Tsudohnimh wrote:
I agree the election is over but I disagree with your result. I think she is great pick.

I won't rehash any of the experience arguments here but if public consensus says that Obama is qualified then by all rights she is as well.

Sorry. No. Not even close. Saying Obama was ready 4 years ago would have been wrong, but in his keynote at the '04 convention, he demonstrated he was already thinking at a high level, and his oratory skills on the level of King or Kennedy. Since then, he has made himself versed on topics from working to secure loose nukes in Russia, to dealing with divestiture from Iran, to the current round of campaign finance reform. He also has ab additional 8 years in the Illinois legislature dealing with more personal level issues.

For Governor Palin even the members of her own party are saying she's no where near ready. The state senator from her home district, also a Republican, has said she's not qualified to be Governor, much less Vice President or President.

This move eliminates any possibility of further defection by angry Hillary voters, Palin is literally the anti-Hillary, taking the opposite position on every topic of note. Anyone who was concerned with either McCain's age or health is also now leaving, unless Palin manages to pull a Joan of Arc, she'll be seen as the second coming of Dan Quayle, but worse.

Her positions on things like abortion (no exceptions, not for rape/incest), teaching creationism in schools (thumbs up!), and whether we should do something about our old friend global warming (we didn't do it, so what would we do?) will burn bridges with independents and people with brains. And all of this could be moot with potential fallout from trooper-gate, she could be this years Eagleton.

She does energize "the base," which McCain did not, bt they were going to vote against Obama anyway. She may cause more money to flow in from that side, but the money side of the Republican party is going to look at her and either decide she can be bought, or they're going to decide she's nothing they want to go anywhere near and close their checkbooks.

On top of THAT, the way the McCain campaign handled the announcement, using Romney and Pawlenty as bait, but NOT TELLING THEM it was misdirection has pissed them off. Whoops.

At every level, the choice itself (torpedoing the "not ready" meme), how it was announced (Van Halen telling McCain, don't use our song asshole), the fallout with other members of the party (Romney and Pawlenty), the damage to the campaign memes, this selection is a complete clusterfuck.

I expected when the final tally came down to be an Obama win, but somewhat close. Now I'm thinking Obama gets in the area of 350+ votes in the electoral college.

RE: The election is basically over.