Brilliant (UPDATED)

Senator McCain has picked 44-year-old Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate.

UPDATE: Watching the Palin introduction. The young, attractive Palin looks like her running mate's daughter. :-) She does need a voice coach though. That high pitch is...disturbing.

The governor's eldest is in the Army. With McCain's sons being in the military also, one wonders which cudgel the anti-warriors will use now that the "Chickenhawk" weapon is off of the table.

Bravo to McCain for so quickly wresting attention away from his opponent.

UPDATE: Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

Certainly the choice of Palin puts to rest any argument about inexperience on the Democratic team and while Palin is a fine person, her lack of experience makes the thought of her assuming the presidency troubling.

Tee hee! Oh, the Democrats are scared. And anyone who has never been the head of an organization (a group of people) existing to met an objective is inexperienced in the executive arena. That makes Senator Biden the most inexperienced person of the four.

UPDATE: The Obama Campaign stepping on its...tongue again:

Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.

How dare the McCain Campaign pick one of those Bitter Clingers!

(Thanks to Instapundit)

UPDATE: Neither Palin nor McCain are lawyers. Hmmm.

Comments

[Samantha]

I know I just got a little less bored with this election.

[Rick Umali]

My wife IM'd me the news at work. It's certainly a "game changer."

[me]

Yes it is a game changer. McCain picking a former beauty queen with even less experience than Obama takes a lot of Republican talking points of the table. Dan Quayle anyone? OBW Biden's son will ship out for Iraq next month also.

[Trish]

I'm sorry, "me", but Palin has administrative experience and Obama does not. Some was more than zero the last time I checked.

Dan Quayle is a highly intelligent and qualified person who fell to media character assassination. (There are still people in this country who thinks it was he who misspelled "potato". Be polite to a public school teacher and you'll suffer for it.) Palin is a different breed. She won't let the media do to her what they did to Quayle.

[me]

1) Obama has organized/administered more numbers in a one mile area of the south side of Chicago than Palin has as Mayor of .. where was that again.

2) that must have been Dan Quayles dimmer body double committing all those gaffs on youtube "Because it is terrible to waste one's mind.." or something like that.

3)Palin is a Pinata that comes filled full of her own prepackaged scandals and the party is just about to start.

[IronMike]

Hey wait a minute. As an Alaskan, I take issue with those morons characterizing Palin as the mayor of a 9000 person town. We're up to 670K now!

[Rachel]

the people who claim that Palin is just a mayor conveniently forget that she is a governor of the largest state in the union. And she earned it with little political backing.

Grow up, fellow Dems. If you continue to act like this, you're admitting you got played

[Mary in CO]

Humor's the only way to respond to pickle-faces like "me". IronMike, good on ya (and I like your blog, MtHead)!

PS - Juliette, don't worry about her voice being pitchy. It sounds like Middle American to me, doncha know ... I like it!

[me]

No I didn't forget. A lot of you guys in Republicanville often claim Obama's time in the Senate is so short it does not count as experience. I figured since Palin has spent much less time as Governor of a state with a population about 1/3 that of the city of Chicago her time as governor does not count either. As I said she was a part time mayor of a village of 8000-9000 we can all agree that counts. If McCain wins a beauty queen will be just one heart beat away from the presidency.

[CoryDoo]

I'd rather have that "beauty queen" governor of the biggest state in the country one heartbeat away over the never been in any executive position Senator for just as long Obama. Socialism scares me, sorry.

[Peg C.]

Even all the libs I work with (women) are excited. This woman has reset the table of this election. I know who the bitter clingers are now - the Obama worshippers left holding the bag of self-regard and pomposity. They sure have cornered the market on that. Bleugh!

I just made my very first donation to the McCain campaign today (I mean McCain-Palin!).

[IronMike]

Yea, 'me', sorry. I'd rather have a beauty queen who has done great things for my state (e.g. proven herself) "one heartbeat away" from the Presidency than a socialist senator even closer to the Presidency.

[Dick Stanley]

Two years as a governor outclasses Barry's two years as a senator. Heck, just being a mayor is more than Chicago's Boy Wonder can claim. As for foreign policy, she's already negotiated a pipeline with Canada and Russia is Alaska's neighbor. Obamiden should be scared. I do agree that her voice is grating. Maybe a voice coach can help smooth it out a little. Or maybe she was just excited.

[Trish]

"Organized/administered more numbers"? Excuse me? That doesn't make any sense. Obama has zero administrative experience. He has wonderful experience at being a tool of the Chicago political machine, though.

[notropis]

Paying ACORN activists for fraudulent petition signatures doesn't count as administrative experience.

[Tully]

He has wonderful experience at being a tool of the Chicago political machine, though.

****************

Paying ACORN activists for fraudulent petition signatures doesn't count as administrative experience.

ROFLMAO. SO very true. But I'm sure that ACORN thing was someone else's doing, as it would have involved an executive decision!

[Timstigator]

Dems just got checkmated.

[baldilocks]

But I'm sure that ACORN thing was someone else's doing, as it would have involved an executive decision!

Ha ha!

[Cameron]

Better a running mate with no experience than a presidential candidate. But that's just my un-nuanced view...

[PeggyU]

There it is again! The snobbism that just won't end. Let's diss on the "beauty queen". Shallow thinker, aren't you "me"? Pretty face = no brain? If there's a relationship there, you must be drop-dead gorgeous!

