Well I have never written here, so be gentle. But I am, like many of you, shocked by McCain's choice of a seemingly extremely unqualified running mate. Since I talked to no one today who thought this was a sure winning move, I wanted to find some comments and supporters. Well, first I happen to be on a site frequented by a lot of small farm, homesteading, self sufficient types and many of the posters are pretty conservative. I wasn't too surprised to see there was a thread on the topic, and many of the responses were people hoping for Romney to be named. That said, a decent number were also quite intrigued by the choice of Palin, and one poster who is from AK was particularly thrilled with the move. I mention this because it is very easy for me to feel that this is such a slam dunk bad decision that I have confront some reality that the selection makes some percentage of Republicans or independents happy.
Anyway, my "research" next took me to this very interesting article on the Anchorage Daily News web site: Alaskans are split on Palin's naming. It seems the Republican base in Alaska is not as universally delighted with Palin's selection as I might conclude, at least from afar.
Here are some choice quotes from this article.
The reaction wasn't so rosy elsewhere. State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to tell her the news.
"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"
Green, who has feuded with Palin, brought up the big oil tax increase Palin pushed through last year. She also pointed to the award of a $500 million state subsidy to a Canadian firm to pursue a natural gas pipeline that's far from guaranteed.
Ok, not qualified from one Fellow Republican.
Next up?
House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was also astonished at the news. He didn't want to get into the issue of her qualifications.
"She's old enough," Harris said. "She's a U.S. citizen."
Wow, rousing endorsement there. She meets the constitutional requirements... but nothing more.
And last, while not a criticism, is a comment that implies she'll help get more tourists to go to Alaska.
North Pole Republican Sen. Gene Therriault, who leads the minority caucus in the state Senate, said Palin has executive experience and he thinks she's ready for the job.
"I think it's a great opportunity for the state of Alaska," Therriault said. "For us to get our message out in what the satae[sic] has to offer to the nation."
Take a moment and read through some of the comments also (presumeably mostly from Alaskans, but I've no way to know for sure). Most are genuinely excited, but a good number are from citizens who are pretty worried about it.
Where else are you learning about the republican reaction to this naming?
I am really curious to see how this is going to go.