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the same thing happened to hillary; the sexist attack dogs came out of obama's kennels and bore down on hillary//she couldn't defend//obama implied she was racist//obama barely beat her, after outspending her 3-1//this will be different//Palin will go for jugular//so will mccain//hey're both 'everyday people'//that's what wins elections//democrats are panicked...they mock but they're afriad - - could this undo barack? they say...you bet!!!!!

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There is a lot of truth in this list and once the initial shock of her as McCain's choice gets out of the way, her personality and traits listed above will certainly pull weight. The timing of this announcement was once of the best bits of publicity as it took the wrap up wind out of the Dem party stage.

Good work.

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Sorry Pammy,

It's the women who don't like Palin. Exact opposite of what happened to Hillary.

Gary,

Obama's numbers are climbing during the GOP convention--that's not a sign of a good pick.

Did your mother put your pregnant sister in the national spotlight? Did she leave her during that pregnancy to go on a national campaign.

Palin's botched mothering is exactly what irritates women. We don't relate to it, as a matter of fact. It was supposed to be a big positive for her, but it's turned into a big negative.

As for the evangelical base, they're being polite about it, but they don't really like being stuck in the position of having to defend teen pregnancy and try to make a case for abstinence education when it so clearly failed.

"It's the women who don't like Palin"
but the men do, and so will the women once she gets going//she won't take all hillary votes, but millions of democrats are not voting for Obama

op - "Obama's numbers are climbing during the GOP convention"
mccain's numbers climbed during dnc convention//you need a statistics primer//you're looking at poll averages

i live in charlston gardens//my blackberry makes mistakes//keys too small

Unlike birth control, abstinence works whenever it is practiced. The vast majority of people strongly selective abstinence in that they expect their significant other to abstain except when with them. I haven't heard of many unwed mothers being treated by conservatives the way they are routinely treated by Obama's family coreligionists. And I'm sure Obamanites would prefer not to discuss Margaret Sanger's racial theories.

No WAY is she better than Dan Quayle....

From todays TV

OBAMA: Well, you know, my understanding is, is that Governor Palin's town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We have got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month.



Just for the record, Alaska's FY2008 operating budget is $11.2 billion, and the state employs approximately 15,000 people. Those certainly aren't huge numbers in federal terms, but they're a good bit bigger than the Obama campaign.

"Did your mother put your pregnant sister in the national spotlight? Did she leave her during that pregnancy to go on a national campaign."

OhlonePar,

It was even worse in a small town, where everybody gossiped. However, both my mother and father stood by her. I remember walking down to the store with my very pregnant sister, very embarrassed, and my Mom telling me to "hold your head high, boy, we are one as a family, and I had my first baby when I was 16!!". That was a slap of cold reality that sobered me up. The next time one of my buddies talked smack about my "whore" sister, I completely knocked him down with one punch, blood everywhere (he didn't do that any more, and we have been business partners, in our adult lives, for years). The father of the boy who impreganated my sister, met with my father. It was a short, and friendly meeting, since both of them had been there, themselves. Both men agreed that he would now become a husband. It worked very well, and they are still married, with five kids. These things get worked out. I suspect tha Sarah and her husband know all of this. Too bad that modern liberal women have not a clue.

I doubt that too many women will be bothered with Palin's "botched mothering", becasue most mothers would not look at it that way. Since you do, that is your problem.

Assuming the McCain camp knows all the adverse Palin news and got it all out at once, by late September this soap opera mini-chapter will be as old, superseded and forgotten as the bad news stories from last spring that we can't remember what they were right now.

At that point we can focus upon what is really important for our country

This--Web Link

Hmmm.... That same link was posted on a different thread by someone named "Meg." What a kawinky dink.... So, is it one right-winger with several different personalities (meg/sharon/pam) or is it a circle of bullying, right-wing friends who have waaayyyy too much time on their hands? Either way -- I can't wait for the most inspirational leader in recent memory to bring our country back up to the global prestige and standing it once enjoyed. OBAMA/BIDEN '08!!!!

"I can't wait for the most inspirational leader in recent memory to bring our country back up to the global prestige and standing it once enjoyed. OBAMA/BIDEN '08!!!!"

Danny,

I have and interesting idea (I think), one that would have media and popular appeal:

Let Sarah debate Barack. Two debates.

Let John debate Joe. One debate.

It just kind of feels right to me me. Could be VERY exciting! I don't know who would win, but it could be the tits!!!

Whaddya think?

I like it Gary. I'm all for having the presidential and vice-presidential candidates alternate in who they debate. Could be really interesting.

Danny,

I agree, esepcially with your idea of an alternating model.

Should we take it national?

