McCain makes surprise pick of woman governor for VP

[Goldeneye]

McCain makes surprise pick of woman governor for VP

DAYTON, Ohio (AFP) — Republican John McCain unveiled a major surprise in the White House race Friday with his pick of first woman governor of the oil-rich state of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running-mate.

"Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president," the McCain campaign said in announcing the choice.

"She has brought Republicans and Democrats together within her administration and has a record of delivering on the change and reform that we need in Washington," it said in a communique.

McCain was due to present Palin formally as his running mate at a midday (1600 GMT) rally here.

The choice of Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, marks a huge political risk by McCain, and a blatant bid to win over disgruntled supporters of failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The timing of the announcement was clearly designed to overshadow the campaign of McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, the morning after he accepted his party's presidential nomination in a nationally televised extravaganza in a Denver sports stadium.

Palin could appeal to the Republican's grassroots conservative base, as she is strongly pro-life and backs the gun lobby.

She would balance out concerns over the age of McCain, who celebrated his 72nd birthday on Friday, and she could also be seen as a breath of fresh air, untainted by Washington politics.

But unlike Clinton -- the former first lady who was defeated in the Democratic primary nominating race by Obama -- Palin as a first-time governor elected in Alaska in 2006 has no national experience.

The McCain campaign moved immediately to counter this charge, noting that Palin, as governor of Alaska, has wide experience in energy issues, a key issue for an electorate hammered by high oil prices and other economic woes.

It said Palin had "challenged the influence of the big oil companies while fighting for the development of new energy resources".

"She leads a state that matters to every one of us -- Alaska has significant energy resources and she has been a leader in the fight to make America energy independent," it said.

McCain also praised Palin as a crusader against corruption in her state, a tough fiscal conservative and an official who understands military matters.

"Her experience in shaking up the status quo is exactly what is needed in Washington today," it said.

"As the head of Alaska's National Guard and as the mother of a soldier herself, Governor Palin understands what it takes to lead our nation and she understands the importance of supporting our troops," it said.

News that Palin was McCain's surprise choice began to leak to the press in the early hours of Friday as the Republicans sought to minimize the "bump" in popularity that Obama was expected to gain after this week's Democratic nominating convention.

Just hours before, Obama gave a highly praised acceptance speech to a jubiliant crowd of 84,000 fans crammed into a Denver stadium, urging voters to help "restore America's promise."

Picking such a long-shot candidate could undermine McCain's accusations against Obama that he lacks the experience to be the commander in chief of a country caught up in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And Palin could find it difficult to match up against experienced senator Joseph Biden, the Democrats' vice presidential pick, who has spent his much of his 36-year career working on foreign policy.

Palin is the first woman to lead Alaska and is best known for aggressively pushing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a key part of McCain's energy policy.

Palin would also help McCain maintain his image as a maverick outsider: she gained popularity as a crusading rebel and whistle blower against corruption among fellow Alaskan Republicans.

After appearing with his running mate here, the Republican team was to head to two other battleground states -- Pennsylvania and Missouri -- ahead of the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, which kicks off on Monday.

In choosing Palin, McCain turned away more experienced politicians who had been considered the front-runners for the vice-presidency.

These included former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, independent Senator Joe Lieberman -- Democrat Al Gore's running mate in 2000, and Governor Tim Pawlenty of the key election battleground state of Minnesota.

[Goldeneye]

Quick Poll:
Of the two VP choices which one will help their parties nominee more?

Obama chose experienced Senator and long time ally Joe Biden.
McCain chose 1st term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (A former City council member & mayor)

[stockslivevan]

She's a MILF.

[Mazer Rackham]

She is a republican?

[stockslivevan]

She was also Miss Alaska.

[James]

Is she any relation to Michael Palin?

[Dr. No]

Never heard of her Why does Alaska have a better looking governor than we get in the lower 48? We’re stuck with ol bland white toast Sanford

I had to look her up and heard alot about her on the ride home yesterday

Well for McCain she probably is the best choice if Colin Powell wouldn’t join.
I know Biden, but I think he is a pompous ass. He didnt add much to Barack. Some say experience, yeah but he’s been an insider for most of his life and in the senate longer than McCain. I wish Barack would have thought out side the vanilla box and brought someone exciting to the ticket. I sort of feel Barack is saying, you not sure about me then how about this, I have an old white guy as back up so you know Im a safe choice.

What McCain did was smart, he stole the thunder of the DNC convention and Baracks speech. Surprised the media and his supporters, unlike how Barack fumbled Biden’s announcement. 3 am Barack you are not fighting Hillary any more, the primaries are over. Do not going in to 3am anymore, if you do they’ll bring up Sarah Palin used to get up at 3 am to hunt Moose before school!

McCain need to get a jump on the convention since that monster storm is likly going to repeat Katrina, everyone is going to be down there covering it.
Palin is a decent choice, it mad the republican happy, and is something exciting and new. After almost 2 years of campaigning for the presidency it is nice to havea new face.
McCain help to counter the Obama is attractive with his own attractive offering.
Obama is younger, with his own younger than Barack VP. McCain does not look bad traveling around the country with an attractive woman, does not look as older as he would of if he nominated a younger man as VP.

Some say she is inexperienced or McCain took experience off the table, yeah sorta, but Palin has more experience governing and a longer public record than Barack does


Mcain was smart because 1. Gives the women who support hillary someone else to support and hope for (McCain is an old man and could leave Palin as the first Woman Pres)
2. Gives the largest voting block (men) someone to lust after. We all know who Bill Clinton will vote for this November
3. suddenly turns the table on the Obama campaign rhetoric about McCain is bushs 3rd term and makes MCCAin seem like the wahingotn outsider.
4. palin fought corruption in Alaska an d was a whistleblower aganst the big oil and the rubublican party

For those reasons Palin is a better choice than biden was for Barack.
If barack wanted someone experienced as VP I wish he gotten Gore instead.

