Question:
Why did the McCain Campaign allow Sarah Palin as the VP choice?
2008-09-01 20:07:17 UTC
Was McCain attempting to hide the Republican's poor track record for the past 8 years and used an unknown woman to hide behind? Did he think he could hide Sarah Palin's corruption as Mayor and Governor in Alaska from direct media scrutiny?
42 answers:
2008-09-01 20:12:18 UTC
We'll never know what was behind this enormously bad political calculation. Regardless of what you think of her, it will go down as one of the most stupid picks of all time.
antiodsxxcandy
2008-09-02 21:49:32 UTC
First, McCain chose Sarah Palin to SHUT Up the Liberal media (CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS) and stop them to talking about how wonder Obama.

And this attempt has been successful. The TV and radios have been covering Sarah Palin 24/7 since last Friday. Who is talking about Obama and his VP?



Now with Palin's pregnancy and wedding news, the liberal media is trying to smear her family images. Well, the more attacks and more smears to her family, it will make the democrats and liberal TV look bad and desperate.

Independent voters starts to think that Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy is the only evidence that democrats can attack about Palin?



Also, more Christian-based white voters will weigh the importance of family values, and personal responsibilities against Obama's Change plan.

Palin's family is not Hypocrite about pro-life, her daughter now is getting Married with the father of the baby. She's 17 years old woman, she's no a little kid. Back then, most women were married before 18 years old.

On the plus side, traditional Catholic and Christians will start pouring donation money to McCain & Palin campaign.



The Democrat party and liberal media is all about Celebrities, Hype and gay marriage.

Remember Kerry2004 and Gore2000. The media kept saying and projecting democrat candidates were winner, they are unethical as reporters/journalists. The RESULTS were Democrats were losers in the elections, after the votes were counted.



Now Tv, radios keep talking about Palin all day long.

It certainly temporary put a stop of Obama's Hype.

Then Republicans will roll out new strategy to heavily promote McCain/Palin's reform agenda.
Harry K
2008-09-05 15:44:12 UTC
There are three reasons Palin was chosen, I think. One of them might surprise you:

1. She's been very accomplished as governor, with a very strong record of reform (or "change") and not a single hint of "corruption". The investigation that's going on regarding her people seeking to have her former brother-in-law fired is going to make her look like a hero. The guy admits to several violations including tasering his 10-year-old son. He's also been reprimanded for driving his state police cruiser while drunk. Many of the complaints against him were filed before she ever became governor. Anyone would want an out-of-control officer like that fired, former brother-in-law or not. He'd have been gone long ago if not for the union. Republicans are catching a lucky break that the report on the investigation is coming out in October because it will make her look so good.

2. She appeals to a wide cross-section of voters, most importantly the conservative base, women and rural voters in midwestern swing states.

3. She's not too tall. There was no way he would have chosen Ridge or Romney because of their height. You can't have the VP candidate towering over your Presidential candidate. Like it or not, image has been important in politics ever since the 1960 debate between Nixon and Kennedy. This reason is the one that tipped my prediction in favor of Palin weeks ago.



