Celebrity?

Now we can see why she was a Miss Alaska.

Travel safely, Al.  Thanks for the great job reporting from Denver.

If any of us need a good laugh for the next few weeks, we can try to imagine the VP Debate.

 

Palin has the ironic advantage of actually making Obama seem more statesman-like and experienced. That's a bonus!

This choice also makes McMaverick's age more of an issue. Is this choice ready to take the 3 a.m. phone call? The Democrats suddenly have more gravitas than they did just yesterday.

Well done, McBush!

When a woman with a dem could not bring home the bacon (no pun intended), how could another with a repug do that ?

Too much hype in the blogs today. Typical of dems to panic at the slightest of the unepected move from the repugs. And the irony is that actually it was McCain who panicked today.

amk

Disagree with your conclusion, Al.

As you say, this takes Obama's experience (non-)issue off the table for the McCain campaign. And that does change the dynamics...in a good way for Obama-Biden.

This is a short-term pick.  But it undercuts his basic message about Obama on experience.

I think anyone with any chops in the GOP knew they didn't want this job.

• Mittster: Religious Right doesn't trust Mormons, and his 8 houses reinforces out of touch meme.
• Pawlenty: Probably couldn't bring his own state along, thin resume, no buzz.
• Huckabee: Would've been a darling of the southern right, but wouldn't have meshed well with McCain.
• Crist: Popular, from a big state -- but he's probably gay.  (Even the usually even-keeled Chuck T opined that his engagement is a "setup."  Yeesh)
• Jindal: Didn't pass his early audition, the additional spotlight focused too much on his "fringiness" (his witnessing a demonic "possession", strict creationism stance)
  
• Ridge: They floated that trial balloon, and the Rush Brigade knocked that sucker down as his pro-Choice bonfides would've cost him tenuous hold on religious right.
• Rob Portman: Ohio native is an up and comer, and would've shored up state  Was being 43's choice the bump that pushed him off the list, or did he not want to get stuck on this ticket?
• Carly Fiorina: Brash, female CEO would've made for great optics, but she did get paid 40 Million to walk away from HP/Compaq. 
  
• Kay Bailey Hutchinson: Out of all of these folks, she's probably the most traditional repub-sensible. She's Palin, except that she's got more legislative experience. No ethical baggage, and she's anti-choice (which would've shored up her conservative bonafides).
• Joe Lieberman: Hahaha. yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

The only two others in the party that I thought would generate any heat -- Mark Sanford and Ah-nuld. However, it seems like both didn't want the job. The former had declared that '06 was his last election ever, and the second is restricted by law to serve in the highest office.

 

So, I affirm Al's notion that McCain had very little to choose from.

 

The Palin pick has a high potential for upside, but I wouldn't put money on this being a gamechanger.  And not because that's a failing of Palin herself -- I just wouldn't have much faith in McCain's team right now.  Outside of the "celebrity" attack, they haven't gotten anything that has stuck on Obama, much less any memes that affirm McCain.

 

Happy Birthday, McCain. Boldness would have been promising to be a 1-term President if elected and picking somebody who could govern a place with more than 8000 people after year four. This is a complete joke. It is utterly hilarious how Obama/Biden has so thoroughly gotten in the heads of McRove and Co. that they freak out to pick an inexperienced, beauty pageant celebrity with next to no executive, legislative, or intellectual experience or heft in the utterly desperate hope that somehow they might get lucky. My God, how absurd! This is going to be Bob Dole does Brittany Viagra ad redux. "Heh, heh, heh." Pathetic. Comical. Delicious. Can she even win AK with her sordid little scandal about to explode and draw attention to all the other AK Repub scandals? Tee Time!

Pass it on!!!  Abuse of Power, extreme right, she's Cheyney with Ovaries.

and unless they are just giving the themes one last hurrah before the official announcement, neither seem is off the table.

(Not as dumb as this VP pick)

But has she ever left the country for any foreign affairs stuff?

I am not kidding. Next in line to CIC and she has zero foreign experience?

Are you kidding me?

 

You know what is funny in all of this that most folks are still missing:

The political genius of Senator Barack Obama. I'll explain.

For many days and weeks, Barack had a chance to ruminate and pick and announce a VP. But he chose to delay till as late as possible. Many will now understand why. With his delay in picking and/or announcing, he wanted to give the McCain camp very little reaction time and force them into a mistake.

