McCain picks a MILF
August 29, 2008 at 10:45 am by Wayne GarciaHeavy word is that John McCain has selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a wildly popular right-winger in her state who is 44 years old.
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August 29th, 2008 at 10:47 am
From the obviously non-partisan Exposing Liberal Lies blog (Note the reference to the “beguiling brunette”):
“An Alaskan columnist, Effie Caldarola, wrote the following story about the Palin family: ‘Over a month ago, her office announced that the 44-year-old and her husband, Todd, were expecting their fifth child in May. It was a secret the beguiling brunette, a runner, managed to keep from even her staff. Then, April 18, she surprised us again by giving birth a month early to Trig Palin, 6 pounds, 2 ounces. In true Sarah fashion, her amniotic fluid leaked in Texas, she gave a speech at a Republican Governors Association convention as scheduled anyway, and then returned to Alaska to deliver.’”
August 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Thoughtful political analysis here. Ugh.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:25 am
McCain has made a great strategic move, on several counts:
1)Palin is a governor, meaning she has a record of having actually run something (unlike Obama or Biden).
2)She’s a woman, which inevitably will appeal to some of those women voters who are still pissed off at the Dems — and the media – for giving Hillary the shaft (now how clueless does Obama look for failing to put the relatively centrist Hillary in the VP slot? Way to play to the party’s weaknesses)
3)She’s young, even younger than
Obama.
4)She’s an actual conservative (unlike Obama and Biden, the no. 1 and no. 3 most liberal senators), which will appeal to the GOP base.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Okay, so far I like the choice. I need to learn more, though.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Real Time,
Palin is pro-life, so i don’t think McCain will take away any of the former Clinton supporters from Obama this pick. Johnboy doesn’t stand a chance, even with a MILF (or GILF as some have already dubbed her). say goodnight, johnboy.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
It’s absolutely infuriating how there’s a stigma associated with racism, but sexism is completely ok. And this from the liberal media?!
August 29th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Biden will eat her alive in the debate, just like Obama will eat McCain alive in all three.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:50 am
re: “Doesn’t stand a chance”
Been keeping up with the polls lately? It will take more than a sense of entitlement and an “it’s inevitable” attitude to win this one.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Real,
take away all the BS tv ads and the press. people just need to ask themselves if they are better off now than they were 8 years ago. i would wager that a significant portion of voters are worse off now.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:59 am
@gabe – right on. I’m not allied with a party, and I’m looking the issues. The real things effecting me, my community and my world. Remove the fear and the vitriol and you have two very clear paths laid out in front of you.
I don’t know anyone – ANYONE – who would say that they personally, their families and/or their nation is better than it was 8 years ago. And it’s only gone downhill from there.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
While this is an incredibly exciting time in America and politics, I find it very sad and disheartening that the acceptance of sexism is so open that you even think to use the term “MILF” when speaking about a VP candidate. This is equal to using a racial comment went speaking about Obama – which would not be accepted. I’m shocked.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I’m not talking about the BS TV ads and the press, which mostly has kept busy sending valentines to Obama.
I’m talking about the polls which, despite all the press love for the Dem ticket (sure, there have been a few exceptions to this rule), and despite the wall-to-wall coverage for O’s recent globe-trotting, and despite a suffering economy and an unpopular war, reflect a voter population that’s about evenly split between Obama and McCain.
No way to look at that as a positive sign for the Dems.
I’m saying that it’s a dangerous trap for Dems to believe their own hype about the “inevitability” of winning the election.
So far, fair or not, GOPers have painted themselves as the underdogs. That’s the smarter political strategy.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
we’ll see here challenge president obama in 4 years for sure.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Students of political strategy have to be impressed by the timing of the announcement. It came the morning after O’s big night, thus interrupting the nonstop big-media afterglow.
The element of surprise was impressive, too – McCain was able to keep his pick under wraps. As late as yesterday, practically all the pundits were predicting Pawlenty or Romney.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Real — no doubt, the selection has enough for so many different story angles that it stomped on Obama’s news cycle. Crushed it
August 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Not sure she does much for pulling the Hillary women over, but she definitely wins the evangelicals back into the fold
August 29th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
re: Hillary women – you’re right, I can’t imagine those who were in line with Hillary on the issues would move at all in Palin’s direction. The “historic” aspect of it, for women, is still there, though – if elected, she’d be the first-ever female VP.
As far as the evangelicals – likewise, it’s highly unlikely that they would have ever voted for a candidate as liberal on the social issues as Obama anyway.
BUT Palin’s pick will, I think, get the GOP more excited about the ticket in general – not just the evangelicals but also the other traditional conservatives.
For an ultimate show of diversity/unity/historic firsts, maybe Obama and Palin should have run on the same ticket, huh? They’d look good together, and since being telegenic is practically everything these days …
My question (and I don’t know the answer): Why didn’t McCain pick one of the other female GOP governors. Were they all much less conservative than Palin?
