Who? Palin? Is that her family name?

"Ms. Palin then took the stage with her husband, Todd, who owns a commercial fishing business. They were accompanied by four of their five children; she said the eldest child, a son, is in the Army, and he is heading to Iraq on Sept. 11.

She described herself as “just your average hockey mom,” who joined the P.T.A., was elected to the City Council and then served as mayor and as governor, adding that she did not get into government to take the safe course.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why the ship is built,” Ms. Palin said, adding that she would “challenge the status quo to serve the common good.”

Ms. Palin praised the achievements of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lost a long and bitter primary race against Senator Obama, saying that she had left “18 million cracks” in the highest glass ceiling in the land.

Then, making an explicit appeal to Ms. Clinton’s disappointed supporters, she said, “It turns out that the women in America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling.”

Ms. Palin, a former mayor of the small town of Wasilla, an Anchorage suburb, and one-time beauty pageant queen, first rose to prominence as a whistle-blower uncovering ethical misconduct in state government. "  NY Times

--------------------------------------------------------------

Mrs. Smith goes to Washington?

Let's see - What else is there?  Oh, yes, evangelical Christian, handicapped infant child, probably only a couple of houses so far.

Well, hell.  At least she isn't pushing "peak oil."  How bad can it be?

Alexandria, Virginia is full of people just like her.  As driver for "she who must be obeyed," I go to meetings chock full of them.  There are always people there who are on the school board or who want to be on the school board, city council members, planning commission members...  You get the idea.  By and large, they nearly all secretly hope that one thing will lead to another and someday they will be standing in the sun somewhere telling a crowd that "women in America aren't finished yet" or some other inanity. 

This fantasy life is not so funny today.  It actually happened for this "hockey mom," married to a part Eskimo fishing boat captain.  Hell, we may see this man on "Deadliest Catch" next season.  That's a thought.  Is this guy going to have to give up fishing?  No way!

"Is this a great country or what?"  pl

PS  Jose points out that I left out all the "Natty Bumppo" stuff about moose hunting, NRA life membership, etc.  I never gutted anything bigger than a white tail deer.  A moose must be an "awesome" job.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/29palin.html?hp

Comments

[Matthew]

As the problems get more serious, we get sillier.

P.S. Nice Rumpole reference.

[Jose]

Col, you missed the best part of her, she is Moose hunter.

[anonymous]

Also, there is a legislative investigation of Palin's abuse of executive power for revenge. So we have the Cheney/authoritarian wing of the GOP covered too:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/29/palin-corruption-investigation/

Palin's 'firewall' that it was all the doing of one rogue aid may crack soon.

Seems like besides revival of reformer/maverick theme (which I think is last minute improvisation due to some ugly focus group results), the McCain camp wants to rev up fear of the Russians -that was the other theme I heard at the VP announcement.

Does McCain really want to do that after his rather odd performance during the Russia-Georgian war? If readiness for crisis will be a theme, Obama merely dusted off his months-old plan for improved international security arrangements for the area, and is ready to go ahead with a reasonable plan. It is along the lines of something that the Russians at least say they would consider. McCain offered only bellicose destabilizing bluster, followed a few days later by a suggestion that maybe we should find out exactly what happend first before we jump off the deep end. That won't look good if it becomes an official issue.

Very curious, unless they are in an incoherent panic over public moods that perhaps only the campaigns can see.

A look at the poll aggregators shows there is already increasing interest in the election -the proportion of undecideds going down. The public is busy, they have jobs and many demands on their time and attention. They usually decide now is about the time to look into this election thing and make up their minds. Both campaigns are certainly reading the early signs.

[charlottemom]

Off-handedly I'd say that this smells of desparation by McCain. Gimmicky, yes. They've met only once, so who is it who cosigned on this risky "investment" for McCain? I wonder...anyway, I can't see the few Hillary diehards gravitating to her (ideologies miles apart, too much of older woman does heavy lifting and then young, attractive woman slips in to reap benefits narrative). One Rep suggested that this is not really about McCain grabbing the women's vote, but of solidifying the blue collar men, perhaps.

Anyway the three point shot is attempted by McCain, will he score or is it an airball? We'll see.

Yes, I'd love to know her surname. Really anything really. No one really knows about her or Alaska politics, so McCain can frame it as he'd like and really who'd know.
I chuckled when MSNBC described Biden as "Catholic" and Palin as "Christian"

[anonymous]

But, I do know something about Alaska politics. Do not underestimate a Wasilla Republican Party pol. They are tough cookies.

[frank durkee]

I have been in Alaska for the opening of moose season. It was some years ago and I was driving across the then dirt "Denali Road" [ it may still be that ]. Hunters were lined up to essentially massacare the Moose who were grazing between 15 feet to 1500 feet of the roas, on open tundra, with no impediments untill you got to the base of the Alaska Range. Rifles were being rested on the hoods of vehicles to steady the shoots. I had coffee from my camper eith a couple who's real decision was whether they wanted to drag the body the 150 feet of the nearest bull. it was not "hunting" as much as culling and providing for the Winter. Understandable and o.k., but not a highskill project, at least on that day in that place.

