Horray for pushing the Overton window!

I agree that it's a gamechanger, and that it's ultimately good for the country, but boy -- this really looks light a hailmarry to me.  It might work politically, but the potential downside here for McCain is huge as well.  

What this pick makes me think is that (1) McCain really wants to win; and (2) he's willing to risk losing big to do so.  I respect that attitude on some level, but I think this shows that he didn't think the generic "safe" choices gave him much of a shot.  We will see.

Agree 100 percent with this diary.

Dang.

Heh. Pandering to the PUMAs if I ever saw it. I think McCain sees that as his only opening. He had to choose someone incredibly conservative, and a woman was a plus, figuring Clinton supporters were only voting for her because she had a vagina.

I'm actually a little surprised. A glance through the PUMAsphere and a lot of them aren't buying it. I figured they'd be eating that shit up. The only one I saw actively latching onto was our old friend, grlpatriot, but no surprises there since she was outed on FARK as a Republican. Too bad none of the PUMAs surf on FARK.

Zero foreign experience. This is an extremely weak pick.

This not a game changer. It's a hail mary.

We've all been kicking around Palin, just like the right wing...

But - unless I've missed it - neither we nor the right have any Alaskan politics experts blogging away.

She looks great on political junkie paper...

But now - she's going to be thrust into a national race.  She's going to be running in a nation that is nowhere near as deeply red as Alaska.  

And let's not forget -- Alaska has a revenue stream that no other state has.  Alaskan economics are fundamentally different from United States economics for the simple reason that the other 49 states don't have a boatload of oil money coming in... none of the other 49 state residents can count on a rather fat check arriving based on their state residency.

How in the world does she help McCain on the economy?  

Here's the link to the ad with Ted Stevens endorsing palin.

From Ambinder who notes it will certainly be deleted as soon as the campaign clues in.    I'm waiting a long time for this file to arrive so maybe it's already been "cleansed".

http://palinforgovernor.com/Multimedia/S tevens.MOV

Palin plays hockey....she is awesome.

This proves once and for all that John McCain's talk about being more willing to win a war than lose an election is just bullshit.

It is completely, wholly, an ELECTORAL PICK. Maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't that seem like that's going to bite him in the ass in the long run?

Never applaud anything Democrats do and then praise Republicans on their "bold" VP pick.

choice. He with this pick, is trying to make a run for the votes of some of the independent women and disaffected HRC women supporters. Palin who have a strong anti-choice record, thus he is not risking the support of his rightwing extremes. I did suspect McCain would be going for a woman VP nominee which in this election, if it remains close, might become an important factor. On the other hand Palin comes with the baggage, of getting investigated currently which can blow up right in the Republicans' face in coming months. Her anti-choice, pro-creationist positions are not really the right ingredients to ensnare progressive and moderate women support from Obama.

I honestly thought McCain would of made the safe pick of Pawlenty.

The experience question will come up. Sure, on paper Palin has more experience than Oabam and she can lay claim as an ethics czar, but I honestly don't know how this will work. She is very popular and ran against Murkowski in 2006. She will likely excite the Republican base and may even turnout Republican women.

I will say, issues aside, I like Palin and I congratulate her.

of popcorn - that VP debate is going to be like watching Mike Tyson knocking out Michael Spinks lol

Hutchinson would have me throwing up right now. Palin not so much.

I work at a place loaded down with independent male voters.... every single one of them is dismayed by the Palin choice.

What is McCain is purposefully taking the experience card off the table and putting the ethics card in full play?

Funny.

I suddenly feel pretty good about Florida.

I spent a month in Alaska earlier this year. Palin is a very good politician; she should not be underestimated as a campaigner, and her language tends to the punchy, concrete. I am unhappy with this choice because I think its a strong one.

I'm glad the Republicans had the stones to nominate a woman.  Maybe this will be about ideology and policy rather than political expedience after all.

I notice we're not talking about Obama's acceptance speech, though.  

Score 1 for McCain; I'll admit he got us here.

That said, as others have said, it's a hail mary, and I've been a Packers fan long enough to know that even a hail mary from Brett Favre fails more often than it succeeds.

It will make guys like you who are deeply entrenched in DC politics wow'ed by the theatrics of the choice. But Geradine Ferraro comes to mind. As does Eliot Spitzer. America is better than this.

Obviously, McCain is trying to recapture his "maverick" image.  This is exactly where we need to attack him, his greatest strength.

Dems did a good job this week at that.  McCain does not have the 'temperament' to be president.  He is willing to make dangerous gambles with our nation.  Palin may be very accomplished and could be the 'best' choice, but how can we know?  She is a complete unknown.  Do we want a President McCain continuing to gamble with our future?

