Insane is kind of strong, but I see your point. I was never sure I wanted a 'Maverick' in the White House -- besides 'the original' Teddy, who at least spoke softly.

McCain's choice, while bold and inspiring, is downright bad. He is not getting any younger so, he is risking putting someone with obvious lack of experience and sway in charge of the most powerful country in the world. At least Obama is known and has political connections. With Palin, my first thought was, "Who?" and I am sure the world is saying the same thing.

It may work though, because as we have seen, the country (even the Hillary supporters) hardly look into substance -- they see gender and color and will end up putting someone a heartbeat away from the presidency that is inexperienced and on the wrong side of the issues.

BTW, my brother had an interesting spin on the choice: scapegoat.

Iwan - there's definitely some republicans who are questioning this decision and are pissed off. It's complete pandering. I'd like to say that it's going to backfire, but the population voted Bush into office in 2004, so who the heck knows.

I can see the scapegoat angle. "If he loses the presidency, then we can blame her." hmm. This whole thing stinks of a gamble. And the thing is, what if it works? We're f*ked.

I do not think that it is a scapegoat choice. I think that he really needed the Dobson/Reid contingent to feel energized. That eliminated Ridge and Liberman who are both pro-choice. That left a collection of evangelical christian choices and he went with her.

What I do not understand is why he did not select Huckabee. More experience, which he is running on and would appeal to the Dobson/Reid group.

regardless, I am sending $ to Obama.

I want to become a republican again, but I can't until the drop the requirement that you are an evangelical christian.

mess

mess - yeah, the scapegoat thing, i can sorta see it, but that seems like a pretty long shot as to why they picked her. it's mostly about the pandering to the religious right.

i am sending $ to Obama also.

and I think huckabee would have been a good choice, too.

Both sides do it, and they are in the end idiots. We have to choose between the lesser of two evils in our system. But, again, you have to love John Stewart for pointing this stuff out:

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/jon-stewart-ann.html

iwan - i think that's one of my favorite sequences ever.

You think Huckabee would have been a good choice for veep? This must be some new meaning of the word 'good' that I was unaware of.