UPDATE II: And now he sews up the redneck "clinging to guns and bible" vote (just in case they were squishy over his other less than conservative stances.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s parents were called early this morning at their home in Wasilla and told to “listen to the radio” by Palin’s husband, Tim.
Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, says he and his wife were caribou hunting when they were told to come home and tune into their local radio station to hear “exciting news,” but said he did not know if his daughter was the choice for John McCain’s vice president.
Update: Scroll
Well, Hotair seems to be tracking all the official "Sarah Palin is McCain's VP Choice" news.
He's on source #3 saying its Palin.
Lots of folks seem torn on the subject, but I don't have an issue. Question about experience? Why do we need to worry about that when McCain has it all and Palin will simply spend her time in the VP slot pushing his agenda and polishing her own?
Of course, that's because the Obama folks have been trying to put the fear of McCain's age into folks. What if he strokes out while in office?
NO worries! The Navy doctors over at Bethesda will pump him full of adrenalin and shock him back.
Lots of talk about her conservative background, yada, yada. But, let me say one thing good about Palin's lack of experience in the VP slot: not much dirt to find.
Biden and Obama...excuse me, Obama and Biden have enough dirt between them to bury a few stinking bodies.
McCain can take a few hits in the "little experience" column since she's just the VP and he can beat the crud out of Obama and his team if they bring it up by implying she has as much experience as Obama [sic] and she isn't running for president, just VP.
Did I say this race just became reeeeaaal interesting?
.
I particularly like this in light of a part of Obama's speech last night:
Check. Check. Check. Check.
He just killed Obama's speech. I don't know who is running his campaign, but I'm really starting to like him. Did Rove come out of retirement?
"She is a former mayor of Wasilla who became governor of her state in December, 2006 after ousting a governor of her own party in a primary and then dispatching a former governor in the general election.
More recently, she has come under the scrutiny of an investigation by the Republican-controlled legislature into the possibility that she ordered the dismissal of Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper."
Fantastic. Now we know she's a seasoned Republican politician - she's already working on her criminal record.
"McCain/Palin 08 - Inconsistency AND Incompetence!"
oh, this is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was hoping for either Rob Portman (one of my favorite politicians in recent history) or Palin. YAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!
McCain may not have been my top choice for President, but Palin is a most excellent choice for Veep.
I am SOOOO HAPPY!!!!!
At least, unlike *any* of the other three... she's *run* something.
Read: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/29/palin.republican.vp.candidate/index.html
Palin acknowledged that a member of her staff made a call to a trooper in which the staffer suggested he was speaking for the governor.
Palin has admitted that the call could be interpreted as pressure to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who was locked in a child-custody battle with Palin's sister.
"I am truly disappointed and disturbed to learn that a member of this administration contacted the Department of Public Safety regarding Trooper Wooten," Palin said. "At no time did I authorize any member of my staff to do so."
Palin suspended the staffer who made the call.
And then there's this:
Palin has focused on energy and natural resources policy during her short stint in office, and she is known for her support of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge...(she) was chairman of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Alaska's oil and gas resources, in 2003 and 2004.
Female, NRA member, Protestant, passed an ethics overhaul first thing as governor, overhauled Alaska's educational system, and is focused on the energy needs of our country. What's not to like?
You are so going to owe me that lobster dinner. Palin is not Ferraro and McCain is not Mondale. Ferraro, if you recall, had all sorts of really ugly things lingering in her closet and Mondale was an idiot.
And, this is not 1984 (although, Obama's speeches give me Orwellian goose bumps sometimes).
Palin has more experience than Ferraro. Further, did I mention her "closet" is much cleaner than Ferraro's? And she has energy chops and anti-goverment corruption chops. What did Ferraro have? A son on drugs. A husband that might have been skimming money and the unlucky moment to be Mondale's VP in an election against a popular incumbent: Reagan
Nowhere near the same.
But you keep telling yourself that. Your total shock on Nov 4 is going to make that lobster taste really, really good.
I've read so much this morning I can't remember where I saw it, but scuttlebutt from Alaska is that the "scandal" is about to go nowhere because the officer is going to be fired for drinking on duty IN HIS PATROL CAR.
Seriously, that is the least politically damaging thing that she could have ever done.
Some good info on her. I like her so far. It will be a fun race to watch.
