Wow- I couldn't disagree more with the post that kinda, sorta endorsed McCain's lame-o choice of a running mate because of her "refreshing" personal history. If an interesting bio is all that is needed to run a country, then we have a really, really deep bench. To see an XX Factor contributor fall for this stunt is dispiriting.

I'm sure you have no problem with identity politics for African Americans, right? But that's not okay for women? Hypocrit.

how compelling their life stories are. So, it's not okay to do the same for Palin?

This choice of Palin was inspired because it is a direct appeal to a certain segment of the voting population who have been disappointed during the election process. It's a classic old-school VP pick that is designed to get votes for the election. Only this time it's not about electoral votes from a certain state. The smokescreen is her age, lack of experience, and gender. The real important thing is her religious beliefs. She is an evangelical, conservative, death-penalty-to-women-who-hav­e-abortions, bible-thumper. That's the important part of her resume. The Rove people who are running McCain's campaign now believe elections are about 'bringing out the base.' The overtures to Hillary supporters are not designed to have them 'cross over' but to 'sit-out,' 'stay home,' or just not vote for president. With one pick you have energized your base and damaged the opponents base at the same time. Classic strategy. This is like the Wizard of Oz,' Don't look behind the mirror.' Oberman and his ilk will take the bait. The game is on. James Dobson and the evangelical crowd are now behnind McCain. She is the 'Northern Exposure' version of George Bush. She is being used to get votes, just like most of the other modern VP choices, now that's progress.

just as transparently calculated by the Obama advisers as McCain's of Palin.

To the democrats uneasy about electing an utterly inexperienced and radical leftist and maybe those democrats uneasy about electing a Black, Obama's advisors recommended going with a solid, entrenched wWashington insider -- papa figure -- with experience by the truck load and White to boot. Hey, there's no actual downside here!

What about the women that are only lukewarm democrats for whom the dream of electing a woman president was more important than specific political bullet points? Oh hey, don't worry about them. We [the Democratic Party] OWN their votes and so they are a non-issue. We won't select a bright and capable woman as VP because we HAVE TO HAVE a senior [i.e. experienced] papa-figure White male to offset Barack being Black with a paper-thin resume. Women and feminist women can just shut the hell up and do whatever we tell 'the little darlings' to do!

Ahem! Now the Democratic Party has a gender credibility problem again. Now Obama can promise to appoint women to every other position of power in his government, but WHY should women trust him? He COULD have selected Hillary for vp. He could have selected some other brilliant and accomplished woman for vp; but he calculatingly selected the senior citizen White GUY. Oh dear!

So cynical political calculations? The democrats have NOTHING to point fingers at that will not boomerang to slap them in the back of their heads. Obama sold out women voters. Enjoy.

This choice of Palin was inspired because it is a direct appeal to a certain segment of the voting population who have been disappointed during the election process DUH! Didnt you look at the how Obama managed to pick his exact opposite? No matter how you critque it, she is a breath of fresh air, and i am glad.

It's not just women, but they get a near perfect reformer for people who are tired of politics as usual in Washington. McCain regains his maverick stance. Throw in that she is going to kill the Western States strategy. She's got strong evangelical ties and with a Native American husband..... Well, you get the point, I hope.

Wow, the people on this blog are a little touchy today. I was not trying to criticize the selection, just explain it from a political perspective because she is an unknown quantity to most of America; however, I think they people they are trying to appeal to with the selection, evangelical Christians, know her very well. They are excited and energized about the election now. That was the main point of her selection and it seems like its working. Before her selection ECs were not excited about this race at all, and their turnout was going to be low and if they don't turn out Republicans lose. This changes the race. They had to choose an EC. All the other stuff in her biography is of secondary importance to the campaign. They were really constrained because to my knowledge Mike Huckabee was the only other VP possibility who fit the profile of Conservative, Protestant, Evangelical Christian. I'm not implying that the Democrats did ANYTHING different. They did the same thing. But why she was selected will be obfuscated by her relative anonimity, gender, and life story. Can she do the job? That's hard to predict. Our last two Presidents were both Governors with very little foreign policy experience and the outcomes of their terms have been very different. The heartbeat away thing is a smokescreen too. We haven't had a VP take over the presidency for more than a few hours in over 30 years. It was a excellent masterstroke by the Rove campaign. It makes things interesting. I was looking over potential running mates for McCain with my wife a few weeks ago and she took one look at Palin and her biography and said, "Except for lack of experience and national exposure, she's a perfect compliment for him." I think she was right.

