This is what she was mayor of...

[Drunken Irishman]

My neighborhood in Salt Lake City is bigger than her town.

My high school had nearly as many kids as Wasilla had people.

C'mon, really?!? SERIOUSLY?

Give me a break.

[MrsT]

1. She picked her because she has two x chromosomes and is attractive.

Those are the only reasons. There are plenty of other far right Republican women out there with much more experience. None of them are beauty queens. And we know how McCain likes beauty queens.

Trophy wife. Trophy VP.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Yup, I think Kay Bailey Hutchinson "deserved" to be McCain's choice if he selected a female.

I don't like her, but she's at least done something and has accomplished more than just being a mayor of a ghost town.

[tanyev]

3. Yeah, I'd love to know what KBH really thinks about this VP pick.

[tularetom]

4. Nah, she's a dunce just like Palin

plus she's damn near as old as Mcancient and she could go before he does.

[Drunken Irishman]

9. Dunce or not, she has experience.

She's more known and has done more than Palin.

[27inCali]

37. nailed on the head

wonder how many of the disappointed Hillary voters are going to fall for it? (if any at all)

I mean, could of had Hillary but I'll settle for the totally unqualified beauty queen. what in insult.

I'm not a woman, but I've watched all my life as unqualified women were bumped up the line on account of their looks -I don't think the hardscrabble, working-class women of Scranton (and places like it) who supported HRC so full-heartedly will like being reminded of all the times the 'hot babe' got special treatment over them.

call me crazy.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Hell, Kern County in CA has more people than ALL of Alaska...

Kern County is in the middle of the central valley, with Bakersfield, not part of LA.

Hmmm, mayor of your neighborhood, governor of Bakersfield.

Great choice, John!

[grantcart]

6. wonderful thing about small towns like this is everyone knows everything

about everybody and they are just waiting for the newsmedia to arrive so that they can share it.

[KingFlorez]

7. There are even unincorporated areas with more people than that

This is so ridiculous, it's not even funny.

[BrotherBuzz]

8. She's governor of Alaska, population: 670,000

There are mayors that run cities with a greater population than the whole state of Alaska.

[Drunken Irishman]

11. And she's only been governor for a year and a half.

[stillcool]

28. and shortly after she won..

her name was floated for VP...

Vice President Palin?

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: March 6, 2007 - 4:44 pm

A new blog is pitching Gov. Sarah Palin as a potential running mate for presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

‘What’s the president’s reaction?’

AUGUST 15, 2007 - 11:36 AM

Les Kinsolving, a talk show host in Baltimore, raves on Worldnetdaily.com about Gov. Sarah Palin. More talk of Palin for V.P.

What’s noteworthy is he says he asked a White House spokesman about her poll numbers.
http://community.adn.com/blog/24417?page=59



January 22, 2008

Palin's Media

FEBRUARY 26, 2008 - 12:05 PM

From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage --

Sarah Palin is getting all kinds of media during her D.C. trip.

Check out this gushing piece in the American Spectator that declares "Sarah Palin, the beautiful conservative Republican governor of Alaska, would be an ideal choice to help McCain slay this unholy ObamaOprah beast."

"Gov. Palin could become the Republican Party's Segolene Royal, the French Socialist Party's glamorous leader known for her heels and political bite. She is the perfect antidote to Sen. Obama's cheap thrills, and would help rejuvenate conservatism."
http://community.adn.com/blog/24417?page=32

[underpants]

10. Karl Rove isn't aware of this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6831294&mesg_id=6831294
Earlier this month, Karl Rove repeatedly argued that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) would not be “capable” of being Vice President. He complained that “he’s been a governor for three years” and said Kaine was mayor of only the “the 105th largest city in America,” referring to Kaine’s tenure as mayor of Richmond, VA. “It’s not a big town,” he quipped.

