crude oil.

Be careful. She cleaned it up. Threw out all the big oil appointees and hacks.

Posted by: on August 29, 2008 at 11:33 AM | PERMALINK

_______

hey anon. dno't you know what family values are for other people's families?

Misplaced Patriot: By the way, isn't "Change we can believe in" poor grammar? Shouldn't it be "Change in which we can believe?" :)

This is just the kind of pedantry up with which I will not put.

WE do. But it is not widely accepted.
And no doubt Iran, Russia and China will accord her the same gentility.
What a joke.

Sarah Palin? Never heard of her. Seems pretty, and pretty innocuous -- not that she won't be thoroughly demonized by nightfall.

Adding Palin to bolster McCain reminds me of her namesake's famous "Dead Parrot Sketch"

PALIN: "He's not dead. He's just pining for the mesas."

For a brief moment, at least, I think Obama might clinch the deal.

Kay Bailey Hutchinson would have been hard work. Even Mitt Romney (Michigan! Michigan! surely a state Obama is deeply vulnerable in). Or the governor of Minnesota? (again a state the Republicans could well take-- trending red pretty steadily these last few years).

Alaska? No serious national political experience? Who cares?

The only thing I can think of is Karl Rove thinks this is going to be a really close race, and has identified the disenchanted Clinton voter (female, middle and lower middle class) as a key swing group-- especially in the Midwest. Add to that a potential appeal in some of the Mountain States which might otherwise have tilted.

It sounds like Mr. Maverick has out-Mavericked himself.

For the first time in this race, I dare hope.

McCain is going to "make the choice from his heart."

Hope that pre-nup is still valid, Cindy.

Steve, would you post an update on the investigation of Palin's alleged abuse of office? Perhaps Rachel Maddow would then echo on the tv?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121746477267499109.html

Everyone here is attacking the pick on rational grounds. The one thing we have learned about the Rove version of a campaign is that rationality has nothing to do with it...

'Now they can't make the experienced argument'
Why not? You are assuming they are running a campaign with a sense of consistency or logic when they have proven they are not.

'She's weak on the issues...'
Sure but at the end of the day so it John McCain. If people understand McCain's policies he loses anyhow. What they really want are endless shots of an attractive woman on a snow mobile, caring for a child with down syndrome, and hanging out with fishermen and oilworkers.

'Biden will chew her up.'
Biden can devastate her if he wants BUT he might look like a bully. Even if she is objectively poor, she may be better than expected and that, not her performance, will be a story.

'Drill, Drill, Drill'
Palin will be lauded by everyone on the right as an energy expert and the MSM will not challenge it. (she's from Alaska y'know)

I think she may be a poor choice but never underestimate the folks on the right. If the campaign is about ideas Palin is no help, if the campaign is about distracting the MSM while McCain and the right-wing media go on the attack, she may be a great choice...

This pick supports Obama's contention that McCain is not serious.

Incredible.

I think that some of her perceived-by-McCain/Repubs pro's can actually work against her. For example, are religious-right, conservative, "family values" women going to get fired up over a woman that campaigns while she has a four-month-old infant at home?

Won't some of the male conservative Democrats that pundits are so concerned about Obama attracting going to be turned off by the possibility of a young, inexperienced woman running the country should something happen to McCain?

i hope Team Obama is not as naive as many commenters here. Those of you from Alaska say that Palin was actually cleaning up corruption and standing up to Big Oil. I say "so what?" We tied her to Big Oil, we tie her to the Stevens/Young Alaska Republican Party Corruption and let her spend the precious few days she has benfore the election explaining her way out of it.

Sheesh, have y'all learned nothing from the last 28 years of Presidential campaigns?

Ah, so the plan is...

We can't criticize McCain because he's a POW.
And we can't criticize Palin because she's a girl.

I think it is a smart choice by McCain. A lot of the comments above are outright sexist.

So Palin has a four-month-old baby with Down's Syndrome and she is going to become Vice President?

Where are the family values in her life?

That's odd -- why did John McCain pick Tina Fey as his running mate?