Demcon,

Obama could not have selected Hillary Obama. The combination would have been unelectable.

Hillary did great job of building a foundation for her own win 4, 8 or 12 years from now. She is much more electable now than she was at the start of the campaign. She showed grit, grace, and after she lost, the ability to work for the team. Those are all very admirable traits in a leader.

But, of the left wing, independent, and right wing voters who might vote for them, there are a good 10% who won't vote for her that would vote for Obama and there is 10% who won't vote for Obama and would vote for her. It is hard to win a race when you have already locked out 20% of the voters. It turns a 50/50 race into a 40/50 race or even worse a 40/55 race.

And whoever gets elected is going to have an unholy mess on their hands. This recession is only *just* starting. We are in for 18 months of pain. In the last week, the number of banks on the verge of failing went from 90 to 136. Any of those banks would instantly fail if their names got out (as Indymac did when a STUPID irresponsible democratic congressman published it's name). Indymac alone took over 10% of the FDIC's total reserves. Right now-- at the start- we are looking at failing banks requiring over 1,000% of the FDIC's reserves (i.e. you may have to wait up to 7 years to get your money back).

Bush has made such a diplomatic and military mess of the world that none of our ally's care to help us (and would probably like to see us fail to get our comeuppance) and our military is pinned down in unwinnable battles all over the world for potentially decades-- it's obvious we must cut an run at some point (probalby under the next president).

So I take pity on the next president more than envy them.

And fundamentally- the democrats are in a no-win situation. Since they are behaving like immature crybabies who can't take losing well, they were either going to lose

1) Females 50 and over.

2) Blacks

3) Blue Collar Whites

Well... you can't ALL be first in line. Obama is going for the Blacks and Blue Collar whites and hoping that there are more rational females who realize that voting Republican or sitting out this race is one of the stupidest things they could ever do.

This is a welll thought out, intelligent post. My guess is Demcon will respond with:

1. Obamabots need to wake up.
2. Obama an empty suit.
3. Biden is a bad father.
4. Obama is anti-feminist.

Those are his talking points, and he's sticking to them.

EML, you're stuck on this identity politics thing. It's not that Obama is black (he's actually mixed-race), it's that he represents values and interests that matter to black people. If he were 100% different on the issues, trust me, he would have zero black following. Remember Alan Keyes? Black arch-conservative who ran a few years back. Black people weren't fooled by him. It would take a very shallow person indeed to vote for someone based on who they are or who their image is, rather than what they stand for.

Same thing with Palin. She has ovaries, sure, but at the end of the day, it is Obama, not Palin, that supports a woman's right to choose, equal work for equal pay, and an issue that affects many widows and single moms, universal health care. Palin is a woman, but her ideas are totally anathema to that of most - notice I said most - women voters because they are backwards.

This talk of affecting the "western states strategy" is bunk. Few people give a flying --- what Alaska does. whoever heard "How Alaska goes, so goes the West"? Alaskans have always taken a certain amount of pride in looking down their noses at the "lower 48" viewing themselves as some sort of last frontiersmen and by turn a good many people in those "lower 48" have viewed them as the looney weirdos as portrayed in Northern Exposure. this isn't going to change much.

As for Palin, McCain couldn't have made more laughs it were Michael Palin.