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Sarah Palin Is John McCain's Pick For Vice President
WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, NBC News has learned.
First-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talks in her office in Anchorage, Alaska in a Thursday Aug. 14, 2008 file photo. Palin has bee named as John McCain's vice presidential choice and the official announcement will happen this afternoon.
(AP Photo/Al Grillo, File) She would be
the first woman ever to serve on a Republican presidential ticket. The
pro-life Palin would also be the first Alaskan ever to appear on a
national ticket.
Palin, 44, was elected Alaska's first woman governor in 2006. The state's voters had grown weary of career politician Gov. Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the GOP primary.
"I've been blessed with the right timing here," Palin said before the election. "There's no doubt that Alaskans right now are dealing in an atmosphere of distrust of government and industry."
On Aug. 1, she scored a major victory when the Alaska legislature passed a bill that authorizes her administration to award a license to TransCanada Alaska to build a 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope to a hub in Canada.
The pipeline would be the largest construction project in the history of North America. If completed as hoped within ten years, it would ship 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The United States imported about 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2007.
Under investigation for firing
But
Palin's seemingly bright future was clouded in late July when the state
legislature voted to hire an independent investigator to find out
whether she tried to have a state official fire her ex-brother-in-law
from his job as a state trooper.
The allegation was made by former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whom Palin fired in mid-July.
"It is a governor's prerogative, a right, to fill that cabinet with members whom she or he believes will do best for the people whom we are serving," Palin told CNBC's Larry Kudlow in an interview on Aug. 1. "So I look forward to any kind of investigation or questions being asked because I've got nothing to hide."
Palin also reacted to the indictment of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens by calling it "very dismaying." She added, "Hopefully though, this won't be a distraction and get people's minds off what has to be done in the grand scheme of things."
As for the prospect of her being vice president, Palin told Kudlow that she could not answer the question of whether she wanted the job "until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day. I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here...."
Palin is married to Todd Palin, a lifelong Alaskan who is a production operator on the North Slope and a four-time champion of the Iron Dog, which is described as "the world's longest snow-machine race."
Mother of five
They have five children. Their son, Track, enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 11, 2007.
Palin birth to their fifth child, Trig, last April. The baby boy has Down syndrome, a genetic abnormality that impedes a child's intellectual and physical development.
"When we first heard, it was kind of confusing," Palin said, according to an account in the Anchorage Daily News. She called the news "very, very challenging."
But she added in a note, imagining what God would say to her family, "Children are the most precious and promising ingredient in this mixed-up world you live in down there on Earth. Trig is no different, except he has one extra chromosome."
Palin made a name for herself in Alaska politics by serving as mayor of Wasilla City for six years and going on to run unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2002.
Clash over ethics
After
her unsuccessful run, Palin received an appointment to the Alaska Oil
and Gas Conservation Commission, where she ended up serving a role in
an ethics probe into Republican Party Chairman Randy Reudrich, who was
questioned about conflicts of interest with the oil industry.
The investigation ultimately forced Ruedrich to resign from the commission.
Palin's role in the investigation left her a party outsider, but she was able to win the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary against Murkowski, going on to win the 2006 general election by seven points over her Democratic opponent.
During one debate before the primary, Palin said she was in favor of capital punishment in especially heinous cases such as the murder of a child. "My goodness, hang 'em up, yeah," she said.
Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her parents in 1964, when they went there to teach school.
She received a degree in communications and journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.
- Posted in
308 Comments so far
Show Allhes running a chick!!! haaa!
This is great! The Republicans will never vote for a female. They hate girls.
not as much as they hate blacks.
Conservatives don't hate women, they just hate hillary, but not as much as "progressives" hated on hillary when she was running against barack for the nomination. Kinda' funny isn't it?
It was Hillary's politics not Hillary that bothered many people. But now that battle is over and in politics it’s on to the next battle and that is Clinton, Obama and the rest of the party taking on the Republican Party. In politics we are all hypocrites, scalawags, rascals and bounders of a sort. So, let's get on with it and do something to make our lives just a little bit easier and a little bit better.
I see the Democrat party continues to parade its misogyny with pride. With luck, they'll pay a high price for that, and deserve to.
I think you misunderstand the fact that most CD'ers are not Democrats.
Quite true. And Up until yesterday I was FIRMLY convinced I was voting for McKinney or Nader. OTH this creationist supporting small town Alaska mayor SCARES me. Do we really wanted a dumb as a box of hammers creationist with her finger on the nuclear trigger if McCain succumbs to his FIFTH round with cancer? I NEVER thought I'd do a "lesser of two evils" move but now I wonder, I can just see her saying ya hoo I'm gonna go bomb me Russia after gassin' up the Skidoo, it's a shame McCain had to up and die 6 months after we get elected. :(
How did Americans get so stupid so fast?
