Some interesting photos of Palin on link below. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/29/sarah-palin-former-beauty_n_122…

Oh, how silly of me, a junior senator screams experience, and apparently we can’t disembark from the bitterness and sour grapes band wagon for even a moments respite. I absolutely love how when I fail to agree with a liberal democrat, I’m an ignorant woman. Is this really the “CHANGE” they’re talking about? “You’re right, as long as you agree with me?” It reminds me of disagreements between 4 year-olds that culminate with “you’re a big stupid dumb head”. And for that matter, what’s wrong with being a conservative? My viewpoints are founded on my experience, just as your viewpoints reflect the reality of where you’ve been. Is diversity in ideals good only if those ideals happen to fall with-in your limited view point? Are you going to pick on her choice of frames for her glasses next? How about her hair color? This IS a historic moment, just as the Dem’s presidential choice for the ballot is historic. Differing opinion is not wrong, it’s just different. An election cycle where a woman comes that close to getting a presidential nomination and another gets the nomination for vice-president…I still say YAY!

On a lighter note, to those of you who haven’t seen this yet I am posting it again in the Palin threads to let Pat Buchanan remind us just how great Obama was on Thursday (watch till the end, Olberman’s reaction is so funny?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Fru4dZLGA

My Alias, I wish I saw Carville. LOL The Dems really blew this chance. Palin is no light weight. She reminds me of a Harry Truman. She truly believes - I saw it as truly genuine - that those in elected are there to “serve the people”. This is some race!

I can’t help but think that Hillary and Bill were sitting there watching Sarah Palin and while hearing her story were going “Oh- WOW- what a great move McCain!” And both were laughing their heads off. What a good one McCain! What a race- to the end! ha ha I have a Republican female friend who has said the feminist movement was what hurt women. this Sarah Palin will be right up her alley. Do you know - grasp- how many women have voted for a President because he was “cute” or “nice looking”? I have heard this said about Obama. There are alos so many who are not educated that resent the highly educated - especially from ivy leagues. They work on the lines at the auto factories for example- they stand firm that real life experience - common sense- are missing from those with degrees. If anyone doesn’t think this woman will win the hearts and capture the votes of the blue collar Hillary supporters Obama needs -well I say you are just living in denial. Small town, gun lovers, religious, common folk who were all insulted by Obama now have their answer back to Obama. Smkart move McCain! Wise choice. That doesn’t mean I am voting for McCain - but boy he did the ol’ one two back to the DNC. And Bill & Hillary I am sure appreciate the brilliance of this McCain touche.

A Republican friend has informed me that he “naturally” assumes that I, who supported Hillary in the primary, will switch allegience to McCain simply because his handlers chose a running mate who has the same reproductive equipment I do. This offends me so thoroughly. That I should ignore that Palin’s stand on issues important to me are opposite mine (& Hillary’s, which is what attracted me to her campaign rather than her gender), & mindlessly vote for, well, another vagina, shows, IMO, the utter contempt McCain & the G.O.P. has for the intelligence of American women. Until yesterday my support of Obama (yes, I switched allegience to him) was to vote for him in November. Now I intend to do all I can possibly do to see that McCain does not get elected. Arrogant sexism like his has no place in today’s world.

Winery, Great piece. You hit the high points with the exception of the abuse of power accusations pending against her. I did a Google search last night and found a news item from KFAR (Fairbanks, AK) where Gov. Palin is seen on camera changing her story about the firing of her Public Safety Commissioner, her ex-brother-law’s boss. I’m sorry I can’t find the exact link, but you should be able to find it in the KFAR website. Related stories from media as diverse as the LA Times (31JUL) and www.swamppolitics.com have noted the diminished chances of a McCain-Palin ticket because of this untidy little family squabble being played out in the Governor’s family. One article questions the maturity of her chief executive decision-making when it appears she used her authority to settle a score for her a sister-in-law. What’s flabbergasting is that this information was available in a simple search. Now that it was ignored by McCain - brushed off, actually - the media are doing more extensive searches, and the Alaskan players are likely to open this to national scrutiny with embarrassing revelations. Already, this morning’s news shows are pairing up DEM and GOP surrogates to discuss the Palin choice, and it is amazing to watch grown men and women struggle to pretend they know who Palin is and why McCain made this choice. When I went to bed last night, most of the McCain campaign didn’t know why he made it, and according to reporting from both CNN and MSNBC, no major GOP party official knew why. either. The key phrases I heard last night were “She’s the most popular governor in the United States”, to which Larry King and James Carville said, “Huh?”, in unison, and “you’re being dismissive”, when someone questioned Palin’s experience. All the progress made by Hillary and so many of the women who right on this page is devalued when defensive language is used to correctly point out not deficiencies in her character, but in resume. If you ask me - and no one does :) - Obama-Biden should comment as little as possible about Gov. Palin. There is no profit in it. Let the natural flow of media scrutiny take the lead and keep about the business of telling the 2008 Democratic story.

