I am deeply excited about the choice of Governor Palin. Like McCain, she comes across as a rock-solid politician, and more importantly, person. For so long, the face of women in American politics was restricted to likes of Clinton and Pelosi, and I am sure it will be nothing short of thrilling to watch Governor Palin as she begins to represent conservatives in the national spotlight.

(Now I just need a McCain/Palin pin, and I'll be all set for November!)

Michal:

Millions of women and men feel exactly as you do.

I'm for Palin because of her values. Her gender comes second.

I have spent the last few days reading about Palin. She is very impressive - and draws a stark contrast to Obama and Biden. For what its worth . . .
http://wolfhowling.blogspot.com/2008/08/palin-in-comparison.html
- a serious post in a(n attempted) humorous format.

GW:

Brilliant post. I've linked it in the body of the piece.

She's only been in a state-executive position for a bit less than two years, and she's *already* done a ton of stuff-- including working with the Canadian government for a pipeline.

Short version: she's got a lot of potential, and I'm having a blast pointing out to folks that our VP is still more qualified than their Prez nom. *grin*

Oh, and she's a LOT prettier!

Robert - thank you for the kind words and the link.

Undeniably a masterstroke by the republican strategists. I would be curious to know how much input McCain himself had in it. I hear he only met her once before last week.

Foxfier:

The Dems, to cover up their tired arch liberal agenda, have nominated an unknown for the nations highest office. Smoke and mirrors.

GW:

You're very welcome. As always, an honor to link to your articulate blog.

Ted:

Hey, where have you been, Dubai?

Sources indicate that McCain's advisors favored Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal or Mitt Romney.

This is a classic McCain move: surprising, out of the box, and off the beltway.

His people had no idea what was going on until zero hour.

Brilliant.

Obama just lost the election; the reluctant Evangelicals are no longer reluctant.

Pay no attention to the polls.

Black candidates always poll much higher than they perform. It's called the Bradley Effect. So if polls say that BO and McCain are neck and neck, that means BO is behind.

Robert

You are right I have been in Dubai for much of the summer. Blogging of a sensitive nature is not recommended in the United Arab Emirates, hence my absence.

If you are right, McCain is a political genius and way sharper that I gave him credit for.

Just wondering--how many women and minorities have been governors and how many of those have been Republicans?

Ted:

Welcome back. I knew you were in Dubai because the Mossad was keeping an eye on you for us.

You know, the Zionist conspiracy at work:-)

You do not survive five years of horrific torture—physical and mental—in a Communist North Vietnamese POW camp on dull wits.

You do not work effectively as a US Senator for so many years as a dull knife.

McCain is extremely bright and focused.

Dr. Carol:

Here's the breakdown of female Governors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_state_governors_in_the_United_States#List_of_female_state_governors

opposed to murdering babies in the womb

Does that mean she is opposed to abortions even when halachah demands it?

Obama wants to raise your taxes and kill babies.

Palin wants to raise children and kill your taxes.

She's way more conservative than I but I like her. I want a woman in the White House and I think she might be an effective and strong VP.

Her last child was born with Downs. Some estimate that approximately 80% of Down syndrome kids are aborted. Interestingly, I recently learned that a small percentage of Downs kids have IQs that are in the normal to high range. I worked with some mentally retarded folks who contributed far more to society than many fully functioning, very intelligent people I know. They were incredibly hard working and had great attitudes.

Robert

I should have known that guy who said he was fixing my air conditioning was actually a mossad agent planting a bug. I'll have to be more careful in the future.

You are correct. McCain is certainly made of steel.

Um:

Thanks so much for your comment.

I am not an authority on Halacha, but I'm pretty sure that Halacha nowhere demands abortion, but permits abortion. Certainly in cases where the life of the mother is in jeopardy.

As for Governor Palin. She is Christian, thus she is not bound by Halacha, Jewish law.

Beth:

Good bumper sticker. You could make a fortune.

Alice:

Thanks so much for the valuable information. Yes, Governor Palin was urged by some physicians to abort her Downs Syndrome baby.

She did not, and her decision is a testament to a woman who lives by her values.

Every child that is aborted in America could have found an adoptive home, and that includes children with physical and mental handicaps. There is no shortage of couples desperate to love all children.

Ted:

The AC guy is, in fact, one of the Mossad's best operatives. His code name is Carl the Cool.

We in the International Zionist Conspiracy also employ Maytag repairmen as secret agents. But they don't get many calls.

Thank you for responding to my comment.

The way I understand it, depending on the situation, halachah either forbids abortion or obligates it.

If those who believe abortion is never anything but murder of a human being make all abortion procedures completely illegal in the United States, how will American Jews be able to follow halachah?

Um:

As I said, I'm not an authority on the halachic aspects of abortion, thus I'll refrain from commenting any further on the linguistic particulars of the words forbids, obligates and permits.

Most Conservatives do not believe in making all abortions illegal. However, we do not believe it is a constitutional right sanctioned and funded by the Federal govt.

Most responsible Conservatives recognize that there are, naturally, cases where abortion is justified.

But as a means of birth control the promiscuous use of abortion is shameful and wrong.

From my perspective, if abortion for people who are raped is going to be available- to use a bleak example- it seems that it must be legal and easily accessible. How else could a person who becomes pregnant under such horrific circumstances get an abortion? Convict the rapist in a matter of weeks? It would never, ever happen. The woman would just need to be able to pursue it on her own.

