First, Kay Bailey Hutchinson:
[She doesn’t] know much about the Alaska governor
Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s always good to let your surrogates know who you’re planning on picking – you know, just in case they go on national TV and are asked to talk about it. And this:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) used the announcement of his vice-presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to blast the experience of his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), arguing that Sen. Obama has never been the mayor of a 5,000-person town.
“The Presidency of the United States of America is the toughest job on the planet,” Sen. McCain said. “And my friends, the best testing ground for that job is being the mayor of a 5,000-person town in Alaska.”
We know she is a lifetime member of the NRA, she is anti-choice, and hunts and fishes. Oh, and also that she’s been under invwestigation for firing a commissioner that wouldn’t do what she wanted.
…which grew out of allegations she sacked Monegan for refusing to fire her former brother-in-law from the state police.
Palin acknowledged that a member of her staff made a call to a trooper in which the staffer suggested he was speaking for the governor.
Palin has admitted that the call could be interpreted as pressure to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who was locked in a child-custody battle with Palin’s sister.
“As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?”
Finally, we also know that John McCain was a POW.
Fun!
Update: More fun!!
Stooleo
Amazingly this is a pro Palin website. Nice name eh. The stupid burns.
dmsilev
Really gets to the difference between the two candidates, doesn’t it?
Obama picks a guy who everyone acknowledges is qualified to do the job if something happens. He’s also someone who will help with the campaign, of course, but no-one (sane) doubts his ability and knowledge.
McCain picks someone who has a resume so thin that surrogates are bringing up her PTA experience and that time she ran for student council in high school. He does this as an electoral ploy, to try to attract a segment of swing voters. Being able to distract attention from Obama’s speech yesterday is also a plus. Her actual ability to run the country if something happens to McCain is undetermined, to put it kindly.
I think I prefer the guy with the long-term view over the guy who makes major decisions with an eye towards winning each day’s news cycle.
-dms
Alan
And the best part, she’s fired up the Terry Schiavo wing of the GOP. Whoo hoo.
Davebo
In other words, more wilderness welfare.
Alaska already receives the largest per capita amount of federal dollars.
Alaska has the best deal on oil and mineral revenues off federal land receiving 90% when all other states only get 50%.
It’s ironic really that those famously anti federal dole Republicans think Alaskans are fiercely independent when nothing could be further from the truth.
Alan
This may be a good time to pick up the DVD set of Twin Peaks so we can be reminded of just how wholesome her neck of the woods is.
TR
Wait, wait, wait.
John McCain was a POW? Why hasn’t he mentioned it?
Mylegacy
OK – K.I.S.S.!
On the Economy, Women’s Rights, The War(s) and the Future – Obama vs McCain for President – Barack in a walk!
On the Economy, Women’s Rights (she’s not pro-choice or equal wage for equal work), The War(s) and the Future (Think what would happen if McCain dies in office and she has her finger on the button!) – Biden vs Palin for Vice President – Joe in a walk!
boonagain
Pale and Palin 2008
or
Ailin’ and Palin
(gleaned from Huffpo)
Joshua
…
That Borowitz link is satire, right? Or is this an attack of Poe’s Law?
liberal
davebo wrote,
Yeah, that’s BS.
Wayne
Cool.
The borowitzreport.com site gives The Onion a run.
KRK
An Anchorage Daily News editorial on Palin from August 17:
“Palin can’t seem to admit she erred.”
Sound like anyone we know? As Jed said: A fresh face on more of the same.
Dan
CNN/Wolfie has Douchebag Beck on now. Puke. Has Cafferty been cast into the wilderness for not following the corporate line??
anne
This pick is very short sighted no matter how you spin it. I almost can’t believe it’s true. Sounds like something from SNL.
aarrgghh
it all makes sense if you pretend we’re watching the ominous beginning of some lucille ball screwball comedy: mcworse wins, drops dead after taking the oath. hello, madame preznit! cue laughtrack.
jaime
Palin doesn’t know what her job as VP would be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtilB1teksc
Notorious P.A.T.
Sure does: the Republicans care only about getting elected, and staying there. The Democrats are more interested in actually governing well.
I have to admit, though. . .
Keith
As far-fetched a sound bite as it is, it’s not too far off from “she’s got the executive experience that Barack Obama doesn’t” where I just scratch my head and go “so basically, *any* experience being someone’s boss – with the exception of being the boss of congressional aides – is better preparation for POTUS than being a Senator?”
b-psycho
It’s a pity she didn’t get a nod a couple cycles ago, otherwise Tina Fey could’ve played her on SNL.
Wayne
Hey now, I liked Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccy.
KRK
Hey! Twin Peaks is a fictional town in Washington, not Alaska! Our neck of the woods is nowhere near* their neck of the woods.
*Seattle to Juneau is 891 miles.
Seattle to Wasilla is 1480 miles.
Tsulagi
Neither has McCain. So is he saying she should be the top of their ticket?
RoonieRoo
Twin Peaks? Huh? I thought that was in Washington state not Alaska?
zzyzx
I think we’re being overconfident. Barring some gaffes, I think this does help McCain more than it hurts him. It fires up his base and does make the ticket more interesting.
Fortunately I don’t think that the VP decision is as important as we make it out to be.
There are two things that give me some comfort though. George Bush approved of the decision which ties McCain back to him. Also this makes the 2012 Clinton decision non-operative (either Obama will be President or the odds are that a sitting female VP will be running) which means that she’s likely to go on the attack now.
Yes though I’m nervous not only because it increases McCain’s odds, but the recklessness in how he made this decision scares me about how he would run the government.
Johnny Pez
I’m pretty sure Michael Palin doesn’t meet the constitutional requirements to be Vice President.
What? Who?
Oh, never mind.
Glyph_2112
Why did she keep clapping into the microphone? She really didn’t come off as impressive or presidential. Have the republicans so lowered the bar that they feel pretty much anyone can do the job?
I checked in at Hot air and some commenters seem to think this is now a slam dunk for McCain. We are totally screwed if people vote on a haircut.
carsick
The second clip that included:
“The Presidency of the United States of America is the toughest job on the planet,” Sen. McCain said. “And my friends, the best testing ground for that job is being the mayor of a 5,000-person town in Alaska.”
That’s from The Onion right? If not, he’s just messin’ with us now.
When a candidate chooses his VP it’s usually thought of as their first presidential decision. McCain must want to be “The Joker.”
Gerald Curl
Stow away in secret bunkers while doing the patented Ernest Borgnine Longevity Exercises?
syl
All in all, I think McCain would have been better off going with Johnny Gentile.
