My husband's reaction when I told him the pick was Sarah Palin and told him a little about her including that she was a beauty queen: "McCain picked a hottie? That's awesome! I have to vote for him now!" He was kidding of course (not sure if he's voting for him or not, but that wouldn't be the reason.) But, will she attract more of the white male vote?
Posted by CG at August 29, 2008 01:25 PMSo I watched Palin first on Glenn Beck, pushing the oil exploration and drilling theme. It's really obviously become her signature issue in the media over the last few months as conservatives have been pushing the Drill, Drill, Drill meme. In a friendly format, she's good, especially when the host lets her talk at length on rehearsed points close to her state's oil & gas industry. She did almost an identical spot 3 weeks later with Larry Kudlow. (all this is just "Sarah Palin" on Google's video search.)
Charlie Rose even didn't derail her. Her acceptance announcement hit again her energy emphasis profile. She also has that everyperson vibe that newscasters cultivate so well. I think she's going to be much more dangerous prospect than some initially assume.
Posted by idiosynchronic at August 29, 2008 01:32 PM"Repub tradition....denying climate change is caused by human activity"
Yep, that's who we need a heartbeat away from the presidency. Very serious pick. From someone who claims to think greenhouse gas emissions are a serious issue for the planet----then selects a fucking denier-loon to run as VP.
This is not just a bad (almost comic) choice by McStooge, it's frankly additional proof of his reckless and rash behavior. He can't think. He's got some serious problems.
But I guess we owe him the presidency, him being an ex-POW and all.....what's a nation to do? A debt is a debt!
Posted by euzoius at August 29, 2008 01:35 PMI agree--she's very appealing at first glance. The Obama campaign needs to get her educational background out there. Obama may not have much experience, but he knew Sunni from Shia before we'd ever heard of them and he knows Constitutional law. She was a sports writer. They also have to hammer the war on science thing since she's a creationist.
Posted by CG at August 29, 2008 01:35 PMGame of hoops--Palin vs. Obama. Winner takes all.
Posted by CG at August 29, 2008 01:37 PMAt last! Finally the nation's sports writers have a chance to save Murica!!
For too long they have labored in obscurity toiling with the tools of ignorance, limited to explaining 3-4 defenses and nickle backs, gorged with Cy Young award winner and bronze medalist trivia! Turn these heroes loose on the energy crisis!
Give me your cold hot dogs, your filthy chaw-spit troughs, your screaming blood-on-the-ice free for alls! The wretched refuse of the back pages and box scores, yearning to breath free! (breaks down with emotion...)
What a country!
Posted by euzoius at August 29, 2008 01:43 PMAnd NOW that anti-femnine crap is acceptable, Coyote???
Posted by idiosynchronic at August 29, 2008 01:54 PMActually, it was an anti-mascara joke, but I guess you might have a point.
Posted by iamcoyote at August 29, 2008 01:59 PMI predict that in a couple months everyone will be unanimous that this was a horrible choice.
I feel sorry for Putin. I too went to high school in a small isolated town in the American west, at about the same time. I knew the beauty pagent girls, none of whom was "Drop Dead Gorgeous" attractive, knew their families, and knew the people who had lived their all their lives. There is something charming about the small town life. In some ways there is pressure to conform, but in many ways you are freer because no one is expected to be especially polished or refined.
Of course, leaving such an environment and going to a city is a big shock, one that forces you to adapt. I'm sure she went through a lot of change at the U of Idaho and while in Boise. But she returned to her small town and has stayed there for virtually all her life. Insulated.
These past two years she has been in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, part of the year as governor. It's a very small and very isolated city in the SE corner of the state. She's also taken a few junkets outside of Alaska. I'm sure she's learned a lot about the world outside where she grew up, and has adapted. She is smart.
But nevertheless she is clearly a product of the big-fish-small-pond syndrome that you see all the time in small towns. The promotion from her small town to Juneau was huge for her, one to which she must be still adapting. Now she's going to be subject to the most intense scrutiny in the world. You can see from how she talks and answers questions she's not at all used to being on this stage.
She'll have the benefit of the being prepared by the best handlers the GOP can offer. But she's a total outsider to the process, and this will become painfully obvious very soon.
Posted by Anonny at August 29, 2008 02:33 PMPalin, not Putin. Oops.
Posted by Anonny at August 29, 2008 02:35 PMThat t-shirt ad that sometimes comes up in the middle of the blog here--the model looks exactly like Sarah Palin. Weird.
Posted by CG at August 29, 2008 02:48 PMOK, there's more than one t-shirt ad. One of them doesn't look like her. The model with her hair up like Palin's looks just like her.
