Sarah Palin: a bold choice, or a desperate one?
So far, so good: McCain's VP pick has electrified conservatives.



Minneapolis, Minn. - John McCain likes bold, daring strokes. The question that hangs over his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is whether it was a bold move or a desperate one.

Early returns on the politics of the selection are good. Senator McCain's choice of Governor Palin, a feisty young reformer from small-town Alaska, performed the signal service of driving Barack Obama's acceptance speech out of the news within hours after it was delivered. Polls since Friday suggest that the shift in attention from Senator Obama to Palin probably restrained the bounce that Obama had generated at the Democratic convention.

Better yet, Palin has electrified the GOP base. McCain's campaign got a $7 million bounce in donations after she was picked, which shows how much conservatives like her and how muted their support for McCain had been. Many had the feeling that they were watching a rerun of Bob Dole's losing campaign and were unenthused about McCain's candidacy. Until now.

Palin's nomination comes, of course, on the heels of Hillary Clinton's narrow defeat at the hands of Obama. Notwithstanding whatever bitterness remains from that contest, it is doubtful that many Clinton Democrats will pull the lever for McCain, no matter who shares the ticket with him. But the remarkable outpouring of interest in Palin so far suggests that she could make a difference to independent and moderate women voters, a critical group that is up for grabs every four years.

A bit more subtle, but perhaps equally important, is Palin's appeal to blue-collar voters, who are likely to be intrigued by a former beauty queen and star athlete who knows her way around a commercial fishing boat, hunts moose, and is married to a champion snowmobile racer – Alaska's equivalent of a NASCAR driver.

McCain's choice was greeted with derision from the Obama campaign, which ridiculed Palin as "the former mayor of a town of 9,000" with "zero foreign policy experience." Of course, it didn't take long for people to notice that Palin's executive experience exceeded Obama's. As Rudy Giuliani put it Sunday on "Face the Nation": "She's vetoed legislation, she's taken on corruption in her party and won. She took on the oil companies and won. She administered a budget successfully." Obama, meanwhile, has "never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis."

Opinion has divided sharply on the subject of Palin's experience. Some think that McCain has sacrificed his biggest advantage over Obama – his incomparably more substantial qualifications for the presidency. Others counter that the fact that Palin arguably has more relevant experience than Obama – the would-be president, not vice president – only serves to highlight Obama's vulnerability.

The question is in part one of perception, and it is too early to know how most voters will view the implications of Palin's place on the ticket. The Obama campaign's hasty retreat from its first, derisive comment on Palin's experience, however, suggests that the Democrats are by no means confident that the comparison between Palin's background and Obama's is one to which they want to draw attention, at least for the moment.

Beyond demographic and tactical considerations, Palin has the potential to refocus attention on the issue of reform. Palin really is what Obama pretends to be, but is not: a citizen activist who entered politics in order to fight entrenched interests and bring about tangible, practical change. The track record shows that Obama, far from being a "change agent," is a relentless careerist who has brought little, if any, major reform to Chicago; Springfield, Ill., or Washington.

Palin's story not only stands as an implicit rebuke to Obama's pretensions, it could help focus attention on McCain's own very real credentials as a reformer. McCain is a spending hawk who has vowed to veto any bill enacted by Congress that contains an earmark. The presence of Palin, who can succinctly be introduced to voters as the governor who sold the state jet and spiked the Bridge to Nowhere, can only help McCain push the issue of reform – the needed antidote to Obama's vague calls for "change." Given the centrality of the reform issue this year, Palin's history as a citizen activist with a proven track record of taking on the status quo and winning may make her, of all the potential candidates in both parties, the one best qualified for the job of vice president.

In the end, Palin's contribution to the McCain campaign will depend on how she performs and whether she appears up to the job. The same media outlets that have viewed Obama's many gaffes with tolerance will pounce on any misstep that can be taken as a sign of Palin's inexperience. But McCain boldest move could turn out to be his best.



Are they worried about her? At least she has lead a large state, what has Obummmmer led?

Obama has never done anything great and that is the bottom line. He actually thinks that people who make 250,000 a year are rich. That says it all.

I would be happy with making $250,000 a year. I would consider myself rich.

Oh, man!.. Sarah Palin...

gun totin' gawd-fearin' with a [ at least once ] drunk for a husband, a knocked up daughter waiting for a shotgun wedding, a retard kid and a penchant for whackin' folks who piss her off by [ab]using her power and authority..

Hell Damn you guys shur make politickin' interesting down south..

We got maybe an election coming up as well.. Two bland white guys so ordinary its hard to tell them apart until one opens his mouth and you realize he can't speak English 'cause his Frog accent gets in the way [ oh, yeah.. we got some whacky 'fringe' parties as well ]

can hardly keep from yawning..

Damn!.. I'm jealous.. US politics looks like so much more fun..

Yeah, have ya seen all the photoshopped pics of her yet?

NUFF SAID

Think-Tank Expert Says Palin Is Ready to Lead



Frank J. Gaffney Jr., president of a respected Washington think tank, contends that Sen. John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is not only qualified to step into the president’s shoes but also has a portfolio “likely to be substantially better than that of either Barack Obama or Joe Biden.”

“Governor Palin’s personal story and qualities that are clearly resonating with millions of Americans across the political spectrum — her intelligence, scrappiness, integrity, common sense and deep-seated faith — when combined with her real-world experience in Alaska, suggest that she will prove to be better equipped than her rivals to deal with the dynamic and increasingly ominous national security challenges of our times,” says Gaffney, who leads the Center for Security Policy and is a columnist for The Washington Times.

Republican candidate McCain has been scrambling to deflect criticism of his choice, alleging lack of experience and ability to be commander in chief.

