McCain Chooses Palin As Running Mate

[bigted]

I gotta say wtf was Mccain thinking here, he criticises Obama for not having enough experience but yet he picks a vp candidate that has limited experience

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/polit...amp;oref=slogin

[Hero1]

Its a calculated grab for women votes..

[Typhoon20]

Obama is going to lay the smackdown on them, he's simply going to destroy them verbally.

It'll be fun to watch McCain get burned by Obama's coolness and IQ.

[MissAshley]

Its a calculated grab for women votes..

pretty much. and so blatantly obvious.

[Bob]

Honestly, she's the perfect pick for McCain. Why?

1. She's young, a pretty face *beauty pagant in her teens*. Blatantly going to help reverse the "Obama Girl" votes in the male demographic.

2. She's gonna get some women's votes...she's a member of the Feminists for Life.

3. It offsets the whole "white, male" republican party idea

4. She does conservation efforts along with ethics reform in her own party (calling out Ted Stevens was awesome)

5. She comes from the state in the eye of many who think about drilling. I know drilling is DUMB, but the majority of the electorate wants to, and thinks it will work, so it she's from the right place.

6. She's well spoken. She won't Dan Quayle this one up.

7. She's not Mitt Romney, nor Mike Huckabee, so she won't scare independents who hate the Religious Right who are Bushies...

8. She's not Guiliani, whose pro-choice record scares that very religious right group from voting.

9. She's hip, McCain's not. She does snowboarding and stuff. And before you go and say that doesn't matter, remember, a tall, good looking, young hip guy beat out an experienced first lady and a former VP pick in John Edwards....perception is everything.

10. She relates to the core Republican base. I hate guns, but Republicans love it when you have an NRA member.

She'll get crushed in debates with Biden, but McCain will crush Obama in debates so it shouldn't hurt too much.

^and before you get mad about me saying McCain will crush Obama in debates...Obama knows this, that's why he never did the town hall meetings. McCain is quick on his feet but terrible in front of a teleprompter. Obama is polished and quite amazing on the stump, but can get lost in his nuanced approach to answering (See Rick Warren's Forum between the two from a week ago).

Edited August 30, 2008 by Bob

[VIsqo]

I dont even know this woman.. Palin? wtf? lol

[Schnazz]

She'll get crushed in debates with Biden, but McCain will crush Obama in debates so it shouldn't hurt too much.

^and before you get mad about me saying McCain will crush Obama in debates...Obama knows this, that's why he never did the town hall meetings. McCain is quick on his feet but terrible in front of a teleprompter. Obama is polished and quite amazing on the stump, but can get lost in his nuanced approach to answering (See Rick Warren's Forum between the two from a week ago).

I won't go as far as to say that Obama will dominate the debates, and I think you have a point on his nuanced answers (it's a shame that nuance is a bad thing), but that isn't why he didn't do town hall meetings. He was dominating the news and planning a global trip, he didn't have anything to gain from appearances with McCain, all that would do was boost McCain's visibility.

I agree that Palin will pull some female vote, but not a lot, and most of them would be voting Republican anyway. She is the polar opposite, ideological wise, of Hilary Clinton, so the majority of Hillary Clinton supporters will be turned off by views on things like abortion. Even worse though is that this gives the appearance of being very insulting to women, specifically female democrats. This looks like a blatant grab for the female vote by putting an attractive but inexperienced woman on the ticket, as if women politicians are interchangeable. And on an anecdotal note, pretty much every liberal feminist I've ever known has very little respect for beauty pageants.

The place where I think it's going to help tremendously is with core Republicans and with soccer moms that have been leaning Republican lately. McCain had a serious problem with them staying home this election and this pick should boost that greatly. The downside though is that Republicans have been talking about how little experience Obama has, and then McCain picks someone with even less.

Regardless of the outcome, this was a VERY bold move by McCain and it we are now in a situation where we'll have either a black man as president or a white woman as vice president, and that's a nice change of pace.

On a somewhat related note, I saw McCain's add last night congratulating Obama, that was outstanding! A very classy move on McCain's part, and looked great too.

[Silver Tiger]

Its a calculated grab for women votes..

That's my big thought on it. A lot of women just don't want to vote for Obama, Palin is an easy way out while feeling less guilty (for a completely shallow reason).

[MissAshley]

This is what I find most interesting about his choice:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/12.../137/486/580223

[MaxFly]

I'm not sure what McCain was thinking. Govenor Palin offers a series of challenges for him on a variety of issues. the first being his judgement.

