sarah palin for GOP vice president

Huh. CNN just stated that McCain picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in breaking news.

Well. That was unexpected.

Comments

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

Well.

This is going to get ugly.

And why do I get the feeling that Clinton supporters are going to be caught in the crossfire?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Ugly or utterly fascinating. Or both, really.

*thoughtful* You know, in this case, it's kinda relieving Hillary isn't going to be the bulls-eye now. I twitched plenty during primaries, but man. This? I would want to run.

[that_mireille]

I was just thrilled to find out it wasn't Pawlenty. Except that means we have to keep him.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Could have been Romney. *TWITCH*

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

So whatever happens in November, we the American people, will be making history. Cool.

Okay. End of the pompous statements for the day!

~L

It will be interesting to see how the tone & flavor of the rhetoric is going to change due to this announcement. Hmmmm

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yes! This!

[logovo1.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I had no idea that she was even on the short list, but I guess it makes some kind of sense. I've never actually hear her speak though, so I don't even know the first thing of how she comes across.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nods* Oh yeah. This is going to be fascinating.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Whoa. That's -- surprising. Not the least of which is that she's possibly going to be under indictment pretty soon.

You know, I think Hillary's supporters* are not going to like this. At all. For all she's a woman, she's like the anti-Hillary.


* and by that I mean the crazy ones, like Hillaryis44 and the PU-whatevertheyare, not, like, everyone else.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I think the fact that McCain, the conservative, picked a woman, while Obama, liberal, picked a white male with a lower vote count than Hillary does ask some interesting questions.

And right now I'm pretty glad she's not involved in this. The mudslinging is, I think, going to escalate.

Indictment for what? The thing with her brother in law? *confused*

[argosy.livejournal.com]

Dumb move. It's not going to get him the Hillary supporters, and it's going to look like he's pandering to them(the Hillary supporters) to the rest of the GOP. I suppose it's possible he picked Palin on her merits and this has nothing to do with Hillary, but, um, yeah, I don't think so.

(But now I'm picturing Sarah Polley as VP, which amuses me.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* They said that about Geraldine Ferraro, too. I doubt he'd chose an incompetent running mate just because she was a woman, though I agree, it *is* in reaction to the Democratic party.

[jujuberry136.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting choice. She's very conservative down the line (which is good for McCain) but she has no real experience- she's a first term governor of Alaska and has only been in office for 1.5 years. Also, she's probably going to be under indictment soon for firing her former brother-in-law.

But on a personal note, I feel kind of bad for her. She just had a kid a few months ago, and trying to campaign and care for him (and I think he has Downs Syndrome) isn't going to be a good time.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I thought it said an aide did it and the aide was fired? *confused*

[cat-77.livejournal.com]

Huh. Who would have guessed it?

Does this mean we can stop having to see our gov here in MN suck up quite so much?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I'm just glad Perry was never in teh running, because man. Keeping him contained in Texas is OUR GIFT TO THE US!

[fanaddict.livejournal.com]

She's been a "dark horse" for a while. I think it's pretty clearly a ploy to get the Clinton supporters who are still bitter - but that doesn't take away from the historic fact that now there will either be a woman or black man in the white house next Jan.

That said, I'm not sure this was a smart choice by McCain. It hurts his rhetoric that Obama has too little experience (she's been gov for less than 2 years), it suggests he's going to run an idealogue campaign since she's a favorite of conservatives (and again, I'm just not sure how that's going to work since there are so many unhappy people who think of Bush when idealogue arguments are made), and she's already coming with her own ready made scandal set with 1) abuse of power (she's under indictment for getting her former brother-in-law fired); and 2) potential money/ethics scandal if she's linked to Steven's ethics scandal (she's being investigated). I mean, if McCain were smart he should have picked Kay Bailey Hutchinson since she brings the XX chromosome and conservative cred without the scandals and with a lot more experience. It's not like Alaska brings McCain a whole lot of new votes in the electoral college...

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The indictment thing--seriously, every politician, including Obama, has been under suspicion due to someone else under indictment or under indictment themselves. I honestly don't even notice that anymore.

The drilling, however, is interesting.

She does bring youth to the campaign, and a newer, fresher face, and is more conservative than he is. Though yes, why not Hutchinson is a mystery.

[(Anonymous)]

She wants to drill in Alaska, so that means to me, his whole alternative energy thing is all a lie and he is in it only for oil profits.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed her stand on that bit too with Alaskan drilling.

[sholio]

Alaskans have been speculating about this for months - rumors have been flying - but I'm genuinely surprised that he went with her. As far as I know, she's an almost total unknown outside Alaska - the only state where she has star power is a state with only one electoral delegate ... us. Right now I honestly can't figure out if it's a good surprise or not, because I really really really don't want another four years of Republicans and I think Palin's a very smart move for McCain to pull in young and female voters.