[Clifford Kiracofe]

Bio data indicates she is from an outdoors oriented Idaho family which moved to Alaska. I like to hunt and fish myself but I am still voting for Obama to register my opposition to the past eight catastrophic years of W and The Evil One.

" Palin was born Sarah Louise Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Sarah (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles R. Heath, a science teacher and track coach.[2][3] She has English, Irish, and German ancestry.[2] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant.[3] The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family regularly ran 5 km and 10 km races.[3]

At Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin was the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes.[3] She was the point guard and captain for the basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds, despite a stress fracture in her ankle.[3] She earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play,[3] and was the leader of team prayer before games.[3]

In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla contest earlier, then finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant,[4] which won her a scholarship to help pay her way through college.[3] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.[5][6]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

One indicator would be her association with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. McCain strategists would calculate her as firming up the Christian Right vote. About 70 percent of US evangelicals are on the conservative side, experts say. With her on the ticket they will indeed come out Election Day.

FCA says: "We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God."
This indicates a fundamentalist literalist orientation. In turn this could, but not necessarily, indicate a Christian Zionist perspective on her part.
http://www.fca.org/

[Hudson]

And Palin, just a month ago, stated that she wasn't aware of what the job of Vice President entailed.

Not ready on Day One.

[dcgaffer]

I had assumed the following McCain quote was made up, an Onion satire - but no...

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

I suppose that it is good she doesn't have a Dick Cheney complex, see link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtilB1teksc

[Cold War Zoomie]

Hmmm, sledgehammer vs. beauty queen in the VP debates!

Will it resemble this midnight movie classic "short" from my youth?

[John Shreffler]

Rash. McCain is the latest reincarnation of Gen, John Bell Hood, whom Gen. Lee described as “All of the lion, none of the fox.” Seems like a desperation play to me. On to Nashville and glory. Well, so much for General Petraeus.

[J]

Colonel,

IMO moose-burgers are awesome

[Mad Dogs]

I've been reading that McSame's choice choice of Palin is "good, bad, brilliant, incredibly stupid, etc."

The MSM, as expected for a gaggle of gotcha gossips, is beside itself with joy over fresh meat.

This too will pass.

After all the circus hoopla has died down, 48-72 hours for Palin, and for McSame, no later than the end of next week with the end of the Republican convention, the rubber will finally hit the road.

As the final stretch campaigning gets underway then, Palin will prove to be the lightest of light-weights. Cue the flashbacks to Dan Quayle.

And John-boy McSame will, in essence, be campaigning all by his lonesome.

The "judgement" and "experience" issues that were to be the central thrusts of the McSame playbook will instead be inexorably turned back against him.

And the most important point? This will be by McSame's very own hand.

Judgement? Poor will be charitable.

Experience? John-boy McSame should've known better.

He didn't, and he doesn't.

[Maureen Lang]

Not to put too fine a point on Mrs. Palin's extensive political background/run-up, but can we look forward to those beauty pageant photos surfacing sometime soon...

[Rick]

Col.Lang ....

Sarah's reformer, whistle-blower halo, has recently been badly tarnished. She is under a cloud of possible ethics violations, which have resulted in the Alaska legislature appointing an outside, independent investigator, with a budget of $100,000, to reveal the facts. Her once lofty 90% approval ratings have shriveled to 67% in this rabidly conservative/libertarian state. Her popularity was primarily the result of her unseating the unpopular, odious former governor, Frank Murkowski.

As for McCain's VP pick of Sarah, I have a hard time picturing her as POTUS. For a man of McCain's age with his health issues, it was a reckless and immature choice.

I wonder ... it could be that the Republicans didn't want to tarnish any of their A-Team with the ignominy of association with McCain's kamikaze campaign.

And gutting a moose is A TASK. However, the skookum way to avoid a huge mess is do it the same way the plains indians butchered bison. Split the hide from the backbone, roll the hide down and remove the quarters, ribs and other meat from the carcass. Don't mess with the guts, until the meat has been removed. Only then do you go in and remove the heart and liver ......... Fresh liver with bacon and onions over a fire. MMMMmmmm - good.

September is moose season. I look forward each year to returning to my favorite spot - up a little log chocked river, work my Grumman freighter canoe over a log jam, proceed upstream to a large off-river lake, back against a 1300' hill and camp for up to 2 weeks. Yea, I'm there to hunt moose, but the place is magic, with no company - the log jam keeps them out. Just the ducks of all varieties, nesting pairs of Trumpeter Swans (noisy neighbors), Golden Eagles and moose. The black bear population is strong, grizzly bears occasionally wander through. And in September, the mosquito population is near zero. In a good year, blueberries are very sweet and abundant, but you have to be somewhat restrained in eating too many handfuls ... an overdose can cause diarrhea. As a kid, I always wanted to be Daniel Boone. This is close, but with a better rifle and a GPS.

Happy Trails.

