Comments on McCain Chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as VP

So the exact opposite of the Joe Biden pick, except that Obama isn't a woman.
How wonderful that both parties are playing the same game.

I wonder about the visuals of that wrinkled testicle standing next to a disturbingly hot young woman.

This is a loopy choice. Let's face it, it will gobble up the news and she adds some charisma. But what kind of news, and what kind of charisma, remains to be seen.

Well, it' ain't "more of the same".

Her children are named: Track (boy), Trig (boy), Bristol (girl), Willow (girl), and Piper (girl).

That's a sport I hated, a subject I hated, the town where Portishead is from, a tree and a small aeroplane.

Fun!

Trying to scrape up more PUMAs? Seems like a stretch.

JTC - I hate her already, mostly because of the dumbass names she gave her kids. I mean, I've known some politicians kids with some weird names, but they didn't sound like the invention of an eleven-year-old girl with a rhyming dictionary.

Interesting.

I was a huge H-bomb fan but obviously I'm not voting for McCain/Palin. However, it is nice to see that Hillary's work has already had such a huge impact in women moving forward.

But it does seem kind of Harriet Miers-y.

When I heard it on the radio I was like, isn't she like 8 months pregnant? No, she just has a 4 month old.

How does she wear her makeup? Anything like a trollop?

Oh man, this oughta be good.

The only non-corrupt Republican office holder in Alaska? Interesting point, Eli. She swept into office as a reformer -- which is a pretty low threshold up there -- but she's already facing an ethics investigation.

This is a bold, potentially interesting choice. But it's the choice of a gambler and a fighter pilot. McCain and his crew realized, especially after last night, that they couldn't win with any of the conventional VP choices. They had to roll the dice.

The contrast in decision making between Obama -- who has had a small team vetting candidates for months and had a vice presidential campaign office headed by Patty Doyle in place ready to go -- and McCain's last-minute gut decision, is breathtaking.

And sobering, if you take this as a model of crisis decision making by President McCain.

Alaska? With their 3 electoral votes? Really? If I were McCain (and thankfully I'm not. Ugh.) I'd be more worried about Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado.

Are women dumb enough to fall for this? Gawd, I hope not.

But they might be. After all, they can't drive or do math.

Fuuuuck.

I loved her work on Monty Python.

I can't think about anything other than the fact that McCain is quite old, and it was super risky of him to pick someone who most sane people would say is not ready to be President.

Also, I figured that they would be tempted to pick a woman in order to pick up some of the old HRC supporters. I'm sure it will work on a small scale, but not on a large scale. I can seethe PUMA HRC supporters viewing this woman as worlds away from HRC in terms of experience and leadership and not wanting to vote for that ticket just because there's a woman on it....

Got her brother in law fired in a custody battle with her sister, which is still playing out. Be embarrassing if she were nailed for that one before November. Or the custody battle were in court during the election. But 2 years as governor is plenty. Plenty. Don't worry.

I'm already hearing people around me saying, "I wasn't going to vote at all, but I really like her!"

Son of a...

Holy shit! She's from my hometown. That's pretty awesome, I don't care what any jaded know-it-alls say.

@4 Oh my god. JTC, I love you.

@ 16

She TRIED to get her brother in law fired. But the guy's boss (some state public official) wouldn't do it, so she just fired some state official because he WOULDN'T fire her sister's estranged husband.

She'll be great since nepotism is pretty much republican requirement #1.

@13 - I was just about to type the last line of your comment, with the same number of u's and everything.

20, here's hoping obama's team makes much of this indiscretion. last i heard, americans think crap like that is downright un-american. (except it's not, really--shh).

Why, god, why... This is why I moved overseas.

Well, that is one interesting pick. My sister, who works in state government in Alaska, didn't believe Palin would be the choice because very few people in the rest of the country know much about her.

I know a lot about her because of my sister (who also taught one or two of Palin's kids back in the day) and I confess to being shocked that McCain actually picked her.

I just keep thinking that McCain is old and there is a very real chance his VP could become President and I cannot see Sarah Palin as President of the United States.

Does ECB have to vote for McCain now?

Adding race back in: Her husband is a Native Yup'ik Eskimo.

