The wire services are all reporting that John McCain has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Leaving aside the controversy surrounding the firing of an Alaska state trooper and the possibility that this pick will bring the bribery trial of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Internet Tubes, to the fore, I love how this brings things full circle.
The dumb Republicans have picked someone who couldn’t even serve because Alaska wasn’t a state when she was born! It’s not even part of Amaruka!*
It’s far away and weird (a really really long way from Martha’s Vineyard) and I bet she doesn’t even have a birth certificate! And if she does it’s fake.
Most Americans consider Alaska to be exotic. And cold. Very, very cold. Does anyone really think the Beltway press corpse will follow someone back to Alaska during winter break? My crystal ball is getting an anti-freeze flush, but this could go down as one of the most bizarre and disastrous vice-presidential picks in history.
*Actually, I’m just lying. Bad habit I picked up in Clark County.
MORE– Logically this means John McCain’s parts are now in a testicle lockbox. Did you hear that voice? Sarah Palin should make me a sandwich.
LMAO!!!
This woman is a terrible choice. Talk about experience – it’s all experience in corrupt Republican energy politics which is all that Rovians care about – one heartbeat away from a 72 year old.
The plan is old Johnny McSame the warmongering POW kicks the bucket and Karl Rove has a new puppet to animate even more favors, tax breaks and subsidies to fossil fuel companies who then fill Republican coffers.
It’s so ugly it’s unspeakable.
Alaska – it’s the new Texas!!!
She was born in Idaho.
Look’s like McCain’s campaign thinks they can siphon off some of the Hillary support by appointing a woman, and her youth might tend to negate a bit of the complaints about McCain being too old.
But in return, they totally surrender the “Obama’s not ready on Day One” argument, as she clearly has less experience than he does in foreign affairs, etc. If you are going to elect a 72 year old President, it’s pretty important that the Vice-President be ready to go. She’s even far less ready than George W. Bush was in 2000. She probably couldn’t have won the election to governor in Alaska in 2006 except for being able to defeat the Republican scandal-laden incumbent in the primary.
But I can see why she might have some popularity in Alaska. Runner up in the Miss Alaska pagent (okay, not as competative a field as Miss Texas, but it’s still something. Helped her husband in the commercial fishing business. Like to hunt and do things in the wilderness. Her oldest son is in Iraq (expect to hear about that in just about every speach – at least she’s not from the chickenhawk variety of family).
As for Republican credentials, she’s led an anti-abortion group and is a lifetime NRA member. But she admits to smoking marijuana, but argues that she did so when it was legal in Alaska (although the federal authorities might disagree with that concept of legality).
For a different perspective, I checked out the buzz on FreeRepublic. Those people live in an alternate reality of Oppositeland. There, Obama’s speech was awful and Palen is the best VP pick ever. In their world, McCain’s election is a slam dunk. It’s a fascinating read.
I just noticed, they don’t post long posts. A sentence or two. We have more discussions here.
Love it! The R’s are thinking this will bring in the Hillary voters to their side. Please. Here’s the forumla for those who haven’t figured it out yet:
Hillary Clinton is to Sara Palin as Barack Obama is to Alan Keyes.
GOD, McCain and his monotone are driving me nuts. Just wait until the truth comes out about her firing her former brother in law as a state trooper, how she defended Ted Stevens (boy this brings him to the forefront). You just have to know that someone will want to take her down and will dish the dirt on this inexperienced, over-sexed (5 kids and what else do you do in Alaska?)know nothing.
Evil wrapped in a nice package. Nothing more.
Palin serves a single purpose on the Republican ticket: PUMA bait. It’s like McCain focussed on this one, solitary aspect of the VP choice and forgot every other parameter of the decision. My guess is that he’s been watching cable news coverage of the Democratic National Convention and actually bought the narrative of Democratic Disunity! The corporate media, by aiming to fill Americans’ minds with this lie caught McCain in its “freindly fire!” It’s hilarious!
Ok Palin has had five kids. The last kid had Downs. She didn’t even think of an abortion of course.
