Please stop flogging this dead horse. Sarah Palin will not be the first woman in the White House - unless Salon contributors continue to divide the Democratic party by keeping the Hillary-Obama conflict alive.

Hillary's on board, Rebecca, how about you?

Obama shouldn't have picked Hillary, he should have picked you! Because you have a womb! You have two X chromosomes! That's the only important thing.

Please vote for Palin if your only consideration is going to be the candidate's boobs and vagina.

That doesn't seem to be the case. Neither Barack nor Michelle Obama seem to like the Clinton's very much. I suppose this is normal after a challenging primary, but the Clinton's have managed to get past their anger over the primary enough to quite publicly embrace Obama, while Obama has only managed a few token words of praise for them.

I don't know why he didn't select Clinton. It seemed like a no-brainer - there is virually no way he could have lost if he had chosen her. Based on what I've read, he thinks he is destined to be President. Perhaps he thinks he simply doesn't need the votes of the women who were disaffected over the way she was treated during the campaign. Perhaps he really believes the race-baiting nonsense. Perhaps he is afraid that Bill Clinton will dominate him, as some suggest. But whatever the reason, he made his job much harder when he chose not to nominate Clinton as VP. And McCain just made it harder yet.

I've heard a lot of people say "How could a woman who believes in feminism vote for McCain". Well, feminists come in different flavors. Some are progressive, some are moderate, some are conservative. There are women who believe strongly in women's rights yet are anti-choice, just like there are gay people who fight for the Republicans. There are a lot of women who care less about politics than they do about symbolism, and McCain made a significant symbolic reach-out to these women when he nominated a woman for his VP. In spite of the comments to the contrary, this woman is not an airhead. She has a considerable political record. Not as good as Biden's, but significant. Arguably, she has more direct leadership experience than Obama, even if some of that experience came as mayor of a small town (not all - Alaska is a small but powerful state). This woman will be very attractive to moderates who feel that Obama is a big city elitist. She will also be attractive to moderate women who feel that the Democratic Party let women down.

I don't think the women who were ardent Democrats and are bitter about the primary are going to be the problem. It's the non-Democratic women who crossed over just to vote for Clinton who will be swayed. They feel their votes were dismissed. Technically, they are right. Their votes were by and large given to Obama in order to provide a show of unity at the convention. They'll think twice before they vote Democratic again - and McCain's pick will make their choice much harder. Obama could have had this "historic" moment (and it is historic - we are now guaranteed either a black man or a women elected this fall). Yes, he should have chosen Clinton.

Laying out a true progressive agenda you'd think that might be at the top of Salon.

But just like the MSM Salon is happy to be wanked by the McCain publicity game. It is certainly a story but three to one on the Salon masthead?

Wow. The media really is McCain's prime constituency.

Get serious.

You were a bad loser a couple of months ago...

don't mention Palin and Clinton in the same sentence. It makes it look like your parents threw away a lot of money on someone who can't be bothered to show any critical thinking skills.

You and Joan are embarrassing yourselves and this will reflect on your ability to get future employment.

Oh my god, so there IS a Hillary supporter who can be fooled by all this and only has to be dangled a female candidate.

Besides everything else, she also appointed a known sexual harasser. Viz:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/palin-appointed.html#more

Really? This is a candidate for Democratic women? So it's not the issues that affect women that you care about but the mere fact of her gender?

Just join the GOP, sell Salon to the NRO and get it over with. My god.

but who's got time to cry over spilled milk. the country's going down the crapper and the best mccain could come up with was a 44 year old beauty queen who was too lazy to worry about preventing her own unexpected pregnancy, yet manages to have time to meddle in everyone else's reproductive rights.

Can you please point to something that shows us Hillary wanted to be VP? All this talk about Obama "snubbing" her seems to presuppose she would have even been interested in accepting the VP slot. Can you please provide a link to where she expresses interest in being the VP? If not, please shut up.

After referring to the Clinton die-hards as "post-rational," Maddow said Governor Palin was, "Hot. I mean, like soooo hot. Yummy. Keith, are we on the air right now?"

were going to vote for him anyway.

Look, Hillary is a great candidate, a great campaigner and a loyal Democrat. She was masterfull and extremely gracious at the convention. Obama won this contest fair and square. How many historic attributes do you want in one ticket?

The more telling feature of this pick is how blatantly desperate it was on McCain's part. This was a stunt, pure and simple. Sure, maybe in a few years Palin will mature into a seasoned (but still wingnut) politician-that's a different story. If it were just about putting a woman on the ticket how about Kay Bailey Hutchison? That would have made much more sense. Given McCain's policy positions and history of personal misogyny toward his wife how can anyone think that this guy is taking a feminist "high road"? Just doesn't compute. This was a cynically craven choice that willl do him no good in the end.

At the nd of the day McCain is still the same Bush clone with no principles and a nasty temper. He just flunked the judgment test again too.