Zifnab
*falls out of chair*
How is that not an onion article?
Sasha
Any chance this is a double head-fake? Namely, that Palin was picked today to stop Obamamentum from last night and that soon she’ll conveniently and regretfully discover that for personal reasons she’ll have to decline the VP slot?
Just wonderin’.
Dan
This is a great way for Barack to look like a big defender of Hillary Clinton. “The choice of Palin to appeal to women insults the many women who worked hard and supported a woman with great experience and insults Hillary Clinton herself.”
He can be pro-woman and anti-Palin all at once.
Catpain Haddock
I find her kind of hot in that MILF sort of way. But as a VP choice it just boggles the mind.
It will be fun watching the entire right wing establishment pretend that (a) experience does not matter and (b) Obama does not have enough experience. Though, it will be less fun watching CNN, MSNBC, etc. do the same…
Dreggas
Rudy Giuliani is turning red right now, not in a good way.
NonWonderDog
I don’t think “middle America” will vote for a woman who says “nukular” with a Yukon accent. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s not nearly as down-homey as “nukular” with a faux-Texan accent.
But seriously, some Republican hack on MSNBC said that Palin has the “executive experience” that Obama lacks, and then cited her PTA leadership to back that up. In their minds, PTA leader counts more than being editor of the Harvard Law Review and teaching constitutional law at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I kind of hope they keep saying this, but only with the hope that someone will call them on it (unlikely).
I still can’t figure out what’s so “remarkable” about her life story other than the fact that she was picked as VP without any relevant skills or experience whatsoever, though. (Why can’t one of the talking heads ask “what part of it is so remarkable” when they go off on this?) Is it having five kids, one with Down’s Syndrome? Is it the fact that she has kids and is a governor at the same time? (Is that still remarkable if she has a nanny?)
dewberry
Y’all are so mean.
I hope this is an end to those “Country First” ads because no way can you spin this as putting the needs of the country before political considerations. But I look forward to oodles of amazing asshattery as people try.
Brian
“Finally, we also know that John McCain was a POW.”
Absolutely priceless. This is snark at its finest.
Seriously though, I used to think that this was a worrisome pick because I’m not sure we’d go after her. But now it’s becoming clear: we mock her in a high-minded way by overwhelming her with questions and information it doesn’t look like she’s going to be able to handle. Obama and Biden need to start talking about the wonkiest foreign policy issues out there, because she’s going to look like a lightweight. They need to make it clear that she may be a nice person, but unless she demonstrates some sort of hidden knowledge of not necessarily the solutions but the very issues facing the country, she’s not ready. As I said on another blog, merely running for president forces you to consider the problems facing the country, regardless of whether you have the “experience” that many consider an asset. We have no evidence that she’s done that.
Of course Biden needs to watch himself in the debate so he doesn’t come across as a jerk like Rick Lazio did versus Hillary Clinton in 2000. But this goes without saying. And say what you want about Biden and Obama, but they aren’t idiots. You can bet that this will be the central focus of their debate preparation. After all, it looks like the one thing that could possibly go wrong.
ksmiami
As a woman, can I just say that this is just fucking token bullshit and she is probably the worst VP pick ever
Dreggas
Nah, for that the press would eat him alive. As is she faces possible impeachment in Alaska over Troopergate. If she resigned there’d be too much blood in the water for even the Press to ignore. As is they are smelling blood over the response to Obama’s speech and the fact that apparently Pawlenty and Romney are feeling like they were played for suckers.
mark
FWIW, NPR just had a piece about how someone buffed up Palin’s Wikipedia entry 24 hours before the announcement.
Dreggas
It’s been said elsewhere McCain/Vagina ’08 or McGina ’08
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Matthews just had on the skank from PUMA, Darragh Murphy, Susan Molinari and Michelle Bernard to talk about whether women would be impressed and consider Palin. All three of those women are either viciously anti-Obama or Republicans. Is it so difficult to find a liberal woman to participate in the panel?
McCain is shrewd in that by selecting Palin the press will remain sharply focused on the “split” between Obama and the Clintons.
(Yes, Michelle Bernard is a Republican)
nightjar
Here is another perspective. She lies like a drunken wingnut. Absolutely a genuine Republican.
HumboldtBlue
Wasserman-Schulz gos to town on our Northern Lite …
href=”http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Wasserman_Schultz_McCain_VP_pick_shows_0829.html”>
Alan
Yes, yes, I know ….I should have picked the show Northern Exposure. But I love that the boon-dock town of Twin Peaks supposedly had a population of 51,201 as opposed to Palin’s ~8000.
Sully has a pic on his site of the a local tavern from Palin’s hometown called the Mug-Shot Saloon. It looks like it could be the tavern from Twin Peaks. :)
Brian
“…teaching constitutional law at the University of Illinois at Chicago.”
No offense to UIC, if it has a law school, but that and the University of Chicago are in different leagues. The University of Chicago is widely regarded as one of the finest schools on the planet, the place that has scarily intelligent students and professors. It’s the sort of place where students supposedly protested when they tried to shut the library down on Saturday nights.
cleek
of course, nobody needs executive experience to be a VP, since it’s a position with next to no actual executive power.
like McCain would rely on her for info on how to handle personnel and inter-department matters? he’s going to look to her on how to enforce the law? gimme a fucking break.
it’s an elected adviser role at best, utterly ceremonial, at the other extreme.
Delia
In other wingnut news, over at NoIQ, Larry and Susan are both swooning over the wisdom of St. McCain in selecting Palin. You know how to find them if you want to feel nauseated.
Dave_Violence
Plus: She’s very cute in a glasses-wearing chick sort of way.
Minus: I’m 11 months older than her. Damn…
I am reminded of a Robert A. Heinlein short story about the first woman president – who also was the first African-American president, who got there by being the Vice-president.
Far freaking out, man.
myiq2xu
I thought I would drop by and see how the He-Man Woman Haters Club was reacting.
P-R-E-D-I-C-T-A-B-L-E
cleek
not sure we need to go there. it’s kind of what McCain’s hoping for.
Davis X. Machina
One of the things about 2000 that has always rankled me is the fact that those who saw the debates had Gore winning, roughly 60-40, but those who only watched the coverage of the debates had Bush winning by the same spread. (It was Pew, or Annenberg, who did the study, IIRC). Same thing on a smaller scale with the Wellstone memorial service.
Well, 38 million people saw Obama speak last night. And granted there was a lot of discussion then, the speech has been pushed off the front pages by McCain’s roll of the dice.
