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McCain may be best bet for Republicans

    Lobby dominated, Republicanism has long patronized the wealthy at middleclass expense. The freedom to become wealthy is welcomed. Domination by the wealthy is not. The Republican middleclass base apparently rebelled to regain party control.
    A rebellion requires a rebel leader. The middle-class found one in maverick John McCain. His electoral success is a message for change in Republican priorities.
    Except for the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, most party loyal Republican conservatives will credit McCain’s 80 percent conservative voting record and support him.
    Negatives: He promises secure borders; however, 40 percent of illegal employment balanced with additional work visas would be well received. He’s weak on global warming and business savvy.
    Positives: McCain’s aggressive stance on terrorism and stabilizing Iraq should trump Democrat doves. McCain would end the flawed corn ethanol program. He requested no earmarks last year, and as president will attempt to end them. He tried but failed to control campaign fi - nancing. He opposed Bush tax cuts, convinced they favored the rich, but accepts making them permanent (knowing full well congressional support is lacking).
    Any concessions made to intransigent conservatives will alienate McCain’s middle-class base. His potential presidential triumph requires remaining steadfast, true to his principles. Perceived as a centrist hawk, he will harvest middle-class votes, regardless of party affiliation.
    My guess is he’s the optimum candidate to overcome strong odds against a Republican win.
    WALLACE J. HUGHES
    Charlton

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McCain unlikely to stack Court to fight abortion

    Hillary Clinton’s blessing notwithstanding, many of the New York senator’s supporters will resist the handover to Barack Obama. The sexism that permeated the recent campaign still rankles, and John McCain is far from the standard-issue Republican they instinctively vote against.
    A big sticking point for wavering Democrats will be McCain’s position on reproductive rights. Clinton’s backers are overwhelmingly pro-choice, and they’ll want to know this: Would McCain stock the Supreme Court with foes of Roe v. Wade? The 1973 decision guarantees a right to abortion.
    The answer is unclear but probably “no.” While McCain has positioned himself as “pro-life” during this campaign, his statements over the years show considerable latitude on the issue.
    In a 1999 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, McCain said, “I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America” to undergo “illegal and dangerous operations.”
    George W. Bush turned that statement against him in the 2000 race for the GOP nomination. The National Right to Life Committee ran ads denouncing McCain — one reason he lost the important South Carolina primary to Bush.
    Addressing conservative South Carolinians last year, McCain said that Roe should be overturned. Primary politics or a change of mind? The former is my guess — and also that in his current pursuit of Hillary Democrats we may see a softening of that position.
    Whatever McCain really thinks, the chances that he would submerge his presidency in the maelstrom of abortion politics seem slim. Partisan battles over court nominees aren’t his thing, either.
    McCain played a central role in the Gang of 14 — the seven Democratic and seven Republican senators who joined hands to find common ground on court appointments. For his efforts at compromise, McCain took a pummeling from the right wing. Note that Obama, the self-styled foe of division, declined to join the bipartisan group.
    And if a President McCain did put forth

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McCain: States
should drill for
oil along coasts

    ARLINGTON, Va. — Sen. John McCain said Monday the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling should be lifted, and individual states given the right to pursue energy exploration in waters near their own coasts.
    With gasoline prices rising and the United States chronically dependent on foreign oil, the Republican presidential contender said his proposal would “be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis.”
    McCain also suggested giving the states incentives, including a greater share of royalties paid by companies that drill for oil, as an incentive to permit exploration.
    Asked how far offshore states should be given control of drilling rights, he said that was a matter for negotiation.

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MoveOn 'Baby Alex' Ad a Real Winner

Friday, June 20, 2008

By: Bill O'Reilly

Have you seen the "Baby Alex" political ad that the radical-left, George Soros-funded organization MoveOn has produced? To some, it plays like a "Saturday Night Live" skit, but the intent is deadly serious: It is designed to damage John McCain.

In the ad, a young mother holding a baby says, "Hi, John McCain, this is Alex and he's my first . . . So, John McCain, when you say you would stay in Iraq for a hundred years, were you counting on Alex? Because, if you were, you can't have him."

I know, you think I'm making that up. No way.

These loopy MoveOn people spent more than one-half million dollars making and marketing the ad. No word on what Baby Alex's cut was.

My question is this: Who on earth would take that message seriously? What kind of voter is that supposed to reach?

The basic premise of the ad was a conversation from last January between Sen. McCain and the late Tim Russert. McCain told Russert that U.S. troops are needed around the world but we have to keep them safe. The Q&A went like this:

Russert: "President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years."

McCain: "Maybe 100 . . . We've been in South Korea — we've been in Japan for 60 years. That'd be fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed."

Now, Baby Alex might not understand the geo-political implications of the comment, but honest adults should. The U.S. military is stationed overseas to protect our interests and to defuse dangerous situations, like turmoil in the Persian Gulf. That's tough for a child to digest, but, come on, it's not a kooky position even if you disagree.

Propaganda aside, I liked the Baby Alex ad so much that I'm suggesting MoveOn produce a series of them. Let's see . . . how about Baby Alex thanking his mom for not aborting him? That has a political theme to it.

Also, Baby Alex could extend his gratitude to the FBI for keeping his parents safe since the attack on 9/11. Alex could also, through his perspicacious mother, demonstrate his eagerness to see Islamic fascism defeated — so he and all the other babies won't have to deal with it when they grow up.

Perhaps Baby Alex's mom could also explain to him that he will never have to live under a tyrant like Saddam Hussein because his country embraces freedom. And then, after all that, Alex could settle in for a nice nap knowing that a nutritious meal will be ready for him upon awakening — a meal millions of babies in other countries will never get.

Those ideas should keep MoveOn very busy this election year, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing the spots on TV. Thank you, George Soros. You're a patriot.

