Amazing to see so many KOS’ wring their hands over this nomination. It must truly worry them.

SARAH PALIN IS MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER STATE GOVERNOR.

She shook up Alaska to its roots.

McCain has made a bold and telling move selecting someone with Chief Executive experience – the only one to have any – of the four running for the White House.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/08/mccains-renewal-sarah-palin.html

I dunno how important the libertarian swing vote is to republicans as its not really huge, but if anything was going to pull them in besides Mark Sanford it’s Palin.

I was on the fence about McCain for a while (I would never vote for Obama though,) but this really pushes me over. Picking a VP is a big time set up for a future presidential run, and I would love to see a Palin/Sanford ticket in 2012 or 2016.

It’s “inside the beltway experience” – i.e. the kind that Obama talked down on until a few days ago.

A wise and government leaves us free to make our own decisions and does not take from us what we have earned. I believe John McCain will give us this government.

In my opinion this is a reckless VP choice . I’m sorry. Mrs Palin is clearly unqualified. She was mayor of a small town 2 years ago. She has no knowledge of foreign policy. Obama has little experience but he has some.The senate foreign relations committee is good experience as is the campaign he has run to beat the Clinton machine.

The safe traditional ticket was either Romney or Pawlenty both of whom could serve as President if god forbid something happened to McCain.

McCain is 72 years old with a history of skin cancer. If anything god forbid happened to McCain Romney, a very accomplished and competent man could step in without a worry.

Prior to this VP pick Obama was seen by undecided voters as the risky pick. Now it is in my opinion McCain who will be seen as the risky pick. This is shockingly reckless that he would pick Mrs Palin. I don’t have any other way to describe. I really do fear for my country if McCain is elected now.

If you voted for Bush, you have blood on your hands. The blood of over 4000 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. The blood of those who died in Katrina from federal neglect. The bleeding of our economy, to feed the terrible insatiable hunger of those who torture, maim and kill. A vote for McCain will mean more blood, on your hands. You can’t wash it off with gullibility, or with the unbelievable stupidity it takes to swallow all the lies. How can anyone with pride in America support the awful, evil course the Republican party is taking? How can a real patriot fail to stand up against the blatant dismantling of the principles of truth and liberty that this country was founded upon?

Up until now, anytime that Barack Obama’s experience was questioned, the reply from Obama partisans would be something along the lines of “Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had tons of experience and they ran the country into the ground!”

That’s the point though – the Obama camp was responding to one of McCain’s best arguments, i.e. that Obama lacks the requisite experience to lead the country.

That argument is severely undermined by choosing Palin, surely?

What an amazing pick by McCain!! Gov. Palin brings in a distinguished record of executive experience, running a successful and popular Government in Alaska. An ideal ticket is one where 1 person brings in the Washington experience/foreign policy/national security experience and the other brings in executive/administrative experience. This can be seen from all winning tickets in the past few decades. The republican ticket is the perfect ticket now. She has a record of clean governance, bipartisanship and reducing wasteful spending and is an ideal choice for McCain’s VP.

For all those who wish to raise the ‘experience’ question – do you honestly believe that Gov. Palin is too inexperienced to be President (a post for which, btw, she is NOT running for) despite being the Governor of Alaska for nearly 2 years and a mayor for many years before that, while Sen Obama is experienced enough to be President (a post he is running for)? If you honestly believe Palin is inexperienced, there is now way you could support Obama. Palin brings in executive experience, McCain and Biden bring Washington, foreign policy experience – what exactly does Obama bring in? Neither of the 2.

Also, it is incorrect to see the choice of Gov Palin as a gimmick to pander to the women voters. While that is a bonus, the most important point is that she would be an excellent person for the role of VP in McCain’s administration, with the executive experience, to help him run the country effectively. None of us know too much about her, but whatever little Ive heard so far is immensely impressive. I request all voters to give her a fair chance, do some research and find out about her, and you will see that her candidacy is no gimmick.

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The only negative criticism I’ve found on RS so far comes from posters registered in the last 24 hours or so. Quite telling.

Well, to be fair, I think some Republicans are also scared of this ticket… how are some pork-lovers feeling?

Flash poll down at the convenience store in my little town in the wilds of midwestern Massachusetts:

People from both parties like Sarah Palin. Women and men, across an age range spanning 40 years, and both parties, everyone was a little surprised and receptive to McCain’s choice. Some of the comments:

“She’s someone real and she’s worked hard in Alaska.” — Democrat, male, age 50.

