Climate Change Fraud - Because the debate is not over - McCain Taps Gov. Sarah Palin As Presidential Running Mate

McCain Taps Gov. Sarah Palin As Presidential Running Mate

Written by LAURA MECKLER, ELIZABETH HOLMES and JIM CARLTON, WSJ

Friday, 29 August 2008

palin Sen. John McCain picked first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, adding a little-known but reform-minded woman to his ticket.

The move is the most dramatic in a series of efforts to appeal to Hillary Clinton supporters still disappointed that she didn't capture the Democratic nomination. Gov. Palin also reinforces Sen. McCain's reformer image. She took on her state's political establishment that had been rocked by an FBI corruption investigation.

It's an untraditional pick, given that reliably Republican Alaska has never been a battleground state in the past, though Barack Obama has tried to put it into play.

At the same time, her thin resume runs the risk of undercutting a central attack by Sen. McCain against Sen. Obama: That he isn't ready to serve as president. The ability of Sen. McCain's vice president to step into the top job is seen as particularly important given his age: He turns 72 today and would be the oldest person ever to enter the White House.

Even as Alaska governor, Gov. Palin (pronounced PAY-lin) has been criticized for her sparse experience. "Sarah is a small town mayor running Alaska as if it's a small town," says Frank Smith, a former union and Democratic Party activist in Alaska. "McCain is out of his mind. He has no foreign policy experience and she'll help because she's been fishing in Canada."

Gov. Palin will be just the second woman nominated as running mate for a major party. The first was Geraldine Ferraro who ran, and lost, with Walter Mondale in 1984.

The Republican Party's conservative base -- long wary of Sen. McCain and angry in recent weeks about hints he may pick a pro-choice running mate -- hailed the move.

"Conservatives will be thrilled with this pick. Gov. Palin is a down the line mainstream conservative who will energize the base and reach across party lines attracting women voters, independents and blue collar Democrats," Greg Mueller, a Republican strategist, and former aide to Republican presidential candidates Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan, said in a blast email. "Governor Palin is a terrific contrast to the all Washington ticket of Obama-Biden. She is a wonderful contrast to Biden, and a truly outside the beltway pick."

Gov. Palin was one of a handful of governors interviewed by the press at February's gathering of the National Governors Association -- and the only one to openly admit that she would like to be Sen. McCain's vice president.

A handful of blogs that have long advocated for a McCain-Palin ticket were the first places of celebration. On the "Draft Sarah Palin for VP" blog, the host titled his post "WOW" followed by 13 exclamation points. "Put the champagne on ice and get ready for a party," the site reads.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor 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," said Bill Burton, Obama campaign spokesman.

At a time when the Republican Party in Washington has become deeply unpopular, in part due to rampant Congressional corruption, Gov. Palin is seen as a symbolic antidote.

When she ran for governor as a Republican outsider in 2006, she took on not only a sitting governor from her own party but Alaska's Republican establishment -- vowing to clean up a political system that had been rocked by an FBI corruption investigation.

After winning handily, her popularity in Alaska has soared as high as 83% as she has gone on to sack political appointees with close ties to industry lobbyists, shelved pork projects by fellow Republicans and even jumpstarted a campaign by her lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, to unseat veteran Rep. Don Young of Alaska in the Republican primary held this past Tuesday. The winner has yet to be declared in that contest, as Mr. Young currently leads by less than 200 votes and a recount seems likely.

Gov. Palin has shown similar fearlessness in going after Big Oil, whose money has long dominated the state. She appears, for example, to have forced Alaska's dominant oil producers, ConocoPhillips and BP PLC, to finally get serious about a natural-gas pipeline -- without making any tax or royalty concessions.

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