John McCain has announced his VP pick and it's ... Sarah Palin? Seriously?For those of you who follow American politics diligently, you probably still have no clue who she is. She's been the governor of Alaska for a whole eighteen months, and before that she was the mayor of a town of nearly eight thousand people! Wow. That certainly pounds home the "experience" argument that the McCain camp has been pushing.
And remember how the McCain campaign has been trying to portray Obama as an empty-headed celebrity? Guess who was Miss Runner Up in the race for Miss Alaska? (Hint: It was not Ted Stevens.) And yet, at the same time, she's somehow unknown. I saw the MSNBC crew and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson both clueless about how to even pronounce her last name.
Strategically, this makes just a whole lot of sense. Alaska is a swing state with a whopping three electoral votes, and Palin is a die-hard social and economic conservative who will certainly solidify a conservative base that's shrunk by ten points since the last election and will doubtlessly help McCain reach out to independents who will love, love, love her cred as a right-wing ideologue.
Oh, and did I mention that she comes from a state where he party is awash in corruption scandals from head to toe, and she herself is currently under investigation for firing the state's Public Safety Commissioner when he wouldn't follow her pressure and fire her ex-brother-in-law after a messy divorce? Awesome.
Update: Alright, I yield to the folks at Sadly No in the search for proper imagery.
And, while we're at it, the Poor Man has a video clip that shows just how awesome a pick this is. Clueless and corrupt? Holy shit, that's a change from the current crop of Republicans.
15 comments:
I think this falls under the "its so crazy it might just work" strategy.
Update - after watching the Biden acceptance speech, Studiodave dug extra deep for the monthly contribution to the campaign.
A little bit of apology money...
Seriously, "she's a women"
"Tell me more, go on!"
"You see, women can't see through this pathetic attempt to attract Hillary folks..."
"Brilliant!"
She's a right-wing, pro-life, pro-creationism fundamentalist who's adored by the social conservatives.
She's not going to pull in many women, except for the nuttiest nuts of the PUMA fringe. Strongly pro-life. Even Ferraro, running as a pro-choice feminist, didn't secure a majority of the woman's vote for Mondale in 1984.
Instead, I think this alienates independents. McCain had been fighting hard for them, and now he's caved into the right-wing base and seemed to be a panderer playing interest group politics.
Meh.
McCain's only chance (and he knows this) will be to get something crazy going. The hope has to be that she'll solidify leaning-Republicans, snag a few angry Clinton supporters, and somehow resonate with the moronic undecideds out there (hiding somewhere in the mountains - retarded!).
She's eye-candy for the ticket and will show nicely on Redbook and People - maybe from grocery store housewives will cast their vote that way. Also, it allows people to keep their secret racism: they can vote against Obama, but vote for a woman.
It was a shrewd move on the Republican part, but the real question is, "why didn't they choose a more qualified VP candidate?" I think it's getting pretty clear that no one wants to go-down in flames against Obama.
Remember when the only one they could find to run against Obama for Senate in Illinois (after the Jack Ryan perv sex thing) was batshit crazyman Alan Keyes? Well, it's 2004 all over again - except this time, it's national!
Also, it allows people to keep their secret racism: they can vote against Obama, but vote for a woman.
Great point, rusrus.
Let's not forget that McBush has a taste for younger women, as well as for former beauty queens. Who do you think McBush wants to spend those long, hot, late-night planning sessions on the bus with, Lieberman or Palin?
The left and right are decided before the primaries were done but the middle that will decide who wins in November aren't going to vote on issues - they are going to vote for the guy that they want to have a beer with, the woman that reminds them of themselves and their friends. They are going to "feel" their way towards a candidate not "think" it out - and if the republican ticket seemed cold, distant and too old school before then it just got a little warmer, closer to home and cutting edge. Her experience in public life isn't much (if at all)less than Bush had when he first ran.
She also gave more props to Hillary in her speech today than Obama did last night (where her name was noticeably absent as he recounted and thanked those who gave speeches earlier in the convention). Her performance in Ohio today was far from Quayle like - and the Bush-Quayle ticket ended up doing ok.
Sorry, Mitchell, but I still think this wins over no new women to the McCain campaign and actively turns away independent men.
And yes, she praised Hillary today, but she's on record as saying she could never vote for her because she found Hillary "creepy." Yeah, that coupled with the fact that she's a former Pat Buchanan organizer should win over the diehard feminists.
P.S. Buchanan said she's not qualified for the job. Damn.
I got her Hillary quote wrong.
"She said she felt kind of bad she couldn't support a woman, but she didn't like Clinton's "whining.""
http://www.newsweek.com/id/156190
I hope you're right but my super liberal wife who worked fulltime on the Hillary for Sen. campaign just watched the Palin speech and cried. She won't vote for McCain but for some feminist this was a pretty big f***ing deal.
I remember being in Ohio before the Bush-Gore vote and talking to *alot* of people who could not make up their mind - seriously undecided. That woke me up to the fact that for many people issues don't matter at all, neither does experience - it actually is a bizarre beauty contest of sorts. Hopefully she does just as well in this one as she did in her last beauty contest.
Point taken, Mitchell.
While I was hoping we'd face off against Mitt Romney, the father of Ben, Craig, Josh, Matt, & Tagg, it looks like we'll get the mother of Bristol, Piper, Track, Willow, & Trig.
And the Republicans make fun of "Barack Hussein Obama." Say what you will, that was a normal name where his father came from. Unless the current GOP is living in an LLBean catalog, those names are ridiculous.
Ottoman, you be funny.
"it looks like we'll get the mother of Bristol, Piper, Track, Willow, & Trig."
You must be fu@king me. Those are her kids' names? She has a child named Piper Palin? God save us.
No lie. It's all explained here. Be sure to check out the last bit.
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Her youngest son is named Trig Paxson Van Palin. After Trig was born, a spokesperson for Palin said that Trig is Norse for true and brave victory. His middle name, Paxson, is the name of an area of Alaska that Palin and her husband think is "one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska," according to a report on MSNBC.
Palin is on record joking that she was naming Trig "Van Palin" after eighties rockers Van Halen.
The meanings of the names of Palin's other children are:
Bristol, Palin's oldest daughter, 17, means "meeting place by the bridge," according to thinkbabynames.com. Bristol is Old English and is the name of an important town in England, which many US cities were named after as well. It has not ranked in the top 1000 baby names in the US in the last 100 years. Bristol is also the name of a bay in Alaska where Palin's brother-in-law is a fisherman.
The name of 13 year old Willow is the Old English name of a tree - the willow. Last year, the SSA ranked it as #230 in popularity for baby girls. Willow is also a town in Alaska.
Piper is Palin's youngest daughter at 7 years old. Piper is also an Old English name meaning pipe player or flute player. It is commonly used as a boy and a girl name. It ranked #240 on the SSA database last year and has only been in the top 1000 names since 1999. Piper is reportedly named after the aircraft by the same name.
Palin's 18-year-old son is named Track. Try as I did, I was unable to confirm the history if this name in relation to Palin. But as we all know, track is an Olympic sport. It's a very uncommon name for a person. I'll continue to search at the meaning of this name and will contact her spokesperson to find out its meaning. There are some rumors out there about the origins of Track's name being related to where he was conceived.
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Stay classy, Palins!
I would like it noted for the record that I came up with this title before TBogg.
You're all witnesses in my plagiarism suit.
This the link I meant to post, great article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/the-worst-vice-presidenti_b_122491.html
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