Palin is the choice

[Jack]

I admit I was wrong. I never in a million years thought McCain would throw away his cherished experience argument for someone 98% of Americans have never heard of.

[Bando]

Man, that's a dark horse pick. She's not connected to the Stevens/Young Alaska cohort, so that's good. I don't really know all that much about her, though.

[theexorcist]

Wow. Hillary was probably saying close to the same thing the entire primary.

McCain has experience, so he didn't need a pick to mask his painful inadequacies there. Palin has stood up to corruption in Alaska and is a bold choice.

Will be a historic, historic election.

[Jack]

Aug 29, 2008 9:51:08 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

Wow. Hillary was probably saying close to the same thing the entire primary.

McCain has experience, so he didn't need a pick to mask his painful inadequacies there. Palin has stood up to corruption in Alaska and is a bold choice.

Except for the fact that she is currently under an (admittedly likely trumped up) ethics investigation herself, something about using influence to get an ex-brother-in-law fired from the State Police. That, and the fact that she is young and attractive, is all I know about her.

[Boz]

Personally, I think this was a good choice.

1. Palin will energize conservatives and her conservative principles are very solid. At the same time, she will attract women. And yes, she WILL attract women voters, even if you think it's stupid that she does so just because she is a woman.

2. She may not be experienced, but the Democrats can't go after that too much because of the upside-down nature of the Democratic ticket. It will totally backfire against them.

3. She will generate constant media attention for the McCain campaign.

This is a bold, daring pick and you have to give McCain credit for doing this instead of making one of the two "safe" picks.


Of course, there's one other reason I think she's a good pick:

Almost every liberal on this board thinks she isn't. That's ALWAYS a good sign!

[TBird41]

Aug 29, 2008 9:56:08 GMT -5 Jack said:

Aug 29, 2008 9:51:08 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

Wow. Hillary was probably saying close to the same thing the entire primary.

McCain has experience, so he didn't need a pick to mask his painful inadequacies there. Palin has stood up to corruption in Alaska and is a bold choice.

Except for the fact that she is currently under an (admittedly likely trumped up) ethics investigation herself, something about using influence to get an ex-brother-in-law fired from the State Police. That, and the fact that she is young and attractive, is all I know about her.

It's not trumped up:

www.adn.com/monegan/story/492964.html

[HealyHoya]

She's a great conservative. NRA lifer, pro-life, anti-gay marriage, fiscal conservative, known as a "reformer" in Alaska. Married, mother of five, youngest has Down's Syndrome. Was Miss Alaska runner-up.

Ballsy and, in my opinion, bad choice.

[hilltopper2000]

McCain thought he needed a game changer. It doesn't display much confidence in his current trajectory. Until December 2006, Palin was the mayor of a town of 5400. McCain will be 72 years old. And I'm speechless. The last time I felt this way was when Bush selected Harriet Miers.

[Jack]

Aug 29, 2008 9:57:10 GMT -5 Boz said:

2. She may not be experienced, but the Democrats can't go after that too much because of the upside-down nature of the Democratic ticket. It will totally backfire against them.

It's not that Dems should go after her experience- clearly that could backfire. It's that McCain has been making a "not ready to lead" argument for months, and now he has effectively torpedoed his favorite attack on Obama.

Maybe they decided that argument wasn't working already. Otherwise, I just don't get it- this seems like a panic pick, trying to generate buzz after a very successful DNC. With more than 2 months until election day, you don't need to do that.

[atlasfrysmith]

Could be a really clever selection. I was going through the frontrunners last night with my wife and basically everyone but Pawlenty had major problems with one key demographic or another. Palin's safe like Pawlenty; I don't think the state police thing has legs, and I think McCain wants to fight hard on energy policy. The big question will be how much do people care about the chance that she could actually become president. I'm not seeing obvious attack angles for the Dems quite yet, but then again nobody knows anything about her yet.

You'll see this spun by the GOP as an energy/ethics pick to deflect any criticism of picking a woman for its own sake. Any disaffected Hillary women that like her will just be gravy.

[HealyHoya]

Aug 29, 2008 9:57:57 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

Aug 29, 2008 9:56:08 GMT -5 Jack said:

Except for the fact that she is currently under an (admittedly likely trumped up) ethics investigation herself, something about using influence to get an ex-brother-in-law fired from the State Police. That, and the fact that she is young and attractive, is all I know about her.

It's not trumped up:

www.adn.com/monegan/story/492964.html

And yet, it is.

With all due respect to the esteemed journalist Sean Cockerham of that bastion of Pulitzer Price winning journalists the Anchorage Daily News, the McCain folks just wrapped up two months of vetting over twenty-five VP candidates. They know more about this episode than you or I (...or Mr. Cockerham) and would not have made this selection if it were not easily explained or defended.

I don't believe this is the best pick McCain could have made (far from it) and it can be criticized on a number of levels, but this silly and will come to nothing.

