steeeve, you are assuming a worst case scenario for McCain, as well as one for Obama, but which is more likely? I will say that McCain’s is. Thus, you have inexperience vs. inexperience. Now, how inexperienced is Palin? That we will find out in the oncoming weeks. I doubt she as inexperienced as many would want to believe. Just like how you believe Obama isn’t as inexperienced as many argue.

Regardless, my point still stands. For her position, VP, she can learn on the job. Stop treating her like she were running for president. Her role would only be to cast that deciding vote in the Senate (and to protect the space/time continuum).

If McCain survives 8 years, Palin would be ready. Obama is not ready now (at least according to what all the democrats said during the primary). What is the greater risk?

Lets not forget, it is still Obama Vs. McCain. We are all interested in the VP candidates now because they were just selected. After 2 more months of campaigning it is still going to come down to those 2, and the VPs will be an afterthought. McCain therefore still has a valid “experience” argument.

And a shout out to Steeve! To be the first at Donklephant in the post-Palin selection to invoke the favored argument of Obamites everywhere when the infallibility and inevitability of their guru is challenged: – The always compelling and winning argument “If you don’t vote for Obama, you are stupid.”

Correction. That is actually the number 2 Obamite argument. Number one of course being “If you don’t vote for Obama, you are a racist.”

Countdown till we see that next 3..2..1…

Obama will continue to hit McCain hard on the experience MESSAGE since McCain has been hitting Obama so hard.

Essentially, McCain has screwed himself when it comes to arguing he’s the most experienced if he has somebody like Palin a heartbeat away.

And with Palin as his Veep, he’s running on the Maverick message now.

And, yes, $100K has been approved to investigate Palin for trying to get her former brother in law fired (bad) and then firing her subordinate when he refused (omg!). If there’s any fire under this smoke, they’re in big trouble.

so wait a second… she can afford to learn on the job? so if McCain is elected and dies of old age or a heart attack 2 weeks in (which is a real possibility and i dont know why we dont hear more about that.. the guy already looks like hes being held up by strings.) then we can have a completely and utterly, in every sense of the word inexperienced president. And for some reason its all fine and dandy because shes a republican woman?

But if Obama (who isnt inexperienced, and im getting really sick of hearing it.. and who has shown better judgement than McCain CONSTANTLY) were to be assasinated or something (god forbid.. we need him), the VP is more than capable of running this country amazingly. And assuming he isnt assainated, well have the amazing judgement of Barack Obama and his intelligent, capable, and experienced VP there to help him find ways to get what needs to be done, done..

“But conversely, he also just shredded the “Bush III” line of attack from the Dems. It’s clear the new focus is “this is not your father’s GOP.” For starters, the Palin pick clearly indicates we’re not going to get another Cheney “fourth branch” style vice presidency in a McCain administration, precisely because she’s so inexperienced (compare to Bush where Cheney clearly had all the insider knowledge).” – crw

so basically the is the reverse of the last 8 years? instead of the president being nothing more than a “good ol’ boy” to win votes with idiots, and the vice president being the brains. this time the president is the brains (and not much of them…) and the VP is a “cute girl” from alaska to win votes with idiots and angry clinton supporters? Does the republican party have any new tactics?

oh and one last thing… if you were going to vote for Hillary and now youre voting McCain, then youre nothing more than an ignorant femminist, yes there are inequalities between men and women that really need to be fixed.. but you dont address them by voting for a woman JUST because she is a woman.. And if you support McCain now thats the only reason you would have voted for Hillary. Because Hillary stands for everything McCain doesnt stand for. if you actually voted on the issues you would know that and would support Obama. Voting for john McCain out of spite for Obama winning the candidacy is the stupidest thing ive ever heard of.

That said, your point about being pressure tested in the primary is spot on. Obama, McCain and Biden are all much better candidates for having gone through the wringer and scrutiny of a national campaign. There is just no way to know how Palin is going to stand up under the pressure cooker. She is completely untested at this level of competition, and therein lies the risk. Even she cannot have any idea about what she has gotten into.

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same,” said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

Are they kicking themselves in the teeth here? I expect McCain will just respond brutally everytime they mention inexperience.

Well, here’s something to read while you sift through the mindless commentary on CNN:

http://www.writingfrontier.com/

Considering that McCain arguably won the nomination on the backs of independent voters… this was not a very smart move.

Not only a heartbeat away from the presidency… but with the current SCOTUS lineup, also a heartbeat from an attempted overthrow of Roe v. Wade.

JimmiDhimmi: How do you think the “VILF” factor will play for McCain, in the wake of ads with Britney and Paris? Palin might get as much bandwidth on “Perez” as she will on “Powerline.”

Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
http://www.uscentrist.org
http://marciaford.blogspot.com

(And when Obama wins it will be a great day for the U.S. – :)

Yes, it’s a huge risk due to the “heartbeat” factor. But really, given this is fundamentally a change election McCain had very little choice. A Romney pick would have reinforced the “Bush III” meme. Pawlenty would have been safe but done little for the long term health of the party. Other picks would have sundered the base. I think McCain wisely decided it’s better to take a big risk but inject some vitality into a moribund and thoroughly corrupt party (leading to the possibility of another resurgence ala the post Goldwater revolution) than to play it safe and prop up the corpse for a little longer.

“… since McCain is running on the idea that he is experienced, not having a seasoned pick who could step in at a moments notice sort of undercuts the entire theme of his campaign, doesn’t it?” – JG

This argument cuts both ways and is a net wash. It can be flipped on its head by partisans of both camps and if you are watching the pundits, you can see that is exactly what is happening. For example lets flip your argument:

“… since Obama is running on the idea that the country needs judgment not experience, attacking Palin for lack of experience sort of undercuts the entire theme of his campaign, doesn’t it?”

Except for the fact that if the argument boils down to who has more executive experience Obama vs. Palin, McCain benefits.

Palin CAN afford to learn on the job since she will be the VP, not the President. McCain is not going to anticipate his own death, despite his age and skin-health concerns.

@Jimmy –

The only knock on Sarah Palin is that she is too inexperienced. Do you think the Democrats will dare to bring that up?

Heh, well, since she has a grand total of 1.5 years of governing experience and since McCain is running on the idea that he is experienced, not having a seasoned pick who could step in at a moments notice sort of undercuts the entire theme of his campaign, doesn’t it?

I’m not saying the Biden didn’t undercut Obama’s change message, but you have to concede that it was better for Obama to fill in his gaps with somebody experienced like Biden than it was for McCain to pick somebody younger than Obama with even less experience than Obama to fill in a gap I don’t think he even had.

One thing is for sure. This campaign just got A LOT more interesting.