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McCain: States should drill for oil along coasts

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At least, flip-flops show candidates listen

    Mr. McCain seems to have flipflopped on the oil issue. What does that mean? It means he’s doing what the system is set up to do.
    Listen to the people. Sure, it may not be what he believes, but it’s the majority of Americans who feel we need more oil. So he is flip-flopping. Not necessarily a bad thing (listening to the people).
    Mr. Obama doesn’t tell us what he’s going to do, besides raise taxes (Mr. Obama can pay with no problem) and punish the United States — no, he tells us just what Mr. McCain will do (even if he takes it out of context). Hopefully when Obama’s speech writer tells him what he’s going to do, he will tell us.
    More taxes in New York state? Nope, they’re fees now — like user fees when you register your vehicle. There’s a new one for you. Look at your renewal.
    If Mr. Obama wants to win, he’d better start flip-flopping.
    BILL ZILBERMAN
    Niskyauna

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McCain Promises to Talk About Gay Marriage

Friday, June 27, 2008

By: Phil Brennan
Wooing conservative evangelical voters at a private meeting, Republican presidential candidate John McCain promised to speak out against gay marriage and seriously consider picking an anti-abortion running mate.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Senator McCain had a private confab in Ohio with several influential social conservatives who have criticized him for failing to toe the conservative line embraced by evangelical Christians. The newspaper reported that McCain scored some points with his audience.

Some of those attending the meeting confided to the Times that McCain would take seriously their requests that he choose an anti-abortion running mate and promised that he would talk more openly about his opposition to gay marriage, a pledge the Times wrote he carried out later when he endorsed a ballot measure in California to ban gay marriage.

"It was obvious there were a lot of changed hearts in the room," said Phil Burress, who led Ohio's anti-gay-marriage ballot measure in 2004. "We realized that he's with us on the majority of the issues we care about."

Meeting privately with evangelicals and promising to heed their concerns won't cut it with the evangelicals attendees, participants told the Times, adding that McCain needs to embrace their positions publicly, not just privately.

"We told him that if he didn't come out and share his pro-family stances on these issues, then he can kiss Ohio goodbye," Burress said. "We can't deliver his message for him."

The Arizona senator is showing his determination to win evangelical support by scheduling meetings with top Christian leaders. He is due to fly to Asheville, N.C., Sunday to meet privately with the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, who met with Obama earlier. McCain told the Ohio group that he hopes to meet with Focus on the Family's Dr. James C. Dobson, who has said he would not vote for McCain.

"The senator spoke fondly of him, but believes there's probably room for some bridge-building," said Mike Gonidakis, head of Ohio Right to Life.

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But Will They Respect Him in the Morning?
by Ann Coulter (more by this author)

Posted 07/23/2008 ET
Updated 07/23/2008 ET

Back before the Republican Party was saddled with John McCain as its nominee, The New York Times called him "the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe." The paper praised him for "working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation" and predicted that he would appeal to "a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field."

At the same time, the Times denounced "the real" Rudy Giuliani as "a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man" and Mitt Romney as "shape-shifting," claiming it's "hard to find an issue on which he has not repositioned himself to the right since he was governor of Massachusetts."

Here are a few issues I found that Romney hadn't switched positions on, and it wasn't "hard": tax cuts, health care, same-sex marriage, illegal immigration and the surge in Iraq. The only issue on which Romney had changed his position was abortion, irritating people who would prefer for Republicans to refuse to run in places like Massachusetts and New York City in order to preserve their perfect pro-life credentials.

Times columnist Nicholas Kristof echoed the editorial page in early February with a column titled: "Who Is More Electable?" In the very first sentence, Kristof concluded that McCain is "the Republican most likely to win the November election." Kristof touted McCain's "unusual appeal among swing voters" and cited polls that showed McCain would do "stunningly well" in a general election.

Also in February, CNN produced polls showing McCain doing better than "generic Republican" in a general election, which Jeffrey Toobin said was a tribute to how "well respected" McCain is. Hey, is it too late for us to nominate "generic Republican"?

And on MSNBC's "Hardball," from the way Chris Matthews carried on about McCain, you'd think he had caught a glimpse of Obama's ankle. Matthews said that McCain was "the real straight talker ... a profile in courage ... more seasoned than the current president, a patriot, of course ... honest and respected in the media. He has all the pluses in the world of a sort of a, you know, an Audie Murphy, if you will, a real war hero."

I guess the party's over.

Now the Times won't even publish McCain's op-ed. I wouldn't have published it either -- I've read it twice and I still can't remember what it says -- but I also wouldn't have published McCain's seven op-eds in The New York Times since 1996.

Since McCain has gone from being a Republican "maverick" who attacks Republicans and promotes liberal causes to the Republican nominee for president, he's also gone from being one of the Times' most frequent op-ed guest columnists to being an unpublishable illiterate.

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Froma Harrop
McCain of yesteryear better than today
Froma Harrop is a nationally syndicated columnist.

    Too bad there’s no time-traveling on Election Day. The more moderate John McCain of eight years ago would make a very attractive candidate, and Barack Obama eight years from now could offer an impressive track record.
    Of course, we can time-travel in our heads. And that ability accounts for polls showing a tight race in a year when the Democrat should be surfing double-digit margins.
    We know what McCain was like in 2000, when he ran for president with a fresh maverick message. There was no Obama eight years ago — or even four years ago — at least on the national stage. The lack of ballast makes his messianic rallies, now spanning the continents, a bit creepy. Where did he come from?
    The miracle of McCain’s poll numbers is that they are so high at a time when economic meltdown has become the top anxiety, and he has little to say about it. In terms of policy, he’s actually moving away from the light. The McCain of 2000, who opposed Bush tax cuts for being tilted to the rich, has transformed himself into a classic moneybags Republican. He now vows to preserve the Bush tax cuts and cut the corporate tax.
    It’s pointless to wave the charts showing that rich people pay most of the income taxes. That’s how it should be, since the tax is supposed to be progressive — and it doesn’t include the payroll and other regressive taxes that the non-rich shell out. The main problem with our taxes is that we’re not collecting enough of them to cover government costs, hence the galloping budget deficits.
    McCain has a good record on the spending side, but the government must still pay whatever bills come due. If it doesn’t do this with tax revenues, it does it with borrowing, which is a tax on the next generation.
    The McCain of 2000 would not have put the words “Social Security” and “disgrace” within an hour of each other. The disgrace, he said in a recent speech, was “paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today.”
    That happens to be the way Social Security works, and contrary to its critics, the system is in pretty good shape. We may have to fiddle with contributions or benefits in the future, but that need not be a big deal. Baby boomers had both their payroll taxes hiked and retirement ages delayed, and no one’s burning tires in the streets. (Medicare is something else ...)
    Occasionally, McCain 2008 is more progressive on taxes than Obama 2008. McCain would repeal the 54-cent-a-gallon tax on imported sugar-based ethanol. (Most of it comes from Brazil.) Obama supports the tariff, and a cornucopia of other corporate subsidies for the domestic corn-based ethanol industry, which so generously fills his coffers.
    Corn ethanol is a very mixed bag. It plays a large role in rising food prices. And it is less energy-efficient than the kind made with sugar cane.
    McCain positions like this one — especially gutsy when advanced in corn-producing states — keep the spark going for moderates through the dark hours. And again, we have our memories.
    Jonathan Chait writes in The New Republic that “the upside to a candidate who changes his philosophical orientation as often as McCain is that he could always switch back.” That possibility, combined with McCain’s respect for bipartisanship, is why this campaign doesn’t have “that death-and-life quality” acutely felt when the candidate was George W. Bush. That’s why, as Chait well puts it, “a lot of liberals (still) kind of like John McCain.”
    And that’s why the polls are a lot closer than they ought to be.

