Here's the latest word?! Wow - whan an out-of-left-field name! I, for one, know nothing about her ... and will spend today learning, I suspect. What prompted such an unexpected (albeit interesting) choice for a running mate? Mitt Romney must be having a major rage ? And, now, how can the McCain camp ever go after Obama again using the phrase "lack of experience"? This woman may be perfectly equipped for elevated office (again, I don't know anything good or bad about her) ... but in terms of "experience"? It seems a non-issue in her case. But, I reckon, being a governor of a state for two years still qualifies better than being a Senator does? I'm sure the Republicans will be saying so (when cornered to say something at all in regards to the matter, at any rate). Honestly, though ... it is a wildly interesting decision. And, I should add, not an entirely official one just yet, either ...

Here's Governor Palin's Wikipedia page, for those interested.

I am so relieved I don't know what to do.
Grit, sense and class -that's Sarah Palin.

Post deleted by Sherry75

I got the word from my mother in Ohio, where McCain is now, that Palin looked like a serious possibility, so I wasn't surprised by the announcement. We might ask our Alaska members, such as queproblema, to weigh in on this.

She's conservative from what I understand, but supportive of many women's issues. I note that she's a member of Feminists for Life, a feminist anti-abortion organization to which I know that the wife of Justice Roberts also belongs. I don't share that organization's views, but I respect it for being a pro-life group that puts its money where its mouth is in an intelligent manner.

Experience? That IS an issue that concerns me. This is partly an attempt to hang on to disaffected Hillary supporters, and I'm not certain that's a sufficiently good reason to choose Palin.

I am embarrassed to admit that until today, I had never heard of Sarah Palin. I suppose I have become so disenchanted with the political landscape in this country, that I stopped paying attention to women who had recently made names for themselves. I need to do my homework!
I know this must sound terribly cynical of me, but I look at elections with such a jaundiced eye, that I find it difficult to believe that anyone will make a difference. I always vote, but as I do not have an affiliation with any political party, I don't have a say in the primaries.

Wow, I have to say this came as an unexpected shot out of nowhere. There is not a lot to know about her, as far as policies go, because she has so few known stances on many of the big issues such as the current war, from what I have read. She is a lifetime member of the NRA, and supports the Constitutional right to bear arms. She is pro-life, anti gay marriage, in favor of the death penalty, and against the big oil companies. The last I find a bit of an oxymoron in that her husband, besides being a commercial fisherman, works for BP Oil in Alaska.

She is a formidable female and a quick study, so I truly believe that what she lacks in experience, which is a lot, she can certainly learn quickly. Will that be enough though? I wouldn't, at this point, even venture a guess as to how this will impact McCain's run. Not since Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, have we seen a woman as a potential major player. There obviously has to be something to her that we are unaware of and McCain's camp is banking on. Just exactly what that is - time will tell. There isn't a lot of time left before November though, is there?

As an Alaskan who has always voted Republican, as a student of history and politics, and also as someone who was planning to wholeheartedly support John McCain, the choice of Governor Palin is in my opinion a horrible choice, and one which will have me voting for Obama in November.

The problems with Sarah Palin are a lack of intelligence (she spent 5 years securing a journalism degree at a second-rate college in Idaho), the lack of any sort of economic or foreign policy experience, and a lack of ethics. She is currently being investigated for her role in attempting to get a former brother-in-law fired from the Alaska State Troopers because he is in a messy custody battle with the Governor's sister. Hopefully, the national press will deservedly examine her lack of ethics.

This is a historically bad choice. I'm shocked by McCain's selection and consider it an insult to thinking women around the country.

strnog1, I just communicated with another Alaskan Republican member who isn't thrilled by this choice. I'm hoping she'll weigh in with her views.

Thank you, strnog, for being the first Alaskan to weigh in on this. I am very interested in hearing from and hopeful we will have more input from others. Your statement re her lack of intelligence flies in the face of what I know about her and my comment as to her being 'a quick study' sounds way off the mark, but I only know what I am *fed*.