Now, normally, all that would be moot if McCain's camp had decided not to react but to go with their best pick irrespective of knowing Obama's pick (as would be the case if they had to pick first). But Obama figured they would try to react and counter and so giving them soooo little time was the key to forcing a desperate choice.

Now the whole game with the press by not revealing his pick until the 11th hour makes a lot more sense.

Later on, if, or shall I say when Obama wins, his masterful playbook will be studied by many, many politicians after him.

Oh.my.Gosh.-I was not a Hillay voter but as a woman  I am absolutely insulted. Wow. The scariest thing about this is where we are right now in the world. We need experience and sound judgement more than ever. This person has no place being a VP choice. What if McCain dies and she's left to run this country? Seriously? If the Republicans consider themselves to be so much more patriotic than us they should have put country above ego and trying to win at all costs. This is just pathetic. I am speechless at the lack of judgement and the complete disrespect this shows to women in this country. Now, it's all about your youthful appearance and your experience doesn't matter? They could have selected a more experienced man or woman than this. Sickening!!!!!

 

Sarah Palin by her own admission doesn't even know what the VP does. This is really scary! The Republicans-and I hear Rush was directly behind this-have chosen to play American Idol instead of looking out for our country, our veterans, our parents and our children's futures...

 

Is that Vogue cover a real one? Or some Phun with Photoshop?

John McCain has lost his freaking mind!!  Couldn't be happier. 

Maybe we should be thankful the MSM hyped up the Clinton/PUMA drama all week, because McCain apparently bought into it and thinks there's enough of it to make Palin a smart choice.

From Google images, looks like it is real, not a parody, Vogue cover.

Okay, back to the drawing board for Obama and Biden.

McCain just went for a desperate 3-point shot with his VP pick and while the ball is yet in the air, we will know soon whether this was genius or just naked desperation and a complete miss.

But on the Obama campaign's part, unlike all the touted male VP contenders, Biden will have to rethink his strategy in going after a woman. Where he can rip a Romney and Pawlenty apart without caring how much blood is split on the debate floor, he has to fall under a PG-Woman rating with Palin.

More subtle but just as critical, McCain is trying to say to the American people that the two tickets are now balanced:

One experienced, politically savvy, foreign experience rich, white male AND one neophyte, inexperienced minority on each tickets.

I don't agree with this of course, but I strongly suspect it is part of their playbook.

a creationist?  Phew.

DKos is posting details on some of her positons: creationist, anti-choice, the list goes on.  I agree with Jason, we may have the PUMA's to thank for this.

It would be too difficult for SNL to even try to parody.  She was a mayor of a town of 7,000 before becoming Gov.  Gonna be fun to see what Al has to say.  Hard not to laugh at the thought of a VP debate.  Gwen Ifill will be moderator.

Does anybody have a semi-resonable understanding of this, other than 'turning out the base'????

I still think he was smokin' sumpthin!

 

You telling us not to worry makes me worried, because it suggests that there is some upside to this pick.

The pick does a huge amount of work for Obama.  First and foremost, it makes it clear that McCain is deeply unserious about governing the country.  She's more inexperienced than Obama, but without the upside of having launched a national campaign and selling herself on her abilities.  There's no way McCain looked at the field and decided she was the best to take over if anything should happen to him.  It's transparently political.  In one swoop Obama's 'inexperience' is off the table and McCain's judgment is on the table.

Second, it's the worst kind of tokenism, and has the effect of saying that Clinton's appeal was because of her XX and not because of her undeniable talents as a politician and a leader.

If McCain doesn't end up looking like the fool he is within a week, American political culture is hopeless.

Really poor choice. Watching her now. Not particularly impressive. Not the obvious train wreck that was Quaile from the moment he opened his mouth. But, yes, ignore her, other than to point out how far right and out of step she is. Jump on McCain's lack of judgment.

Ooh, she just mentioned "corruption." Can't wait to see what comes out of her closet.

"Stood up to the big oil companies." Oh please!

By the way, her children's names are Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. Is it just me, or does that seem odd?

McCain is 72 years old and THIS is supposed to be the person who would take over?  It's the same argument I always had about the bonus of putting Huckabee on the ticket...it would freak a lot of people out who would say, well I like McCain but he's old and this is our VP??

 

Also, I must disagree with Al's "unblemished" comment.  She may be less blemished but she is currently under ethics investigation by her legislature.

