IMHO, what we should really be talking about now was that #^&$&@ awesome speech by Obama last night and teasing apart how great it was, but instead the news cycle seems to have already moved on.

GOP trolls.

Biden will destroy her, nicely, in the debates. And the obvious question will be, is she ready to be president of the old bastard dies? No.

I love how they are stupid to believe that they think Hillary supporters had to do with Hillary being a woman and therefore will glom on to another woman. Stupid is as stupid does!!

Alex, An astonishingly inept analysis. Women will be furious that the GOP thinks they can just swap one woman for another as if there is any comparison between Hillary and the recent part time mayor of a town of 9000. Talk about out of touch. Secondly this is supposed to be about experience and judgment and by choosing Ms. Palin (who smells of Salmon?) and is involved in troopergate (with allocations of illegal hunting by the exhusband of her sister) McCain destroyed both the experience and the judgment argument in one quick action. She will be a national joke by next week. She is a creationist Gov. of Alaska who stood up to the Oil companies? Its pure sitcom, but for the GOP to have chosen her over Susan Collins or Olympia Snow because they need to shore up their base of right wing right to lifers indicates that their polling data may be really really bad. They were going to take Alaska anyhoo. The presumption that people will confuse her with Hillary is only going to infuriate Hillary. McCain just lost the election. And we haven't even gotten to the questions of remembering foreign leader's names. She is the best pick the Dems could have gotten.

Seriously? Her "every-woman look"? Palin looks like the beauty queen she was, about as far from "every-woman" as a person can get. No pissed off Hilary supporter is going to fall for this. Ms. Average Woman notoriously can't stand beauty queens. This will backfire.

Alex, An astonishingly inept analysis. Women will be furious that the GOP thinks they can just swap one woman for another as if there is any comparison between Hillary and the recent part time mayor of a town of 9000. Talk about out of touch. Secondly this is supposed to be about experience and judgment and by choosing Ms. Palin (who smells of Salmon?) and is involved in troopergate (with allocations of illegal hunting by the exhusband of her sister) McCain destroyed both the experience and the judgment argument in one quick action. She will be a national joke by next week. She is a creationist Gov. of Alaska who stood up to the Oil companies? Its pure sitcom, but for the GOP to have chosen her over Susan Collins or Olympia Snow because they need to shore up their base of right wing right to lifers indicates that their polling data may be really really bad. They were going to take Alaska anyhoo. The presumption that people will confuse her with Hillary is only going to infuriate Hillary. McCain just lost the election. And we haven't even gotten to the questions of remembering foreign leader's names. She is the best pick the Dems could have gotten.

Am I really the only one who thinks the Republican leadership has absolutely no real intention of ever letting Ms. Palin sit behind that big desk in the Oval Office? If President McCain (ugh) were to die -- or even start having serious health problems -- they'd have Vice President's Palin already-written resignation on her desk faster than a slap-shot hockey puck.

The only question in my mind is whether they've already decided who'll step into her spot.

couldn't agree more. we just had an entire convention dedicated to placating supporters of the first woman to be seriously considered for the white house (and the top job at that) and now the news is about a no-name, no-experience, dan quayle lite VP nominee when the Dems did that over 20 years ago? huh?

obama gives a masterful speech combining his well-known rhetoric with meat and potatoes specifics (for which he's been criticized for lacking) and we don't even get two pieces on it?

come on salon, grow up.

Politico let slip the fact that Sarah Palin owns three houses.

Her pert, Botoxed mug isn't going to help this ticket much. Her ethical scandals will NOT go away soon, her fossilized conservative views will repel many Independents, and her real lack of intellect will doom her even more than her obvious inexperience (mayor-- briefly-- of a glorified Anchorage suburb, governor-- briefly-- of a basically empty state). And she owns three homes. How many homes do YOU own...?

McCain used the same criteria for choosing his VP running mate as he used for choosing his heiress wife.

In fact, she would probably make a better president than McCain. Of course, that's setting the bar prett low for her, but she's getting national recognition now, and she should be one of the top tier candidates in 2012 running to compete against President Obama. I wish her luck in the primaries against Romney and whoever else will be in the GOP running 4 years from now.

From Ed Rollins: (Who couldn't come up with anything better. This is fun stuff!)

She is blunt, outspoken and charming. And don't assume she can't stand toe-to-toe with Joe Biden. She is a great debater. And she was runner-up for the Miss Alaska title, won Miss Congeniality in that contest and plays the flute.

Hope you kept your flute!

Or perhaps they think the Repub women voters believe them. Maybe. They believe McCain is an honorable man. And so he is, so are they all, All Honorable Men. Palin fit in well.

This is my last post @ salon.com

No need to look any longer.

It's pretty apparent that Democrats are running on issues and the Republicans are running on personalities...

And did Palin just admit that it was likely McCain would croak as president? The glass ceiling will still be between the VP and the President; Hillary was running for President, after all, not VP. In all likelihood, the VP will probably revert back to its "bucket of warm piss" value after Darth Cheney is permanently retired to his undisclosed location.

Really, how is having a woman as VP breaking anything? And how is this BLATANT pandering a good idea?

Maybe my XY chromosomes blind me but, really, how is this appealing?