Frankie, I'm waiting for you to help me "cheat." Watch my ethics while you check your mailbox on the other side.

Hi, strnog1!

(For those who don't know, this guy is the one to beat on our Alaska regional game, also an immortal and one of FT's superlative players. In short, he would make a fine VP if only he'd won a beauty contest.)

May I suggest attacking Palin's credentials rather than her intelligence? This reminds me of Harriet Miers.

I haven't been able to figure out that ethics accusation. Did Baily just decide to take a hit for her, or is she truly innocent? As far as I'm concerned, she's lily white next to most Alaskan Republicans.

What I'm seeing is a shoo-in for her second term as governor. Then, if Parnell loses, she can set her sights on the Senate.

This is very good for Palin and Alaska, but I'm afraid dreadful for McCain.

Btw--I only got 10 right on the AK quiz today--it's all yours!

Oh, rats, no cheating possible.

While I greatly admire Sarah Palin as a person and share many of her values, she is not prepared to step into the Oval Office and command the world's respect.

That has been true of a number of our vice presidents, and many historians think Truman rose to the occasion while thanking our lucky stars Dan Quayle never had to. Though of a dramatically different personality, I see more similarities between her and Coolidge than either of those two.

Here at home, she's wildly popular and has been challenging the hegemony of our elderly Republicans, Don Young and Ted Stevens. She encouraged her Lt. Governor, Sean Parnell, to try to topple Young from Congress, and the race is so close we won't know for another week or two who won.

Bottom line: I think this will hurt McCain's already dicey run. What an exciting, historic, but ultimately dumb election.

I have actually met Sarah Palin and so comments from me relative to her (lack of) intelligence go beyond what her educational background is. In debates for the Alaska governorship, she NEVER answered a question directly, and avoided most probing questions, returning instead to what programmed message she wanted to communicate. In an interview with both her and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano on the Charlie Rose show, I was impressed by Napolitano's knowledge and ability to answer questions, and as an Alaskan embarrassed by Palin's ability to do the same.

The Governor is being investigated for ethics violations relative to her vendetta against her ex-brother-in-law Trooper. The judiciary committee of the Alaska legislature voted unanimously that such an investigation was warranted. The investigation has not finished yet, but we are already seeing evidence of secret e-mails relative to the trooper situation that our supposedly "open and transparent" governor doesn't want the public to see.

The governor's lack of any sort of foreign policy experience as well as any sort of background in law and economics speaks for itself. She is perceived to be attractive, but some people would say the same about Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, both of whom probably have more foreign policy experience. I would hope that this image-worshipping society of ours wouldn't vote for Paris or Britney to be one hearbeat away from the Presidency and I would hope that there are enough people in the United States who are smart enough to see past the image and see the lack of substance.

Such a horrible, horrible choice. And as above, I usually vote Republican.

Well, Dave, since you mentioned that, this past Monday Gov. Palin signed a bill that gives every Alaskan man, woman, and child a $1200 energy rebate, to be disbursed September 12.

queproblema,
May I ask what the impetus for that, the energy rebate, was? It might be something very obvious, but I cannot find any info on why it will be beneficial. The oil companies are already paying an outrageous 75% tax/barrel in Alaska, correct? Where does all that money go now, if not to benefit the citizens via the government coffers?

If I may answer the question, jordandog, although the answer is not an easy, or a short one.

Since 1976, Alaska has had something called the Permanent Fund, which is a fund based on investing the profits off of oil revenues and the interest that comes from oil revenues. After an initial investment of $734,000 in 1977, oil has been so profitable that the fund is now forty billion dollars. Each year, every man, woman and child in Alaska who has established residence in the state and lived here more than two years is issued a check for a variable amount of money. This year that check will be over 2000, so a family of 6 will get a 12000 check in either September or October.

