Okay, let's be clear, I hate her anti-choice stance. And at first glance, I thought McCain blew it - choosing the least experienced female, when voters know he's possibly just a few ticks from the grave.

But overall it's quite a brave choice (with an important not-brave aspect - catering to the anti-abortion base) that puts it on the line: in the next 2 months Sarah Palin will have to kick ass and show people she can rise to the challenge.

And I'm betting 50-50 she can do it. AlaskaSense gave a good description of where she stands in Alaska. She's a purely American exotic version of Obama - she doesn't have foreign experience, but she's got a unique story, is an odd maverick fighting corruption in oil corrupt Alaska, a career woman raising kids, even a disabled one. Let's revisit that last one.

The digs are already starting - how can she take this job with a child with Down's Syndrome? Fancy that. I'm sure that same question has plagued male candidates - how can Obama work in Washington when his young children are in Chicago? How can John Edwards run for president when his wife might be dying of cancer? The answer is complicated, but imporant - women take on a difficult sacrifice to their personal and professional lives with every family decision, decisions their male companions don't. Decisions about giving up their day jobs, about childcare, about health care, about arranging school, and so on. Cherie Blair caused somewhat of a scandal when she demanded her Prime Minister husband take paternity for the birth of their child. I can see it both ways, but good for her. But let's not kid ourselves. The typical woman with a kid with Down's Syndrome isn't spending all her time with the kid. She's balancing job and other kids and probably dealing with much more HMO hell than Palin will require. So if Palin can't make health care and mothering responsibilities work as VP, then it's not working for anyone and it needs to be fixed.

The "babe" and "Monica Lewinsky" comments are already starting, and it's so disgusting for people who think they're progressives to be engaging in this. Palin's problem is not that she's young and good looking (aren't these attributes that describe Obama as well?). It's that her relevant experience at the federal level is too limited. But if she can make the case that her experience on city council, as mayor, on the oil and gas commission, and 2 years as governor gives her sufficient executive experience, insight into what the average American city faces, and a capable track record as a reformer fighting effectively against corruption, she is going to be one tough competitor.

Really, what everyone is counting on is that people will be sexist enough to dismiss her as a young bimbo, or that she will be a Dan Quayle with a deer-in-the-headlights impression (exacerbated by an overeager press). I haven't heard her speak, but I would guess that with a nickname "Sarah Barracuda" this is not the case. Unlike Quayle, she didn't come from a well-connected family - she had rather humble beginnings and made it on her own (including being passed over by Murkowski to appoint his own daughter).

People have said McCain didn't vet her, but my guess is that Carly Fiorina did. And Palin passed the "can stand up to men in a crowded contentious environment" test. As an executive, not just a legislator.

My biggest though when I ran across Palin's bio a couple of months ago was, "Wow, she's going to be really tough in a few years". Now she has to be tough over the next few months. Be afraid. Biden may be clever, but he's a bit stolid, and even Obama comes across a bit stiff, though seemed more relaxed the last few days. The GOP has been quite committed to putting young contenders into the judiciary without anyone batting an eye, and if people get the idea of the more experienced McCain shepherding fresh blood into the high position, someone who's done quite well with on-the-job training, they could be quite a tough pair to combat. And even though the GOP doesn't have a lot of female politicians, I don't see them tearing down the ones they have. Short of a major screwup, they will be there for her.

How will we respond?

I kind of cringed and grimaced and finally clicked the Play button. It was a natural reaction for me. I won't say I'd been disappointed before - I had low expectations then as now, and it's come out as expected. The Great Race Speech? For me trite, unwatchable, even though I watched a fair bit. But anyway, post-Unity, I had to give it a try. And I did. For about 5 minutes. And as I got bored, I skipped ahead a bit to let it play. And it got grating. And I clicked Stop. And I almost went on to something else, but I forced myself to hit Play again. And then it slowly happened. Acceptance. The line about McCain betting 10% on change. The framing of the woman taking a day off to care for a sick child worrying about losing her job. About us not being whiners. Of assisting up and coming businesspeople. And just how he would drop the big words and say something simple, and look relaxed, and it came out more forceful than when he tried to explode. At times looking less cocky but more composed and imposing as a result. I liked the way he acknowledged his grandmother and the help of loans and scholarships and the Clinton 90's, but these came after the acceptance. I didn't like his use of the $5 million middle class smear - twisting your opponent's words mercilessly and unfairly is not the way, whoever the opponent. I don't trust his goal of oil independence in 10 years or the effectiveness of the substitutes. I hate the simplistic, self-defeating, and reality-and-economics-denying habit of dismissing offshoring. And I can't imagine where we would get all the money to pay for all of this change.