“I think it’s great that she has five kids and has been able to do everything she has.” — Democrat, female, age 35

“From what I understand, she’s smart and she’s a fighter, and she’s self-made. I think it was a great choice. She’s a good person.” – Me, Republican, Male, age 38.

My town is a fairly evenly divided mix of R and D, a bit of an odd demographic for Massachusetts. We’re semi-rural but the town has grown quite a bit in the past ten years. Property values here range from under $100,000 to more than $1.5 million dollars. We have hunters and sportsmen, businesspeople on vacation, laborers, and many people who run their own companies.

I didn’t hear a single bad thing said about the woman in the fifteen minutes I spent talking with my neighbors yesterday, after everyone had learned of the choice.

However much the Obama people will try disingenuously to dump on Sarah Palin over experience and her looks, anyone who listens to her speak or has read her life story is impressed by her story and her style. She connects with people: everyone I spoke to used words like “genuine”, “real”, “honest”, “hard working.”

BTW one of the people who was happily surprised was a guy who had heretofore been a solid Obama vote — he said point blank that he thought McCain’s VP choice was better and he was seriously thinking of changing his vote.

Ok so there’s my biased and informal poll. I can say this: I can’t think of another VP nominee choice that John McCain might have made who could have gotten that kind of bipartisan, wide support and admiration. Nobody. It was a genuine “Kumbaya Moment” standing in line at the cash register, and the smiles and mutual agreement were genuine.

McCain has chosen very well indeed if the reaction in my little town is anything to judge by. Let’s inaugurate Vice President Palin!

I was a little surprised at McCain’s choice for VP. However, Sarah Palin is an amazing woman with conservative principles and ideals. As a working mom of five, she is definately a great representative of families and the struggles that families in America go through. I think Gov Palin is tough enough to go head to head with anyone in Washington. I think this was a smarter choice than Barack’s Biden pick. I cant wait until November when we can vote for this awesome ticket! Obama thinks he’ll make history, well looks like the GOP has some history to make of its own!

And good riddance. I haven’t seen the correlation between years of experience and success on the job as president. Years of experience is such a slippery term anyway. Does only executive experience count now? How much of that did Abraham Lincoln have?

What we have in this election now is two guys who have been in Washington so long they can walk around the Capitol blindfolded and not hit anything. Then we have two relative neophytes. Sounds like a fairly even match experience wise.

Time to focus on other issues? Yes, I think so.

Finally a true pick for the middle class. Mrs. Palin actually knows what it is like to struggle and live the life of a ordinary person. Obama and his wife act like they know the struggles of everyday life. Give me a break–Obama’s you have both never done a honest days physical labor in your life. Barrack you say you struggled?? I got news for your followers..You grew up in Hawaii. If your grandparents had money to move there they sure were not poor as the cost of living is so high. You have not served day 1 in the military went to top notch schools and immediately after college worked in a prestigious law firm and I’m sure brought home more in 1 year in your mid twenties than most of us see in 5 years of working. And you say you both struggled…Please get a clue. You try to influence people by using your mother or grandparents as examples..what a pathetic move.. thats like my son using the credentials and things I did in the military to make himself look better. When did you actually do a honest days physical labor?? At least Mrs. Palin knows what it is to work her way up and struggle and not be fed by a silver spoon. Get a clue people this guy is a snake oil salesman and hes selling you the store…

I found her interesting months ago when she was floated here as an up and comer and at another point as a possible VP pick. I was pleasantly surprised they gave her the nod, although I shocked some of my coworkers when one of them told me McCain had picked a woman and I said it was probably Palin from Alaska.

And when it comes to experience I think it does do more to expose Obama’s lack whenever they raise it.

Not to mention I would like to know how many members of his own party has Obama taken on and exposed for the crooks they are? You would think being a Chicago democrat he would’ve had plenty of opportunity.

I think this is one year if McCain wants to win playing it safe with the safe VP choice isn’t going to do much for him-this isn’t anything but a safe pick and I think in the long run it is a good one.

It is still going to be a tight, close race, and McCain’s choice is by far the more interesting-I like the maverickness of this pick.

a far as offshore drilling goes

Here

The Left’s dismissal of mayoral and governor experience wholesale is hysterical.

It’s going to be fun to watch them attack an accomplished reformer from mainstream America, while claiming they’re the ones needed for reform and transformation. Palin doesn’t just talk about reform, she’s accomplished it. Palin just doesn’t have committees and sub-committees, they have meetings – and accomplish things. She transformed Alaska, what the hell has Obama or Biden ever transformed?!?!?