My first thought was that McCain stepped on the speech pretty thoroughly.
My second thought is rather different.
Folks saw what they saw last night. But to a remarkable extent — without recent precedent — they have not also been told what they saw last night. The tellers had by the moved on to a different story.
And as a result the speech, and the images, that people took away from last night have a better chance of being the images they remember, and not the ones they’ve been told to remember. And boy howdy, that was one to remember.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all, somehow.
nightjar
And MylowIq drops by to be stupid. Now that’s predictable!
Yukoner
I don’t think “middle America” will vote for a woman who says “nukular” with a Yukon accent.
A Yukon accent?!?
No, sorry, that’s not the way we talk here.
Tsulagi
Like the update vid. Hopefully someone has told her what a VP does so she can match it up with her experience gained from mayoring a block of ice. Guess, though, she’d be prepared if we had a foreign policy crisis with some burg in Iceland.
I think the maverickyness and buzz of this pick is going to wear off sooner rather than later. After about 30 seconds, I had about the same thought as even this guy at NRO…
Puts his age back on the table. And if by chance McCain wins, hopefully someone will clue Palin in on what a president does just in case Straight Talker face plants while sipping his cappuccino.
Zifnab
They did that at UT as well. I know this may come as a shock to you, but when exams start rolling around, the library becomes a whole lot more popular than you’d think.
MazeDancer
She’s a beauty queen trojan horse for drilling.
CNBC Closing Bell ran an interview with her today. Palin is charming, direct, appealling, makes drilling in ANWR seem like nothing. Easy. Because Alaskans would never hurt the environment. Gosh, gee, we’ve got it, it’s American, there’s no problems, why aren’t we drilling now….
She’s bold. Very. Says stuff like “We’ll be in a world of hurt” if Joe Biden hasn’t changed his 30 year old position on the Alaskan pipeline.
“Drill, Drill, Drill,” she espouses. She’s going to have NASCAR thrilled.
No video up yet. This is the promo for it. But it’s the seeing her that matters.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26458144?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS
eglenn
I keep hearing Edie McClurg when Palin talks.
“Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads – they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude. “
PeterJ
From the well of wisdom that is myiq0.8xu:
Except for the 38 million who watched the speech…
And I’m guessing Obama picking a woman other than Clinton, or even Clinton herself, as his vp wouldn’t have changed anything for myiq0.8xu.
Peter von Nostrand
Did not read all the comments, so not sure if this has been pointed out, but the Borowitz Report or whatever is satire.
MJ
Palin’s resume and accomplishments out shine Obama’s. His 3 years in the Senate aren’t as impressive as her 2 years as Governor. Obama talks about change and a different kind of politics. Palin has been doing it not just talking about it. The Obama teams response to her has been pathetic. They never saw this coming.
PeterJ
Palin on Trig, her son with Down’s Syndrome:
Funny thing, when McCain came home from Vietnam he looked at his wife, saw that she no longer looked either normal or perfect, and then decided to trade her for a new one.
EddieInCA
Palin Positions You May Not Know About:
1. Creationist who wants Creationism taught in schools.
2. Denies Global Warming exists
3. Anti-Abortion, including in situations or rape and/or incest.
4. Supported Pat Buchanan in 2000.
5. Agreed with Barack’s Energy Policy as of… 24 days ago.
6. Said… 25 days ago.. that she didn’t even know what the VP does.
7. Under investigation by Special Prosecutor in Alaska for possible ethics violations.
8. Entire Alaska budget is only $2.9B, less than most medium sized cities in the USA. For example, San Diego, CA, has a City Budget of 3.29B
9. She vetoed wind power and clean coal projects, including a 50-megawatt wind farm on Fire Island and a clean coal facility in Healy that had been mired in a dispute between local and state governments.
10. McCain offered her the job after meeting her one. I’ll repeat that… ONCE.
Davis X. Machina
MJ can be reached at /usr/bin/MJ.pl
PanAmerican
She looks like Edith Ann in that chair. Don’t discount that McCain is only 5′ 7″ and they needed the optics of a shorter #2.
Dreggas
Blow it out your ass you insolent twit.
Dreggas
Yes because being governor of a state with less of a population than a major city and the mayor of a small town and on the PTA is sooooo much more experience than being in the legislature in Illinois, a college professor, a community organizer, a US senator working in real national politics.
Martin
Obama picks Sebelius – a slap in the face to Hillary.
McCain picks Palin – an honor to Hillary from a noble American.
Nice to see that myiq still has his victim on.
maxbaer (not the original)
This was the real gem of the K B Hutchinson interview:
Think she could have answered that better?
KRK
It appears that the McCain campaign is now also offering Palin-points. Thanks for playing!
carsick
I know she has no fiscal experience in a environment not heavily subsidized by oil companies and earmarks. Wait a minute, maybe in Dick Cheney’s circles that may actually not be a negative.
KRK
One benefit for Obama of McCain’s Palin choice is already playing out in my family. My sister and brother-in-law are fairly apathetic politically, but they have no use for the current rendition of the Republican party. I’d been gently poking my sister about donating to Obama lately, and she’d been pushing back pretty hard. Earlier today she said that she thinks the BIL will be on board with busting out the checkbook when he gets home after hearing about Palin’s past remarks on abortion, “Intelligent Design,” global warming, and the like. BIL is kind of a loose cannon with the checkbook when he gets going, so he could max out for Obama by the time we learn everything about Palin.
b-psycho
Sullivan already has a nickname for her.
Steve V
Yglesias says the Alaska legislature meets 90 days out of the year? I wonder how many days out of the year the governor works?
oh really
Brilliant! The reason McCain chose Palin and the reason it doesn’t bother him that she’s under investigation for improper conduct is simple. The investigation is the reason McCain chose her. He realized that he could face resistance from Republicans who think she’s too inexperienced or throwbacks who would oppose any woman, so he made sure she had the one quality that unifies virtually all Republicans — being under investigation for ethics violations.
Now, they’ve got someone they can relate to. Someone whose conservative credentials are impeccable. Genius, pure genius.
Socraticsilence
Take this with a grain of salt, but I’ve heard rumors from people in the helth industry, the Palin’s last pregnacy is really sketchy (like not hers, but her daughters sketchy), and I’m not normally one to spread rumors but the timeline I’ve heard seems to point to something odd:
Not telling anyone til 7 months
Flying to Texas at 8 months, water breaks there, flying back to Seattle, then to Alaska– things which a commercial airline wouldn’t allow due to liability– then a private delivery.