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Candidate McCain rejects ‘audacity of hopelessness’ in Iraq
BY TOM RAUM The Associated Press

    DENVER — Republican presidential candidate John McCain, ridiculing Barack Obama for “the audacity of hopelessness” in his policies on Iraq, said Friday that the entire Middle East could have plunged into war had U.S. troops been withdrawn as his rival advocated.
    Speaking to an audience of Hispanic military veterans, McCain stepped up his criticism of Obama while the Illinois senator continued his headline-grabbing tour of the Middle East and Europe. The Arizona Republican contended that Obama’s policies — he opposed sending more troops to Iraq in the “surge” that McCain supported — would have led to defeat there and in Afghanistan.
    “We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right,” McCain said, a play on the title of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.”
    McCain laid out a near-apocalyptic chain of events he said could have resulted had Obama managed to stop the troop buildup ordered by President Bush: U.S. forces retreating under fire, the Iraqi army collapsing, civilian casualties increasing dramatically, al-Qaida killing cooperative Sunni sheiks and finding safe havens to train fighters and launch attacks on Americans, and civil war, genocide and a wider conflict.
    “Above all, America would have been humiliated and weakened,” he said. “Terrorists would have seen our defeat as evidence America lacked the resolve to defeat them. As Iraq descended into chaos, other countries in the Middle East would have come to the aid of their favored factions, and the entire region might have erupted in war.”
    Noting that the buildup was unpopular with most Americans, McCain said: “Sen. Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth.”
    Obama has called for a withdrawal over 16 months. McCain again criticized him for advocating “a politically expedient timetable” and for voting against funding for troops. McCain had raised eyebrows earlier this week by charging that Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”
    With one exception, Obama has voted for every spending bill for troops at war. In 2007, Bush vetoed a bill that provided funding on condition of troop withdrawals, and Obama joined 13 other senators who opposed the measure that took its place.
    McCain’s speech in Denver came at the conclusion of a week in which he struggled against Obama’s overseas tour de force. Yet amid the awkward moments, McCain managed to campaign busily in key battleground states and to raise millions of dollars at fundraisers.
    Polls in many swing states are close, and some are tightening. The Arizona Republican sought to turn this to his advantage in what was clearly a difficult week to be a stayat-home candidate.
    McCain repeatedly emphasized his long military and congressional background, scolded Obama from afar on foreign policy, and kept playfully fueling speculation that he was close to picking a running mate.

JOE AMON/THE DENVER POST
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., enters to address the American GI Forum Convention at the Grand Hyatt in Denver on Friday.

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Explosive issue of race hits Obama-McCain campaign
BY LIZ SIDOTI The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — John McCain accused Barack Obama of playing politics with race on Thursday, raising the explosive issue after the first black candidate with a serious chance of winning the White House claimed Republicans will try to scare voters by saying he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”
    Until now, the subject of race has been almost taboo in the campaign, at least in public, with both sides fearing its destructive force.
    “I’m disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he’s saying,” McCain told reporters in Racine, Wis. The Arizona senator said he agreed with campaign manager Rick Davis’ statement earlier that “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.” The aide was suggesting McCain had been wrongfully accused.
    In turn, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said, “We weren’t suggesting in any way he’s using race as an issue” but that McCain “is using the same, old low-road politics that voters are very unhappy about to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign.”
    A day earlier and in response to a hard-hitting McCain commercial, Obama argued that President Bush and McCain have little to offer voters so Republicans will resort to a strategy of fear to keep the White House.
    “What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”
    He didn’t explain the comment. But it evoked images of past presidents who grace U.S. paper money, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. All were white men, and all but Grant were older than Obama when elected.
    Obama long has talked about his physical appearance in speeches, but McCain advisers argue he crossed a significant line by accusing the GOP of scare tactics and alluding to his own race in the same breath.
    The back-and-forth was the latest spike in a contest that’s grown increasingly negative despite pledges by both Obama and McCain to run aboveboard campaigns. The daily rhetoric has turned red-hot as both maneuver for advantage and polls show the race competitive three months before the election.
    At 46, Obama is serving his fi rst Senate term and working to overcome concerns of voters that he’s not ready to be president. McCain is trying to stoke the notion that the Democrat is too inexperienced to make the judgments necessary to lead a country in times of war and economic straits.
    Polls show a close contest nationally and in key battleground states, including electoral prizes like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. The political environment after two Bush terms tilts heavily in the Democrats’ favor, but voter skepticism about Obama has helped keep the contest within McCain’s reach.
    In recent days, McCain has been going after Obama with new fervor, painting him as not ready to lead and too liberal for the country. It’s an aggressive approach reminiscent of GOP operative Karl Rove, who orchestrated Bush’s back-to-back victories in part by tearing down Democratic opponents.

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McCain Gaffes, Volunteering Wife For Topless Contest

August 05, 2008 5:31 PM

ANC News' Gregory Wallace and Sara Just Report:
Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless -- and, occasionally, without any  decency -- at the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally.

"I was looking at the Sturgis schedule, and noticed that you had a beauty pageant, so I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain told an audience at the rally.  "I told her [that] with a little luck, she could be the only woman to serve as both the First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

The audience, clearly better versed in the details of the pageant, cheered and whistled their approval.

This annual rally, now in its 62nd year, rally attracts upwards of 500,000 riders in August to the small town of 5,500.  The contest is named for the Buffalo Chip campground, home to about 25,000 riders for the nine-day rally.

The Arizona senator, according to the Buffalo Chip campground website, was participating in "the Buffalo Chip's annual Tribute to American Veterans and Active Duty Servicemen."  The site also says that many attendees are "veterans and active duty servicemen who will have a great appreciation for McCain's family history of service to our country."

