Exactly. How can he say that Obama is not ready when he thinks she is ready. This looks like desperation.

is it possible that mccain confused picking his vp with picking his next wife?

No wonder they couldn't fill the theater for this announcement. Talk about a non-event.

Sarah who?

Can we all say gimmick? But the press will predicably fall for it. "Look, isn't McCain so mavericky by picking a woman who hunts and snowmobilies?" Grrrr.

This looks like a very impulsive pick. If McCain was telling the truth (in yesterday's interview), he made this selection in the last day, almost like he was responding to how well the Democratic convention was suddenly going. With strong support from Clinton, the line of attack saying that Obama was "unready" was looking pretty weak, so maybe McCain decided to double down on Maverick instead.

This looks like a panicky move -- Obama has change down, so McCain's best choice was to stay the course of his campaign and stick to attacks based on inexperience.

My thought is no one else wanted the job.

It's going to be fascinating to see how a 72 year old man who picked a woman with 2 years experience as Governor of Alaska as his running mate will make the argument that Barack Obama lacks judgment and experience going forward.

Hello Dan Quayle #2. This is just unbelievable--well, yes, it is believable because I bet after McCain and his gang watched Obama's speech last night, they pulled out their VP lists again, threw up their hands (and their dinner) and said WTF. Sweet Jesus I can hardly wait for the debates!!!!

I'm still not believing it. I see some reasons for the pick, but overall, it's just too stupid.

John McCain has two children older than Sarah Palin.

There are 16 U.S. cities with a larger population than Alaska, including Austin, Texas and Colombus, Ohio.

This seems kind of ill-informed and reactionary.

Oh wait it's John McCain.

This seems like John McCain.

Sterling judgment and fantastic timing Senator McCAin:

Lawmakers will hire someone within a week to investigate whether Governor Sarah Palin abused her power in firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The legislative council approved 100,000 dollars for the investigation that will find out whether Palin was angry at Monegan for not firing an Alaska State Trooper who went through a messy divorce with Palin's sister.

On Monday afternoon, the Joint Legislative Council, filled with Republicans and Democrats, voted 12 to 0 to formally call for an investigation against Governor Palin in a manner—that they are stressing—will be unbiased and done in a timely fashion. ...

http://www.ktva.com/ci_10026165

Hil-ar-i-ous! Supporters of Barrack "Jay Gadsby" Obama whining about a candidate with all image and little experience? The only thing the Democratic nominee has ever run is his mouth. (And for the next office, of course.) Even his strongest supporters can't come up with a single substantive accomplishment for their guy. You are the ones who made having a pretty face and a compelling personal story enough to move into the White House. Live with it.

Being a cute sportscaster beauty queen is all the experience you need to stand up to Iran! Iran is nothing compared to the Alaska Republican Party and state trooper brother-in-laws.

Only black men need experience to escape the arrogance and uppity tag. A cute white women with a college degree in TV journalism with less than two years experience running a small state thinks she's qualified to be President of the United States? An inspiring tale.

So McCain has picked his Dan Quayle. Brilliant.

OK, I'm sorry. That's not really fair. Dan Quayle at least had some experience.

I don't think this is the end of the line for the experience argument. The new McCain line might be something like:

Experience + Change, we put the experience at the top of the ticket.

Then they will argue Palin will have time to grow into the job while Obama has to lead from day 1.

also

How will this fit with the Obama=Future, McCain=Past?

This move seems like a signal that this line of attack is being effecting; will the selection of a young (very, very, very, conservative) female candidate look refreshing or cynical?

I think we can envision a long series of "Drill, Drill, Drill" attacks with Palin as the 'oil expert' for the campaign.

It is a surprise pick so it may take a long time for the conventional wisdom to congeal on this one....

So he's hoping to pick up all the voters who would never vote for a black man by running with a woman. I'm sure they'll have no problem with being progressive enough to vote to put a woman in office. IF she can pull off appearing just like Margaret Thatcher. But surely someone will say "I knew Margaret Thatcher, and YOU'RE no Margaret Thatcher."

Kevin you forgot a couple important points. Check out any of the right wing message boards and you'll see she's also HOT and a LIFETIME MEMBER OF THE NRA. They're atwitter with McCain's genius pick.

Thinnest resume in a VP pick since FDR pick in 1920, or, perhaps, Shriver.

True, Davis. It's pathetic. Yet STILL more experience than Obama.

Look McCain read the tea leaves and knew he was going to lose in November. So he threw a "Hail Mary" pass. It could work--get a lot of press attention, peel of some PUMAs, swing a few women, and who knows, she may out debate Biden feeling she has nothing to lose. OR, this whole thing could crash and burn. Isn't she mixed up in some corruption investigation in Alaska? Whatever, but everything I read suggests she should not be underestimated.