Like I said major grain of salt
Conservatively Liberal
Regarding Palin being chosen:
A swing and an miss! Oops, I meant a swing and a Mrs!
When I told my wife who McGoo chose, her immediate response was ‘They (the right) picked a token vagina’. I agree because this comes across a calculating. The right is going to have fun trying to convince people that Palin was not chosen for any other reason than she is a woman. She has nothing on her resume that says that she is ready to step into the presidency if McCain were to pass away shortly after winning the office. Absolutely nothing.
Regarding our resident Republican hot goat sex aficionado (
myiq2xuGoatBoy), he is hard at work pimping for McCain:You are not for McCain winning Mikey, you are against Obama winning. You have made it clear that you want Obama to lose and you are hanging with a bunch of other racists at PUMA in an attempt to make it happen.
You are an idiot. Go back to Cornfluence and wallow in the filth with the rest of the racist pigs.
NR
Nope. He wants Obama to lose so he can say “I told you so – you should’ve nominated Hillary.” He wants Obama to lose so he can have the smug satisfaction of being right.
That’s PUMA for you – a rogue’s gallery nutjobs, racists, and pathological narcissists.
PeterJ
What I really want to know is, did we, during the primaries, assist in pushing him over the edge?
Personally, I hope we helped him finding his own deranged voice.
myiq2xu
True dat!
BTW – How many goats were in the herd that took your ass cherry?
myiq2xu
There wasn’t any “assist” about it
Brian
“Take this with a grain of salt, but I’ve heard rumors from people in the helth industry, the Palin’s last pregnacy is really sketchy (like not hers, but her daughters sketchy), and I’m not normally one to spread rumors but the timeline I’ve heard seems to point to something odd:
Not telling anyone til 7 months
Flying to Texas at 8 months, water breaks there, flying back to Seattle, then to Alaska—things which a commercial airline wouldn’t allow due to liability—then a private delivery.
Like I said major grain of salt”
Just what are you suggesting?
MJ
The Obama accomplishments are what exactly? He won a seat in the US Senate and has been running for President ever since. As the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on European Affairs, he has never held a hearing.
LOL . . the lame attacks here are comical.
nightjar
From the “I Didn’t Know That Department”
Seanly
LOL, had O’Reilly on & he was accusing the democrat on there as making up Palin’s asking what the VP does. The actual footage is even worse than her description of the question.
oh really
Once Russia and Iran find out the US VP is a barracuda I figure they’ll surrender forthwith.
I’m going to hide in the closet. The media gushing over Palin is making my head hurt.
dbrown
Lighten up! Without these voices of counter-intelligence, we would be an echo chamber; don’t scare them away! I like them for play-time, otherwise one of us needs to play troll and it is not as much fun.
w vincentz
I went over to Huffpost to check out the photos. The hunting and fur ones will cost the PETA votes for the Rethugs. The grizzly doesn’t look too happy either.
Brian
“They did that at UT as well. I know this may come as a shock to you, but when exams start rolling around, the library becomes a whole lot more popular than you’d think.”
Uh, listen. That wasn’t an insult to anyone or any institution. It was one bit of information I remember hearing about Chicago back when I was researching colleges.
nightjar
This is going to be true comedy gold. I bet Leno, Letterman, Kimmell, Conan and the rest of the gang are marveling the prospect that there really is a God.
Notorious P.A.T.
Yes, Palin is an architect of change. By denying science and favoring creationism, promoting the technique of shooting people to solve problems, and advocating the use of substances dug up from the ground to power our society, she is forging a bold new path toward the future.
And no, the Obama campaign definitely did not see this coming. Just like no one saw the Mel Gibson “Jews start all wars!” flameout coming ,either.
DrDave
Look at the bright side: Sarah Palin is unlikely to shoot any of her hunting companions in the face.
Notorious P.A.T.
This, to me, is what the Palin pick was all about: giving the raving “low-information” (wink wink) Hillary supporters even the tiniest justification for voting for McCain, which many of them already wanted to do.
That Palin’s disturbingly hot, 16-year-old, unmarried daughter is the one who had the Down’s Syndrome baby, and Palin claimed it was hers to cover it up.
Notorious P.A.T.
Haha! Perfect.
gbear
Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. This should make the PUMAs very happy.
Dreggas
HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
Nice try
He’s worked for and helped pass ethics reform.
Worked for and passed legislation aimed at securing loose nukes.
As for the foreign relations committee tripe, what was he supposed to hold hearings on? Don’t even start on NATO because that committee is not about NATO but I guess you earned your McCain points for the day.
Dreggas
More on this paragon of executive experience
Conservatively Liberal
Listening to Schuster and some wingnut pundit named Susan said that Palin ‘is not for running president, she is the VP’ (not exact quote but close enough) in response to a question asking if she is presidential material.
Yeah, that’s the ticket! She is not intended to actually ever be a president, she is just a stage prop.
I have always thought of the VP as a spare tire in case the country has a blowout. Using that analogy, why did McCain choose a flat tire for our spare? Does he think that she automatically inflates if he blows?
Dreggas
Schuster has the guy she fired on right now too. Sounds like this is a pretty shady thing she pulled and some of the allegations against the brother in law may have been bunk.
Keith
Ha! The results of the upcoming Palin-state trooper probe will come out days before the election. That is an unbelievable gamble on the part of the McCain campaign a) if they knew about this, or b) unless they didn’t vet her beyond the “Googles” (which is looking likely). I wouldn’t be surprised to see her step aside for some bogus reason if any hint of interesting info starts coming once the press gets their teeth on fresh meat. It’ll exceed the Perot’s in-out-in debacle as the greatest flameout in presidential politics.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Y’all are missing the point of this pick, not only is it aimed toward women and the social conservatives but also at men who bookmark MILF sites on their web browsers. Damn, KKKarl’s still got it…….
Martin
Actually, McCain chose someone who has no voting record to contradict his and has made no statements that are critical of him. If he wanted to secure the religious right, Huckabee would have been a better pick. Not only does he share all of Palin’s issues, he’s worked a national campaign, he can speak well, he’s likable, and he has more executive experience and is better known. But Huckabee’s words would be used against McCain just as McCain is using Hillary’s against Obama.
McCain’s strongest voice on the VP pick was his ego, IMO.
Conservatively Liberal
Cafferty had a great line about the choice of Palin:
I view it as more of a gift with a bomb in it. If the Democrats unwrap the present carefully, the bomb does not go off.
