Meet the New Boss. Same As the Old Boss.

What are your thought on McCain's VP pick? A couple of things come to mind immediately:

1. When Obama ran for his Senate seat Illinois Republicans ran Alan Keyes against him. Is Palin a Alan Keyes type Hail Mary desperate attempt to sway the election in McCain's favor?

or,

2. Is Sara Palin being underestimated? Like most newcomers to the National Stage is she being dismissed by the insiders (politicos, press, etc) who often look down their noses at someone from the outside.

I think its important that number 2 be the guiding principal for those of us who wish to see Obama as our next President. It makes no sense to NOW make the experience argument when John McCain just took it off the table for this election. Thank you Senator McCain.

McCain has once again proven that he does not put his country first. He wishes to be President more than anything. Anything.

He thinks Palin will help him peel away some of those Clinton voters. Heh. Sorry John. HRC voters are some very down to earth and common sense people. They are not stupid enough to vote for a woman, based on strict identity politics, when that woman has almost no political view in common with them.

As James Fallows pointed out it is only a matter of time before the effects of the campaign and the 24/7 scrutiny by the national media make it highly probable that she will make some mistakes.

The smartest person in the world could not prepare quickly enough to know the pitfalls, and to sound confident while doing so, on all the issues she will be forced to address. This is long before she gets to a debate with Biden; it's what the press is going to start out looking for.

So the prediction is: unavoidable gaffes. The challenge for the McCain-Palin campaign is to find some way to defuse them ahead of time, since Socrates, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz reincarnated would themselves make errors in her situation. And the challenge for Democrats is to lead people to think, What if she were in charge?, without being bullies about it.

It's unnecessary to find out what kind of kitchen counters she has in her kitchen because she is going to make things difficult for herself.

Palin's propensity to use her office to settle personal and political vendettas is far too reminiscent of the current Bush administration for most independent or swing voters. That, and the above mentioned possibility for gaffes will not help McCain. She is not a reformer. She's bringing her own form of corruption to politics.