(Proudly cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

Wow! So John McCain has really proven his "feminist" strett cred by picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his VP. Oh yes, and aren't they both such mavericks! McCain-Palin just smells like real change now, doesn't it?

Wait... Hold on. So we have some pesky facts to get in the way of a lovely corporate media narrative? Oh, darn!

Too Bad MyDD did not spend time in the Streets

When I first found out about Gov. Palin's being chosen for Vice-President I was a bit worried. I thought that because she was a women that we could not attack her and debate her the way we wanted to due to Rick Lazio's failed attacks on Hillary in 2000 and Obama and Edwards ganging up on Hillary in the New Hampshire debate. But as I find out how people are reacting to Palin's inexperienced and unknown name recognition I'm getting more optimistic about Palin being a horrible pick. To prove that, all we need is for her to say she has as much experiance as John Kennedy did when he entered the White House.

GO OBAMA/BIDEN!!!!  

I wanted to say , and I hope I am writing this to be more a topic of discussion, rather than confession - that Obama's speech really affected me on a personal level.

I have alot of personal issues, I'm a pretty bright person - I have a tendency to be sort of, well - I get caught up in occupational slumming. As a researcher, I tend to get tangled in problems I really shouldn't be working on. I do alot of "mcjobs" and sure, I get them done. But I have some important things I need to get done that usually get put off.

And I just looked at this guy from the midwest, standing up there accepting the nomination for president and I said to myself. Wow. You know. This guy is really talking about us, not himself. He wants us to do something.

It sort of hit me like, you know - ask not what your country can do for you - but what you can do for your country.

And I just said to myself. Ok. Hell. Lets get this whole thing done. And so here I am at work, occupational slumming on this blog.  And I'm going to get back to work here. :-}

And so I will leave it at that and get back to work. But I wanted to just ask, did that speech hit you where you live?

(x-Posted at Daily Kos)

For what it's worth, and since everybody's weighing in on the subject, I thought I'd post my most recent opinion column concerning Sarah Palin for your consideration. I know that there's no shortage of verbiage on this subject today, but I'd be interested to know what some of you think.

Firstly, a hat-tip to Kos and Trapper John, who variously informed/reminded me of some of dear Sarah's "qualifications" in their front page posts as I was writing this. Invaluable assistance, and greatly appreciated.

Column is below...

Today we saw who John Airbus McCain picked for as his Vice Presidential candidate.  The selection of Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin effectively negates further discussion about Barack's so-called lack of experience.  The talking heads are say that at the end of the day it's who is at the top of the ticket that folks will be voting for.  That is true, but I think that misses something very important.

Dan Quayle, met Sarah Palin.  Sarah Palin, met 1988.

This pick is a disaster in many ways.  I find that it is my civil duty to list them, so here goes:

1.  McCain experience attack meme?  Dead.  She has 19 months experience as the Governor of Alaska.  Otherwise, she was mayor of a small town, and a Beauty Queen, (love those pics, BTW).  She is now a heartbeat away from running the country.  How comforting.

2. Bush/Cheney big oil?  She's so deeply immersed in big oil, it makes Cheney look like Al Gore.  No maverick environmentalist here.  Alternative energy?  No!  Let's fucking drill some more, and some more, and some more.

3. Obama the Celebrity?  Try "Palin the Beauty Queen."  The meme is now dead.  

"Obama's a celebrity? Really? have you seen these Beauty Queen shots?"

By picking Palin, McCain is signaling that he is going to jettison the experience argument and try to make the REPUBLICAN ticket the ticket of change. Except that for McCain, the key word will be "reform." McCain and Palin will try to own reform the same way the Obama campaign has owned change. And they are hoping the choice of Palin will reinforce that message, even if it's more in an optics way than in terms of actual facts. At the very least, it's designed to make it harder for Obama to tie McCain to Bush.

So how should Obama respond? The first response out of the gate has been to hit Palin on experience, noting the fact she will be a "heartbeat" away from the Presidency. That's a nice start, but not enough to close the deal. The good news, however, is that it nullifies that argument against Obama and makes him look experienced by comparison.

To really close the deal, the Obama campaign needs to take a page from the Republicans and go after McCain and Palin's strength, the theme of reform.

Of course, as usual in politics, both McCain and Sarah Palin's records of "reform" are highly overrated.

Most recently, Palin has been embroiled in a scandal in which her staff pushed for the firing of a state trooper who was involved in a custody battle with her sister.

But the true gold may be in Palin's ties to the notoriously corrupt Alaskan Republican party.

As Jonathan Singer notes on the front page, the Ted Stevens trial is coming up:

With the trial of Ted Stevens beginning next month, and a verdict likely in the case before election day, what happens to the Republican presidential ticket if and when the case comes to a close in mid- or late-October.

There was an extent to which John McCain had an opportunity to deflect criticism over the trial of Stevens, the longest serving Republican Senator in history, given the fact that the two haven't tended to be particularly close on Capitol Hill. However, by picking Sarah Palin, McCain is wholeheartedly embracing the Stevens machine, which is in tatters in Alaska following not only the indictment of the senior Senator but also the cases against and investigations into state legislators close to him (including his son Ben Stevens, the former President of the state Senate).

With Palin so closely aligned with Stevens -- and under an ethics investigation herself -- what happens if and when a verdict in the Stevens trial comes down, say, on October 20th, roughly two weeks from election day? What if it comes down on the Thursday before election day? I'm not sure we know the exact answer -- but I've got a feeling that such an outcome wouldn't be a great one for the McCain campaign.

The Obama campaign need to highlight what is happening in Alaska - and weave it into a storyline, which the public is already familiar with, of Republican corruption in Washington. Heck, it looks Cheney could even be involved. In doing so, they will expose how absurd it is that McCain and Palin are trying to run as "reformers."

There's plenty of dirt on McCain too - Keating Five might not be so relevant anymore, but Abramoff sure is.

Don't get me wrong, the Obama campaign should still try to link McCain to Bush. But the good news is they doesn't need to try to tie Palin to Bush - not directly. She already has a great tie-in in her own home state.