NOTE TO ALL POSTERS: It is now officially ok to worry whether a candidate has enough experience to be in the White House. Please proceed with outraged comments. Thank you.

I am tired of hearing all this she is Quayle stuff. Quayle was on the winning team for at least one presidential election.

Check out the right wing message boards and you will see that they are full of happy people saying 'now we've got a chance again'.

They call her Sarah 'barracuda' Palin.

It sure seems to energize their base.

That might not be enough to ensure a victory for McCain, but it should make us take his pick very seriously.

I just read a comment at TPM that I think is precious.

The Prickly POW and the beauty queen. It sounds like a 70s sitcom.

She is actually pretty hot.

She comes credentialed in those areas, at least: http://pimpmypressrelease.wonkette.com/politics/sarah-palin/gilf-update-gov-sarah-palin-as-miss-wasilla-219635.php

Will this fly with the women-of-a-certain-age who were pining for Hillary? SOmething tells me that when they look at Palin, they won't see themselves, they'll see the girl their husbands hooked up with during that out-of-town sales meeting. If they think it "hurts to be passed over for the younger black male" won't it really, really stink to be passed over for this younger, very inexperienced woman?

1) Alaska is feeling very substantial and early effects of global warming, and 2) the Oil & Gas industries are still very important to the Alaska economy (and a former head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission). Given this, I wonder what Palin's positions are on these issues and how she reconciles their competing demands. Is she the head-in-sand denier type (A: Yes)? A drill-everywhere type (A: Yes)? I sense a huge angle of attack...

Gotta say the optics are kinda icky. The old guy picks a pretty younger woman with very little in the way of credentials. What's the name of Bialystock's secretary in The Producers? The writers for late night shows must be ecstatic. McCain having something of a known history in this particular realm of endeavor. Weird choice.

Wonder if it was the candidate asserting himself against Rove's advice, kinda like that Harriet Myers thing the Chimpster stumbled into. Always dangerous to let these idiots off the leash.

Me and my gramps are runnin' for president!

John McCain is an old 72. He is a cancer survivor. His father and grandfather died about the same age. He was enhanced interrogated for 5 1/2 years. There is a really good chance that if McCain wins Gov. Palin could be President before 2012. She might make a wonderful president, but folks, are we ready to take that kind of risk.

hey Pat, which candidate was running on experience? and which party was mocking the other candidate for a relative lack of experience ?

i.o.w: we're laughing at your blatant hypocrisy.

laugh, laugh, laughing! cause it's funny. cause you're a bunch of hypocrites.

Hillary wasn't available? McCain has cinched the Inuit vote!? What are Palin's connections to Sen. Stevens? Since Obama has a lock on Hawaii's vote, McCain has countered with a lock on Alaska - cold storage. (Maybe he can add an igloo to the 7 homes he and/or Cindy own.) Now McCain's problem may be with the other 48 states. Maybe McCain was trying to capture the spirit of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the She." Will Cindy be looking over John's shoulder? McCain is proving that he is not McAble.

Up with the post-menopausal vote.

This was a better pick than it might first appear. Although McCain gives up the experience argument, he guarantees huge viewership of the RNC. She's hot, and men will want to see her, fantasize about her, etc. If she's self-possessed and articulate, she becomes the female Obama, suggesting that she has the judgment and character to be president, just the like the black guy with little experience. In effect, it's now Obama v. Palin and if she can hold her own in a debate, McCain becomes an afterthought. The real issue is whether folks would rather have an inexperience black man or an inexperienced white evangelical female leading the country. The race is no longer only about Obama's historic run as a black man; it's about Palin's historic run as VP and the real possibility that she could be the first female POTUS. Advantage McCain if she's got the rhetorical chops.

PanderMe: Palin's historic run as VP

Howzzat? Maybe in 1984 I was still drinking, but I think there was a woman VP candidate back then.

I actually think she has more experience than Obama. And more executive experience than Obama, Biden and McCain COMBINED. Nevertheless, any conversation about experience is a winner for the Republicans I think. At least I think they think that.

But since I'm so clearly wrong, how about hitting a few softballs off me then? Start with the list of accomplishment of your nominee which make him qualified to sit in the big chair. You know, things he's DONE, as opposed to his compelling personal story. Maybe follow with an argument that disproves the charge that Palin has MORE experience than Barry. Having worked for a time in both the Illinois Legislature and the U.S. Congress, I have a pretty good idea of those positions. But I'm certainly willing to be publicly corrected.

If you need me, I'll just be here in the outfield waiting to see the balls flying over my head.