McCain also promised the audience that he would only speak briefly.

"I know that we are waiting with great anticipation for Kid Rock and the other entertainment," the Arizona senator said.

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George Will
McCain might win by exploiting Russia’s invasion of Georgia
George Will is a nationally syndicated columnist.

    Last August, John McCain’s campaign was a guttering candle, out of money but flush with halfbaked ideas that were unlikely to be improved by further baking. Anyway, to have many ideas is to have too many for a campaign’s concluding sprint, and McCain’s revival has not been robust enough to bring him even with Barack Obama. Now McCain’s rejuvenated hopes rest on his ability to recast this election, focusing it on who should lead America in a world suddenly darkened by Russia’s war of European conquest.
    To begin the recasting, he should weed from the unkempt garden of his political thinking the populism which often seems like mere attitudinizing redeemed by insincerity. His silliness about sinful Wall Street and exploitative corporations cannot compete with Democratic entrees in the nonsense sweepstakes. Furthermore, his populism subverts his strength — the perception that although he is an acquired taste, he is serious, hence incapable of selfcelebratory froth such as “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
    McCain’s populism, if such there must be, should be distilled into one proposal that would be popular and, unlike most populism, not economically injurious. The proposal, for which he has expressed sympathy, is: No offi - cer of any corporation receiving a federal subsidy, broadly defined, can be paid more than the highest federal civil servant ($124,010 for a GS-15). This would abruptly halt the galloping expansion of private economic entities — is GM next? — eager to become, in effect, joint ventures with Washington.
    Next, McCain should make an asset of an inevitability by promising two presidential vetoes. The inevitability is enlarged Democratic congressional majorities in 2009. Americans suffer political astigmatism. They squint at Washington, seeing an incompetent cornucopia that is too big but which should expand to give them more blessings. Their voting behavior, however, generally conforms to their professed suspicion about unchecked power in Washington: In 31 election cycles since the restoration of normal politics after the Second World War, 19 of them produced divided government — the executive and legislative branches not controlled by the same party.
    Two Democratic priorities in the next Congress would placate two factions that hold the party’s leash — organized labor and the far left. One is abolition of workers’ right to secret ballots in unionization elections. The other is restoration of the “fairness doctrine” in order to kill talk radio, on which liberals cannot compete. The doctrine would expose broadcasters to endless threats of litigation over government rules about how many views must be presented, on which issues, by whom, for how long and in what manner.
    By promising to veto both of these forthcoming assaults on fundamental freedoms, McCain would give specific content to voters’ usually unfocused fear of one-party government. Then, having delighted conservatives, who have thus far curbed their enthusiasm for him, he should make this challenge:
    He should ask Obama to join him in a town meeting on lessons from Russia’s aggression. Both candidates favor NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, perhaps Vladimir Putin’s next victim. But does Russia’s behavior cause Obama to rethink reliance on “soft power” — dialogue, disapproval, diplomacy, economic carrots and sticks — which Putin considers almost an oxymoron? Does Russia’s resort to military coercion, and its arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles, cause Obama to revise his resistance to missile defense? Obama, unlike McCain, believes Russia belongs in the G-8. Does Obama think Russia should be admitted to the World Trade Organization? Does Obama consider Putin helpful regarding Iran? Does Obama accept the description of the G-8 as an organization of the largest “industrialized democracies“? Does he think China should be admitted?
    McCain, like Republicans generally, reveres Ronald Reagan. But such reverence seems to involve an obligatory sunniness, which suits neither McCain nor this moment. A great political thinker of the last century, Raymond Aron, was right: “What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.” McCain must convince voters that Obama’s complacent confidence in the taming abilities of soft power is the effect of liberalism’s scary sentimentalism about a dangerous thing, human nature, and a fiction, “the community of nations.”
    McCain is hardly the change many people have been eagerly waiting for, but Putin is part of the change we must confront. Until Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, it seemed that not even the Democratic Party could lose this election. But it might if McCain can make it turn on the question of who is ornery enough to give Putin a convincing, deterring telephone call at 3 a.m.

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And None Dare Call It Treason
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted 08/22/2008


Who is Randy Scheunemann?

He is the principal foreign policy adviser to John McCain and potential successor to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser to the president of the United States.

But Randy Scheunemann has another identity, another role.

He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man.

From January 2007 to March 2008, the McCain campaign paid Scheunemann $70,000 -- pocket change compared to the $290,000 his Orion Strategies banked in those same 15 months from the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili.

What were Mikheil's marching orders to Tbilisi's man in Washington? Get Georgia a NATO war guarantee. Get America committed to fight Russia, if necessary, on behalf of Georgia.

Scheunemann came close to succeeding.

Had he done so, U.S. soldiers and Marines from Idaho and West Virginia would be killing Russians in the Caucasus, and dying to protect Scheunemann's client, who launched this idiotic war the night of Aug. 7. That people like Scheunemann hire themselves out to put American lives on the line for their clients is a classic corruption of American democracy.

U.S. backing for his campaign to retrieve his lost provinces is what Saakashvili paid Scheunemann to produce. But why should Americans fight Russians to force 70,000 South Ossetians back into the custody of a regime they detest? Why not let the South Ossetians decide their own future in free elections?

Not only is the folly of the Bush interventionist policy on display in the Caucasus, so, too, is its manifest incoherence.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says we have sought for 45 years to stay out of a shooting war with Russia and we are not going to get into one now. President Bush assured us there will be no U.S. military response to the Russian move into Georgia.

That is a recognition of, and a bowing to, reality -- namely, that Russia's control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and occupation of a strip of Georgia cannot be a casus belli for the United States. We may deplore it, but it cannot justify war with Russia.

If that be true, and it transparently is, what are McCain, Barack Obama, Bush, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel doing committing the United States and Germany to bringing Georgia into NATO? For that would commit us to war for a cause we have already conceded, by our paralysis, does not justify a war.

Not only did Scheunemann's two-man lobbying firm receive $730,000 since 2001 to get Georgia a NATO war guarantee, he was paid by Romania and Latvia to do the same. And he succeeded.

Latvia, a tiny Baltic republic annexed by Joseph Stalin in June 1940 during his pact with Adolf Hitler, was set free at the end of the Cold War. Yet hundreds of thousands of Russians had been moved into Latvia by Stalin, and as Riga served as a base of the Baltic Sea fleet, many Russian naval officers retired there.

