Sarah Palin!

Another thing about this pick that points to its being a strategic blunder: not only does it blunt the "inexperience" attack, but also the "risky" attack (which is related, but I think people would answer a poll question about experience differently from one about riskiness.)

I'll be curious to see if there's any movement in polls about who the "riskier" choice is now.
 
Like it's a really rational thing to do to risk your nation's future for... What exactly is McCain's payoff with this choice?
 
I'd like to come back to the executive experience issue with a thought I had overnight.

Obama has been a candidate for Prez longer than Palin has been governor. In that period, he has built up a campaign organization from scratch, created offices and staffing in every state and at the national level and has managed a budget measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Successfully.

Palin took over the reins of an existing organization with a financial structure already in place and functioning properly. This organization spans just one state with three real towns (Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks) and hundreds of little Moosebutt Creeks. The state population is smaller than some congressional districts. The biggest budget problem is what to do with all the money.

Now, tell me who has more executive experience.

As a basis of comparison, consider that each member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors represents about 2 million people (more than twice the population of Alaska) and each of the five has office and staff budget of about $3 million. These County-level people have far more executive responsibilities than Palin.
 
FaisonMars said:
It's interesting that the price of "Sarah Palin is the Republican VP nominee" isn't at 100% and has been dropping over the weekend on the prediction market, intrade:

www.intrade.com
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InTrade charges 5 cents a contract, so realistically, nobody should pay any more than 95 cents per share for anything, or they are guaranteed to lose money.
 
Brainster said:
InTrade charges 5 cents a contract, so realistically, nobody should pay any more than 95 cents per share for anything, or they are guaranteed to lose money.
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I think it's X10 for the share, so 95% would sell for $9.50.

But yeah, nothing actually goes to 100%. I just think it's interesting that the price is dropping.

Will it be a Harriet Miers moment? Some seem to be betting that it will be.
 
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Brainster said:
People say that the president-in-case situation is more important with McCain because of his age, and then they throw in the list of VPs who've ascended to the presidency. But in fact there have been very few presidents who've died in office of natural causes.
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There have also been very few US presidents who have been over 70. That's 'very few' as in one.
 
Palin ran for governor on a "build-the-bridge" platform.

Attention, my fellow Democrats in this forum: THIS is the kind of information that we need. Not stuff that wouldn't make the cut on Maury Povich.
 
boloboffin said:
Palin ran for governor on a "build-the-bridge" platform.

Attention, my fellow Democrats in this forum: THIS is the kind of information that we need. Not stuff that wouldn't make the cut on Maury Povich.
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Well, I do submit that her leaving a four month old special needs child to run a national campaign is not in the "Maury Povich" category at all - its a fact and how one reacts to it says a lot about how important one thinks such children are - Either you think they are very special little creatures who deserve the best of care or you think they are a burden to be dealt with in as hygienic a way as possible, the latter being what the McCain supporters here are arguing for.

And I think the issue with the land deal is a worthy issue.

And I think "troopergate" is a worthy issue.

And I think her lack of knowledge about US history is a worthy issue.

But I agree - no evidence on the "not her baby" issue that stands up to examination and I have looked at everything I can find.
 
There are enough reasons why Palin is a terrible pick without having to involve any members of her family.
 
boloboffin said:
Palin ran for governor on a "build-the-bridge" platform.

Attention, my fellow Democrats in this forum: THIS is the kind of information that we need. Not stuff that wouldn't make the cut on Maury Povich.
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Facts.

The bridge was intended to provide access to Ketchikan's airport on lightly populated Gravina Island, opening up new territory for expansion at the same time. Alaska's congressional delegation endured withering criticism for earmarking $223 million for Ketchikan ...

Congress eventually removed the earmark language but the money still went to Alaska, leaving it up to the administration of then-Gov. Frank Murkowski to decide whether to go ahead with the bridges or spend the money on something else.

In September, 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town's prosperity.
...One year later, Ketchikan's Republican leaders said they were blindsided by Palin's decision to pull the plug.

 Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Saturday that as projected costs for the Ketchikan bridge rose to nearly $400 million, administration officials were telling Ketchikan that the project looked less likely. Local leaders shouldn't have been surprised when Palin announced she was turning to less-costly alternatives,...
 