The best part is their circling the wagons that the only experience is Beltway experience. That accomplishments in government outside the Beltway don’t count. That a non-Beltway American cannot be cable of leading at an executive level in the White House. It’s going to be real fun to watch them continue that line of reasoning while they continue their populist common man campaign. They’re all for the common man as long as he (or she) stays away from positions only condescending unaccomplished on the wrong side of history more times than I can count wind bags like Joe Biden are qualified for.

Game Changer and their elitist heads are still spinning.

and that’s why Palin scares them. It busts the myth that only by government intervention can (fill in the blank, minorities, women etc) succeed. Being strong and independent means not being a slave to D.C. politician insiders and their corrupt programs.

Sorry folks…selecting Palin as VP makes me nervous. I have no problem with McCain or Obama picking up that phone at 3:00 AM. Same with Biden, Romney, Pawlenty or even Hillary. Palin? Not so much. If it were to come to that, then I hope President Palin would have the wisdom to chose Dick Cheney to be her VP.

This woman has an amazing story to tell: Her dad was a school teacher and her mom was the school secretary. She is an accomplished athlete, college grad and journalist. She’s happily married her high school sweetheart, has 5 kids – the oldest in the Army and the youngest with Down’s syndrome. She’s a hockey mom, served on the PTA, was elected to the city council. Became a whistleblower. Ran for Govenor, won and then threw the corrupt bums out (even though they were members of her own party). She’s an aggressive tax cutter and reformer. She’s a lifetime NRA member, she hunts and fishes. She is pro-choice. She and her husband are union members…………

WOW

Except for the most ardent feminists and leftists, how can ANYONE not be impressed with this woman?

Many will call it pandering, but I think that a LOT of American women (and men) will look at Mrs. Palin’s record and be reminded of the type of person that we SHOULD be sending to Washington.

the headline was “McCain picks ex-beauty queen as runningmate.” It didn’t even say she was a governor until the second or third paragraph.

Other websites were just calling her a “bimbo.” Liberals feel threaten because Palin is a female politician who’s actually attractive, unlike Pelosi, Janet Napaletano or Debbie Wasserman Scultz.

It will be interesting to see how many disaffected Hillary supporters will be swayed to vote for McCain, given her strong pro-life (even in cases of rape or incest) views. You can be sure we will be hearing much bleating from the left about her statements on creationism as well. Should be interesting stuff.

The Maverick rides again!

are more powerful or more threatening than Exxon, B-P, and Conoco-Phillips, the people with whom the Alaska government does business every day. As an example, Murkowski negotiated a deal with the Big Three to commence a gas line to bring North Slope gas to market. Part of the deal was restructureing of Alaska’s taxation scheme. Palin and others attacked both the taxation scheme and the gas line as proposed. She bucked both the Majors and the Legislative leadership to get both a new tax scheme and a contract with TransCanada to build a gas line in which the State will have an equity position. In case it isn’t obvious, oil companies don’t like to pay taxes and they get really upset when the colonials revolt against their lobbyists and refuse their bribes. Fundamentally, the Governor of Alaska is the CEO of one of the World’s larger natural resource extraction enterprises and deals almost daily with the most powerful multi-nationals in the World.

Say what you will, no State Senator from Illinois plays in that league. And even US Senators don’t really play on a day to day basis or for keeps; they talk and they occasionally vote but none of them have ultimate responsibility or accountability for ANYTHING.

For this country; For a major political party to nominate someone with so little experience, with less than 2 years in office before appearing onto the national stage and entering the presidential race of the United States isn’t only frightening, it’s dangerous. And NO I’m not talking about Sarah Palin. I’m talking about Barack Obama.

Hey keep in mind Sarah Pallin will spend the next two months travelling the country talking about oil drilling. This is the issue that in a down election year for Republicans that will win the race.

Biden doesn’t have that skill!

That will make the difference in the states that she will show up in.

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

I am totally stoked. TOTALLY stoked! She represents was is so great about America. Heck, she’s even getting some positive reviews by the Cato institute:

http://www.cato.org/pressroom.php?display=ncomments&id=137

The convention here in MN will be a good barometer. I think Minnesotans will really like her-that is anyone who lives outside Minneapolis. Believe it or not, her husband is even an asset in this state. Anyone who is a snowmobile champ, union worker, hunter, and just a plain “Man’s man” will have appeal here.

Now I want to go down to the convention; but I will resist the Obama “groupy” impulse… as… hard… as… it… is…

whew.