 

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/ak_gov_says_staffer_pr...

 

McCain does seem to have changed the topic of the day but perhaps not the way he intended.  Why not Kay Baily Hutchinson?

IMHO, Biden just hits McCain hard in the debate -- talks about the issues. If and when she has some sort of snappy retort (and I'm sure they can predict what it is), he comes up with a "you're no jack kennedy". Maybe it's "Governess, you are no Hillary Rodham Clinton". Go through a list of HRC's legislative successes and contrast them with the "Wasilla Sports Complex Land Deal"

.

From there, I hit her as another Bush, but without the silver spoon (implying that she got where she is not on talent but something else). We have another anti-science, pro-big-oil, extreme right winger. She may not be of the Bush - Cheney party -- yet -- but it's just because she hadn't been invited to the table yet. But ideologically that's what we have here...

Then he pivots to Georgia / Russia and the big problems of the times. (Too bad that I happen to completely disagree with the Biden / Obama line on that issue, but alas). I think that Joe Biden is just the kind of person to do this attack. He is so engaging when he gets critical... he gives the air of "let's roll up our sleeves and figure this stuff out because it's serious business".

If I'm "concerned" about anything, it's that the right wing is now mobilized. I think that it's too little, too late but all signs are that they see this as a sign of respect.

Either way, it all means that we need to canvass, phone bank, and put this thing away. Continue to win it with the ground game. (IMHO).

Does anyone think McCain's first choice turned him down??

I tell ya one thing McCain was able to pull off that Obama didn't and that was the element of surprise.  And sure, everyone is talking about this instead of yesterday but I don't think they are saying what McCain would have hoped.

Server issues??  Here as well as at TPM.  Hmmm.

I think the above Vogue cover is photoshopped. From my googling it looks like Palin was in the mag, but not on the cover. The sides of her face look way too square in the above cover for it not to have been pasted in.

Here are the pics from the Vogue story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/29/sarah-palin-mccains-vp-pi_n_122...

This is judgement? A veep, who has absolutely no experience in the vast issues that face our country, for a 73 year old man. A mother with a 4 month old child who will be far from home for the next 3 months. Can't wait to see what Hillary says.

I think that last night the sight of Barack, Michelle and the girls, Joe, Jill and their kids and grands, with the little ones chasing confetti, was just too much for McCain... So now he's got a cute family on his side... I'd stick in an "LOL," but I'm thinking it's too close to true...

I just ordered my new yard sign, "We Bark (for) Barack" to go with my two Texas hill country dogs that run the fence line barking at everyone that passes. I'm going to put it on my big red ranch gate, topped with a row of fluttering American flags.

Now, with the VP choice this am, this is so much fun. What a bumper sticker: McCain's palin'. You bet he is!

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that there were some buggy pieces of code in one of Al's post (from yesterday but still on the front page) that was causing the server to be slooooooooowwwww.

But I was (finally!) able to find out where it was and now things should be running smoothly again. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Comment on!!

I have thought for a long time that there was something of a Goldwater moment to this Republican campaign. Goldwater lost by a huge margin (bigger even than McCain's loss is going to be), but he set the Republicans on a path that they have traveled for decades. I have always felt that this election has about a 50-50 chance of either being a close election or a landslide victory for Obama.

I think McCain is torn by a desire to try and win and a desire to try and go down as an important historical also-ran. If he loses he wants to be Goldwater instead of McGovern or William Jennings Bryan and not Alf Landon. Barry Goldwater is a personal hero of John McCain. If McCain does not become president, he wants to be Barry Goldwater.

Unfortunately for him he will have a hard time trying for both. When I started playing outfield in little league baseball as a kid I used to forget to decide whether I was throwing the ball to second or third until after I threw it. I ended up throwing it exactly between the two and the ball just rolled and rolled and the runners on base just ran and ran. McCain hasn't decided yet whether he's going to try and win or whether he is going to try to be a remembered loser. He knows this election is all about Obama and it's Obama and the country's reaction to him that will determine if this thing is close or not.

Part of the Palin choice is meant to make sure that McCain gets a sentence in American history books and not just a listing in Table 15-3. Although as Republicans go I like her, I don't see her as the choice of someone planning to win. I could, however, see her as a standardbearer of the future Republican Party that rises from the ashes after this one has burned. Maybe that's part of his plan.

