Politics!

[mezmorized]

McCain picks women who governs a lot of oil, news at eleven...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us...hp&oref=slogin

DAYTON, Ohio — In a surprise move, Senator John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate on Friday, shaking up the political world at a time when his campaign has been trying to attract women, especially disaffected supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, McCain officials confirmed.

In choosing Ms. Palin — a 44-year-old conservative Christian and self-described “hockey mom” who has been governor for less than two years — the McCain campaign reached far outside the Washington Beltway in an election in which the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, is running on a platform of change.

There goes McCain's "He's got no experience" argument. He fucked himself good this time.

With McCain's pick of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate I think the Dems just lost.

Actually I think the playing field just got leveled.

[TimBuktu]

With McCain's pick of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate I think the Dems just lost.

I don't know if you're being serious, but this is so obviously a move to try and snatch up Hillary supporters... Also, this ad.

... I can't find it....

It's a woman talking about how she was going to vote for Hillary, but now she's voting for McCain... She says "I'm a democrat and for the first time I'm voting Republican... " and then she says "It's ok... really"

I know there are people who liked Hillary more as a candidate, but some of these jaded women are really pissing me off. Get the fuck over it already. You're really going to put a Republican in office because Barack isn't a lady? Thanks a lot.

[TimBuktu]

Here's the ad...

[DiscoInferiorityComplex]

With McCain's pick of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate I think the Dems just lost.

Just like when all those women voters flocked to Mondale? Any moderate out there who would vote for a candidate just because he has a female VP, ignoring her strong pro-life views in the process, likely was already leaning towards McCain anyway. I think that type of voter isn't social-issues/platform driven. They're the type who favor experience as defined by years and leadership as defined by experience.

[isoS]

With McCain's pick of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate I think the Dems just lost.

I was thinking the opposite: Obama has McCain playing on his terms, reacting instead of setting his own course. It seems like the candidate who sets the ground rules for a campaign is usually the one who wins.

This pick is too calculated and pretty extreme in a lot of ways, which does a couple of things: moderates will look at Palin's positions and say "no thanks," the handful of nutjobs who don't want a woman to be President ever will do the same (and if it gets dirty, which it will, look for ads pointing out McCain's infirmity and Palin's inexperience), and a lot of reasonable Republicans will just roll their eyes and say, "Johnny went too far to make a point." McCain is trying to take away Obama's "change" argument by casting himself as a political maverick, an experienced politician who has remained an outsider, but with his record and his support of Bush he can't win that argument, so all he's doing is driving away his own party's base.

Note: I don't know very much about politics and don't follow them closely, so all this conjecture could be completely wrong.

[chapina]

If she's related to Michael Palin, I'm in!

[ericluxury]

I don't think it will drive away his base. Apparently Palin declined to abort her child after it was discovered that it had Down's Syndrome. She is very Christian so it could help get the conservative Christians who vote on faith. Thats not McCain's base so much as the base of the Republicans in general. She's also got a reformer image who fought against Republican who were corrupt. And she can maybe get the people who just want a lady in office.

All of that really depends on her political skill and charisma. McCain doesn't even know if she is charismatic on a large scale. If she is a Quayle type choice, then it will appear to be a desperation pick.

Either way though it was a smart choice to have a surprise choice after Obama gave such a speech last night.

[angryrobot]

I just turned the tv on and I thought McCain had picked Tina Fey. Hey what the hell, she was the mayor of a town with a population of 5400 and has run a state of less than a million, why not.

Rove's secret polling must show McCain's situation even more desperate than it looks to us.

[ProfessorShutYoMouth]

I just think that Republicans have been praying for a reason to get excited about McCain's campaign and his pick of Sarah Palin may have given them that reason.

She is not just an empty dress to look pretty next to McCain, she is a strong woman with a (limited) history of making actual changes to a corrupt government. I think she actually will outshine McCain with her speeches and will not let Joe Biden run over her in the debates.

Although, it may get awkward if McCain stares at her ass everytime they are onstage together because he can't keep his eyes off of it right now (she is giving her speech).

[angryrobot]

She's a excellent speaker. When was the last time a Presidency was won when the VP was more interesting and charismatic?