Gary

Sheik Obama Bin Biden

vs

John McCain and Sarah Palin

Won't happen. Obama would never agree to any debate without the trusty TelePrompter and ear piece for the necessary sideline coaching.

It would be interesting to see them field questions as a team. Bombastic Biden would come off as he was the President.

Why is that if you refer to Condi Rice as Condi it is disrespectiveful but the right wing uses

Sheik Obama Bin Biden or Hussein Obama

and that OK with them? Just the usual hypocrisy...

Gary,

You know little about women if you think women of any political persuasion are unfamiliar with this.

My issue is not that a teen girl got pregnant (though it doesn't say much abstinence-only education)--but the way her mother has put her desires way ahead of the obvious needs of her kids.

Your parents knew they needed to be there with your sister.

Palin needs to be with her daughter and son. This isn't the time to leave town and zip around on the campaign trail. If you're going to oppose birth control and sex education, then you need to deal responsibly with the outcome.

If it were my daughter, I'd want to be there to help with child care among other things. I'd want to be there so that she had a chance of finishing school and going to college. I'd want to be there so that when the inevitable marital difficulties come up, there's someone to talk to.

This is what mothers do--yes, including the vilified feminist ones. Bad mothering, unfortunately, comes in all political stripes, but so does good mothering.

I mean the Dems and Reps can declare this mess won't be an official campaign issue--but it's way beyond it.

It's just one big small town--and I just wouldn't expose my kids to that kind of attention.

"Why is that if you refer to Condi Rice as Condi it is disrespectiveful but the right wing uses Sheik Obama Bin Biden or Hussein Obama and that OK with them? Just the usual hypocrisy"

Anon,

I agree with you. However I would add that various hatriots use the words "shrub" or "idiot" to refer to President Bush, as he worked to liberate Iraq. Now that Iraq is well on the way to liberation, (and really a revolution in the Arab world), GWB will be seen as a sage president. This assumes that either Obama or McCain will stay the course. The hatriots went all out to castigate GWB, when our troops were beyond the water's edge. Shame on them.

I think we could all agree that such prejoratives should end. It is ugly.

Barack is not a supporter of al qaeda, whether he is Christian or Muslim or atheist. Enuf said.

"If it were my daughter, I'd want to be there to help with child care among other things. "

OhlonePar,

That is a fair view of things, at least as (I think) you see it. The way it worked in my family was somewhat similar to Sarah Palin, although not eactly so.

My mother was a standard stay-at-home mother, my dad earned the bacon, pounding nails and building houses and digging sewers. Very typical post-WWII model. We were lower middle class, blue collar.

My mom got pissed off about some minor issue in town, and ran for mayor. My dad didn't like it, but he ended up supporting her, espeically since his buddies thought it was absurd. This was following the 'shame factor' following the birth of my sister's baby. Dad put his antlers down and went to war for Mom. Unbelievably, she won!

I'm not going say that is was all bambi land, it wasn't. We always had issues as a family. However, we all pitched in and decided that love was better than contention. My mother could have run for VP, no problem. The rest of us would have picked up the slack, as we did when she was mayor.

"but the way her mother has put her desires way ahead of the obvious needs of her kids."

read "it takes a village", you're stuck in a preconceived notion of what "mothering" is

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Gary,

I don't have a problem with Palin being mayor or governor (other than her being a loon). I do have an issue with her running for national office when she has both a pregnant teen-age daughter and, even more so, a four-month-old special needs infant. It's the latter, actually, that I've really found mindboggling. She should be nursing that kid full-time every two to three hours. You cannot do that on the campaign trail.

I had an amazing working mother--grew up poor in the Depression, got a college scholarship and worked her way up to success. But at various pivotal points, she put her family first. No one forced to do it--she did it because we mattered.

Now, I'm not on the same political side of the blanket as Meg Whitman. However, I do know that when she was at eBay, she set some real limits on her time so that she could be with her kids. Laura Bush seems to be a fine mother. Same with Nancy Pelosi.

In other words, this stuff has been a nonissue because most mothers don't behave in the way Palin has. You might have the "right" to, but you wouldn't dream of it. You'd limit new ventures while you had that young a baby and you wouldn't make your teen daughter's personal life a national headline.

I mean, there's lots of ranting about how dare people discuss Palin's daughter's pregnancy, but the fact is, she put out the press release. She accepted a position that would place her family under extreme scrutiny.

Pam,

Could you make it any more obvious that you don't have kids?

Please don't assume that everyone will or can nurse their kids.

Here are some great pics of Bristol (we think).
Web Link

"I mean, there's lots of ranting about how dare people discuss Palin's daughter's pregnancy, but the fact is, she put out the press release."