No way "In effect, it's now Obama v. Palin". Maybe that's a theme McCain's people want to push, but it'll never work. Presidential campaigns are about the person running for president. As much as political junkies talk about it, the the VP is an afterthought who matters very little when people decide who they're voting for. Maybe some hard core pro-life, pro-gun republicans will be excited about this but not swing voters. At best its a wash, and more likely i think they'll see her as vastly underqualified and really kinda ridiculous.

I can't WAIT for the VP debate.
"Well, back when I was a sports newscaster..."

Anonymous, you are insane. Palin has been the governor of the 4th smallest state in the union for one year seven months. Before that she was the mayor of a town of 6,700. Before that she was appointed to a board that overseas oil and gas in Alaska. Before that she was a sportscaster. A nice resume, but a resume that doesn't begin to compare with anybody else in the race.

Don't forget one thing, Barack Obama beat the Clintons and took over the Democratic establishment. That is a giant accomplishment. In its own way it is the biggest accomplishment of anybody in this race.

This is a tell - this is a mavericky choice. After 4 days of the Democrats making it unmistakeably clear that they were nailing good soldier McCain to Bush, McCain is going to run as far away - as far away as he can - from this. A clean government Republican? All this talk about upending the convention? Bush / Cheney are going to be trashed and McCain is going to try to reinvent himself in midair.

It's a hell of a gamble.

Setting the race as Obama vs Palin? How does McCain in '08 - Palin in '10 really sound? I don't think that line plays very well.

I predict big splash for a week or maybe two if the convention is pushed, then most people will really think about it and wonder just what the hell McSame was thinking....

Will this fly with the women-of-a-certain-age who were pining for Hillary?

Hmmm... pro-life, pro-gun former beauty queen/sportscaster about whom Ralph Reed is "ecstatic." Never mind what Hillary supporters think of this pick -- how does Cindy feel about it???

Um, PanderMe? I think you need a little history lesson. No need to thank me. But here's a tip: exposing yourself as an errant ignoramus on such a factual mistake is never very good for the persuasiveness of the rest of your position.

Marc Ambinder reports McCain's communications chief Maggie Rodriguez as saying this choice was "from McCain's heart."

Uh, yeah, or some other non-brain part of his anatomy. But "heart" is as good a euphemism as any.

I've been saying the late-night jokes would pretty much write themselves but I never thought McCain's own comm director would prove the point for me.

Unlike Dan Quayle (or most Republicans), Palin is smart and appears to be honest. Still the choice smacks of desperation by McCain. After Obama's speech, McCains gut call was that he needed to go the Hail Mary route.

I actually think she has more experience than Obama.

We're sure you do, not-so-anonymous-Pat, but maybe you could humor everyone by, oh, laying out that experience for us. Here -- I'll get you started with the first couple of bullet points:

-- winner, Miss congeniality, 1984;
-- runner-up, Miss Alaska, 1984.

Maybe you can flesh out the details on her years of baton twirling.

I think it is a good move on McCain's part. He just needs her to peel off a few women votes and men that will vote for her because she is good looking (hard to believe but I know people like this). And she is an outsider.

What "experience" did the following Vice-Presidents have prior to their election:

Elbridge Gerry
Daniel D. Tompkins
John Caldwell Calhoun
Richard Mentor Johnson
George Mifflin
William Rufus
John Cabell Breckinridge
Hannibal Hamlin
Schuyler Colfax
Henry Wilson
William Almon Wheeler
Thomas Andrews Hendricks
Levi Parsons Morton
Garret Augustus Hobart
James Schoolcraft
Thomas Riley Marshall
Charles Gates Dawes
Charles Curtis
John Nance Garner
Henry Agard Wallace

I'm kind of curious how caring for a 5 month old with Down Syndrome while running 24/7 for office fits in with Repug "Family Values."

Don't even joke, Kevin: Doocey floated that turd about proximity to Russia meaning Palin had foreign policy experience this morning on Fox:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/211284.php

Ok heres how i see it Obama say's she has no experience? she has run govt. not only taken part in it,Obama cant say that! Biden has taken part in govt. not run one. Gov. Palin has been the commander of a national gaurd niether Obama nor Biden can say that, And as for no forien policy experiance she has more than either of the Dem. canidates she has dealt with Canadian nd Russian govt.'s

About that Added Bonus of Alaska being close to Russia -- somebody made that argument on MSNBC in all seriousness.

last nite i was inspired by a brilliant, dynamic man who seems to sincerely care about his fellow americans. my thoughts were -how can i contribute and do more to help our country? I felt hope for the future of my family and nation. today with the announcement of mccains vp i am inspired in a new way. i may one day be able to run our country. even though i have no experience i believe that i am pretty enough, i share palin's birthday, i have the right female anatomy and i balance running my own company while being a mom. it doesn't matter that i know nothing about foreign policy, that i have zero relationships in washington and that i am completely unqualified in every sense of the word to hold this position. if you were running for President of the United States is this who you would have picked?