But, if it's legal the way it is now, inevitably people use it as birth control or for eugenics- i.e. abort the fetus if the doctor or parent claims it has some perceived defect. Or because they wanted a different gender. Or because they have multiples and don't want so many kids. (Sometimes people abort in the case of multiples because there's a threat to the lives of the other babies. I'm not talking about that circumstance.)

I don't know what the solution is. But I do know if people stopped having sex outside of the confines of marriage, the number of abortions in this country would plummet. Of course if you suggest such a thing people look at you like you are from another planet.

Sorry if I'm being depressing.

Most responsible Conservatives recognize that there are, naturally, cases where abortion is justified.

Yes, that is what I was originally asking: If Palin is "opposed to murdering babies in the womb," does that mean she is opposed to abortions when necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman?

Um:

I do not know.

Why don't you write to her and ask.

Let me just add this: I'm not a one issue voter. No politician holds the exact same values and positions I do. All political choices involve compromise.

I was hoping that someone, somewhere, claiming to be conservative or even an independent-thinker would express some outrage at the awesome irony of McCain's pick for VP. I'm still looking.

Now I personally don't care for the politics or personalities (or even potential positions) of either presidential candidate or party. Nonetheless, I care for McCain's positions even less than I do for Obama's which is why, given this stinky dichotomy, I'm holding my nose and fully supporting Obama.

So I wouldn't be a Palin supporter in any case.

But why is it that so few (similarly nose-pinching) conservatives have the balls to honestly critique this choice rather than being all giddy about it? Yes it's delightfully, mischievously pleasurable that the Right is trying to beat the Left at their own game. It's funny, it's awesome and it brings a smile to one's face to think of the deflated disappointment in the Obama campaign as they were relishing having Obama incisor Rommel/Romney and they now cringe in terror at the fear of Biden being anything but absolutely deferring in his debate with his opposing candidate lest he look like an Evil White Male threateningly encroaching upon a young sexually-available woman.

But side in side with the giddiness, where is the Conservative sputtering outrage at McCain's flippantly violent anti-conservative first presidential decision? His SOLE presidential decision to date and the one that has a very good chance of being the MOST IMPORTANT one that he'll ever make (he's 72, constantly cancerous, and the proprietor of A ROOMFULL of serious files on his health history) is to appoint as very potential president-to-be someone whom:

- He met with only TWICE in his life before deciding to entrust THE FATE OF THE COUNTRY (and the world, and the future - to whatever degree Presidents influence those) to her. Does anyone think he would be similarly flippant about entrusting the fate of his children to her? or his wealth?!

- Has such an AMAZINGLY thin resume that WE HAVE NO REASON WHATSOEVER to assume that she'll be a remotely capable President of the United States of America.

- Is a wishy-washy beauty-queen sports-caster ALASKAN mother of five who, as Dennis Dale points out COULD ONLY possibly have been chosen as Vice President in a world where political actors are viewed no differently by the newsmedia and the masses than are movie actors.

- Is a woman.

Holy of Holies, did I just say that?! Blasphemy of Blasphemies! To the pillory at once!

Now, far be it from me to approximate at the political effectiveness of women in general or of particular types of women in particular (though I will comment that Golda Meir was largely responsible for the tragedy of the Yom Kippur war, Indira Gandhi doesn't seem to have done all too much good for India and Margaret Thatcher...well, screw Margaret Thatcher. Britain still isn't out of the social hellhole that her stupid policies created).

But I'm serious about my ambiguity/ignorance. It may very VERY well be that humankind would be best served by having non-testosterone generated individuals in key positions of power. That's a worthy subject for investigation but it isn't my subject of interest in mentioning the fact of her being a female ("gender" is too slight a term here).

The question is one of simple, traditional, biologically preferable, Family Values.

My understanding is that family values are of some import to conservatives. Putting aside the question of female prowess in the steely halls of power, is there no Conservative corner remaining for questioning whether the world is best served by having them there in the first place? Whether Palin's family is best served by having her there is something best left to his doctors and her lawyers - but what of the country? What of the Role Model that she'll become? What of the awesome effect this will almost certainly have on the future of heterosexual relationships, marriages, families and birth-rates in this country? Good God, has nobody thought of this?!

As long as it was only "Those Liberals" who had their public sex-scandals, their tabloid triple marriages and their public-property women, most families could raise their children with the understanding that "those are the bad guys and we're not like them". But after wildly cheering-on and subsequently electing the hyper-promiscuous blouse-lifting Arnold Schwarzenegger, religiously bowing before the "golden microphone" of "El Rushbo" and - now - wildly cheering on AS REPRESENTING THE BEST OF CONSERVATIVE VALUES Ms. Sarah Palin... what Conservative future can there possibly be in this country?

Unless by "conservative" we mean nothing but Wall Street. Then we're doing just fine.

mnuez

P.S. For a high-definition, black and white snapshot of the turning point in the war on traditional family values that Conservatives have since lost (so much so their supposed spokesmen hurriedly trip over each other in their race to out-radical their radical adversaries) read Dabney.

Seriously, you'll thank me, read Dabney.

Mnuez,

Take a deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose, out through the mouth. There. Feel better now?

:-)
Have a good day.

DrCarol