and what does anyone know about her?

Interesting choice, though.

A few thoughts (coz I'm at work and not supposed to be thinking) -

1) After all the fussing about Obama not having enough experience, why pick someone to be your running mate with even less? No matter how you dice it, McCain's old - his health is more fragile than that of a younger man - there's always that chance that the VP will be called upon to be the V. Will that thought play a factor in people's vote come November?

2) I read a short article that said that McCain was hoping she'd pick up the still-angry Hillary supporters. The article went on to say that "Sarah is a woman all mothers will identify with." (She's a rabid pro-lifer and a life-long card carrying NRA member who's won second place in a Miss Alaska contest) Huh? I'm a mother, I don't have a thing in common with her. Anyone else feel differently?

3) By having admitted the above, isn't McCain "playing the gender card?" I mean, were female Hillary supporters only supporting her because she was a woman, without any regard to her policy or politics or belief system and will, therefore, be expected to follow the scent of a woman like some bleating bunch of sheep? I find the mere suggestion just a bit insulting, but lately I find everything insulting, so it'd be good if someone could set me straight on this one.

4) How is a relative neophyte going to look on the debate stage against Biden? I'll admit, I have not heard her speak and I know very little about her views on foreign policy - maybe she'll kick butt and take names. Anyhow, does anyone here know anything? Anyone here like me, and knows nothing but is willing to argue it anyhow?

So - what about it? Republicans and Democrats alike - any thoughts or infomation on Sarah?

L


edited to change name from Anne to Sarah. Perhaps a mod would be so kind as to adjust the topic heading?




[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited August 29, 2008).]

She is actually Sarah Palin, according to what I read, an anti-choice,
card carrying NRA 44-year old whose husband works for the oil
industry. She has purged the original, but google cache still has
this interesting page that she has no doubt repudiated:

Palin Approves Obama Energy Plan

Martin


[edited by Maryann to fix URL, with Stephen C.'s help; thanks, Stephen!]

Thanks Stephen and Maryann!


[This message has been edited by Martin Rocek (edited August 30, 2008).]

This choice was either brilliant (picking up disaffected Hillary supporters) or a big mistake (I think another "maverick" does little for McCain with Republicans who already feel lukewarm about him). However, it's a dramatic choice and does take attention away from Obama & his acceptance speech.

Uh, I don't think Palin will pick up disaffected Hillary supporters. Obama picked them up last night.

It is the catastrophe part of drama for John McCain.

(See how I am still basking in last nights punch of optimism?)

For the sake of at least rhetorical fairness, I'll let the (putative) conservatives weigh in. I'll even grant that these opinions may have been cherry-picked. But . . . http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20...561/942/578766

The Harriet Miers comparison stings particularly.

[This message has been edited by Mike Slippkauskas (edited August 29, 2008).]

So she is....no wonder I couldn't find anything about her. ROFLMAO



[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited August 29, 2008).]

I follow Alaska politics pretty closely, and I think it's a brilliant gambit. I'll go way out on my limb, and let you saw it off. Three predictions:

Joe Lieberman will be Secy of State. Takes care of that issue.

She will destroy Biden in the VP debate.

The McCain ticket will handily win majorities of the popular vote and the electoral college in a Democratic year.

Geraldine Ferraro, whom I greatly admire, has all but endorsed Palin, and this will put a lot of women's votes in play. It will also greatly solidify the American West, where Obama has just lost any hope of making inroads.

Obama just lost the front page. Everyone is going to want to know about the mom who just bore child number five, knowing it was a Downe's baby, at age 44. Whose eldest leaves for Iraq next month. Who went from PTA to governor of Alaska in 12 years. It's a story.

Who has the proper judgement necessary to be President, to make the right decisions?

- Obama's first decision was to select Joe Biden as his running mate - experienced, proven ability, a known factor.

- McCain's first decision was Sarah Palin - utterly inexperienced, an unknown factor, but acceptable to the Religious Right, and a woman, and these seem to be the factors that drove the choice.