Posted by CG at August 29, 2008 02:56 PMAh, now HERE is some inside info on Palin:
Like I said, a small town woman, already over her head in Juneau, now on the national stage.
Posted by Anonny at August 29, 2008 03:05 PMChoice quotes:
It is clear that she has not paid much attention to the nitty-gritty unglamorous work of government, of gaining consensus, and making difficult compromises. She seems to be of the view that politics should be all rather simple. That often appeals to the wider public, but frustrates those who see themselves as laboring in the less glamorous parts of the vineyard.
One example: The Republican chair of the Alaska State House Finance budget subcommittee on Heath and Medicaid says he can't find anyone in Palin's executive office who cares about helping bring that budget under control. He is furious with her about that.
Q: What should we expect from her during the VP debates?
A: I expect her to stick with simple truths. When asked about continued American troop presence in Iraq she said she knows only one thing about that (I paraphrase): no one has attacked the American homeland since George Bush took the war to Iraq.
Looks like McCain's alledgedly "feminist" VP pick actually let's her husband run a lot of the show in Alaska ....
Posted by Anonny at August 29, 2008 04:01 PMWow, the supposed reformer is actually a cesspool of corruption. Sounds like a perfect fit for McCain.
End of Palin's Open and Transparent Government Promise
Seems like just yesterday, Sarah Palin was on a passionate crusade for open and transparent government. Fighting the Randy Ruedrichs and the Greg Renkes of the world, demanding a government that allowed a clear view for all to see from the outside.
Today it appears time for Palin to write an obituary for that noble crusade.
In a shocking interview with Anchorage Daily News Reporter Lisa Demer on Thursday, Palin's Communication Director Bill McAllister defended the administration's abandonement of their "open and transparent government" promise by saying it didn't really apply to everything.
Safe for work.....
Reference here, at the huffingtonpost.
P.S.
"I admit, someone with only two years of experience in a top elected position isn't ready for President. But I'm not running for President. Barack Obama is." Sarah Palin.
Posted by I Have Been Here Before at August 29, 2008 04:50 PMWay to go Idio!
"Perhaps the jobs she has held are too small to count in a national presidential campaign. But that isn't obvious, not yet anyway. What matters more, to me and I bet to more than a few others, is what she's done in those jobs. The fact that her approval rating among Alaskans is in Mark Warner territory suggests that she might be the kind of governor Warner was in Virginia. If so, that should count for a lot--even if she hasn't had much time in office. Because time-serving won't count for much in the offices these four candidates are seeking." BILL STUNTZ
...
"I wonder whether a media analysis would reveal whether 'inexperienced' Republicans draw more media criticism than 'inexperienced' Democrats." Yes, as noted at TalkLeft, the Tim Kaine double-standard appears. Though that's more a case, perhaps, of a gender double-standard.
...
"It will complete the alienation of the rest of the Hillary supporters from the Obama camp. How? That’s easy — the Obamabots will do it themselves. Go read the Washington Post blog or anywhere online where the Palin pick is being discussed, and you’ll see the trademark Obama misogyny already out in full force. She’s been on the ticket for two seconds and already the Obamabots are saying she 'looks like a porn star,' they’re making rude remarks about her childbearing, they’re ridiculing her intelligence." Ann Bartow
Yeah, Obama's supporters are his biggest weak point. Including the ones in the media. McCain is campaigning against Obama, Obama continues to campaign against Bush, McCain and now Palin, same goes for Biden. He's shooting at the wrong target first. W isn't running this time.
Oy, fuck off, wanker.
Posted by idiosynchronic at August 29, 2008 07:43 PMThe trolls live in their own alternate reality. They remind me of that TNR article about the WF Buckley cruise a few years ago. They all consider it a given that Saddam planned 9/11, tax cuts for the rich increase tax revenues, etc.
However, on the Palin pick, I have two words to say: President Obama.
Yeah, you might argue she's cute (I don't see it myself -- but maybe that's because I'm immune to the appeal of small town ex-cheerleaders). You might argue she has appeal, or that she can wing it in press conferences and debates like GWB did in 2000.
Sorry, this isn't 2000. We now have Youtube. We now have an organized Democratic ground game that is better than the Republican one. We now have a media that -- to a small but important extent -- is aware of their horrible failings in 2000-2004. And we have a candidate who team knows what they are up against and are prepared.
Everything I've researched on Palin indicates she's a pleasant, fully brainwashed fundamentalist Republican, who has people skills in a small town way but is a horrible manager with a track record of failures as a mayor and has absolutely zero knowledge or experience of the world outside Alaska. My God, she is an even worse candidate that GWB!
