Well lookee here, it’s Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the new darling of the maniac right and the Republican Party’s choice for your new Vice President. Wonder what ‘ol Sarah is up to here?

Well, apparently the Governor of Alaska is posing with a caribou she just shot. Nice to see she’s got one of her children with her. What better way to teach kids love and respect for the world around them than by watching their mother shoot something and then watching it die?
NEWS FLASH: John McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, not Sarah Palin (who?), but the conservative “agents of intolerance” (McCain’s words, not mine) who still run the Republican party would not stand for McCain to pick a former Democrat, someone with pro-choice credentials, or someone who ran with that awful agent of Satan in 2000, Al Gore. Read the article HERE, and check out this article in The Economist (not exactly a standard-bearer for the ‘wacky left’) bemoaning McCain’s loss of gravitas, not to mention his soul.
As Michael Kinsley wrote in the September 1st edition of the Washington Post:
It’s about honesty. The question should be whether McCain, and all the other Republicans who have been going on for months about Obama’s ‘dangerous’ lack of foreign policy experience, ever meant a word of it. And the answer is apparently not. Many conservative pundits woke up this morning fully prepared to harp on Obama’s alleged lack of experience for months more. Now they face the choice of either executing a Communist-style U-turn (’Experience? Feh! Who needs it?’) or trying to keep a straight face while touting the importance of having been mayor of a town of 9,000 if you later find yourself president of a nation of 300 million.
This is especially damning to McCain because his case for himself (besides not being Obama, a standard under which many of us might qualify) has rested on his honor and integrity. The North Vietnamese couldn’t break him, and neither could the Brahmins of his own party in the Senate. He was a maverick who always told it straight.
So much for that.
Tommy’s Thoughts Regarding John McCain’s Choice for Running Mate
(short version)
John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin proves Republicans remain curiously obsessed with Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, and somehow think putting a female western governor on the ticket with McCain will entice Hillary supporters without anyone noticing the litany of concerns about Palin’s far-right stances.
If you’re a G.O.P. bigwig who’s been a on the fence about McCain, would you be writing a check in support of this ticket, especially after qualified guys like Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, or qualified women like Kay Bailey Hutchinson were passed over? All of whom could’ve brought much of the same crowd McCain and the G.O.P. are hoping to get with Palin, plus the Republicans would’ve passed the one most important test that’s required when selecting a running mate: someone who can effectively and competently step in as President in case something happens to the Chief Executive.
McCain’s “tried and true” judgement? Either way it’s disturbing. If he picked Gov. Palin, what does that say for his judgement, unless he’s publicly shopping for wife number three, and if the party chose Palin for McCain, what else are they going to put on McCain’s plate?
I have a feeling Republicans are going to be waking up on November 5th stunned at the breadth of their loss, but that doesn’t mean this is over. Send a message on November 4th and take your country back. The American flag belongs to you as well, don’t ever forget that.
(long version)
For most of the summer I’ve been figuring this was going to be a close race between John McCain and Barack Obama, and the polling numbers leading up to the Democratic convention seemed to confirm this, pretty much an even 50/50 split. In the wake of McCain’s disturbing V.P. choice, however, I’m feeling pretty good about calling this for Obama now. There are other reasons why Obama has the edge (one has to do with a seriously flaw in the way tracking polls are conducted), but picking Palin doesn’t seem to bring anyone else to the ticket who wasn’t already on board or leaning towards voting for McCain, and the immediate reaction I’ve seen has been an angry turn-off of moderates who were waiting to see how McCain handled his first Presidential-style choice.
The reasons for Governor Palin’s selection says more about the alleged judgement of a more and more elderly John McCain, and a Republican party growing more desperate to be interesting, engaging, welcoming, or having something to do with that C word Obama keeps throwing around. Like their desire to drill in every nook and cranny of the continent ~ on and offshore ~ for oil to keep their status quo-benefitting pals in the oil companies alive and afloat, the G.O.P. is completely bankrupt. It’s not that the Republican party doesn’t have bad ideas, they no ideas.