Now you would think that would be a good thing. The problem with it, however, is that the lure of "free money" has attracted a disproportionate amount of poor people to come to Alaska, where getting on welfare roles is easy and on Medicaid to handle medical expenses is easy as well. As a physician, I see this every week in the new patients that I see, who oftentimes readily admit when asked why they moved here was because of the availability of free money. There is nothing wrong of course with being poor. I grew up in a family without much money and worked hard to make something of myself. But ,with a disproportionate influx of poor people, there has been both a marked worsening of crime here (criminals tend to like free money more than anyone) and a marked decline in the educational system. Gangs, which were unheard of when I came to Alaska twenty years ago are commonplace, and we have a shooting about every week now.

Now most people would think, with a fund of forty BILLION dollars, the wise stewards of Alaska would invest that money in infrastructure, or education, or seeking to find alternative measures of energy production when the oil in Alaska runs out, which it will eventually do. However, in order for any of this money to be spent on anything other than sitting in the bank to accrue interest to result in the yearly check, it requires the legislature to take this matter to the people. Politicians here every year run on the short-sighted motto of "I'm going to protect YOUR Permanent Fund" and anyone who suggests that the Fund should be invested in infrastructure, or education, or developing alternative energy is rapidly voted out of office, by an increasingly greedy and shortsighted electorate.
Sarah Palin is one of those politicians who has gone on record as refusing to even consider to use that fund to make Alaska a truly great state by doing all of the above. And every September or October, the fund checks go to big screen TV's at Best Buy and not to education, or mass transit, or to the Police Department or anything that really benefits the state of Alaska. The politicians use the fund (or specifically their refusal to use the fund) as a bribe to ensure that they stay in office by securing the votes of an increasingly lazy, increasingly criminal, and increasingly uneducated population.

The latest energy rebate check is somewhat similar and came about because oil prices went up so much this year, and the state, which increased taxes on oil companies, had a windfall year. When there was a surplus of money due to taxes of oil, instead of taking this money, which is separate from the Permanent Fund and doesn't require the citizens to vote on its use, Governor Palin didn't do what a thoughtful leader would do, and say, we're going to use this lucky surplus on education, or infrastructure, or increasing the amount of police to help handle the increasingly criminal element in Alaska, instead proposed that the Government should give each citizen another check, I suppose, the thinking being that each citizen knows better what to do with money than the officials they elected do.

Interestingly, the proposal to distribute this money came just when Palin was being investigated for abuse of power in her role in having many of her government staff pressure a well-respected police commissioner to fire her former brother-in-law for alleged crimes that occurred before Palin was governor and before the police commissioner was in office. These alleged crimes had already been investigated and the Trooper had already been punished prior to either Palin being governor or the commissioner she had a subordinate fire while she was self-promoting herself at a governor's conference in Philadelphia and appropriate punishment was already determined by the powers that were at that time. The governor has denied any role in attempting to get this trooper, who had been involved in a nasty custody battle with the Governor's sister, fired, although there is a record of over two dozen phone calls from various Palin underlings to the Trooper's department, about the Trooper, none of them bringing up crimes other than those that the Trooper had already been punished for. A recent poll in Alaska when the public was asked about whether the Governor was telling the truth about her role in these calls resulted in over 60% of the population thinking our "wildly popular" governor is lying.

So the energy rebate in my mind is a bribe to keep the uneducated and undiscerning happy, so that they'll not ask too many questions about what to me is an obvious abuse of power to settle a petty backwoods vendetta that the Governor has with one particular trooper, who happened to divorce her sister. And the sad thing, is that the crimes for which the trooper was accused and punished, including using a taser on the trooper's 13-year old stepson and killing a moose while using the governor's sister license for hunting, were only thought to be serious crimes by Governor Palin and her sister, until two years later, in the middle of a messy divorce. Those crimes were also crimes that the Governor's sister and her family participated in, either as accessories (in the moosekill all the Palin family heartily ate the moose meat) or accessories after the fact by refusing to report the crime when it occurred. The hypocrisy of the Palin family knows no bounds. I am sick to my stomach contemplating that our country is stupid enough to choose a media-conscious self-promoting politician who is ethically challenged, and has little intelligence or experience in governing (and none in foreign policy) into a role that would be one heartbeat away from the Presidency. Worst choice, ever, that I have seen a politician make, and I was planning to vote for McCain prior to this.

