Sarah is my governor up here and I did want to see Hillary in the White House

[CampDem]

However, there is no freakin way I would vote republican!

Yeah, she took out the old bastards club up here Murkowski, Don Young, Ted Stevens, Veco and others who are in jail. I am wondering now if this was set up by them to make her look good.

She is giving us Alaskans an extra $1,200 for an energy rebate next month in addition to our PFD's, which will be a total of $3,200 per person. Now I am thinking it is all part of the setup to pander that she will be good for the economy.Yes, we have billions in surplus from oil, no surprise as we are a fucking rich state because they are raping our environment.

The poor people here have been thrown to the wolves. Under Sarah we have seen nothing done to combat our high murder, suicide, and domestic violence rates. These are some of the highest in the US! People are going to freeze to death this winter because they have shut down and underfunded social service programs, ETOH detox facilities, and nobody including Sarah gives a shit.

[Lucinda]

1. They didnt choose her for veep until we went with Biden.

I doubt the reps have that kind of forethought.

[CampDem]

6. True

They have been looking at her for a while. Just after she had her baby last spring the VP vetting team flew to our state capitol. In 2006 when she ran for governor she debated Frank Murkowski (22 year AK senator) in the primaries and handed him his ass. Maybe repugs saw this and began grooming her back then? I don't think she is in the same league with Joe. He is a pit bull and will rip her to shreds.

[regnaD kciN]

29. You can bet that, if Obama had gone with Hillary...

...no female candidates would have made it to McInsane's short list.

Once the Dem V.P. pick turned out to be a male, it became near-certain McInsane would pick her or another female candidate (Condi?).

[LSparkle]

2. Well, she did try and get that one guy fired over domestic violence

:sarcasm:

which bothers me, because she shouldn't be using her gubernatorial
powers to settle a grudge ...

[CampDem]

12. Yeah, this is a huge scandal, you shouldn't fire people you don't like when you are governor...

:evilgrin:

[CitizenPatriot]

32. I heard that, too

but then when I read the reports, it days the guy was violent against the someone, but not her sister. I am not sure, but it sounds like the domestic violence part was thrown in for sympathy, because it was not in the rather detailed report I read. Let me know if you hear otherwise...thanks!

[JDPriestly]

3. Has she ever held a job with responsibility other than the 12 years she served

on the City Council and as mayor of a town of around 8,000? Did she ever manage anything big before she became governor?

[Lucinda]

4. She has more executive experience than either of our guys or McCain.

Thats a slippery slope...

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

11. Obama ran campaigns - thats executive experience

His campaign budget is probably more than that town's annual budget

[Lucinda]

14. True. But shes the Governor now. It's a bad line of attack.

Their policies, great.
Her experience vs the others, bad idea.

[Raineyb]

22. She's Governor of Alaska

No disrespect I like Alaska, I lived there for a couple of years as a kid but I doubt there's a million people in the whole state. We've got more people in Brooklyn than in all of Alaska. And at least Bloomberg has some experience running something bigger than an apartment complex. I wouldn't consider her experience as a net plus to the ticket.

Regards

[CampDem]

27. We don't have a lot of people here.

Politics are strange here because of the oil companies and the way our population is distributed throughout the state. The politicians here have to kiss oil company asses while appearing to be working for the people of the state. They also have to please the rural communities and please Anchorage. This gets very tricky for them so many of them lie and pander a lot.

[JDPriestly]

20. Biden has traveled the world on behalf of presidents including

Bush. Obama is from a big city, Chicago. How much has Palin traveled?

Palin's service as mayor is laughable -- a six-member council plus a mayor in a town of 6,715 -- http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=49

and 18 months as governor during which she has made a couple of bad decisions -- one concerning a milk company and another concerning the employment status of her brother-in-law.

Now, even if the brother-in-law was a demon, Palin pulled a Bush when she had aides speak to his supervisor about his employment status without carefully following the chain of command and the due process requirements regarding his employment.

If she cannot respect due process of a government employee like her brother-in-law, how can she run the federal government?

Obama is a lawyer and understands the concept of due process. He would know better than to make the stupi mistake Palin made. If Palin acts like this as governor of Alaska, what would she do as president? We have had enough of people who think that once they get into public office, they are above the law.

[Lucinda]

21. Thats great SoS cred.I LOVE Biden. But the experience argument

that some are trying to run with is a shaky one. Look at the number of Senators who have become POTUS in modern times and you'll see the relevancy of the argument that's made for actual executive experience. Senator to POTUS is not the norm. IMO we should stick with the damage junior has done to this country and Rep policies. But to each their own....

[Emit]

35. wha'? Executive experience?

How do you figure that? Or, better, how do you define executive experience?