[HealyHoya]

Aug 29, 2008 10:04:43 GMT -5 hilltopper2000 said:

McCain thought he needed a game changer. It doesn't display much confidence in his current trajectory. Until December 2006, Palin was the mayor of a town of 5400. McCain will be 72 years old. And I'm speechless. The last time I felt this way was when Bush selected Harriet Miers.

And yet mayor of a town of 5,400 gives Palin more executive experience than Obama -- never mind that whole Governor of Alaska thing.

If Palin at 44 with mayoral and gubernatorial experience isn't ready to lead from the VP slot, why is Obama at 47, lacking any executive experience whatsoever, so clearly superior at the top of the ticket?

[atlasfrysmith]

Basically this is a good pick iff the VP is perceived as an advisor, but not if it's perceived as a successor. Dems must decide how much they want to play up the risk of presidential death without being "ageist" or convincing people that the world is in fact really scary and dangerous, which tends to make people keep their tails between their legs and vote GOP.

How long till someone finds the tape of her finishing second in the Miss Alaska pageant? I wonder what her insufficient answer to the deep probing ethical question at the end was.

[Boz]

One other thing about the state trooper bit.

I don't know this for sure, but it was just reported on TV (and on MSNBC, not on Fox), that this guy was apparently physically abusing her sister, in addition to the other reported threats against her family.

If that turns out to be the case, people will cheer Palin and ignore any of the rest of the allegations.

I'm really not getting where this pick was made out of panic as some have claimed. McCain made the choice yesterday afternoon. At that time, he was still neck and neck both nationally and in most swing states, and the Democrats really hadn't had a sterling convention to date. I think he could have easily made a safe choice.

I think Obama's pick was much more out of panic/weakness than this one was. Not saying Obama didn't make a good choice, he did, but McCain picked someone with a reputation like himself, only younger. That's not panic, that's a show of strength.

[hilltopper2000]

Here's some executive experience for you: Obama just ran the most successful underdog campaign in the modern era, toppling the annointed candidate of his party. He did so by running a smarter more disciplined campaign than Hillary. Both in tactics and strategy his campaign was surperior. He also enforced tight discipline, virtually eliminating any unauthorized leaks. I think that accomplishment required more executive skill than anything Palin (or virtually any other governor) has undertaken.

[Bando]

Apparently Palin has oil company ties. That might not be the best thing to have this year.

Personally, I think Biden will eat her alive in the VP debate. But nobody watches that, so we'll see.

[theexorcist]

Aug 29, 2008 10:24:11 GMT -5 hilltopper2000 said:

Here's some executive experience for you: Obama just ran the most successful underdog campaign in the modern era, toppling the annointed candidate of his party. He did so by running a smarter more disciplined campaign than Hillary. Both in tactics and strategy his campaign was surperior. He also enforced tight discipline, virtually eliminating any unauthorized leaks. I think that accomplishment required more executive skill than anything Palin (or virtually any other governor) has undertaken.

Running a campaign is not the same as leading. And running a campaign that lost 9 of the last 14 states really isn't good experience.

And Hillary ran an abysmal campaign.

I find it interesting how quick defenders of Obama need to move to a campaign to claim "executive experience". At least they aren't using how he ran his class as a law professor.

EDIT - Oh, and expect Biden to make at least one ill-advised crack about Palin.

[Deleted]

It should be interesting to see her (young, mayor of microscopic town-turned-governor for a year and a half) debate Biden (somewhat elder statesman, long Senate career, veteran of many major elections).

[HealyHoya]

Aug 29, 2008 10:24:11 GMT -5 hilltopper2000 said:

Here's some executive experience for you: Obama just ran the most successful underdog campaign in the modern era, toppling the annointed candidate of his party. He did so by running a smarter more disciplined campaign than Hillary. Both in tactics and strategy his campaign was surperior. He also enforced tight discipline, virtually eliminating any unauthorized leaks. I think that accomplishment required more executive skill than anything Palin (or virtually any other governor) has undertaken.

Really? Ok. I think that's a fairly absurd paragraph and shows either a near fatal level of Kool-Aid induced love for Obama, a complete and total failure to understand how presidential campaigns actually operate and/or an equal failure to understand the requirements of running a state of three quarters of a million people. But, Ok.

It's still a reasonable question.

I doubt you've ever worked on a Presidential campaign but, if anything, your endorsement of the organization, structure and operational discipline shown by the Obama Campaign suggests you believe David Axelrod is fit to lead. And, hey, maybe he is.

[theexorcist]

Aug 29, 2008 10:30:46 GMT -5 buffalohoya said:

It should be interesting to see her (young, mayor of microscopic town-turned-governor for a year and a half) debate Biden (somewhat elder statesman, long Senate career, veteran of many major elections).

Over/under on the number of times Biden plagiarizes: 2

Over/under on the number of times Gwen Ifill says: "Senator, your time has expired": 6