McCain chooses Sarah Palin (AK) for VP

[rn79870]

Is this good? What do you think?

I'm thinking that there is a real chance that she may end up as pres due to McCain's age and health issues. (not putting McCain down, but this is a true concern) What about experience on the national level? What about the 3AM phone call if she does take over the office of POTUS.

[Cold_Zero]

NOW EXPERIENCE IS AN ISSUE?

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!

[rn79870]

not it's not?

[ishkabibble]

Quite the coup by the right. This just nixed most of the talk about Obama's speech, and will win over some of Hillary's supporters.

[rn79870]

I just saw a poll on the publics choices. Palin was last with 2% of the public supporting her as McCain's running mate. (pre-announcement) Romney was 1st.

At least she doesn't bring scandal to the campaign.

[Cold_Zero]

Of Palin, former White House political svengali Karl Rove said this morning on Fox News Channel: "It would be a clear sign from the McCain campaign that they were going to be making a very strong bid for the women whom they see up for grabs -- both the traditional, swing independent suburbanites and then the Hillary Clinton supporters who remain disillusioned."

I was thinking the same thing Ish. I am of the impression that women who will back McCain will do so not because of some gimmic VP choice.bud

[Eikon]

At least she doesn't bring scandal to the campaign.

How do we know that?Nobody knows anything about her yet? Hopefully they vetted her well.

I'm quite surprised with this choice, but admittedly I can't so I for or against it yet because I don't know anything about her.

[szh]

NOW EXPERIENCE IS AN ISSUE?

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!

Z

[spngr311]

I like her as the VP choice. She's not spoiled by Washington and has a lot of credibility for cleaning up the corruption in Alaska. Seeing as she actually leads a state (unlike McCain, Obama, and Biden), she has some experience in charge. I also could care less that she's a woman, I only care about qualifications. However, I see her sex as a benefit that can't be ignored - people are stupid and vote simply on race/sex.

It pains me that Romney is the first choice of "conservatives". Personally, I'd like Palin or Leiberman. Either of those would be excellent choices for America, in my opinion. I would've liked Giuliani, but that's just me.

[nsrZ32]

I'm definitely surprised by the choice and can't really see how its going to bolster McCain's bid for the presidency.

We'll have to see how it shakes down though.

[HashiriyaS14]

What about experience on the national level?

I agree that this is a silly statement.

Clinton had no experience on the national level and he did fine, neither did Reagan.

I think this was calculated to pull over some disenfranchised Hillary voters, but given how ardently pro-life Palin is, I don't see that happening.

On that note, Obama needs to stress the judicial appointment thing MORE. He let Al Gore say it for him last night, but he needs to get Hillarious to get up there (or do it himself) and say, point blank, that a McCain Presidency means a conservative majority in the Supreme Court for the next 2 decades and a likely erosion of a woman's right to choose. THAT is how you get Hillary voters back.

[szh]

Surprising, yes. Risky, maybe not after the surprise wears off!

As a Governor, she has the executive experience that I think makes her a relevant choice - better than a Senator. I don't enough about her to know whether her actual performance as Governor of AK was good or not, but I will do my homework.

FWIW, this is perhaps what McCain had to do to counter the media-fed, race-card play, by Obama's campaign. Maybe Obama does not personally feel this way, but the media is certainly making a big deal about the fact that he is not white. Subtle and not-so-subtle comparisons to MLK, "non-white" JFK, etc., etc., etc.

Sigh. When can we have people just run on qualifications (I am castigating both sides here) and not just because you are black or a woman, or ...?

Z

[Jimefam]

Very risky indeed. She is not a well known name in the average american household. Also she has the same limited experience in politics that obama has so some of the force behind mccains experience argument will be lost. Also there is a decent chance his vp takes over at some time cause with mccains age I dont see how he could hope to last 8 yrs in office. The man simply forgets and confuses a large amount of issues when thinking on his feet. He is useless unless he is giving his stump speech. I like the gamble though its absolutely going for broke in my OPINION.

[szh]

You may well be right. I suspect he and his campaign saw no real chance to win without taking a big risk.

Separately, if McCain makes it into office, I doubt he will run for a second term though ...

Z

[Eikon]

So here's what I've learned about Sarah Palin so far...

She's seems to be pretty far right Republican.. Staunchly Pro-Life, and Pro-Gun.

But she seems to win over the female vote pretty well despite being anti-gay rights.

She is apparently a bull-dog. The dude who she took over for apparently made a ton of last minute appointments and project fundings. Rather than leave it be and start her own legacy, the first thing she did in office was to reverse a good portion of his actions and appointments. She even killed the famous "bridge to nowhere" which was one of the most famous Pork-Barrel projects in history.

I think this history of doing what's right rather than what the lobbyists want to line your pockets for will help her image a TON.

It also doesn't hurt that she's young and a former beauty pageant contestant. So she's not hard to look at. Which isn't something McCain has going for him right now.. Having someone on the ticket with some youthful attractiveness is a good help.

[sensibleS13driver]

I'm surprised. Is this an attempt to steal defected Hillary women? Edit: She just kissed Hillary's feet in her speech

But God, is her voice annoying. (just saying).

[Qwerty1942]

you think shes youthful and attractive?

[wingFeather]

I applaud this choice & it stregthens my decision to vote for McCain

[GrilledCheese33]

My boss and I were very proud to hear this at work. I think he made a great decision.

right on

[Eikon]

you think shes youthful and attractive?

Compared to the NOPI models.. No!

Compared to other prominent politicians.. Yes!