“That I should ignore that Palin’s stand on issues important to me are opposite mine (& Hillary’s, which is what attracted me to her campaign rather than her gender), & mindlessly vote for, well, another vagina, ” By Donna H on 08/30/2008 7:55 am Sadly Donna, as you can read in this very thread, there are many women who will do just that. I live in an area with a demographic that’s very much like the way Diana describes her area. The fact that this hockey mom belongs the the NRA and wants to keep our kids dumbed down and lock stepping to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers rather than searching for the knowledge of science will get more votes here than the clear, informed intellect of Hillary ever would have. But, like DeBurca already said, they would have voted for McSame anyway because to one group the only issue is gender (or racism disguised as such) and to the other it has more to do with ignorance than issues, so we really haven’t lost anything to her yet. The thinking women won’t fall for it. We need Hillary more than ever to campaign for our issues because these women who only supported her for her gender (or to keep a black man from getting the nomination) must not be allowed to get away with saying they’re doing this in the name of vindicating her. Yes teevee(I hope I got your nic right) these blond GOP talking point bubbleheads disgust me too. Hasselback is the reason I gave up watching the View after Rosie left for a long time. I started watching again when Whoopi came onboard, but now that I’m working full time I can’t watch it anyway.

Sarah Pallin, what a doozy!! I agree fully with Winery Lifestyle and HuffPo comments regarding McCain’s VP selection. Will women who supported Hillary and understand the issues at stake in this election actually support this Trojan Horse candidate? Sarah Palin subscribes wholeheartedly to the Bush agenda. McCain wants to make us think that with a female VP candidate he is giving us something new, but with this ultra-right politico with very little experience, even at the local level, only a heartbeat away from the presidency on his ticket McCain has no adequate backup. And why should Hillary support McCain’s choice? Palin has none of the credentials, intelligence and savvy of Hillary. In fact, she is a mockery of a smart choice female candidate, and there were some on the GOP side. Hockey mom, NRA member, anti-environmentalist, religious fanatic. If McCain had chosen Hillary as his running mate, as some political commentators hypothesized during the primaries, he might have had a chance of winning. Let’s hope McSame has no chance of winning and that the Obama camp will know how to wage a strong campaign against the muck the rightwing media and McCain’s side will be throwing at us until election day. Sarah Pallin tells us she has worked “real hard,” not “really hard,” so she doesn’t even speak educated English. Give us a break. Until Friday morning the GOP only had one dufus on the ticket. Now they have two.