So what do they do? They call Obama a Muslim (a “bad thing,” obviously…) and send out mysterious e-mails alleging he attended Pakistani madrasas while McCain spends a month bashing on the guy because he has nothing to say about himself, and at the exact moment when McCain needs to step up and deliver some content and win over those moderates waiting on the fence for him, he passes over a solid crop of seasoned, ready-to-go running mates as the Republican Party decides it has to go as far west as Alaska to find a young, cute, cuddly western governor who also happens to be a gun nut (yes, having video taken of you firing assault rifles makes you a gun nut), a moose hunter, someone taking an active interest in the untimely demise of polar bears, and an evangelical pro-life mom of five kids who somehow has the time now to be the Vice President. Heck, if she’s so pro-life and pro-family, tell me who is going to be raising her boys and girls while she’s attending cabinet meetings and her husband is running around the Yukon in snowmobile races? This woman is the conservative Republicans think McCain needs? Jesus, does a double-wide come with this?
However popular Gov. Palin may be in Alaska, despite being under investigation (which seems to be a rite of passage for most G.O.P. politicians these days anyway) for using state employees to settle petty family disputes, the reality is she’s so far to the right she makes George W. Bush look like a liberal. The decision is just so crassly, transparently political.
I have nothing against someone who eats buffalo burgers (I had one the other day) or who owns firearms, but I do have problems with gun nuts and folks who are trying hasten the extinction of polar bears, and as much of a reformer as she claims to be, she’s every bit an oil person as Bush, she’s just clearing the old guard out of the way in Alaska for her and her dumb husband who spends his time running dogs to death in the Iditarod while no doubt leaving a trail of beer cans across the Alaskan interior.
Either McCain really thinks women and Hillary supporters are so stupid they’ll vote for this gal just because she’s a woman ~ never mind that her positions are anathema to Hillary Clinton ~ or he’s just not afraid to insult people’s intelligence (to his credit, it’s worked before in this country), or he can’t tell because he’s become too elderly. Maybe he’s publicly looking to trade up in the wife department.
A V.P. choice generally doesn’t have a HUGE effect on the outcome of the election, but it shouldn’t get in the way. Whoever picked Palin, whether it was really McCain or party operatives who forced the decision on him, they failed the one, single most important criteria for choosing a Vice Presidential running mate: someone who can immediately step in and take over as President should something happen to the Commander In Chief. It’s the first presidential decision a candidate has to make, and it’s not something you fool around with. McCain just flunked it. So much for his good judgement.
As much as I despise Dick Cheney, he’s clearly competent even when his Darth Vader tendencies get in the way, and if something happened to W there’s no doubt in my mind he would adequately be able to handle being President, provided his heart was able to handle the surprise (the martial law would come later). Lots of folks weren’t nuts about Al Gore being in the V.P.’s office in the 1990s, but even Clinton detractors knew if something happened to the President, Gore could’ve likewise stepped in and not immediately run the ship into a floating iceberg (no doubt having calved off the melting Arctic ice shelf).
In the event something happens to the President, the business of the Executive Branch needs to be able to continue with at least someone competent who could ask the right questions from Day One at the helm. The same holds true for other competent, if not always brilliant V.P.s, some of whom became or ran for President themselves, like George H.W. Bush, Walter Mondale, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, Hubert Humphrey, LBJ, Richard Nixon, and some guy named Harry Truman who had to wrap up a little something called World War II (although, in all truthiness, Truman was thought of as something of a lightweight when FDR named him to the ticket in 1944).
In a tragic situation like JFK’s assassination, you had at least a competent official like LBJ able to step in and take over the business of the executive branch. What’s Gov. Palin going to do if something happens to McCain? Pose for another round of Glamour Shots and ask for help finding the Ukraine on the map? My God, Obama has lived overseas and spent time from Asia to Africa in addition to the U.S. Has Sarah Palin ever been out of the country before? (the ski trip to Whistler doesn’t count)
The selection of Gov. Palin, however much of a cute V.P.I.L.F. she may me, proves the Republicans remain curiously obsessed with Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, and somehow think putting a female western governor on the ticket with McCain will entice Hillary supporters without anyone noticing the litany of concerns about her hysterically far-right positions, which include all the sexy G.O.P. fundamentals from the Bush years you’d think they’d be screaming to get away from by now, like an eagerness to drill in ANWR, the aforementioned gun nut concern, pro-life positions, clear-conscience ability to allow hunting of polar bears and Alaskan gray wolves from f—ing helicopters, etc. Plus, as I like to say, John McCain isn’t getting any younger.