By the way, you can learn a lot about her by using the special section of links on http://www.USAMediaGuide.com. It has links to the Anchorage newspaper and TV stations as well as a link to her biography.
sweet114511
2008-09-03 20:46:29 UTC
There is no answer. She has to be the worst choice for him. First, she claims to have experience but really she has little. She governed a town of all of eight thousand people. That is the amount of students in a high school. So really, a principal is as capable as her. Second, she has terrible stances. She wants creationism in schools. This will lead to more turmoil in schools. Last, she fights against the environment. She doesn't believe in global warming even though everyone has admitted its existance. She also overturned a law in Alaska. She made it legal to fly private planes and shoot at the wolves. This is ridiculous. She is a terrible candidate and it is scary to think that if anything happens to Mccain she will be president.
murrow
2016-10-14 12:30:18 UTC
i'm a democrat yet i grow to be leaning in direction of McCain after Hillary lost interior the primaries. Then he picked Sarah Palin, look i don't care you're a woman ( i think of thats the only legitimate reason she grow to be picked) i opt to understand what your stand is on the conflict, on the monetary equipment, what you think of roughly regulations up earlier. a majority of those questions have been posed to her and yet there are not any "immediately talk" solutions. what's that approximately? And now the click are being shielded out of conferences!? it is the two she would be in a position to't cope with issues on her very own or they are hiding something. i would not have faith her and how am i able to have faith somebody that would not shop a beware on her very own kin not to show e mail password (those issues must be substitute each and every 6 - 365 days) how am i able to have faith somebody to maintain an out for the country.
Cindy A
2008-09-04 09:27:32 UTC
Even with her horrible political track record, the real person she is makes my skin crawl...Hopefully Sarah Palin will be the FINAL MISTAKE for McCain. A woman who puts her own self gains ahead of 5 children should have never given birth to 'any' children to begin with. Having been raised with a Down Syndrome child, it makes me sad for that baby. There is NOTHING like a MOTHER, that baby NEEDS HER..IS she running away? Escaping the reality of what her life is? A 4 month old baby with down syndrome and a pregnant teen?.... ...I think so.... The teenage daughter will need her too. Personally, I have not one ounce of respect for this woman...sad...I don't believe you can control teenagers..so I don't blame her for the girls situation....but the brand new DS baby? Escaping her life--- that's why she took this job....her reality back home is tough. Which in my book makes her weak.
roadster9879
2008-09-01 20:23:15 UTC
There is significantly less corruption in her background than there is in the back ground of Obama. There are still on going investigations involving RESKO, and other questionable money connections. Also, the so-called abuse of power is only an allegation, and there is no proof. My understanding is that the person she tried to have fired was involved in several ethics violations, and the person she actually did fire was insubordinate because he refused to follow orders. If this is correct, then I say she is AOK.



Other than this item, Sarah Palin has an excellent background, so I will wait to see what facts come out before passing judgment.
klypz
2008-09-03 13:35:50 UTC
A person who believes creationism should be taught in schools and who thinks the iraq war was Gods plan.....uhhh ya, set your nation back a lil more americans...vote for this team. A breath of fresh air? More like a step in the wrong direction. Republicans are so backwards in their thinking it's just hilarious....NoWonder the past 8 years have been a total disaster.
foreign eyes
2008-09-01 20:50:12 UTC
Palin needs to take her family back to Alaska to take care of her mentally ill child an help her daughter to go through that emotional moment!What kind of mother is she?

Old Senile McCain was reckless. Endangering the country!
Sophie B
2008-09-01 20:21:12 UTC
You have it a little backwards , Dear...Sarah exposed the corruption, and got rid of it...



She was brought in because she understands the oil and gas industries( she been fighting them too ) and environmental issues



The dems keep flogging a dead horse with global warming, so as soon as she is elected, she will solve that....



Also I've heard she will be in charge of eliminating entitlements...from what I heard we are going to...pay as you go....
susanmaried
2008-09-01 20:15:49 UTC
The people in Alaska who are speaking against Palin are all people that *she* exposed for ethics violations and/or she did away with their questionable expenses. (For example, the guy who brought the Wooten case against her is a guy she beat in the 2006 election!)



Anyway... if you research the accusations against her, what you will find is that Palin is a person who will stand against the wrong doers, even if they are in her own party!!!



That is exactly the kind of maverick McCain is known for being and he needed to get that across again.



Palin resigned a such job as Ethics Commissioner when she exposed wrong-doign and the state tried to cover it up instead of fix it. She resigned and publicy staed why she resigned. That takes balls!



FURTHERMORE:

Palin has more expereince than Obama:





City Council 1992-1996: Elected for two terms (4 years)



Mayor: 1996-2002 Elected for two terms, (4 years) Also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors



Ethics Commissioner: 2003-2004 (1 year) Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She resigned in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders.



Governor: 2006-2008 (2 years)



Palin: Grand total of 11 years in service to elected/appointed positions.



Palin GOVERNED for six years as mayor and Governor.



Obama: Grand total of 9 years in service in elected positions. As Senator (state and federal) his job was to talk about policies, propose policies, and vote on policies. NO EXPERIENCEWITH GOVERNING -- AT ALL!!!!!!!)
shaeffy
2008-09-01 20:17:59 UTC
The reason why is because republicans were looking to snatch the hilary voters from obama... because she is a girl. also she is a mother of five with a four month old baby who was recently diagnosed with down syndrom... which i think will atract parent who have children with mental hadicaps, i only imagine this because my friends mom was a democrat until she realized the vp for the republicans had a handicap because she has a child who is deaf blind and has many mental handicaps... personally i feel this is a breech of her character because how could a women care for 5 children one bay who has down syndrum and a county.
DavidNH
2008-09-01 20:16:18 UTC
I think that McCain thought he had a perfect choice for the disaffected Hillary supporters. I think the choice is backfiring now. I'll bet he drops Sarah Palin. They'll come up with some excuse like Sarah Palin has some disease or has compelling "family" commitments.
EVE
2008-09-01 20:16:55 UTC
It's really an odd thing. I guess they wanted to take the attention away from Obama and bring it all over to the Republicans. Problem was there wasn't anything all that exciting happening on that side.