But still, for 10 minutes or more I was watching him and liking a good bit of what he was saying, not turned off, encouraged, accepting. So while much room for improvement, he definitely has come a long way.

C+

Two black governors, Deval Patrick and David Paterson, come out strong for gay rights - stronger than most politicians of any race. It's a nice counterpoint to a common impression that being gay is too foreign for the black community to countenance, for whatever reason. As Paterson states simply, “People who live together for a long time would like to be married. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s beautiful. I was raised in a culture that understood the different ways that people conduct their lives.”

It becomes even more poignant to hear about Paterson being left with his gay uncles when his parents were gone - a visceral bugaboo in our society - to read to him and help him with his homework. Talk about overturning stereotypes, a nice warm story to defang our worst expectations. Maybe in 20 years this will all just seem normal and accepted. I hope.

The Convention Peeps were paying attention to our Unity Thread after all, to our pre-pre-convention warmup House Party, sending us a subliminal message when they played my main song, O'Jays Love Train just before Hillary brought the house to its knees, giving up her votes by Acclamation (wait, that's not it... here it is....no, okay, this one) before Bill proclaimed "Here Comes Your Man". No time for drip-drip-drip bitter recriminations, we were busy Burning Down the House. Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Laura was busting moves she hasn't used in 25 years, Ripper was Rapping Ridinghood, IndeSpirit Tore the Roof of the Sucka and even ClearThinker left his thoughtful pose for a minute to Get Down. So Dij, Quinn, Inde, take a bow, we rocked the joint - all those predictions of enmity? Disintegration? Don't Believe the Hype. Simple message - Dance to the Music, Stop the Fussing and Fighting, Quit Your Messing Around, or to paraphrase Dijamo, Dis Unity My Black A.S.S. It was our Finest of Hours. I was waiting for them to Paint the White House Black, but I'm sure that's cued up for tonight's big act. But it's one thing to climb to Higher Ground. It's another thing to Come Back Down the Mountain and then Do it Again.

So when you hear some D.U.M.B.A.S.S say it's all about celebrity Superstar status, some gradeschool Crush, why Obama just wants to be a Popstar, is just too Cocky, and why are we going Back to Black anyway, just tell them that Nobody Does it Better. And remind them about someone else who had a Crush these last 8 years that looked like this. Who'd like to put us in another box with Johnny. Who has a kind of Bad Temper if you haven't noticed. River Deep, Mountain High. That's the difference between the two. Open Your Eyes. And there Ain't No Mountain High Enough to get away from those C.R.E.E.P.s - so do the right thing - Fight for The Power, push the Power to the People.

Peace, outta here. Unity '08.

McCain readies Kay Bailey Hutchinson for his VP choice. News at 11 (Friday morning)

Was it yesterday or today people were saying, "Hillary should put out an 'I don't approve of this message' on the McCain ads, but she won't. She endorsed him and she'll pay for that."

So here it is:
I don't approve of this message.

So here's your chance, all of you Obama fans. Let's hear your chant of approval, how Hillary popped out an unequivocal message of unity and support, an anti-McCain slam that nails shut her conviction. Recommend this motherfucker up to 100. Rock the charts. Show me you're serious about this unity I keep hearing about. Show me you want to win in November, not that you want to keep fighting primary grievances and repeating primary slurs.

Let me hear you say "Yeah!!!"

Today McCain compared Obama to Jackie Robinson, obviously trying to set Obama up as the "black candidate" and invoking the dog-whistle racism Republicans are known for.

Slipstreaming behind Digby like so often, I do like it that Biden can be funny, can express outrage, can go off the reservation in a way the Obama camp typically doesn't allow. A bit of Animal House spirit in the middle of a too-tight campaign can defuse some of the over-seriousness/pretentiousness that people are sensing right now. He can of course be long-winded, but it's not 24x7. Candidate. Compared to listening to Edwards (yes, my personal problem) or falling asleep to Richardson, Biden will be a pleasure (and let's not even mention those guys from Indiana and Virginia anymore, okay? Word?).

So I hear they've got a kegger over at Omega House to crash - perhaps a good first assignment for future Sen. Bidensky. He can go as a zit. Or a zitwit at least.