No one was ready

Craig Strachan

Palin seems to be on the wrong sie of the grassroots anti-eminent domain movement. Strange positioning for someone who is meant to help the ticket in the West.

TGF UKIP

Two thoughts, James. Firstly if the Democrats didn't do their homework they should have done particularly when Bill Kristol was singing her praises and advocating her as VP pick week in, week out on FNS for the past couple of months. Equally I sincerely hope the McCain campaign has done their homework as well. For some reason the name Ed Muskie has been coursing through my mind ever since SP was announced on Friday afternoon.

Secondly, though, why ever shouldn't the McCain campaign attack Obama on the experience front? Not only can the VP post be portrayed as on the job training but every time the Dems attack SP on experience it will be immediately shot back on Obama whose previous job experience was - Chicago social activist?!

BTW, though, the Republicans are allowing the Democrats to say "inexperienced" too often without replying with interest.

ndm

Sarah Palin - closet socialist. The Seattle Times reported a few weeks ago:

-- Over the opposition of oil companies, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Alaska's Legislature last year approved a major increase in taxes on the oil industry - a step that has generated stunning new wealth for the state as oil prices soared.

-- Alaska collected an estimated $6 billion from the new tax during the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. That helped push the state's total oil revenue - from new and existing taxes, as well as royalties - to more than $10 billion, double the amount received last year.

-- While many other states are confronting big budget deficits because of the troubled economy, Alaska officials are in the enviable position of exploring new ways to spend the state's multibillion-dollar budget surplus.

-- Some of that new cash will end up in the wallets of Alaska's residents.

-- Palin's administration last week gained legislative approval for a special $1,200 payment to every Alaskan to help cope with gas prices, which are among the highest in the country.

-- That check will come on top of the annual dividend of about $2,000 that each resident could receive this year from an oil-wealth savings account.

Joe Camel

Do the Republicans really need to scrap their plans to focus their attack on the “readiness to lead” question?

Mark Steyn, a former Spectator columnist, made the point on Friday evening that ‘It can't be in Senator Obama’s interest for the punditocracy to spend its time arguing about whether the Republicans’ vice-presidential pick is “even more” inexperienced than the Democrats’ presidential one.’

We’ll see how it goes this coming week at the Republican convention, but I suspect Steyn has probably got it right. The inexperience argument is still now, as it was before, potentially more damaging to the Obama-Biden campaign than to the Republican side.

Joe Camel

Yet another silly press release from the Democratic Party hacks (ndm at 11:26 p.m., above, and similarly on other talkbacks).

Clearly the Alaskan surprise has got the Obamessiah and his worshippers seriously rattled.

Familiar Clown

Seems a great lady Sarah Palin. And if the time should come, no doubt will make a feisty Commander-in-Chief. Just shows, McCain has got better advisers than Obama.

Verity

Well, how moronic are Obama's people?

I tipped Sarah Palin three weeks ago, and I am just a little person who follows events.

Verity

Of the four candidates in this race, the only one with executive experience is Palin.

As as a governor, she outranks the other three candidates.

Four the past four years, when Obama was sitting in the state senate then the Senate in DC voting "Present", Sarah Palin was being a chief executive.

Hal

McCain's argument had been that the next president needed many years of foreign affairs experience. By choosing Palin, he has tossed that idea overboard; it's a flip-flop. Obama doesn't need to attack her inexperience. He can concentrate on McCain's inconsistency.

If McCain liked the way the campaign was going, he would never have chosen Palin. Her main appeal is to the Christian fundamentalists, and he should have won them over long before now. I suspect Obama is in a stronger position than the polls show, and that McCain's handlers see this. Otherwise, they would have chosen Lieberman, whom McCain actually knows and likes, or Tom Ridge.

Do you Britishers know what a Hail Mary pass is?

THX1138

Hal-spot on McCain needs the Christian right or why take the risk?

This is the only reason that makes any sense. As I recall Coulter said she would rather vote for Hillary than McCain.

Isn't a hail mary pass a desperate last hoof of the ball in football. Your're football not ours.

Hal

THX, yes, a Hail Mary is a very long pass attempt, made when your team is behind and the clock is about to run out. Sometimes it works, but usually not. And it's a play that makes sense only if you're trailing.