I give McCain credit for taking a real chance with his VP choice. But I really don't think this is going to help his chances. Sarah Palin is, at first glance, a lightweight -- A Clinton or a Ferrara she ain't...~VDR
A lightweight? That is hard to imagine when the Democratic nominee for president hasn't even served a FULL TERM in the US Senate.
I think it was a good pick. I probably would have went with Tim Pawlenty but I think this will work out for him. She is a younger, decent looking woman who has done nothing but shake up politics in her state. She shows the “new” face of the Republican Party. Also agrees with drilling in her own state.
A few tibits of information taken from Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard:
"...triumph came in Alaska where Sarah Palin, a politician of eye-popping integrity, was elected governor. She is now the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating in the 90s, and probably the most popular public official in any state"
"...she continued to take on the Republican establishment by joining Eric Croft, a Democrat, in lodging an ethics complaint against Renkes, who was not only attorney general but also a long-time adviser and campaign manager for Murkowski. The governor reprimanded Renkes and said the case was closed. It wasn't. Renkes resigned a few weeks later, and Palin was again hailed as a hero."
About how she became Gov:
"In a three-way race, Palin captured 51 percent and won in a landslide. She defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election, 49 percent to 41 percent. She was one of the few Republicans anywhere in the country to perform above expectations in 2006, an overwhelmingly Democratic year..."
"In the roughly three years since she quit as the state's chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the "body count" of Palin's rivals. "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah," says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called "Voice of the Times," which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct."
Change abody? I will let the pundits report the rest.