And to counter Biden's kid in the military: 19-year-old Track is enlisted too.

Her youngest kid, who is four months old, has Down Syndrome.

She's a totally bizarre pick, but also sickeningly perfect in a lot of ways too. She's got human interest coming out her ears, but--and I mean this in a wholly non-sexist, non-ablist way--is the mother of a baby with Down Syndrome ready to step up and take the place of the president on a moment's notice?

Very few people will be concerned that she might become president. (Even though there's a very good chance.) They'll know that she's kooky and spunky and totally HOT and they'll forget the rest. And she'll be a heroine to the Christian right.

This should work.

Hmm, Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for two years. Before that, she was mayor of Wasilla (population: 8,500), and before that, she was on the Wasilla city council.

This means we can stop talking about how Obama is too inexperienced to lead, right?

Interesting things about Sarah Palin (thanks Wikipedia!):

*Her husband is a Yup'ik Eskimo and was her high school sweetheart.
*She hunts, fishes, and owns a float plane.
*She has used marijuana ... but didn't like it. (In Alaska, it's legal to possess small amounts in your home.)

She was a decent pick, since she is the darling of the conservative right.

However, hearing the sexist things that are going to come from both sides (again) is going to be nauseating. I imagine we'll hear things like:

We can't have a lady in the white house...what if she's on her period and starts attacking Russia?"

goddamnit.

She kinda has a Mary McDonnell thing going on. So she probably won't be ready to be president when McCain keels over, but she'll totally rise to the occasion when she's thrust into the role of President of the Whole Human Race after cyborg insurrectionists destroy our planet.

@30: I WAS JUST THINKING THAT.

But I hadn't watched enough BSG to know if the analogy would stick. Thanks for the confirmation.

She's atrocious. She's a troglodyte when it comes to social issues and the environment. Creationism? It should be taught in the schools next to science, she says! Abortion? No way! And get this--two years ago she was the part-time mayor of a village with 6,000 people.

And she's supposed to be ready to be President? I wouldn't trust her to run my neighborhood association!

Mc Cain picking a woman has been predicted here for weeks - what is the surprise?

The race is on. If it is as close as might be, this will be remembered as Rovian brillant

I don't think it is a bad choice - all the Dems are grasping at why - the tide of history has now taken root in the Mc Cain effort. Well, well.

Better send another ck to Obama and work your job and neighborhood to get people registered and to the polls.

Mother of five, ethnic husband, beauty queen ... WOW

She will shore up the pro-life base and keep the human interest stories on the GOP side. She'll generate buzz and attention.

However, getting the Hillary voters? I doubt it. There's something a little creepy about 70something McCain picking a former Miss Alaska with only 2 years executive experience. Seems REALLY tokeny and almost patronizing to women. I can't see a true feminist getting excited about that, really.

... her oldest son is going to Iraq

... did Biden's kids enlist?

... hubby is fisherman, union member. high school sweethearts, NO whore mongering problem here

... she speaks very well

@29: I have a proposition for you - anyone makes snide comments related to Palin having a vagina, we punch them in the balls.

FOCUS PEOPLE. There are serious things to be upset about here, not least of which is her possible appeal to the religionists who we were hoping would sit out this election.

Four more years of oil-industry (her husband runs a northslope oil company) in the white house? This is a real weakness of this pick, and the Dems better hammer on it, especially after all the good work they've done at the DNC in bringing the focus on green energy as an environmental, econonic and national security issue.

@34, I agree with you in principle, but I no longer trust large sections of the democratic party to see through ploys like this or 'Obama's a muslim' or 'Hillary's too bitchy/emotional/whatever'

Have people always allowed their decisions to be swayed by such patently manipulative inanities? When's the next good opportunity for a Cascadia secession vote?

@34, sure, a "true" feminist wouldn't be excited by this. But McCain's not courting true feminists, he's courting the nutbag menopausal women who are all butt-hurt over Hillary. Those women don't give a flying fuck if they screw over younger generations of women by voting for McCain and his anti-choice policies. They want to wound the man they see as the enemy of "their girl" and they can't see past that.

I can only hope those same women get all butt-hurt over McCain picking a hot piece as his running mate. Please, baby Jesus, please.

