Against Joe Biden.
So much for the whole experience thing McCain was pushing.
Those internals must look really bad. Obama's going to be pushing a very solid double-digit lead (and over that key 50% mark) if the trends continue.
McCain panicked, and decided he needed a big play. In American football terms, this is a Hail Mary. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Damn, missed by ten minutes....
Palin knows nothing about foreign affairs. All Biden's got to do is stand there, be a gentleman, and answer the questions.
What I'd like to see now is an effort, especially among women in our party, to portray McCain as condescending towards women with this decision.
His experience argument, as all the pundits (even Joe Scarborough) are helpfully pointing out, is now gone.
If we can show this for what it is (not easy, btw) -- a pathetic, cynical choice that treats female voters like idiots -- this election will be over, and it'll be a question of how badly McCain gets beat. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
So the Republicans ask that old question, "How stupid ARE American women, anyway?"
Ooooooooooooooooo ... I'm going to pay for that one. Hope poemless doesn't see it. My laptop will fry. :) Now where's the fun in that! - Megatron
All Palin has to do to pass on foreign policy is wave some red meat around. Biden will look nuanced and possibly a little condescending, and that's not going to help him.
The abortion issue will bring in some evangelicals, and overall it makes McCain look pro-women, which won't be bad for him.
"What, you won't vote for A BLACK WOMAN? What kind of ... ?!!" fill in the blank as you choose. Now where's the fun in that! - Megatron
"See, see, WE have black folk too!" Now where's the fun in that! - Megatron
To remain ahead in foreign policy experience was probably impossible with Biden as VP for the dems. And a competent person on foreign policy would have disagreed all the time with McCain... It es better you have a Watson, when you want to be seen as a Sherlock Holmes.... Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den MenschenVolker Pispers
According to the Wikipedia hagiography, Palin eats moose, has been in the NRA since she was an embryo, drives snowmobiles, came second in a beauty pageant, played aggressive competitive basketball, ran a (small) business, eloped with her high school sweetheart and drafted in seniors from an old people's home when she discovered the wedding needed witnesses, and generally crushes brazil nuts with her testicles - which is why she's been described as 'Alaska's own Thatcher.'
In a straight fight with Chuck Norris, Norris would not be a sure thing.
She's a huntin', shootin' and fishin' Republican pick, marred only by being a straight arrow with little obvious interest in corrupt get-rich-quick lobbying schemes. (If you're a Republican this is known as 'Not having any experience.')
If she weren't insane I'd probably respect her. She has a record of making ethical stands, and her only ethical issue is allegations of pressure to fire a state trooper who was divorcing her sister, and is by all accounts a real psycho.
She's certainly not another smooth guy in a suit.
Biden should be concerned. She's not going to win it for McCain, but the debates are going to be interesting.
Palin, a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.
For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment.
The 'experienced' line is one of the funniest running jokes of the campaign. McCain's only experience has involved being born rich and then marrying richer, crashing a few planes, being a POW (yay!) and hanging around Washington pretending to represent his state.
He's almost, but not quite, even more experienced than Dubya was.
Clinton's experience mostly involved being married to Bill. She spent some time in the White House and put together a health care plan which bombed, but apart from that, she's been a senator for a while. Does being a senator make you experienced?
Apparently not, because Obama is a senator, but he's not experienced enough either.
Biden is almost experienced enough after 35 years, but he wasn't experienced enough to put together a winning campaign. Therefore - not so experienced after all.
What does it take to make everyone agree that you're experienced?
An in with the Associated Press, apparently.
I think you're missing the real hits here. Ragging on Palin for her lack of experience isn't the issue. It's highly unlikely that Palin decides this election, because veeps can really only move things a little bit in one direction or another.
But what's being talked about among the Very Serious People is McCain's horrible judgment here -- judgment, of course, being the core Obama pitch for himself and against McCain on issues like Iraq.
It also raises the issue of McCain's age, which ties back in on the judgment hit. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Romney - too many houses. Huckabee - mutual hatred. Jeb Bush - more Bush. Condi - yet more Bush. Pawlenty - an unusually 'interesting' business history.
So picking an unknown isn't totally insane, even if political heads are exploding everywhere. Palin will bring in the evangelicals - what's left of them - and probably also swing a state or two.
The choice has also made everyone forget yesterday's triumph of Obama awesomeness.
What's keeping me entertained is how the wingers are being outraged and stunned when the self-styled maverick does something genuinely mavericky.
We'll see. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Also, there's another, different (at least I think it's different) firing story involving one of her longtime friends, then an employee in the governor's office, who was dating the -- let me see if I can type it right -- ex-wife of Todd Palin's friend.
I'll be curious to see if there's any merit to it, although I'm skeptical due to the source. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Just got up from a nap. Can't swear properly till I get 2 cups of coffee down. Now where's the fun in that! - Megatron
Secondly, he has to make sure he gets most of the racist vote. With two black candidates (or even a black and a Jew - i.e. Lieberman), there would be a risk of some (who knows how many?) voting for Bob Barr, or simply not bothering to vote.
Finally, with Rice there is no way he can attack Obama as an elitist without looking completely ridiculous...
McCain's (Rove's?) strategy seems to be clear: run to the Right, grab the Bush vote, pick-up enough Independents and Latinos, and hope 70% of the US doesn't notice. The only way this makes sense is if they are so worried about the Enthusiasm (lack of) in the base that they are going full bore Conservative/Christian Right.
In a way, it's a repeat of Rove's '04/'06 strategy. Intimating Rove ("I've got the arithmetic") is so enamored of his previous successes he can't view the situation dispassionately, objectively.
Palin is a Creationist.
The McCain campaign is actually going to re-run the '04 strategy.
The Reps can't even keep a straight face here. If I weren't so incredibly afraid of losing this election to these nutjobs, I'd be laughing my ass off. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
The McCain campaign is becoming 'The Horrible Example' of a political campaign for the new century. The post-mortems, CYA, and Insider-Tell-All, which should start 'round about the end of September, by people bailing out of this disaster are going to be fun reading.
The idiots didn't get their Talking Points out before they announced. GOPer after GOPer was going, "I don't know anything about her" and "I never met her."
Pawlenty was the veep.
Why did they panic? Well, I've been digging around for some focus group data. We know the Obama campaign did them, although we obviously can't get that data, but judging by Ras's polling on Michelle (whose net favorables went sky-high -- from about net-zero to +20 -- after her speech), I think it's a safe bet this convention went off well. One of them out in Nevada had about one-third of undecideds going over to Obama because of his speech.
McCain's people were focus-grouping that speech. And they were afraid the election was snapping. The Dems were closing ranks, Obama got off one of his better speeches, and the needle was moving big-time.
Keep in mind, too, that about 50m people watched the speech (more than the Olympics, American Idol, and every other big-night event but the Super Bowl). That's unheard of for an acceptance speech.
My hunch is that McCain did successfully slow the momentum Obama would've gotten by creating this huge distraction. He may have saved his chances in the election. But my guess is also that, after a few days, Palin will have simply been a brief distraction. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Could we have war in St Paul? Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please? Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