The threat is that this will bring the fundies out of their barcaloungers who right now distrust and aren’t in the least enthusiastic about McSame.
One heartbeat away.. Pure evil…
This is how the rethuglicans work. There’s not one bit of concern about what’s good for America. Just what they think wins.
Now here we will see “GOP” hypocrites in action.
Where President Obama was a bad choice because he had little experience, only four years in the state senate and three in the US Senate, here we have a woman who served as mayor of a town of 9000 and spent 18 months as Governor of Alaska!
“GOP” Loooooooses experience argument – CHECK!
She, like her pal McSame is corrupt. She’s knee-deep in all the right wing scandal up there.
“GOP” Loooooooses values argument – CHECK!
She will alienate all the sexist right wing males who wouldn’t have voted for Senator Clinton because she’s a woman and these dicks won’t vote for ANY woman.
“GOP” Loooooooses holding the base argument – CHECK!
Supposedly she has some scandals, including firing a Public Safety director for not dismissing a trooper that was divorcing her sister.
Now she has not been Governor that long, but before that, as mayor of Wasilla. Challenged Frank Murkowski in the Primary in 2006, and beat him. I thought the same was going to happen to either Stevens or Young, but it looks like both are going on to November, but so far, Young’s renomination margin is barely holding. Stevens got about 65%. Alaska looks like it has turned into a battleground state, with 2 competitive races, and the Presidential Race. If Obama was to match his Super Tuesday win there with a win in November, it was already going to be tough, for one reason, Alaska has not voted for a Democratic Party Candidate in the General Election for President of the United States since 1964.
Yeah…a woman can’t be VP…how can she raise a family. Nice dems. You guys are awesome. Surprised I haven’t seen a response yet about how he only picked her to F*ck her. Wahhahahaha!
Someone mentioned experience…I know it sucks for the Big O to be the least experienced of any of the folks on the ticket. She’s been a mayor and now Gov. He’s been a Senator and community activist. Nice comparison. Not saying she’s hugely experienced, but more so that the Big O. I might even be able to say they are equal, but really can’t since he hasn’t ever run anything….unless more comes our about his work on dolling out $$ to some Chicago groups.
7 – Naah. The PUMAS are maybe a few thousand votes.
All the rest of the Hillaryites are throwing in the towel and if not voting for Barack then voting AGAINST McSame. There’s Supreme Court justices to consider.
Palin’s attraction is for the fundie vote. It’s still a hail mary pass but sometimes it works.
Palin is in the lap of fossil fuel developers and is not afraid to eviscerate other Republicans who make the party look bad. She’s actually a good pick for Rovian style politics.
Heh, every argument that Palin doesn’t have enough experience to be VP, shines the light on the sad fact she has a longer political resume than Obama.
2-term councilman
2-term mayor
1 year as ethics chair for Alaskan oil & gas commission ( which she resigned in protest over lack of ethics by fellow republicans)
2 years as governor
That’s about double what Barack can put forth as experience. Keep talking about her lack of experience. Go ahead, see where it gets you.
I don’t know how the investigation of Palin and her office is going to turn out, but her former brother-in-law state trooper sure as hell sounds like an asshole. He sorta reminds me of the Republican Seattle cop (and 45th LD G.O.P. Party candidate) who pushed around and threatened the Democratic video camera fellow at the Rossi rally.
Using a taser stun gun on his 10 year old son? Totally inexcusable, even if the son wanted him to do it (versus the initial story that it was a form of discipline). The trooper got suspended for five days, when he probably should have been fired.
So even if Palin did improperly use her influence in an attempt to get this asshole fired, the fallout from this probably won’t hurt her very much at all.
@8 YLB
Are you saying that she should have aborted her last child?
How do you know that she didn’t consider abortion? I thought you were “pro-choice”? Obviously she exercised her choice and decided to have the baby, and you find fault with that?
How “Pure evil…” are you?