I'm glad to see this thread is still active! I'll just post two quick thoughts for now and be back later.

Here's a link to the trooper story written before Palin was tapped as VP nominee.

http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/492964.html

Regarding the energy rebate, Venezuelan dictator Hugh Chavez had offered free oil to some of our remote native villages. I believe the rebate was conceived in part to stave off such foreign interference, or "help," if you prefer. (I'm not naive enough not to realize it was also to curry favor.) Besides facing some of the highest heating bills in the nation, rural Alaskans use a lot of gas to travel long distances for such simple things as a medical visit or even to buy a gallon of milk.

This discussion clearly shows the great difference between urban and rural Alaska.

strnog,
Thanks for a very well written and easy to understand explanation. This part of your post was precisely what I was asking when I brought up the 75% tax on oil and why the rebate was given instead of all the things you pointed out ie infrastructure, education, etc.

"When there was a surplus of money due to taxes of oil, instead of taking this money, which is separate from the Permanent Fund and doesn't require the citizens to vote on its use, Governor Palin didn't do what a thoughtful leader would do"

I am aware of the Permanent Fund you spoke of. I have also read quite a bit about the *new problems* with the influx of people looking for free healthcare and welfare cases going through the roof. As a matter of fact, when I was still with the hospital, there was an offer made to physicians and the permanent nursing staff to relocate to certain areas in Alaska for a specified amount of time to help with the shortage there. The pay was fantastic, housing was to be provided, and if I had not been a single parent raising my sons, I might actually have considered it. Despite not being a huge fan of extremely cold weather, it would have been a life changing experience and 'greedy' as it may sound, I could have upped my poorly lacking bank account substantially.

That whole battle between Palin, her sister, and the ex-husband really does not shed a good light on her in my opinion. I don't like the fact that unethical behaviour in politicians, no matter what the position, has become very run of the mill and quite blase in the thinking of so many I know.

I will say her complete lack of economic and foreign policy experience turns me off. I have said many times 'show me who the Presidential candidate is going to surround himself with as far as the inner-circle of people and then I'll tell you what I think of their chances at making any kind of change in this country actually are'. I don't look at Palin as a substitute for Clinton getting booted and cry, yay, we now have a female on the ticket, but I think a lot of voters are. Again, thank you for the input.

Here are two articles about Chavez's offer two years ago. The first one has far more details but is from a less reliable-looking source than the second. I can't find the original AP report.

http://military.rightpundits.com/2006/10/10/cold-alaskans-say-no-to-hugo-chavez-oil/

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/10/24/chavez.un/index.html

So this isn't entirely some new idea that Palin just cooked up to make us like her and ignore her pecadilloes, but a longstanding problem.

Just this week some two dozen men from Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, Valdez, and our surrounding community converged on the tiny community where I live to examine our boiler system that runs on wood chips, partly a waste product from our sawmill and partly chipped from unusable wood. The superintendent of schools was among the visitors, and along with the expert opinions of government officials, he has decided to run a feasibility study on installing such a system in our local public school. This shows how difficult it is to pay for heating oil out here.


I have never met Ms. Palin, but my daughter, a young adult in Anchorage, has, and my husband has a speaking acquaintance with her father and a nodding acquaintance with her mother. They believe the Heaths are a fine family. (To be fair, my daughter doesn't KNOW her, but has a friend who used to babysit for the Palins.)

Several of my friends who were appalled at McCain's choice thought twice after watching Palin's acceptance speech. I'm thoroughly unimpressed by anyone's theatrics, including Obama's undisputed speaking ability, but, then again, the POTUS does stand on the world stage, and being articulate and compelling is a plus.