BTW, here is her cached wikipedia entry before she, or one of her cohorts, started editing it a couple days ago:
http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:wPu4ia1Ld8EJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin+Sara+palin+wikipedia&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us
By the end of October the public will know this about her. Hopefully they'll feel genuinely sorry for her -- she shouldn't have been put in this position. But more importantly, this shows the world just how bad John McCain's judgment is on key decisions.
The only question left now is how big the coattails will be. The rest of the story is about filling in the details ... the result is clear.
Of course, there is a small chance that someone will talk McCain out of her selection before her nomination is confirmed. Thus, I wouldn't be surprised if Obama's team lays off her until then. For them this is like getting Christmas in August.
Posted by at August 29, 2008 07:57 PMI'm tickled pink by Palin on the McShit ticket. She brings warmth, attractiveness, youth, whiteness, and more whiteness and femaleness and oh, God....our next President by default by Diebold? Or old fart has a heart attack by screwing a hottie in a hotel a.k.a. that old Rockefeeler, Nelson?
This is the best the GOP can do? Get Out the Pussy?
Posted by Salsa at August 29, 2008 08:19 PMIn November, we will vote in the most crucial election in our lifetime, and McCain's choice is someone without any experience, in ANYTHING! Makes perfect sense, if your an idiot or Songbird!
Posted by Judith at August 29, 2008 10:11 PM
"Tim Kaine, who has exactly the same experience as Palin, was treated by the Media and the Dems as a serious and acceptable potential pick, it opens up charges of a double standard."
Big Tent Democrat at Talkleft
Joke all you want J. Might be crying in November. G Ferraro loves the pick. H. Clinton also sent her best wishes. d
Posted by peter at August 29, 2008 10:22 PMBy 6 PM today another $3 mil hit McCain's campaign bank account, and that's from after he made the announcement. Shame he's got to spend it next week.
Posted by peter at August 29, 2008 10:30 PMShe seems to be of the view that politics should be all rather simple.
This is what drives me nutz about most GOP policy makers.
If there isn't a direct cause/effect relationship on an issue or policy they don't get it or dismiss it outright.
Posted by Simp at August 29, 2008 10:56 PMMight be crying in November.
Or might be pregnant in November. Does that woman understand what Norplant is about? You don't have to fuck and have a kid every time these days.
Of course, you do know she won a beauty pageant. Now that is a hell of a republi-con meme!
Posted by phidipides at August 29, 2008 11:24 PMThe Obama campaign needs to get her educational background out there.
Anyone have Obama's SAT score?
C2 wants Obama and Palin to battle it out in a game of hoops. How about high-score on a high school exit exam?
Posted by Muck at August 30, 2008 12:15 AMSalsa, LOL. More please.
Again, the egomania of these crazed GOoP fundamentalists is just stunning. That Miss Alaska thinks "Of course it makes perfect sense for me to be the VP, what with all I've done!".....mind numbing in its simpleton idiocy and lack of understanding.
Posted by euzoius at August 30, 2008 06:15 AM"Tim Kaine, who has exactly the same experience as Palin, was treated by the Media and the Dems as a serious and acceptable potential pick, it opens up charges of a double standard."
Sarah Palin--degree in journalism and sports writer.
Tim Kaine--degree in economics, Harvard Law
"Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, specializing in representing people who had been denied housing opportunities because of their race or disability. He was recognized by local, state, and national organizations for his fair housing advocacy. He also taught legal ethics for six years at the University of Richmond Law School."
Then he was Mayor of Richmond, which is a little bigger than Wasilla or whatever it's called. Then Lieutenant Gov, then Gov.
Hardly the same experience.
Posted by CG at August 30, 2008 06:39 AMHey easily swayed CG, you're arguing with Big Tent Democrat now. Their statement...
She bucked her party in the primaries by besting a sitting governor who had been the US senator. Then she bested the former Democratic governor in the 2006 general election. An election that had Democratic victories all over the place, taking back both houses of Congress. She's constantly misunderestimated...
Your slip is showing...
Even the republican talking heads have pointed out that she's had easy opponents.
Posted by CG at August 30, 2008 08:52 AMCG, I think Kaine taught at Univ of VA in Richmond.
One of the nation's top schools, actually.
Just like Obama taught law at U of Chi, another of the nation'spremier schools.
But let's have a doofus serial plane crasher at the bottom of his navy class and a small town sports writer/"journalist" instead----that's what makes Murica great!
Posted by euzoius at August 30, 2008 09:13 AMThere is an interesting story floating around regarding Palins new born son. He apprently has Downs Syndrome and many in Alaska never even knew she was pregnant. The whispers are claiming the child is actually the sone of her seventeen year old daughter. I wonder who did the vetting process?
Posted by Andrew at August 30, 2008 09:19 AM