On the surface, she appears to be a woman with political talent, but dig deeper and you wonder what is there to make McCain believe she would make a good president of the United States. Why her for the top political job in America? If he wanted to grab some of the historic glory from Obama’s remarkable rise with his own first for the GOP, Texas U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutcheson was McCain’s logical choice. She’s been a senator since 1993, has sat on the Armed Services Committee for years and is acceptable to the social conservatives and economic conservatives that make up the base of the GOP. She is experienced enough to be a serious contender. Others in the GOP field all have problems with the GOP voting base: Condi Rice is too tied to the Bush Administration, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are too moderate and Christine Todd Whitman is not popular with the White House. That leaves Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle who has not been sufficiently anti-tax for the GOP supply-siders and not sufficiently in tune with the religious GOP conservatives. The reality of the McCain pick barely rests on Palin’s personal qualifications. McCain is attempting to present Palin as a symbol that the Republican Party supports women but her selection is not a major change-except by degree-for the GOP. Republicans have been running women for a long time. This historic first is NOT a first for the country, just for the GOP. McCain is caught on the horns of a dilemma. To beat Obama, he must hold onto the socially conservative base of the Republican Party. He must energize those who oppose abortion, rights for gays, gun control and stem cell research. He can’t run away from his 90 percent recent voting record favoring President Bush’s policies. McCain hopes that by picking a woman he can show he’s open to doing things differently, but his selection is window dressing and insulting to anyone who knows that he opposes equal pay for equal work legislation and opposes a woman’s right to choose. And this is just part of the list of issues of concern to women that he doesn’t champion. Most importantly, McCain is not disentangling himself from the anti-woman backlash GOP strategy adopted many years ago to elect Reagan and then the two Bushes. One of his closest advisors, Charles Black, has for years been an enforcer of this strategy. This Republican War Against Women approach adopted first in 1980 is still very much in place. The strategy has nothing to do with running women for office. It has always been about the party’s antagonistic policies toward issues of specific concern to women. To win the presidency, Reagan and the two Bushes played on the fear of women’s potential power. It is because of this strategy that women have been leaving the Republican party for years, and it is why more American woman are Democrats and vote Democratic. This backlash strategy born in the passionate times of the 1970s, when many Americans were afraid of women’s power, will no longer work. How insulting to American women that the McCain camp thinks it can disguise it. This campaign season America has seen a capable, competent woman nearly become the nominee of a major political party. Women are now governors, CEOs, members of Congress and presidents of many universities. And of course, Nancy Pelosi is by the Constitution third in line to be president of the United State as the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Upon hearing that Sarah Palin had been selected to be McCain’s running mate, Senator Hutcheson called her “a breath of fresh air.” Unfortunately for the Republicans, Palin is not. She is a retread of the Republican backlash strategy that showcases women but insists they be attached to policies that hurt women. John McCain may think he can seduce American voters by having Sarah Palin by his side, but when the majority of Americans learn the Republican platform does not bring health care to Americans, will not protect woman to make their own reproductive choices, does not bring legal protection for equal pay for equal work, Sarah Palin, the McCain Trojan filly, will not fool American women. ### About the Author: Tanya Melich is a nationally recognized authority on women in politics. She was a co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and led the fledgling National Women’s Education Fund, the first organization to educate women systematically on how to gain political power. Melich lectures extensively on college campuses and at domestic and international forums. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Republican War Against Women: An Insider’s Report from Behind the Lines (Bantam, l996; paperback, l998). Formerly a Republican who served on the political staffs of Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, Charles Goodell and John Lindsay, she is now a Jeffords independent. She was a senior advisor on centrist women voters for the 2004 Kerry for President campaign. WMC Reprint & Credit Requirements: The Women’s Media Center grants permission to reprint free-of-charge with the understanding that media outlets credit the author of the piece and the Women’s Media Center, as in: “by [author’s name] for the Women’s Media Center (www.womensmediacenter.com).” If the format allows it, please note at the end: “This article was originally posted by The Women’s Media Center at www.womensmediacenter.com. The WMC is a non-profit organization founded by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan, dedicated to making the female half of the world visible and powerful in the media.” About us: The Women’s Media Center strives to make women visible and powerful in the media. From our founding in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem to our advocacy and media relations work today, we are part of a strong feminist tradition that seeks to hold the media accountable for presenting the world as we know it. Our mission is to ensure that women and women’s experiences are reflected in the media just as women are present everywhere in the real world; that women are represented as local, national, and global sources for and subjects of the media; and that women media professionals have equal opportunities for employment and advancement. In addition to the WMC founders, current board members include Loreen Arbus, Cristina Azocar, Jodie Evans, Gloria Feldt, Carol Jenkins, Teresa McBride, Pat Mitchell, Jessica Neuwirth, Rossana Rosado, and Helen Zia. For more information, please visit www.womensmediacenter.com.

what mccain wanted with his vp pick, he is receiving… attention. he was not getting any attention and now he is. it is what everyone is talking about; in politics even negative attention is better than no attention. obama had a great night for about 10 hours and then the shark feeding frenzy began.

Ms Crowley, as someone who has taken such glee at every opportunity in the past decade to attack and belittle Hillary Clinton, I find it rather disingenuous of you to assume that you would know what Hillary Clinton is doing or thinking.

Palin was an inspired pick. Very Rovanesque. Dobson is now on board, so the $$$$$money will start rolling into GOP from Evangelicals and the conservative base. McCain had the guts to pick a woman who is obviously tough enough to run. I disagree with all of her positions and will not vote for McCain, but after MSM and Camp Obama’s horrendous treatment of Hillary, Palin pick took the air out of Dem convention. Hillary may see a woman President, and it won’t be her. If the Dems are smart they will not diss Palin. This is a lady with 5 kids one of whom is in Iraq. Obama would be smart to start being very specific about issue differences, and just what he intends doing in detail. Fast.