Here is someone he's met and spoken to twice and he chooses her to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States? This seems more like a desperation act than a judgement call. It's more than obvious this was a play for the women's vote. It is impossible to make the case that she is the most prepared an the best qualified person for the job, or even the best female politician for the job. She has stated that she hasn't followed the Iraq issue closely, she's stated that she doesn't even know what the vice president does... this is a mess.

Moreover, there are policy issues that she will hurt McCain with, chief among them being her stance on energy. Now there are some people who will say that she is great for McCain... she's for oil drilling, etc... What a lot of people don't know is that she is in full support of Barack Obama's proposal to levy windfall profits taxes on oil companies, a proposal he has been ridiculed for by the Republicans and especially McCain and company. Now let me clarify... Govenor Palin isn't just for the proposal... she's actually implemented it in her state... she levied a windfall profits tax that increased her state budget by 6 billion dollars. She turned around and used that money to give Alaskans a $ 1000+ tax cut... I'm looking forward to seeing how Republicans are going to argue the success of a plan they've been deriding for months.

And I don't know what to say about the baby issue... I just hope it's not true. That would effectively end this election.

[Bob]

This is what I find most interesting about his choice:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/12.../137/486/580223

If the AP, or really any credible news outlet broke such a story, then it'd be worth reading.

[MaxFly]

This is what I find most interesting about his choice:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/12.../137/486/580223

If the AP, or really any credible news outlet broke such a story, then it'd be worth reading.

Bob, I was with you until I actually read the article... Palin herself said that when she went into labor, she was in Texas and decided to fly up to Alaska. Now, it's really one of two things... either she was lying... which would actually be the best thing... or she was grossly negligent... You are not supposed to fly when you are pregnant and you are definitely not supposed to fly when you have gone into labor. An 8 hour flight from Texas to Alaska after going into labor is a little suspicious... you have to admit...

[Schnazz]

This is what I find most interesting about his choice:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/12.../137/486/580223

If the AP, or really any credible news outlet broke such a story, then it'd be worth reading.

Bob, I was with you until I actually read the article... Palin herself said that when she went into labor, she was in Texas and decided to fly up to Alaska. Now, it's really one of two things... either she was lying... which would actually be the best thing... or she was grossly negligent... You are not supposed to fly when you are pregnant and you are definitely not supposed to fly when you have gone into labor. An 8 hour flight from Texas to Alaska after going into labor is a little suspicious... you have to admit...

I agree with Bob, there's nothing to support this rumor, no reliable sources, no sources at all even, just a bunch of conjecture.

However, like Max said, her going in to labor in Texas, giving a speech, and then flying back to Alaska is horrible. When my son was born, it started with my wife's water breaking. While we didn't have to sprint to the hospital, there's no way we could have waited eight hours before getting medical attention. When your water breaks, you're risking a serious infection and labor should be induced as soon as possible. An eight hour plane ride shows astoundingly bad judgment.

[MaxFly]

This is what I find most interesting about his choice:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/12.../137/486/580223

If the AP, or really any credible news outlet broke such a story, then it'd be worth reading.

Bob, I was with you until I actually read the article... Palin herself said that when she went into labor, she was in Texas and decided to fly up to Alaska. Now, it's really one of two things... either she was lying... which would actually be the best thing... or she was grossly negligent... You are not supposed to fly when you are pregnant and you are definitely not supposed to fly when you have gone into labor. An 8 hour flight from Texas to Alaska after going into labor is a little suspicious... you have to admit...

I agree with Bob, there's nothing to support this rumor, no reliable sources, no sources at all even, just a bunch of conjecture.

However, like Max said, her going in to labor in Texas, giving a speech, and then flying back to Alaska is horrible. When my son was born, it started with my wife's water breaking. While we didn't have to sprint to the hospital, there's no way we could have waited eight hours before getting medical attention. When your water breaks, you're risking a serious infection and labor should be induced as soon as possible. An eight hour plane ride shows astoundingly bad judgment.

The worst thing is that it wasn't just 8 hours... her water apparently broke, then she gave the speech, then she flew the 8 hours, and when she landed, she didn't go to the best hospital, but instead chose to drive 45 minutes to a less prominent and more secluded clinic. Wow...

[MissAshley]

I wasn't posting it to set off a true or false debate, and I'm generally one for the whole reliable source thing. I don't know whether it's true or not but I found it interesting for the same reasons Max did, the labor issue. If you're in labor why go through what you did instead of making things easier for yourself and your baby? to me that speaks volumes. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of this. At her age she's considered high risk, and there are tests you can take to tell if your baby will be born with Down Syndrome or other health issues, she's leaking amniotic fluid but she "wasn't gonna miss that speech"? I think that's horrible. for her family's sake I hope it not true and she's not dumb enough to think she can cover it up.