What a Hail Mary. McCain’s desperation is glaringly obvious. The poor old fuck must have made up his mind overnight (not exactly showing much by way of leadership skills), figuring he had to do something dramatic to counter the remarkably successful Dem. Convention. Poor Grampy.
@9
Heh, you don’t pay attention much. She was elected on a reform platform in 2006. The state GOP didn’t want her until she whipped Murkowski’s ass in the primary. She pushed through ethics reform’s and is running 80-90% in approval ratings up there.
re 2: Is it Idaho or Udaho? Only Rep. Senator Larry Craig knows for sure.
re 17: Wow! That’s polling even better than the ‘Contract on America’!
Do you even remember the specifics of that Luntzian sack of BS?
15 – Are you saying that she should have aborted her last child?
No. Are you saying women who make the choice not to bring a child like that into the world are evil?
You’ve said that you’re a “conservative” libertarian.
It’s pretty evident to me from your projection how evil you are.
You all are lucky that McCain didn’t pull something really out of left field (or would that be right field?) and choose someone like Colin Powell. I think that might have splashed all of the various predictions about the race. I mean the Libertarians were never going to win, but a pick like that might have put the Repubs back in the White House…
Looks like the Reps. are going to delay Bush’s opening comments at the Rep. convention.
It looks like it could coincide with a big hurricane — once again highlighting the corruption and incompetence of the Republicans.
YLB points out what I hadn’t quite put my finger on yet – the financial interests which control the Republican Party are always looking for fresh, maliable neo-con ideologues they can subvert for their own purposes. They are looking for someone who doesn’t have the ballsgravitas to resist their influence and pressure. On our own state, Dino Rossi is an example.
“Brownie” is also great example on the national level, if somewhat taken to extreme. Bush & Co. plan to dismantle a government agency, so they take someone who has NO real creditials, but does have political loyalty and is eager to please. They puff up his resume and get him approved by the Senate for a low-profile post (at the time). He’s in over his head, but the air in the higher reaches of power make him a bit giddy, and he’s ambitious (and stupid) enough to make him think that if he does exactly what they want him to do, he will have a ticket into the highest reaches of political power, to be a “member of the club”. So he’s willing to eagerly cooperate with being head of an agency which is rapidly losing power, budget, people, and influence, being reduced to a mere “shell” who’s job is to contract out any necessary projects to Haliburton subsidiaries.
Those who get their on their own merits, who already “belong to the club” or really don’t care about “the club”, are immune from the pressures of those interests. You would have thought that the pedigree of George W. Bush would have insulated him from such influence, but the current President appears to suffer from some psychological feelings of inadequacies with respet to his father, making him feel he had to “out-do” him in terms of proving that he was “more Republican” and “more of a War Leader” than his Dad.
So in Palin you would have another unqualified (but agressive) neo-con who could be mined for as much financial benefit as possible, all while pursuing a confrontational neo-con philosophy with a Democratic Congress. If you liked the last 20 months of stalemate in Washington D.C., you would love a Palin presidency.
@20
Are you saying women who make the choice not to bring a child like that into the world are evil?
No I did not say any such thing. It’s hardly my business to judge, any more than it is yours. What was your intent in mentioning her childs disability, if not to imply that she should have aborted it? Particularly when you made it a point to say that she hadn’t done so.
re 21: Yes! That would have polled well — until the pictures of him, pointer in hand, showing the UN ‘proof’ that the Iraqis had WMD.
Cartoons are not proof (word to the wise).
2-term councilman
2-term mayor
Of a teeming metropolis of 6000 people?
Heh. yeah right…
When I grew up, Down’s syndrome children were called ‘Mongolian Idiots’.
We’ve come a long way.
The only Mongolian Idiot I know of in this day and age is John Yoo.
24 – Ok you’re a real dipwad.
I mentioned her choice as an attraction to the fundie vote ok?
You of course tried to put words into my mouth.
How typically right wing.
Delbert @ 13, YLB @ 26
2-term councilman
2-term mayor
Wikipedia says she served on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996, so maybe that was just one term. Apparently, she was then elected twice as mayor of Wasilla.