You'll always find a reason for voting for the lesser of two evils, and the democratic party will make sure you find one.
Kind of makes you wish that Obama hadn't picked a hawk, who doesn't represent the democratic voters, whereas Palin does represent the republican's twisted sense of values.
Unless McKinney herself adopts some policy or position that I can't support, she will get my vote this time around, though I am a Nader supporter as well.
Vote third party, don't support the corporate controlled mainstream candidates.
Does he really think someone of this caliber will make him the candidate that all the women of the US will flock to?
I cannot imagine that ALL the people on his staff could be so stupid. Well....
Are we sure something else isn't at play here....
YES
Never heard of her before-- and neither did Maverick of the Living Dead, in all likelihood.
But I gotta give his wranglers credit, findin' a nice purty gal wingnut to pump a little life into the ticket!
Wonder if he's going to have her go compete in the "Miss Buffalo Chip" contest.
McCain has just sown up Alaska and its THREE electoral votes. Obama, be scared, be very scared.
I wonder why he didn't pick Ann Coulter instead? lol...
Now we can get our antiGreen Bush policies with a smiling feminine face.
Apparently he thought the female version of Dan Quayle was a good idea.
Oh, Wow a Woman! Desperate times in the Repug Party leads to desprate measures!
Briar, It is the "Democratic Party" - Please leave us Libs alone here and go back to Rush's site, he need you!
My Republican friends are E/mailing me their cries of woe and desperation. To quote: "He may as well have just given the election to Obama."
Please don't ask anybody to leave. We need someone to play the other side no? What is fun about playing alone?.
I'm a LITTLE bit concerned about whether she'd be willing to take a call at THREE O CLOCK in the morning. I wonder if the dems will have the courage to ask the question?? Might be a smart choice for the clinton voters. Hmmmm!!!
Most likely she will be awake anyway... With one of her FIVE children crying ... or the roar of her husband's snowmobile....
Wow. I literally am shocked right now. Do they honestly think this will work?... More important, could it??...
How is she going to react the first time he loses his temper and calls her a "stupid cunt" or some other sweet nothing?
About the same as barack when joe biden call him a stupid n*gger.
OMG.
I just read on Fox that McCain's BRILLIANT choice for V.P. had her Down's Syndrome baby Trig and went back to work after only 3 days!!!
All you gals out there, can you IMAGINE having a newborn and leaving it in 3 days!! And it wasn't like she HAD to get right back to the office!!
For God's sake, couldn't she at least have taken off 2 weeks and bonded with her baby and allowed her body to rest and relax a little?! It's not like she's a single mom! She has a husband to take care of things and probably a nanny too! This behavior says EVERYTHING to me about her character!! Can you imagine that she's so unsure of "what a Vice President does"?!! And McCain and his "advisers" (nice move Kissinger!) think American Republicans will EVER want her to be "a heartbeat away" from being the leader of the free world. Ha!!! I'm a screenwriter and I could NEVER write this stuff! What a joke!!!
It is obvious that McCain and the Republicans know they will lose this election in November. The Republican party is in it's death throes right now and they made a conscious decision to not take down one of their top leaders with McCain.
As Jim Kunstler (Kunstler.com) has said, "The Republican Party will go down in history as the party that destroyed The United States." Admittedly, the Democrats cheerleaded Bush along and helped him bring down our economy, shred the Constitution and wage a totally illegal and immoral war against the people of Iraq.
Just imagine the debate between this airhead and Biden!! MUST SEE T.V.!!!
I never watch network television, but I'm tempted this morning to tune into CNN and FAUX News to see how they are spinning this.
Joe Biden must be rubbing his hands together in glee!!!
I think the time she decided to spend with her baby is pretty irrelevant to the politics at hand.
It is a pretty transparent move though, using a woman as surrogate "change".
Do you remember Biden's awful, long, rambling, monologue to start off one of the rubber-stamp SC justice hearings?
And, I see nothing in her record to call her an 'airhead'. Are you saying that just because she was a beauty queen that she's automatically an airhead?
My guess is Biden is going to look awful next to her. And sound awful, like Biden always sounds awful. The man talks to hear himself speak and then he acts like the world should be down on its knees thankful to hear his arrogant ramblings.
At the corporate sponsership level, it will be the Governor from BP against the Senator from MasterCard.
Score one for the Republican wing of the corporate party. At least she's attractive. Maybe I'll watch but mute the sound of that debate. Unless they let Rosa Clemente or Matt Gonzalez up on the stage.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
"Are you saying that just because she was a beauty queen that she's automatically an airhead?"
