Posted on 08/29/2008 10:31:47 AM PDT by americanophile
Don’t kid yourself…John McCain just put all his chips on the table and rolled the dice.
Over the past many months, McCain’s team had skillfully underscored the natural impressions of Americans – that Barak Obama was the lightweight in the race; the candidate of risk. Now, with a single stroke McCain has undercut his most effective argument. He has weakened his case for wisdom and experience, and elevated a one-term governor of a small-population state based on her gender.
McCain had plenty of safe choices. Choices that would have bolstered Americans’ inherent understanding of McCain’s competency and ability; choices that would have underscored the longstanding notion that whatever gimmick the Democrats try, the Republican Party remains the serious one.
With the electorate evenly split, McCain’s first job was to pick a competent running mate that would not undermine his standing, and would reassure voters that should something happen to the oldest man ever to be nominated for president, a competent, experienced leader, ready to serve as commander-in-chief in a time of war, was waiting in the wings.
The former Miss Congeniality, and hockey mom from “the last frontier” is a bizarre choice.
McCain’s pick today has all the hallmarks of a political gimmick and a hail-Mary pass. While it is likely to excite some conservatives, his choice will refocus the entire campaign away from Obama’s status as a political neophyte and will reshuffle the risk calculus in the favor of the increasingly familiar, and always-eloquent Obama. With Biden on the ticket, Obama has lessened the sense that he poses a serious danger to the electorate. McCain’s selection by contrast is likely to shake voters and cast uncertainty on the wisdom and safety of a McCain presidency.
With competent and proven individuals waiting in the wings such as Governor Mitt Romney, the selection of Sarah Palin is a most unfortunate choice.
John McCain may have just lost the 2008 election…cue the hurricane.
there’s nothing wrong with the pick...mccain isnt rolling any dice.
she is a hard charging conservative...God, guns, country first.....compared to ‘safe’ choices????
i like it....
Most folks around here know I was hoping Mitt would get the nod. My concerns about Palin were that she would be vulnerable to the criticism here. That said, I think she is a strong choice and will do an excellent job representing GOP principles.
Someone’s candidate didn’t get picked. Sorry about that!
Yeah for McCain and Sarah! I was so thrilled!
Bookmark - Opinions, everybody has one. Check back on November 5.
My wife, an anti-Obama voter who might have made it to the polls to unenthusiastically cast a vote for McCain as the lesser evil, is electrified. A poll of one. We’ll see how unusual she is.
Call the Waaambulance for GOPublius...the whiner.
Writing in Duncan Lee Hunter
Bump
Rubbish!
We are are talking a VP choice, not a Presidential choice. Palin will have the luxury of “learning on the job” which Obama wouldn’t.
What would you prefer? - An experienced President and an inexperienced “Funeral Attender” or an inexperienced President and an experienced “Funeral Attender”?
Au contraire, mon ami.
(Bit of French lingo there to show my friendship to M. Sarkozy.)
You, sir, or madame, didn't post a barf alert, nor did you offer any of your own thoughts on this article.
The 'hail Mary' comment was made by Chuckie today and I haven't a clue as to where you're coming from.
The left, perhaps?
GOPublius is parroting the Dem talking points. Not much GOP in him.....
NEWS FLASH! This just in: At approximately 10:30am this morning the entire Obama campaign (yes, including the Messiah himself) had to change their underwear.
Religated to “GOFullaPus.com” now...
Dont let the door hit you on the way out...
She was a great pick you dopes (sorry for calling you dopes you dopes). This is awesome !!
What an ignorant article! Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Obama and is from a much larger state than Joe Biden’s little Del-a-where?
The author can bite my crank. McCain has consistently shown audacity throughout this campaign. He has made a bold choice with Palin. I think it’s brilliant.
I LOVE this pick. Governor Sarah Palin has more EXECUTIVE experience than Biden and obama - COMBINED.
But does he have any Elvis in him?
She takes the whole stupid "Make history by electing the first (fill in the blank for your favorite minority)" argument. I just read that Evangelical Christians are ecstatic about her being chosen. McCain just shored up his base, and maybe brought in some PUMA's as well.
I don't see how there could have been a better choice.
1) first Republican woman selected to run as VP instantly makes this a “historic” ticket
2) secures and energizes the base
3) offers Hillary voters the opportunity to vote for a woman
4) executive experience (plus Governor of a Western state is a plus with many Western states in play this election)
5) great on oil/gas/energy
6) excellent speaking skills
7) conservatives can visualize her as future president
8) very “family values”
9) will attract some union voters who normally vote straight Dem ticket
10) stregthens McCain’s “reform” message
Did I miss anything?
I can vote for McCain/Palin without holding my nose.
Palin is a brilliant choice.
For gambling analogies McCain just pulled an inside straight against two pair. Question now is if Obama can turn it into a full house.
I couldn’t disagree more with the tone or content of this article. It’s an inspired choice.
Yes, he may have given away a little of the experience argument against Barack, although I don’t completely agree with that. But, he got so much more in the bargain. He’ll solidify the conservative base vote. He’ll pick up a lot of independent women. Plus, she’s pro-life, NRA member, reformer. She’s got it all!
Great choice, McCain. Checkmate.
