McCain picks Sarah Palin (Gov. Alaksa) for VP

[The_Finn]

one of my good friends brought up the theory that the republicans are trying to throw the whole race so they don't have to clean up the mess that GWB created and then when Obama doesn't do an amazing job fixing everything they can point the finger at the democrats and say "you didn't do any better" I swear they are looking as the next four years as a "building year" thats the only way this choice of sarah palin makes any sense at all. I mean no one in the whole of the republican parties political machine didn't know her daughter was preggers and that it mike look bad considering she preaches abstinence only education never mind her general lack of experience i mean she lists a fucking layover in Ireland as foreign policy experience come one now

[Zorlac]

Originally Posted by Hidden_Hunter

you put too much faith in the general public my friend, in the local paper in our last election said they wouldn't vote for someone because his eye brows were too bushy....

I think there was a number of 28% of the angry Clinton supporters who said they might vote for McCain. Though I personally think that number is lower than it really is. I personally know several who swore they would vote against Obama after Clinton lost but have slowly come around. Of course there are the freaks that think Obama is a "registered Muslim" whatever that is, or dont like the way his ears look and so he's unfit to be president. Sad really.

About the Hilary thing, why in the hell is it that everyone is saying that she was chosen to "pick up" all these Clinton votes? These two women are on completely different frequencies (politically). Surely one wouldn't expect a woman who sides with Hilary to side with Palin, it's obvious. If they do, then it's not a Hilary vote, but a 'I'll vote for any woman running for office' vote. And if that's the case, then it nullifies the "Clinton Vote" argument to begin with. Apples and oranges.

McCain was trying to get angry Clinton voters on his side. He's put out ads saying as much. The fact Palin didnt go through a vigorous vetting process as more info is leaked out about how it really went down, I think that was one of the factors in his decision. Apparently he really wanted Lieberman, but his aids said that would fracture the party and McCain was already standing on shakey ground with the hard right base. Palin is an arch conservative. Something McCain really needed. He wouldnt have gotten the same even he had chosen the Romney or Huckabee. But imo its unquestionable the Clinton factor factored into his pick for Palin. And whats sad is that there were plenty of more qualified female leaders if he wanted to go down that route that he could have chosen. Instead he's gambled his political career on Palin and I hope it backfires in the most spectacular of ways. The dems need to play it right though. In fact, the dems should just shut up and go in a cave. Let McCain/Palin screw themselves over by their own words for the next 2 months.

As for her speech. I already said it was aimed at the base. But it was also her introduction to the rest of America. McCain *needs* the swing vote. He needs to go after Independents. The democratic base is energized this year. More ppl voted in Democratic primaries than in Republican ones. He needs to appeal to independents but after Palin's speech last night didnt do a whole lot of good. Note, I'm a registered independent, but I am supporting Obama this year. Her attacks on Obama for being a community organizer were disgusting especially considering she hardly has a noble record on anything. Community organizer is a noble cause, and Obama did it in a city that matters unlike Wasilla which no one ever heard out outside of Wasilla, and he did it for very very little pay living well below his means. I think that alone is far more impressive than being runner up in a Mrs. Alaska pageant, or being mayor of a podunk town. But I guess those of us who've volunteered in community organization or do it for little pay dont mean squat according to McCain/Palin.

Also the facts and hypocrisies are what really turned me off. Read the link I put in my original reply. The facts are all there. The democrats need to use that ammo against Palin. Forget about the Bristol Palin/Pregancy stuff. Its too much of a loaded issue. Stick the facts of her politics. Theres too much good stuff to use against her that would be far more effective. If the Dems play it right they can crush her using her own words against her. The dems just need to grow a friggin spine sometime this century.

Check out this segment from Daily Show . Say what you want about DS, but the hypocrisies are just so ridiculous. Both sides lie out of their ass of course, but the republicans seem to make it so easy, especially the Fox news drones.

[watisdis]

Originally Posted by Zorlac

*snip*

Sure she made a few jabs at Obama, but that's just politics. I think by your own admission, you took it a bit too personal (considering your own public service). McCain has a long record of being unpredictable in politics, and his choice of VP just proved it. Was it a smart choice? If the GOP wins, time will tell. If they loose, we'll never know. With all the comotion and momentum on the Dems side, it was a strategic move to stir things up for the GOP side (a move which was uncharacteristically Republican). Well, it certainly worked to that specific end, I mean I can't turn on the tv anynore without hearing Palin somewhere in there. Was it a politically sound choice? Dunno, we'll find out come November.

