They gave up! She has NO experience! Sure, she owned a small fishing business, was mayor for a rural town and Governor for only 2 years. Why Obama can wipe the floor with his 152 day in the Senate experience!

Obama blew it by passing on Hillary!

Mc Cain thinks feminists still upset about Hillary will support a right-wing, anti-choice woman simply because she's a woman. He thinks it will drive the Democrats crazy.

One hopes Hillary will point out to her supporters just how clearly this shows McCain's deep contempt for women. God, I hope Hillary's supporters aren't as bitter and stupid as McCain obviously believes they are.

I think McCain picked her because he wants to DO her. Face it: the guy has a history of lecherous behavior. Little John made this pick from Slightly-Bigger John's pants.

Sarah Palin?

If McCain wanted to pick a Republican woman as a running mate who might have brought woman voters to his side he should have picked someone like Jodi Rell, Governor of Connecticut, from my state. She would have been a serious choice which would have actually worried me a bit. But alas she doesn't pass the 'litmus test'...she is pro-choice and signed our state's civil union law after it was passed by the legislature.

Sarah Palin?

Actually, this is the best choice McCain could have made. All of what Dems perceive as Palin's negatives either endear her to the GOP base or blunt Obama-Biden's ability to attack the GOP ticket.

Little experience: but it's "executive" experience
Anti-choice: she has a disabled kid
State-house scandal: she's a maverick
Plus she's a woman - POW!

This may be a smart move for McCain, Sarah Palin has five kids including one with Downs syndrome and even though the republican party does every thing it can to make sure that people with handicapss wind up living on the street, Palin's personal story will make her seem like a compassionate person.

Her story also makes her appealing to the soccer moms out there, a mother of five who is a very successful career women.

One think Karl Rove knows about is how to appeal to the low information voter and he just hit a homerun with this one.

Her biggest drawback:

--Absolutely no experience, and could become commander-in-chief, especially given McCain's age.

--But how do you bring up his
age --and mortality--without offending a great many older voters?

--The fact that she is an anti-choice woman is also a drawback--for liberals. But I have to assume that pro-choice progressives would never vote for McCain anyway.

Her assets:

-- Son joined the military last year, at 18. Is going to Iraq next year. This balances Biden's son and raises obvious question for Barack: Would you let your daughters go?

--It will be hard for Biden to attack her in the
debates without seeming like a bully and further turning off the women who thought Hillary was mistreated.

-- I would guess she would appeal to moderate women in the heartland who are ambvialent about abortion.

-- By picking her, McCain has successfully drawn attention away from Obama's speech last night, Hillary's speech, Michelle's speech . . .

--She's a new, fresh face. People are simply tired of everyone now in the campaign (with the possible exception of Biden). This campaign has gone on Far Too Long. There won't be enough time to get tired of Palin between now and the election.

In part, I'm just play Devil's advocate, but
McCain is wily . . . I disagree with Rosenberg:
this does not signal that the race has ended.

Good timing on McCain's part too. Knocked down headlines of Obama's speech on most internet news sites.

I'm astonished. I had expected a boring safe pick along the lines of Romney. I think McCain has shown brilliant political sense in picking Palin, and he's stomped all over the Dems' convention bounce to boot.

this was the absolute smartest thing McCain could have done. forget about a GOP snoozefest next week: it's a race again!

This is quiet obviously a political stunt and one would hope that the people (particularly the women) of this country see it as such. I seriously questions the Republican party's commitment in this as a serious VP selection.

After 8 years of Dick Cheney virtually (and some would say literally) pulling the strings behind the scenes and expanding the power of the VP to unprecedented levels are we to believe that the Republican party seriously wants this nation to believe that they now want to hand that position over to a women? Really?

So with their newly expanded office of Vice President the Republican party wants us to believe they think a woman is prepared to make decisions on the gravest of matters that face our nation (and to literally be a few heartbeats away from the Presidency) when they don't even believe a woman is capable of making decisions about her own body? Yeah right.

As far as the MSM's coverage on this... of course they will fall all over themselves to report this "breaking story". But IMHO this reflects not so much an orchestrated effort to downplay Obama but more accurately it reflects the severely broken state of the press in our nation and it's disturbing tendency to try to "balance" the news instead of simply reporting it on it's own merits. They will give McCain's VP selection a ton of hollow air time but never once will they point out the obvious and insincere nature of WHY they chose her for the position. And please note that I, like many others I'm sure, am not very familiar with Sarah Palin nor her record while in office.

Color me skeptical.

If you watch the announcement clips, the body language is amazing, and telling:

McCain can't look her in the eye, except for a couple of times when he has this incredibly insecure look, raising his eyebrows, blinking several times, like he just got a birthday present that he knows doesn't fit and he trying to show enthusiasm.

Pretty pathetic. It's almost sad.

Dan K is right, Democrats had better be careful.
Don't mock her.

Someone asked a good question:what has Pallin done in office?

For one, "she took on the oil industry, instead presiding over a tax increase on oil company profits that now has the state's treasury swelling"

People will love that.

Also, she's gutsy: "Palin's confrontations with the state GOP began when Murkowski named her chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. There, Palin exposed current Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, who was also on the commission, for ethical violations.

"In 2005, Palin co-filed an ethics complaint against Murkowski's longtime aide and then attorney general, Gregg Renkes, for having a financial interest in a company that stood to gain from an international trade deal he was helping craft."

Finally : "she opposes gay marriage — constitutionally banned in Alaska before her time — but exercised a veto that essentially granted benefits to gay state employees and their partners."

Oh, and she beat two former Governors to become governor.