The children and grandchildren of these Russians are Latvian citizens. They are a cause of constant tension with ethnic Letts and of strife with Moscow, which has assumed the role of protector of Russians left behind in the "near abroad" when the Soviet Union broke apart.

Thanks to the lobbying of Scheunemann and friends, Latvia has been brought into NATO and given a U.S. war guarantee. If Russia intervenes to halt some nasty ethnic violence in Riga, the United States is committed to come in and drive the Russians out.

This is the situation in which the interventionists have placed our country: committed to go to war for countries and causes that do not justify war, against a Russia that is re-emerging as a great power only to find NATO squatting on her doorstep.

Scheunemann's resume as a War Party apparatchik is lengthy. He signed the PNAC (Project for the New American Century) letter to President Clinton urging war on Iraq, four years before 9-11. He signed the PNAC ultimatum to Bush, nine days after 9-11, threatening him with political reprisal if he did not go to war against Iraq. He was executive director of the "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq," a propaganda front for Ahmad Chalabi and his pack of liars who deceived us into war.

Now Scheunemann is the neocon agent in place in McCain's camp.

The neocons got their war with Iraq. They are pushing for war on Iran. And they are now baiting the Russian Bear.

Is this what McCain has on offer? Endless war?

Why would McCain seek foreign policy counsel from the same discredited crowd that has all but destroyed the presidency of George Bush?

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence ... a free people ought to be constantly awake," Washington warned in his Farewell Address. Our Founding Father was warning against the Randy Scheunemanns among us, agents hired by foreign powers to deceive Americans into fighting their wars. And none dare call it treason.

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McCain makes decision on VP running mate

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago



DENVER - Republican presidential candidate John McCain decided on a running mate early Thursday, and one top prospect, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, abruptly canceled numerous public appearances.

The Arizona senator will appear with his No. 2 at an Ohio rally on Friday, aides said, though they provided no details on who McCain had picked.

Without explanation, Pawlenty called off an Associated Press interview at the last minute, as well as other media interviews in Denver, site of the Democratic National Convention.

Others believed to be in contention for the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket included former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who was meeting with donors throughout California, and Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who was vacationing on New York's Long Island.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, too, was still a possibility, as was the idea that McCain would choose a dark horse from any number of names that have circulated.

Fueling speculation that McCain would choose either Pawlenty or Romney or another conservative Republican, two GOP officials said they believed McCain had picked a traditional candidate. They based their conclusion on the fact that the campaign, which once had put the party on notice to prepare for the possibility of an unconventional candidate, does not have preparations in place to curb the fallout from a right flank that certainly would revolt if Ridge, an abortion-rights backer, or Lieberman, a former Democrat, was on the ticket.

McCain, for his part, was uncharacteristically silent.

As he and his wife, Cindy, boarded a plane in Phoenix bound for Dayton, Ohio, reporters shouted a barrage of questions at the senator about whether he'd made up his mind. McCain wasn't biting. He flashed a double thumbs-up and boarded the plane.

Earlier, he played coy.

In an interview aired Thursday morning, McCain said he still hadn't made up his mind. Far from quieting speculation, this only fueled it as he sought to siphon attention from Democrat Barack Obama's acceptance of the presidential nomination in Denver.

He told KDKA NewsRadio in Pittsburgh in an interview taped Wednesday: "I haven't decided yet so I can't tell you."

McCain, who spoke with the radio station from his home in Arizona, told people late Wednesday that he wasn't going to make a final decision until after he talked with his wife. She has been in the country of Georgia this week and returned sometime at nightfall.

With both the eventual pick and the effort to keep buzz alive beforehand, McCain's campaign hopes curb any uptick in polling that Obama might get from his convention and to create momentum heading into the gathering of GOP delegates for McCain next week in St. Paul, Minn.

Pawlenty, in Denver to criticize Democrats on McCain's behalf, canceled without explanation an afternoon roundtable interview with the AP as well as other media interviews. Questioned about the vice presidential selection earlier, Pawlenty would only say that he is to be in Minnesota on Friday for the state fair. He had cautioned during a series of morning TV interviews that while speculation might be fun, "most of it turns out to be inaccurate."

Romney, who had played the GOP attack-dog role earlier in the week at the Democratic convention, left his beachfront San Diego home Thursday morning with an overnight bag. His son, Matt, said Romney was headed to an unspecified location in the state. Asked about being vice president, the elder Romney said: "I don't have anything for you right now."

Ridge was at his suburban Washington, D.C., home. Asked by an AP photographer as he took out the trash if he had any travel plans for the day, Ridge smiled and said he didn't.

One Lieberman aide said there has been no indication he is the choice. For instance, no staff have been called to join him at his vacation site.

For months, McCain's vice presidential search process has been kept closely held by a small group of his advisers. But details have been trickling out this week.

This includes word from two Republicans that McCain met with his senior advisers in Arizona on Wednesday to discuss the pick, conflicting information about whether or not he had settled on a choice, and the campaign's announcement it would air a one-evening-only TV ad in battleground states around when Obama will be giving his prime-time acceptance speech.

Turns out the ad has nothing to do with the vice presidential choice, bearing only a simple message for Barack Obama: "Job well done."

____

Associated Press writers Glen Johnson in Boston, Mike Glover in Phoenix, and Andrew Miga and photographer Scott Applewhite in Washington contributed to this story.

Quoted Text

McCain Chooses Ala. Governor Palin as Running Mate

By Robert Barnes and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 29, 2008; 10:56 AM

DAYTON, Ohio -- Republican presumptive presidential nominee John McCain has chosen first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, according to senior Republican sources who said they were briefed by McCain's staff.

Palin, 44,would be the first woman nominated to the ticket by the Republican Party, and is a surpise choice after McCain considered more experienced politicians, including several of his former rivals for the GOP nomination. Palin was elected in 2006, and before that was mayor of tiny Wasilla (pop. 6,715).

She is a favorite of conservatives, who say she brings a reform-minded agenda and is what one called a "feminist for life.'' She is the mother of five; her youngest, born in April, has Down's syndrome.

Palin had been mentioned as a dark-horse candidate for the pick, but the choice was kept secret by the McCain campaign despite a frenzy of speculation from the 24/7 world of cable news and political blogs.

Three senior Republican sources said they had been told Palin was McCain's choice. That came after a morning in which the names on McCain's publicly talked-about short list appeared to quickly drop off.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain's rival for the nomination who was long thought to be a likely veep pick, has told others that he will not be in Dayton for the noon rally at Wright State University where McCain is expected to announce his running mate.