I agree with Al, !00%. I think they will, and should, pay zero attention to this VP.  She hasn't earned any attention on a national level and doesn't offer anything to swing voters that democrats don't offer in spades.  I seriously doubt female swing voters (the target niche) are hungering that much for a female VP to make this an issue even for single issue voters.  Clinton was a fixation for some very good reasons that legitimately had to do with experience and competence.  Who is going to just flip to McCain for this inexperienced person who happens to be female?  Not the numbers that are going to make a difference.  As for her political leanings...if she is an ideologue from the right, WTF?  How does that get McCain anywhere closer to being elected? So...keep the focus on McCain.

So, Palin is keen on killing animals. So far, I've seen photos of her outside with a dead elk and lolling about the grizzly skin (with head) on her couch. There's a giant spider crab on her coffee table.  She supports aerial hunting of wolves and keeping the polar bear off the endangered species list. Any other examples of her vicious contempt for wildlife and the environment?  

I just wrote a diary on Kos analyzing the new graphics on the McCain website.  The banner was obviously just done by an intern - which means they had no website ready to go with this pick (or signs - there were none at the rally right?)

She was not the pick until a couple of hours ago, definitely based on this evidence.

Fonts are awful - definitely not done by a professional company.

Rec it up - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/132512/087/860/578848

KD

The hard-core evangelical Christian right that shares Palin's stance on matters of public policy.

They believe that woman should be subservient to man.

They believe that a woman's place is in the home.

They believe that a woman, especially one with children, should not work outside the home because she is neglecting her most important duty to raise her children.

They will not be as happy with the choice of Palin as some of you may fear.

Is this just a big head fake ala Harriet Miers? Will Palin have some personal issue that will force her to withdraw after it is obvious what a bad choice this is for the GOP?

 

What a gift to Obama. Too bad for McCain he loathed Mitt Romney. Romney would have been at least capable of mixing it up with Biden and Obama. What is Palin going to do, tout her one whistleblowing victory that got her elected as governor to Alaska?

"Er, Senator Biden, spare me with your long-winded travelogue of all the heads of state you have met. And please, we are not impressed that you called Slobodan Milosevic a war criminal to his face.

I single handedly brought down a corrupt Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. So take THAT with you on your train ride home tonight!"

Can't wait for the VP debate!

I'm not even sure Palin will accomplish that.  Let's face it, the Republican base are a pretty homogeneous group.  I'm not sure a beauty queen from the far North is going to make them pee their pants with glee,  regardless of how much conservative ideology she espouses.

This is the desperation move of all desperation moves.  Regardless of the polls and pundits, the McCain camp saw that their bogus "celebrity" and "other" arguments about Obama would not hold water.  So they are unashamedly pandering to women who might be angry that Hillary was not selected as veep.  But, in reality, the PUMAs are a fringe group with no political weight.  McCain would have garnered more votes by picking a fringe candidate as his running mate (e.g. Barr).

I agree with Joel.  The fixation on Clinton was about experience and a longing to go back to the way things were when Bill was president.  Sure, it was about gender, too, and the toxic belief that having a woman president somehow mitigates all "victimization of women" many of her supporters cling to.  But it was never about having just a woman, but having a woman who understood and shared their victimhood.  I can't see any way that Palin will be an acceptable substitute to more than the few who had already decided they were going to vote for McCain anyway.  Those people probably were never really Democrats to begin with.

All other issues aside, the "heartbeat" issue will be the most damaging.  It will also bring the age elephant right into the room, which most have been reluctant to discuss.  But in McCane's case age is a real issue, and now here's who would take over the White House.  I just think that will be too much for anybody on the fence.

When I heard Palin was the choice my knee-jerk reaction was: Monty Python???

I'd like to know what Cindy McCain thinks about this pick. Palin is a very attractive, intelligent, strong, young woman. McCain is known for his womanizing and he will be spending a lot of time with Palin (a lot of it alone). I'm not saying Palin is attracted to McCain (who would be) but I wonder how Cindy will accept her man being so close and spending so much time with this attractive woman. Especially when you consider there are several other women that have more experience, but are no where near as attractive.

I's sure Cindy, as does many other woman, resent the fact that pretty women sometimes get the job or the promotion over a plain Jane with more experience.

