Boy, you really have to think that the Dems would like to have a do-over. They will be wondering for years how they managed to screw up this election so royally. The answer is their identity politics, and arrogance. But that’s not the lesson they’ll take. Which is fine with me.
[Update a couple minutes later]
A good point over at The Corner. This won’t just help with women–it will help with men. Who would you rather look at for four years: Joe Biden, or Sarah Palin?
[Update a while later]
Not that they’ve been high, but watch Bob Barr’s poll numbers drop. McCain just brought a lot of libertarian Republican home, judging from what I read at Free Republic. Hell, I might even vote for him now.
[Update a little later]
A prediction. Sarah Palin, not Hillary Clinton, will be the first woman president. And the first black president will be a Republican as well (of course, I’ve always thought that the first black and women presidents would be Republicans).
Kay Bailey Hutchinson would have been a much better pick for McCain. Far more dangerous in November.
I now predict that ~95% of the PUMAs (an already dwindling group) will be outraged at John McCain for thinking they can be bought so easily. Especially since Sarah Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest and she favors teaching creation science in school.
She is a very good looking female version of Alan Keyes.
Ramesh at NRO Corner offers more cold water:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWY0YmM3N2JhMTVkYmI0ZjU0OTBiYTY3NmUyMjgxNTc=
Hell, I’d more than just look at Palin. I’d….well…. you know….like….make messy pants with her — from sharing a big bag of popcorn. Cause you know all that butter on your hands and no napkin…you know….gotta wipe it on your pants — terrible mess. In fact, she’s got, what, 5 kids? That means she likes to do a little something something — you know what I’m saying? Like…. wipe spittle off chins. I mean, I got plenty of that where thats coming from my friend. *nudge nudge*
I now predict that ~95% of the PUMAs (an already dwindling group) will be outraged at John McCain for thinking they can be bought so easily.
Dream on, Bill.
Rand, I really don’t understand what prompted your original comment about buyer’s remorse. Obama’s speech last night was incredibly well-received.
(CNN claims 38 million Americans heard Obama’s speech on TV last night – that’s roughly 56 times the population of Alaska. I have to admit that Leland’s comment on Palin’s executive experience has left me fixated on ways to describe the small population of Alaska. For example: Alaska has roughly same population as Austin, TX. I wonder what would have happened if Obama had selected Austin Mayor Will Wynn as his VP choice?
Ok, I’ll try to stop now.)
Rand, I really don’t understand what prompted your original comment about buyer’s remorse. Obama’s speech last night was incredibly well-received.
Go ask Bob Beckel. He looked like he was at a wake this morning after the Palin announcement.
my God, a woman vice-president with absolutely no qualifications to be the Big Banana. I think McCain’s Ship of State just hit the shoals.
“my God, a woman vice-president with absolutely no qualifications to be the Big Banana.”
Except exectuive experience and more foerign policy experience than Obama. (Russia and Canada anybody?)
my God, a woman vice-president with absolutely no qualifications to be the Big Banana. I think McCain’s Ship of State just hit the shoals.
Since you opened the topic of qualifications, precisely what qualifications does Obama and Biden have to be president? Has either of them ANY executive experience (remember, another title for the president is “Chief Executive”.) Has either of them ever held a real job in their lives? If all it takes to be a good president is speaking well when reading from a teleprompter, then Obama might be the best choice. However, when away from the teleprompter, he almost makes George W. Bush look articulate.
Palin’s qualifications – as thin as they may seem – are more than Obama and Biden combined. Hell, I’m an ordinary 51 year old but I’ve accomplished far more in life than Omaba ever has. Even my 34 year old stepson has more real world accomplishments to his credit than Obama.
DISCLAIMER: I thought that McCain would never pick Palin because of her relatively youth, but I was WRONG…and I am delighted to be so.
This was a VERY solid pick politically. Palin is smart, a solid speaker and debater (she will wipe the floor with Biden, not to mention the Dalibama), has impeccable libertarian credentials, and is both a telegenic and talented politician. The right wing loves her, and the left will predictably despise her for reasons they will think of later. The center, on the other hand, will like her and that will help a lot
Not to dignify Bill’s whistling past the graveyard with a reply, but even if she peels off 5% of the PUMAs, that will be more than enough in a close election to pick up some swing states. Remember that Obama’s own pollster predicts 12 states will be decided by margins of 4% or less. How silly is it to write off ANY of the vote in races like that?
I have said before that I don’t think that ANY VP choice will make a huge difference (people vote for the top of the ticket, after all), but I suspect that McCain has made a brilliant tactical move here. He has completely eclipsed any discussion of Obama’s acceptance speech last night (by the way, I found his ‘Job Well Done’ ad from yesterday incredibly classy), and at the same time turned the focus onto the GOP and its choices. Secondly, and much more to the point, picking Palin lets him turn the focus onto issues of Drilling, Drilling, Drilling…issues that overwhelmingly favor the GOP. Palin is the perfect person to debate the noisy hairshirts in the ecolobby that has so much influence on the Dems…
Scott
The pick also allows people who were tempted to vote for Obama because it was “historic” an alternative, and more attractive “historic” vote.
Yay! The McCain-Token 08 ticket.
Now I’m buying the popcorn and settling in, this is going to be a hoot.
McCain has just eliminated his own best argument against Obama. So either McCain was not serious about his argument about Obama’s experience or he thinks Hillary women are utterly dumb and getting elected is mor important than “country first”.
