Hmmm. (Skip the first 8 minutes, it’s just the old man rambling.) She’s young, good-looking, inexperienced, a bit ideological, and a member of a marginal group; just like Barack Obama, actually. But she’s running for VP, not to be the big dog. She’s not at all embarrassing, not a Katherine Harris, Harriet Miers, or Dan Quayle. All in all, a good contrast to Biden who’s tainted with the scent of corruption.
This just might work for McCain.
UPDATE: But seriously, what was McCain thinking? Palin is a nice woman, but there’s no way in hell she should be allowed inside the White House if not on a tour. McCain has effectively conceded the election. Welcome to the Oval Office, President Obama, listen to Sen. Biden carefully and don’t screw too many things up.
As I said over at Kos, it’s too bad for McCain; he could have had Harriet Miers.
Or Debbie Myers.
The latter could have kept McCain fresh by putting him in one of her larger Green Bags every night.
Seriously, this – coming on the heels of the Obama speech – is the beginning of the end for McCain, who, 3 years ago today, was celebrating his birthday on a tarmac in Arizona with George W. Bush while New Orleans’ levees broke.
It’s going to be an interesting race. Palin has a lot of appeal, and is clearly in a different league than Harriet Miers. Knows how to talk to average voters, telegenic, straight-arrow and able to put Biden in his place. Don’t celebrate too soon, dude, the fun has just begun.
Heh. Palin’s a token, and a rather cynical choice at that.
BTW, that’s a REALLY low bar: Harriet Miers or Katherine Harris, when any of the Repub Senator women – or Christine Tod Whitman would have actually been a good choice – the latter especially.
But they won’t win without rabid support from the religious right, and so therefore McCain’s now got a creationist on his ticket.
McCain needed to select a governor, there are too many senators in this race as it is. Christy would have been a good choice, but she’s a baby-killer and probably wouldn’t fly with the Biblers.
Yeah, it’s hell when you have to cater to the zygotes= people crowd.
McCain foremost needed to get the spotlight away from Obama’s performance Thursday night, which was seen by almost 2X as many people as had seen Kerry’s acceptance speech.
And this was a total Hail Mary pass:
Anyway, I’m trying to see if I can get even odds from Gary G.
This is 1932, 1980 for us, and frankly Palin’s going to help seal the deal for us.
What ever happened to John Kerry, anyhow? I remember Democrats being pretty excited about him 4 years ago.
Kerry gave quite a speech Wednesday night.
Evidently he learned something in 4 years: you must attack stronger than the Repubs, because otherwise, if you can’t defend yourself, how can you defend the USA?
Obama’s had no problem in this area, it seems.
It’s a shame he didn’t figure that out earlier, we could have avoided a great deal of unpleasantness. I’m not sold on Obama, as he strikes me as too much of a lightweight. Biden is going to be pulling the strings in an Obama administration, so it’s going to look a lot like the Cheney administration in that respect.
It’s shame the Dems didn’t have enough balls to nominate Hillary. She’s my girl, you know.
Obama – an organizer – figured out how to win the nomination despite the “inevitable” win Hillary was supposed to have had by Super Tuesday.
He’s no lightweight by any means, but it’s not going to be necessarily what I want.
His youth and inexperience is a serious concern. He may very well be a decent, bright, principled person, but he’s nowhere close to being qualified to serve as commander-in-chief. America is screwed if he wins, and screwed if McCain wins. Palin is, without a doubt, a gimmick who should not be allowed in the White House except on a tour group. By selecting her, McCain is throwing in the towel.
Yeah, go ahead kids–keep calling Palin “a gimmick”–that’s exactly what SHE wants you to think. They haven’t nicknamed her “The Barracuda” for nothing.
Leftards said the same thing about Bush–“just a dumb frat boy”…and have consistently, and totally, “misunderestimated” him for the past eight years. Just ask Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid if you don’t believe me.
Who do you think will be tougher in a debate: Joe “I Get Better Lookin’ Each Day” Biden or a woman who faced down her own party establishment to win the governorship, is raising five kids, and knows how to kill her own dinner?
Well?
Time to book that Alaskan moose-hunting trip.
What a joke. Obama is where he is because of his skin pigmentation and nothing else.
Comparo time;
Obama; he’s black
Bills introduced;
major legislative accomplishments;
minor accomplishments;
any accomplishments;
Notable; friend of Pentagon bomber, business partner of felon, Knows how many homes he has cuz felon bought it for him.
Palin
Mother of 5, ran small business, MAYOR of city, GOVENOR of STATE,
Yep, anyway you cut it, Obama’s accomplishment of being born black trumps all that EXPERIENCE of Palin’s.
Oops, I forgot. Obama’s other “accomplishment” is being the Chicago mobs sockpuppet.
Palin is a nice woman, but there’s no way in hell she should be allowed inside the White House if not on a tour.
Anyone who thinks Palin doesn’t have the experience to be VP needs to ask themselves what makes Obama ready for the top job.