You have to admit that Sarah Palin is pretty hot (remember she was in the Ms. Alaska Pageant) and MUCH BETTER on the eyes than Joe Biden

http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=5055328

Was Paris Hilton not available because she's too young to qualify? Certainly she has great knowledge on energy issues!

Who got passed over? And who refused?

This is a McCain pick, not a party pick. There are barons in the Marches who will now sit on their hands when the king asks for help.

Yes. No woman with a disable child should be a professional or hold a demanding job.

If the same failed policies that have been supported by John McCain and George Bush are implemented by a woman - does that make them better?

P.S. The fact that her child is 4 months old and has Down Syndrome is a non-issue. Doesn't affect gas prices, foreign policy, or the housing slump.

Irrelevant distraction.

Biden's job is to beat up McCain, not Palin.

regarding: By the way, isn't "Change we can believe in" poor grammar? Shouldn't it be "Change in which we can believe?"

... "never end a sentence with a preposition"

A Harvard freshman approached an upperclassperson on the first day of class: "Can you please tell me where the library is at?"

The upperclassperson replied: "Here at Harvard, we never end a sentence with a preposition"

The freshman then said, after a pause: "OK then, can you please tell me where the library is at, asshole?"

hey anon, dno't you know what family values are for other people's families?

It seems Palin is the subject of an ethics investigation if thats what you mean,,,

This is an amazingly poor choice for a candidate with serious questions about his age & health.

Palin has even less experience than Obama, governs a state with a miniscule population, and has absolutely no foreign policy experience.

Bottom line is that people are going to be a lot more nervous about voting for McCain now, knowing that someone as inexperienced as Palin is next in line for the presidency.

Obama's paid campaign staff is almost as large as Alaska's state government; and his list of donors is several times larger than the population of Alaska.

McCain/Palin in a landslide!!! (In Alaska that is)

@ davis x. Who got passed over? And who refused?

Tell it, brother davis. She's a sacrificial lamb. No one else is going down with John McCain.

I hope experience isn't our arguing point. She has more executive experience than Obama or Biden. I think a lot of the negativity here is because she is a woman.

She has a formidable record as a reformer.

Everything I have read here is ad hominem attack. Not ONE piece of information or discussion on her policies and views (except an ironic reversal of her contentious relationship with the oil companies into a false accusation of toadyism).

Great. Another Oil connection on the Republican Ticket. Haven't we had enough of Oil Company influence in our politics?

Imagine someone with less than two years of experience governing the fourth-smallest state, who is implicated in a tawdry state trooper scandal, nominated to be the second in command of the most powerful nation on earth. Biden will make mince meat out of her.

It's one thing to live the American Dream. It's another thing to be dreaming.

After this decision maybe McCain will be invited to be a guest celebrity in "Vagina Monologues."

Codepink,

She has more executive experience doing what?

What has she done?

Senator Obama has been one hell of an executive running his campaign - and he has the RESULTS to show for it.

I want someone to answer the question: WHAT HAS SHE ACCOMPLISHED?

It's quite obvious to me this pick was made out of desperation AND misguided logic more than anything else. Contrary to popular belief, I think the Republicans were somewhat affected by (at least paying close attention to) the DNC. McCain is OBVIOUSLY trying to STEAL Obama's thunder.

When it became apparent that the so-called "disgruntled female Hillary Clinton voters" might not go McCain's way quite as he planned, he decided to "shore up that voter block" with Sarah Palin.

Palin is NOT Clinton, and will NOT have the same draw power. The state of Alaska has NO national appeal, and being that she's anti-abortion won't go over too well with a LOT of women voters!

As others have already posted here, Palin has LITTLE EXPERIENCE, and will open the door for the Democrats to take the fight to the GOP even more so! McCain is simply trying to imitate everything Obama's already doing successfully---and voters with their EYES WIDE OPEN should not be fooled!!

Not as strange as it seems - Palin has built her short political career on reform, and McCain is trying to show his maverick streak.

Looks like McCain just picked his very own Danielle Quayle.

Good thing Biden doesn't know anything, she'll do fine in the VP debates.

LOL!

