OK, one of the things I love about this Republican veep choice is that the pundits are left with egg on their faces! Of course, who could have guessed that John McCain, whose biggest argument against Obama was a lack of experience (see all his recent ads), picks for his veep a governor of a red-red state who has less than two years in office. I love it!! I think we're going to have to tell Biden to go easy on her in the veep debate, or he could just look like he's beating up on a woman. :-)
I have to say I don't get this choice at all. Alaska is never going to vote for a Democrat for President, so she's not bringing a toss-up state. She is very conservative, supporting the teaching of creationism in schools (separation of church and state? Does anybody on the right side remember that? Anybody at all??). She is in the middle of what appears to be a pretty minor ethics investigation, so McCain is taking the chance that that is not going to blow up in his face.
Does McCain really think disaffected Democratic women are going to vote for her in any substantial number? She's a lifetime NRA member, she eats mooseburgers, and hunts. I don't think many women can connect with that. Not to mention that she is anti-choice, not a popular view among most women. I think frankly that this choice is an insult to women -- this is an obvious pander that he thinks is going to automatically get him the female vote. This sounds like a Harriet Miers to me... he was just looking for a woman, any woman that was pro-life, and whomsoever was the first one he could get to join him on the ticket would be it.
I think she could also cost him some votes with extreme conservatives, some of whom won't vote for a woman, no matter how good a shot she is with a rifle. Also, she is a mother of five, the littlest of which is only a few months old and has Down Syndrome. I would think that some of the far-right conservatives would think she has no business running for Vice President or spending that much time away from her kids. It would be interesting to get a poll from the home-schooling crowd.
But hey, McCain picked an ex-beauty queen. He seems to like to have pretty young women around, doesn't he? Just hope he'll resist the urge to call her a trollop. She might just give him a good right cross if he does!
