what counts more? talk or actions?

I say the actions. When it came time for her to do something, she chose the Constitution and equal rights, and not imposing her religion on the rest of us.

And isn't that the same for choice with her too? Has she lifted a finger to deny women choices in Alaska? It seems that she separates her own beliefs from her job--something Obama doesn't do.

(i'd never vote GOP in a million years, but i don't think making talk equal to actions is right. It's why i can't vote Obama.)

(of which there are few, outside of issue positions) and conservatives will see only her positives (of which there are many, esp if you're a winger), and people in the middle could go either way. It's called "selective perception" - you only notice those facts which confirm your bias. It's the fundamental basis of blogging (and politics).

All the liberal outrage being expressed is largely wasted energy - nobody who might vote for her cares. The people who'll vote for her want her to outrage liberals - it makes her more attractive.

And if she really fired the guy who wouldn't fire her trooper brother-in-law (who threatened to kill her father and tasered his stepson - at the stepson's request, which also makes no difference), I'd be on her side. If she didn't, there's no scandal.

http://www.floppingaces.net/2008/08/29/p...

There are a lot of emails and memos linked here. And I know it looks like the "Wild Wild West" tv show, just be warned. Seems fairly thorough, who knows?

"As a woman who is a champion of women's equality, I find (the pick) very interesting and a maverick move," said Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who along with her husband, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, backed Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I'm very curious. I drank the Obama Kool-Aid. I'm into Michelle Obama, but I'm excited to see another woman get attention as a vice presidential candidate."SFGate

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...

Are Democrats now being cast as Male Chauvinists?

I just can't get over them. Men are dogs; image is everything...

Anyhow, it's great that somebody's doing some linky goodness on this -- you'd think that the big guys could have done this when the story was breaking but no....

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

- She wants Creationism taught in school.
- She does not believe in global warming having any man-made component.
- She won't list polar bears as endangered because it will endanger gas pipelines.

The more I see of her, the more brilliant the choice is. I knew McCain would pick a woman, but this is really, really a great choice. The mouth-breather wingnuts love their poster-women. They love the smut mag pics of their ladies with big guns. I've already seen Palin with an assualt gun with scope and multiple large hunting rifles. She's picture with a motorcycle and what man isn't turned on by a woman who you can honestly take camping/hunting/fishing with you.

The conservative base and just about all of rural America is going to rally around her and defend any imperfections and re-cast it as city-folk attacking our way of life (and women). She has adorable family pictures and kos is making a BIG mistake when I keep reading dkos diaries talking about this woman's pregnancy, her daughter missing five months of school right before the birth of her down syndrome child. Why should I even KNOW or care that she has a down syndrome child? Her life story is an elevator pitch, and sounds more like an American dream narrative than Obama.

Are rational people and soccer moms going to say, yes, she IS just like me, and I shouldn't be running the country. Is there anyway to get backlash against the Bush inexperience and downhome crap as reason NOT to elect these inexperienced folks.

I used to scoff at them when this race started. I started defending Hillary of unfair attacks and eventually became a supporter in the process.
No one seem to bat an eyelash at the AAs who voted for Obama to the tune of 92% after the Wright revelations.
I am reading disgusting comments in Obama venues - just as bad as the one against Hillary. I am reconsidering my distaste for identity politics. Truth is, I am royally FED UP.
Not sure yet what my November vote will be.
But as of today, I am defending Sarah Palin from unfair attacks.

compliment McCain on his choice, and move on--there's a lifetime (or 2) of McCain stuff to attack, and more than enough GOP horrors and crimes.

that they're going all-out on her means they've learned nothing from the later primaries, and what happened when everyone went off on Hillary in sexist ways.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/8/30/...

"... 6. If Roe v. Wade were overturned and states could once again prohibit abortion, in your view, to what extent should abortion be prohibited in Alaska?

Under this hypothetical scenario, it would not be up to the governor to unilaterally ban anything. It would be up to the people of Alaska to discuss and decide how we would like our society to reflect our values. ..."

Unlike Biden who sides with the RIAA, Palin apparently knows her way around a computer (of course McCain has never seen one).

Maybe she can find all of Rove's missing emails since she seems to be good at hacking and recovering destroyed emails.

But she’s not some radical right-winger; rather she’s an independent, albeit “mainstream”, Republican.

I disagree. As we've seen from linky goodness, she loves ANWR drilling, and hates Darwin, polar bears, gay rights, and abortions.

That laundry list would be anathema to any good liberal not in the Year of Our Unity 2008, but "our" platform this year is us announcing we can come around on more than half of that.

So the strategery of the moment is OMG! TROOPERZ! HOUZEZ!

Pathetic.

Instead, there is a truly absurd and ugly effort to demonize Palin — an effort that is (IMHO) counter-productive, because she has significant appeal to independents and moderate voters.

Yup. Democratic Death Wish? Ratf*cking? Whatever it is, one of my usual haunts has liberals actually saying things like "Well, she has an infant and works outside the home. That's a liability." What? WHAT?

One hopes that the Obamacrat party, which has already poked the eye of bitter, clingy, small-towners with their first post-Palin salvo, can avoid an "Annie Oakley" moment, which (free clue alert) won't work with her.