But as conservatives go, Palin's honestly not that bad. I have quite a few problems with her policies (the usual conservative stuff, mostly) but she's a relatively "hands-off" type of conservative who doesn't really have a bug up her butt on social issues - that is, abortion, creationism in schools, anti-gay issues are potential problem areas but, in two years of having her at the helm of the state government, haven't been something she's actively working on, either. And she's got a history of bucking her party and not rolling over for the big boys. The Alaska wing of the Republican party has hated her ever since she had their chairman investigated for ethics violations a few years ago, and there was some speculation during the election two years ago that they actually tried to make her lose.

And ... is it sad that I'm a little bit jazzed about Alaska getting in the national spotlight for something other than corruption scandals? *g*

Don't get me wrong, I doubt if there's ANY skeleton Obama's got in his closet that could keep me from voting for him, and I'm worried about Palin siphoning off necessary votes. But ... still not the worst we could've gotten by a long shot.

[sholio]

Though, I think I can safely predict that this is going to make it even LESS comfortable to be a liberal in Alaska for a while ... am not really looking forward to the inevitable political discussions at work today.

[eal.livejournal.com]

I know that I'm now very confused. Not about who to vote for, but about McCain's actual plan here. I mean,seriously, where did he find his advisors?

[callmeri]

Right here, unfortunately. And we should never, ever underestimate this man.

[amandajane5.livejournal.com]

You know, *I'm* one of those bitter Hillary supporters who's feeling like I might have to hold my nose and vote for Obama anyway because I live in a super-duperly swing state, but it's because he's so wishy-washy on women's rights and this woman does absolutely *nothing* to convince a voter like me to go for McSame.

She's one of those cracker-crazy quiverfulls, she's virulently anti-choice, she wants polar bears off the endagered species list, she wants to drill *everywhere* and she was quoted as recently as a month ago saying she doesn't even know what the vice-president does. I'm so unlikely to vote for that piece of shit ticket, I can't even tell you!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's one of the problems. Then again, friendshipper says she's fairly hands-off, and I don't have nearly as much a problem with a person having their own values if they don't try to legislate or force them on others. So hmm.

Still a democrat, even if I'm still unhappy about Obama slighting Hillary so obviously.

[vaginasaurus.livejournal.com]

She's from Wasila. I think that's all I need to say.

Except okay, maybe that's not really very informative for non-Alaskans.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*grins* This is not good?

[lovelokest.livejournal.com]

This is a political gift to left-wing media after months of the right-wing and mainstream media calling Obama on his "inexperience". She's only a first term governer! And before that a mayor of a small town.

I can't wait for the left-wing commentary on her *licks chops expectantly*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*winces* I'm really not on that one, even if I'm not voting for her. The misogyny that's going to permeate this is going to be as bad as it was against Hillary, and liberals will be responsible again for being hypocrites to their own ideals.

[emgeetrek.livejournal.com]

Saw some file footage on her this afternoon. It was one of those interviews where you get backed into a corner by the media and a microphone gets shoved in your face. Don't know how old it was, clearly she looked a lot less polished and vice-presidential than when she was being introduced today by McCain. And she referred to herself as "a hockey mom," which now is also how everyone else seems to be describing her.

When the top of the list of descriptions for someone who potentially could be one heartbeat from the Presidency is "hockey mom," I can't help but be a little worried.

On MSNBC, her husband was described as a "commercial fisherman." Smittywing says he works for an oil company. Which is correct, I wonder? Or does he do both?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*grins* Hocky Mom is pretty cool. Child calls me Geeky Mom.

I was noticing the discrepancy too. Maybe he does both or did one then changed? Gah. Not very clear yet.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

So. It's a presidential candidate who's 72. Wouldn't it be a better idea to pick someone first in line to succession who's um. Remotely qualified?

Then again. Cheney's only five years younger and had enough cardiovascular problems that I'm surprised he's still around. Comparatively, McCain is the picture of health.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Obama doesn't have much more experience than she does, added up.

[ilyena_sylph]

If there had been any doubt of who I was voting for, this would kill it.

A woman who's anti-choice, anti-marriage equality, and an utterly unknown as far as my ears have ever heard? Who has no experience whatsoever with the world at large?

HELL with that!!!

[kallipoe.livejournal.com]

Well, this makes me want to cry. The primaries were bad enough; I just don't think I can take any more misogyny coming from the left. And I didn't vote for Hillary, but I found Palin's remark about making good on Hillary's 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling disgusting. Hillary has worked her ass off for decades for pro-equality, pro-woman policies. For an anti-choice, anti-gay marriage candidate to try and coast on the momentum of Hillary's hard-fought campaign makes me want to smash things. Yes, it is super-cool that Hillary made women and their votes such an issue in this election that McCain, he of the Chelsea Clinton-Janet Reno joke, was forced to put a woman on his ticket, but I will be seriously depressed if the highest ranking woman in our government got there by backing anti-woman policies.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about that part either. OTOH, the liberal side gave up their chance to put a female VP in the White House, so we can't blame the Republicans for our own mistake.