jacqueline trudeau

I say it is a a lesson for us to ignore polls and everything and everybody else that said this race was close. It is obvious there were internals in the McCain campaign that indicated his run was in deep shit. And that he needed to throw the desperation pass for any chance to shake things up.

After the shock has worn off and the election won by Obama (this is a gift to him), this will go down in history as equivalent to Bush picking Meiers for the Supreme Court.

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Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts

Cindy Claveau

"I knew Dan Quayle. Dan Quayle was a friend of mine. And you, madam, are no Dan Quayle."

You guys act like she'll have to write her own notecards. The McCain staff will do that and coach her. She has stage presence, she's a good speaker, and while Biden could rip her a new one he can't afford to take her lightly.

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Sometimes, "I hit it with my axe" is the best solution.

jacqueline trudeau

If I were a qualified Republican woman - the Hutchisons, the Whitmans, the Rices, even the CEOs in McCain's Campaign, I'd be spitting fire

jacqueline trudeau

Gail Collins had an update to that quote just for Biden:

I know Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton is friend and collegue of mine. And you, governor are NO Hillary Clinton.

Surreal

Being tortured doesn't say anything about your character, it says something about the character of your captors.

Cindy Claveau

Every time someone quotes the Huffington Post, an angel farts in bed. "Gross political misconduct"? Jesus, what is that moron smoking?

Appointing Palin has some logic to it - and if you think either candidate right now is worried about "saving the country" instead of winning the election, allow me to introduce you to my friend Io Zeno. That's naivette at its finest. You can't save the country if you don't first win the election.

The spin on about every rightwing talk show I've had the displeasure to expose myself to for the past year has been laced with doubt about McCain - none of them, and I mean NONE of them were happy with his nomination and yet all of them in unison were saying "Obama cannot be allowed to win. An Obama White House is unacceptable." So their support for McCain was begrudgingly given.

And that's just the tip of the ice berg. If the talk shows are saying it, think what the Evangelicals and the rural hardliners are thinking. McCain was in real danger of not even getting some of the core conservative support that Bush got - support that was only enough to force a court decision in 2000 to declare a winner.

McCain is an old political warhorse. He can put his ear to the ground and gauge his own constituency. He knew what was going on. He could have named Romney and made the safe pick, but by naming Palin he got a staunch conservative who has a good record, like he would with Romney, but he also got the bonus of having a "family values" woman in case there were any disgruntled Hillary supporters looking for a lever to pull.

The other possibilities, as the writer noted, had strikes against them. My own governor, Kathleen Sebilius, is nowhere near as energetic and engaging as Palin. The single thing Palin really does have going for her is that she's fresh, she's unknown, and people are interested in her. McCain can honestly say she has no ties whatsoever to the Washington political machine (or didn't until now). That's going to be appealling to some voters.

I think it was a brilliant political move on his part, but the notion that this was "political misconduct" is just looniness, which is about what I expect from Huffington.

I'm still not voting for McCain, but I think this nomination has a lot of value to the GOP ticket, especially among the Evangelicals. And those are the folks who got Bush into office at the end of the day.

Surreal

Otherwise known as bewbs.

If Senator Clinton had been picked as Obama's running mate, I bet we wouldn't be seeing Palin.

Joshua Nightshade

I cannot this strenuously enough.

Surreal

agreed

Cindy Claveau

Maybe. We can speculate I guess, but the image of an Obama-Clinton campaign has me giggling. Hillary could get Barack into a headlock that would cut off the circulation to his brain if he tried to argue with her.

Richie Waves

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My lastfm

Oooh, Betty! the cat did a shit in the hat

Richie Waves

As noted.. it will take one question posed to her about women's role in the family and any disgruntled Clinton supporters are out the door.. or if she panders, the Evangelicals be pissed... God I hope she's asked about that...

Tya

he knows he just lost the election right?

Malachi

My laugh was at your first paragraph - in case that wasn't obvious.

So this is likely to be a modern political "debatoid" where there is no actual debate but rather questions are responded to with non-sequitur talking points. I fear you may be right.

Arilynn

I love the Politics subforum. But it pains me to disagree with the lovely and gracious Persephone.

But I do.

Palin has no real experience in national politics and with Congress. I think this is a huge problem if McCain dies in office. A president can get nowhere if she can't get the legislation she wants through Congress. Obama does not have a ton of experience, and it is a problem IMO. But he has experience in the Senate, even if it is for a short time, as well as his experience in the Illinois state legislature. It is my understanding that Palin doesn't even have state legislative experience. So to me, her lack of experience is more significant in terms of fitness for the presidency than Obama's.

Cindy Claveau

And that may be exactly where Biden hits her - if he can force her to stray from the coaching and get into areas where she has to be spontaneous she could be in deep shit. Like Bush was in his debates.

Only I think Palin's 10 times more articulate than George.

Markubis

Agreed, but maybe thats a good thing. Biden is an old fart thats been entrenched in politics since the early 70's and she's been standing up against the good ole boy network since she got into office...even before that actually.

yeah, she has little experience so it will make these next couple of months interesting.

I still give the nod to Obama at this point, but I need to see more of Palin.

And yes, I think the VP debate will be ...err....interesting to watch...I hope Biden doesn't take her lightly because I suspect the woman nicknamed "the barracuda" may rip him a new one if he's not careful.

Dancien Graves

Right, but why would you give Clinton a pretty much pointless position? I was talking to my ma about it the other day and we both agree she could probably get Secretary of State or Secretary of Health. Both things she's pretty A: good at and B: Passionate about.

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Joy Honey

Jimmy Carter, anyone?

Arilynn

I hope Biden can be as tough on her as needed without people saying that he is beating up the poor woman. I hate it when guys go easily on women in debates because they are afraid of "hurting them" and equally hate it when others criticize men for treating women as equals in a disagreement. If it is going to be a knife fight, give them both knives and let them use them equally.

Surreal

I've never been in favor of Obama picking Clinton as a running mate. I think it would have been disasterous. I do think that McCain picked Palin to woo disgruntled Clinton supporters.

Envoy Costagravas

If there was one, and only one, thing I could change in life, it would be to give myself the ability to get by on less (or no) sleep. I hate all that time wasted, but I get sweepy.

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"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin

Surreal

Yeah, I think Biden is going to need to be canny in how he deals with her.

hope Antonelli

No she doesnt have legislative experience, she has -executive- experience, both as a mayor and as a governor. Her husband works for an oil company (so I imagine do millions of voters) but as a union worker, not in management. She has proven herself to be fiscally responsible, not afraid to take on the corrupt politicians in her home state (not even going to comment on that one in regards to the alternate) and she stands up for what she believes in. The only thing Obama (who is running for the number one spot, not number two) is 140+ days in the Senate, most of it spent out campaigning, the most liberal voting record (when he doesnt simply vote present) and a very bad habit of accusing anyone who disagrees with him of being racist.

Eboni Khan

Normally I would agree but since they beat him until his hair turned white (within 6 weeks) and he refused to be released unless all the other POWs who were there before him, were released that does say a little something about his character. I would have taken that chance and left(so would most of you), he stayed and showed some backbone.

I don't think any of this makes him an automatic for President but I do think it shows some dedication to his country. There is no reason to down play his service, he is permanently disabled from it.

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