It's called scandalistic journalism and it's probably more than they were bargaining for isn't it??



I don't think McCain, on his own, is capable of generating any fireworks whatsoever.
Mekia
2008-09-01 20:13:43 UTC
He had to! Think about it, he is the oldest man to ever run for president, he is endorsed by Bush who more than half the Americans hate...so he HAD to go with a woman...why he picked Palin, I'll never know..but he had to choose a woman, since Obama is black and has a great chance of winning, he had to do something to get more women voters on his side
2008-09-01 20:13:16 UTC
They had to succumb to the right wing of the party, it was not a wise choice but McCain obviously felt she was the better of the right wings he was offered for selection. He wrongly thought Hilary supporters would be tricked into voting for a woman simply because Palin is a woman - not sure how dumb he assumes women are?
jay
2008-09-01 20:12:04 UTC
It was mainly to get all of Hillary Clinton's supporters. A lot of those people would rather vote for McCain than Obama, but i think that's lame. They didn;t like Hillary just because she was a woman!!!! McCain is being sexist to think that those supporters will vote for him just because he chose this new woman VP!
Chels
2008-09-01 20:24:25 UTC
Vote Nader!
gbasp2003
2008-09-01 20:17:22 UTC
She's a woman. Clinton supporters wanted a woman so McCain thought he could pick any random woman and no one would know the difference.
HockeyFan
2008-09-01 20:24:56 UTC
I applaud them. She is a breath of fresh air.....the insiders are mumbling.
2008-09-01 20:11:44 UTC
He was probably trying to appeal himself to all the put out Hilary Clinton fans. She was only governor of Alaska for two years. Before then she was only on a city council!

http://www.youtube.com/user/FromDeeDeetoYou
2008-09-01 20:20:53 UTC
Because she is more qualified than both Obama and Biden put together. You don't make any sense. What poor track record? Actually, the poor track record is with our Democratic Congress who has well earned their pathetic approval rating of 9 %. Palin's approval record in Alaska is more than 80%. There is no corruption associated with Sarah Palin. Please do your research before you plant these smears. I have made it easy for you, please read the following:



Sarah Palin -- Dream Girl

A Commentary by Debra J. Saunders

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Advertisement

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL -- Bingo.

For weeks, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been the Republican whom conservatives barely dared to hope could become John McCain's pick as his running mate. For Republicans angry at Washington's big-spending bonanza when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, Palin, like McCain, is an antidote. She is the Alaskan who pulled state support for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere and bucked Alaska's congressional and state Republican leaders.

For social conservatives, the mother of five has impeccable credentials. She's a member of Feminists for Life, who walked the walk in April when she gave birth to a son, shown by genetic testing to have Down syndrome. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," she said of her son, Trig. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"

For conservatives, who felt that McCain has been at times too cozy with the Washington left, Palin is a conservative's conservative -- a moose hunter and co-owner of a commercial fishing operation.

As an Alaskan, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Her husband works for BP on an Alaska oil field. Yet, as the Almanac of American Politics has reported, she stood up to Big Oil when she supported a natural gas pipeline instead of an oil pipeline backed by the state's major petroleum interests. McCain has been too much of a wishful thinker when it comes to energy policy. Palin could champion a more grounded approach to energy.

As a female candidate, Palin just might attract disgruntled Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters -- or at least give them pause before voting for the Obama-Biden ticket.

After Barack Obama picked Joe Biden as his running mate, I began to steel myself for the possibility that McCain might make a similarly uninspiring, but seemingly safe, choice. The top pick of Beltway insiders was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a strong campaigner with solid economic credentials -- but flawed by what seemed an opportunistic shift to the right on social issues in order to win the GOP primary. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge supports abortion rights -- a plus for me -- but he likely would be the butt of late-night talk-show jokes because of the color-coded federal warning system devised to alert Americans to the likelihood of terrorist attacks when he was director of Homeland Security. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty looked OK -- but he wasn't Sarah Palin.

Is she short on experience? Voters will have to watch her performance on the campaign trail to judge how she responds to high-stakes politics and the international arena.