Yesterday, however, Rove argued just the opposite with regard to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). He explained on Fox News that Palin was a good choice as McCain’s vice presidential nominee because she was “mayor of the second largest city in Alaska”:

ROVE: She’s a populist, she’s an economic and a social conservative, she’s a reformer, she took on the incumbent governor of the state Frank Murkowski — Republican — beat him in the primary, won an upset in the general election. She’s a former mayor. She’s the mayor of, I think, the second largest city in Alaska before she ran for governor.

Watch it:

Kaine was indeed mayor of the ‘the 105th largest city in America.’ While there, he governed nearly 200,000 people and managed a bureaucracy of over 8,000 employees. By contrast, Palin was mayor of Wasilla, AK, a town of just over 8,000 people that currently employs just over 100 individuals and — contrary to Rove’s claim — didn’t even make it into the 10 largest cities in AK while she was mayor.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/29/rove-plain-ready /

[Kitty Herder]

30. Wasilla isn't the second largest city in Alaska. It's the ninth.

Juneau is second. Rove's losing it.

[roguevalley]

31. second largest city. Rove can't tell the truth. By the by, lots of good

folks live in Wasilla, its someone's town. I hate the digs.

[stillcool]

12. Here's what she said about her...

job as mayor...

Palin has cited her mayoral work as a central part of her qualification to serve as governorBut at the beginning of her term, asked by the local newspaper how she would run the city without experienced department heads, she made the job sound like no big deal: "It's not rocket science. It's $6 million and 53 employees."

and I really like this from the same article about her relationship with the press...

(It was a sharp contrast to her attitude toward the Daily News expressed in a 1993 letter, in which a seething young Wasilla city councilwoman called the paper "dangerously biased" for its coverage of Sen. George Jacko, a key member of the Republican majority in Juneau. Jacko had been caught trying noisily to get into the room of a female legislative aide and was eventually censured by the Legislature.

("How can you justify your restraint in slamming the Clintons, Kennedys, Marion Barrys and other philandering, chauvinistic left-wingers of the world?" Palin wrote at the time. "Your yellow, liberal rag is so obvious. I pray we will someday have a choice in newspapers again.")

http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/v-printer/story/8334949p-8231037c.html

[Evergreen Emerald]

13. The problem with your argument is that we have been saying

that experience does not matter. THAT was our argument in choosing the least experienced of our primary contenders. Suddenly experience matters? No. We will loose on that argument. Unless, we now say, well....experience DOES matter...and we have Biden?

No: our argument is that she is a right-wing fundamentalist who is on the wrong side of EVERY issue from women's rights to the environment.

[Drunken Irishman]

14. I don't think anyone ever said experience didn't matter.

But there is a big difference from being a senator, even if for four years, than being mayor of a small town in Alaska.

The argument is both that she is a far right reactionist who two years ago was the mayor of a really small town.

[Evergreen Emerald]

15. You don't think anyone ever said that experience does not matter?

You and I have been listening to two different campaigns. Judgment is the issue--not experience. That has been the argument.

Furthermore: Obama says that change does not happen from Washington. Change is brought TO Washington.

Palin actually said that we should take polar bears off the endangered species list so we can drill for oil in Alaska. THAT is an issue we should be discussing. Who has more experience? Not a winning argument on our part, as McCain has more experience than Obama.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. Obviously you haven't been paying attention.

Obama's life experience and the fact he hit the ground running when elected to the US senate has been a cornerstone of his campaign.

Is it the big message of that campaign? No. But we're also talking about a senator here. Someone who has more national experience than many past presidents and surely more than Sarah Palin.

[Evergreen Emerald]

18. Life experience?

Palin has life experience. Senator? He has been running for President since becoming a Senator. He has no experience. That is why he is focused on judgment versus experience.

That we can win on. The issues, what is best for our country, our future, our children. That is the whole theme of his campaign: change comes to washington, not from washington.

[Drunken Irishman]

21. Wrong.

Not just life experience. The fact he spent years in the Illinois Senate, with far more responsibility than she did as mayor of a town of 5,000 people. He then took over in the United States senate where he accomplished a lot. US Senator > Mayor of Wasilla. Even if you refuse to realize this.

Let me ask you, do you think Obama would be at the top of the ticket if two years ago he was the mayor of Morton, Illinois?