Community NGO, Law School, State Senate, US Senate
-vs.-
Journalist, Commercial Fisherman, Mayor, Governor
All for similar periods of time. More or less the same age. Palin negotiated with Canada over oil & gas pipelines; not exactly Cold War brinkmanship, but what direct negotiating with a foreign power has Obama done?
Frankly, I’m not sure she is ready to be VP. But any objective comparison of her experience with the only realistic alternative really drives just how unprepared Obama is as well.
So, here we are: two tickets, both with a senior and experienced Washington Senator and a young, good looking “outsider” – but on one ticket the seasoned guy is the top slot, and in other he’s not. On the experience angle, which is better?
Wow, the progs are bashing a woman nomination for VP. Who’da thunk it?
She’s young, experienced in local and state politics, has a great family and a story to tell, and doesn’t stand for corruption in those around her. Yeah, sounds like somebody Americans just won’t stand for.
If someone’s suitability for high office is measured by how many martinis they’ve sipped with fatcat lobbyists, I guess she’s not for you. If someone who has actually lived a life outside the bubble of the federal government or the liberal big cities, someone who real Americans can identify with, someone who believes unapologetically that life is sacred and begins at conception, someone who can bait a hook and shoot a rifle – is not ready to make decisions on your behalf, then I guess you’ll be voting for the street organizer who tinkled away 100 million and didn’t improve education a tiny bit, who voted “yeah, I’m here” almost 130 times in the state legislature, and whose largest resume feature is his melanin and ability to read a TelePrompTer
Yeah, McCain should have reached across the aisle and given John Edwards a job.
What it comes down to for me is this: Obama is inexperienced and probably corrupt, but he’s smart, well-educated, and articulate. He was smart enough, in fact, to choose a Washington insider with great foreign policy credentials to join him on his ticket.
McCain has been around forever, isn’t especially bright, and has some serious personal demons. His picking a PTA president to join his ticket, apparently on a whim, says all I need to know about his judgment. I voted for Bush twice, and for Dole in ’96. This time, I’m voting for Obama. There’s just no realistic alternative.
In politics, you have to go with corruption over incompetence, and McCain won’t be competent if he lives as long as Methuselah. John McCain was rejected by the Republican Party repeatedly because he’s not right in the head.
Palin is just a stunt to get the bitter Hillary supporters to betray the Democratic Party and vote for the GOP.
You know the Hillary supporters – older white women with pendulumous tits.
So Palin is a play on the pendulumous vote. That is what this voting block is called. Palin herself is plenty pendulumous after 5 sprogs.
Guess what. Obama doesn’t need this block. He will win, and the Hillary/Palin supporters can go back to their post-menopausal stories.
Obama/Biden ‘08 and ‘12.
I don’t think Obama is qualified to be senator, much less President, but I was going to vote for him over McCain. And the only person I hate more than Joe Biden is John McCain. But with Palin on McCain’s ticket, I may change my mind. Brilliant pick, Senator McCain!
“What it comes down to for me is this: Obama is inexperienced and probably corrupt, but he’s smart, well-educated, and articulate. He was smart enough, in fact, to choose a Washington insider with great foreign policy credentials to join him on his ticket.”
I don’t know about “corrupt” – probably not especially by Chicago standards, at any rate – but I agree with all that.”
“McCain has been around forever, isn’t especially bright, and has some serious personal demons. His picking a PTA president to join his ticket, apparently on a whim, says all I need to know about his judgment.”
“PTA president.” Isn’t this just a little bit sexist?
Was she chosen in part for her gender? Of course. But I warn against the dangers of dismissing her lightly. She clawed her way out of nowhere to take on nearly all of her own state party establishment – and won. She owns an 80% plus approval rating.
I’d like to see her with a little more experience. But it’s evident she’s more than just a pretty face. I’m willing to wait and see how she runs the national media gauntlet over the next few weeks before dismissing her as backwoods-pistol-packin-PTA President-not ready for prime-time.
“”Obama is inexperienced and probably corrupt, but he’s smart, well-educated, and articulate. “”””
In 2002, my state elected someone who was inexperienced, went to Harvard Law, and was articulate. Her name was Jennifer Granholm. Granholm has been a total disaster for my state.
In 2000, this country elected another inexperienced ivy leaguer……Mr. Bush, who ran on “change.”
Palin took on the Ted Stevens wing of the GOP and is cleaning up the mess that embarassment to my party has inflicted on us with bridges to nowhere. It’s a repudiation of Mr. Bush’s big government conservatism.
I was going to hold my nose and vote against Obama, but now I’m no longer holding my nose and voting for Palin. I think it is a great pick, and the only better pick would have been Mark Sanford.
Richard,
Yeah, you got it.
Evidently McCain wanted Lieberman, that got the kibosh from the Rove folks & handlers (some “maverick”!) and Palin was a last ditch choice.
His folks didn’t even bother to check the hometown papers:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/31/mccain-camp-didnt-search_n_122823.html
Palin is, definitely, a Harriet Meirs. Talk about totally unqualified. Hmmm… maybe calling her “George Bush with Lipstick” is better than the Meirs reference- after all, Meirs at least has a law degree (albeit that she's another far-right, culture of corruption conservative correspondence course ideologue).