She sounds great until you start reading about how she wants to teach Creationism in public schools. I'm not sure how the mothers in America are going to react to the idea of leaving your 4 month old baby at home to travel the country for 2 months. I think it would border on abuse to take the child with her on her campaign stops.

[andrearunge]

Are you kidding me? Is she the governor of Alaska or a real estate agent from Fresno? I can't tell.

She has no relevant experience other than birthing the babies. They picked a uterus, not a vice presidential running mate.

Also, nice use of the first born son as cannon fodder. Two Sept 11th references in a row? (Her son enlisted on Sept. 11th 2007 and will be deployed on Sept. 11th 2008. Yeah. That wasn't manufactured at all. I wouldn't be suprised if Cheney has her son killed in Iraq just for the sympathy vote. The Republicans have made me that cynical.)

Biden will have to tone down his scrappiness in the debates so as not to look like a bully against the little lady, but other than that, I don't see her as having that big impact on the election.

[ProfessorShutYoMouth]

Biden will have to tone down his scrappiness in the debates so as not to look like a bully against the little lady, but other than that, I don't see her as having that big impact on the election.

I have heard some pundits say similar things, but I think it is more disrespectful to her as a woman if he treats her with kid gloves during the debates. But yeah I guess see that because he can get pretty contentious. Something about her makes me think she will scrap right back though.

I am pleased with the Democrats response to this pick so far. Obama of course offered a mild congratulations but everyon else is tearing her down already. Which, sad to say, is good because that is something the Democrats are usually not very good at.

That, and finding attractive women to have affairs with.

[Keith Whitener]

Please don't call it pro-life. You are being manipulated every time you use that phrase. No one who is pro-choice is anti-life. Call it for what it is: Anti-Choice.

This is the same as when non-interventionism began to be referred to as isolationism.

[craigtnelson]

I'm not going to debate whether she'd be experienced enough in issues like the war in Iraq, Russia/Georgia, inner city gun ownership, farming, FEMA... because there's nothing to debate.

But I will say that Kristen Wiig is probably tapdancing right now at being able to put on that accent.

[TomHicks]

Almost eveything being written about her inexperience and lack of national profile so far can be easily switched around and turned into a positive. Like if she's in a debate with Biden, and the press label her the loser, then the Republicans can go "Wow! You beat a girl!" all sarcastically*.



*An homage to a Bill Murray Weekend Update segment on letting women in the military serve in combat situations

[Adult Ed]

I have heard some pundits say similar things, but I think it is more disrespectful to her as a woman if he treats her with kid gloves during the debates. But yeah I guess see that because he can get pretty contentious. Something about her makes me think she will scrap right back though.

The reasonable position is that treating her with kid gloves is sexist. This is a position that most people will not take if Biden decides to follow through. The realistic position is that really going after her will make him look like a bully. Still, he can hammer away at McCain all he wants.

As for Palin, she says that she is a hockey mom? She was the mayor of a town that could fit into the University of Alaska- Anchorage's hockey rink if there was a hurricane. They'd have room to stretch out.

[DiscoInferiorityComplex]

Please don't call it pro-life. You are being manipulated every time you use that phrase. No one who is pro-choice is anti-life. Call it for what it is: Anti-Choice.

Please don't call it pro-choice. You are being manipulated every time you use that phrase. No one who is pro-life is simply anti-choice. Call it for what it is: Pro-Fetus Murdering

[Hurm]

All her children's names sound like All My Children

"Palin and her husband Todd have five children, Bristol, Piper, Track, Willow, and Trig.
Trig's full name is Trig Paxson Van Palin."

[NFox]

Please don't call it pro-choice. You are being manipulated every time you use that phrase. No one who is pro-life is simply anti-choice. Call it for what it is: Pro-Fetus Murdering

And this is why I tried to steer away from the topic of Abortion when it was brought up in regard to Bob Barr and his position. I've had this very debate enough times to know that it never ends up being productive (The very reason I've kept my opinion of abortion out of all of this).

To those who choose to pursue this debate here: Have fun :P

-Nick

[Berliner]

What the hell? I think she's such an unknown that its going to be hard to accurately speculate exactly how she's going to affect the campaign right now, but it just seems obvious right now that the cons outweigh the pros with having her as VP.