Any respect for McCain’s judgement I might have had is gone. What an idiot.
His numbers might rise for a day or two, but the sop he is offering Hillary’s women is bound to fail. A pro-life creationist who looks hot isn’t going to cut it with them.
A pathetic choice.
A week ago you were predicting that Hillary would fight to the end and that there would be a fractious convention fight in Denver. You were wrong about that. So what makes you right now?
Palin’s an interesting choice, but someone with a little more experience would have allowed McCain to keep hammering Obama on that front. Now, not so much.
Perhaps he thought that with Biden on the ticket the “no experience” hammer wasn’t going to work anyway; Obama can always point over his shoulder and say “When I’m President, I’ll have a great resource in Joe Biden.”
What’s sort of odd is how similar the two tickets are in some respects (two inexperienced 40-somethings and two old-guy Senators), but with the positions switched. It’s kind of weird that McCain picked someone that made his ticket _more_ like Obama’s ticket.
Just thought of a funny come-back for McCain …
Reporter: “Sen. McCain, if you’re elected and something happens to you, Mrs. Palin will be President. Do you think she’s ready to be Commander in Chief?”
McCain: “No one is ever really ‘ready’ to be Commander in Chief, but if she feels that she is too inexperienced to make informed judgments she can just make Joe Biden her VP.”
If Palin is too inexperienced to be ‘a heartbeat away’ from the presidency, then how doe we rationalize Obama? I might point out that voters are likely to pick the top of the ticket as the focus for experience, and this is where Obama is weak. If neither Palin nor Obama has any foreign policy experience (a given), then at least Palin has some exectuive experiencem, and she has done much with it. Obama has simply been a tool of the corrupt Chicago machine…Palin has faced down her own party on outrages like the Bridge to Nowhere.
I saw a wonderful quote on NRO, “Obama voted for the Bridge to Nowhere, Palin killed it” That is the sort of exerience that matters…
Some of you guys are nuts.
How can you compare a brilliant, intellectual former professor of constitutional law, who has authored multiple books and opposed the Iraq war in a prescient foreign policy speech at its outset with a former sports vehicle saleswoman? An editor of the Harvard Law Review who graduated in the top 10% of his class, who has 20 years of legislative experience with someone who has next to none and is the 1+ year governor of a State the size of Austin Texas?
Get real. McCain is nuts. I can’t believe Simberg thinks this is such a hot choice. The man is even goofier than I thought.
Wait for Hillary’s speech trashing Palin. Heh.
Lizzie was right. Gov. Sarah Palin is an inspired choice. I predict the Obama media will overplay their hand and a female backlash gives McCain the oval office.
“Daveon wrote:
Yay! The McCain-Token 08 ticket.
Now I’m buying the popcorn and settling in, this is going to be a hoot.”
Indeed, it should play well against the Token-Biden ticket.
How can you compare a brilliant, intellectual former professor of constitutional law
That’s an overstatement. Obama was more of an adjunct faculty member, not a professor. In academic circles, that’s a huge distinction. Furthermore, his so-called brillance fails to dazzle.
, who has authored multiple books
As an author myself, this fails to impress. Were his books on constitutional law? No, one was a navel-gazing tome about the father who abandoned him instead of the “typical white woman” grandmother who actually raised him. The other was political platitudes. Zzzzzzz.
“and opposed the Iraq war in a prescient foreign policy speech at its outset
His opposition included opposing the “surge” which even the New York Times has finally admitted was successful. Obama said he would still oppose it for political reasons.
with a former sports vehicle saleswoman?
At least Palin has worked in the private sector, an experience that Obama apparently lacks. Palin is an active outdoorsman in one of the harshest and most beautiful wilderness regions on Earth. She knows far more about nature and the environment than a former “community organizer” (for ACORN) ever will.
An editor of the Harvard Law Review who graduated in the top 10% of his class,
How many editors of the Harvard Law Review produce each year? Are all of them qualified to be president? Likewise, Harvard Law graduates dozens of students in the top 10% of their class each year. Are all of them qualified to be president?
who has 20 years of legislative experience
He served in his state legislature for a number of years. What did he accomplish there? He was sworn into the Senate in 2005 but has only been on the job for less than 150 days. The rest of the time, he’s been out campaigning for higher office. What has he accomplished in the Senate?
with someone who has next to none and is the 1+ year governor of a State the size of Austin Texas?
Which – combined with her service as a small town mayor – is more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined. The president is also known as the “Chief Executive.” Obama and Biden have very little if any executive experience.
Face it, Obama is almost certainly the emptiest suit ever to win a party nomination for president. What has the man ever DONE that amounts to anything?
crickets chirping……
All executive experiences are not equivalent. Take Mayor Daley, a big city mayor. (Chicago has roughly 5 times Alaska’s population, and has more people than 20 states.) Daley has a lot of executive experience, but I doubt he has thought deeply about how to govern the United States.
On the other hand, every US senator has thought long and hard about what he or she would do as president.
If, God forbid, the VP had to take over as president on day 1, I’d much rather have a president who has thought hard about the issues at hand, rather than one with managerial skills. (After all, George Bush was lauded as our disciplined MBA president…)
Serendipity strikes! As I was about to hit “submit”, I just overheard the newscaster say that Palin was quoted as saying that “she had not given much thought to the Iraq War.” Sounds like something Bush would have said.