Likewise, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty--another conventional wisdom favorite--told a Twin Cities radio station this morning that he would be at the state fair.

"You can draw your own conclusion from that," Pawlenty said.

One potential candidate who has not been heard from this morning: McCain's close friend Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a former Democratic who had been strongly opposed by GOP conservatives as a veep choice.

Even as attention turned to Palin, rumors swirled that Lieberman had arrived in Dayton from Long Island, where he had been vacationing with his family, sparking a new round of speculation that McCain might pick his buddy instead.

But Lieberman is often by McCain's side, traveling with him on foreign trips and joining him on the stump. His possible presence at the Dayton rally appeared to be nothing more than Lieberman's way of supporting his friend and colleague.

McCain's communications director, Jill Hazelbaker, playfully declined to provide any confirmation Thursday morning. Speaking on CBS' "Early Show," she provided only a vague sense of the motivation that has driven McCain's decision.

"John McCain is going to make the choice from his heart," she said.

"He's going to choose someone who can be a partner in governing. He's going to choose someone who brings character and principle to the table and who shares his priorities. And I'm confident that he's going to make a great pick."

Palin's name had been mentioned as a dark horse candidate before. And Atlantic blogger Marc Ambinder noted this morning that a private plane connected to a McCain fundraiser had traveled to an airport near Dayton yesterday from Anchorage.

The plane's flight information and registration can be found using freely available flight tracking tools on the Internet. They show that the plane, a Gulfstream IV, landed at Hook Field municipal airport about a half-hour outside of Dayton at 10:07 pm last night.

Republicans struggled Thursday morning to come to grips with what appeared to be McCain's surprise pick.

Former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden called the possibility of a Palin choice "quintessential John McCain. He's trying to make a play for independent voters . . . trying to bring in energy from outside Washington to try to reform Washington."

Karl Rove, President Bush's former top political advisers, said on Fox News that picking Palin would "shake up" the traditional coalitions in both parties. He called Palin a "breath of fresh air," and said picking her would be an indication that McCain is hoping to make a direct appeal to women voters, especially those who voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton, not Sen. Barack Obama, during the Democratic primary.

"It would be a clear sign by the McCain campaign that they would be making a bid" for women voters, Rove said. "In the last 24 hours, we've seen both campaigns refocus themselves in a powerful way on the Hillary Clinton supporters."

One GOP source who said McCain had chosen Palin call it a "stunning pick" and said he was still trying to get his arms around it. The source, who did not want to be named since McCain has not commented publicly, said conservatives will be pleased since she is an anti-abortion Republican.

But he acknowledged that Palin is "not really that well known."

Aides to Obama said they are salivating at the prospect of a Palin pick, readying the talking points. With 18 months in office, little foreign policy experience -- or experience of any kind -- Palin would be, in the words of one senior Obama adviser, "a gift."

Several Democratic officials expressed surprise about Palin but predicted that she will make it more difficult for McCain to attack Obama for having a lack of experience.

"He cannot say any more that Barack Obama doesn't have the experience to be commander in chief when he chooses a woman whose signature achievement two years ago was that they won an award from the National Arbor Day Foundation," a Democratic operative said.

Democrats began quickly scouring Palin's past. They pointed out that she had once raised the sales tax to support construction of a rec center in her city. And they noted that Palin has been accused of improperly using her office to have her ex-brother-in-law fired from his state trooper's job.

"She's under investigation right now," the Democrat said.

Staff writers Dan Balz and Anne E. Kornblut contributed to this report.

Quoted from Kevin March

I think this is going to be a very good choice for McCain for VP.  I see Mrs. Palin as our next VP.

Quoted Text

McCain taps Alaska governor for VP

By LIZ SIDOTI and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers
9 minutes ago

DAYTON, Ohio - Republican John McCain introduced first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate Friday, a stunning selection of a fellow maverick designed to get an edge in the increasingly competitive White House race.

"She's exactly who I need. She's exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of 'Me first and country second,' " McCain declared as the pair stood together for the first time at a boisterous rally in Ohio just days before the opening of the party's national convention.

Palin, the first Republican woman on a presidential ticket, promised: "I'm going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background in every political party, or no party at all."

"... Politics isn't just a game of competing interests and clashing parties," added the Palin, 44, who has built her career in large measure by challenging fellow Republicans.

In the increasingly intensive presidential campaign, McCain made his selection six days after his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, named Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as his No. 2 on the ticket.

The contrast between the two announcements was remarkable — Obama, 47, picked a 65-year-old running mate with long experience in government and a man whom he said was qualified to be president. The timing of McCain's selection appeared designed to limit any political gain Obama derives from his own convention, which ended Thursday night with his nominating acceptance speech before an estimated 84,000 in Invesco Field in Colorado.

Public opinion polls show a close race between Obama and McCain, and with scarcely two months remaining until the election, neither contender can allow the other to jump out to a big post-convention lead.

On his 72nd birthday, McCain chose a woman younger than two of the Arizonan's seven children and a person who until recently was the mayor of small-town Wasilla, Alaska and has been governor less than two years.

The Obama campaign immediately questioned whether she would be prepared to step in and be president if necessary.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Obama, said in a written statement. But Obama put a statement greeting her to the campaign.

President Bush complimented McCain for "an exciting decision."

"Governor Palin is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government," a presidential statement said. "By selecting a working mother with a track record of getting things done, Senator McCain has once again demonstrated his commitment to reforming Washington."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who came so close to being the first major party woman presidential candidate, said in a statement: "We should all be proud of Gov. Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Sen. McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Gov. Palin will add an important new voice to the debate."

"It's an absolutely brilliant choice," said Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law. "This will absolutely energize McCain's campaign and energize conservatives," he predicted.

Palin's name had not been on the short list of people heavily reported upon by the news media in recent days, and McCain's decision was a well-kept secret until just a couple hours before Friday's rally.

McCain's campaign said that Palin and a top aide met with senior McCain advisers in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Wednesday night. The next morning, the campaign said McCain formally invited Palin to join the ticket on the deck of McCain's home near Sedona, Ariz., and later Thursday the governor flew to Middleton, Ohio, with staff to await Friday's event in Dayton.