Great, so not only is she an ideological Bush twin, but also she has a history of hiring and firing practices to rival the Bush DOJ.

Way to distance yourself from the Bush legacy there, GmcCain!
 
So far today in the Palin story:

* The news that Palin once backed the Bridge to Nowhere went national.

* It emerged that Palin has links to the bizarro Alaska Independence Party, which harbors the goal of seceding from the union that McCain and Palin seek to lead.

* The news broke that as governor, Palin relied on an earmark system she now opposes. Taken along with the Bridge to Nowhere stuff, this threatens to undercut her reformist image, something that was key to her selection as McCain's Veep candidate.

* The news broke that Palin's 17-year-old daughter became pregnant out of wedlock at a time when the conservative base had finally started rallying behind McCain's candidacy.

* Barely moments after McCain advisers put out word that McCain had known of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, the Anchorage Daily News revealed that Palin's own spokesperson hadn't known about it only two days ago.

* A senior McCain adviser at the Republican convention was forced into the rather embarrassing position of arguing that McCain had known about the pregnancy "last week" -- without saying what day last week he knew about it.

* It came out that Republican lawyers are up in Alaska vetting Palin -- now, more than 72 hours after it was announced that she'd been picked.

* Palin lawyered up in relation to the trooper-gate probe in Alaska -- a move that ensures far more serious attention to the story from the major news orgs.
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Four more hours to go, Eastern Time.

ETA: Just saw this -- Palin was a director of Ted Steven's 527. She was a founding director in 2003 and served until June 2005.
 
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Lisa Simpson said:
If the joke about Chelsea was false, why did McCain apologize?
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That's what I meant. The fact that he apologized, suggests that it was true that he told the joke. From my google search it doesn't seem that there are any video/audio recordings of the appearance to objectively verify it.
 
Skeptic Guy said:
That's what I meant. The fact that he apologized, suggests that it was true that he told the joke. From my google search it doesn't seem that there are any video/audio recordings of the appearance to objectively verify it.
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When one is called to task for something one did not do, especially something for which there is no record at all, one will usually deny the allegation not apologize for the non-offense.

Conclusion; He did it.
 
Someone else may have noted this, but I'm not going to read through the whole thread. To me, the strangest, most disturbing thing about Palin (other than McCain thought this was a good pick, that is) that as a mother, she would subject a pregnant teenager to the kind of thing that is now happening to her daughter. In short, she has put her abmition before meeting the needs of this kid...why couldn't she say "no"...and leave it at that...run for the Senate in four years, or even President, but let her daughter get through this ...instead, she has put her daughter right in the media bulls-eye.

I say this as someone who hated Bill Clinton for what seemed to be his overweening selfishness in having his affairs and subjecting his family to the scandal...any politician, male or female, who chooses to subject members of their family to this kind of spotlight are cruel and, I think, dangerous.

I'm not saying she should have gotten out of public life, but she didn't need to be VP at the expense of her poor daughter's dignity and privacy...really sad and bothersom. In the end, it seems to me, it isn't that she is or isn't capable of being VP or Presidnet because of this matter..it is that she would choose to do so at this time that is so despicable...she sacrificed her daughter's dignity and privacy on the alter of her ambition.
 
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headscratcher4 said:
Someone else may have noted this, but I'm not going to read through the whole thread. To me, the strangest, most disturbing thing about Palin (other than McCain thought this was a good pick, that is) that as a mother, she would subject a pregnant teenager to the kind of thing that is now happening to her daughter. In short, she has put her abmition before meeting the needs of this kid...why couldn't she say "no"...and leave it at that...run for the Senate in four years, or even President, but let her daughter get through this ...instead, she has put her daughter right in the media bulls-eye.
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I think it also rings a bit hollow to say that her family will be there to support her daughter in this difficult time when in fact she will instead be running a state, running for election, and if she wins helping run the government. While simultaneously raising 4 other kids, one of whom is 4 months old and has Down syndrome.
 
More on the thoroughness of the vetting process from the New York Times:

“They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.

Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.

“I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.”

The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne M. Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Ms. Palin’s background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.
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