Mute acceptance of Creationism would qualify her as an air head. Her battle to place Creationism in public school curricula qualifies her as a full-bore whack-a-doodle!
Don't underestimate her or overestimate the intelligence of the voters.
How unbelievably transparent. Incredible.
Nearly as transparent as barack bringing on an old white dude Washington insider to shore up barack's total lack of experience.
TruthTeller sez: "McCain has just sown up Alaska and its THREE electoral votes."
***
The Repugnant party has Alaska's electoral votes locked up for life. In the 2000 primaries the state picked Buchanan because Bush was seen as too far to the left.
The place is a veritable hotbed of potential wingnut VP choices.
Hey now, at least Buchanan actually opposes the war and American empire unlike either of the two corporate sock puppet mainstream candidates. As an isolationist I think he'd make an excellent Secretary of State in a Cynthia McKinney administration.
First off, hold the misogynistic comments. They need to dent that gender barrier sometime or other.
Being a woman should be a plus for the Republicans. She has to have something going for her. Furthermore, unlike McCain, she raises kids and has no rotten divorces on her record.
In age, she's between McCain's child and McCain's grandchild. 28 year difference. She's going to make Sen. McCain look even older on the stump. Reminds me of the two for the road movie, "Paper Moon", except it's Lisa and Grandpa Simpson.
An oil and gas woman, huh? What does this say about the Republican "further our dependence on oil" platform plank.
Active corruption charges being investigated?
Sen. Obama picked a running mate who is well-recognized in southeastern Pennsylvania, which picks up Wilmington TV channels, and who also has Scranton hometown connections. Biden is going to help in a swing state. For that matter Obama has been visible in Indiana through Chicago TV and Indiana is in play.
Alaska? Nobody has ever heard of her?
Consider this. Maybe no one else in the entire Republican party wanted to run with McCain. Loser.
Sarah Palin was a beauty contest winner and sports journalist before becoming Mayor of a small town and then Governor (McCain sure likes his beauty queens). She has no experience otherwise (which in American politics is often a good thing). She is also in a bit of trouble for trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from his state trooper job.
On thing the choice could indicate is an increasing emphasis on the New Great Game in the Arctic.
However, the choice also shows how much identity politics are at play here. The real issues are obfuscated by the sturm und drang of personalities.
The trooper deserved to be fired -- he is a violent and dangerous person who fired a Taser at his eleven-year old stepson, drove his cruiser while under the influence, and made many threatening comments about Sarah and her family. That he still has a job is more of an indictment of the good ole boy state trooper club than anything else.
That said, it does surprise me that Sarah is ready to give up the governorship and be prepared to schlep her family to DC just because apparently McCain thinks a pretty face will buy him the presidency. Sarah is a nice enough person and obviously has a lot of energy as well as a supportive spouse, but so far her governorship has been pretty random and she has zero national experience, let alone knowledge of foreign policy . . .
The farming community in Alaska is not very happy with her because she fired the only good agricultural commissioner we have had in a long time, a person who actually (gasp) farms and also has a lot of other useful skills and who was just starting to make some headway against the entrenched farm-o-crats who have never gotten their hands dirty -- about a year ago Sarah replaced him with one of her girlfriends and nothing has been accomplished since then . . .
While i admire her for welcoming Trig (means 'truth' in Norwegian) into their lives, she did not show good judgement about the delivery . . . she and hubby were in Pheonix where she was giving a speech at big conference, eight months pregnant (isn't there something about flying when close to your due date ?) and went into the early stages of labor, they got on a flight home without telling anyone (flight crew, etc., obviously wouldn't have let her on plane) and flew to Anchorage and then drove home to Wasilla where baby was born in local hospital about 8 hours later . . . seems selfish to me to risk an airplane full of people which might have to make an emergency landing, or to risk delivery of a baby which she knew would be a special needs child and might need immediate and sophisticated care after birth, what if her preemie baby was born on the plane where no one could help it ? This was her fifth delivery, it could have happened really fast . . . especially since baby might have been small since not full-term . . . (I think the birth weight was a healthy six pounds, perhaps her dates were wrong ?)
She does seem like something of a drama queen, although the one time I met her very briefly I got a sense of strength, not insincerity . . . Hubby was standing alongside snuggling Trig, discreet black diaper bag slung over his shoulder . . . they did seem to have a really nice 'couples energy' and were both warm and gracious towards each other . . .
I was talking to an Alaskan recently who was a Democrat that liked and voted for her. I don't think she should be under-estimated.
