North West Florida Republican

I know I am a little late on the news of this but I just have to post about it as well.

Senator McCain announced his Vice Presidential pick today. Governor Sarah Palin accepted the position of Senator McCain’s running mate in the bid for the White House.

This is turning out to be quite a historic run for the position of President. Each side comes to the table with a first. Senator Obama being the first ever Black nominee for President and Governor Sarah Palin being the first ever woman Vice President.

Of course that also assumes each side wins.

Governor Sarah Palin is the second woman to be on a ticket as Vice President. The first being Geraldine Ferraro. Granted it could have been Senator Hillary Clinton running for President but it isn’t. Since Senator Clinton isn’t the Democrat nominee, this has changed the tables a bit. Geraldine Ferraro even finds the pick “interesting” and is fairly upbeat about the prospects that Governor Sarah Palin has in actually becoming VP. Especially since Senator Hillary isn’t on the ticket.

Sarah Palin made explicit reference to Hillary Clinton’s remark about “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling”, an overt reference to the historic opportunity for women in this campaign. Will that convince some of Hillary’s supporters to cross party lines? A large number of them already seemed open to that possibility — and Palin certainly has Ferraro intrigued. – Hot Air

Senator Obama must be quite nervous that Senator McCain pulled this coup. The first statement issued from the Obama/Biden campaign was a direct attack at Palin.

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” said Obama spox Bill Burton. “Gov. 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.” – Political Punch

Only to later issue a second, tamer, congratulatory statement.

“We send our congratulations to Gov. Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the Republican nominee for vice president,” said the Democratic ticket in a joint statement. “It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward, Gov. Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign.”

Another Judgment call by Senator Obama? If so, it was a bad one.

Senator McCain is obviously trying to shore up and increase his support by reaching out to more of Senator Hillary’s supporters. Should this siphon away some of the support from Senator Obama that would have voted for him, this could be the difference that McCain needs.

Senator Obama now worries about Governor Palin’s experience. Even though his own experience cannot even match what she brings to the table.

Barack Obama’s campaign is blasting John McCain for putting “the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” – Politico

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has this to say about Palin, McCain and Obama.

However, the nature of the experience couldn’t be more different. Palin spent her entire political career crusading against the political machine that rules Alaska — which exists in her own Republican party. She blew the whistle on the state GOP chair, who had abused his power on the same commission to conduct party business. Obama, in contrast, talked a great deal about reform in Chicago but never challenged the party machine, preferring to take an easy ride as a protegé of Richard Daley instead.

Palin has no formal foreign-policy experience, which puts her at a disadvantage to Joe Biden. However, in nineteen months as governor, she certainly has had more practical experience in diplomacy than Biden or Obama have ever seen. She runs the only American state bordered only by two foreign countries, one of which has increasingly grown hostile to the US again, Russia.

Senator Obama and Senator Biden should be genuinely nervous about this addition to McCain’s bid. It could spell doom for their run.

Filed under: President 2008