I personally think either choice this year will have a negative impact on the country, call me a pesimist but it is really how I feel. There is a quote I read not too long ago that went something like this; The great thing about being a pesimist is that a.) you're either always proven right or b.) once in a while, pleasantly surprised. For this country's sake, I hope it's the latter.

[Zorlac]

I didn't take it too personally. I fully understand its politics. McCain is a maverick. A bad one. Sure he might do something unexpected, but his and Palin's policies are virtually in lockstep with Bush and the same old GOP line. Thats not being a maverick. They got ppl talking about Palin so the attention is in their court. But I think it will backfire. When Biden was announced there wasn't a whole lot of negative hoopla because Biden has a proven track record in many areas. Palin doesn't, and almost a week after she was announced as VP there is still a lot of debate over her record etc, and a lot of is negative. Read this on how Palin really ran her city as Mayor. The dems need to use this as ammo against Palin. She's thrown so many softballs as to her credibility a blind man could hit them out of the park. But the dems have a record of being such spineless cowards I wonder if they'll hit hard. Instead of harping on the whole Bristol pregnancy deal, they need to go after her record (or lack of one). There is so much red meat in there, they cant mess up.

[The_Finn]

i get a feeling that the democrats may be waiting just long enough so that she can't back out if they attack too early she could step down or they would swap her out

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally Posted by Censport

Edited to add: Just wait until you find out she's a life member of the NRA!

Far as I'm concerned, that's all she's got going for her.

[Twerp128]

Originally Posted by Zorlac

I didn't take it too personally. I fully understand its politics. McCain is a maverick. A bad one. Sure he might do something unexpected, but his and Palin's policies are virtually in lockstep with Bush and the same old GOP line. Thats not being a maverick. They got ppl talking about Palin so the attention is in their court. But I think it will backfire. When Biden was announced there wasn't a whole lot of negative hoopla because Biden has a proven track record in many areas. Palin doesn't, and almost a week after she was announced as VP there is still a lot of debate over her record etc, and a lot of is negative. Read this on how Palin really ran her city as Mayor. The dems need to use this as ammo against Palin. She's thrown so many softballs as to her credibility a blind man could hit them out of the park. But the dems have a record of being such spineless cowards I wonder if they'll hit hard. Instead of harping on the whole Bristol pregnancy deal, they need to go after her record (or lack of one). There is so much red meat in there, they cant mess up.

The Nation, what! Might as well cite the national enquirer.

Perhaps Palin doesn't have much experience, but then again neither does Barak. And I hate to pull from the Convention, but neither Biden or Obama has a whole lot of leadership experience.

[jetsetter]

[Firecat]

I'm laughing becaue of these protestors interfering with McCains speech. But the jokes on them, because it's just getting the crowd fired up.

[watisdis]

Originally Posted by Firecat

I'm laughing becaue of these protestors interfering with McCains speech. But the jokes on them, because it's just getting the crowd fired up.

Why is it always the lefty loons who always end up doing this type of shit? You never saw this crap at the DNC. It happened to Bush in the 2004 RNC as well, so predictable, you could set your watch to it.

[Aircooled]

Originally Posted by watisdis

Why is it always the lefty loons who always end up doing this type of shit? You never saw this crap at the DNC. It happened to Bush in the 2004 RNC as well, so predictable, you could set your watch to it.

I remember that too. All it does is give more ammo and more cause to the crowd and makes your side look childish.

[jetsetter]

Gerard Baker

The best line I heard about Sarah Palin during the frenzied orgy of chauvinist condescension and gutter-crawling journalistic intrusion that greeted her nomination for vice-president a week ago came from a correspondent who knows a thing or two about Alaska.

“What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?”

“One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.

“The other kills her own food.”

Now we know, thanks to her triumphant debut at the Republican convention on Wednesday, that Mrs Palin not only slaughters her prey. She impales its head on a stick and parades it around for her followers to jeer at. For half an hour she eviscerated Mr Obama in that hall and did it all without dropping her sweet schoolmarm smile, as if she were handing out chocolates at the end of a history lesson.

There's a powerful danger in the sheer thrill that has followed her astonishing performance that we could get carried away with John McCain's running-mate. Some of the coverage has a hyperbolic tone to it. Not since Paris handed that apple to Aphrodite has a man's selection of a woman had such implications for the future of our civilisation.

So let's stipulate one obvious and important piece of wisdom about US elections. The choice of a vice-presidential candidate rarely makes much of a difference. The pundit class waxes historical in the excitement of the moment but usually the vice-presidential choices go back to playing second banana. However mawkishly we dwell on the mortality of the presidential contenders, it is they who determine the voters' decision.