She did a fine job of distancing herself from Pres. Bush and of including people of all parties or no party. Her verve is captivating. Middle America relates to her middle class background and macho, union-member husband of native American extraction. The first of her five children is being deployed to Iraq and the last has Down Syndrome. All this pulls on many heartstrings across the nation, and since McCain is about as likely to die before he turns eighty as I am before I turn sixty, Palin probably won't have to serve as more than window dressing, anyway.

Now, if fate made her president.....????

McCain wants to emphasize his role as a maverick, and boy, has he done it!

Sarah Palin is an example of everything that is wrong with American politics: it's the triumph of image over substance and the triumph of sound bites and pandering to special interest groups over any sort of rational longterm approach to the problems that beset the country.

Under investigation? Palin's solution: Here's 1200 dollars so you don't look too closely at my attempts to get a former relative fired for actions that have already been investigated and punished (and which the Palin family were accessories to).

Have a 4-month old special needs child? Palin's solution: I'm going to run for Vice-President, which will make any time I could spend helping my child more difficult to do. Special needs children need a great deal of attention from their parents, not from nannies or secret service agents. As a father of two children with special needs I know this firsthand and I'm appalled by the hypocrisy of Palin promoting herself as a family values candidate when she could have easily recused herself from the VP run in order to spend as much time as possible helping her child.

In the coming two months, we are going to be relentlessly hit from both sides of the spin doctors relative to what "executive experience" really is and what's important with respect to someone's ability to assume the Presidency. I don't get my news from a single source but read a wide variety of sources from both sides of the aisle. I'm not an Obama supporter (and, as above, was planning to vote for McCain until yesterday) but I'm alarmed by this incredibly bad choice and I am truly fearful for the future of the country and my children should someone with little experience, little ethics, but someone who can give a scripted speech and looks good in a pantsuit should have to assume the Presidency.

I did not want to bring her 4 year old into this, but since it already has been, I have little respect for her doing this and basically abandoning her child. While I realize the VP has a little more 'free-time', if you will, it is still a much more grueling schedule than Governor and especially one of a state like Alaska with such a small populace. You stated your experience with your own children, strnog, and who better to speak on this that someone going through it.

Giving a good speech is great. Obama is one of the most eloquent I have heard in a long time and the parts of Palin's I caught sounded good too. Big deal. I still remember all the jokes about Reagan the actor come President. Isn't anyone who has it in them, able to rally an audience and elicit strong emotions with words and play to a crowd? Look at Hitler. No, I am not comparing either of them to him, just saying that Hitler was a very strong speaker and look where it took him, his country, and the world.

strnog1...thanks for all that useful information.

I don't care about what type of person is selected for high office.

She may be a decent person, for all I know.

What I would want to know more about is what Alaska is like now, some twenty years since the Exxon Valdez slammed into Prince William Sound.

If indeed Sarah Palin is owned and controlled by oil interests, then it stands to reason that she would be for more of the same.

Your input about a forty billion dollar energy fund tells me that the high earning power of Exxon Mobil (the highest earner of all American based corporations), keeps someone like Sarah Palin quiet and satisfied.

Sending checks out to Alaskans is just what it takes to be popular.

Bottom line is, Exxon Mobil is squabling about paying a few billion dollars in fines for what happened way back when, while still earning over forty billion dollars profit each year.

I'd rather they be paying fines of fifty to a hundred billion dollars for ALL the damages, including what corporations do most...eliminating jobs so that one drunken skipper can destroy a tanker and entire eco system which in turn caused many jobs to disappear from Alaska...good paying jobs most likely...wheras a corporation could keep more eyes on their business while employing more people who need good jobs...and possibly avoid a disaster such as the epic Exxon Valdez.

In sum, I can see through what all politicians are about, and I can see through that lovely smile of this latest addition.

When the playing field gets leveled to where individuals pay similar income taxes as corporations do, then I can start respecting those I vote into office.

For too long they have been fed by the special interests, which John McCain has aluded to, time and again.

I want to see more power given to people and less to corporations...for the wanton abuse they are notorious for.

When elected officlas look more to increasing fines rather than taxes on us, then things should get a little better.

Thank you again for all that important information.

(a new member, today)

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