OhlonePar,

She put it out there, becasue the dailykos/Obama attack brigade was claiming that she was covering for her daughter (that her son was her grandson). Sarah Palin is not likely to cover up such things, neither is she likely to publicize her daughter's situation - unless some scumbags tried to make it something it wasn't. They did, so she got she bear about it. Good for her.

Now we hear that the NYT got it wrong about Palin being a member of the AIP. Seems like the NYT needs to vet it reporters, before they send them out there. Get set for more of this propaganda from the mainstram liberal press.

This was Lieberman's killer line tonight:

"Senator Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times".


It is going to be front and center from now on till November

op, i have 3//they're all pro-choice//they'dbe appalled at the misogyny directed at palin here//many democratic relatives are either staying home, writing someone in, or voting for mccain. mccain is so so so much more prepared to lead this country than obama//fancy rhetoric doesn't = established record of bi-partisan accomplishment//i feel far safer with mccain dealing with iran than obama, for instance.

"Now we hear that the NYT got it wrong about Palin being a member of the AIP"

retraction coming - p.56 ;) ///nyt is a joke, an obama shill//same with chron//only read sunday magazine and foreign news there

I hardly think this "mayor + governor of 2 years" is even close to many others that are suitable to run this country. Bottom-line... McCain is OLD, has been through a lot of hardship- which has probably lowered his lifespan even more. He could very well die in office. Out of a nation of politicians, is Sarah Palin your first choice for President?

Bottom-line...obama is too inexperienced. Out of a nation of politicians, is barack obama your first choice for President?

A Fred Line...

...that should be memorized by every Voter:

"To deal with these challenges the Democrats present a history-making nominee for president.

History-making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for President"

Also

"It's pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, "Who is this man?" and "Can we trust this man with the Presidency?".----Ouch


And this from:

Senator Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times.Web Link

WOW

If I have to choose from the chosen...yes. If not, my second is Bill Maher.

Gary,

There was no way it wasn't going to come out once she accepted the nomination. As for the Daily Kos rumor, if it was really worth refuting--why not just show the birth certificate? There was no need to put her daughter out there.

I mean, hell, just sorrowful anger and righteous indignation would have squelched the rumors--well, except that there was a grain of truth in them since the daughter was, indeed, pregnant.

Of course, the weird thing about the rumor is that there's a lot to be said for someone who'd bring up her grandchild as her own, particularly a special needs one. As I said earlier, it would show a certain nobility.

As for the AIP, her husband was an on-the-record member while members have said she was also a member. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't, but she seems to have been a fellow traveler and she's been less than honest about several other things--such as the Bridge to Nowhere.

I mean, would it be okay to give a speech to the Klan even if you weren't a member? I mean, it's odd, but we've got a bonafide patriotism question with this woman.

She's not ready for primetime for any number of reasons.

Argh,

I'm simply mentioning the recommendation. Nursing's difficult for DS kids, but recommended because they can digestion issues. Basically, it comes down to it being a special-needs child. Palin's son has special, well, needs.

OP-
I'm just a Mom who tried and tried and didn't have any milk to give. I felt the glares at restaurants when I would pull out a formula bottle when people around me had no clue as to why. Unfortunately, statistically it would be way more likely that the DS is child is Palin's. Your risk of DS at 42 is exponentially higher than even at 35. I figured nursing had to be difficult for a DS child.
Anyway... keep fighting the fight. I typically agree with your postings on issues around town etc. :-)

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Argh,

Oh that's tough, Like I said, there's a particular reason for nursing if possible with DS kids.

Yeah, I always figured the kid was Palin's just because of how much the risk of DS rises with age. It's one in 10 at 48.

So Bristol's in PerezHilton now. Well, maybe she wants an acting career--the poor kid's tabloid fodder now.

Pam,

Pot, kettle, black.

Oops, that last Argh to Argh was me.

Why Do We Like Palin?


Much has been written why Palin both brings strength to the McCain ticket and is a gamble at the same time. Why then the growing wave of popular sentiment in her favor?

Various reasons, but one I think is that millions of Americans are simply tired of being lectured at by smug elites.
Jetting Al Gore made tens of millions finger-pointing at us about our global warming. Obama's America, apparently unlike Rev. Wright's Trinity Church, is a cruel, downright mean and dysfunctional place. John Kerry's United States is one of the half-educated in need of Ivy-League enlightenment and tutorials.

So along comes someone (unlike Biden's vastly inflated middle-class biography) who really is from the working class. She likes it—and finds snowmobiling, hunting, fishing and living in small-town America not as a wasteful use of carbon-emitting fuels, cruelty to animals, gratuitous depletion of our resources, or proof of parochial yokelism.