[Wry Mouth]

I have a sister-in-law who is a flight and fire paramedic, who can field dress a deer, who has worked in a cattle auction yard, who was a responder at two school shootings in Colorado, and who (like her sisters) is a little bit of cuteness and can fill out a dress well. She is 4'11" at best.

Palin reminds me of her. Middle America is going to eat her and her hubby and her family up, even if New Yawkers and Angelinos and Chicagoans gag.

Marin County types? They might actually buy into Palin due to the "funny names" she gives her kids, so Marin is not longer a guarantee for the Dems. ;o/

McCain pulled a "Maverick," and maybe that will get the true McCain fans back on board, who were afraid he was becoming too compromised by the RNC.

IN 24 hours we had Obama's 9-out-of-10 speech, and the Palin selection. What a Great Race!

[Stephanie]

Here's how I view it, coming from a military background:

Community organizer: additional duty. Manager, not necessarily leader.

President Harvard Law Review: Flight commander/flight chief of a medium-sized flight (for my career field, anyway. Large flight for most.)

Senator/lawyer/professor: Staff job. See "community organizer" above for level of involvement needed. Senators would affect peoples' lives, but differently. They are not actually responsible FOR them. TO them, yes. They don't lead the people, although they do manage resources, etc.

Mayor: Depends on the size of the city. Group commander on up.

Governor: Again, depends on the state. Wing commander on up.

Random observation: Palin's strident voice seemed to be a.) tightly controlled emotion (the positive "How-did-I-get-here-this-is-awesome" kind), b.) excitement and possibly some nervousness (Obama's is "uh uh uh" off the teleprompter), and/or c.) trying to speak over an exuberant crowd. And she does have an accent (I was stationed in Minot for two years--I like North Dakota, I like their people and I like that accent. The winters are a bit rough, though...)

Beauty queens do all sorts of things. They go into the military, they become doctors, they are physicists, they fly airplanes...come on. This is the 21st century. Watch the MRS America pageant sometime. It's like listening to the kind of lifestyle NASA astronauts often have.

[Stephanie]

And yes, being a US senator (for a decent amount of time) does mean you probably (hopefully!) know how the government works, have been involved in domestic and foreign affairs, have been involved in budgets and possibly/probably have the ability to lead people--lead the nation. However, Obama's senate experience doesn't reflect any of these things. Biden's does on paper, but he's not running for president. He's the VP pick.

[Trish]

Actually, Stephanie, being a senator doesn't necessarily mean any of those things. But isn't it interesting that BOTH the left and the right are pitting Palin against Obama, not the presidential candidate against the presidential candidate?

[Stephanie]

Trish, it doesn't, but I don't like to paint with a broad negative stroke when I'm painting in generalities--I'm sure there are senators out there who do a lot of those things and are sincere. There are a lot of great staff people who are critical to the success of the military AND who take good care of their people AND who think about the effects their policy-making has on the people in the field (in the case of senators, that'd be Joe Q Public.) Some of them are also great leaders, but you don't always have to be when you're in a staff position (it depends WHO and WHICH, of course. I'm speaking more of the policy wonks rather than the top dog Directors of such and such agency above the policy wonks.)

I don't think it's an accident that she's being pitted against Obama--I think that's on purpose. She's everything he says he is for--but she's the real McCoy. I think we underestimated who McCain really is, too. McCain had to know that this would happen. I think McCain is the real McCoy, too, but he's been in Washington so long and made enough mistakes there that they follow him wherever he goes. But underneath it, he is a MAVERICK, and he wants to be seen as a REFORMER, and she fits that bill perfectly. She embodies what he wants to get across to the American people that he stands for, something he has been unable to do for himself for a long while. He has made mistakes (or he knows conservatives consider them mistakes and he's okay with our opinion on that, even if he may disagree).

I don't believe he's the type of man who'd ever make HER sit down, but he won't take a seat himself, either. He will be the president and she will be the VP. But I hope I'm right when I say I think they'll make a great team, and not just campaigning. She's a whistleblower and a maverick, but she also strikes me as someone who'd be a good follower, albeit one who will call a spade a spade when she sees one (which is a good check and balance for him). Palin is a good foil for Obama, and a good foil for McCain, too (totally differently.) And Biden? Biden who?

Exactly.

I don't know if I'm right, just my impressions.

[Trish]

Stephanie--

I guess the difference between you and me is that I don't paint in generalities at all. I try to talk about specifics.

[Tully]

Beauty queens do all sorts of things. They go into the military, they become doctors, they are physicists, they fly airplanes...come on. This is the 21st century.

Don't forget combat medic, marathoner, and regatta racer.

[Dick Stanley]

Barry might grow into the job, I'll give him that. If Biden had to take over, he might easily insult us into a nuclear war. But, no sweat, Palin has the common touch, and she's all the boost Mac needs to wipe the floor with Barry-Biden. Hey, thanks to her, the man has raised a record $7 million in donations in the past 24 hours.

[Cappy]

This is too much fun! I already live in a solidly blue area, with immediate relatives ranging from rabid liberal to Maoist, so it's been a long time since I've had any discussions about politics except online. Meanwhile, Pallin looks like Tina Fey, who I enjoy, without the condescendin attitue/arrogance/vegetarianism/globalwarming BS.