"insights"? or "jokes"? Bill's a bit better for the latter than the former. At least you can take his jokes more seriously (kidding Bill - lov ya :-))

Sarah Palin?

Good on reform, fiscal discipline and federalist issues. Bad on civil rights and marriage equality. It will shake up the race somewhat.

McCain's choice is highly frivolous or deeply cynical, or both. Whether it's good, successful, politics remains to be seen, but it makes a mockery of the belief that a vice president ought to be capable of functioning as president of the world's only superpower. Beyond that, in recent decades, the veep's role has grown into one of trusted adviser. No comment needed on that score.

Immediate reaction among the "inside-the-Beltway" herd seems to focus on the question of the Biden-Palin debate, e.g., will he be patronizing toward her? Remember George H.W. Bush's treatment of Geraldine Ferraro? Condescending and widely criticized. And who happened to win that election?

"....but it makes a mockery of the belief that a vice president ought to be capable of functioning as president of the world's only superpower." LOL! She has as much experience as the guy HEADING the other ticket....or more.

Who has more experience? An two year Governor - an executive leader of a government of a State with roughly the same population as Biden's State of Deleware, or a first-term Senator who has never ran anything more than a community outreach program (who-hoo!) who practically started running for President the minute he took office?

I don't think you want to go to the 'experience well'. Because then the question is, "Are you more comfortable with the lack of experience being #1 on the ticket or #2?"

This is why we need Bill McDonald. The whole discussion has become tiresome in just 24 hours.

Not a Republican, although I have voted that way in the past. I guess I'm technically a Democrat, having registered that way to vote in the Oregon primary and yet to change back to Independent.

I'm pro-choice, pro some reasonable gun restrictions, pro stem-cell research.

Not much of a conservative.

BUT:

Sarah Palin has a lot of things to bring to the party (GOP) that are worth watching. If she doesn't implode during this campaign, we may be looking at the first woman president of the United States sometime in the future (that was the first startling reaction I had during her acceptance speech). She appears to have a quality Hillary (whom I have supported in the past) doesn't: likeability. I'm pretty darned impressed so far -- key words: SO FAR!. But then even McCain doesn't know her much more than I do (and most Americans) at this point.

However, I'll be voting for Obama. I've had enough of the GOP (and Rove-Cheney) for now.

I hope McCain has the decency to realize how shallow his arguments regarding "experience" will be when his VP pick has so little. McCain, and the rest of the country, need to realize that his VP matters more than most because McCain has a better than average chance to bite it in office.

ps: Delaware is 27% more populous than Alaska.

Butch-

Are you kidding?

Palin's Resume:
City Council - Wasilla, AK (pop. 5000)- 4yrs
Mayor- Wasilla, AK - 6yrs
Governor- AK - 20 months

Obama's Resume:
State Legislature- IL - 7yrs
U.S. Senator -

Are you serious? Are you paid to troll with talking points, or are you just that gullible? Her resume makes me question whether she was even qualified to be governor in the first place.

Experience? Palin's idea of 'experience' is being too cozy to Ted Stevens' crooked network.

Transparent and desperate pick for McCain. How is that not obvious?

I meant to type:

Obama's Resume:
State Legislature- IL - 7yrs
U.S. Senator - nearly 4yrs

TKrueg-

You forgot to mention Palin's important work for the PTA.

TKrueg:

Your touting Obama's resume like its an advantage. Its not. There is a difference between being a legislator and being an executive in charge of running a States government. Palin, in her brief stint, has some palpable accomplishments to show for it. Obama has shady associations.

PS - remember that the race is Obama v. McCain, not Obama v. Palin.

Someone clever could do some cute parody of Heart's "Barracuda." For those of you of tender years who may not know what I'm posting about, you can see Nancy and Ann at their very best on You Tube.

If the difference between executive and legislative experience is so important (as Butch has noted above), its worth noting that McCain and Obama have the same (zero) experience. Under that logic, their resumes are equally qualified for the executive position.

I chuckle at the Obama inexperience talking point. You see, it is based upon conjecture about his ability to govern given his relative youth and lack of years of service. Of course he came from humble beginnings, became editor of Harvard Law Review, obtained a Harvard law degree, sacrificed big bucks for public service where he was very effective. He taught constitutional law, became a state legislator and a freshman US Senator. None of this experience seems to matter. Ok, but what makes me chuckle is that we have all witnessed first hand how this inexperienced politician was somehow able to create a movement formidable enough to overcome the well oiled Clinton machine. Do we really need more proof of his ability to accomplish results despite long odds against him? Trolls need to revisit this place called reality where the rest of us have seen a neophyte politician prevail with nothing more than on the job training.