Nomatter who wins we will see a historic first and that is kind of exciting

[Dr. No]

PS she and ehr husband had a commercial fishing boat. If they hunted snowcrab like on teh Deadliest catch, I'll have to vote for her

[Kristatos]

Never heard of her Why does Alaska have a better looking governor than we get in the lower 48? We’re stuck with ol bland white toast Sanford

You're in South Carolina?

[stockslivevan]

Does McCain truly need her as VP or does he really only need her to win women votes?

[Kristatos]

Does McCain truly need her as VP or does he really only need her to win women votes?

If that was his plan, it seems to be backfiring. She has pissed off a lot of Hillary supporters with her remark about shattering the glass ceiling that HRC only cracked.

[Dr. No]

Does McCain truly need her as VP or does he really only need her to win women votes?

If that was his plan, it seems to be backfiring. She has pissed off a lot of Hillary supporters with her remark about shattering the glass ceiling that HRC only cracked.

McCaIn needs her to excite his base. The RNC isn't too happy about him as the candidate (to me thats a good thing) and he needs sombody to kick start his base in to action.

The NOW women upset by her were not going to vote mccain even if he puts on a dress. It will be a prolife administration, that will lose the prochoice votes. But the women who want to see woman president in their lifetime adn those who want to show the DNC the consequences for ignoring Hillary will cling to mccain like white on rice all in the hopes that he dies in office.
I don't know if thats a good endorsement but is a strategy, I guess

The clintons are not going to help Barack much. Not any more than the have to. But they can not sabotage him out in the open and stay in teh DNC, they'll endorse Barack and play along but mccain will continue to use hillary's statements in his ads against barack

I don't think it will be long befor we see bill making statements like theses again

Clinton posed a hypothetical question, which he insisted didn’t have anything to do with the current political campaign in the United States. Suppose, he said, you had one candidate that you agreed with 100% on the issues, but you knew couldn’t get anything done. And you had another candidate that you agreed with only half the time, but felt would deliver on the other half.

“Who would you vote for?” Clinton said, making it pretty clear that he’d vote for results, not good intentions.

“It’s hard to turn good intentions into positive change,” Clinton said Tuesday.

[stockslivevan]

It's amazing how petty voters are getting and McCain tries to take advantage of it. Would these crazy woman voters even go for a bad candidate just because she wears a skirt? It was even worse before Palin came into the picture when these Hillary fanatics were jumping on McCain on the hopes of Hillary running in '12. It's astonishing.

I look forward to the days when presidential elections are no longer exaggerated battle of the sexes.

[Dr. No]

McCain played it smart, might not pay off for him though.

we really don't have any good candidates this time round.. Who is qualified? They a ll are according to the constitution.

Barack doesn't have much to recommended him aside form looking good and talking the part and running for it for 2 years now.
Hillary main qualification was she was married to a president and is a senator since early 2000-1
Sarah is a 2 year governor, baked some cookies and was mayor
McCain has the most experience but all senators look in a mirror and think they see a president.

I don't know why some of hillarys supporter though she was the one ticket to see woman in the white house (for their lifetime), I think that would have been a disaster and we should not give a pass to any one wanting the job because of the gender, skin color or age and heroism.

I'm for the right person for the job and dont care what they look like.Too bad American isn't ready for that yet

[Kristatos]

http://www.palinfacts.com/

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

Her speech is getting a lot of praise.

[Dr. No]

Well she did the almost impossible, she breathed life into McCains bid for the presidency. SHe had to meet high expectations for both of her speeches and she did it. Now the real tests come, off scrip and on the campaign trail.

Barack is laggin behind a here he was not expecting McCain to do what he did, IMO the Campaign responses to the speech last night were lame. Biden said it best, he was glad she wasn't talking about him

The more the media is perceived to attack her the better she'll be liked, the more Campaign supporters attack her experience the worse Barack will look. Right now they are down to claiming Barack has more experience because he's run a campaign for almost 2 years to me mccain forcing him to talk like that is a setback.

Experience is and issue and so is age,
In a way i wish we had McCain 10 years and and Barack 10 years form now

barack has spent the last year convincing the wold he has the minimum experience necessary and now he has to attack someone with slightly less experience (or slightly more depending on how you look at it)

I love to watch the RNC doing backflips to justify Palin when they spent the last 8 months raising the bar for qualifications to where only ex presidents had the need experience

[stockslivevan]

Maybe I'm one of the few, but I wasn't that impressed by Palin's speech. I thought Fred Thompson was far more inspiring than anything out of the RNC.

[Kristatos]

Maybe I'm one of the few, but I wasn't that impressed by Palin's speech. I thought Fred Thompson was far more inspiring than anything out of the RNC.

You're not one of the few. There is a big disconnect between the media's oohing and aahing over the speech and what their readers have been saying in the comboxes of newspaper websites.

[Dr. No]

Maybe I'm one of the few, but I wasn't that impressed by Palin's speech. I thought Fred Thompson was far more inspiring than anything out of the RNC.

From what I heard of it she did more than MCain has ever done to attack Barack and to energize his base.
she had a few well placed lines to kick him for the pompous crap Convention planners forced on the DNC.

Would I pick her for Pres no, but then ti makes me question why I as going to vote for Barack. so she has her place,
I wouldn't have picked cheneyfor VP either. Those who are supporting her have to think to themselves that after a year or tow as VP she could be prepared enough to take over if need be.

Personally I like that she is a new face. This election process has dragged on for far too long, I'm sick of it months ago