Uh, just speaking for myself, I’d like to hear what she has to say prior to forming an opinion.
Is that unreasonable?
So let me ask you raygunfan, what is her positions on Illegal Immigration issues?
And I ask that as a non-fan of Romney. I did not want him and saw him as a liability.
Sarah hit 4 grand slams, infact, she hit the balls so hard she put them in obit.
Sarah has executive experience which Obama lacks.
Sarah has far more accomplishments as Governor than Obama has as a Senator.
Whine, Whine, Whine about an excellent pick! Figured someone would try to rain on the parade because their candidate was not the choice and here it is within a few hours of the nomination. Sitting here shaking head with a huge smile on my face!
Attacking Mrs. Palin on lack of experience would be a very poor tactic. Criticizing McCain for choosing someone outside the short list is also short-sighted. Mrs. Palin may not have a great deal of foreign policy experience (although it might be more extensive than people believe, given her proximity to Russia and Canada), but experience also includes the “real life” experience none of the other candidates can really claim. Obama has lived in a liberal never-never land all his life. Biden is the ultimate Washington insider who has spent nearly his entire adult life in the Senate. McCain is also a long-time Washingtonian who is married to a multi-millionaire. But there is the experience she has: wife, mother of five, worker, coach, grass-roots reformer, mayor of a small town (and don’t kid yourself, that is often more challenging than mayor of a huge city) commissioner, governor. As every woman knows, the so-called powers that be tend to put down that experience as useless. No one can accuse her of being an elitist, something none of the others have dodged. She can capitalize on it in the same way that women have claimed it takes a woman to clean the house. And she will give fits to the Queen Bee on Capitol Hill.
With O as president, he will continue to receive lessons from the DNC that he is their puppet.
Sadly, this is the most accurate assessment of the Palin pick that I’ve read thus far. The euphoria over Palin is IMHO misspent and premature. I have little hope for November at this point.
She’s an excellent choice. I’d have been happy with Romney, I like the guy, but she’s an excellent choice.
Forget the nonsense that she undercuts Obama’s lack of experience. She has 16 years in public life, and she has a track record of standing up for what she believes. And she has held real jobs over the years, not make-believe jobs like Obama.
Obama, on the other hand, has never had a real job. He has no resume at all, and what little he has can’t be documented. What have you been doing all your life if before it can be disclosed they have to clean any mention of you out of the files first?
Methinks this person is a little upset that their choice didn’t get picked... It’s like they’ve never even BOTHERED to learn ANYTHING about Palin. Weak and pathetic, and these “charges won’t stick” regardless.
I think this shows incredible confidence on McCain’s part. The VP can help you in office but no one really votes for the VP unless the choice is sensational. Look at Dan Quayle. We all voted for Bush besides him.
McCain I think waited to the last minute to pick her because he realized that the democrats were beat just looking at their convention.
He’s having fun with this. The dems are in a panic.
This was a good move. We all could have lived with Mitt and Pawlenty, but this wipes out Obama’s bump.
No news for days on Obama, trust me. Mitt? Pawlenty? and it’s Oh Hummmmm no news....
This conservative white male has zero problems that she is a female.
I personally did not want Romney, Huckabee, or Liberman.
I think alot of females now wondering why the sold their souls to the DNC. What did it get them this election year.
More experienced than Obama and smoking good looks make her more telegenic too.
Now, Mitt Romney has more than both, but he's not a Conservative and would have caused many Republican voters to stay home. Now, after today's announcement and yesterday's Obama "I Have a Socialist Dream" speech, we'll crawl over broken glass to get to the polls - just like in the old days.
Proof yet again that even nonminal GOP bloggers can be dumber than a rock.
Idiotic.
Sorry; that’s the only thing I can label your juvenile rant.
Palin has MORE experience than either McCain, Osama, or Biden - they were merely Senators with No Executive exposure. Gov. Palin has run the State budget, dealt with Russia and Canada, cut spending, taken on the bureaucracy and the entrenched lobbyists - oh and raised a family.
She is a great pick, and her experience as VP will be the stepping stone needed to get a solid Conservative into the White House.
I now unabashedly support McCain/Palin 2008.
Make that two. Mine just now phoned me with the news, and she was screaming with excitement...ahem, gotta’ go. Looks like something’s been left turned on at home. I’m liking Palin already.
With fools like the author of this democrat talking points piece, feigning Romney praise, the term pernicious bitterness may become a part of the near future lexicon. Bwahahahahaha ... and the funny thing is, folks will see the stupidity of impugning Mitt Romney by trying to attach disgruntle to him—just like they ahve tried to impugn Duncan Hunter by posing that he would doubt this pick—because Mitt Romney will be working hard to get this ticket elected! Why? ... Because Romney is a Republican and knows an Obama presidency would be a disaster for his country. Besides, wise men like Mitt the fli-flopper know instinctively that now, with Sarah Palin on the ballot, the trunout of conservative voters just might change the complexion of the House and Senate for the Republican party. And that scares and embitters those who want the nation punished for not embracing pricks like Barr or Obama.
Politics is 80% theater, and this is political theater at it’s most brilliant and effective. I love the choice. She will help McCain win and she will be the first female president of the United States.
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