And councilMAN? Somehow, I don’t think SHE was born with the qualifications for that position! Aren’t we moving towards the use of gender neutral terms?
@28
Why are you so defensive? I didn’t put any words in your mouth, dick. I told you how it read to me, and ASKED you if my interpretation was your intent.
If all you’re interested in, is a nice little circle-jerk, just say so.
I-Burn at 21: Colin Powell would never agree to be on a McCain ticket. He is completely pissed at the Republicans now, after they had him carry their water for them to the United Nations regarding the “Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, putting his credibility on the line for what proved to be a lie. He hasn’t forgiven them for that. They callously expended a lifetime of credibility and reputation without so much of a thank-you afterwards.
Just another one of the problems caused by the Bush administration is that it screwed up the careers of so many potential Republican candidates. Anybody who had any visibility in the Bush administration is forever tainted. Condoleza Rice would have been a difficult candidate for the Democrats to deal with, but after being a loyal Bush spokesman for the last eight years, she’s lost her credibility.
12: I didn’t realize she was such a fundy. So, yeah, this serves primarily as a sop to the theocrats. I’ll bet this perpetuates the PUMA meme in the traditional media, though, even though a completely anti-choice VP candidate like Palin should make every female Hillary supporter run screaming the other direction.
Palin is a great choice.
Please attempt to discredit her experience…
Her resume and executive experience far outpace Obama.
She is a DC outsider, who HAS ALREADY changed politics in AK. Obama can only talk about change because he hasn’t accomplished any…
Both McCain and Palin have children serving and fighting in the war…(read that they literally have skin in the game)
This pick is a referendum on Obama….Palin is more qualified to lead now than Obama, She can point to accomplishments where he can only make empty promises….Unlike Obama, she breaks from her party…
Any arguments that Democrats make against Palin are a directly attributable to Obama….
And she is going to get a very large chunk of the independent women vote…probably a bunch of the Hillary vote as well…….
Obama picks a DC insider who doesn’t think Obama is ready to lead….Who’s own son is an “evil” lobbyist.
McCain picks a DC outsider, Gov of AK, govt reformer…who is a woman who isn’t ashamed of being an executive and a mother and a wife all at the same time…..
There’s no way any sane woman that wants to continue to have control over her own body would vote for this ticket now. With McCain liable to keel over any day now, Palin stands a very good chance of being President. You might as well vote for the Pope. She won’t just go after Roe v. Wade…she’ll go after contraception, sex education. What Hillaryite would want that?
For the life of me, I’ve been having a hard time thinking of other Republican women who might have been nominated. All I can think of is:
Condoleza Rice – discredited by her work in the Bush Administration.
Katherine Harris – couldn’t even win election to the Senate in Florida, other Republicans BEGGED someone to run against her.
Liddy Dole – about the same age as McCain.
I’m sure there must be others out there of which I am unaware, they just haven’t made the national news enough to come to my attention.
RS @ 32
Glad you’re happy. I envy the Republican ability to jump into Delusion Land with both feet and see sunny skies despite the sleet coming down. This pick was the desperate act of a desperate campaign. Women will see the transparency of this ill-advised fop to them.
Right Stuff @ 32: The current DOJ investigations and indictments in Alaska politics are doing more to change government in Alaska than anything else. The impact will be significant. Palin just happened to slip into the mix while the job was half done.
I WOULD say that this nomination may save the Republican Party in Alaska, it was looking pretty bad for them with all the corruption charges. The Palin nomination might give them something to rally around.
As for comparing Obama vs. Palin’s experience: you are emphasizing local “executive experience” vs. “national legislative experience”. As a general principle, I wouldn’t say one is inherently better than the other. Obama was also an Illinois State Senator while Palin was a city council member and later mayor of a small town. But size also matters, and representing a state with an economy and population the size of Ohio as a Senator in the state legislature, then as a member of the U.S. Senate, trumps her experiences as a small-town mayor in Alaska and governor of that state.