Were political considerations involved in Biden's selection? I'm sure they were. But I also don't belive that they were the only considerations, and he was arguably the most logical choice if you ignored politics.

Palin will bring the same lift to the Republican ticket that Geraldine Ferraro did for the Dems, and possibly less - she is even less qualified.

(In McCain's defense, Obama did have a much better pool from which to draw. Personally, I would have been delighted with Clinton, Richardson or Bayh. Or Gore.)



[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited August 29, 2008).]

I heard someone say this:

"She hits every single note McCain needs to hit to successfully steal the most in-play demographic right now: people who rely on the news media... {to decide their vote}."

So far, so good.....


Regards,
Todd

Let's just hope it's not another fairy tale.

Personally, having brought forth three children in great pain and agony, I distrust any woman capable of going back to work when her child is just 3 days old.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/382560.html


http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

Would it help if it could be established that she's Michael Palin's cousin?

Just how stupid is John McCain?

McCain picks Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be Vice President of the United States???

She has less than two years experience as governor and was city council-woman and then mayor of a town in Alaska with a population of 9000 beforehand. She was a sports reporter and "hockey mom" before that. She's only 44 years old--three years younger than Obama.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against 44-year-old people (I'm 44). I don't have anything against journalists. Heck, my oldest and best friend is a journalist. I don't have anything against small town mayors or low-population state governors. And I have a couple of friends who are hockey moms.

But, WHO was it that said Barack Obama was too young for the job? WHO was it that said Barack Obama lacked experience in Washington? WHO was it that said Barack Obama lacked foreign policy experience and lacked military experience???

Does Sarah Palin have the credentials that John McCain says is important for the job? And who in their right mind doesn't think it's a very real possibility that John McCain--an elderly man with a history of malignant melanoma--could die on the job, leaving Sarah Palin as the leader of the free world???

I have one word for John McCain: HYPOCRITE.

It's clear that Gov. Palin was chosen only in a last-ditch effort to siphon off disgruntled Hillary supporters from the Democratic Party. But McCain thinks women are stupid. He thinks that for them, one woman is as good as another. Well, I've got news for him. SARAH PALIN IS NO HILLARY CLINTON. This is going to be a one-way ticket to Palookaville for McCain.

Well, if she were, and if story-telling ability runs in families......

On the other hand, we already know for sure that she's Mike Wooten's ex-sister-in-law.



[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited August 29, 2008).]

Interesting article from 12 days ago: http://www.adn.com/opinion/comment/f...ry/496302.html

Jim

She also thinks it's a bad idea to put polar bears on the endangered species list: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/op...in&oref=slogin

J

I doubt whether McCain will get many angry Hillary supporters to vote for him just because of Palin's gender. She's way too conservative for their taste.

The Republicans are now spinning like tops trying to rationalize his questionable choice. I think McCain had a chance of winning had he chosen Romney or even Huckabee, but now, it's iffy at best.

Predictions, Tim?

So-called predictions are reality based.
I think you're talking about delusional wishful thinking.
Which of course, you have every right to indulge in.

Carry on.

Nemo

Man, you can say that again. One listens to the right-wing talking heads like Hannity and Limbaugh trying to put a positive spin on this but you know deep down inside, they're asking, "What dumb-ass concocted this idea?"

Talking about shooting yourself in the foot!

My whole family finds McCain's choice very humourous. We're pretty happy with his choice! http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

Never heard of the woman until today. McCain has only met her once. Wow!

I strongly believe Obama will win this election.

On the energy side of things, she and her administration have made a colossal mess out of the Alaska Gas Pipeline, among other things like half-baked tax schemes and revoking oil leases after a company commits to spend several billion dollars developing it. So she could swing the Anti-Oil Company vote, which is just about everybody out there.

I like how she's tough on spending, but just approved gov't handouts of $1200 per person in AK at the low low price of $750 million (or so). Nothing like cold hard cash to buy the goodwill of the people.

And the Troopergate thing is a mess, but may not amount to much if the right spin guys get a hold of it. Forget that the guy was already investigated and found innocent, let's just fire him anyway because it's "good for the state".