[Clifford Kiracofe]

S'more data on Palin the Pentecostal/Assemblies of God follower:

1. Jewish Telegraph Agency is naturally on it reporting Christian Coalition endorsement:
"Christian Coalition of America commends Senator John McCain for his selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a pro-life conservative mother"

2. But for the real indicator consult Doug Wead the Karl Rove of the Christian Right. Wead coached Bush Sr, then Bush Jr. so as to lock in the Christian Right-evangelical vote for their campaigns. Bush Sr. introduced Wead to Jr.

Says Wead:
" What is Sarah Palin’s religion and why does it matter?
What is Sarah Palin’s Religion?

She is Assemblies of God.

Ted Boatsman, the former Alaskan District Superintendent for the Assemblies of God, was her junior high pastor at Wasilla Assemblies of God Church. She is currently attending Juneau Christian Center whose pastor is pastor is Mike Rose.

In high school she was the local leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

McCain does more than balance the ticket with a woman. He solves his complicated religious problem with Pentecostals, who according to a recent Barna survey make up almost half of all born again Christians. McCain’s on again off again relationships with John Hagee and Rod Parsley, as well as the ill timed Charles Grassley attack on six Pentecostal television ministries are now moot points.

But wait until MSNBC find out. Expect all hell to break loose. She will be portrayed as a pro creationist - Neanderthal. Just wait. And, as well intentioned as they will be, thinking that they are doing Obama a good deed, it will drive the Evangelicals into the McCain camp. All of Senator Obama’s kind overtures to people of faith will be for naught."
http://dougwead.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/what-is-sarah-palins-religion/

3. Next up, is what Rev. Hagee's Pentecostal (Neo-Pentecostal) reaction will be.

Foreign policy wise, Christian Zionists believe in a biblically prophesied "Armageddon scenario" involving evil powers such as: the European Union, the head of which is considered the Anti-Christ; Russia, China, Iraq (Babylon); and the Medo-Persians (Iran). The scenario includes nuclear war which they welcome as part of the unfolding of the "End Times" and "God's Plan".

To document Hagee's Christian Zionist position refer to CUFI "Christians United for Israel" website at:
http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer

4. It is critically significant that Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Church strongly recommended Palin to McCain. Land, a Christian Zionist Armageddonist, was a key supporter of the Iraq War (against the evil one from Babylon..)
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2008/08/richard_lands_v.html

It will not be too long before world capitals draw conclusions about the Republican ticket. Interesting times indeed.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

Let the scientists report on her support for teaching creationism in the public schools:
http://scienceblogs.com/afarensis/2006/10/27/intelligent_design_and_the_ala/

[alnval]

Col.Lang:

We may not have a fix on who this governor of Alaska is but it's clear that the social, fiscal and religious conservatives of the Republican party do.

Within minutes of Senator McCain's announcement, Phyllis Schlafly, Richard Viguerie, James Dobson and whoever is running the Club for Growth these days, gave Gov. Palin and Senator McCain their unequivocal support: something they had been averse to doing prior to the announcement.

I got the sense that they might have already known about the decision and maybe even had a hand in making it suggesting to me that their real goal is the grooming of Governor Palin to become the Republican candidate for president in 2012 assuming, of course, that Senator McCain wins.

Certainly, they will enrich McCain's coffers with money which he's likely to need. The McCain campaign announced today that they will be putting up new and additional ads in states that heretofore had been considered Republican territory.

Thoughts also come to mind such as how best to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and a prayer that a new Charles Dodgson will rise up from the ranks of lonely mathematicians and capture in palatable form the essence of the fantastic nonsense that is this era.

[David W.]

It's a nice folksy narrative, however, I have read elsewhere that her husband works for BP, and she is described in the Weekly Standard as "the nation's most prominent advocate of drilling in ANWR."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/palin_could_prompt_mccain_flip.php

I wonder if her creationist leanings are telling her that God put that oil there for Us to use?

[zanzibar]

It seems the moose hunting "hockey mom" could also be the next Dick Cheney.

[anonymous]

Two final thoughts on Palin announcement:

1) An ex-beauty queen: there goes the celebrity attack as well as the 'no experience' attack.

2) many believe that muskoxen burger is far far superior to moose burger, and I agree.

There is no middle ground on this issue: it can open deep and jagged chasms, like the importance of having a local Alaskan brewery. I for example would never eat at the same counter with a mooseburger man who would settle for a beer from the 'outide.'

McCain/Palin had better tread carefully with this potential wedge issue. Could tear Alaska in two.

[Cold War Zoomie]

After watching Obama's speech last night and considering McCain's VP choice, I'm rethinking my prediction that McCain will win in November. Usually the VP choice seems pretty inconsequential...but that's for younger candidates.

Let's see how McCain looks at his convention next week.

[Cold War Zoomie]

Oh, and I forgot. I was hoping she was married to this "Palin!"

[ked]

let's fight the Russkies in Alaska so we don't have to fight 'em over here.

[dlb]

Palin selection: Part gimmick, part pandering and 100% from Planet Zog. On the other hand, I strongly recommend the moose stroganoff my daughter-in-law made last fall.