Sarah Palin: sent from Central Casting?
[NOTE: I wrote this post a couple of days ago but had kept it as a draft. Now that McCain has stunned me by picking Palin as his VP choice—I didn’t see that coming—I will publish it just as I wrote it.]
Now that Obama has anointed Biden as his VP pick, it’s time to speculate whom it might be for McCain.
I don’t know. How’s that for candor? But I understand why so many people wish it would be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Here are my reasons, not in order of importance. Some of them are admittedly superficial (but hey, I never said I didn’t have my frivolous side):
First of all, she’s a woman, which would appeal to Hillary’s PUMAs (although a young one, which smacks a little bit of ditching the old gal for the newer model. But unlike Obama, McCain can hardly be faulted for not picking Hillary as his running mate, despite this.)
Second, she’s bit of eye candy. Next to not-so-lovely old guy McCain, that wouldn’t hurt.
Thirdly, between you and me, her husband’s no slouch either. In fact, his bio is as good as hers, albeit in a different and decidedly macho way: Alaska-born with a Native American grandmother, commercial fisherman and oil field operator, outdoorsman extraordinaire, and four-time champion of the Iron Dog (at 2,000 miles, the world’s toughest snowmachine race). You may come to your own conclusions about his photo—I know what mine are:
And here’s Todd, supporting his wife at her swearing-in:
Fourthly, Palin is a Governor rather than a Senator. We could use the diversity on that score. Three Senators running is quite enough, thank you very much.
Fifthly, listen to this stuff, speaking of diversity. Palin was a beauty queen. She eats mooseburgers and rides snowmobiles, and is a lifetime member of the NRA. Has a degree in journalism, though, and admits to having smoked marijuana back when it was legal in Alaska. Is against gay marriage but is socially liberal on gay rights. Has a son in the Army. Has five children, one of whom is an infant born a few months ago with Downs Syndrome (she and her husband were aware of this before his birth; she is very pro-life not just in word but in deed). And to top it all off, her approval ratings in Alaska are in the 80-90 percent range.
Of course, her foreign policy experience is nil. But McCain, unlike Obama, doesn’t need any shoring up in that department.
And she’s not Bush. Although that won’t stop the Democrats from saying she is.
[ADDENDUM: Watching a bit of the McCain/Palin news conference on TV, it strikes me that Palin is so beautiful that she’s one of those women who need to wear glasses rather than contacts in order to give her some gravitas. Also, that although McCain may have been truthful in saying he delayed this announcement until after the Democratic Convention in order to avoid upstaging Obama, it’s just as likely that he postponed it because he wanted to have the MSM’s attention focused solely on the Palin story.]
No one will ever be able to accuse her of talking down to blue collar folks. I think she will appeal strongly to those who value common sense. She needs to take a modest approach to foreign policy. Perhaps by saying that she will work hard in this area, she may even be more appealing than Obama on his grand tour.
Hello Neo,
My first impressions of this lady is very good. The fact that she is a Washington outsider, that she’s taken on big oil in Alaska and exposed corruption there, that she’s directly confronted the Republican Party when it conflicted with her principles, and that she not only talks about pro-life abortion but lives it— all this and more speaks well of lady’s candidacy.
I am further impressed with McCain for his choice. It would have been a easy thing to choose the safe choice in Romney or Lieberman or someone else whose grooves are well worn in the public’s imagination.
Moreover, unlike Obama who is just 2 or 3 years her senior, she has a good-sized list of accomplishments on her resume. Obama on the other hand, can only point to his years as an activist “community organizer” and his sparse attendance in the Illinois legislature and his even more sparse, almost non-existent, tenure as a junior senator.
In fact, Obama spent more time running for President than his entire time in the senate– that is, on those so few occasions that he has deigned to show up to vote at all.
I’m rather impressed too.
I’m waiting to see the 1st Dem spokesman jump on her for “not enough experience” … Yes, I think Dem’s are that stupid.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/Obama_camp_belittles_Palin_pick.html
ROFL
nice catch uh huh… but what else can they do?
ultimately now the left will have to choose between which victim class to vote for (in the hierarchy of the left obama comes first technically, but we shall see when that is practiced by individual leftists).
Palin was a good choice to cause cognitive dissonance in the average useful idiot.
I really like this choice, she has the normal background of a person you would want to see running for president but can never get there, they are already calling her VPILF LOL.
http://www.vpilf.com/
I was telling people a week ago that she would be the pick. It just made perfect sense. The fact she is a woman is certainly a plus but she’s just a good person with good values who believes “public service” means serving the public not having the “public service you” (something that Bill Clinton really took to heart). The race just got to be a lot more fun.
Barack who?
This was the pick I was hoping for. She has more executive experience both Obama and Biden. She more economic common sense too. And she’ll learn foreign policy, as I rather suspect she’s studious and a quick study.
This one is hit out of the park.
Cruising some lefty sites reveals that uh-huh was exactly right: the main squawk is lack of experience (even though the Republican VP candidate has as much as the Democratic Presidential candidate). Amazing.