Does Palin ‘cross the commander in chief threshold’? No, she is a virtually blank book. Any Hillary supporter who says that Palin is her equal was never a Hillary supporter. Palin and Hillary are polar opposites in the realm of experience and Hillary is leaps and bounds ahead of Palin. I could see Hillary as a president, but Palin?
No way.
Keith
BTW: Carville is incoherent from the shock of this pick. Some adjectives he’s used: “vexed”, “befuddled”, and maybe “flummoxed”. And now that I think about it, the greatest (and saddest) flameout is actually Perot’s VP (Jim Stockdale) giving an opening statement in the VP debate.
And I predict there’s a romantic comedy based on this in theaters within 12 months starring Julia Roberts or possibly Meg Ryan.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Reminds me of “Volt for Eagleton“.
jake
No way they planned such a thing that far out. I think the plan was more: “If we can get away with it, fine. But if the poll numbers start to tumble, we’ll ask her to hit the road.”
Xenos
There is so much weirdness to be unpacked as you look closer and closer at Palin. It may seem trivial, but who names their two sons “Track” and “Trig”? Especially a kid with Downs syndrome — the kid needs a silly name, too?
My favourite is the daughter named “Bristol”, which in England is a common slang term for “tits”. The sound you are hearing is fifty million people giggling into their wheatabix as they read their papers this morning.
DougJ
POW/MILF 08!
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Hell, I’d hit it. POW!
nightjar
Like most scandals, it may not be the merits of the State Trooper deal (actually she fired a police commissioner who refused to fire the trooper brother in law} but the coverup after. She denied any pressure or attempt get the guy fired, and had to change her story when audiotape evidence said otherwise. It’s incredible Mccain chose her in spite of this.
watch the news clip video.
jake
Say, is Cindy back from her trip to Georgia yet?
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Btw, I’m soooo looking forward to the Daily Show and Colbert tonight.
gil mann
Oh, dude, Borowitz? Really? The guy who posts his rejected Onion submissions?
Statement of fact either exaggerated for comic effect or presented in a way that highlights its inherent absurdity, phrased as reportage, followed by a lengthy fleshing-out that doesn’t add much to the joke
There. Now I’m just as funny as Andy
Borowitz.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Damn, wish Stewart and Colbert were on tonight…..
Corner Stone
John Cole Presents:
Mysogynist-Juice.com
Please. If any of you ever cared the slightest bit about the people that post here that don’t groupthink, and don’t suck BHO kak – please keep this up.
You fucking pigs are part of the MSNBC spirit that will help elect McCain this November. When you have KO interviewing Maddow and she’s spitting female degrading shit…nicely done boyz.
And seriously? Quoting motherfucking Andrew Sullivan’s nickname for Palin? Nice touch.
rt
When my wife heard Palin say “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?” she made a snarky comment about the poor, helpless little woman who needs a big, strong man to tell her what to do. Good observation. It makes me wonder who will be making the decisions for her if McCain were to die in office.
It also makes me wonder whether McCain picked her to attract women or whether it was to attract men who want to feel more masculine?
(On a related note, how come I don’t have a poor, helpless little woman like that?)
Conservatively Liberal
I see that RiverDaughter is announcing PUMApac forming “The New Democratic Party”. I would recommend naming it the “Grand Old Democratic Party” since it will be populated by the racist Democrats who will never vote for an AA.
Sherman, set the WABAC machine to the southeastern United States. The year? 1950.
Xenos
I am working on a theory that McCain does not give a damn. He has been nursing a grudge against the RNC outsiders who treated him so shabbily in 2000, and is running is campaign as a joke. His final FU to Bush will be to go out for his nomination acceptance speech and proceed to screw the pooch out of it so that he causes a complete collapse of the party.
It is far fetched, but I it would explain a lot, should it be true. Imagine him dropping out of the race in late October, so there is an Obama – Palin election. Would count for an outstanding bit of performance art.
nightjar
Hear that group think. Corner Stone is once again concerned and also sounding quite drunk. Your going to kill your computer with all that spittle there buckwheat.
PeterJ
That’s just cruel, sending of his wife to Georgia and then picking up a new prospective while she’s gone…
rt
I wondered when someone would remember that McCain is an admitted adulterer.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Wow, that was stunningly incoherent.
Corner Stone
KO on MSNBC:
“Gov. Palin will kill a moose with her bare hands for you”
Equally stupid? Or both at unfathomable levels of stupid?
Notorious P.A.T.
Do you think Cindy McCain gets nervous every time she rides in a car?
Yeah! We’re misogynists because we. . . don’t think Sarah Palin is qualified to be vice president! How awful! And we compared her to Harriet Miers, who was clearly a good pick for the Supreme Court that only a woman-hater would oppose!
Corner Stone
Piece of Cyst says:
My friend, this is a nice touch. Men who think women should lay back and think of England thank you.
Conservatively Liberal
Maybe McCain was caught hitting her up and his campaign was afraid it would leak out so they chose her as his veep for cover in case word of their secret meetings got out.
;)
jake
Corner Stone
Hey P.A.T.!
Not sure what the problem with Palin as #2 on the ticket is? Obama hasn’t served one full term as Senator, Palin hasn’t served one full term as Gov. Which one is going for the top slot again?
It couldn’t have anything to do with anything else could it?
And if you’re self identifying with Andy Sullivan – a Republican – then I guess that answers a few things eh?
nightjar
I don’t no, maybe I’m up to par on all things misogynist, but I don’t really see it. Now if KO had said she’d run away and cry at the sight of the Moose, then maybe. Sounds to me he was making fun of wild Alaska and outdoorsy types.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
It’s Rove’s strategy, I’m just pointin’ it out, yanno?
Corner Stone
And nightjar –
The uber hack Conservatively Liberal has exactly one shtick and even he in all his greatness could not parody you any longer, you’re that fucking worthless and unoriginal.
MJ
Obama hasn’t work on much of anything since he got to the Senate except running for President. Nice smear of Palin too Dreggas, truly pathetic.
Marc
Whenever I see someone calling people “boyz” I know I’m dealing with a hater. Quick Corner Stone – what’s Palin’s opinion on North Korean nukes? What about free trade agreements? NATO expansion?
What, no one knows?
Now, what about Obama?
Spare us your tender concerns and return to the swamps that spawned ya.
grandpajohn
Actually it is a combination of gifts from what I am reading on other sites.
FIRST, women are really pissed at this blatant and transparent pander to them, I have read sleveral post in which women say that this locks up their vote for Obama but not one who says that they will vote for McCain because of her selection.
