...to Hillary supporters that they will be placated by any woman, issues be damned. Her nomination seems more like a bone thrown to the fundamentalist wing than anything else.

I am shocked that Ms. Traister is wasting so much thought and time on this story. And, I am not worried that Sarah Palin -- graduate of the University of Idaho with a journalism degree -- will not be the first woman president of the United States.

This craven political calculation by McCain means no more for women's progress than the nomination and confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court did for the progress of African-Americans.

Sarah Palin is a local beauty pageant-level politician who would NEVER have been considered unless she had had ovaries. This nomination is an insult to women.

That is what the headline should have been Ms. Traister.

KayWWW, I second that. I too was wondering why she bothered with "prenatal genetic testing" if aborting was not going to be on the table anyway. There's something to hit her with during the campaign.

Congratulations to the Republicans I guess for being bold enough to put a woman on the ticket as VP twenty years after the Democrats did it.

That's not change we can believe in.

snap out of it!

The ONLY qualification that matters for Vice President is the President asking him/herself "If I die, can this person jump in, calm the country down, and finish the work I started?"

With Joe Biden, the answer is a resounding, "YES!"

With Ms Palin, the answer is, "Not a chance."

Obama needs to hammer that point. Both Obama and McCain have mortality issues. Obama, because of race and his political affiliation (very few violent types on the left, more than you can shake a stick at on the right). Should someone take a run at Obama and succeed, Biden was the ONLY contender to the VP slot who could walk into the Situation Room tomorrow and calm a bunch of trigger happy Generals down, and address the nation is a calm, comforting manner. To me, this was further proof of Obama's good judgement about the future of our country.

McCain, well, while assassins are the least of his worries, his age and cancer issues are. One medical emergancy and Palin is President. No amount of Secret Service protection can save him from his own body. Palin just doesn't have what it takes to be President. City Council and Mayor for a town smaller than my college, and two years as Governor of a VERY rural state does not convey the legislative, executive, or diplomatic experience and training to move on to the national stage. McSame just became McFAIL.

It seems like the PUMA mentality doesn't die out completely, only gets progressively more grotesque. No, Obama shouldn't have picked Hillary-no chemistry and too much potential friction with both her and her husband. McCain is the the one claiming that the US is engaged in an existential war. He's 72 and has a history of skin cancer, so he picks a running mate with zero foreign policy experience or interest, who 2 years ago was the mayor of an obscure city in Alaska, and for all we know, has never even been out of the country. For every woman vote he might gain because he picked a female, he'll probably lose 2 male votes because even the most stupid male voter will realize she's pretty likely to end up as the commander-in-chief.

I've read in several articles that Palin "decided" to continue her pregnancy, as if she's in favor of women having the choice to "decide" one way or the other. Many women have made similar choices, both Democrat and Republican. But her stance is that abortion should be illegal in ALL circumstances. She "decided" to continue her pregnancy, but she wants to make sure that other women can't "decide" whether to continue a pregnancy - they would be forced to do so, whether they want to or not.

I just find it odd that so many articles are using this wording, which makes her position sound benign and even pro-choice.

Biden was still the right choice. The country's going to discover this NRA Calendar Girl - AKA Miss Fascism 2008 - is the wrong woman to crack that glass ceiling.

It would appear Joan Walsh hates Obama because he beat Hillary fair & square.

She seems to be part of the Fox News Network who wants McCain to win so we can watch the rich get richer for the new four years....

I do not plan to renew my paid subscription unless I see a great deal more support for the Democratic candidate for President.

Uncle Al

At first I thought Obama should have nominated Hillary, too, but the more I think about it, the more I can't get past two big negatives:

1. Republicans HATE her. Nominating Hill would definitely motivate some Con voters who might otherwise stay home.

2. Bill. Obama doesn't need Bill Clinton in the White House bigfooting all his decisions.

Also, on a more selfish level, I'm psyched to have Hillary back as my Senator.

If President McCain (shudder) ever got so much as a serious cold, the Republican leadership would pull Vice President Palin's pre-written letter of resignation out of its very-carefully-labeled folder and have it on her desk before anyone could say "Gesundheit".

... by Dee Dee Myers at HuffPo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dee-dee-myers/sarah-palin-the-double-x_b_122447.html

"Clearly, McCain thinks Palin will help him among women, particularly those disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who are having so much trouble "getting over it." It just shows how clueless the McCain camp actually is. Unlike Clinton and Ferraro, Palin hasn't been a strong national voice on women's issues. She hasn't been at the barricades, fighting for women's health, equal pay, economic security. And she certainly hasn't had anything to say about the national-security issues that are also important to women across the political spectrum. Does the McCain camp really expect pro-choice Democratic and independent women to be swayed by a sleight-of-gender?"

Couldn't have said it better.