That said, as a governor, Palin she has more experience running a government than Obama, who began serving his first term in the U.S. Senate in 2005. And unlike Obama, Palin has shown herself willing to challenge her jaded ethical policies within her party. That's change.

As McCain said Friday, Palin is "exactly who this country needs" to help him confront "the same old Washington politics of me first and country second."

On the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, she investigated fellow commission member Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, in an effort that led to his resignation and paying a $12,000 fine levied by Alaska's attorney general. In 2006, she ran against the incumbent Republican governor, Frank Murkowski -- and won.

She is not a hard-core social conservative. For example, Palin supported awarding benefits for same-sex couples. But she is a good fiscal conservative, who used her veto power to reduce her state's budget by $124 million.

Palin is a maverick, like he's a maverick. She complements McCain's ardent opposition, not only to congressional earmarks, but also to the pork-rich farm bill and ethanol subsidies supported by Obama.

Pollster Frank Luntz told me in Denver that the key to victory for McCain is to trumpet one theme -- "accountability." McCain, he said, should promise government that does what it is supposed to do, punishes bad actors who break the rules and ends "wasteful Washington spending." On that score, Palin was made to order.



If you are speaking about the firing of that state trooper, The Washington Post had an excellent article on that this weekend. It appears that it is something to do about nothing. McCain, as well as all presidential candidates vet
Been there
2008-09-01 20:11:40 UTC
You'll get all kinds of goofie answer here. All misguided opinions. Only McCain knows for sure - and a few of his insiders
Just my opinion
2008-09-01 20:15:38 UTC
I think he is going after the women vote. The way I see it, this is an insult to intelligent, hard working qualified women. This women is clearly a token and sends a message that all females are alike and qualifications don't matter. Hillary is well qualified. What's her Name isn't.
Sandra
2008-09-01 20:12:22 UTC
What corruption? Enlighten me. I think he chose her because she was NOT what anyone expected. She isn't a long-time politician with people in her pocket and a bright future. Her record thus far is quite good if short. You may not agree with her policies and that's your right. But corruption? C'mon. She hasn't been in long enough!
~~*Paradise Dreams*~~
2008-09-01 20:11:33 UTC
Before McCain chose her I was unsure of who I was going to vote for...now I am voting for Obama...there's no way that woman is equipped to run this country should anything happen to McCain. She has NO foreign policy experience at all...HELLO!



I think they know they are going to fail...and chose her on purpose so they can blame the choice of a bad running mate for their failure.
some teenager
2008-09-01 20:09:44 UTC
He needed Random Female Republican to have any chance at winning the election.
2008-09-01 20:13:33 UTC
She was the only Repuglican naive enough to take the job. I hope all the Evangelicals are still energized.
Michael R-3
2008-09-01 20:11:50 UTC
I am beginning to think that he's trying to punish the Republican party for what they did to him in the 2000 election. It seems as if he is trying his best to lose.
2008-09-01 20:10:58 UTC
to stop any Obama bounce from the convention...they needed the media coverage off of him...
rxing
2008-09-01 20:14:46 UTC
she wasnt vetted and chosen hastily. bad choice for mccain
fdm215
2008-09-01 20:09:42 UTC
They did not vet her properly
STUPID AS STUPID DOES
2008-09-01 20:09:52 UTC
I am baffled... It's Crazy
dick_ache
2008-09-01 20:09:55 UTC
they seemed to have 2 requirements



Female

Pro-Life
Darling J
2008-09-01 20:10:28 UTC
Apparently, they decided that the GOP needed an estrogen injection.



That's pretty much it.



I wonder how Romney feels to have lost his job to a "token."



Sad.
2008-09-01 20:10:33 UTC
Because she is the right choice. They wanted to chose a woman to take the election, but they chose the right woman. That is what stole my vote from Obama.
2008-09-01 20:10:49 UTC
because she is positively magnetic and people love her.
Banker
2008-09-01 20:11:09 UTC
Because she is perfect for the job!
Vote Republicrat
2008-09-01 20:11:53 UTC
Cus she's milf-tacular
2008-09-01 20:12:22 UTC
McChimp was hoping he could pull a lewinsky too. Johns hard-on did the vetting.
nileslad
2008-09-01 20:12:35 UTC
He picked her to drive the Dems nuts. It appears to be working.
clueless
2008-09-01 20:13:04 UTC
she has more expirence than Obama!!!


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