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6 things the Palin pick says about McCain


The selection of a running mate is among the most consequential, most defining decisions a presidential nominee can make. John McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says a lot about his decison-making — and some of it is downright breathtaking.


We knew McCain is a politician who relishes improvisation, and likes to go with his gut. But it is remarkable that someone who has repeatedly emphasized experience in this campaign named an inexperienced governor he barely knew to be his No. 2. Whatever you think of the pick, here are six things it tells us about McCain:


1. He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters — and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election — and very sick of the Bush years.


2. He’s willing to gamble — bigtime. Let’s face it: This is not the pick of a self-confident candidate. It is the political equivalent of a trick play or, as some Democrats called it, a Hail Mary pass in football. McCain talks incessantly about experience, and then goes and selects a woman he hardly knows, who hardly knows foreign policy and who can hardly be seen as instantly ready for the presidency.


3. He’s worried about the political implications of his age. Like a driver overcorrecting out of a swerve, he chooses someone who is two years younger than the youthful Obama, and 28 years younger than he is. (He turned 72 Friday.) The father-daughter comparison was inevitable when they appeared next to each other.


4. He’s not worried about the actuarial implications of his age. He thinks he’s in fine fettle, and Palin wouldn’t be performing the only constitutional duty of a vice president, which is standing by in case a president dies or becomes incapacitated. If he was really concerned about an inexperienced person sitting in the Oval Office we would be writing about vice presidential nominee Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge or Condoleezza Rice.


5. He’s worried about his conservative base. If he had room to maneuver, there were lots of people McCain could have selected who would have represented a break from Washington politics as usual. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman comes to mind (and it certainly came to McCain’s throughout the process). He had no such room. GOP stalwarts were furious over trial balloons about the possibility of choosing a supporter of abortion rights, including the possibility that he would reach out to his friend.


6. At the end of the day, McCain is still McCain. People may find him a refreshing maverick, or an erratic egotist. In either event, he marches to his own beat.

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Full source article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/12997

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It took three people to write that article.

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I havent seen it.

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I know. But that's okay. Obama will heal your vision, just as soon as he comes back from his stroll across Lake Michigan.

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I havent seen it.

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I know. But that's okay. Obama will heal your vision, just as soon as he comes back from his stroll across Lake Michigan.

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illiterate much?

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A senior McCain source said Saturday that officials are considering turning the convention into a service event, a massive telethon to raise money for the Red Cross and other agencies to help with the hurricane.

Republican Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Charlie Crist of Florida, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Rick Perry of Texas -- whose states that lie in the path of Gustav, named a Category 4 hurricane Saturday afternoon -- will skip the GOP convention because of the storm.

Officials won't discuss in detail how McCain's plans might change. They won't talk about McCain in any detail, but he is likely to go Monday or Tuesday to an aid station in an area hit by the hurricane, if it continues on as expected.

Earlier Saturday, President Bush declared a state of emergency in Mississippi, following similar declarations in Louisiana and Texas.

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IMAGINE that...if the Republican Convention had to benefit...ch...ch...CHARITY!

Southern Coast residents will soon get an up-close and personal look at what John McCain's offshore drilling platform plan means:

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I havent seen it.

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I know. But that's okay. Obama will heal your vision, just as soon as he comes back from his stroll across Lake Michigan.

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.
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on another election note, i was talking with my mother the other day (cringe) and she asked me if, since she has relocated to another county (i kicked her out of the condo i bought her for mother's day 2000 and now she's living at my grandma's house), does she have to register to vote there? i told her no, she's all set. so one less ohio vote for obama, yay.

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Why not just sit this one out.

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oh God....he is back.......but at least talking something of substance.....

he is not the messiah.....he is a politician.......politicians make choices which benefit himself....

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You know all this "Obama is the Messiah" bullshit is just frustration because you don't want to consider him because he is black.

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I take it you missed it above where I plugged Harold Ford Jr. not once, but twice. Consider this a third plug.

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Sorry I don't drink from the Barak koolaid.....but that doesn't mean i drink the McCain martini either. ..

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what do you guys think about the rumor that governor palin's recent pregnancy was faked and was, in fact, a cover story for her eldest daughter's teen pregnancy?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223

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I'm not a big conspiracy buff fan, but the more I hear about her 44 year old pregnancy and Down's Syndrome kid, either I think its a conspiracy or she has some of the worst judgment a mother can possibly have.