Gaffney, who held a key defense-policy role in the Reagan administration, has scrutinized this chief executive and commander in chief of her state’s Army and Air Force Guard units.

Some highlights of his analysis:

# Palin has spent much of her adult life dealing with an issue long central to Alaska and of increasing importance to the nation as a whole: how to provide energy security. She knows more about the subject than the other three on the two parties’ tickets put together, and she is poised to demonstrate unsurpassed leadership on this vital national security challenge.

# She managed her state’s department responsible for oil and gas exploration and exploitation, negotiating a long-delayed natural gas pipeline through Canada to the lower 48.

# She has been married for nearly two decades to a blue-collar worker on Alaska’s North Slope oil fields.

# Palin can bring to bear her insights into the need for expanded, yet environmentally sensitive drilling, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, together with an appreciation of the need to introduce fuel choice in our transportation sector. That issue is included in the bipartisan Open Fuel Standard Act introduced in the House and the Senate shortly before the August recess.

The Geographic Bonus

# Her state is adjacent to Russia, which has demonstrated increasing aggressiveness toward its neighbors in recent years. The targets extend beyond the relatively weak and formerly enslaved countries on its edge such as Georgia, the scene of a bloody invasion last month aimed at toppling the elected government there. Moscow also has conducted simulated strategic bombing runs with Soviet-era long-range, nuclear-capable aircraft. These offensive missions are designed to penetrate U.S. northern air defenses in a manner reminiscent of the most provocative Kremlin behavior during the Cold War.

# The best of those defenses, including a squadron of America’s state-of-the-art interceptors, the F-22 Raptor, are stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. Palin not only is familiar with the base’s vital role in protecting U.S. territory but also appreciates its importance in projecting U.S. power in Asia and beyond as a pivotal transit point for long-range transport aircraft supplying military operations around the world.

# Alaskan territory is also along the trajectory of ballistic missiles launched eastward out of Stalinist North Korea. For that reason, among others, Alaska’s Fort Greely was selected as the site for the principal U.S. ground-based defense against such missiles. As that state’s governor, Palin would know more about the necessity for U.S. anti-missile systems than either Obama or Biden.

# Palin’s grasp of the danger posed by today’s principal enemy — adherents to the brutally repressive and seditious program the Islamists call Shariah — may not be wholly clear at this point. A tangible indicator of her views, however, is the enlistment of her eldest son, Track, on the anniversary of 9/11 last year and his imminent deployment to Iraq. His mother, like the loved ones of millions of other servicemen and women, has had to confront directly and personally the prospect of making the ultimate sacrifice for her country.

Gaffney suggests that America is only beginning to get to know Sarah Palin. Yet even as that familiarity and comfort level grows, the electorate already may rest easy, he says.

“By virtue of her home state and its unique role in America’s energy, defense and power-projection and thanks to her own public sector service and that of her offspring in the U.S. Army, it is not only wrong but foolish to portray her as totally unprepared to contend with the epochal foreign and defense policy issues we are confronting,” Gaffney concludes.

Guys frankly after hearing Sarha Palin speak I would enjoy the first collison between the female sidestepers of 110 Congress like Pelosi, Barbra Boxer.I liked the Pit Bull with Lipstick I believe she just might be a winner.

Stupid me, why didn't I see this before?
It all makes sense now:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.200809...PStory/Entertainment

The Ultimate 'Reality' Series..

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2008...onsb04/BNStory/Front Rocketeer I like this page better.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.2008...20080903.wrepubs0903 Or maybe this one if this a Alaska Hillbilly I sure as heck approve.

Are they getting worried? I think that she has what it takes for that job. I was getting tired of the same old junk but now me thinks this will get even better when her and Biden get together, time will tell.

I agree J Biden is suposed to be the best De-Bater the Democratics have frankly I think Palin can handle him one-on-one I guess we will see he is also known as a flip flopper.I heard a caller on C-Span say exactly how I feel about my Democrate Party they have been hi-jacked by Socialsim.

Well, that's it then.. the Republicans have lost.. Lindsay Lohan has come out against Sarah Palin.. that's deffo the kiss of death for her VP aspirations..

and Tina Fey spoofed her on SNL...

that's the way to bury her...

Nothing like keeping her name top of the media lists.. draw atention to her and make people wonder, if she's being attacked so much maybe there is something to her that the other's are scared of..

And, I bet Obama is pissed.. Sarah's being photoshopped and image manipulated more than he is..

Ratings are everything..

Bet the Sarah Palin action figure [ see other thread ] is going to be a real collectors' item and worth triple on E-bay...

As for McCain.. he's now the second banana in his own show.. Its all Palin vs Obama Biden and McCain are just along for the ride and are window dressing...

US Politics - more fun than Hurricane Ike..

That SNL spoof was awesome. They got Palin and Clinton at the same time. One of the better skits I have seen in awhile.

Palin is HOT. I been to Alaska, and the women there are as tuff as nails. At least the ones I met. Hillary can choke on a fur ball that I am sure she likes eating.Jealous B@#th. Well shes eating it. The fact the the feminist left wing movement hasnt said a darn thing about Palin that is good goes to show you that there only out for there own extrem leftist views, and always have been. Not equal rights for women, not breaking the glass cieling. There own elitist, leftest, extrem ideas. Go Mccain, Palian 08

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thegunny,

Gunny:

you owe me a new keyboard and monitor.. I can't get the coffee spew off them.. that is a great spoof!.. Where the hell did you find it?
Sarah Palin, the Terminator..brilliant.. says a lot, doesn't it?

oooh, my sides hurt from laughing...
think I wee'd my pants..

SO what do you guys know about fanny may and freddie mac?

fanny mae sells cosmetics ar girly parties and freddie mac is the new ' light' sandwich at McD's - right?

what has this got to do with the Palinator??