Cheers and jeers at Palin speech in Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse

[RamboLiberal]

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Hannah Byrne looked unconvinced. "The Republicans have turned her into an attack machine," she said. "The very things that make her popular among Alaskans make her unsuitable to run for high office. She's just like one of us. The problem is that I don't want someone like me leading the country."

Sarah Palin is a popular Governor but not all Alaskans think she should be John McCain's running mate and many view his decision as a cynical political strategy. Jamison Murphy, a life-long Republican and a pilot who had just flown a cargo plane in from South Carolina, declared himself distinctly unimpressed. "They are making a terrible mistake with her," he said. "It's as if Karl Rove is still running the show and it's not going to work; she's hopeless."

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Sherry Simpson, an Alaskan writer who was also among the crowd at Humpy's, said: "So why did she cut the budget for helping unmarried mothers and then cut the money for developmental education for the disabled?"

For all her successes, the maverick Governor Palin remains an outsider to the Republican party of Alaska whose members she has attacked over the years. Which explains the stifled guffawing among their members as she described herself as a true conservative.

"I liked what she said, but I'm not sure I believe it, though," said David McGraw a Republican from her home town of Wasilla. "It would be a change from her past."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cheers-and-jeers-at-palin-speech-in-humpys-great-alaskan-alehouse-919524.html

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. "The problem is that I don't want someone like me leading the country."

I've been saying this for years -- if the President needs to be average, the average American would be president.

[jberryhill]

4. I've been thinking we should have a national lottery for the R VP spot

Couldn't be worse.

[eshfemme]

8. As Jon Stewart puts it, "I want someone SMARTER than me. WAAAAAY smarter."

[Rob H.]

14. That's what infuriated me about all those

"I'm gonna vote for Bush 'cause he seems like the kind of guy I could have a beer with!" idiots. The guy's running to be the President, not one of your drinking buddies.

[Cha]

2. I hope palin gets so exposed and all the corruption

comes out with this cynical whack vp pick that they wanna recall her back in Alaska!

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Hey, send her back.

She's got a job to finish up here. She was elected governor for FOUR years, not two. Finish what you started, Sarah.

[Cha]

12. Oh that we will,

Alaska, Oh that we will!

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I relish seeing her back here...

My guess is her popularity with the Independents and Democrats of the state, with whom she had a fairly decent relationship before this fiasco, will be severely tarnished. I look forward to it.

[EFerrari]

3. It sounds like in her case, "maverick" means she has no friends

and doesn't get along with anyone.

And that sort of makes sense when you think about the fact that she was more or less snatched from AK last week, spent all these days down here and is going back without any visible plan. Most people with lives and relationships and stuff couldn't do that.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. That sounds exactly right.

These quotes are very much like conversations I've had with other Alaskans over the past few days. This is just way too much for Sarah. Like the first lady said, it's almost like having your next-door neighbor suddenly nominated for vice president. I mean, it's just too crazy to even contemplate.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The last eight years I could not plot into a novel and sell

this... could be sold as a plot of a novel, but real life?

OIF

[Blue_In_AK]

9. No kidding.

It's a topsy-turvy world.

[Sebastian Doyle]

10. The only thing I want to know about Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse is

What kind of beer selection do they have? :beer:

[Blue_In_AK]

16. A good one.

Alaska has some great home brews -- at least from what my beer-drinking friends tell me. I prefer the herb myself.

[radfringe]

11. reactions to palin - from our local tv station

http://www.wnep.com/ - video

summary - they showed 4 people.

1 will vote for mccain because palin is a woman

1 was leaning obama, but now doesn't know

2 are questioning palin's qualifications

[annabanana]

19. HEY radfringe!

Got any new cartoons? :hi:

[annabanana]

13. US media sure as hell didn't interview any ot those doubting thomasses.

They only interviewed the "we love our sarah" hometown crowd.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Anybody with any brains up here

(and there are quite a few Alaskans who fit in that category, despite popular perception) know that this is a desperate and dangerous move that McCain has made. Sarah is nowhere near vice president material.

[annabanana]

18. All you blue Alaskans ought to go out & tackle a couple of media types.

From what we read down here they're thick as thieves up in your neck of the woods...

[Blue_In_AK]

20. It's been pretty amusing really.

I'm sure they've been getting an earful. I should note that it's not just blue Alaskans who are opposed to Sarah as VP. She has powerful enemies in her own party, who I'm sure will be more than happy to fill the media in. If John McCain had used any common sense at all, he would have vetted her here first. His people didn't talk to ANYBODY here -- Republicans, Democrats, friends, or enemies. It's just unfathomable to me that he would spring her on the nation like this without checking beyond her popularity rating. Just because someone has an 80% approval rating in a state with 600,000 (rather odd by Outside standards) people doesn't mean she's ready to be vice president. That's just ridiculous.