And she's been in power a whopping 18 months. Just wait until the power goes to her head.

She's cute, though! That's got to be something!

McCain can keep her. I want a new governor.

-eaf

Looks a bit like Claudia Cardinale, gorgeous. Simple question:
Is John McCain putting, "America first." ??

Originally posted by eaf:

And she's been in power a whopping 18 months. Just wait until the power goes to her head.

If what youse say about "Troopergate" is true, it looks like she's already abusing her power.

Shameless



[This message has been edited by Robert J. Clawson (edited August 30, 2008).]

My first response to the news was, "How cynical."

So, what's new?

Bob

Some women are offended by not being considered for the position (pun intended)

This lovely lady is just one of many who took it personally! http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-70162

Lo,

To answer your question, I had to find out what little is out there about this woman. Who Is Sarah Palin?

I'm trying to imagine a lot of things like

*Mrs. Palin going on the campaign trail to leave behind her new born baby with DownsSyndrome

**John McCain, should he win the election, dropping dead in office (after all, he's 72 years old and has had several bouts of cancer) -- then picture Sarah plain and tall, sitting across from Vladimir Putin along with all the other dictators across the globe. Hard to imagine such a thing. And pretty frightening. I was laughing about the pick until I started to think about it seriously.

I think it is ridiculous to think for a moment that McCain or anyone around him is "stupid". What seemed so crazy yesterday (making me very happy) seems this morning like a Rovian Stroke of Sinister Brilliance® (which makes me very very sad).

RM

I thought Obama's acceptance speech, as those things go, was exceptionally adult and thoughtful.

My prediction for the Republican convention is that it will hit all the conservative buttons: anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, pro-gun, pro-war, abolish all taxes & drill for oil under every bush...and will NOT be exceptionally adult and thoughtful.

My prediction for the general election is that McCain will win because Obama cannot get enough white male votes. It's that simple.

In a year when people are panting and groaning with the desire to get rid of the present incumbents, the Democrats could have won by nominating any presentable white guy in a flag pin. Instead, they offered a choice between a black guy and a female.

Call me a cynic, but I think we're in for 4 more Republican years.

Well, in the end democracy just means you get the government you deserve - which makes me very depressed for the country I live in.

(Could Martin Rocek sort out the url-link on his posting above? It makes this thread very difficult to read on a lap-top.)

A female? We had a female for ten years. Did us heaps of good. It's the bloody men since then who buggered it up.

What I can't figure is that McCain is going to get the right-wing vote by default anyway. Seems like he would have been better off with a centrist candidate who would draw disaffected Democrats.

Does Todd remind anyone of Roy on The Office, or is it just me?

This from a guy who wrote a book called The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine,

It's ugly.
RM

I've been trying to the last half hour to edit that URL and it's just not working. Is there something different about Google cache URLs?

Hi Maryann,

Just cut and paste! (Well, you have to open "Edit" first . . .)

Palin Approves Obama Energy Plan

As for the how part . . . I don't know the details of the system, but Google cache addresses include all sorts of extra spaghetti for the techies and the geeks. Some of it might even be useful, if you knew how to use it. Anyway, if you look at the URL that Martin posted, you'll see that the main page address (www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php) is used twice. The second instance appears about midway across the line at the plus sign +. Anyway, what I think happens is that that the scripting on the site here (Eratosphere) sees this as two addresses and can't figure out which to use when the whole lot is placed in the [url= . . . /url] coding. And so the "url" button doesn't work properly for cached pages.

But it's easy to fix. Just cut the Google URL before the repeat in the address, right before the plus sign:

. . . p%3Fid%3D1384+http://www.g . . .

Delete everything after the plus sign (including the plus sign!), then paste the edited URL into the "url" button dialogue box. And you're done!

Steve C.

p.s. Editing back: I think I've figured it out. The second repeat of the address is for the current page, as it appears if you go to its home site. (The first repeat, of course, is for the cached page at Google.) Below, I've broken the original URL posted by Martin into its three components for easy inspection. First comes the cache address, the page that we want to see. Second, the trouble-making plus sign. And third, the address for where the page should be on "gov.state.ak.us." Which, if you click on it, does indeed lead you to a 404 "page not found" error. They removed the page. How very interesting . . .