She seems like a sound choice in the policies she has pursued. On top of which, her interesting life (moose hunter!), and her glamour will draw so much media attention to her that Obama will fade into the background like the busboy at Olive Garden.
Putting her easiness on the eyes aside. I was moved during her speech to hear a genuine and interesting woman on my tv for a change. Shes like a breath of fresh Alaskan air.
I was actually in Alaska a couple weeks ago and heard that Palin was being considered for veep candidate. I thought it was just rumors–I totally didn’t see this coming!
I have to say, after exhaustively vetting her bio (aka I read her wiki article 😀 ), I think she’s an inspired pick. This is brilliant timing on McCain’s part and also shows great leak discipline from his camp, which is welcome. For the first time, I’m actually starting to get excited about this race.
By the time FDR died, his pal Stalin had become rather snobbish in his tastes about fellow heads of state. So he was quite put out about Truman, a common little hat salesman from the styx. As it turned out, he would have plenty more reasons to dislike Truman. I feel in my gut that Sarah is a chip off the old Harry.
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armchair pessimist: I feel in my gut that Sarah is a chip off the old Harry.
I came to the same conclusion. Both are more “of the people” than the average Pres/VP candidate. Both operated honestly in corrupt political environments. As a Jackson County Judge in Boss Pendergast’s Kansas City, he gained an reputation for honest administration. In Truman’s second Senate term, he gained a rep for investigating fraud and mismanagement in military procurement.
One difference between the two: I don’t see Governor Palin being the dedicated reader of the Classics that Truman was.
I do believe I have rejoined the Republican Party…
Gee, she doesn’t look as outstanding as you claim at first glance to me.
I saw a clip of her on the news in which she was stressing that her parents worked with their hands. That seemed as moronic as the Obama team saying “we’re just like you”.
I guess there’s a lot of voters (in the USA) to talk down to.
“I guess there’s a lot of voters (in the USA) to talk down to.”
I’ll give you a little piece of advice – please wait a few days before posting what you see being spread around leftist websites. While it may read well amongst the Believers it doesn’t do so well elsewhere. It usually takes a few days for you guys to figure out how to attack someone even semi-successfully.
However feel free to not take this advice – it makes us winning elections MUCH easier.
BREAK THE GLASS CEILING !!!
WOW … What a great pick!!! America should elect
McCain & Palin for the Whitehouse in November,
for a return to wholesome American values.
An experienced Governor for V.P. vs. a
community organizer for President … I pick Palin.
No Wright, no Farrakahn, no Ayers, no Rezko,
no mean Michelle, NOBAMA
The following is an exerpt from an editorial published Saturday past in Canada’s National Post:
“It is no wonder, in an election year in which the Republican Party faces such a mythic, dynamic individual as Barack Obama, that John McCain was willing to gamble on running alongside his own legend from a land that, for most Americans, exists only in the imagination. If you had to write a screenplay about the first woman president, you would need the guts of a burglar to use the actual facts of Sarah Palin’s life. Just imagine the conversation with the studio head:
” ‘Seriously? You’re going to make her a high-school basketball star who played the championship game on a broken ankle and made the 11th-hour shot to win it? And then she becomes the ethics czar for oil regulation and fights dirty politicians in her own party single-handed? And this bit about the infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ when she actually sends $200-million in federal money for a notorious pork-barrel project back to Washington? And it says here she’s got one kid going to fight in Iraq and another newborn son with Down syndrome that she chose to have and raise? And she’s a snowmobile fanatic, licenced pilot and National Rifle Association member who’s so beautiful she will probably have to be played by Angelina Jolie? …
Buddy, I don’t know whether to give you a million bucks or toss you out on your ear.’ “
As a Republican, I think John McCain has made a mistake–the hype is great right now but if you dig a little deeper –and people will– there are some real skeletons in her closet. I can’t say too much because–like VP Cheney–you don’t want to get on her bad side. There is a reason why the story above reads like a movie script. I sure wish the VP choice had been someone with a solid record.
I can’t say enough about Sarah Palin. I compare her detractors to skaters who go down hard; legs akimbo, that look of disbelief. We’re seeing them fold like lawn chairs. It’s long overdue. Anyway, here’s a clip from Jan & Dean. I found it apropos. Bet you can’t watch just once: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX7X4FovYRA&NR=1 And how ‘bout them Dems, they done yet: http://theseedsof9-11.com
Sarah Palin is an illiterate moron.
I heard her speech at the republican convention — not bad. Obviously, it was well rehearsed. But today my ears were poisoned by the stump she gave in Wisconsin.
Alas, my suspicions were spot on: the woman cannot read. She stumbled, stuttered, and mispronounced 25% of the words in that speech. I don’t ask for much in a VP candidate.
But it is just beyond me to believe that an illiterate woman could handle the job of VP. Maybe the McCain camp thinks the American people find her illiteracy quaint. Please. Don’t insult our intelligence.
But it is just beyond me to believe that an illiterate woman could handle the job of VP. Maybe the McCain camp thinks the American people find her illiteracy quaint. Please. Don’t insult our intelligence.
Not having heard her speech in Wisconsin, I cannot comment on your reaction. I would simply like to point out to you two words: Joe Biden.