Describing the process that led to her selection, Palin told reporters she'd received word that she was McCain's choice on Thursday and had met privately with him that day to discuss it. She spoke briefly as the two running mates surprised shoppers at the Buckeye Corner in Columbus, Ohio, where they purchased Ohio State University sports memorabilia. McCain and Palin started a bus tour across Ohio and to Pittsburgh, where they will hold a campaign rally Saturday. Ohio and Pennsylvania are two states that figure prominently in who wins the election this fall.

Sharyl Odenweller, a retired teacher from Delphos, Ohio who was visiting the store, said she was pleased that McCain had chosen a woman and someone "very pro life." But, Odenweller also said, "I'd like to know more about her experience. If something happened to him, would she be qualified to step into the presidency?"

With his pick, McCain passed over more prominent contenders like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, as well as others such as former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, whose support for abortion rights might have sparked unrest at the convention that opens Monday in St. Paul, Minn.

A self-styled hockey mom and political reformer, Palin became governor after ousting a state chief executive of her own party in a primary.

More recently, she has come under the scrutiny of an investigation by the Republican-controlled legislature into the possibility that she ordered the dismissal of Alaska's public safety commissioner because he would not fire her former brother-in-law as a state trooper.

Palin has a long history of run-ins with the Alaska GOP hierarchy, giving her genuine maverick status and reformer credentials that could complement McCain's image.

Her husband, Todd Palin, is part Yup'ik Eskimo, and is a blue-collar North Slope oil worker who competes in the Iron Dog, a 1,900-mile snowmobile race. The couple lives in Wasilla. They have five children, the youngest of whom was born in April with Down syndrome.

___

Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti reported for this story from Denver.

Quoted Text

Public Safety Commissioner dismissal

Palin at Alaska Airmen's Trade Show in Anchorage, Alaska (2008-05-10)On July 11, 2008, Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."[50] She instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down.[51][52] Her power to fire him is not in dispute, but Monegan alleged that his dismissal may have been an abuse of power tied to his reluctance to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann.[53]

Palin replaced Monegan with Chuck Kopp.[54]Palin knew that Kopp had allegedly sexually harassed an employee, but thought the claims had not been further substantiated and did not know that he had been removed from supervision of the employee while he was investigated and received a letter of reprimand.[55][56]

Palin said that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten. Palin said that members of her staff had made contact with public safety officials regarding the trooper, though she said that her staff's contacts with the commission were not directed by her and she had little knowledge of them. She also took disciplinary action against one member of her staff who had mentioned her and Wooten's family connection to Monegan's staff.[57] Palin replaced Monegan with Chuck Kopp, who had allegedly sexually harassed an employee.[58][59]

In August 2008, the Alaska Legislature hired Steve Branchflower to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal.[60] Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who is overseeing the investigation, says that the Palin administration has been cooperating and that subpoenas are unnecessary.[61]

Quoted Text

On August 29, 2008, Palin was announced as presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain's vice-presidential candidate, or running mate.[62] Palin's selection surprised many Republican officials, several of whom had speculated about other candidates[63][64] such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, United States Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, and former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.[65] Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, previously considered the frontrunners for the position, reportedly 'feel manipulated' over the surprise announcement for being 'used as decoys.' [66]A month previously, Palin had said:

Quoted Text

"[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P. slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question."[67]

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Palin is considered to have similar policy positions to John McCain in most respects. One exception is drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which Palin strongly supports and McCain has opposed.[68] She has supported aspects of Democratic nominee Barack Obama's energy plan.[69][15][16]

A major consideration in Palin's selection was her appeal to former Hillary Clinton supporters in the contentious Democratic primary.[70] Palin, when asked about Senator Clinton's complaints regarding her coverage by the press, said "that doesn't do us any good, women in politics, women in general, wanting to progress this country...when I hear a statement like that from from any woman, I think that there is a perceived whine."[71]

Palin is the second U.S. woman to run on a major party ticket, after Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee of former vice-president Walter Mondale in 1984.[62]

Quoted Text

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose, hamburger, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, has run a marathon, and owns a float plane.[16][80] Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana at a time when the state had legalized possession of small amounts (though possession was still illegal under federal law). She says that she did not like it and does not smoke it now.[13] In December 2007, Palin posed for a photo spread in Vogue.[81]

Quoted from MobileTerminal

This has been out in the national media for 2+ hours - some had strong speculation even earlier than that.  I'm glad, no, excited to see that the DailyRag Gazette found it important enough to put on their online website. (Not as of 1:07pm)

But Obama's/Biden's name got up there before it was even confirmed.

No bias in this newspaper, Go figure.

Quoted Text

14 months ago: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signs one of the three budget bills into law in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, June 29, 2007. Palin cut more than a quarter billion dollars from the $1.8 billion capital budget the Legislature sent to her.

