Sarah Palin

I will say, the McCain campaign did a great job in suppressing any leaks on who his choice would be for VP up until the last hour. I think I found out, finally, around 9:30-9:45 CST, less than a half-hour before he was to go onstage in Dayton for the announcement. (I wonder, did he manage to get his 15,000 audience he was hoping for even the night before?)

It's a good thing this leak was suppressed too; with a surprise like that, you want some people to still be in shock when you take the stage.

Remember how I was talking about transparency two blog posts ago? And how I dislike it? It shows no imagination, it shows little intelligence and it's very patronizing. The selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican VP could only have been more transparent had McCain selected Hillary instead, but she might have turned him down in her new-found sense of party unity and that would have tipped his hand, right?

Nothing against Palin, in fact I along with most of America, have never heard of her. We know Alaska exists and we're pretty sure it's way north and to the left of Canada ... oh, and it's flippin' cold. It has a government? Who knew?

Apparently, Alaska is governed much the same way as all the other American states (oh yea, I knew it was a state too) and it has a governor. A woman by the name of Sarah Palin. For a little while longer, at least. She's 44 years old, a mother of 4? 5? Lots of kids anyhow. Married her high school sweetheart (that's in almost every story I read about her and apparently, it's very important knowledge). Youngest and first female governor of Alaska where she was also raised, though not born. She likes to hunt moose. I hope she eats moose as well, the articles didn't say. I don't like sport hunting, it might as well just be called murder. I can get onboard with hunting for food though, although I have no intention of ever skinning anything ever. The idea's noble though and I'm sure there are braver people better inclined to approach the project with less EWWWWWWWWWWWWs.

So, I know all the news-bites about Sarah Palin, is my point. Every article essentially says the same few things because there is only so much the media knows about her. And having met her only once, presumably, there is only so much McCain can possibly know about her. Which makes this selection all the more suspect.

I'll mention a couple other things about Palin. They may have been reasons to choose her, I mean besides the main reason which is that she is a female and that all females are essentially mindless creatures and therefore only voting on the basis of whether or not the candidate or running mate has a vagina as we so clearly did with Hillary.

Palin is a Republican, first and foremost. She is anti-choice - they call it pro-life but let's call it what it really is because a hunter who believes in the death penalty is no more pro-LIFE than I am pro-life. She is supposedly unforgiving when it comes to abuse of power issues but at the same time, she is also undergoing investigation for firing a colleague who refused to fire her former brother-in-law who just so happened to be in the midst of a divorce and custody battle with her sister. Now I'll be honest, I think there is a good possibility that Palin is innocent of this. First, she is unforgiving, as I said, when others do it. Second, she has been Very cooperative in the investigation. I think this might be something she can slip past deservedly so. But, I find it ... odd? ... a little crazy? ... illogical for McCain to tap someone currently in the midst of an ethics investigation. Why not ask Ted Stevens or Jack Abramoff? Innocent or guilty, it all comes down to perception.

I think McCain displayed a touch of senility in this decision AND I think he knows it, in hindsight. His expression was more awkward than usual as Palin spoke at the event Friday in Dayton. And look at this photo from People ... does he look comfortable here?

To be honest, and I know this is Completely Rude but I'm just sayin', it looks a little like Cindy McCain is controlling him from a very - uh - sensitive location. And yes, I have noticed: Palin's husband is a bit of a hottie.

Anyway, back to the topic.

I am not angered by the choice of Palin, in fact I think it's a stroke of genius ... for the Democrats. McCain just took away his argument about Obama's age and experience with Palin's selection. She is younger and has less experience than Obama although it will be spun that her shorter amount of executive experience trumps Obama's longer amount of legislative experience. Fact of the matter is, most political experience comes down to Who You Know and as a short-term governor of a very-remote state, she doesn't know many people. The 72 year old McCain has an outside chance only of surviving two terms, so Palin's credentials become all the more important. I'm sure she'd do fine if it came to that, but if this is a contest of seniority and experience, McCain just dunked the ball in the opponent's basket.

And it's Game On.