Also, her husband Todd ('FIrst Dude') is a very accomplished person in his own right, built their family home in Wasilla, blue-collar worker on the North Slope, Bristol Bay fisherman, very handy type of mr fixit guy from what I've heard, this will totally appeal to MANY blue-collar workers who will see this couple as real people, family people who they can relate to . . .
The real first would be to have a person who is part Native American (Todd) so close to the seat of the Old White Guy government!
Those are all charming anecdotes copper, how will she do negotiating with the likes of Putin and Ahmendijad if McCain dies of cancer? We aren't talking about President of the county library board here, but President of the U.S. a berserker super power empire armed with nuclear weapons. We really need someone who is extremely competent steady, intelligent, and who will really change course from empire on behalf of oil and Israel to peaceful construction of a sustainable infrastructure if we are to survive the 21st century IMO. A creationist, oil drilling, snow mobile nut sadly IMO does not fill the bill there. :(
Her husband is a champion snowmobiler and works for B.P. .... Am I reading this correctly?....
This is the best America has to offer? ... Well, we do have a representative democracy.... And so it goes....
Who?
While it is nice to see the Republicans having a female VP choice, I know its not about her credentials but that she simply is a woman. Obama didn't pick Clinton, so McSame picks a woman in the hopes of wooing the disgruntled Clinton supporters. Though really, any Clinton supporter who is actually going to vote for McCain should seriously check their priorities.
I'm not going to say that "there goes the election for McCain!" or "Obama will win for sure!" Who knows. I certainly hope Obama wins. I'd be happy with Obama, McKinney or Nader though.
I think that it shows a desperatness on the part of the Republicans.. but it is something to be concerned a bit about.
I am sorry to be blunt.. but there are too many voters out there who don't THINK. Some of them are Hillary supporters too. Those bunch who JUST WANTED A WOMAN.. regardless. Sigh.
and the Republicans thinking. "aha .. if we get a female VP to run with old white guy.. AGAINST a Black Presidental candidate and a old white guy Vp... It will really electrify the election.. Hmmm who to choose.. who to choose
Sigh..
I am excited about having a black guy running for presidnt.. and i am glad a woman is finally in there too. But they are starting to feel more like PROPS than real candidates. Like these two major parties realise they have to get things changing and so they got these people involved.
"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity" Horace Mann First President of Antioch College.
An interesting choice. Tell me, if the presidential candidate dies during the campaign does his running mate take over?
I still don't think mcsame is going to live by the end of October, not dying from assissination but of old age. Running's not good for old men. (grin)
This seems like 'stunt casting' to me and nothing more ment snare female votes. Much like Quayle was to Bush Sr with young votes. However for him it worked. I'm not so sure this time though.
PFunk
I thought he was going to pick Condoleezza. I hope Hillary supporters don't fall for the identity politics junk. I'm glad he didn't pick Tom Ridge- now Pennsylvania could go either way. Alaska was already safe for McCain. As much as Obama needs to improve, you'd have to be crazy to say that McCain isn't worse by almost any measure. I understand why someone might vote to finally break the gender barrier, but that's a bad reason.
Hornblower thinks this farsical choice will back fire for McShame. She is a pretty woman, which is the one thing McShame has always been good at, scoring the babes! After all, when he was young he'd drive around in his Corvette and always seemed to find a bimbo or two. However, in this instance the choice appears un-presidential at best. Ms. Palin has extremely little experience. Wow, a degree in journalism and two years governing in a low population state. Given McShames' age, even if I was a Republican I would be running scared. Oh, but she is pro-choice. So, I guess nothing else matters to the ignorant conservatives. I can't wait for the debate between Biden and this one! Don't hold any punches Joe!!!
Hahahahahahaha! What a joke! McCain's entire campaign against Obama emphasizes his inexperience, and he chooses a 1-term governor but 2-term beauty queen for his Veep? I'll bet Cindy's not happy, after all, she "stole" McCain (what a prize) from his first wife. Soldier Boy Johnny couldn't stand the sight of his ex-model wife after her tragic car accident while she waited for Songbird McCain to come home from his broadcasting job in Hanoi. So he went trolling for a replacement, and super-rich beer-heiress bitch Cindy filled the bill, so off went Johnny Boy and his family values. Cindy's already fumed in silence while Frat Man had his daliences with female lobbyists. She should be about ready to blow.
The Republicans sicken me. Not a single one of their ideals or policies since WW II has improved the human condition. Money is their only god.
" . . . the grand scheme of things."
The grand scheme of things (Republican version) is still to steal you blind, kick you into the gutter and then skidaddle with the ill gotten gains when it finally all goes down here at the end of Empire Alley. A woman can rip you off and get you killed as fast as any male. McCain is keeping up his so-called "maverick" act but will the reactionary base of the Underside of a Wet Rock party go for it?