Alaskan Gold
Quick initial thoughts of a political nature about the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's VP choice.
It threw everyone off, which is good PR in that it gives people something new to talk about with regards to his campaign. She's going to be vetted now by the news media, etc., which could turn out to be very bad (esp re corruption), but it's also a great ploy to soak up many, many news cycles to come, even after the convention. Certainly it appears to be and likely is a desperate ploy to snag disgruntled Hillary supporters, but that's unlikely to work much since Hillary will be countering that argument pretty strongly. Someone in another journal commented that she's the female "Bubba," like old Bill, and the counter for that is that the original Bubba can go Bubba-a-Bubba with her.
Without having ever heard her speak, but just doing the quick reading we're all doing this morning (see): She may shore up the conservative "pro-life" group with her Down's Syndrome child, has a western image, totes guns, is working class, as juanoclock points out looks like Tina Fey, believes in drilling for oil everywhere including up our butts, and she's been a governor, which they will hammer home time and again DOES give her experience Obama doesn't have (whether justified or not, that's the argument they're using out of the gate), and gives them something to counter the "historical" aspect of the Obama campaign and the Democratic primaries.
Thinking like a liberal or progressive or someone who wouldn't vote for McCain in a thousand six hundred years, she's a poor choice. Stephanie Miller on her morning show, playing to the choir, finds the selection laughable and desperate, and of course I think she's right, but I'm not so sure things are going to play out that way. Thinking like someone who's undecided, and again without having seen her in action yet, this makes things a thousand times more interesting. This is how these things happen, these paradigm shifts, after years of struggle comes a moment when things break open, and this year continues to be a year full of surprises.
Now, can she debate? (Against Joe Biden?) Can she campaign well? Who knows, and I hope she can't, but I think it changes the dynamic completely, and that's what they needed to do. If she has Huckabee like charm, or can muscle into the Bubba territory, look out, look out, look out.
It threw everyone off, which is good PR in that it gives people something new to talk about with regards to his campaign. She's going to be vetted now by the news media, etc., which could turn out to be very bad (esp re corruption), but it's also a great ploy to soak up many, many news cycles to come, even after the convention. Certainly it appears to be and likely is a desperate ploy to snag disgruntled Hillary supporters, but that's unlikely to work much since Hillary will be countering that argument pretty strongly. Someone in another journal commented that she's the female "Bubba," like old Bill, and the counter for that is that the original Bubba can go Bubba-a-Bubba with her.
Without having ever heard her speak, but just doing the quick reading we're all doing this morning (see): She may shore up the conservative "pro-life" group with her Down's Syndrome child, has a western image, totes guns, is working class, as juanoclock points out looks like Tina Fey, believes in drilling for oil everywhere including up our butts, and she's been a governor, which they will hammer home time and again DOES give her experience Obama doesn't have (whether justified or not, that's the argument they're using out of the gate), and gives them something to counter the "historical" aspect of the Obama campaign and the Democratic primaries.
Thinking like a liberal or progressive or someone who wouldn't vote for McCain in a thousand six hundred years, she's a poor choice. Stephanie Miller on her morning show, playing to the choir, finds the selection laughable and desperate, and of course I think she's right, but I'm not so sure things are going to play out that way. Thinking like someone who's undecided, and again without having seen her in action yet, this makes things a thousand times more interesting. This is how these things happen, these paradigm shifts, after years of struggle comes a moment when things break open, and this year continues to be a year full of surprises.
Now, can she debate? (Against Joe Biden?) Can she campaign well? Who knows, and I hope she can't, but I think it changes the dynamic completely, and that's what they needed to do. If she has Huckabee like charm, or can muscle into the Bubba territory, look out, look out, look out.