This world is turned upside down...GOP nominating a conservative woman with green credentials that hunts and fishes...Kat going to dinner with a liberal...what's the world coming to?
1. She is a lame attempt at pulling Hillary's votes. Problem is most women supporting Hillary because she is female were doing so because they want a woman as top dog (sic). Not playing second fiddle to a doddering old man that cannot count where home is.
2. She hasn't been around long enough to gather too many skeletons. Although the trooper thing may haunt her. This is also a double edged sword as she also has no experience with foreign affairs. But she is a great Mom, and John will need all the nursing he can get.
Believing that women won't vote for a female Veep just because she's not top dog is insulting and ignorant.
I don't vote for anyone I don't like- female or male; nor do I vote for someone just because of their sex. And neither do any of the women I know. On the other hand, I do know of men who won't vote for a woman simply because she's female.
Adding Palin to the ticket will draw more women to look at the McCain/Palin ticket, but it won't be the deciding factor, and will be a distractor for some men.
But, let's be serious, Hillary didn't want the VP anyway because Obama, had he won President, would have run again in 2012 and would have put Hillary completely out of the running.
What I think about Hillary is that she is secretly smiling because McCain said one term and this VP slot puts Palin in the running for 2012. Obama will have slid away into the shadows as a "once run, twice shy" candidate and it will leave Hillary a nice field to run "mujer y mujer" where Hillary will try to claim even more experience than the female VP. And, she'll have distanced herself from the remaining bad press on Bill AND anything that happens on a McCain watch that is bad she could paint Palin with.
Its all about the stepping stones.
Word to your mother
Jason, I hate to tell you, but Barry is in a statistical dead heat right now, right after the Dem convention. He should be 8 or 10 points up right now. As for "straw candidate," Palin has 2 years of executive experience, compared to everyone else's ...zero... Don't even try to push that so-called "scandal." The commissioners serve at the pleasure of the governor, and may be fired at any time. Monegan has alleged that his termination was over Wooten, but has not proved a single thing. Considering that she's not convicted of anything, the criminal crack is amusing as it is fatuous.
Then we have Shed, who entertains us with poor reasoning and bad grammar at the same time. First he provides no support for the claim that the nomination is "lame," claims that women voters supported Hillary because of her genitals, then throws in a gratuitous insult at McCain. That's "can't count how many houses he has," not "cannot count where home is,"
by the way. Which is, I might add, not a surprise since most of 'em belong to his wife, not him. Shed is also dumb enough to bring up Troopergate (c'mon, you know someone's going to start pushing that word!) despite the lack of any evidence of wrongdoing. Shed had better watch the old cracks, since Biden is 66, an age at which most Americans retire. I suppose we should be grateful Barry didn't nominate Robert Byrd. "Obama/Byrd: Fifty-one years of experience!" Maybe McCain should have nominated Ted Stevens. That would vitiate the cracks about experience, but Shed would at least have some grist for his "criminal" mill. :)
This is great, really. Cheap shots, the non-existent Toopergate, and "old" jokes. Someone at Baldilock's place has already tried to compare Palin to Quayle as well. If weak ad hominem is the best the opposition can come up with, it's gonna be a long two months for Barry and company.
Maybe they're upset because McCain pwned them with this pick. Barry skipped over what was arguably the strongest candidate, Hillary, and picked old, white, male Washington insider. Yep, that's hope'n'change, Barry. Blow off the lady with 18 million votes at her back. While Shed is, well, wrong about the PUMAs motivations, McCain's pick highlights the difference between the two teams by underlining what Barry didn't do.
In closing, here's an idea: Palin's nickname "Barracuda" came from her aggresive play during high school basketball, where she led her team to a championship. There's a video clip somewhere that shows Barry making some awesome from-the-other-end-of-the-court shot at the buzzer to win the game during his Hawaii days. Forget debates, how about some one on one? :)
Attack the message, not the messenger. If all you've got is "You're a poopy head!" keep it to yourself.
No, not throwing flags on this thread - just doing the "pre-match" referee warning thang!
And, at the moment, all they've got is Troopergate.
Don't see anything Wrightish or Ayersish... so to speak.
If he's not, he still picked a balanced article on the subject.
Nah -- she's too peachy to do that...
Sheesh!