August 29, 2008

Sarah Palin is McCain's Running Mate

I have not heard of Gov. Palin until this morning. Have you heard of her before? I suppose that the Republicans hope that this shakes up the political election and gives them some of the 'change' mantra that Obama dominates today.

Props to the folks here and here that had the foresight to create websites promoting Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) as a vice-presidential candidate. Here is a video with some background on Gov. Palin.




Gov. Palin is a mother of 5 children. Her youngest child was born with Downs Syndrome. One of her oldest sons enlisted in the military last year. She is a pro-life candidate. She played on the Alaska state basketball championship in 1982. She graduated from the University of Idaho. She was a sportscaster on television in Alaska before serving on a city council and becoming mayor of a town with 7,500 citizens. She lost her bid to become lieutenant-governor in Alaska a few years ago.

She rebounded from that defeat with a victory in 2006 in her race to become Alaska governor. Not many Republicans were winning in 2006 ... so it says something that she won the race in her state. She has a 87% favorable rating in her state.

It appears that McCain is making effort to bring out the women's vote ... and perhaps seek support from Hillary Clinton voters that don't support Barack Obama. However, I think that many of those supporters were brought back to their Democratic home during the Democratic Convention in Denver this past week.

It appears that this is a gamble being made by John McCain to change the conversation. Please share your thoughts on this VP selection. What say u about Sarah Palin?

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I have heard of Mrs. Palin before having written extensively about the impasse of sorts between Alaska and Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and BP Plc over Thomson Point. I don't think this Mrs. Palin will pull Hillary Clinton supporters from Barack Obama. Hillary had a lot of experience. This woman was the mayor of an Alaskan town with less than 8,000 people. She is governor of a state that is smaller than Texas, for example. What experience does she bring to the table? I am deeply surprised that he met her once before he offered the VP spot. This is supposed to be the first major decision of his candidacy and he picks a woman who has been in office for less than two years. This seems like an act of desparation to me. He's taking a tremendous gamble and I would have felt better had he picked Mitt Romney, despite the Mormon issue, or even Kay Bailey Hutchinson. The only drawback to Hutchinson is that she is from Texas and nobody wants to be associated with a Bush.

Anonymous said...

Villager,

I say Sarah Palin is the best gift McCain could have ever given Barack and the Democratic Party short of pulling out of the race.

Marvalus said...

I agree with teamowens...

Congratulations, Pres. Obama, is what I say...

Unknown said...

Janet - It doesn't say much for McCain's judgement when you consider who he chose as his running mate. I smiled when I heard that there were 15,000 people in the Dayton crowd for her introduction ... more than twice as many as the town for which she was mayor...

Keith - I agree. She is reminding me very much of Dan Quayle...

Marva - I think you may be right. We'll see how the next 9 weeks turn out...

Unknown said...

USpace - I'm glad that you are happy with your selection. I agree that Palin is equivalent to Dan Quayle. Palin seems like a nice enough person. I admire her for having a baby at 44-years of age. I question her judgement for getting pregnant in the first place. Not many 44-year old women with four children are looking to have another baby. What's up with that? Poor judgement, perhaps?!

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

yep, plus sarah got a gun LOL

Unknown said...

Morning Villager!
I'm glad to see that your technical difficulties are corrected.
Sarah Palin was an interesting choice to say the least!
I think this was a very calculated, well thought out, and ambitious move on McCain's behalf. They are hoping to generate a huge buzz, which they have accomplished! They are hoping to prove that with this new, young, fresh face, who is a WOMAN (which the Dems didn't deliver) and a mother that they are also in favor and pushing for CHANGE. They are hoping to pull those Clinton supporters which were left dangling...I don't know if they have or will accomplish that directive because a lot of Hillary's feminists supporters are largely PRO-CHOICE and Palin is PRO-LIFE, so this should be interesting!
When it comes to experience people are not even considering the size of the states all they see is that she was a Governor and a Mayor, so they think that she is qualified, because Obama has not been Mayor or Governor of anything. But also we must remember that Palin is running in the VP spot and Obama is running at the top of the Dem ticket for President, two VERY different positions so the experience issue between those two is really a non-issue since they are not even playing on the same field...
So I say score 1 for the Republicans on this bold move. Will it pay off?? We'll have to wait and see.
I am interested to see Palin and Biden debate! That should be fun.

Anonymous said...

Hey Wayne,

I first heard about Gov. Palin a little less than two months ago when we were talking about the County Commissioner scandal surrounding her. Since then however, the only real attention I gave her was when she won my award for the "Hottest Female Politician". A bit shallow? Maybe. But, I ain't gon even lie: she's got it goin' on.

Politically, this was a clever move. Not smart necessarily; but definitely clever. If I'd venture a guess, I'd say that at least 20% of Hill's supporters who may have had second thoughts about defecting to the McCain will now do just that. For those in that group who are female, that number is likely to increase. Women voters felt voiceless during the primaries (why I'll never know...). Adding an "all American girl" to his ticket will allow McCain ride on that emotional wave of gender all the way to November. Thus, the cleverness behind his selection.

It wasn't so smart because he chose Palin. McCain could've probably accomplished the same feat of getting more female supporters by placing a qualified person on his ballot, whom he ACTUALLY knows (i.e. Clinton herself). So in that respect, his 'clever' move was nevertheless not so smart.

Ultimately, I'm not entirely convinced that pissed off Clinton supporters - women especially - completely gave in to Hill's plea that they make this election less about Hillary and more about the country's interests. They may talk a mean game about how they will following Hillary in supporting Obama. But when the rubber meets the road and they've got the privacy of a voting booth, I expect for their frustrations to come out. They'll support a ticket with whitefemale with no qualifications before they'd support a ticket with the guy who just beat their champion.

Unknown said...

Rumors have grown like an uncontainable wildfire overnight as to whether Gov. Palin is Trig's biological mother or grandmother. Watch this video filmed on 2/20/08 of the governor "hiking" to work. Trig was born less than 2 months later. Governor Palin's a liar

Unknown said...

RDawg - I'm heading over to read your post about Sarah with a gun..

Regina - Yeah, the issue has been identified and fixed (sigh). Sarah Palin did manage to knock Obama off the front pages after his acceptance speech. However, the short-term gain may be overcome by the long-term loss. If Barack Obama lost ... and Hillary selected Biden ... and McCain selected Ward Connerly or Clarence Thomas ... would Black folks flock to vote for McCain?

Hell-to-the-naw! So, I don't see Hillary Clinton supporters flocking to support McCain-Palin ticket either.

Unmitigated - Hottest Female Politician Award! I can see why she made it to the top of that list (smile)...

Blog Queen - I hadn't heard that rumor before. I think that I'll turn it into a post for other villagers to consider. Thank you for the lead!