[Evergreen Emerald]

24. I do. I believe Obama was chosen, not because of his experience.

I believe he was chosen because of a number of things: and they boil down to wanting to kick the SOBs out of Washington. And he promised the change we have been begging for since Bush lied us into war.

* Bush: united us more than anyone
* Congress: we tried to change the right way--through elections. That did not work, and the war did not end.
* 12 years of attacks against Clinton: kept her out of it the whitehouse


We needed to do something radical--Obama said he was always opposed to the war. Obama said he would get us out of Iraq. Something we have wanted for years and no one would do. So we chose a candidate that was not from the establishment. Judgment / not experience.

This is a topsy turvy election: Obama saying that we need CHANGE while picking the most established of the establishment. Obama saying experience does not matter while choosing the most experienced.

McCain saying that it is all about experience, and choosing a female, not from Washington with little experience.

Most fun campaign ever!

[Drunken Irishman]

26. I agree he wasn't chosen for experience.

However, he could have been disqualified for having no experience. Obama at least has served as an elected official for a decade and a half. She hasn't. She was mayor of a very small town.

Like I said, I don't think Obama would be where he is today if two years ago he was mayor of Morton, Illinois. A town actually bigger than Palin's.

[Evergreen Emerald]

33. Many on DU were suggesting Caroline Kennedy as a good VP choice

She has no experience in politics. She would represent change, just like Obama did.

I am not comparing Palin to Kennedy, except to say that Kennedy has less experience in politics than Palin...and she would have been a welcome choice, in keeping with the "Change" theme.

[Drunken Irishman]

36. Not me.

I think that would have been a terrible choice, like Palin, because of the experience factor.

The real issue here is that McCain can't attack Obama on experience anymore. I'm not suggesting Obama hit her hard on experience, but how can he look at Obama and say he's not ready to be president with a choice like this?

He can't.

[JVS]

39. Forget it dude. Anyone who thinks change is the same as lack of experience, doesn't get it.

[Evergreen Emerald]

42. there you go...

twisting and distorting my words and then making false conclusions, based on false assumptions.

[JVS]

22. Gee. Where have I heard this kind of No experience BS before? OH THAT'S IT!

It was in the PRIMARIES.

What a coincidence!

[Evergreen Emerald]

29. Get over the primaries...jeez

knock it off. Have an adult conversation. The primaries are over.

[JVS]

32. I'm not the one using the same talking points as back then, you are

[Evergreen Emerald]

34. Really. Get over the primaries.

Move on. If you have nothing to add to the conversation except personal attacks, perhaps you need to go outside and take a walk. It is good for the brain.

[JVS]

38. Take your own advice.

[Evergreen Emerald]

41. Actually, I just got back from a 3. 5 mile run.

Before the rain hits.

[JVS]

20. No we haven't. Only certain people are running around claiming Obama has no experience.

[Bjorn Against]

23. Obama's resume is FAR superior to Palin's

Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review, and you have to be an extremely bright person to land such a position. He also had experience as a community organizer, a State Senator, and four years as a US senator. Palin's only relevant experience is less than two years as Governor of the nation's third least populated state. You can't even compare Obama and Palin when it comes to experience, by all accounts Obama is far more experienced and has far more education.

[whatchamacallit]

17. Oh yeah, she's ready

:crazy:

[avaistheone1]

19. Scary, that a woman with so little background could become the leader of the free world.

It's absolutely crazy and desparate.

[whatchamacallit]

25. I posted yesterday about how I believe the republican agenda is on autopilot

They're not looking for leaders or decision makers, they're looking for salespeople

[Joanne98]

27. Here's another picture here. Downtown

http://www.jointeffects.com/blog/archives/001798.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

35. Picture here and an explanation of where her Mayor's office was

[No Elephants]

40. Wasilia-Pop. in 2000, under 6000. Alaska--Pop. about the same as Albuquerque, NM., lives off

federal money brought home by the likes of Unca Ted and also oil company stipends to each Alaskan. Yeah, I'm really impressed.