I know I saw McCain check out Palin's ass at least once during her speech.

McCain picked her because he thinks her perfume will cover up his smell of dirty diapers which keeps even his wife from giving him more than a long-distance perfunctory kiss at stump speeches.

Nice try, cowardly Anonymous, but Univ. of Idaho, beauty contests, sportscaster, mayor of Tinytown, AK and 19 months as governor of a three electoral votes state in the pocket of Big Oil does not compare to Harvard Law Review, ignoring big law firm money for community organizing, serving in the state legislature & US Senate. Not by a very long country mile. Careful, your desperation is showing.

We'll soon have evidence that this poor woman is in way over her head. Does anyone seriously want her to be president if McCain can't finish his term? How screwed would this country be then?

Not to mention the grievous insult that this pick is to the Hillary Clinton supporters McCain is trying to grab with this decision. Mrs. Clinton v. Mrs. Palin -- who seems presidential and who seems provincial? It's not even close. How many non-horny Republicans had even heard of her before today?

Thank you John McCain for shooting yourself in the foot again. Can't wait for that first VP debate!

Think of this! If McCain/Palin tickets wins (remember the FL and OH voting machines) and something "happens" to John McCain, the Neo Con's have a new feminine puppet. Who knows, maybe Dick will be choosen as VP for President Sarah Palin and they won't even have to be as nice to her as they are to "W" because she is a woman.

Obama is scared now -- Sarah Palin is almost as pretty as him!

Alaska's not a central front in the new Cold War, it's where a new cold front comes through the central ANWR.

Um, yeah.

We know that Chaney has been pulling Bush's chain for 8 years now. The question is who is pulling McCain's chain that made this choice of a relatively uneducated inexperienced nursing mother with 4 small children. If McCain did this on his own then he is not qualified to be President.

At least she will be able to give McCain something his wife can't give him and do something she probably has already refused: Breast feed him and change his diaper! You go McCain.

i don't think either palin or obama would be ready to be president! shame the ticket isn't mccain/biden. i would feel more secure with either one of them as my president.

I do hand it to ol Mc: Few folks running for the presidency would have the cajonnes to pick a running mate who will soon be the subject of a bi-partison, state investigation into alleged abuse of power.

seriously, I had to buy the domain name.

www.sarahpalinisajoke.com

Please seriously, come by anytime and visit.

Sarah Palin is the spoiled brat daughter of the Confederacy. Scarlett O"hara couldn't do it better. I'm old enough to be her mother. I've seen this bratty kid before. This is the prom queen from hell. It takes a woman to knock her down to size for all the men who think with their pants. She's a wack job, you gotta quit trying to clean it up for her just because she's in a suit. This is wacky debbie.

Here's the article with the conversation from Palin's office soliciting the firing of her brother in law: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/211769.php

Three hundred million Americans, and these are the BEST four we can come up with to lead this country?

God help us! Biden's been in the Senate longer than McCain, so there goes Obama's "change in Washington" argument. Palin has as little experience as Obama, so there goes McCain's "not ready to lead" argument. Two crusty insiders, and two inexperienced outsiders. This will be an interesting 60 days.

And you liberals shouldn't brag about the Mondale?Ferraro ticket from 1984, if I recall correctly, Reagan/Bush smashed that ticket in the last true landslide Presidential victory. Reagan carried 49 states, and received nearly 60% of the popular vote. I'd try to forget about '84 if I were you people.

Palin will get just as many female votes just because she is a woman, just as Obama will get the black votes just because he is 50% African-American. Don't deny it, it will happen.

So who DOES America want the least? A half black man, or a woman?

Sarah Palin tried to fire her brotherinlaw because he divorced her sister so she fired the sheriff cause he wouldnt. Seems like Palin care more about screwing up this country than finding out why is her daughter sexing so young,probably because of her mothers neglect she needs to keep her baby from the stress of the media,but she rather be a spurious person and say another candidate cannot manage a staff in which hers was only fifty people and Baracks was twentyfive hundred people, now she need not to get tangled in any debate because she gonna make the republican party look like desperate bafoons McCain has this woman preaching abstanance and her baby is out there doing what a lot of project kids are doing. If you the people of America will fall for McCain and his pick and judgment of a person in one day, America is in trouble he is acting like a wreckless and political suicidal maniac.

Having Sarah Palin for VP is like having Paris Hilton become Prime Minister of England. Absolutely dumbfounding!!
What will happen if Mccain passes away from severe illness at his age, then Sarah Palin becomes President of the country that thinks it is the most powerful in the world. God help us all. There was a change in guard in Tennis, theres is already signs of a change in guard in world power.

All hail China and Russia.