Either way its equally shocking.

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Schools can best be reformed at the state and district level....NOT WASHINGTON....

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Tri......

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my hopes of a few Supreme Court Justices who will protect the 1st and 2nd Amendment's being appointed in the next 4 years went down the drain.

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Okay, I understand the argument about the First Amendment, though I don't necessarily buy it. But the Second?

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Palin's 17 year old daughter is knocked up,

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Okay, I understand the argument about the First Amendment, though I don't necessarily buy it. But the Second?

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A candidate questionnaire shows that Mr. Obama supported a ban on handguns in 1996. In 1998, he backed a ban on the sale of all semiautomatic guns (a ban that would encompass the vast majority of guns sold in the U.S.) In 2004, he advocated banning gun sales within five miles of a school or park (essentially a ban on all guns sold in almost all the states). Possibly, even more importantly, he served on the board of the Joyce Foundation, probably the largest private funder of anti-gun and pro-ban groups and research in the country.

The Obama campaign “flatly denied” the 1996 statement supporting a ban on handguns, blaming it instead on a staffer from his state senate race who they said had incorrectly filled out the candidate questionnaire. But the Politico obtained a copy of the statement and found Mr. Obama’s own handwritten notes on it indicating that he had personally checked and corrected answers.

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because he clearly has no idea what he's talking about or he believes everything he reads on the kos and nytimes.

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Well, Here's one article in the NY Times I'm happy to believe:

U.S. Hands Back a Quieter Anbar

RAMADI, Iraq — Two years ago, Anbar Province was the most lethal place for the Americans in Iraq, with a marine or a soldier dying here nearly every day. The provincial capital, Ramadi, was a moonscape of rubble and ruins. Islamic extremists controlled large pieces of territory, with some so ferocious in their personal views that they did not even allow the sale of bread.

On Monday, following a parade on a freshly paved street, American commanders formally returned responsibility for keeping order in Anbar Province, once the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, to the Iraqi Army and police force. The ceremony capped one of the starkest turnabouts in the country since the war began five and a half years ago.

In the past two years, the number of insurgent attacks against Iraqis and Americans in Anbar Province has dropped by more than 90 percent. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is led by foreigners, has been severely degraded, if not crushed altogether. Since February, as the situation improved, American commanders have cut the number of marines and soldiers here by more than a third, they said.

The transfer of authority codified a transformation that Iraqi and American officers say has been in effect since April: the Iraqi Army and the police operate independently and retain primary responsibility for battling the insurgency and crime in Anbar. The Americans, who had long done the bulk of the fighting, have stepped into a backup role. With the transfer on Monday, Iraq now bears the primary responsibility for maintaining security in 11 of its 18 provinces.


Full Article

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Of course, the adventures of an Alaskan Teenager are far more important than something as trivial as stabilizing Iraq and redeploying the troops without our tails between our legs.

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Triton, you are getting closer and closer to this with your tired campaigning for Obama.

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That's wonderful, seriously, but it should have been happening in month 5, not year 5!

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Triton, you are getting closer and closer to this with your tired campaigning for Obama.

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hey lets be supportive he listened to all of us and is trying to find new hobbies..

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Sigh, I guess you have a point...

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Should have? Hell, we shouldn't have gone in there in the first place. It was a strategic blunder of the highest magnitude, forget all the tactical blunders that kept us there all this additional time.

Having said that, though, passively hoping for our defeat to prove it was the wrong decision for political points is as disgusting as hoping for a hurricane to kill scores and uproot thousands just to disrupt the other party's convention.* I should think, as an old Navy hand, you of all people would get that.

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Having said that, though, passively hoping for our defeat to prove it was the wrong decision for political points is as disgusting as hoping for a hurricane to kill scores and uproot thousands just to disrupt the other party's convention.* I should think, as an old Navy hand, you of all people would get that.

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^^^ October 16th, 2002 - H.J. Resolution 114; Military engagements authorized by Congress.

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Soldiers know how to fight wars, politicians don't.

The "Surge" should have happened when war was first declared, not years later. It's the Vietnam political mentality all over again.

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