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Friday, August 29, 2008

So now we will see what the Hillarions are made of
Posted by Jill | 10:46 AM
The buzz as of now is that Alaska governor Sarah Palin is John McCain's pick for a running mate, and now we will see just how important it is to the Hillarions to have a Vagina-American on a presidential ticket.

The available Republican field was about as lame a group as you're likely to find anywhere, but the selection of Palin is a deeply cynical one. Camp Grandpa Simpson has made it very clear that popularity and breaking ground and inexperience on the national stage are liabilities, and yet here they are, plucking the governor of Alaska to be just a few of McCain's deteriorating brain cells away from the presidency.

Certainly Palin is a better choice for McCain than the robotic Mitt Romney, or the excreble Tim Pawlenty, who were the most frequently bandied-about names. She's attractive in that bandbox Republican sort of way, and she's not known as a doctrinaire wingnut, though she strongly believes that women should not have control over their own reproductive destiny, she's suing the federal government to have polar bears removed from the threatened species list, and she's A-OK with the NRA. At 44, she removes the "too young" meme from consideration (though the IOKIYAR rule no doubt still applies).

Palin has a child with Downs Syndrome, which is going to make for much holier-than-thou proclamations about Democrats and abortion (though pro-choice people would applaud her decision to carry her pregnancy BECAUSE we believe that choice is just that -- choice). The other edge of that particular sword is the possibility that the family values crowd will question her priority in running for the vice-presidency when she has a special needs child at home.

Overall, I think this selection has as much benefit as it does peril for Obama, because it means no hay can be made about identity politics, about age, or about levels of experience. So the end result is this: Do you want real change or not? If you want theocrats having a large say in government, if you want more cash shoveled into the pockets of corporations, if you want endless war, if you want women's bodies to be the property of the government, if you don't value your privacy, vote John McCain. Otherwise, Barack Obama is still your guy.

UPDATE: Well, well, well. Isn't this special. Looks like Ms. Palin has a little "Troopergate" problem:




The above comes to us via Josh Marshall, who weighs in on the larger implications of the Palin nod that are worth considering even if you think using political power to wash your family laundry is perfectly OK:
Next, John McCain's central and best argument in this campaign is that Barack Obama simply lacks the experience to be President of the United States. And now John McCain, who is a cancer survivor who turns 72 years old today, is picking a vice presidential nominee who has been governor of a small state for less than two years and prior to that was mayor of a town with roughly one-twenty-seventh of the constituents that Barack Obama represented when he was a state senator in Illinois.

Whatever you think of Barack Obama's qualifications to be President, Palin is manifestly less qualified. And that undermines the central premise of McCain's campaign.

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7 Comments:
Blogger Distributorcap said...
she also believes in creationism and doesnt know what the VP does.

i can only imagine the debate with Biden on foreign affairs

this is the hail mary pass. i think they dropped it
8/29/08, 11:34 AM  
Blogger PridePress said...
I do too!

This is great news for the Dems. I think that she looks great on paper, but they are underestimating how little of the 48 contiguous states GOP base will vote for a woman who once tried to win a swim suit competition!

She is toast...Any sympathy votes won't help.
8/29/08, 12:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
How long before McCain refers to her as "the c**t who's my running mate"?
8/29/08, 1:21 PM  
Blogger adam k. said...
Well, I am a bit worried. After Biden was picked, I thought the ONLY thing McCain could really do to change the game is pick a woman. Failing that, he had nothing left.

Then after last night, I thought, "that's it. This is done. The momentum can't be stopped." And now, not so much. The momentum just stopped in its track.

I think McCain basically went from having no chance, i.e. being left to die a slow electoral death over the next two months, to having a chance, albeit a small one via a crazy hail mary pass. It COULD still backfire and blow up in his face. But McCain did what he had to do: he changed the dynamic. We'll see how it all works out...
8/29/08, 1:27 PM  
Blogger Bob said...
I think she's a terrific gamble for McCain. It's possible Palin's not quite seasoned for a rough national contest, but she's also proven she's the sort of politician one should not underestimate. What happens when the novelty wears off, I don't know. But this is a short general campaign - two months.
8/29/08, 1:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Local Alaskan tv report nails Palin lying about firing scandal. What was McCain thinking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UojMnCgqVA
8/29/08, 4:42 PM  
Blogger Fran said...
Ooooh Dcap is right... Palin vs. Biden in a debate?

Plus- what would happen if McCain were to kick in office and she became the president?

Mind-fucking-boggling!
8/29/08, 7:27 PM  
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