Instead it is a life of action in an often harsh natural landscape, where physical strength is married to intelligence to bring us food, fuel, and progress.

Palin's symbolism is the antithesis of the metrosexual wind- or body- surfing politican, and hair-plugged, neurotic TV pundit So at this time, right now, millions apparently like Palin's atypical 19th-century profile.

Again, it's a pleasant change of pace from Harvard Law School, DC politics, "community organizing" and the can't-do, 'they raised the bar on me' collective complaint.

If she can beat off the frothing Newsweek/MSNBC/New York Times inbred rabid wolves, and do it with the grace she has shown so far, she will fill a deep yearning among Americans for someone like her.
A lot of Americans, if they watch reality shows, prefer truckers on ice or Bering Sea crab fishing to endless psychodramas of thirty-something suburban whiners.

So apparently they are eager to see a rare politician who is unapologetic about America's past achievements (cf. Obama's "tragic history" and need for more "oppression studies"), and who reminds us with pride that a muscular world of action, not community organizing, creates the bounty that others use and take for granted but so often sneer at the methods of its acquisition.

Right now, there are millions rooting for her in a way not true of Biden—and many who are criticizing her don't have a clue why that it is so.

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Wow. This hornet's nest sure got stirred up. Isn't it time everyone take a step back and look at the big picture...? After watching the RNC tonight and the DNC last week, I can say this country is more polarized than its been in a long time. The STRENGTH of the United States -- or more specifically, of the American people -- is the ability to cooperate. To create both art and science. To appreciate both religion and security. Freedom and individuality.

The candidates -- be them Barack Obama and Joe Biden or John McCain and Sarah Palin -- that can best mend the all too often acrimonious divide of ideology and partisanship in this country will BE the best president and vice president.

United we stand, divided we fall.

OP and all other far Left people:

When are you going to learn that we women are individuals, independent and damn tired of having the far left be for our choices, as long as our choices agree with whatever the far left says our choices should be? I left NOW long ago, when it no longer was a "woman can choose as much as men" organization and became a "the only real women are those who abort and disdain men" organization. Or whatever the "leaders" say a woman should be at the moment. Guess what? Ain't true. I am a real feminist...women have the right to choose the kind of men they marry, and build the kind of family life they, along with their partners, wish to build. Period.

I left the Dems in the 90s for many reasons, not the least of which was ol' Hilary daring to tell me that somehow SHE was better because she 'didn't just stay home and make cookies" and feminists went WILD for that statement ( ok, now far left "feminists" are trying to damn Palin for not staying home and making cookies..point proved)

A REAL woman walks the talk...Palin walks her talk. Doesn't work to say "abstinence only education fails". Guess what? One, we don't know that she is for national "abstinence only" education. But, even if she "abstinence only" ed in the home, think of statistics...before Planned Parenthood and abortion on demand, what was the out of wedlock birth rate of any group of people? And what is it now? hmm.....Besides, the girl, whether or not you agree with this, is also living up to her ideals, and taking the very courageous and loving path of giving birth to the baby.

Another member who walks the talk.

The eldest is in the military, as are 3 kids of McCain..uh...walking the talk. The husband quit the job with BP the day negotiations began between Alaska, which his wife is Executive Director of, and BP, for gas lines. Uh...walking the talk.

She quit the Ethics Commission to bring fellow Repubs to court..walking her talk.

Neither McCain nor Palin, nor, in fact, any elected Republican, has ever tried to stop a TV series, a Movie, or a Radio station or radio host from discussing anything about them. Now, think about Bill Clinton ( the most famous being him trying to stop the series on 9/11) and Obama (most recently the radio personality in Chicago revealing his work with the "Education" fund in Chicago).

Nobody has tracked "blog" lies back to McCain's "defense" campaign. Unlike Obama's campaign...

Compare what the walk would mean on the other side to the talk of either Obama or Biden, and you see why most of the nation with the stardust wiped from their eyes is going nuts over the combination of these two, AND falling out of love with the Democrats in general. Agree or not with the personal beliefs of McCain-Palin, they have integrity and walk their talks. Americans, most of us, respect and trust those who live with integrity.

Even my most atheistic, pro-abortion brother-in-law is now enthusiastically for this pair, even though he disagrees with their personal beliefs, and of course McCain-Lieberman,McCain-Feingold, the amnesty bill and the global warming claptrap that McCain has fallen into.

The best part of all of this, even if McCain-Palin lose...at least half of the Dems are now on alert for the ridiculous media, and inherent anti-choice, anti-free speech nature of the MODERN Democrat party.