Secondly I am seeing many people who are finally realizing what has actually been obvious for some times to those observant enough to really notice and that is McCains history of making bad decisions based on poor and hasty judgements. Experience ain’t worth a shit if you don’t know how to use it and make bad judgements. I think lthat this is one of the best gifts from this selection , that people are realizing how really awful McSames judgement skills are and this goes back even lto his flying days so it is not something new.
Thirdly I noted quite a few peoples eyes open to his total lack of character and integrity evidenced by his willingness to do or say anything to get elected.
as many of these folks have pointed out , the fact that this selection is obviously putting self ahead of country and thus he has lied once again to the electorate about country comes first,shows what a shallow petty person he is.
DougJ
Is MJ for real?
nightjar
Coming from you, that might be a compliment in disguise. At least I can put a sentence together. It aint original but it’s better than an idiot wallowing in piss and hatred day after day. get some help!
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Actually, that was even more stunningly incoherent. Are you and Koz smoking the same stuff?
Corner Stone
I don’t know…should I visit his website?
nightjar
Isn’t he you.
ed
Experience comparisons? Obama has been vetted by the forge of a national campaign for president that was one of the hardest fought nominating races in decades? Governor Palin? A name picked out of a hat.
VP picks as football metaphors: Obama goes up the center with a reliable running back for sure 4-5 yards. McCain throws the Hail Mary. When do you go for the sure short yardage? When you are winning.
And when is it appropriate to throw the Hail Mary? When you have given up and don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. Obama by 2 touchdowns.
Martin
You miss that one little detail that Obama spent a year and a half up against the Clinton machine, plus Biden, Edwards, and Richardson and convinced something north of half of the Democratic Party that he had the chops for the job over all of them. It wasn’t handed to him as his early polling can show. He earned it, and don’t think that beating Hillary is an easy thing.
Sarah only had to convince McCain.
We knew a shitload about Obama by the convention and we knew a shitload about Biden as well because he’s been on the stage for decades. We know a lot about McCain as well. But even the GOP doesn’t seem to know shit about Palin.
That’s the problem.
Oh, and TDS/Colbert ARE on tonight because of the convention schedule. It’s a rare friday show.
Conservatively Liberal
You don’t say. Wow, I really don’t know what to say to that other than I would recommend seeing a doctor about it before it becomes permanent.
Digital Amish
Good god. McCain must have known a couple of hundred US Senators in his career. He must have known scores of Cabinet secretaries. Countless governors, business leaders, military leaders, ambassadors, judges and academcians. Undoubtably more than a few must have long and distinguished resumes. And in his ‘judgement’ Sarah Palin is the best choice to be the countrys backstop for the oldest person to run as a first term President. Yeah, that’s putting “country first”.
Martin
Well, my two female staff that I regular talk politics with both crashed through my office door first thing this morning – one ranting about how insulting it was that McCain picked her just to get women to vote for him, and the other ranting about how irresponsible it was for her to run for VP when she has a newborn. Through the day I got 6 other unsolicited opinions from women – all were along one line or the other. About 50/50 Dem/GOP breakdown. One was a libertarian. So far, I’ve yet to hear anyone mention anything good about this decision. I’ve been the most positive voice on it (I think it’s a necessary move by McCain, mainly because he’s gonna lose if he doesn’t take big chances).
I haven’t talked to my pro-choice republican mom yet. She’s heading to Alaska today, ironically enough. I’m 99% sure she’ll be incensed over running with a newborn and vote Obama over this. She’s cynical enough to not be bothered by the pander and has long learned to accept the difference on abortion, but parents putting kids first is tops on her list.
Anecdotally, this is playing out much worse than I expected when I heard the news on the way to work this morning.
Corner Stone
Bill Maher just said:
The Maverick and the MILF!
Classy, with a capital E.
Bonus: he just called her a stewardess. You guys here at BJ are in such solid company.
Ouch! Edwards sex scandal joke & downs syndrome baby just tied in! Seriously good stuff here.
jake
NO! You can’t say anything mean about Palin because she’s a fragile delicate flower and if you aren’t careful she’ll cry, you mysogynist* bastard!
And anyone who doesn’t treat her exactly as they would a male candidate is a mysogynist** too!
*Whatever the hell that is.
**Seriously. WTF does this mean?
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Tx, bro.
Bubblegum Tate
The first McCain-Palin campaign poster is out.
charlotte
This Palin dame scares the shit out of me. The up-do frightens me half to death. Nice look if you’re off to the Crystal Ball but who in hell wanders around town sporting Myra Breckenridge hair?
And the Barbarella poses — aiming high-powered rifles in exotic locales such as Kuwait and, gasp, freaking Alaska!
John McCain seems to have lost his mind. The spin today on cable attempting to justify this LOL decision (thank you, Rachel Maddow) was surreal.
Corner Stone
martin says:
And Biden got how many delegates again when he ran unsuccesfully? How many people did he have to convince? Just one, Obama. This is an apples to oranges thing Martin. Stop comparing the R #2 to the D #1.
Bill Arnold
What is it with wingers and “nukular”? Is this some right wing analogue of Ebonics and “aks”? Or is it just a combination of faux-bubba and a homage to Eisenhower?
Splitting Image
I’ve been thinking for weeks that Palin would be the one of the best choices McCain could make. If she turns out to have enough qualifications to suit the job, this could be an enormous boost to McCain. In terms of political demographics, she’s awesome.
She’s a far right nutjob who is anti-abortion and believes in creationism, and a maverick whistle-blower who helped bring down the Republican den of corruption up there. She’d look good next to either Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul, and McCain is totally on the outs with both constituencies. Having her on the ticket is a twofer.
Being a woman, of course, she has the advantage of looking more liberal than she is. Women are overall more progressive, right? So having her on the ticket is almost like having a Democrat, right? If you don’t look too closely to what she believes, it looks like McCain is wooing independents and disgruntled Democrats, especially Clinton voters. So it’s a threefer.
Having said that, she’s only going to work out if she has some hidden talents that will work for her on the national stage. I was rooting for Brian Schweitzer for the Democratic VP and the main argument for him is similar to McCain’s argument for Palin: being a colourful Westerner, Schweitzer can potentially pull over some voters who might not otherwise vote for the party. His speech the other day was a perfect example. He eloquently supported Obama’s energy policy but translated it into Republicanese. If the Democrats are ever to make inroads into states like Idaho and Wyoming, it will take a guy like Schweitzer to do it.
