Yikes! After Barack Obama's safe and predictable pick of Joe Biden, everyone's been expecting John McCain to do the same with Mitt Romney or Tim Whatshisname. Give the old man credit for being bold and unpredictable:
DENVER - John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate on Friday in a startling selection on the eve of the Republican National Convention
Two senior campaign officials disclosed Mccain's decision a few hours before the Republican presidential nominee-to-be and his newly-minted running mate appeared at a rally in swing-state Ohio.
Palin is a self-styled hockey mom and political reformer who has been governor of her state less than two years.
Palin's selection shocked numerous Republican officials.
Shocked? I guess. Don't know how much this changes my thinking about the election, but at least he picked someone who can reinforce his most libertarian insticnts instead of his most maverick (i,e., liberal) ones. Now, let's hear more about that ethics complaint she's being investigated for.
UPDATE: Here's some stuff on her from Wikipedia, including:
The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family would regularly run 5k and 10k races.
Comments
McCain's right. Obama really is too inexperienced -- at winning beauty pageants.
Libertarian? She pushed through government assistance in building a pipeline and wanted to give away tax money for people to spend on bills from energy companies.
Doug: She's also vetoed spending and spoken against earmarks (an Alaskan!). I expect we'll all be examining the record in the next few weeks for all the details we can find. Alex: She can probably give him a run on the basketball court, too.
Palin v. Obama one-on-one for the White House!
Doug
When did Governor Palin get elevated to presidential candidate? Barry ran against Hillary, you know the broad who wears pants.
Now he runs against McCain. In evaluating Palin vs Obama, I would say that the Dems might win if she were their presidential candidate. At least she has a record of accomplishments ...and she wears skirts.
Yes she does, gadfly...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2351/1903451448_635a36aed2_o.jpg
I caught the news around noon and saw a very good interview with Palin that C-SPAN is rerunning from February, and then an hour interview with Maria Bartaromo that CNBC is now running. This lady is as smart, tough and well-spoken as she is nice. Not only that, she has an 80%=plus approval rating among her Alaskan constituents after having pushed through an entire program of ethical reforms in state government to repair the damage done by the old boys network that preceded her in the statehouse. I'm delighted with her candidacy. She has extinquished my lukewarm feelings about this slate of candidates and provided
Hey! It posted before I said so!
To finish the thought, Gov. Sarah Palin, now that I've looked at her credentials, has provided a decisive impetus for me vote for the McCain-Palin team.
Frankly, what excites me the most is that thanks to various unexpected pressures on both party establishments we've finally seen the breakthrough of fresh and youthful talent choices. we've been bemoaning the lack of any new talent for a long time. The old-guard party cronies seemed to own the US government the way gangs enslave neighborhoods.
Hey! It posted before I said so!
To finish the thought, Gov. Sarah Palin, now that I've listened to her views, has provided me with a decisive impetus to vote enthusiastically for the McCain-Palin team.
Frankly, what excites me the most is that thanks to various unwelcome pressures on both party establishments, we've finally seen the breakthrough of the fresh and youthful talent we've been starved for.
The parties' backroom emperors have owned the US government the way gangs enslave neighborhoods and a lot of us have been tired and disheartened by the same old choices between evis and lesser evil.
So now we have to get used to what fresh young talent looks like -- fresh faces will have less experience, sure, but they come with bagfuls of new ideas, can-do attitude, willingness to say no to fossilized party bosses. You may add your own favorite benefits -- the list is bound to be long.
But mainly, these new wild card candidates are shaking the biggest barrier of all in our current political business-as-usual, and that is entrenched party leaders' self-important assertion of a "seniority list" for high office -- that in each election cycle it's somebody's "turn" to be the party's candidate for this or that.
When Obama became a serious threat to Hillary, though, Ted Kennedy leaned over and swallowed him alive like Jabba the Hutt snacking on yet another puny creatures.
Sarah Palin, on the other hand, joins a ticket formerly mistrusted by the party bosses; she has come up fast, showing an outstanding aptitude for effective public service, and has already taken effective action on a dizzying range of state issues in just a year and a half as governor, including the broad package of ethical reforms she was elected to tackle in the wake of the previous administration's deeply corrupt methods.
I don't see Palin getting gobbled up. She is a conservative American leader who has already fought the big oil companies (in her oil-rich state!) and pushed back to high-ranking politicians -- with great success in getting things done both for her Alaskans and for the nation.