This has got to be the worst choice McCain could have made for vice president. The Obama camp must be celebrating...does McCain actually think that the mere fact that Sarah Palin is female is going to win over former Hillary supporters? That is insulting. Sarah Palin is pro-life, pro-gun and a creationist. Conservative Republican women were already going to vote for McCain...I can't see any women who were strong Hillary supporters even considering voting for McCain after this. Wow.

She is strongly opposed to allowing women to choose abortion. What about contraception?

...it's the first time the GOP has had a female running mate. Of course that says more about the Republicans than anything else.

First, please stop posting the same illiterate crap to every single letters page.

Secondly, you're going to lose this time. Get used to it.

Sarah Palin is the former "mayor of an Alaskan fishing village."

Her husband is a "champion dog-sled racer."

Most interesting; on one level, McCain-Palin looks like the reversal of Obama-Biden.

As for the experience factor, it will be fascinating to see if Republicans can push the concept that "experience belongs to the presidential candidate, the VP has more wiggle room" as a talking point, rather than a Democratic "you just canceled out the experience complaint." (After all, who ever voted for the presidential candidate solely based on the VP choice? That might have been the case with an Obama-Clinton ticket, but we will never know.)

In any case, for a thoughtful voter, this choice made the race more interesting.

Could McCain have picked a WORSE running mate?

He basically just gave us the "heartbeat away from the Presidency" argument on a silver platter.

He's basically opened the door for legitimate questioning about his age...

how collossally, monumentally stupid!

This is an appalling choice, and she will withdraw within the week, I predict.

Sarah Palin appears to be the Vice Presidential nominee for the Party of Family Values, the Party of Family first, the Party of take care of your children.

The reason is simple: This decision is a total contra-family values decision.

On April 18, 2008, Sarah Palin gave birth to a child with Down's syndrome. This is, for some, a moment to affirm their family values credentials. Other families are greatly affected by the presence of such a child. The Down's child is VERY DEMANDING time-wise.

Here is a comment from a publication from a family physician about children with this condition:

The care of the infant or young child with Down syndrome can be complicated and may involve a myriad of immediate and long-term medical problems and psychosocial issues.

The quote is taken from "Primary Care of Infants and Young Children with Down Syndrome", by REBECCA B. SAENZ, M.D., published in American Family Physician, 1999.

URL: http://www.aafp.org/afp/990115ap/381.html

Another quote:

The psychologic benefit derived from the bonding of mother and infant can be extremely important at a time when, because of the infant's disability, the mother may be questioning her own adequacy.

Does Family Values mean ANYTHING to the Party of Values? If it means anything, it means TAKING CARE OF YOUR FAMILY. It is clear that Sarah Palin has decided that her own naked ambition and lust for the power of the Vice President have led her to consign this child to the dustbin. What kind of family values are those?

First poster:

What I wonder is, if these die hard McCain supporters are really just reasonable people with different opinions than mine, why do they rely on misleading character attacks like the dubious links to Bill Ayers? (Have you noticed that no one in the McCain campaign has brought up Bill Ayers or Tony Rezko? Could that be because they don't want to make digging into shady deals in candidates' pasts fair game?)

And you were pretty quick on the old airwaves there, lightnin'. And armed with an attache of information on Ms. Palin. Just a hard steelworkin' Palin buff from Indiana? One of Salon's many Alaska readers, finally coming out of the woodwork? Don't buy it. I'm going with "message force multiplier."

I'm perfectly willing to engage in a discussion with anyone representing him/herself openly, willing to deal in fact. but I'm calling you out.

If you want to refute me click on the url below and make my day.

Ignoring historical fact is a cornerstone of neo-conservative "thinking".

Wore out the pitting of straights against gays.........Now it's trying to pit women against blacks.

This is a disgrace. This woman has less experience and brings less to the table than Dan Quayle did. To choose someone as your running mate with zero experience is absolutely frightening. Any independent voter who was leaning towards McCain needs to have their head examined if they vote for him now. With all the many qualified, experienced people McCain could have chosen he chose the least qualified individual to lead our nation.

We are in a war in Iraq, a war with Islamic fundamentalists who want to destroy us, Iran is building a nuclear bomb, and our economy is in the tank and McCain chooses someone who has no experience to lead???? I hope Obama wins in a landslide.

What a bizarre pick. The brand new governor of a state with 1/60 the population of Chicago who brings zero foreign or domestic policy experience. McCain is an idiot if he thinks that because she's a nice lady who didn't abort her own kid Americans are going to choose his sorry ticket over Obama/Biden. This reminds me of the Harriet Myers debacle.

Btw, is this a typo or is her son really named "Track"?

Oh no, 80% of Alaskans like her. Mow McCain will probably win Alaska instead of before when he was only probably going to win Alaska.

My hope: in November ALL he wins is Alaska.

So she'll be the second woman to lose as a VP candidate. Ferraro did that way back in the 1980s!

"Moreover, Palin is extremely popular in her home state; some polls have shown her with an 80 percent approval rate. The only drawback there is that Alaska Republicans have been severely tarnished by ethics scandals of late, and Palin herself hasn't been able to escape investigation."

Of course, the story turns interesting again when it becomes evident that the reason so many Alaskan Republicans have been tarnished is because Palin's been pushing, hard, against her own party's inethical conduct (she had to beat the incumbent in her own party to get in, and has not been a particular asset to the rest of the entrenched Republicans there), and that she's been fully cooperating in her own investigation. The people behind that investigation even admit that she's got every right, legally, to do what they claim she did, and they haven't been able to prove any unethical conduct... yet.