Religious Right Picks McCain a Running Mate

What's the old horndog looking at, anyway? Bet he had no idea what she was going to say. James Dobson did, though.

John McCain has thrown caution, and judgment, and good sense to the wind and chosen first term Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Well, I use the word "chose" and that may be taking it too far; it is pretty obvious that Palin was chosen by the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican party, by James Dobson and his ilk. The secretive Council for National Policy vetted Palin last week. Who are they?:

...[A]n ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.

CNP members have included Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. At a secret 2000 meeting of the CNP, George W. Bush promised to nominate only pro-life judges; in 2004, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told the group, "The destiny of the nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement." This year, thanks to Sarah Palin's selection, the movement may have finally aligned itself behind the campaign of John McCain....

...while Dobson once said he could "never" vote for McCain, he issued a statement last week hailing Palin as an "outstanding" choice.

Palin has been governor of Alaska for 20 months. Before that she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town with a population of less than 8,500.

Wasilla City Hall

Her duties as mayor were gargantuan, for sure, for according to their municipal code she had to be prepared on day one to:

1. Preside at council meetings. The mayor may take part in the discussion of matters before the council, but may not vote, except that the mayor may vote in the case of a tie;
2. Act as ceremonial head of the city;

Now that's quality experience for being a heartbeat away from leading the country!

She has no foreign policy experience, though comically both Fox Noise and [fellow former beauty queen] Cindy McCain claim she has foreign policy experience because Alaska is next to Russia. I grew up in New York, and that's next to Canada, so I have foreign policy experience, too! She only got a passport last year, and is listed as having visited Kuwait and Ireland, though I think her visit to Ireland is the dreaded Shannon layover. Maybe she got some duty-free hooch.

She's being investigated in her own state for a scandal Alaska calls "troopergate"; Palin has been using the power of her office and her staff, trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from his job as a state trooper.

She left the tiny town of Wasilla $20,000,000 in debt.

She doesn't believe in global warming, favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and is suing the federal government to get the polar bear taken off the endangered species list.

She's an extreme social conservative: anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest; against sex education; in favor of teaching creationism in public schools.

She has five children, and her fifth was just born in April. He was premature and diagnosed with Down's syndrome; despite this, when her water broke when she was at a political event in Dallas, Texas, she went ahead with her speech, then flew back to Anchorage and drove to Wasilla to have the baby half a day later. Talk about risky behavior! (And the British press is reporting that there are internet rumors that the baby is actually Palin's oldest daughter's baby. Whew.)

She (or someone close to her) made 30 changes to her Wikipedia entry the day before McCain announced her selection.

Since I started writing this post, the Palin campaign has issued a press release stating that Palin's 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant and that she has chosen to have the baby and will marry the father. (And I wonder, how could she choose to have the baby if the family is anti-abortion? Did she really have a choice? If she did, why doesn't Sarah Palin support other children having the same choice? And you know what? The kid would have benefitted from sex education, and a lesson on contraception.)

And just now it has been reported that Palin's husband has a DUI arrest in his background.

She claims to be a reformer, but she was actually the head of indicted Senator Ted Stevens 527 group.

McCain appears not to have vetted Palin; it is reported that his vetting staff arrived in Wasilla yesterday and have taken 8 hotel rooms. Also that his campaign never asked to see the archives of the local newspaper.

Not that any of this will matter to the fundies. She is an extreme social conservative and that is all that matters to them.

Personally, I think I had better put this post up fast before Sarah Palin resigns from the McCain campaign to spend more time with her expanding family.

If she does resign, perhaps McCain can blame the 21-year-old who has been advocating for Palin to be VP for over a year.

I can't decide which prior failed nomination this pick is more like: Spiro Agnew, Harriet Miers, Clarence Thomas, or Thomas Eagleton. What do you think?

I'm going to call McCain's campaign Palin/Tired '08, from the good Roger Ailes.

More funny: PHILOSORAPTOR: Ham Sandwich McCain's Actual Choice for Veep