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Minneapolis, we have a problem…

August 29th, 2008
By TONY CAMPBELL, TMV Columnist

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John McCain has announced that Sarah Palin, the first term Alaskan governor, will be his running mate. I know I am going to get in trouble over this but I have got to let it out. It is official: John McCain has just had his first moment of dementia. As I looked at the possible signs of this terrible disease, I found the following symptoms:

• irrational decision making/judgment
• memory retention issues
• unclear thinking/reasoning

I am not poking fun at this terrible affliction. In fact, my grandfather suffered through it in his later years, but how else do you describe this pick that makes no sense politically. McCain has already had gaffes with the number of houses that he owns and a story about how he substituted the names of the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Green Bay Packers while he was a P.O.W. in Vietnam. I know it is an uncomfortable subject, but if we can talk about race with Obama, then we should be able to talk about the affect of age for McCain.

I am still scratching my head over this one because there were much better picks ideologically (Romney), geographically (Pawlenty), and for winning the election through the Electoral College (Ridge). Heck, if the decision was focused on winning disaffected Clinton voters, Senator Elizabeth Dole would have been a much better pick.

I thought the Joe Biden pick was bad for Obama; this pick makes Obama seem like a genius. How is she expected to debate Biden? She has been a mayor of Wasila (pop: 8,571) and Biden was elected to the Senate when she was only eight years old. Finally, McCain can kiss the “not ready to lead” argument out of the proverbial window.

We haven’t even gotten to Labor Day, and this year is proving to be an election cycle to remember. In the past two months, John McCain has made a lot of good political moves to decrease the size of Barack Obama’s lead and make this a competitive race. The congratulatory television ad was a subtle stroke of politics that acknowledged Obama’s historic moment while keeping his name in the public view.

Yesterday morning, the race was close to being a toss-up…today, John McCain just gave the advantage back to Barack Obama.



This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Republican Party, Newsweek Blogitics, Vice President, Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, At TMV, 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, John McCain, Columnists, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 39 Comments

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    I hope you have your Kevlar and Asbestos suit on Tony.
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    I haven't agreed much with Tony lately, but I think he's right on almost every point here. The only upside is that it should take Alaska out of the (barely) possible Obama pick-up category.
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    This article personifies the fairyland thinking that Obamabots engage in on a daily basis; illustrating a mindset utterly devoid of strategical thinking.

    McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was a good one. McCain knows that people think with their guts first and foremost and leave liberalistic minute dissection to people with more time on their hands..

    Here's how Palin will appeal to the MAJORITY of undecided voters:

    1. She will rope in MILLIONS of former Clinton supporters by gut-virtue of the fact that simply: she is a woman. That's how they think, not how I think..

    2. She will rope in working-class states needed for the win. Her husband is a commercial Alaskan fisherman..one of the most successful TV shows today is the reality show on crab fishing in Alaska. Their grit and bravado is unequalled. This will appeal heartily to working class Joes and Janes who see risking their lives for their job as highly admirable.

    3. She will appeal to any republicans who formerly had thoughts of straying away from the GOP. Instantly she will galvanize them back from her pro-life stance.

    (are we keeping track so far? McCain/Palin will rope in virtually all republicans now...that's ALL of them folks...and a huge chunk of previously undecided and disgruntled Clinton supporters...like their "logic" or not...

    Those are the stark realities of the November numbers. Now. Sit down and do the math, and pour yourself a stiff one tonight Obamabots...failure often comes so quickly on the wings of "success".

    You should've picked Clinton for a name on the ticket Obama. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid STUPID!
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    I totally disagree. The Palin pick was a game changer. As an Obama supporter I was crapping my pants yesterday at the thought of a Palin pick and am still crapping my pants today now that my worst fear in this election has come true.
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    As a Hillary supporter- I find the pick rather insulting. Its as though you can swap an intelligent, centrist , powerful woman for a conservative neophyte who has no familiarity with Washington politics. She comes from a red state that is known for its corruption the way Louisiana is in the blue states.

    Its affirmative action at its worst--- an update of the Clarence Thomas pick by Bush Sr to replace the beloved liberal Thurgood Marshall.
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    And Silhouette's logic is still lacking. Palin has no characteristics besides her gender that might influence Hillary supporters. And there are not millions upon millions of them stupid enough to vote for Palin on that basis.

    How many people would really vote for her on the basis of her husband being a fisherman?? Will there be some who might do that? Possibly. Huge numbers? Game changing numbers, even? No.

    The name calling on Sil's part is also still rather pathetic.
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    To a certain extent I'm going to agree with Sil. I think this was a pretty good pick on McCain's end. I'm not sure just how many former Clinton supporters they are going to get, but the fact is that many of them were saying they were going to vote for McCain anyway.

    kritt, "affirmative action at its worst"? Are you serious? What privilege was Palin given? And coming from a state known for corruption? While that certainly is true, I think the perfect example of corruption is Washington. He didn't pick someone from the inside. I'm not supporting her or McCain, but to me, this sounds like a pretty solid pick, and with the experience issue now nullified maybe they can actually start debating policy, rather than who did what where when while no one was looking.
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    I just heard Ed Morrisey make a plug for Palin having foreign policy creds because Alaska is bordered by foreign countries. I love it. Based on that "reasoning" I may well have an advanced degree from the university I live near based on my geographic proximity! Don't get me wrong, I think Palin is an interesting pick, but I am looking forward to seeing her be vetted - there seems to be some confusion as to whether that's actually happened yet.
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    What Kritt11 and JSpencer said.
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    Sorry, Sil, but your desperation is showing through. Sarah Palin is a novelty pick, pure and simple. Women are not stupid, just as African Americans in Maryland were not stupid enough to fall for Michael Steele.

    Yes, Palin will please pro-life women. But Hillary's supporters are not pro-lifers.

    All this will take is one terse statement from Hillary Clinton herself dismissing this pick as a sham and the gambit will be thrown back at McCain.

    It also takes away McCain argument against Obama. So, the woman a heartbeat away from the White House has zero foreign policy experience and 18 months as governor of the third least populous state in America (before which she was mayor of a small town). Obama may not call her inexperienced. But he will definitely challenge McCain to keep calling HIM inexperienced.