McCain chooses Palin, a 44-year-old woman as running mate

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WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, making her the first woman ever to serve on a Republican presidential ticket.

McCain's decision was revealed just hours before he was set to appear with his newly-minted running mate at a rally in swing-state Ohio.

Palin, the first Alaskan to appear on a national ticket, was elected Alaska's first woman governor in 2006. The state’s voters had grown weary of career politician Gov. Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the GOP primary.
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“I've been blessed with the right timing here,” Palin said before the election. “There's no doubt that Alaskans right now are dealing in an atmosphere of distrust of government and industry.”

She has proven to be a popular governor. Eighty percent of the state's voters gave her a "somewhat favorable" or "very favorable" rating in a July 2008 poll.

Surprising choice
Palin's selection was a stunning surprise, as McCain passed over many other better-known prospects, some of whom had been the subject of intense speculation for weeks or months.

At 44, she is a generation younger than Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is Barack Obama's running mate on the Democratic ticket.

She is three years Obama's junior, as well, and McCain has made much in recent weeks of Obama's relative lack of experience in foreign policy and defense matters.

On Aug. 1, Palin scored a major victory when the Alaska legislature passed a bill that authorizes her administration to award a license to TransCanada Alaska to build a 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope to a hub in Canada.

The pipeline would be the largest construction project in the history of North America. If completed as hoped within ten years, it would ship 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The United States imported about 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2007.

Under investigation for firing
But Palin’s seemingly bright future was clouded in late July when the state legislature voted to hire an independent investigator to find out whether she tried to have a state official fire her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper.

The allegation was made by former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whom Palin fired in mid-July.

“It is a governor’s prerogative, a right, to fill that cabinet with members whom she or he believes will do best for the people whom we are serving,” Palin told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow in an interview on Aug. 1. “So I look forward to any kind of investigation or questions being asked because I’ve got nothing to hide.”

Palin also reacted to the indictment of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens by calling it “very dismaying.” She added, “Hopefully though, this won’t be a distraction and get people’s minds off what has to be done in the grand scheme of things.”

As for the prospect of her being vice president, Palin told Kudlow that she could not answer the question of whether she wanted the job “until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day. I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here….”

Palin is married to Todd Palin, a lifelong Alaskan who is a production operator on the North Slope and a four-time champion of the Iron Dog, which is described as “the world's longest snow-machine race.”

Mother of five
They have five children. Their son, Track, enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 11, 2007.

Palin gave birth to their fifth child, Trig, last April. The baby boy has Down syndrome, a genetic abnormality that impedes a child's intellectual and physical development.

"When we first heard, it was kind of confusing," Palin said, according to an account in the Anchorage Daily News. She called the news "very, very challenging."

But she added in a note, imagining what God would say to her family, "Children are the most precious and promising ingredient in this mixed-up world you live in down there on Earth. Trig is no different, except he has one extra chromosome."

Palin made a name for herself in Alaska politics by serving as mayor of Wasilla City for six years and going on to run unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2002.

After her unsuccessful run, Palin received an appointment to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she ended up serving a role in an ethics probe into Republican Party Chairman Randy Reudrich, who was questioned about conflicts of interest with the oil industry.

The investigation ultimately forced Ruedrich to resign from the commission.

Palin's role in the investigation left her a party outsider, but she was able to win the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary against Murkowski, going on to win the 2006 general election by seven points over her Democratic opponent.

During one debate before the primary, Palin said she was in favor of capital punishment in especially heinous cases such as the murder of a child. "My goodness, hang 'em up, yeah,” she said. Palin opposes abortion rights.

Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her parents in 1964, when they went there to teach school.

She received a degree in communications and journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.

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Well, this ought to shake things up a bit.

Yeah, I'm... not entirely sure what to make of this.

However, it kind of cuts Obama down at the knees because people can no longer say that putting a black man in office would be history making. Now we'd have a Black President or a female vice-president, so it kind of invalidates the social status Obama's fans have been standing on.

Melted Wax Figure forges alliance with Department Store Mannequin

It also destroys the experience argument used by Mccain and his team. You cannot really tell people to not vote for Obama because he lacks experience when you choose a VP with even less experience than Obama.

I just wonder, will this attract the Hillary supporters or will it alienate some of the republican base?

I know for sure that McCain's going to be getting ten tons of shit for calling Obama inexperienced and then going with this lady who is younger and has far less experience than him.

I dunno, I guess we'll see what happens. It's certainly shocking... I think while McCain may lose some hardcore conservative votes, he may gain some of Hillary's lackeys from this.


EDIT:

Shonos said the same thing I said but with more quickness. Bastard.

Yeah, but the chick would only be Vice President. Not really upsetting the status quo of women being second to men.

