8 Comments Add your own

• 1. Ken  |  August 30th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

  Republican skepticism of McCain’s VP choice is surprising. She is a breakout public figure who will take the national stage with a solid resonance.

  I believe Sarah Palin is exactly what the McCain campaign needed. Not only is her common sense conservative persona appealing, her positions are on target and she is a straight talker who I believe will eat Joe Biden’s lunch.

  More importantly, she can become the new face of the Republican Party. The brand is so badly tarnished that there is no way the usual cast of white haired generationally challenged old line GOP candidates could ever have electrified both moderate and conservative republicans, independents, undecided’s and yes at least some of Clinton’s 18 million voters the way Sarah Palin can and will. She is a fire cracker who gets it!

  This pioneer woman from America’s last frontier shares my values. I’m not surprised that inside the Beltway and east of the Hudson even traditionalists revert to East Coast arrogance when it comes to the far west. Not all that surprising. Just disappointing.

  Obama did not invent hope. Sarah Palin appears to be one of those rare people who when called upon will step up as naturally as she breaths. Republicans and conservatives want change as well and Sarah Palin adds depth and a whole new pallet of colors to this historic run for the white house. She is the game changer McCain has needed.

  To be perfectly honest, I have lost so much faith in the RNC and party leaders that I’m amazed that they were clearheaded enough to have made such a smart, timely, out of the box, attention grabbing and totally energizing decision.

  Ken Kohl
  Walnut Creek, CA

• 2. Joe  |  September 1st, 2008 at 8:42 pm

  Honestly…. Palin is a horrible pick and appears to be a sign of desperation.

  She brings nothing to the ticket what-so-ever. The die-hard Hillary backers aren’t so adamant about her because she has ovaries, it was because she was a highly qualified candidate.

  Palin has less experience than Obama…… and you people have completely blasted Obama’s experience (or lack of).

  I can’t possibly see anything that Palin brings other than the simple fact that she is a woman. this is nothing but a blatant grab for Hillary votes, but it is going about it all wrong.

  I really can’t wait for the VP debate. Biden is going to run circles around her.

  In the first test of decision-making that both Obama and McCain have had to make (selecting VP), and McCain fell flat on his face. Obama, on the other hand, selected a someone strong, experienced and fully qualified to step in if (God forbid), it comes in to play.

  Palin — HORRIBLE pick.

• 3. Joe  |  September 1st, 2008 at 8:44 pm

  Not only is she a bona fide conservative but she has a remarkable life story of achievement

  Why is Palin’s life story so much more remarkable than Obama’s? They are both pretty remarkable albiet in different ways. Yet everyone discounts obama’s experiences.

• 4. Geoff  |  September 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 am

  Joe:

  We’ll see about the ultimate effect of Gov. Palin’s presence on the ticket, but to say that she brings to the ticket “absolutely nothing whatsoever” is patently ludicrous and has already been demonstrated to be false. Peruse any conservative site and you will see the overwhelming excitement over her and consequently the McCain-Palin ticket. She’s already united and excited the base and the campaign raised about $7 million in the day following her selection.

  She may not appeal to the feminist base of Sen. Clinton but she will to the blue-collar, middle class voters that voted for Sen. Clinton in the latter stages of the primary and that see little redeemable in Sen. Obama, at least not yet.

  And your expectation of Sen. Biden running circles around her is laughable, for you both underestimate her and over-esteem Sen. Biden, who I can only hope will make the same mistake you are making. I’m guessing she’ll be poised and in command, as she has been so far, while Sen. Biden will be his typical pompous, verbal diarrheal self. He won’t be on the floor of the U.S. Senate anymore.

• 5. Joe  |  September 2nd, 2008 at 7:38 am

  Geoff,
  ok… let me rephrase.

  Palin brings nothing of any substance to the ticket. She will fire up the anti-abortion and the NRA crowd….. and she has ovaries.

  Is that better?

  Like I said… people didn’t vote for Hillary because she was a woman. People voted for her because she was extremely qualified. Something of which Palin isn’t.

  For the last several months people have been blasting Obama about his lack of experience. That argument just doesn’t fly any more.
  For the last several months McCain’s age wasn’t at issue. When something remotely close to talking about age came up, you folks freaked out about it.

  With Palin as VP and being just a heartbeat away from the top job brings the fact that McCain is 72 yrs old back up to being something important to consider.

  So this was one of two things. Just an effort to attract the Hillary voters or the only way for McCain to fire up the conservatives.
  I like Palin… just not as a VP at this point, but there were so many others that were imminently more qualified and still took care of the two priorities (1.Anti-Abortion and 2. Woman).

  I’ll admit that Biden can get a bit over-the-top and I do hope that Biden doesn’t talk down to her during the debate. I think he can easily win on his experience and knowledge.

  ” He won’t be on the floor of the U.S. Senate anymore”

  Palin won’t be in Wasilla anymore.

• 6. Joe  |  September 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 am

  Dissecting McCain’s judgment on selecting Palin…

  Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.
  …
  At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.

  Up until midweek last week, some 48 to 72 hours before Mr. McCain introduced Ms. Palin at a Friday rally in Dayton, Ohio, Mr. McCain was still holding out the hope that he could choose a good friend, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, a Republican close to the campaign said. Mr. McCain had also been interested in another favorite, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania.
  But both men favor abortion rights, anathema to the Christian conservatives who make up a crucial base of the Republican Party. As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering the men, the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates.
  With time running out — and as Mr. McCain discarded two safer choices, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, as too predictable — he turned to Ms. Palin. He had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months.
  “They didn’t seriously consider her until four or five days from the time she was picked, before she was asked, maybe the Thursday or Friday before,” said a Republican close to the campaign. “This was really kind of rushed at the end, because John didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to do Joe or Ridge.”