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:wbCGTUeD1r0J:www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php%3Fid% 3D1384

+

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php%...lnk&cd=1&gl=us

Anyway, all you need is the cache address, so as I said above, look for the plus sign, and cut everything that follows, along with the + itself.

We might want to file this one somewhere . . .



[This message has been edited by Stephen Collington (edited August 30, 2008).]

The VP candidate makes no difference (cf. Dan Quayle and Spiro Agnew).

Commentary: Is McCain out of his mind?

By Paul Begala, CNN Contributor

CNN) -- John McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls "a checkup from the neck up."

In choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, he is not thinking "outside the box," as some have said. More like out of his mind.

Palin a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.

In choosing this featherweight, McCain passed over Tom Ridge, a decorated combat hero, a Cabinet secretary and the former two-term governor of the large, complex state of Pennsylvania. iReport.com: 'McCain pick might be a gimmick'

He passed over Mitt Romney, who ran a big state, Massachusetts; a big company, Bain Capital; and a big event, the Olympics.

He passed over Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator who is knowledgeable about the military, good on television and -- obviously -- a woman.

He passed over Joe Lieberman, his best friend in the Senate and fellow Iraq Kool-Aid drinker.

He passed over former congressman, trade negotiator and budget director Rob Portman.

And he also passed over Mike Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas.

For months, the McCainiacs have said they will run on his judgment and experience. In his first presidential decision, John McCain has shown that he is willing to endanger his country, potentially leaving it in the hands of someone who simply has no business being a heartbeat away from the most powerful, complicated, difficult job in human history.

Tell that to John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford.


It's mattered a lot 9 out of 43 times. That's a better than 1 in 5 chance that it'll matter again.

The odds of it not mattering this time, when the presidental candidate in question is already 72 years old and on disability, is a bit more than I'd be willing to bet on.

And I've got a gambling problem.

[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited August 30, 2008).]

Well, David is right. Palin's opponent in the race for governor laments in the New York Times today that she won because people liked her...she made them feel good. He compares her to Obama in this regard. That is a big advantage for Obama.

It will come down to McCain vs Obama. But views of both candidates are affected by their VP choices, obviously. Both made hypocritical choices, given their spiels this summer (Obama ran on the message of change and picked a guy who's been in office in DC for over 30 years. Clearly Obama wants Biden's foreign relations etc. weight in his corner. McCain has questioned whether a young person with 4 years of experience and no significant foreign policy experience is ready. He picks a younger person with less experience in order to add her arch conservativism and renegade stance to the Republican status quo--mirroring his supposed own--to the ticket).

McCain's choice surely made a bigger headlines--it is more "daring". Obama must proceed with caution, I'd say. The biggest mistake would be to laugh Palin off.

Note that Palin is part of an ethics probe for acting to fire a state trooper who divorced her sister.

I want to sleep for two months or so. It would be good if Nancy Pelosi did the same.

RM

McCain wants a Veep who will cut ribbons and visit libraries and hospitals and otherwise not get in the way. She is a token woman but it shows he knows zilch about women.

McCain doesn't want anyone smarter than he is. He doesn't want any one who can advise him. He intends to run the show. Which bodes no good at a time when bipartianship is sorely needed.

But Obama will win now, if no one asassinates him (way too many nuts out there).

Of course, the enormity of the error and the backlash it causes might cause her to quickly renege pleading family problems that just popped up yesterday and give McCain a chance to find someone better. I beleive conservative women will be alienated by what they perceive as shirking her mom/family duties. I think Hiillary women will not regard her as a role model.

That's my take on it anyway. Not that anyone asked me.

Me too, Rick. I had less than a day of laughing and gloating and then became terrified, knowing there must be something sinister going on with such a reckless and ridiculous choice. Think Monica Goodling - and then imagine her as President, clay in the hands of the Neo-con puppet masters. Oh my God! I'm going to hide under my covers and cross my fingers.