[96Qowner]

I most definitely wanted McCain to choose a woman, but Palin would not have been my choice. She's too socially conservative to draw many Hillary women, and she doesn't have much experience.

But you should see the buzz on the abcnews.com board! Wow, the Dems are shooting their feet off complaining about her lack of experience, even though she has more than Obama! It's absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

And Obama speech? It drew a 19% share! 19% of viewers watched it! Wow, what a bust. And that speech is completely forgotten today. So to that degree, Palin was a brilliant choice.

She's also has a small scandal about a staffer pressuring a commissioner to get rid of the trooper who was beating Palin's sister. It didn't work - the trooper is still on the job, the staffer was suspended, and the Obama camp can now try to defend a wife-beater. Oh, it's rich!

[ishkabibble]

Compared to Meg Whitman.. NO!

[rn79870]

Sen. Obama commets...(2008-08-29) — Sen. Barack Obama today slammed his Republic opponent John McCain as “a sexist who sees women as subordinate to men and who intentionally puts them in his shadow,” just minutes after Sen. McCain announced he had selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“What could be more denigrating to women?” Sen. Obama asked a crowd of supporters in western Pennsylvania. “I think it’s shameful that Mrs. Palin’s name will always be mentioned after McCain’s and that she’ll earn less money than he will. American women are tired of being put in their place by men — treated as second-class citizens.”

I don't know if I agree in total with that but I will say, the women I know are far to smart to fall for this transparent ploy. McCain thinks that choosing a female running mate will cause the women of America to back him even though he's never championed women's issues?

I do agree with Barack in that his choice is so transparent as to be degrading, even insulting to female voters.

[Eikon]

So by nominating a woman for VP that makes McCain sexist?? I wonder what Mitt Romney and the other men who were passed over in favor of this woman feel about the topic.

The choice of VP has always been about capturing votes. The dems think Biden helps there ticket appeal to more people now because he fills in some of Obama's weak points.

How is this any different?

She's a prominent expert in the oil and energy crisis, she will pull female voters, and solidify the support of the Christian Right which was not enthusiastically behind McCain at this point.

The more I study her, the more I like her.. Heck I'm starting to wonder if the ticket wouldn't look better with her on top of the ballot rather than McCain.

[srellim234]

As they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Leaving policies aside, my wife and I watched her speech a little while ago and talked about it. I'm a centrist third-party guy, conservative fiscally but more liberal socially. My wife is still very much a registered Republican and a law enforcement officer.

My wife said it before I had a chance to. That speech was very much like a promo speech you see earlier on in a convention and not tough enough. While realizing you have to introduce yourself, it's still late enough in the process that you need to specifically lay out what changes will be made, not just, "Trust me" or "Trust John McCain" to be a maverick and change things. Exactly how are they going to make Washington willing to change things? And, more importantly, are they willing to change things or once they get in will they just revert to the same old garbage?

All that should change next week during the convention, but Palin today moved my wife in a negative way. My wife commented that McCain just appeared to be pandering to the largest possible number of special interest voters with the pick and wasn't interested in the most competent individual who was capable of accomplishing the tasks at hand. The job is much bigger than what Palin showed today.

[96Qowner]

It's especially denigrating to women that Obama has even less experience than Obama.

[HashiriyaS14]

Begala is obviously biased, but he *does* raise some interesting points here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI....html

Bob: Did Obama really say that? Link me, I want to see that for myself.

[rn79870]

It's especially denigrating to women that Obama has even less experience than Obama.

96, I think you are probably glad it's Friday.

[srellim234]

It's especially denigrating to women that Obama has even less experience than Obama.

Is that kind of like the statement, "I think I'm schizophrenic and so am I."?

[rn79870]

So by nominating a woman for VP that makes McCain sexist?? I wonder what Mitt Romney and the other men who were passed over in favor of this woman feel about the topic.

The choice of VP has always been about capturing votes. The dems think Biden helps there ticket appeal to more people now because he fills in some of Obama's weak points.

How is this any different?

She's a prominent expert in the oil and energy crisis, she will pull female voters, and solidify the support of the Christian Right which was not enthusiastically behind McCain at this point.

The more I study her, the more I like her.. Heck I'm starting to wonder if the ticket wouldn't look better with her on top of the ballot rather than McCain.

...she was never seen as a serious contender: too young (she is in her early 40s), too inexperienced (she has been governor for less than two years) and from a state, in Alaska, that is not regarded as a battle ground...What again is it that she's offering.

This answers how important the reps really thing the experience argument is.On the other, picking Palin complicates the argument forwarded by McCain that Obama's short resume makes him ill-equipped to be commander in chief. In picking a candidate who has been a statewide elected official for less than two years, McCain will be hard pressed to argue that experience in public life is a critical component of serving in national office.

There goes much of the female vote.Palin is also strongly pro-life and well liked by conservatives of all stripes,

Democrats are also likely to hone in on questions of whether Palin exerted her influence over her public safety commissioner to fire a state trooper involved in a contentious divorce from Palin's sister. Palin has denied any wrongdoing. In the immediate aftermath of the Palin news, Democrats were already moving the story around to reporters -- signaling their intent to make it a major issue.What upsets me is that these type of arguments, however poignant, detract from the real issues.

I'm sure that Palin is a great lady. But McCain really, really blew it here. I'll bet we all see all so clearly in the first Biden/Palin debate. I'm afraid McCain didn't think this issue through. This may become known as the Waterloo of his campaign.

Rep. Wilson (R) NM (on CNN) just called Palin a Gold star mother. Did Palin lose a son in Iraq or does Rep. Wilson basically clueless? I tried googling and I drew a blank.