Did I mention that her youngest child is a Downs' Syndrome baby that she knew had Downs Syndrome--but she decided to continue with the pregnancy anyway?

Finally, consider her children's names: "Track, 19; Bristol 17; Willow 14; Piper, 7, and baby Trig."

Yes,I know, the names are hilarious. But many will find them wonderful-- so, "all -American." They could be the names of the kids on a really, really cute sitcom.

"Track" enlisted in the Army in 2007 on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and has been assigned to Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks.He is scheulded to go to Iraq this year.

The first elitest East Coast pundit who makes fun of the kids names will be asked: "Is your son in Iraq? Why not?"

Dan K--

Yes, we want to stay far away from the personality
politics.

Good response from the Obama campaign.

And no JohnW 141, I'm not suggesting that she
is qualified to be president, just that
mocking her--or simply dismissing her-- is a very bad idea.

So what do you think? McCain knows he is going down, but at least he's going down as a "maverick." First Republican to pick a female VP running mate is one for the history books, my friends.

I can see it now.

About 25 minutes into the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 2 in St. Louis, Gov. Sarah Palin will invoke the name of Hillary Clinton when giving an answer about her life and qualifications.

Moderator Gwen Iffil will then turn to Sen. Biden to ask for his response.

There will be a brief pause before he says:

"Governor, I served with Hillary Clinton; I know Hillary Clinton; Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. Governor, you're no Hillary Clinton."

That was Clinton not Xlinton!

I think Rosenberg simplifies.

There are women (mainly over 50) who suppoorted Hillary who won't vote for Obama because they don't like his supporters and the media pundits who treated her so badly.

They supported Hillary because she is a woman--and a smart woman-- and they had waited many years to see a woman become a serious candidate for president.

There also are women who won't vote for Obama because they are angry Hillary didn't win and because he is black. They may or may not acknowledge that race is an issue--even to themselves--they just feel he "should have waited his turn." (Which is a way of saying he's "uppity.)

Obama could win the first group back.

But there is now a danger that some--even many-- of them vote for Palin because she is a woman, and in her own way, a strong, accomplislhed woman?

Depends on how she handles herself on a national stage.

As for the coalition of Republicans that Rosenberg thinks will vote for Obama--they may well like this woman.

I agree too that it is over. But stay on your guard. The GOP is tricky and the office is not necessarily won at the ballot box. Do not trust these guys and/or gals further than you can spit.

Maggie,

All the more reason to push the Democratic Party brand in the next 3 months. The fact is Palin is a Republican, and a conservative one at that, she will carry out the old republican policies that have failed so badly in the last 8 years.
Everytimes the Democrats can get things away fron biography and onto governing, they win, cause the GOP has invalidated themselves in the field. Hit them with reality and keep hiting them with it, pasionately but in control.

The media loves to reduce everything to biography so it will be a challange, but persistence and repetition really pay off here

Maggie, seriously, are you a "concern troll"? I'm not kidding, I'm asking? She "took on the oil companies"?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The oil companies have no more fervent and devoted advocate anywhere in the United States Government than Sarah Palin. No one, nowhere.

Maybe you need to go vote for her. Maybe she represents something new and exciting to you! You could give money!

But please, don't try to sell that shit here. We don't need any.

Dan Quayle was more recent and had even less relevant experience.

Being president of the Appaloosa horse association would be better qualification.

But this is exactly what Rove said about Obama possibly choosing Tim Kaine -- that it would be a purely political move, in total disregard of the responsibilities of the presidency.

It is a very narrow and political choice -- pandering to the evangelical crowd. It may have the initial appearance of pandering to women, but on further inspection, one sees that this choice is an affront to women. Perhaps McCain wants to blame his impending loss on her staunchly conservative evangelical views and thus drive those influences out of the GOP. In that case I really applaud him.

No feminists, none, will vote for McCain. By definition, if one is indifferent to preserving the right to choose, he or she is no feminist. Kind of like "I'm an environmentalist for driling ANWR."

I agree that going for Palin on the "experience" theme can't help the Obama campaign and will likely backfire, especially in smallish-population states like Montana and Colorado where Obama is competitive.

But what really worries me is what we can expect from a McCain-Palin ticket, if elected. War in Iraq for the foreseeable future. Further restrictions on women's reproductive freedoms, upheld by a 6-3 conservative majority of the Supreme Court. Pretty language on the environment, accompanied by further concessions to the oil companies -- drill here, drill now, offshore *and* in ANWR. But as for the economy -- who'll be minding the store?

Bill Miller????

Try again

Served in the United States House of Representatives from 1951 to 1965 and was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1961 to 1964.

It's the Scooby Doo stratagem:

"That's so stupid it just might work."

Nobody can say what effect Sarah Palin will have on McCain's overall chances, yet. However, if Pat Buchanan is right, and Palin was one of his supporters, as he claimed on Hardball, the choice of Palin may swing Florida back into Obama's column.

I've read a great deal about how older Jewish voters have expressed concern about the depth of Obama's commitment to Israel, even though Obama has gone to great lengths to reassure them. Some have also mentioned racism as a reason why some of the older folks have been leaning McCain.

But if Sarah Palin really was a member of the Buchanan Brigade, as Buchanan himself claims? All those folks in Palm Beach County who were so appalled that they might have accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan instead of Gore in the 2000 Florida debacle are going to be firmly back in the Democratic column.

Wexler has been talking up the Palim/Buchanan connection. I would dearly love to see this tip Florida back where it ought to be.

I didn't think it was possible, but McCain actually made a worse VP choice than Cheney. I can't take McCain seriously anymore, he has become a joke.
I would never trust this woman with my children's safety, or as a role model for my daughters. She is straight out of the 50s.