[Historic NY]

9. the town has 6,343 people according to its website...

my town supervisor has more experience than her and he has been elected as both a Republican & a Democrat.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

13. My town has a pop. of about 30,000 and as much as we love

our 1st Selectman, I sure can't see him a heartbeat away from the Oval Office

[CampDem]

15. Here is some more biography on her

She has not had a lot of experience, even her blogspot points this out.

snip~

There was thing about Palin that initially worried me - "lack of experience". She had only been elected governor in 2006, and her only previous experience was as a two terms as a city councilwoman and two more as mayor in Wasilla, AK (population 8,471 in 2005) followed up by a failed campaign for lieutenant governor and a brief stint on Alaska's Oil and Natural Gas Conservation Commission. This didn't seem very appealing at first, but then I took the time to look closer at Palin's history. What I had failed to realize was that she had habitually knocked of powerful incumbent opponents and was a quick learner on the job. In the 2006 gubernatorial election, she rolled over scandal-prone incumbent Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary, then went on to defeat former governor Tony Knowles in the general election - pretty impressive. Further back, she had knocked off an entrenched incumbent to become mayor of Wasilla, then developed a reputation as a hard-nosed, effective mayor. Her performance in Wasilla got her elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors and earned her the nickname "Sarah Barracuda".

snip~

more at link http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/2007/02/why-sarah-palin.html

[JDPriestly]

19. How hard is it to "learn the job" as mayor after 6 years on the council

in a village of 6,715 people? That does not take a lot.

http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=49

[CampDem]

23. Ha, I agree

Wasilla is a very fast growing community about 45 minutes drive from Anchorage. Most people who live there work in Anchorage and commute. A lot of people are buying houses out there because they are so much cheaper compared to Anchorage prices. There is not a lot of land left in Anchorage to develop and that is why Wasilla is growing so fast.

[JDPriestly]

34. According to that bio, Palin has succeeded at challenging corrupt

officeholders. But -- we don't know how well she governs.

Palin may have been lucky. We shall see whether she can meet the standard that Biden and Obama set.

Palin will have the fundamentalist vote.

The question is whether she will get votes from independents, whether she will get votes from the millions of women whose lives are leading nowhere. Those are the women that Biden and Obama have to reach if they are to win. Clinton won because women -- ordinary women -- voted for him. That is the demographic that Sarah Palin is intended to appeal to.

These are the women who, like her, are active in the PTA, the women who lead Girl Scout troops. Who in our party would be a role model to them? At the moment I don't see any contenders.

I stayed at home with my children (and lived overseas) until my youngest was seven. I had a very hard time getting back into the workforce. Even after obtaining a law degree late in life, employers did not want to hire me for pay equal to that of a man with my qualifications.

Obama needs to address the issue of the many, many women who go back to work in their late 30s, early 40s or even 50s (for example after a divorce or as widows).

Even Hillary does not speak for the women I am talking about. This is a demographic that is excluded, that will vote and that can decide elections. I think that is the demographic the Republicans are trying to appeal to. It's very smart in my view.

[Barack_America]

5. Since you're up there, what's with this rumor that her infant son is actually her daughter's. nt

[CampDem]

10. Oh my!

I think she found out the baby had Down Syndrome when she was 4 months along during a sonogram.

[democrat2thecore]

7. You say she threw out the group with Stevens but there is an ad with Stevens endorsing her! -nt

[CampDem]

17. Yeah, kind of fishy isn't it?

There is so much corruption up here in the republican party and naked power grabbing going on.I think Ted "tubes" Stevens is their sacrificial lamb, poor thing. I still can't believe this. I am going to get on the internets to find out more...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8

[Virginia Dare]

8. I want that fucking $3,200

I live in Virginia, I pay taxes, how come I don't get it?

[CampDem]

16. Yeah, it will be pretty cool to get that money, my family will get $9,600 direct deposit.

Our gas and food prices are outrageous and people will need help this winter heating their homes. I am starting to think the whole thing is pandering for the election.We have billions in surplus not because of her, but because we are lucky enough to have oil and gas. They will try to paint her as an economic winner because of this. Even though they say the economy is fine and we are in a mental recession. Sickening.

[krkaufman]

18. Chuckle. Yeah, I can't wait for Americans to learn about the oil royalties ...

... that citizens of Alaska receive, and then start asking McCain and Palin why all the other states don't receive similar payments for their natural resources.

[barack the house]

24. So sounds like she was number one pick from way back.

[barack the house]

25. So sounds like she was number one pick from way back.

[CampDem]

31. I don't know when they started looking at her seriously

In May they were spotted in Juneau, our capitol during the same week McSame was flying in VPs to vet. This was a month after she had her baby so it looks like they flew to her instead.

[MarjorieG]

26. Are all levers of power/machine/legislature really GOP? How did she clean house vs themselves/voters

[CampDem]

28. Yes, she has had help cleaning house up here from the feds for sure

The story of her rise to power unfolded so quickly I am still trying to figure out how it happened!

Here is an article with a lot of detail about her if you can stomach the fawning.

snip~

n the roughly three years since she quit as the state's chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the "body count" of Palin's rivals. "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah," says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called "Voice of the Times," which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct

snip~
more at link http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/851orcjq.asp?pg=1

[MarjorieG]

33. Certainly makes sense with usual GOP fall in line/effort to maintain control.

I hope Obama camp learns all they need to about her bad choices, and not as a reformer. Interesting about the worse choice for the pipeline, and willingness to outsource.

Baffling. We were in Alaska last summer and just fell in love with it, like everyone else. The people, irreverance, saw very minor ball, and since became really hopeful for Diane Benson. Here in NYC we love her. Bothers me that machines move in, and that's always the end of story.

Agree that everyone there, no matter how enlightened seemed to want the pipeline, not the Wilderness as a museum for the lower 48, and as in no one should tell them how to run their state. Not as part of the national energy issue, anyway.

[Ioo]

30. I think you are thinking to much into this... Alaska is NO battle ground state

You all had a primary and none of the rest of the US even knew...

You have like 2 EC votes...

She did not give you all the money to win the state, chances are McShame was going to win anyway...