Just yesterday, advisers to the McCain campaign conceded to the New York Times that McCain "thinks highly" of Palin, but "her less than two years in office would undercut one of the McCain campaign's central criticisms of Senator Barack Obama -- that he is too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief." So much for the McCain campaign's message.

I recently reread Hunter S. Thompson's excellent Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, which traces McGovern's organization-based guerilla primary campaign. HST believed McGovern's Veep choice sunk his Presidential bid -- first because Eagleton was of the old, corrupt system McG's people were running against, and secondly because he botched replacing him so badly.

If this news is correct, McCain either has one of its major campaign narratives silenced, as Steve points out -- after all, McCain is old, so Palin's preparedness to step up is unavoidably an issue -- or they'll have to replace her for one reason or another (I can't believe a Rove-run campaign would so give the finger to the fundies by pushing a pro-life choice), which just once again proves what a clown show his campaign is, and that McCain is just not ready to lead.

According to Open Secrets, over the course of her lifetime she has donated a grand total of $648 to republican causes and lists her occupation as "housewife."

Riiight "codepink". She has a formidable one-year record, and prior to that she was mayor of a small town. She is the subject of an ethics investigation. These aren't "ad hominum". She stated in an interview that she didn't know what the Vice President did. She's an anti-abortion fanatic. You can try to make believe that sexism - I smell a republican desperately defending the choice of an unqualified religious fanatic and trying to use her gender to rule questions off limits.

Imagine someone with less than two years of experience governing the fourth-smallest state, who is implicated in a tawdry state trooper scandal, nominated to be the second in command of the most powerful nation on earth. Biden will make mince meat out of her.

Like Bill Clinton (our best president)?

The arguments here are idiotic and sexist.

This is hysterical. You can almost hear the dittoheads saying, "Why did McCain pick a vice-president from another country?"

Republicans have to be sitting there with their heads in their hands at this pick. All of McCain's experience and judgement and this is who he picks as his veep? I know McCain thinks this is a canny pick, going for a woman, but picking her stinks of an affirmative action pick and that won't sit well with the homies.

Sure McCain thinks Palin will be able to debate on energy and now we'll hear about ANWR until we go deaf, but it will also put the focus on all the oil corruption within the Republican party up there, on Don Young and Ted Stevens and exposes more of an achilles heel than an strength.

Having such a WTF pick will only cause questions of judgment, wondering about whether better candidates turned down an veep offer as political suicide or create wonder if this is the best the Republicans can do.

She's also a creationist. From ScienceBlogs:

"The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms. Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information."

How is "She has no foreign policy experience" sexist?

I think a lot of the negativity here is because she is a woman.

Male politicians with a lot more heft than Palin are routinely skewered in Comments, yet "negativity here is because she is a woman".

Text HQ for a better tack.

Conventional wisdom watch...NPR's Linda Wertheimer could barely contain her puzzlement over the pick. Her tone was one if incredulity and she indicated that she simply couldn't see any rhyme or reason for picking Palin.

The official announcement is being made at the Nutter Center at Wright State. Appropriate name.

Nashville, it's SoP for winger trolls. They think that you can magically ward off all criticism from progressives by using the gender of a female candidate as a talisman. If anyone anywhere makes any comment that has any sexist connotation, then of course all opposition to her is sexist.

Of course there are also female bigots, and a handful of hand-wringers who will make the mistake of getting into the swamps with em.

Go ahead, defend your inexperienced creationist anti-abortion fanatic who is the subject of an ethics investigation. Hint: sexist sexist sexist won't work...

I worry about Biden being a little too condescending. I hope he just answers the questions directly and treats her like she is an experienced national figure. Biden is pretty good, but he can be a little pompous.

Voters don't picture the Vice President as President.

Arguably the worse vice presidential choices have resulted in election victories, not losses (Agnew, Quayle)

That said, this choice is not too bad at all. I am voting straight Democrat and always have, but his choice has increased, not decreased my views of McCain.

Someone above said she is subject to an ethics probe. That is not true, it is backwards. She is an ethics reformer.

I completely disagree that having a baby, damned clo