But if anyone questioned his ability to work in Washington as effectively as he does in Montana (where he fits in perfectly), anyone could point to his ability to speak Arabic. I doubt it helps him much in his current job, but can anyone else imagine the usefulness of a VP who can speak Arabic? How many problems might that help with?
If Palin can match that by speaking Russian, for example, she could turn out to be a big plus for McCain’s ticket. If not, she’s the new Geraldine Ferraro. If that turns out to be the case, the Republicans may win big by her losing. If she helps McCain to the second straight “woman VP loses 49 states” election, the women’s movement may be pushed back another decade or two.
Conservatively Liberal
OMFG, RedState dissects the Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin campaign buttons and advertising, looking at the fonts used (Obama and Biden use different fonts and colors!111!) in a lame attempt to make the point that Obama wants it all for himself.
Proof? No Obama/Biden merchandise for sale! Busted!
grandpajohn
Lame post only require lame responses,If you expect someone to actually take time to give you a serious response try making a serious post instead of bullshit.
Beej
Does this woman’s voice grate on anyone else the way it grates on me? Fingernails down a chalkboard. AHHHHHHHH!
gil mann
Yeah, I’ve heard KO say troublesome shit, but I’m not sure it gets much more gender-neutral than exaggerating a rural type’s hardiness.
The inexperience tack’ll get you nowhere, though, sorry. I don’t know about you guys, but I meant it when I said anybody’d be better than Bush. I think most people have discarded their quaint notions about fitness for office at this point.
Plus, she’s not like Harriet Miers. She’s like Katherine Harris. Except in addition to being wrong about everything and a religious kook, she’s tough, sly, and disarming as hell. Oh, and she totally plays into the fucking maverick bullshit, since she actually is one. I doubt her anticorruption record’s as impressive as I’ve heard, but then again, it’s impressive that a Republican has an anticorruption record.
Too soon to tell, but I’m gonna put my neck out and say she’s a factor. And her and Biden are4 gonna be a hoot together.
Relax, Obama won already. Now it’s just about watching the game.
NR
Check out this ringing endorsement from the (Republican) Speaker of the Alaska House:
Corner Stone
jake says:
Actually jake, my equivalence test to nightjar, which he expectedly failed, was whether or not his comment was equally *stupid* as KO’s – NOT misogynist.
Once again nightjar has displayed comprehension fail, and you have displayed Freudian fail by sucking in his stupidity and repeating it as if I said the Moose quote was misogynist – which I did not. I merely said it was unboundfully stupid. IOW – nightjaresque.
Here’s my comment back to nightjar in case you are absolutely as fucking stupid as he is and don’t know how to use the CTRL + F feature:
DougJ
Powerline says:
DougJ
A gentleman never tells.
nightjar
I like it. say it again please!
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Look, if you want to live in our country at least have the decency to learn our language.
Corner Stone
nightjaresque = unfathomably stupid + willfully disingenuous
Revel in it fucker. That shit makes me happy because it’s true.
Corner Stone
You know cyst, if you’ve only completed a 6th grade education it’s ok – JJC takes all soulmates here.
TenguPhule
In all fairness to McCain, if they were all Republicans, this may have been true.
gil mann
I continue to find this utterly devoid of antifeminist content. I’d be willing to spot you elitism, but you’re really getting into anything-said-about-a-woman-is-sexist territory here.
TenguPhule
Irony of the Day. Hands down.
TenguPhule
Maybe McCain knows something about her will that we don’t.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Ouch. That hurt.
Oh, wait, I’m not in elementary school anymore.
Corner Stone
gil mann says:
God…damn…gil. Are you this stupid in RL or are you in fact just a nightjar sockpuppet?
Am I reading you correctly? I NEVER SAID THE MOOSE QUOTE WAS MISOGYNIST. The fact that people keep feeling the need to defend KO for any statement he says as being “not misogynist” is pretty fucking telling at this point.
It was a stupid comment. Period. Full stop.
Corner Stone
cyst says:
That sounds like a classic non-denial denial to me. Cyst, are you a child fucking Republican, or simply as stupid as your posts come across?
iluvsummr
McCain – Palin: Manic’l panic
And panic is what he did in making this choice. I mean, I figured that McCain would pick a woman after his Hillary ad aired, but never suspected it would be Palin. Dull is one word that can’t be used to describe this election.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
Seriously, John, this place really needs better trolls. I know you said you’re tired of people bitching about the site but….
Dave_Violence
Yep.
nightjar
Everything is misogynist here a Misogynist-Juice according to you. It’s hard to tell when you bounce back and forth from misogynist to stupid stupid.
nightjar
Yes it was CS, and you should be ashamed of yourself, but we’re liberal and must forgive, even flaming asshole fools like you.
Conservatively Liberal
Erik at RedState is nothing more than a party shill who polishes the turd when the party spits on it. Yesterday he was all about how Pawlenty was going to be the choice (inside info!), how McCain doesn’t feel the need to “freaking impress” anyone, that he is “passing on testing the boundaries of political history”. How McCain believes that Obama/Biden is “self-destructive”, so he won’t “interfere with that pattern by going outside of the box”.
When called on it, one of the members at RedState responded:
Wingnut: Leave us alone! McCain handed us a turd and we are having fun polishing it!
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
And with their tongues, at that.
iluvsummr
I’ve got it! McCain is angling for the backlash-against-misogynistic-comments vote. It just might work too – I’m a registered Democrat and a woman who voted for Obama over Clinton in the California primaries, but I’m getting queasy reading some of the comments in this thread.
Delia
I’m leaving on a long car trip in the morning and cannot spare the time to read this thread. I only want to say that this whole melodrama sounds like the bad romantic comedy of the screenplay I never wanted to write. Cranky old political fart asks cute girl governor from Alaska to be his running mate to balance the ticket. She’s a happy homemaker who routinely bags a moose on the way to work and calls hubby to ask him to pick it up and clean it for dinner. They get elected and cranky old pol drops dead during Inaugural Ball. She has to handle marital crisis with hubby, teen daughter’s crisis with druggy boyfriend, and Little Sis’s divorce with mean State Trooper all while solving fourteen International Situations with world leaders who suddenly come to respect her in the last reel. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll probably vomit.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
One thing, at least, she’s got an infant so she’d probably be up at 3am anyway if the phone happened to ring.
Conservatively Liberal
What a visual!
Here we go again with the misogyny crap all over again, and this time I feel it is a deliberate attempt to make an issue out of absolutely nothing. We can pick on male politicians to no end but heaven forbid ever saying anything of the sort about a female politician!
