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So, this is somewhat of a surprise. As early as this morning, when I woke
up, everyone thought John McCain’s vice presidential nominee was going to be
Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney. But it turns out that he’s asked Sarah Palin,
the 44 year old governor of Alaska, to be his running mate.
She is young and a woman — the youngest and first female governor of that
state. She is known as a reformer in her party in a state that has an older
Republican party, including Ted Stevens, who was just indicted. She is very
conservative, was the mayor two years ago of a town that has 8000 people,
and was a former runner up for Miss Alaska.
Very surprise pick, but out of the box that could play well with
conservatives and disaffected women. They have their first appearance in
Dayton at noon today.
Just wanted to share some more about Palin — the selection was kind of a
surprise so information on her is just now coming out.
She’s a self-described feminist too, and calls herself a “hockey mom.”
She’s the mother of five kids, the most recent of which was born last year
with down syndrome. And she’s a Christian conservative, which will help
McCain with the right wing of his party. She was mayor for two terms before
becoming Governor in 2007.
From NYTimes:
She opposes abortion rights, which could help pacify social conservatives
who were wary as rumors swirled that Mr. McCain might pick a running mate
who supports them. But she differs with Mr. McCain on a controversial
environment issue that centers on her home state: she supports drilling for
oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Mr. McCain’s opposition to
drilling — even after he changed positions and began advocating for
off-shore oil drilling — has upset many Republicans.
Read more about her here:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/almanac/2008/people/ak/akgv.php
This is a fascinating pick. She’s got a really interesting story that will
appeal to conservative Republicans. Smart move on McCain’s part — out of
the box pick gets more coverage and has more shock value and gets the base
excited again with the hope that he can get Hillary Clinton Dems that don’t
like Obama. Choosing a woman also gives them some historic value to the
ticket to counter balance the Obama-Biden ticket. But does this take the
experience argument off the table? Palin has arguably less experience in
public office than Obama. And, as second in command for the presidency,
will her youth and inexperience be a problem for her as much as it is fo
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