A choice made.

McCain's choice is in, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. She's young and less than half-way through her first term as governor, out of being mayor of a smallish town, and before than a city council member. She's a conservative, anti-choice, anti-gay, and looks ready to follow McCain's lead.

I suppose it is also of use to note she is a woman. Not a big deal to me, but it is something historic to note, the second VP nominee that has been a woman. But I am not thrilled with her politics. Her sex is immaterial. So before getting into that, let us chat.

Sigh. Yes, she is a woman, a Republican, and quite quite conservative.

But that doesn't clear you to be an ass online. Already in going around and looking at reactions on different threads and blogs I am seeing...well, what we all usually see when guys get ticked at a woman online...offensive language. To start their are the ones that, for some reason, are calling her a bimbo. It doesn't make any sense. And from there it escalates, up to comments on her sexuality. Why? How does it help, promote discussion, justify, counter, or do anything of value? It is just stupid. It was stupid when it happen to Hillary Clinton, when it is happens to Pelosi, or Secretary Rice, or even Ann Coulter. Just fucking stupid. "Oh, those close-minded and mean conservatives nominated a $!#$#@#..." How dumb do you look? And it is said when it is tossed at people like Obama as well. All I can say is grow up. Look at CNN where an idiot asked if she can care for a child with Down Syndrome and be the Veep? And as the other reporter there pointed out, that is just the type of stupid point that McCain's people, like Bay Buchanan, will use to rally anger. Because no one would ask if the child's father could do the job. So, reporters, analyst, pundits, bloggers, asshat thread zombies...just...like you'll listen...


Now looking at Gov Palin.

This is the end of any serious claim that experience trumps change. Though conservatives are still trying to claim that she is very experienced and surpasses Obama...We'll see how that pans out.

TPM:

...John McCain's central and best argument in this campaign is that Barack Obama simply lacks the experience to be President of the United States. And now John McCain, who is a cancer survivor who turns 72 years old today, is picking a vice presidential nominee who has been governor of a small state for less than two years and prior to that was mayor of a town with roughly one-twenty-seventh of the citizens that Barack Obama represented when he was a state senator in Illinois.

...

How determined is McCain to have a wise adviser on the wars we are in, and ready to jump in and take the reigns and handle being C-n-C? Guess it is not that big an issue now.

So, what does she bring?

...

First up, she's super anti-choice. The forced-pregnancy crowd is thrilled today! (She recently had her fifth child, who has Down's syndrome.) She's against marriage equality and supports a federal gay-marriage ban, but has made sure to note that she "has gay friends." Though she has signed on to same-sex partner benefits. She believes schools should teach creationism. She's also pretty terrible on environmental issues, and is a huge advocate of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. ...

Oh yeah. Palin is great. And she is a creationist to!!!

Here was an early Obama camp response.

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same,” said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

So why not one of the other conservative women, who actually bring some experience?

...

Watching Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) this morning - a woman who would have been eminently qualified for VP (for a Republican) - trying to talk positively about Palin was almost painful to watch. Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Condi Rice, even Christine Todd Whitman would have brought more to the ticket for McCain than Palin.

This is a complete desperation move on McCain's part, trying to hold the base together in a weak attempt to pull off some Hillary voters. It's not going to work. Palin doesn't come close to sharing the values of Hillary voters.

...

Here is further analysis of this choice.

Feministing:

...

The pick of Palin is dripping with transparent condescension, the notion that the enthusiasm behind Hillary was simply the result of her being a woman, that it had nothing to do with what she actually stood for, and in that sense it's equally sexist. Palin is essentially a hard right ideologue, and therefore nothing like Hillary as far as substance is concerned. It's not very different from running Alan Keyes against Barack Obama in 2004. The conservative media reaction has already engaged in paternalistic language, with FOX News reporting on television that "McCain broke the glass ceiling," implying in fact, that the pick had nothing to do with Palin or her qualifications, but merely her gender. It's fitting that the party positing affirmative action as a program that picks people exclusively based on race or gender rather than qualification should do something similar given an opportunity for political advancement. ...

And I note this from Firedoglake:

...

The good news is that women's issues are going to become front and center for this campaign. I haven't seen enough of Palin to know how well she could do against Biden in a debate, but I'm not sure it matters. If she doesn't make some horrible gaffe, what she stands for symbolically will be more important than anything she says.

...

Yes. On the one hand with her and her conservative stand on women's issues, perhaps she and her party can be drawn into a debate on women's issues. But she is being portrayed as green and youthful. The media and dems will play on that hard. But that means the level of expectation on her will be amazingly low. Remember GW and the debates in '00 and '04? He got pass after pass. Why play into that trap? If they lose sight of the issues she represents it will be bad. Just like letting McCain be the war hero, and not the guy with bad policy is deadly.