Old and inexperienced

Watching MSNBC on this.  They had Maria Bartiromo playing up Palin's energy experience and boosting the case for drilling in ANWR. Maybe that plus gender are the forefront message for the GOP on this, and the background is dog wistle to the base with someone safe on rightwing cultural issues.

I say take the bait and go after the GOP for being big oil's party.  Dems can never, and should never, outflank the Repubs on wasting fossil fuels.  Last night Gore and to a lesser extent Obama defined the difference on climate change.  They can use Palin to reinforce the out of touch theme.

Furthermore, if there's any fire to the smoke around Palin siccing the state troopers on her rogue brother in law, it's great news . . . for Democrats.  

Yes but you also think Mark Warner is balls to the wall awesome and frankly he is more rightist than Obama and half the speaker. How HE is a map-changer after I saw him and learned more about him is a mystery to me.

Which just means I question your judgment, yet agree that Palin has the chance to be a dangerous pick presuming she evades the corruption scandal. It is also good for women, yet.

I think it's a smart choice.  If he'd picked Pawlenty, the media would have snored.  Romney called McCain a liar in the campaign.  Huckleberry's a nut.  

This will give McCain's campaign the lion's share of media attention even after the convention.  It could win it for him.  Obama should tread carefully, and decisively.

Just remember to tell everyone she's under investigation for abuse of power.  Do we really need another VP who abuses power?

Repeat and repeat and get her defined by that immediately!

defer the day when a woman is a top executive of this country.  But this is certainly not the right woman!

Kay Bailey Hutchison:

"I don't know too much about her (Palin), but maybe that's the good news."

While we're taking the "experience argument off the table, let's also get rid of "celebrity".....

Outside of the corruption ticking time bomb McCain now faces (the true sign its a hail mary), I forgot to mention that he also faces her position on abortion and women's issues (her being a woman may work with men so they will ignore this, but not with other women) which will bring any disaffected Clinton voters back. There is also the fact that gender identity politics doesn't play well with conservatives and independent as it does with us. I am sure of one thing- this is a short term move , bu tlong term, I just don't see how she helps- maybe you can give us a bit more than your usual here.

No offense Jerome, but this is a media pick.  It's supposed to impress you.

This was probably one of the best picks in a sea of bad possible ones.  So, score one for McCain.  HOWEVER, we shouldn't forget that misogyny historically is arguably a stronger force than racism.  And there's a lot of both in the Republican party.  All those folks who wouldn't vote for Hillary because she was a woman are likely to be turned off by a woman vp pick by McCain.  

Personally, I think this will divide the Republicans.  I'm not saying it should (certainly not), but all those Republicans who believe a woman's place is in the home (and there are a lot of these in the Christian community and in the south) will be turned off.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.  Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

Wingnuts are responding with praise all around.   They like this lady it appears.

I think it furthers his creds as a maverick, she is a D.C. "outsider."

Her background story is very good.  School teacher / scretary parents, highschool hoops player, beauty queen, blah blah blah.  

McCain has shown that if you let him hand around, if you give him an opening, he'll exploit it.  He has hung around, stayed close in the polls, managed a very good VP rollout, and looks to have a shot at closing the gap among women.

Like you said, this is a gamechanger.

I can't help but think that we could have had McCain painted as half insane, too old by half, crazed warmonger 2 months ago and had him down by 15.   We've let him hang around.   If another Democrat starts off a speech with the usual "I have a deep respect for Senator McCain's service to this country" I am going too friggin PUKE.  Nuke this guy.

Palin speaking now. Did McGimmick manage to fill the hall? The crowd sounds less than enthusiatic during the pauses for applause.

Jerome, do you even read your own website anymore?

She is Spiro Agnew and Geraldine Ferraro rolled into one.  

This is ridiculous.  I know you're still aching over  Hillary but GET OVER IT MAN! Even you have to admit (as Wolfowitz did last night) that Hillary wouldn't have filled a stadium.  

Finally, we will have a vice-president (not matter who wins) who will have a personal stake in Iraq.

The war may finally reach close to ones in power.

Wow, Palin has PTA experience?!

I'm going to have to rethink this Obama thing now.

I wonder about the optics of a larger-than-life VP nominee who has been in the Senate for decades beating up a pretty, simple, down-home girl like Palin in the debates?  Yeah, she's inexperienced as hell and no one knows who she is, but nothing creates stardom like a damsel in distress.  Biden's going to have to watch it in the debates.  If he tore into the animatronic Romney or the mulletted Pawlenty, everyone would praise him.  But you don't beat up on girls.  At least not pretty ones.  That's got to work into their equation somewhere.  The question now is whether Biden can dial back his larger-than-life personality, which seems constantly stuck on eleven, to maybe seven or eight and still be effective.

alegre's and TD's websites. They are HAPPY for this choice.