Fuck you. Politicians endure cheap shots to no end, and it is because they chose to enter the “public arena”. Sorry, but I am not a supporter of the PC Police. Hell, my wife called Palin ‘a token vagina for the right’ and my wife sure as hell is not a misogynist. She thinks the choice was made because she is a stage prop for McCain and that is it. Palin is not presidential material, no how and no way. This is a Hail Mary pass for a foundering campaign.
That the PUMA idiots are drooling all over this choice is a real laugh. Rabid Hillary supporters for Palin?! Give me a fucking break. They are racists and ratfuckers, through and through.
So now the McCain trolls are taking a page from the Democratic primary and sending their points-seekers out with a label to toss around in an attempt to gain votes.
Good fucking luck with that.
Delia
Gotta add some romantic tension. She almost falls in love with the Italian Prime Minister who’s really hot (Berlusconi’s long gone in this story) but in the end she realizes her lumberjack husband is the only man for her. (Violins rise.)
nightjar
Then name them and state your case and lets debate it. Otherwise, I’m getting tired of tired and vague accusations of misogyny. Palin is a woman who has had woman experiences. The same is true for men. Our life experiences in many ways are quite different and I reserve the right to question hers and mock them if I choose as a possible POTUS.
PC
Corner Stone makes me want to troll again.
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
And there’s a lot of heaving breathing and heaving bosoms, right?
Delia
Well, you gotta remember, this is a romantic comedy, so the heavy breathing and heaving bosoms can only go as far as your basic PG rating. It’s gonna be obnoxious enough as it is.
iluvsummr
Right back atcha, troglodyte. Can’t imagine why I’d want to discuss anything with you.
Frankly, not really interested in debating about the MILF, VILF and other comments. I’m a woman, I’m voting for Obama, I can say whatever the fuck I want about what I think is misognyny and how it could create a backlash that benefits McCain, and you can feel free to ignore it. A free world is a beautiful thing :).
Conservatively Liberal
Shit this is funny! A reporter on CNN talking to Anderson Cooper about the McCain campaign’s reasons for choosing Palin, a campaign advisor told the reporter:”
“he sees in her what makes him tick”
I bet he does…lol!
Marc
On the internets you never know if the person acting like a jerk is a lefty jerk or a rightie jerk pretending to be a lefty. Or just a plain all-around jerk who gets their kicks out of jerking people around. This helps me when I see something annoying.
nightjar
LOL. That it is.
Will Hunting
Question for those still here: is it misogyny to say that I would want to the be the bacon in a Sarah Palin – Stephanie Sandlin club sandwich? If that is wrong, I don’t want to be right!
limbaugh's pilonidal cyst
I thought the only thing that made him tick were skinny blonde beer heiresses 18 years his junior.
Speaking of, shouldn’t that have been the end of ambition for any red-blooded American male? I mean, buy a mansion with a patio, pool, and a nice view and just have the company send a truck over once a week. Why would anyone want anything more than that? Senator-Shmenator, just give me the best lounge chair in the world and the biggest flat screen I (I mean, my wife) could buy.
Delia
And here everybody thought McPOW sent Cindy off to Georgia so they could pretend she was being a big foreign policy angel. Instead the senile old coot just wanted her out of the way so he could put the moves on Sarah.
I think I’m going to have to revise my romantic comedy. Female lead’s hubby (what’s his first name anyhow?) becomes jealous because his wife, used to the straightforward ways of the backwoods, is overly trusting of the conniving Washington pols. She doesn’t realize the cranky old pol is slobbering over her body, and she and hubby have a rarin’ old fight when he tries to point this out to her. She doesn’t realize how evil everyone is till near the end.
Meanwhile Cindy — what will Cindy do? If she had a shred of self-respect left she’d just throw the old coot out and let him pay for the campaign himself, since she’s got the pre-nup. Most likely she’ll do something nasty and backhanded.
Michael D.
I don’t think Palin is wealthy, so Cindy doesn’t have to worry.
Robert Johnston
Harriet Miers was vastly more qualified for the Supreme Court than Palin is for Vice President. Miers didn’t have judicial or legal academic experience, but such things are highly irrelevant to one’s capability of being a Supreme Court justice. Remember: legal “scholarship” is 99% pseudo-intellectual claptrap designed to make clearly political decisions look a bit more objective–I say this as a former Law Review editor who took every government and constitutional law class he could find. Trial court judges require a certain technical expertise and a personality capable of generating control over a court room, but there’s really nothing beyond ideology and degree of adherence to incrementalism by which appellate judges should be judged. On those measures Miers was more qualified than her replacement.
Until we get a Court nominee willing to admit straight-up that Constitutional Law is primarily a common law system in which the text acts as an anchor with extreme slack, allowing an awful lot of drift over time within a constrained radius of reasonable implementation, we won’t have a Justice who’s more qualified than any other by mere virtue of having a coherent and reasonable judicial philosophy reflective of how appellate judges actually judge cases. Emphasis on legal “scholarship” and judicial experience over ideology and temperament in appellate Court nominees serves only to obscure how truly partisan and discretionary appellate judicial decision making really and inevitably is in our system.
MJ
Good god.
McCain must have knownThere must be a couple of hundred US Senatorsin his career. He must have knownscores of Cabinet secretaries. Countless governors, business leaders, military leaders, ambassadors, judges and academcians. Undoubtably more than a few must have long and distinguished resumes. Andin histhe Dems ‘judgement’Sarah PalinObama is the best choice to be the countrysbackstop for the oldest person to run as a first termPresident. Yeah, that’s putting “country first”.FIXED
John
The judgement of 20 million Democratic primary voters is rather different from a whim McCain had three days ago when he suddently decided Pawlenty wasn’t mavericky enough.
gil mann
Oh, okay, I see that now, actually. So the answer would be stupid in RL, I guess.
But now I’m confused as to why you’re so hung up on that line. So it doesn’t belong in Bartlett’s, is what you’re saying? Agreed.
Fuck, man, I like Olbermann and I can do a better job quote-mining to make him look like a dick.
MJ
Bad judgment is bad judgment. If the left wants to make an issue out of the experience of Palin I welcome it. It will only point back to Obama’s lack of experience and history shows people vote for the top of the ticket. (See George H.W. Bush’s VP pick.)
In Vino Veritas
I’m just glad to see Janet from Three’s Company is back on her feet after losing that great apartment in Santa Monica.
FS
I’d like to add that the men at my (very conservative) church were extremely excited about Palin being picked for the VP slot.
I didn’t ask why, so don’t demand an explanation.