Do you folks all feel that the fundies expected McCain to make a

[saltpoint]

specific choice for the vice presidential nomination, or do you think they would have been satisfied with anyone who was "fundie-friendly" ?

They seem to be rallying behind Gov. Palin, but was Palin their hope initially, or was it Huckabee, or Brownback? or would they have rallied around a generic evangelical/fundamentalist pick?

I'm getting the idea that the rank and rile fundies were a bit surprised by the pick, while maybe the Jim Dobsons and Tony Perkinses knew in advance.

[Seen the light]

1. Palin, Huckabee, or Jindal would have worked for them

The freepers had been pushing for Palin or Jindal for a while now.

That's really all you need to know about them.

[Demeter]

2. As Far As I CAn Tell, There Were 3 Forces At Work

1) McCain wanted Lieberman

2) Rove wanted Romney

3) The Fundies wanted Sister Sarah.

Guess who won? What does that tell us about the upcoming election?

[saltpoint]

3. It does suggest a lot about the November election, and in an odd

way it also sets the fundies up for a total wipe-out.

If McCain-Palin can't win in November the far-right fundies may have met a sort of Waterloo. They can't advance past where they are now and where they are now has destroyed (or is destroying) their one political apparatus for control.

[OHdem10]

4. The Fundies have the best Grassroots Internet System Going

and according to CNN they had been advocating for Palin for months.

Newt Gingrich had been advocating for her since March.

McCain according to reports was told if he picked Lieberman or any
pro-choice Republican to expect A REALLY DIRTY FLOOR FIGHT at the
Republican convention. They were serious.

Over the last month Bill Krystol had advocated for Palen.

It was a surprise only in the fact that McCain kept his decision
secret.

[saltpoint]

6. That's interesting.

So evidently even before anyone knew Obama would be the official Democratic nominee the powerbrokers in the GOP had been angling for Palin for McCain's ticket.

And it begs the question about vetting, too. McCain had plenty of time to vet Gov. Palin and either farmed it out to others whose report he then trusted, or he was told of the troopergate and the car wash and the book censoring etc. and didn't give a damn.

Yeeks.

[codjh9]

5. I think as long as it's ONE OF THEM, they don't care who it is. They're all zombies

who think/vote the same anyway, right? (My only surviving brother is one of 'em, so I'm very familiar with the hateful beasts).

[Rob H.]

7. If my local religious loony radio station is any indication,

the fundagelical nutjobs over at Pocus in the Fanny Focus on the Family could hardly be more pleased that McCain chose Palin. Dogbeatin' Dobson himself came out and said that the only person he's publicly endorsed since Reagan was George W. Bush in 2004 (after Dubya's disastrous first term, which proves beyond all doubt that Dobson is a fucking moron) and even though he isn't endorsing McCain (yet) he's beside himself with glee that Palin is on the ticket.

Since Palin and Dobson are both anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-science, it comes as no surprise that Dobson feels a peculiar, throbbing Christian love for her--Palin also seems to want to see women subjugated nearly as much as Dobson does, himself.

[saltpoint]

8. Hmm. The local landscape is often a good measure.

And you're right -- Palin is no better on women's issues than Dobson.

I like your description of Dobson. Fair and balanced, IMO.