Old guy surrounding himself with young hot models?

Pervert!

why is obviously or automatically patronizing to select a woman as a VP? you know, this conversation can be had without everyone saying she was only selected because she was a woman. for instance, i think biden was selected because he was a white male. but, of course, both candidates were selected because of their race and gender, and because of all the other things they bring to the ticket in this election.

no need to demean woman again by pointing out how unqualified palin is. she's doesn't have that much less experience that obaman in many ways (though, make no mistake, she is no obama).

Unlimited blowjobs to the first person who gets her beauty pageant videos on YouTube, particularly the ones where she answers vapid questions with vapid responses.

Wow! Who knew Dayton, Ohio was so white? Not! 43.5% black! Did you see any face in the crowd that wouldn't require full-strength Coppertone at high noon? Having grown up in Dayton and recently back, that crowd was so "cherry-picked" they might have all answered to the name Bing or Queen Anne. Many non-Daytonian Caucasian students from Wright State, despite the university's hugely diverse student body.

The crowd looked to be in the main SUV conservatives from the upscale suburbs of Oakland and Kettering. Dayton is in dramatic economic decline but it was not evidenced by that crowd. Rovian Stage Management Productions: A+

Glad someone finally got a chair for the girl carrying the baby - and why didn't John sit down instead of hovering over Sarah's shoulder like a drooling Tim Conway?

@27 "Very few people will be concerned that she might become president."

I agree, since very few people will be voting for her and the old guy she's propping up.

McCain is 72 today and in horrible health. Nobody wants this nobody being the next President. Then again, nobody wants any of the Republican choices to be President, either.

Hillary, Jr. will attract exactly no new voters to McCain that he didn't already have and she will alienate bigots and evangelicals who don't want a woman in the White House.

Desperate, pathetic, and laughable. Not the way you want your VP pick to be recieved. But it was either this or totally pack it all in.

@35:

Biden's son is a Captain in the Delaware National Guard and deploying to Iraq next month.

fuck

btw the big rumor in AK is that her eldest daughter is the mother of the youngest child, Trig. NOBODY noticed a baby bump until she announced it 7-8 months into her pregnancy.

In the mean time her "pure" eldest daughter spent 6 months in Arizona recovering from "mono." She only reappeared-and not in public-until after the baby was born.

Obama supporters are always trying to give the false impression that Obama has soooo many people who want him … but, in reality, in both the primaries, and in this general election, Obama cannot get more than half of the voters. Actually, Palin has more experience and qualifications than Obama. Obama was a community organizer, with no executive experience, who has spent most of his short term as a senator, running for President. Palin, a mayor, and a governor, has already stood up to special interests and big oil companies, while Obama has not shown any kahonies yet, except for when he threw his friend, advisor and mentor of 20 years, under the bus. If Palin could get 90% of the women's vote, because she is a woman ... just like Obama gets 90% of the black vote, because he is black ... it would be good for our country.

August 30, 2008
Palin booed for mentioning Hillary Clinton
Posted: 07:35 PM ET

From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby

Palin is praising Clinton on the trail as the GOP woos the New York senator’s supporters.
WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania (CNN) – This might not be the best way to reach out to those disillusioned Hillary Clinton supporters.

In just her second appearance on the campaign trail with John McCain, newly-minted GOP running mate Sarah Palin was showered with boos on Saturday for attempting to praise Clinton’s trail-blazing bid to become the first female president.

As she did at in her debut speech in Ohio yesterday, Palin appealed to the women in the crowd here in Pennsylvania with a political shout-out to Geraldine Ferraro, who preceded Palin as the first women to be tapped as a vice presidential candidate. The reference was met with polite applause.

But in contrast with the mild reception that greeted the comment at the Ohio event, when Palin praised Clinton here for showing “determination and grace in her presidential campaign,” the Alaska governor was met with a noisy mix of boos, groans and grumbles around the minor league ballpark where the “Road to the Convention Rally” was held.

Palin quickly recovered, promising the audience that female candidates weren’t yet finished, and that she and McCain were on their way to victory in November.

Filed under: Hillary Clinton • Sarah Palin

We have Saul Tigh and Laura Roslin running for the White House, when what we really need is an Adama.