 Her son is only four months old and has downs syndrome. A woman who has a handicapped infant, who will not be home for the next three months does not sound like family values to me. Babies need their mothers, she is obviously not breast feeding. I can not imagine why this woman would even consider doing this.

I think the intelligence on this board, which is considerable, is getting the better of all of you. :-) You dont need to exercise so much of it.

I think this is pretty simple: they're going after the Hillary vote.

They can't travel the Obama/Biden highway, so they're going after speed bumps. They think they're laying down roadblocks. Was this a Rovian whoop-dee-doo to deal with the last two months? [Hey! Maybe all that coverage of the PUMAs wasn't for naught.]

I mean they didn't even stop to think about her having to wear a scarf in a fundamentalist Muslim country -- which Mrs. Bush and Condi Rice wisely did -- or as Prez negotiating with Arab leaders. Can you see her in Israel?Negotiating an I/P peace? Those boys would run their bulldozers over her.

"As mentioned earlier, Gov. Palin is embroiled in her own trooper-gate scandal up in Alaska. In short, she's accused of using her pull as governor to get her ex-brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. The brother-in-law is embroiled in an ugly divorce and custody with Palin's sister. And after his boss wouldn't fire the brother-in-law, she fired the boss. Palin originally insisted there was nothing to the story. More recently, she was forced to admit the one of her top deputies had pushed to get the guy fired."

Stand in front of a mirror sideways and turn your head to look at yourself. Check out your neck muscles and left ear. Now where is Palin's left ear? Her face is a full frontal shot.

It appears from this interview that she believes creationism should be taught in the classroom:

http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.html

 

"Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms.

Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.""

 

You know I'm an Independent and a female and I'm not swayed by McCains VP pick.  Women are not a monolithic group and we don't vote based on sex, race, religion etc.  This woman is the true EPITOME of not ready to lead from day one.  As governor yes she's qualified and has served Alaska well thus far (minus recent corruption), has she has high approval ratings...However, this DOES NOT transcend into the President of the U.S.  Choosing her scares me literally bc she is NOT qualified to be CinC NO WAY NO HOW NO PALIN as she is appaling to be thought of as a good pick and ready to lead....that thinking is just appaling.

I wanted to make this point too.  I'm a family person, not religious at all, but believe in family and your word is your bond etc...This woman has a 4 month old child that she just had in April and she is going to be campaigning for VP?  HELLO does anybody see this as not right?

 

To me as a woman and a mother your children come first and you balance it w/your career.  She has a career as governor why jeopardize it for a losing campaign, and be away from all 5 of your children ESPECIALLY the 4 month old with special needs? Sorry, but an infant will come first for me before any job bc that 1st year is so crucial to their development.  I actually find it offensive that she would want this job when she already has a CAREER that is NEW and leave behind just a young infant....That is not a smart decision in my book and wonder what the christian right think of that....Just having a baby and leaving it to be VP?  There is no way, and I know as a mom, you can do both when you have an infant bc the infant, especially one w/special needs, takes up all your time.

And listening to her talk today at her "VP announcement party" she seems weak to me.  Her voice is cringy....But I don't get strength from her like you do when you hear HRC...and I'm NO HRC fan...trust me...but she doesnt come across as strong, and CinC at all.

I'm apalled further by the Republicans who are on MSM touting that she is ready, she can be CinC and will make a great one if the need arose...huh?  They are sooooo hypocritical.  And you wonder why folks hate politics bc people don't speak the truth even though its an obvious elephant in the room....Republicans are disgraceful...can't wait to hear Hannity later...NOT...can't stand the man to watch more than 10 seconds...

Population State of Alaska in 2000: 626,932

Population Illinois 13th District in 2000: 653,647

 

Al, "nice people" don't argue that:

1) A woman has no right to choose what to do with her own body, even if she is raped;

2) Evolution should be taught in public schools;

3) Global warming is bunk;

4) Polar bears should not be listed as endangered species, because the designation might interfere with oil and gas profits;

5) State commissioners should be fired if they don't allow the Governor to use her power to punish her sister's ex-husband.

Sarah Palin believes all of the above. So I can't consider her "nice."

But then, I don't separate people's personalities from their opinions as much as some people. In my book, the ability to smile and shake hands warmly doesn't make up for causing grievous harm to our earth, our health, our Constitution.

http://kodiakkonfidential.blogspot.com/2008/01/sarahs-vogue.html