TD has changed her site name to be "puma for mccain-palin"

puma's need to be taken down.

If true, they all need to resign.

Just saw Palin speak at the rally in Ohio. She's a very uninspiring speaker. She's certainly no Hillary.

I think the gender angle is a media red herring. It will get some buzz for McCain as a maverick more than it will pick off any true blue Hillary voters. It's safe for the base, she's a Christer in good standing.  Also it steps all over the post-convention coverage for Obama.

Her big policy claim is being an avid fan of drilling in ANWR and finishing off the polar bear so as t convert them to lighter fluid.  Gore and somewhat Obama laid down a difference on climate change and they should run with it against the fossil fuel party.

She's speaking right now. Comes off as the suburban mom. She and Todd are solid reproducers, that's a big point.  

Now going into her anti-corruption credentials, which is another selling point. The problem is that to make this story well known she'll have to admit the corrupt pols in Alaska were its leading Republicans, includng incumbent senator Ted Stevens.  In this frame, McCain/Palin are mavericks, but mavericks for a party that's rotten and are members of it.

Bigger audience cheers for the pipeline drilling stuff.

Real danger in making this about upsetting the status quo because the GOP is the status quo.  They were better off with don't trust change than with no really we're the change.

Clsing with the PUMA appeals. Audience having trouble whether to cheer or boo for Clinton. Will it work?

Hard not to think of al the other form not substance plays the Repubs have pulled on diversity over the years. If you liked the feminism of Sandra Day O'Connor and Condi Rice and the civil rights activism of Clarence Thomas and J.C. Watts.  This is your party.  You'll also like lite beer as a cure for alcoholism, and filtered cigarettes as a cure for smoking.

In her speech, she Congratulates Senator Clinton for attempting to shatter the highest glass ceiling.

The Republicans in the audience applaud at Hillary's name.

Sarah Palin points out that she left 18 million cracks in the ceiling and she hopes to pick up some of them!!

Both Palin and McCain acknowledge the 88th anniversary of Women's right to vote!!

GAME CHANGER - I really think so!!!

She invoked Hillary and the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Then she said that women aren't done yet but can shatter the glass ceiling in November.

They aren't going to make this a campaign for women. They are going to make this a call to arms for women.

We are in trouble, make no mistake about it people.

McCain likes to say that the VP's only job is to inquire as to the health of the president every day.

My God, he's going to make her wear one of those suggestive "naughty nurse" outfits for her daily inquiries!

Nothing will throw this pick back in McCain's face than a strong statement from Hillary Clinton blasting this pick. Charles Schumer, arguably Clinton's biggest ally, has already made a tough statement.

But if Hillary lays into Palin, she will send a message that this VP pick is nothing more than a trojan horse and is a disaster for women's issues.

I am distinctly underwhelmed by her speaking style and experience. I don't think that this is going to be a good selection for McCain. First of all, given McCain's age, the readiness of his VP will be especially scrutinized. I just don't get the vibe from her that she is going to be able to convince people that she is prepared to be a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Of course, she could grow into it and it is certainly a bold choice from the perspective of changing the status quo of the race. I don't think that the play for Hillary's voters is going to work though.

Go ahead and leave a six-month old Down's baby at home so you can travel around and tell everyone else what a family is supposed to look like how we should raise our kids.

WTF happened to "Country First?"  The idea that McCain thinks that in the event something happens to him, this woman would be capable of taking on the responsibility of tending to 300+ million Americans?  I'm honestly scared for us, if they manage to get in office.

Also, Obama, Schumer, and Emanuel have called Palin and McCain out.  It's great.  Rove was actually offended and called it petty.  Yay for us.

Congrats to POW McCain.   I don't think there was a possible pick that he could have chosen to make him look even older!   The two of them on stage together look comical.

Effective speech I think. McCain is not going for the pro-choice vote, women's issues have more than one dimension. This pick probably locks up the evangelical base for him. Palin made a direct, in your face speech and explicitly asked for the votes of women.

I admire Obama's stagecraft and I think he used the convention well to unite Democrats and transition to the general election. But McCain is giving him a run for his money, Palin did not come off as a lightweight just now.

they look ridiculous together. he's almost old enough to be her grandfather.

I mean think about it. Is Sarah Palin even qualified to hold a high cabinet post? Maybe Sec. of Education or Transportation. But vice-president? Or president?

This pick will make a big splash, but will not wear well over time.

Palin is a terrible pick - it undermines McCain's chief argument against Obama on experience.  It took Democrats 18 months to become comfortable with Obama's relative inexperience, and the Republicans think that 60 days with Palin is sufficient.  