August 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
i haven’t paid attention to polls in years. who are they polling? not me or anyone i know.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
for you folks hating on us for calling her a MILF…
for a few minutes today, we thought this might have been an old picture of her.
http://askpang.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/sabine5.jpg
it’s not, but does kind of look like her…
August 29th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
This is pick for the shallow and the political tourist. Oh, she’s “actually run something” — and has ethics violations to prove she’s a GOP standard bearer. having run one of the least populous states for a year and a half and having managed a city of 6500 is not criteria to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
The only positives of this pick that I can see is that it gives McCain potential celebrity appeal because of his 2nd in command. But that’s a reach as Palin has not been exposed to the Continental US.
On the other hand, the conservative base are up in arms. That includes Mittens Romney and Pawlenty in Minnesota. I’d imagine Charlie Cris is saying “WTF?!” as well.
The choice echoes Dan Quayle and undermines the experience argument that the conservatives are desperate to attack Obama about (see Real Times posts).
August 29th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Even Fox News is a bit taken back by this choice. I just think it is funny that McCain’s VP choice is from a state that is younger than he is.
If something happened to Obama, Biden would run the country well. If something happened to McCain, would you really trust her to run your country? She’s been mayor of a 9,000 person town, and governor of a population-small state. She grew up in Idaho (to an early age) and then went to college there and married her high school sweet heart…
It doesn’t sound like she tries too many things, just sticks with something that’s adequate…
August 29th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
HOME RUN! This makes way too much sense. No wonder NObma and non-Hillary dems are puzzled, confused and still saysing “same old thing”.
realtime’s (3rd from top) and c’s and A’s comments wer right on!
August 30th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
John:
Do you really think it’s a good strategy for Dems to question Palin’s experience when Obama has so precious little, when his own resume is paper thin?
As Bill Clinton might have said, just two months ago (when he said that Obama wasn’t ready to lead the country) – It’s the Top of the Ticket, stupid!
Aside from voting “present” so many times (the better not to commit to any position) in the Illinois state legislature, what, exactly, has Obama accomplished?
He was a U.S. Senator for what, 100 days, before he decided to run for President?
What major legislation has he been responsible for while in the Senate?
And as far as actually running something (i.e., actual executive experience), Palin has made decisisions regarding the largest state in the union. Obama, Biden? – not so much.
You’re right, Palin has no real celebrity appeal. Then again, that’s not her forte. And celebrity appeal, along with lots of untested ideas, is practically all that poor Obama has to offer. Really, this is the best presidential candidate that the Dems could find?
You say “the conservative base are (sic) up in arms.” Dude, what have you been smoking? According to all the reports on places you trust – CNN, MSLSD, CBS/NBC/ABC, NPR – and others you don’t – Fox – the conservative base, including Romeny and Pawlenty, is excited, downright energized over McCain’s choice.
And “ethics violations?” Do you know anything about how Palin became governor? She took on the corrupt incumbent GOP governor, and won on an anti-corruption campaign. She’s a reformer, who – unlike Obama or Biden – has the record to show it, having actually cleaned up state government in Alaska.
So, really, it’s understandable why Dems would be so freaked out by such a great out-of-the-box choice, particularly when McCain’s choice, Biden, is so weak (inside the Beltway with a career dating back to Nixon, old, so liberal that he does nothing to balance the ticket, does little to sew up any states).
But those lobbing grenades at Palin are merely resorting to being “shallow and political.”
Again, it’s really the Top of the Ticket that matters. And when it comes to actual experience accomplishing something in Washington, genuine understanding of foreign relations — not just a celebrity globetrotting trip –and solid character (guy was a P.O.W., for God’s sake), McCain handily trumps Obama. Obama, too, smacks of elitism – didn’t party leaders learn anything from the failed candidacies of elitist candidates Kerry and Gore?
And just about now, Dems everywhere are kicking themselves (and their “visionary” leaders) for alienating 18 million voters by not picking Hillary as VP nominee.
That’s great strategizing!
August 30th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
What this pick REALLY does, besides show that McCain needs the social conservative and feminists still bitter that Hillary Clinton’s time has not yet arrived, is that a McCain administration would consolidate power in the White House. We won’t see the type of partnership (for good or bad) that we’ve seen during the past eight years, so a Vice President Palin will be relegated to the more traditional duties of representing the president at B-list funerals and breaking the occasional tie in the Senate.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I’m very disappointed that John McCain didn’t pick a more experienced and better vetted Republican like Elizabeth Dole or Mitt Romney.(He only met Sarah briefly on two occasions prior to picking her for VP on his ticket.)
Recent revelations about “1st dude’s” adult DUI (feels like an episode of “Cops”) & “troopergate”
(seems like an episode of “Jerry
Springer”) or “babygate”(scans like a recent “Desperate Housewives” script) make me wonder
if John’s choice of “Sarah Barracuda” will come back to bite him in the butt!
September 9th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
It seems to me that if you’re a Republican you love her and if you’re a democrat you think she’s not experienced enough. How she is viewed is completely dependent on what you believe already. That’s my problem with political allegiances, everyone seems to filter the facts to fit what they already believe. Think for yourself!!
September 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Oh she is a MILF!