Quoted Text

CAPITAL REGION
Local GOP politicians say Alaska’s Sarah Palin will strengthen ticket
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Local Republicans reacted with glee Friday over Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his choice for vice president.
    They hailed the selection as historic, as she is the first woman to share a Republican presidential ticket, and said that she would attract women voters and help McCain deliver on his message of change to Washington. A prominent local Democratic woman, Schenectady County Legislator Karen Johnson, was not enthusiastic, however.
    Palin, 44, has been governor for less than two years. The mother of five children, she is an evangelical Christian and former beauty pageant queen. She also served as mayor of the small town of Wasilla, an Anchorage suburb, and on its City Council.
    “Governor Palin will help our Republican ticket be victorious this November by working with John McCain to deliver — not just talk about — the types of real change voters have been calling for,” said state Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco.
    Tedisco, R-Schenectady, said Palin’s selection “provides a new home and another alternative” for millions of women dissatisfied with the “disrespectful manner in which Senator Obama treated Senator Hillary Clinton throughout the Democrat primary.”
    Earlier in the presidential campaign, Tedisco and the great majority of his conference supported former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He now backs McCain.
    State Sen. Hugh Farley, RNiskayuna, called Palin a spectacular choice. “She is the only one on the ticket with executive experience and her approval rating has been right through the roof,” he said.
    Palin has been “a reformer and a magnificent governor,” Farley said. “She brings youth and vigor to the ticket and answers the question of women breaking the glass ceiling.”
    The glass ceiling represents the symbolic barrier to the highest office in the land. Clinton used the phrase during her bid for president, saying 18 million people who supported her helped crack the ceiling.
    Farley likened Palin to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, a leader of the Republican Party and of the Progressive Movement, a governor of New York and a professional historian, naturalist, explorer, author and soldier.
    “He was a vigorous, reformedminded activist. And she is a reformer and no-nonsense governor,” Farley said. “She truly has a sparkling record.”
    Like Tedisco, Farley supported Giuliani for president. But he said he now supports McCain and said “John McCain has gone up in my opinion. His pick for vice president was important for me and this adds an awful lot.”
    Assemblyman George Amedore Jr., R-Rotterdam, an evangelical Christian himself, said Palin is the type of person America needs. “I think it is a great selection. She understands what it takes to start an economy and to meet the needs of the people. She will help him get the youth vote,” he said.
    Amedore added Palin’s gender is not an issue to him. “It doesn’t concern me. It is a matter of appeal and experience. We need someone with outside experience who brings about change people want.”
    Amedore, who is seeking re-election to the Assembly, is campaigning as an outsider seeking to bring change to Albany. His opponent is Democrat Mark Blanchfield, a Schenectady city councilman.
    Schenectady County Legislator Joseph Suhrada, R-Rotterdam, said he was not surprised by McCain’s pick.
    “I was rooting for her for the last three months,” he said. “She is a Conservative, a family woman who knows what she believes. She has taken on corruption and fought against pork and she is rock steady,” he said. “You will see a lot of independent women who know how hard it is to raise families and run a career relate to Palin.”
OTHER VOICES
    Schenectady County Legislator Karen Johnson, D-Schenectady, said she saw Palin on TV Friday after the announcement. Other than that, “she’s a complete unknown to me.”
    But, from what she’s learned, Palin won’t be appealing to crossover voters, including disgruntled Democrats.
    “I think that this is not going to be a method of grabbing the Hillary vote,” Johnson said. “I think they’re a little more liberal than that.”
    And the widow of a former governor of Alaska with roots in the Capital Region has hesitation also.
    One of Palin’s predecessors in the governor’s mansion, the state’s fifth governor, Jay Hammond, has roots in the Schenectady area. He was governor from 1975 until 1982. He was born in Troy and attended high school in Scotia. Hammond died in 2005.
    His widow, Bella Hammond, now 75, told The Daily Gazette by phone Friday from her home in a remote area west of Anchorage that she was surprised the holder of her husband’s old job was picked.
    She said she is worried Palin’s candidate duties will take her away from her governor duties.
    “She’s very bright and personable,” Bella Hammond said. “I think she is sincere in her efforts to do a good job, but I’m still disappointed that Alaska doesn’t seem to be her first priority right now.”

Quoted from Salvatore

these local politicians they interviewed are off there rockers. what is tedisco talking about? A new home? People shouldnt be running so they get out of Alaska to move to a new home in Washinton. Maddone! And Suhrad is off his rocker thinking the women will vote for her- look how good looking this babe is and they will jealous and so I know how women are they will vote AGAISNT her. As far as Georgies words about the youth vote what the hey? The older people wont vote for a woman . I know my parents wouldnt never have wanted to put a woman in there and would have voted against her.  I am concerned that there could be a woman in there with the hormoanal issue that could lead to war. Whats going on over there that the repubs want a woman? I dont capice.

Quoted from Brad Littlefield

McCain selecting Palin will bring this registered Conservative to pull the lever for the Republican ticket.  Had he selected
Lieberman or a liberal to moderate Republican (e.g., Guiliani), I would likely have supported Bob Barr.  Though I support
much of candidate Barr's platform, I am realistic and understand that he presently polls only in the low to mid single digits.

Palin - pro-life, opposed to same-sex marriage, supports domestic drilling for oil - I'm all in!

Quoted from bumblethru

She clearly does not have enough experience for the job. Ideals and talk are one thing. We can only hope that she is a quick learner.

I believe that Palin or Obama are not qualified, at present, to handle foreign affairs. But we still have a couple months left.

Quoted Text

    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

Quoted Text

     If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgment to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.

Quoted from Salvatore

I dont like the attitude of you here people because my opinion is differing from yous people. If I think it is bad tro put a woman on the ticket for national office wait and see when the rest of america backs me over here. My own wife said she should stay home and take care of those babies there and stop running around trying to be a man. My aunt who is 88 was disgusted that a woman should try to take a mans job like that too, and if my parents were alive they would want to go back over to the other side and give up on the country. The women and the seniors and the men just turned away from McCain so who is left? No one now he loses by 20 points This is an infamita. A sin against God. And I dont mean Bob GOD either.

Quoted from Salvatore

we will see but this woman has five kids count them five and seems to this old stunod that she should be home with them taking care of them like Susie Savage should be, and most women I know agree with me. She will bring it all down since the nation doesnt want a woman

Quoted Text

As to our coverage of the selection, we have given the same coverage in our newspaper and on the Web site for each candidate. The bulk of the reporting was handled by The Associated Press, with one of our reporters writing a local reaction piece.

Quoted from Salvatore

  I am concerned that there could be a woman in there with the hormoanal issue that could lead to war. Whats going on over there that the repubs want a woman? I dont capice.

Quoted from Rene

Black/White; Male/Female; young/old;  whatever......grow up and look past this crap into the credentials and character of the candidates then we might get somewhere in this country of ours.

Quoted Text

To rebut rumors, Palin says daughter, 17, pregnant
By Steve Holland
1 hour, 2 minutes ago

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said.

The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple's privacy.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the statement concluded.

MCCAIN KNEW

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

In the short period since she was announced last Friday, Palin has helped to energize the Republican Party's conservative base, giving the McCain camp fresh energy going into the campaign for the November 4 election against Democrat Barack Obama.

McCain officials said the news of the daughter's pregnancy was being released to rebut what one aide called "mud-slinging and lies" circulating on liberal blog sites.

According to these rumors, Sarah Palin had faked a pregnancy and pretended to have given birth in May to her fifth child, a son named Trig who has Down syndrome. The rumor was that Trig was actually Bristol Palin's child and that Sarah Palin was the grandmother.

A senior McCain campaign official said the McCain camp was appalled that these rumors had not only been spread around liberal blog sites and partisan Democrats, but also were the subject of heightened interest from mainstream news media.

"The despicable rumors that have been spread by liberal blogs, some even with Barack Obama's name in them, is a real anchor around the Democratic ticket, pulling them down in the mud in a way that certainly juxtaposes themselves against their 'campaign of change,"' a senior aide said.

Quoted from Salvatore

despicable