Gov. Sarah Palin Get's McCain Veep Nod

The McCain campaign calls her a "tough executive who has demonstrated" readiness to be president.

The Republican National Committee calls her a "conservative star with the talent, energy and family support necessary to carry out common sense policies."

But the Obama campaign calls her a candidate with "the thinnest foreign policy experience in history" who is "currently under investigation in her own state."

On Friday morning, in an attempt to trump the momentum of the very successful Democratic National Convention week, John McCain unveiled his choice to join his ticket. Not the former governor of a large state with a solid economic background, like Mitt Romney. Not the governor of a swing state that is hosting the Republican National Convention next week, like Tim Pawlenty. Not the governor of a large swing state and cabinet-level secretary, like Tom Ridge. Not the independent senator from a northeastern state, like John Lieberman. Not the woman senator from a large southwestern state, like Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Not the woman who was a CEO of a large multi-national corporation, like Carly Fiorina. Not the woman who was a former cabinet-level secretary for George H. W. Bush and current senator from a southern state, like Elizabeth Dole.

John McCain went with a little known woman who is a staunch conservative and a first term governor of the largest state in geography (larger than Texas, California, and Montana combined) and the smallest state in population (only 670,000 people - there are more people in the county where I reside in Georgia than in the entire state): Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Ms. Palin is a staunch conservative, she is a self-described Pat Buchanan Republican: she supports gun rights (she is an avid hunter and lifelong member of the NRA), she is in support of the right to life (opposes abortion in all cases, even incest and rape), and she's been the governor of Alaska for about 20 months (less than 2 years). Prior to her stint in running the state government in Juneau, she was the mayor of a small town with a population of less than 6,000 people.

John McCain (who met her on only one occasion prior to naming her) brought Palin on to shore up his support among social conservatives and to woe those woman who were disaffected by the Democratic Party when Hillary Clinton did not win the nomination.

NOTE: Gov. Palin is under a legislative investigation which is looking into allegations that she fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Read the CNN.com articles about John McCain's choice for vice president here and here and here.

Read the New York Times articles about McCain's veep choice here and here.

Read Sojourner's Place's very interesting article about Gov. Palin having been considered a VP choice of conservative Republicans as much as a year ago (August 2007!)... but then she's introduced by McCain as a fresh-faced person that "no one" knows about... "something ain't right!"


plez sez: there was no way i could see this coming, since i'd never heard of gov. palin before. hailing from the least populous state (less than one person for every two miles) in the 50 state union, with less than two years of executive experience, and zero national presence... john mccain (the former POW who is 72 years old and has had four bouts of cancer in the last 20 years) has picked an unknown to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. this is a supreme failure in judgement!

lack of experience aside, this woman has not been vetted, she has not been tested (the county commission where i live governs more people than she does for an entire state), and the american people are given 8 weeks to get to know her! mccain has been the presumptive republican nominee for almost 6 months now, did he really have to wait until after Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate to pick someone we've never heard of, a person with little in the way of a public record, and only a pissy investigation into her firing someone for not firing her sister's ex-husband? john mccain's selection is a response to the Obama campaign with little or no analysis as to what his campaign really needed... like a message!

not only does America not know palin, john mccain barely knows her... the first time he met her for a substantial conversation was LAST WEEK! he selected her after their second meeting on thursday of last week! he knows her about as well as i do.

palin has only been out of the united states once, in july 2007, she had to get a passport before she visited members of the Alaska National Guard stationed in Kuwait. so much for foreign experience. so much for, as john mccain said, someone who will be ready to be commander-in-chief on day one day two.

and if she is supposed to be the answer for hillary clinton's pissed off pumas, try again! this must come off as a slap in the face, wanting to substitute an unknown woman from a backwater hick town for the likes of hillary! it would be like mccain picking ward connerly as his running mate for disaffected Blacks had Obama lost the nomination!

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and what of mitt romney? tim pawlenty? they must feel used and abused by john mccain! he has paraded them around like an organ grinder monkey for the past five months, taunting and tantalizing them with thoughts that they would be his running mate. they smiled when the camera lights came on, said all the right things, and wagged their tails for him on cue... wassup with that?!?

now my decision to vote for someone will not hinge on their choice for vice president: george bush (the first) waltzed into the white house with dan quayle puppy doggin' behind him and richard nixon pulled first term governor spiro agnew out of maryland to win the presidency in 1968. experience is not a defining measure of ones ability to fill the lukewarm seat of the vice presidency, but once again, i have to go back to my mantra that john mccain does not have the judgement and temperament to lead this country.

ms. palin may be a very nice lady, but i don't agree with her politics (right wing wackos who continually spout off about gun rights and the right to life, while condemning folk to the electric chair scare me) ... and i'm sure a majority of the "disaffected" hillary clinton supporters don't agree with her politics either.

this choice doesn't hurt mccain with republicans... but in all honesty, it probably doesn't help much with independents! his pick is a knee jerk reaction to what the democrats have done, which only reinforces the assertion that plezWorld is REALLY SCARED of what a john mccain presidency will do to america... frightening! his lack of judgement will not only doom this nation, but portends horror for the entire world!