This is the typical hamfisted way that Republicans do diversity - what the hell is a "feminist for life" anyway.  I suspect most women will be as excited about this pick as blacks were about Clarence Thomas' nomination for Supreme Court.  

At the end of the day,  I think this loses McCain the presidency while saving Sen. Stevens (because Palin's selection will drive up Rep. participation in Nov).  As a Democrat and proud American I am happy with that trade off.  

I was no Hillary supporter during the primary season, but this pick is tailor made for her to go after McCain and his anti-woman record.

I live in Ohio and had to watch as this woman, an obvious lightweight, stumbled through her alleged speech bereft of any substance other than kissing McCain's wrinkly ol' ass.

Can you imagine how Mittens and Pawlenty and JoeMomentum must feel to be passed over by a former Mayor of a city of 8000 people ...

MSNBC calls Palin a "bold" choice. We should call it a "risky" choice that fits McDesperate's reputation as a drunken gambler.

What makes me really mad about this is all the sexist crap thrown at Hillary by Republicans will all disappear and they'll become holier than thou about this.

Well, locals seem to love her.  Somebody (a self-described non-Republican) on a non-political forum described her like this:

She helped kill off Bridge to Nowhere, is big time anti-corruption, she's building the natural gas pipeline with a good amount of state funds, she's pro-responsible oil drilling / pro-alternative energy...

...so it looks like her upside is non-trivial.  If she can appeal to independents like this while still being firmly conservative on social issues, she could be a real threat.

But the potential downside is also huge.  She's totally green on the national stage.  She seriously undercuts a core part of McCain's experience message.  I guess this means McCain realized that his 90%+ Bush voting record was enough of a liability that he had to sacrifice the experience argument to counteract it.

I was more worried about Pawlenty putting MN in play.

it still comes down to Obama vs McCain ... there is no one McCain can pick to overcome that deficit.

That crazy oldman has made a pretty savvy political move.

The list we've heard for ever was a minefield that threatened to make conervatards flee.  Palin is very well liked by the right and it appears McCain will have a chance to re-unite his party next week.

McCain the "hugger" (Bush hugger) is trying to make people think he is a maverick, regardless of facts.   He goes and pulls a surprise pick who is a D.C. outsider to boot.

Palin's inexperience may actually serve as a platform for Republicans to attack Obama for lack of experience.  Palin's and Obama's tenure in government service, both locally and nationally is similar.   Do we call her inexperienced without leaving our own chins open for a big GOP counterpunch on comparing the resumes?

McCain wants to take full advantage of women still stinging from the double whammy of a Clinton loss, Clinton not being the V.P.   As some have pointed out Palin is a women.

McCain needs to close the gap with all women, not just Clinton women.  Again, Palin is a women.

McCain managed his roll out perfectly.  There was not a two day stakeout of the obvious pick to ruin the surprise.   McCain managed to stay in the news cycle on Obama's big day, and he managed to take over the news cycle a mere 12 hours after Obama left the stage in Denver.

As I said in another post.   You can't let McCain hand around and give him 2nd and 3rd chances to get you.  He showed it in the primaries.   You have to beat this guy early and often.  My two cents if we have to do to him what the GOP has done to us in the past.  Make him unacceptable to voters.   Slander him, attack him, make him the butt of jokes. Whatever.  

It's disturbing to me that the Obama campaign immediately came out and criticized McCain for not picking someone with foreign policy experience. A little bit of mindfulness about glass houses is in order.

 She is the perfect VP choice and will be the perfect VP. If you heard her VP speech you can tell she has a story to tell, and that story is AMERICA! She didn't have to hide anything about herself, like Obama. She runs a state! the only thing Obama run is up and down the basketball court! You heard first form me, if McCain serves only one term, Sarah Palin will be the first female president in the 1212 elections! The taste of victory is great! McCain & Palin 2008- NOW THAT'S A CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!!!

At first this will generate buzz. But this takes experience off the table. This is the only thing he had and he took it off the table. TWO    Years as governor and a mayor of a town with 5000 people a heartbeat away from President.

It's been said that this pick is "another powerful breakthrough for the political system."

Mondale picked Ferraro because he was behind and desperate. Mcdesperate has chosen Palin for the same reason. That's not another breakthrough.

of driving the buzz of the spectacular Obama speech out of the news cycle, or at least relegating it to secondary status.

Reaction should be thought out thought.  Any smack of sexism and insults play into GOP hands.  Attack her on the issues, follow the lead of Obama

Shorter Jerome Armstrong:

"This is really good news for John McCain!"

Let the spin begin!