  So basically….. Palin was basically a distant 5th on the list of who McCain wanted. She wasn’t vetted really at all. She was selected only because of her anti-abortion stance. And the decisions was rushed and made in haste.

  That is just what you want in the President.

  I stand my opinion that Sarah Palin was a horrible, horrible choice that doesn’t help McCain what-so-ever with anyone but the core base. That turns off independent voters and it doesn’t do anything with the Hillary voters. So net result is that it will end up hurting McCain in several states and help him in the states that were already safe-GOP.

  By the way… I agree that the kids of candidates are off-limits, but the only thing I will say on this daughter pregnancy thing is that Palin was a very loud cheerleader for abstinence-only education. I think this spits in the face of that.

  Other things that have been brought up…
  Her husband’s DWI 22 yrs ago. That is a non-issue and is stupid for even being mentioned.
  Her being a member of the AIP party. A bit odd and should be questioned, but so what. Not really important.
  Her being investigated for an abuse of power. Now THAT is something that needs to be considered and watched.

• 7. Geoff  |  September 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 am

  Joe:

  We have a fundamental disagreement about this. To say she doesn’t bring anything of substance and that she was selected exclusively because of her pro-life views and deeds strains credulity. She has taken on the Alaskan Republican welfare state and its rulers (the Murkowski and Stevens families) and defeated them both. These entities had an iron grip on the state for decades and she swept them away, all in her mid to early forties while a mother of five children. That is the type of reform results that Sen. McCain wants to bring to the federal government and that Sen. Obama can only talk about in vague, general terms while sticking strictly to his party’s orthodoxies.

  What’s more, those accomplishments are pretty stark compared to Sen. Obama’s — writing two books about himself and getting himself elected and nominated to various posts — and he is the PRESIDENTIAL nominee. I guess you’re free to ask what would happen if, God forbid, something should happen to Sen. McCain, the only response being to ask what would happen, God forbid, if something happened to Sen. Biden?

  Come on, Joe, you have better abilities at analysis than this. Of course she appeals to the base, nay excites the base. But you’re deluding yourself if you deny she doesn’t appeal to working-class, blue-collar voters whose experiences, lifestyles, and outlooks are very much her own and whose discomfort with Sen. Obama provided speed bump after speed bump on his way to the nomination when he should have run away with it.

  In selecting Gov. Palin, Sen. McCain did what he had to do this year, which is fundamentally change the game. If Gov. Palin performs as she did in Dayton last Friday in her speech tomorrow and in her debate with Sen. Biden in October she will very possibly fundamentally change the game in a manner to the benefit of the ticket.

  Ultimately, Joe, you have made a determination that you are at least weeks away from being in a position to credibly make.

• 8. Joe  |  September 3rd, 2008 at 3:25 pm

  Palin - that government reformer and so much against earmarks and pork.
  I mean, for cryin’ out loud… She told Congress ‘Thanks but No Thanks’ for the money for the bridge to nowhere!!!

  Source
  While running for governor in September 2006, Palin assured the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce she was all for the bridge.
  “The money that’s been appropriated for the project, it should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done,” Palin said then, according to a story in the Ketchikan Daily News. “This link is a commitment to help Ketchikan expand its access, to help this community prosper.”
  “I think we’re going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project,” she told the audience
  And in a written questionnaire for the Anchorage Daily News the following month, October of 2006, Palin was asked directly, “Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?”
  Her answer: “Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now — while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.”
  …
  Palin’s position began to shift once she became governor, however.
  Palin took over as governor in December 2006 and in February 2007 her proposed state budget didn’t include state funding for the Ketchikan bridge.
  In defending the change of position this week, Palin campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said Palin “acted like a responsible and effective executive. After taking office and examining the project closely, she consistently opposed funding the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ and ultimately canceled the wasteful project.”
  “Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398-million bridge is not the answer,” Palin said in a prepared statement. “Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329-million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island.”
  So the question here is whether Palin flipped positions on the project, or conceded to the political reality that opposition had become too strong against it. Without further support from Congress, Alaska would have had to shoulder most of the cost itself.
  …
  “I’ve championed reform to end the abuses of earmarked spending by Congress,” Palin said at a joint appearance with McCain in Washington, Pa., on Aug. 30. “And I did tell Congress, thanks but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves.”
  McCain said Palin has “stopped government from wasting taxpayers’ money on things they don’t want or need. And when we in Congress decided to build a bridge in Alaska to nowhere for $233-million of yours, she said, we don’t want it. If we need it, we’ll build our own in Alaska. She’s the one that stood up to them.”
  Nevermind that Alaska didn’t give the money back. It spent the money on other transportation projects.
  The context of Palin’s and McCain’s recent statements suggest Palin flagged the so-called Bridge to Nowhere project as wasteful spending. But that’s not the tune she was singing when she was running for governor, particularly not when she was standing before the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce asking for their vote. And so, we rate Palin’s position a Full Flop.

  Sorry for blocking so much, but there wasn’t anything more to cut. This explains her “Thanks but No Thanks” comment quite well.

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