This one, to be fair, could be different. For at least the next few weeks the press will follow Mrs Palin's present and dig deeper into her past, still hoping for some morsel of stupidity or evidence of cupidity to doom her. But in the end, barring such a discovery, this is still an Obama-McCain contest.

But let me try to explain why Mrs Palin, whatever impact she might have in November, may be a figure of real consequence in our lives.

It's partly about what she represents and partly about what she has already done, but mostly about where she and her ilk might take the Republicans - and possibly America.

It never ceases to amaze me how the Left falls again and again into the old trap of underestimating politicians whom they don't understand. From Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to George Bush and Mrs Palin, they do it every time. Because these characters talk a bit funny and have ridiculously antiquated views about faith, family and nation, because they haven't spent time bending the knee to the intellectual metropolitan elites, they can't be taken seriously.

So the general expectation was that Mrs Palin would stumble on to the stage in high heels, clutching her sprawling, slightly odd family (five children! how weird), mispronounce the name of the Russian Prime Minister, mutter a few platitudes about God, and disappear for ever to a deafening chorus of sniggers.

No one paid much attention to the fact that she had been elected governor of a state. Or that she got to that office not because, unlike some politicians I could mention, her husband had been there before her, or because she bleated continuously about glass ceilings, but by challenging the entrenched interests in her own party and beating them. In almost two years as Governor she has cleaned out the Augean stables of Alaskan Government. You don't win a statewide election and enjoy approval ratings of more than 80 per cent without real political talent.

Never mind all that. She didn't have a passport! She was a former beauty queen! It was so axiomatic that she was a disaster that I was told by lots of savvy men - with deliciously unconscious sexism - that the real problem was what the choice said about Mr McCain and his judgment: cynical, irresponsible, clueless. It was as if Mrs Palin wasn't really a human being at all, but an article of Mr McCain's clothing that showed his poor taste, like wearing brown shoes with a charcoal suit.

So here's why she matters.

First of all she offers an opportunity for an ailing Republican party to reconnect with ordinary Americans. She's conservative, but her conservatism is not that of the intolerant, uncomprehending white male sort that has so hurt the party in recent years. She is much closer to a model of the lives of ordinary Americans - working mother, plainspoken everywoman juggling home and office - than any Republican leader in memory.

The contrast with Mr Obama is especially powerful. The very fact that Mrs Palin didn't go to elite schools but succeeded nonetheless - the very ordinariness with which she so piquantly jabbed Mr Obama on Wednesday - is what will make her so appealing to Americans. And as a pro-life conservative she debunks in one swoop the enduring myth that all women subscribe to the obligatory nostrums of radical feminism.

But there's more to it than that.

The Republicans have decided that they are not going to make the mistake Hillary Clinton made and run against the effervescent Mr Obama on the premise of experience.

Experience hasn't got Americans into a very comfortable place. They want change. Before he signed up to some of the less attractive Republican attitudes this year, Mr McCain's career had embodied that change - the anti-establishment candidate running against his own party. Now he is joined by a woman who, in her short career, has done the same thing.

Democrats think that Mr McCain, with the social conservative Mrs Palin, will launch an old-fashioned culture war at them, using her appealing manner to drive a populist assault on the familiar Republican issues of God, guns and gays.

Perhaps this Manichean interpretation will prove true. But I suspect that it misses the real appeal of the Republican team. The opportunity for McCain-Palin is not reaction, but reform - a reform rooted in a distant conservatism that could be due for a comeback

Hailing from Arizona and Alaska, the Republican ticket has a chance to rekindle a western conservatism different from the old Yankee paternalist sort or the Bible Belt version. They like their guns out there (some still kill their own food) and they are pro-life and deeply pro-America, of course. But at a time of grave challenges, the themes of economic freedom and opportunity, the resistance to the idea that government holds all the answers, could resonate with voters.

This is an election, as the Democrats have realised all along, about an America on the cusp of change. With the moose-hunting, establishment-taunting Mrs Palin at his side, Mr McCain might represent a bigger change than the one that his opponents are offering.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle4677799.ece

[Hidden_Hunter]

Originally Posted by LurkerPatrol

As my previous roommate and friend from 7th grade said:

John: mccain's VP is like
John: some random lady
John: who doesn't know jack about jack
John: and mccain's obviously gonna die before his term is up if he gets elected
John: so we'd be stuck with her
John: that's reason enough to vote for obama

Quick tell all the 76 year old they should all be dead already