Two more months of damage control and daily walking on eggshells just to keep BHO propped up to the next rest stop.
If we have to live this way for the next four years, nothing we need to get done will actually happen. But you'll get lots of "Unity".

If you are a reformer who goes after an entrenched, corrupt oligarchy, you will make enemies. This could easily be payback for stepping on some people's toes. The fact her approval rating in Alaska is sky-high (in spite of her gender) is of more interest to me.

If you are a reformer who goes after an entrenched, corrupt oligarchy, you will make enemies.

"Troopergate" shows she understands exercises of raw power and discipline, and will take the heat rather than just letting the weak get sh*t upon.

Vetoing that No-homo law just shows she's no-nonsense and is not willing to blow state funds on a personally and popularly appealing court fight (not that she's a diva, which she isn't). Instead, she solicited advice from the people she picked to offer it, and she took it.

I find those two qualities incredibly appealing.

/shallow

; >

Yeah, an exec who works for BP.

(ObMST3K: "Why are all the cute ones so corporate?")

And mainstream conservatives are now called Democrats. Therein lies the problem.

...for the rest of us

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/m...

Luckily, I think McCain's miscalculation may have been in not recognizing that the Obama campaign just won a primary where a lot of these issues were raised and they have very recent experience dealing with it.

Really? Coulda fooled me.

But up until that point, another must-read from Hullabaloo.

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Why is anyone reacting to the fact that a conservative political party’s conservative presidential nominee has tapped a conservative running mate?

Anglachel is phenomenal. Wow, can she write and get to the heart of the. matter

McCain picked Palin to appeal to republicans, some independents, and yes, a few democrats - men and women - most of whom want to send a message to the pathetic democratic leadership.

The fact that the hounds are baying only tells me how close they think this election is going to be.

Of course, as always, if we had a candidate that could talk competently about the issues with actual, well-considered solutions, we'd still be having to fight for our candidate, but we'd have great ammunition.

That's the problem in a nutshell with Obama: no great ammunition.

I was going to argue w/you about Digby's article (haven't read KP's), but then I carefully re-read this:

Barack doesn't have a ton of experience either, but his qualifications are made manifest by his ivy league education, cosmopolitan background, urban connections and endorsements from other powerful people. I can easily see certain rural, working class voters not being impressed with big city Dems' disdain for her "big state with no people" and her "beauty queen" background. This is the kind of thing that makes the elitist tag stick.

I thought on first read that digby was saying that his qualifications are "manifest" - only in the eyes of the elites, and only because they're all such good friends and he's accepted in their circular butt-sniffing.

I didn't realize that d was actually saying that his qualifications were "manifest" due to these connections -- without a hint of irony or opprobrium for anyone who actually believes that.

Wow. Thanks for forcing me to go back.

Didn't I read that he was a science teacher?

Doesn't that want to make people back off a bit on the creationism hysteria?

As another blogger is fond of saying: Pols are pols.

Seems people are trying to hold her to a higher standard than Mr. Flip Flop FISA.

Hmmmm.

A majority of Americans seems to favor the 'teach both' view. From Pew:

Despite these fundamental differences, most Americans (64%) say they are open to the idea of teaching creationism along with evolution in the public schools, and a substantial minority (38%) favors replacing evolution with creationism in public school curricula. While much of this support comes from religious conservatives, these ideas ­ particularly the idea of teaching both perspectives ­ have a broader appeal. Even many who are politically liberal and who believe in evolution favor expanding the scope of public school education to include teaching creationism.

When I was obsessively reading about the Penn. school board brouhaha a few years back, I do also remember reading quite a few liberals making the 'teach both' argument, as a sort of testament to open-mindedness.

So Palin's take is not really off from the mainstream. Liberals (presumably) are motivated by the idea that it's better to discuss it all/more information is always best; conservatives by a desire to sneak creepy creationist ideas into the classroom under any guise possible.

But it's not clear to me from her statements that she's driven by the conservative creepiness, she seems to have lived up to her word to not impose it on school systems in any way. Mostly her responses seem like a fuzzy 'yeah, whatever, teach it all' response, not all that distinguishable from the liberal variety, rather than motivated by the kind of driving ideology that got that Penn. school board into the national spotlight.

Oh, and btw, the one bit of her statements that most blogs have left out:

And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. ...But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.

After all the crap thrown at Clinton during the primaries, my haka detector is on high alert, and since creationism is such a huge liberal boogeyman, I'm close to rejecting it out of hand. Trying not to, that'd be stooopid.

“It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.”

She'll have to change her tune, and I don't see Mcain pandering to evangelicals like Bush did.

The fact that Obama is, but for different reasons than the teaching of creationism, is still not acceptable.

Separation of church and state. Period.

Can't we get people to vote dem based on the economy and the war? The fact that Obama has even had to go there is another example of the lack of ammunition.

Well, I have to disagree that the Republican ticket is not an issue in this election.

Well, it is an issue for her. And it is also for many other democrats. Some people are incapable of understanding how deeply loyal dems have been cut in the primary. They keep telling them to "Get over it."

I never wanted us to be like the Bush loyalists - the most disgusting, self-centered, immature crew I ever saw.

Guess what? RepubsRus, thanks to the actions of the dem "leadership." I don't even blame their front man as much as I blame them.

Power is an mind-altering drug.