No Butch. You can't slink out of that one. You were somehow comparing Obama to Palin, which is laughable.

And you shouldn't forget that either Biden or Obama can run circles around McCain in their grasp of policy and lawmaking. McCain was never interested in understanding, just posturing and pretending to be a Maverick (tm)!

I like Michael Palin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Palin

He's funny.

TKrueg,

I agree comparing the two is laughable...but not in the way you intended.

With that, I'm done here. I was probably one more post away from a 3 day comments suspension....

Hooray...butch goes back to his cave for 3 whole days!

I happened to read up on Palin last week and when the announcement came after a few stunned moments I realized why he likes her. I think It was a gutsy move for the old maverick. Comments like Tkreug "too cozy to Ted Stevens' crooked network" shows a lack of knowledge of who and what she has done in Alaska.
This is going to shake up the race and the "Talking Heads in MSM" had better do a little research because the ones that have already shot from the hip look like idiots.
--- Let the games begin---

I love Heart! "If the real thing don't do the trick, you'd better think up something
quick."

Palin commands an 80% approval rating as Alaska governor, which is even higher than Ted Kulongoski's rating among Portlanders.

In my view of her astrologically charted destiny, she never had it and ain't gonna get it.

Some of us think the same about you Tensky...

Obama's Resume:
State Legislature- IL - 7yrs
U.S. Senator - nearly 4yrs

Not to nit-pick, but has he actually been a Senator actively for 4 years? He became a Senator in 2005, and he announced his Presidential candidacy in Feb. 2007. I doubt there was much time to be a Senator since.

Read the Alaska papers folks.
Both of the larger daily papers in Fairbanks and Anchorage have expressed serious reservations about Palin's abilities and "experience" on their editorial pages today. Also the so called approval ratings are not 80% but more like 65% and supposedly falling.
AND she was a supporter of Stevens and his 'bridge to nowhere' until it became obvious that this was a big political mistake. It is all on the record in the papers and on video.
Just think about this....would any of you want the mayor of (pick a small town of about 8,000 anyplace) to be "a heart beat away" from the presidency. Because that is what we will get if the McCain/Palin ticket is elected.
McCain's first "presidential decision" is a dangerous one and an insult to the American people.

ps: "Sarah baraccuda" came in 2nd in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant. She lost to the first African American to be selected Miss Alaska.
Perhaps we can hope....this will happen again.

Aside from the frightening resemblance to Tina Fey and the frighteningly right wing positions, it is hard to know what to say about her. Clearly it is neocon triangulation of some kind.

The reaction I hear from progressive women is angry and appalled. But those votes have never really been in play, no matter how much the media wished it for the sake of hot copy. How the traditionally rethuglican, but now tending more liberal women who ARE in play in a big way this year will take it, I don't know. I am afraid they will like her enough to come back to the rethugs. That scares me.

So she is inexperienced ... I remember the same hubbub about Patty Murray from WA state, the famous "tennis shoe Senator" who somehow got elected after a few years in the state legislature.

Granted, the Senate is not the VP, but one shouldn't ignore the fact that this lady could, like Obama, appeal primarily on her attitude, personality, good looks, ability to speak, etc. (we won't know until we actually know her, of course).

Some people can learn more from their life experiences than others, and thus can succeed with less time engaged in any given experience.

In the NBA, LeBron James came straight from high school ready to be a star. He didn't need a year or two of college ball. On the other hand, Travis Outlaw would have benefited from a good college program.

It's not hard to figure out who is the LeBron in this campaign and who is the Travis.

"... we won't know until we actually know her..."

Which is NEVER. Character substance is NEVER in massmedia. Always and only reports report what reports say -- How does she look? How do other media say she looks? What do those other media look like, anyway? Media that look like that are kneejerk going to say she looks that way, but we know her look better -- you'll see more of her here... stay tuned.

"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser, Aug 29, 2008.

An Olympic-sized opportunity missed
You wouldn't know it from watching television this week, but political conventions are about far more than politics. They are about policy, about embracing the successes of the past and preparing for the challenges of the future. They are the parties' best opportunity to share their visions for America with the people who will decide which course we will take.

It was easy to lose sight of that while watching television coverage of the Democratic convention this week. ... Watching television coverage of the convention, with the relentless focus on what the Democrats should do, whether they did it well enough, what they didn't do but should have, and how people would react to it, it often seemed that many journalists don't really have much interest in journalism; they'd rather play armchair campaign manager.

The media's obsessive focus on what the Democrats should be doing and how they should be doing it is, of course, a spectacular waste of time.

WOT.