For example, note that Wasilla, Alaska has a population of 5,470 as of the 2000 election. Heck, even Brier, Washington has a bigger population of 6,383. Talk about being in a “small pond”. It’s just not comparable with Obama’s experience in Illinois, or his national experience in the U.S. Senate.
And it takes away from McCain his entire campaign theme to date, arguing that Obama doesn’t have the necessary “foreign policy experience”. It’ll be funny trying to see the Republicans and Fox News trying to reconcile the inherent logical discrepency between Obama’s “lack of foreign policy experience” as a member of the U.S. Senate, vs. Palin’s foreign policy experience as the mayor of a small town and governor of Alaska.
“Beltway press corpse”
I like it! They might as well all be dead for what little use they’ve been during the out-of-control Bushevik regime.
Hey iBurn did you tell everyone that you’re a punk and my bitch? Did you mention that you faked being in the military? Why would your opinion on the bitch McSame appointed VP candidate matter?
@39
Hey BBG, did you tell everyone you were too frightened to meet me in person last weekend? You either didn’t show up, when I gave you the opportunity, or you were there and saw me, and whimped out. Either way, you’re a coward. Why would your opinion be anything more than the bleating of a frightened sheep?
Keep selling that bullshit my bitch. Easy way for EVERYONE to know who’s afraid. Why won’t you meet me at DL where there are witnesses? BECAUSE there are witnesses. That’s why. Typical right wing cunt. The only difference between you and Palin is she has a pussy and you ARE a pussy!
@40
Why wouldn’t you meet me at the freakin’ MALL, dumbass. You can’t get any more public than that. Everyone already knows who the frightened one, truly is. He proved it by not apprearing last Saturday afternoon. Just face it, boy, you’re a coward. If you weren’t you’d have been there, or you’d have come up to my table, if you actually were there. You didn’t, so there you go. Chickenshit.
Besides, you’ve never shown up at a DL anyway. I doubt there is even anyone on HA that can verify that you’re even an adult. I certainly have my doubts, given your ignorance and arrogance.
By the way, I’ve checked that open thread every day now, waiting for some bullshit response from you. Who got run off, again, asshole?
sarah palin: don’t tread on me!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t.....808998915/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t.....808999899/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t.....808998129/
IF WE GET AN ELECTION,which may or may not happen…Personally, I think it entirely possible (considering all they (conservative criminals) have put in place to cover such eventualities, that something will happen to negate an election. I mean, they have been working like FIENDS getting their “homeland security” apparatus up and running, for what end? I’m just sayin’.
And iron your shirt….
Well I see that Seattle libtards really have their whine on…
Are they now suffering buyer’s remorse at having picked the dancing darkie to lead the party of the Seditious & Sleazy?
Here’s a perfect example of how you libtards can’t get a grip on reality:
rhp6033 whines: “Colin Powell would never agree to be on a McCain ticket. He is completely pissed at the Republicans now, after they had him carry their water for them to the United Nations regarding the “Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, putting his credibility on the line for what proved to be a lie.“…
Meanwhile in the real world back in May of ’04: After spending more than a year attacking the Bush administration daily for their supposed failure to produce the WMDs that everyone — including the United Nations, as well as most leading Democrats — believed Saddam had hidden, the Left has suddenly gone strangely silent on the subject. The “mainstream” media has been tiptoeing around the discovery of a 155-mm mortar shell containing Sarin gas in Iraq, the contents of which have been confirmed. The shell was used as part of an improvised explosive device (IED) on a road near the Baghdad International Airport, and exploded as it was being disarmed.
The shell contained three liters of Sarin — nearly a gallon. It was a type of shell designed to mix chemical components during flight, which was why the explosion didn’t kill anyone (though two soldiers were treated for exposure). Three liters of Sarin is enough, if the components are mixed properly, to realistically kill hundreds, and potentially thousands. A concentration of 100 milligrams of Sarin per cubic meter of air is enough to constitute a lethal dose for half the people breathing it within one minute.