Gotta love the Exxon logo right next to her name.

Who chooses the debate questions? Will there be one on Putin and energy security/drilling? Abortion?

tiger - better Exxon and oil sourced in North America than Russian blackmailers' oil.

Joe, "I voted for the war" and then decided that Iraq, like Gaul, should be divided into three parts, is going to deliver a whuppin?  Every mistake he's ever made will be served back to him; he can't be briefed, because he thinks he knows it all already; he can't even deliver his acceptance speech without misspeaking several times.  Palin is smart; tough; and briefable.  She'll do just fine; particularly since the media will give her a low-expectations advantage.

How long do you think it will take before somebody notes that she's got as much executive experience as Theodore Roosevelt had when he became vice president?  Jimmy Carter had two more years experience than her, at the same level of responsibility, when he walked into the White House.  Oops!  Maybe that's not a great talking point.

Biden won't get a chance to strut his stuff, since he'll be put on the defensive by the feisty lady using every slogan prepped by Rove for the runup to the debate - the entire debate will be centered on red meat issues to conservatives and right leaning independents. Foreign policy will never get a hearing, it will be all red meat all the time. I promise.

tomeg - do you know how the questions are selected? Are they shown to the parties prior, and if so, do they get a veto or a vote?

Tomeg: you're sounding like Crowley.  Get a grip man!  It's just begun.  Lsernoff: experience was McCain's strongest suit; he's conceded it.  They think putting a woman on the ticket is all the "change" the country needs: "You want change," says a McCain aide. "Here we come."  This is badly misreading the mood of the country.  Two strikes.  As for Biden ... you don't get elected Senator and 29 and stay there for thirty-five years by not being briefed.

Tep: up to now, you were bemoaning Obama's lack of experience, youth, whatever; now, Exxon all the time and Palin is the new Goddess.  Whatever man, whatever makes you tick.

Yes and No on TR:  He had that short NY Gov experience (Still, the biggest state's a tad harder to run than one of the smallest), but had a previously long record as Asst. Sec. of the Navy with McKinley (Foreign Policy experience), Police Commissioner for the biggest city in the country (experience looking at Urban poverty and Crime), and a bipartisan service as a Civil Service Commissioner (Working within the Govt. Bureaucracy).  Don't equate TR's long credentials with a 1.75 year cypher of a governor from a 500,000 person state shortly removed from running a town of only 9,000 people.

One should also remember that the "change" invocation is sheer hooey.  Republicans have this weird trick of pretending that they are some kind of feisty outsider coming in and taking on the system despite the provable fact that they've had Congress for 12 years until 2006 and the White House for the past eight.  They aren't taking on the government, for pete's sake, they ARE the government, and they have messed things up bigtime on more than one occasion.

Every time McCain or Palin comes with that "maverick" bs, Obama and Biden need to stay on message and make sure people know that a vote for McCain is a vote for four more of the same.

There's a reason why about 103% of the nation think we're heading down the wrong path, and it's the party that McCain and Palin belong to.

I'm wondering why the McCain campaign would pick a VP who looks so much like Tina Fey, especially after SNL's strange influence on the primary. Are they asking for SNL parody?

ick - of course I wouldn't vote for her as president. Of course I'd choose Obama over her, and Biden before either of them. Relax, McCain's not going to kick tomorrow. The choice is Obama or McCain, end of story. If this pick signals that we're getting serious about energy security, great, if not, no big deal.

Tep, this pick doesn't send seriousness on anything.  It says flippant appeal of a 1.75 year cypher to try and reach out to Hillary voters that can't see beyond their uterus.