Obama has proved he’s ready to lead and has made it a point to display his ability to listen and make good judgements, ergo working class Delaware Senator and foreign policy whiz Joe Biden as his running mate. Is Sarah Palin really ready to take over the helm of the United States during a time of war and economic fluctuation? Hillary Clinton would’ve been, but you know what, it’s not because she doesn’t have a Y chromosome. Doesn’t the Republican party brass know this?
Even a guy on Sean Hannity’s (!!) website wrote, “Scary Scenario: Like [William Henry] Harrison, McCain dies 30 days into office as the newly elected President. We then turn to a 44-year old mother of five and say, “We are at war in Iraq [and Afghanistan]. Iran threatens. Russia will test you. China will test you. North Korea will test you. The economy is in crisis. Use your degree in journalism and the two years you served as Governor of Alaska (which is akin to serving as the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee ~ except that Memphis has a larger population) and lead us through the trials we now face. Despite the fact you have a son in Iraq and an infant to care for at home and the task before you may seem overwhelming, you cannot falter, you must not let emotion overcome you, you must guide and protect the citizens of this nation. How can conservatives criticize Obama for his lack of substance and yet applaud the Palin pick as brilliant?”
If you’re a G.O.P. bigwig who’s been a little on the fence about McCain, would you be writing a check in support of this ticket, especially after qualified guys like Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, or qualified women like Kay Bailey Hutchinson were passed over? All of whom could’ve brought much of the same crowd McCain and the G.O.P. are hoping to get with Palin, plus the Republicans would’ve passed the one most important test that’s required when selecting a running mate: someone who can effectively and competently step in as President in case something happens to the Chief Executive. How hard are valuable G.O.P. allies like Gov. Pawlenty or Mitt Romney going to work for McCain now that they’ve been vetted and led around for the last two months and passed over for someone who’s only been Governor since We Are Marshall and Apocalypto were in theaters?
Wikipedia lists a litany of concerns about Gov. Palin from well-known conservative columnists and opinion-makers. Granted, the voters McCain/Palin 2008 may be chasing at this point may not read these guys or know who they are, but faultlines are appearing in the G.O.P., and my guess is more Republicans will now cross the line to vote for Obama. Even the always annoying blowhard Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post, “The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama’s inexperience and readiness to lead. To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful ‘Is he ready to lead’ line of attack seems near suicidal.” in The National Review, David Frum writes “The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?” Even in Palin’s native Alaska, in the city where she opted to be inaugurated in over the capital Juneau, the local Fairbanks Daily News-Miner published a staff editorial saying Palin “is not ready for the top job.” My goodness, this is a sitcom scenario waiting to happen!
Two guys I know who are both political moderates were waiting to see who McCain picked for his running mate. Both are now happily voting for Obama, and one of them is angry and feels betrayed and what he sees as purely political machinations behind what was an important decision for McCain. As a Hillary supporter and then a McCain supporter, he feels his intelligence has been insulted. He thought he was backing the 2000 version of John McCain. But the real John McCain wants to be President too much, and will clearly say or do whatever he needs to in order to get there, with the help of a former Karl Rove lieutenant leading him by the nose.
If you remove McCain’s hyperbole over the last month and Obama’s oratory skills, these guys have nearly the same positions, but there’s one difference: I trust one’s judgement more, and it’s not the guy who’s a known hothead who married into Budweiser dinero after he dumped his first wife who waited six years for him to get out of the Hanoi Hilton in 1973. Hmm, no wonder the G.O.P. felt they had to get a “values” candidate.
McCain’s “tried and true” judgement? Either way it’s disturbing. If he picked Gov. Palin, what does that say for his judgement, unless he’s publicly shopping for wife number three. If the party chose Palin for McCain, what else are they going to put on McCain’s plate, or in his mouth? He’s already a long, sad way from the John McCain of 2000.
The Economist said it best this week. To paraphrase, “we want the old McCain back.”
I have a feeling Republicans are going to be waking up on November 5th stunned at the breadth of their loss.
Oh, and for a final insult, check out this obnoxious clip of Glenn Beck (!!) interviewing Gov. Palin a few weeks ago. Glenn Beck is one of two guys I would punch right in the nose with zero provocation if I ever saw him (yep, the other is Sean Hannity).

I didn’t say she wasn’t cute.