The thing is, Palin has very little political experience. She's only been governor for 2 years, and before that, the mayor of a podunk town in Alaska. It undercuts McCain's argument for Obama's lack of experience.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

I know for sure that McCain's going to be getting ten tons of shit for calling Obama inexperienced and then going with this lady who is younger and has far less experience than him.

I dunno, I guess we'll see what happens. It's certainly shocking... I think while McCain may lose some hardcore conservative votes, he may gain some of Hillary's lackeys from this.


EDIT:

Shonos said the same thing I said but with more quickness. Bastard.

I couldn't resist. My bad.

I really think the choices the candidates have made for VP have been a bit.. poor. They could of gone with better people. But people are not voting for the VP, they're voting for the presidency. Although with Mccain's age.. I don't know if his choice is such a good one. Obama could of united the democrats a lot better with hillary at his side, not Biden.

Originally Posted by nuttyturnip

Yeah, but the chick would only be Vice President. Not really upsetting the status quo of women being second to men.

True, but I suppose one needs to look at the worst case scenario - What if McCain dies in office?

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Obama could of united the democrats a lot better with hillary at his side, not Biden.

Eh... I think that would have been more of a dirty plot to get more votes rather than a solid decision on who should be his running mate. Hillary and Obama were at each other's throats on a lot of issues.

Originally Posted by nuttyturnip

Yeah, but the chick would only be Vice President. Not really upsetting the status quo of women being second to men.

And you think the midwest is going to have less of a problem voting for a half-muslim black man for the big chair?

The democrats could run a Clark Kent/Abraham Lincoln ticket against a Republican Castro/Stalin ticket and still lose the Midwest in a landslide. The actual candidates have a minimal effect on that sort of thing.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

The democrats could run a Clark Kent/Abraham Lincoln ticket against a Republican Castro/Stalin ticket and still lose the Midwest in a landslide. The actual candidates have a minimal effect on that sort of thing.

And the average 20 something backs Obama but also thinks theres a fucking 9/11 conspiracy. Whats your point?

Yes, it would appear that pointlessness was the central gimmick of my post, as it were

FYI, the batshit insane demographic over at Hilaryclintonforum.net are practically spinning around in glee at this announcement.

Personally, I don't really see where McCain is going with this. McCain will probably get a boost in the polls with this, just like Mondale did when he tapped Geraldine Ferraro as his VP pick back in 1984. It didn't help Mondale in the end, either - once the novelty wears off, as it did with Mondale/Ferraro, we'll see a return to a race that focuses on Obama vs McCain. The question then would be whether Obama's novelty will wear off, but it seems to have held up well over the last 2 years or so, even after repeated attacks by Clinton, and then by the Republicans.

In the meantime, as others have said, McCain has undercut his own argument about experience by picking an inexperienced VP candidate. The choice of Palin signals to me that his campaign's strategy depends quite a bit on dividing the Democrats - however, it's a gambit that may or may not work outside of the fringe elements (lolhilaryforums). It's pretty risky, scuttling one of his strongest arguments for such a tactic, so I'm not exactly sure what McCain hopes to accomplish with this.

Well, here in Idaho, they're fairly eccentric over Obama. I'd say it's not going to be a landslide. If Obama visits the midwest enough, he might make some headway. But they aren't very populous states, so yeah, dunno.

Anyways, she's hawt. I'd tap that.

But who gives a fuck about Alaska? All anybody cares about Alaska for is the oil that they apparently have. Not to mention tits.

Retarded children are a handful. I can imagine her kid with Down tromping around the oval office "I WANT GUMMI BEARS~!"

Not voting for her because she thinks her vagina is a slot machine, and I'm not on the boat with VP taking maternity leave.

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You cannot really tell people to not vote for Obama because he lacks experience when you choose a VP with even less experience than Obama.

There's a fundamental difference - Palin is an ADMINISTRATOR. Obama is a LEGISLATOR.

Administrators actually get to MAKE DECISIONS. Legislators do not.

So to say this knocks out the experience argument isn't as accurate as some of you would like to think.

Keep in mind that most of our Presidents were former governors or military generals - i.e., people who got to make decisions.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

True, but I suppose one needs to look at the worst case scenario - What if McCain dies in office?

That's the first thing I thought about when I read this announcement... It would be terrifying to have this woman as president if McCain croaked.

This is a laughably obvious move on McCain's part to appeal to the bitter Hillary supporters. I mean... seriously, I can't think of any other reason that he picked her besides the fact that she's a woman. This move will create a lot of attention at first, but I agree that the novelty will (hopefully...!) wear off by November. Biden will probably destroy her in the debates.

I don't like either VP picks, but like Night Phoenix said, she has been an administrator, and in a Republican field she's as good as any other.

The fact that she's a woman is also making a serious statement. Even if her gender is being used as political theatre it's a huge step forward for conservative politics, where even the women are misogynists.