Because They are Seniors

This younger gentleman asked his senior friend, 'Are you voting for John McCain or Joe Biden just because they are seniors?' So the older friend fires back and says, 'Are you not voting for them because they are seniors?'

Why can't I vote for them just because they are seniors? In this country seniors are laid off everyday because they have gotten up in age and its easier to pay a younger person a lot less than the older person is getting paid, passed over for promotions just cause they are older sometimes, identity is stolen, robbed and preyed on by the younger generation, and treated badly by the healthcare system and those who are suppose to care for the elderly, but you don't seem to have a problem with that in this country that was built with many of these same seniors fighting in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, helping with the civil rights movement, writing and calling legislators to pass various pieces of legislation, paving the way for many government programs by paying taxes for all these years, and now a descendent of those same seniors has a chance to be leader in this same country where seniors are treated as forgotten and second class citizens at nursing homes and in terms of benefits for seniors, so you right I'm going to vote for one of them!

Not just because they are seniors,

But because they are hope, they are change, and they now allow me to understand when my 55 year old son says he wants to be president or vice president, it is not a fairy tale but a short term goal,

Because he sees, understands, and knows, he can achieve, withstand, and do anything just because he’s a senior! Most of all my son, Joe Biden and John McCain understand seniors more than others because they are seniors. So why not vote for John McCain or Joe Biden because they are seniors.

Don't be influenced by the naysayers or the haters. Listen and understand the motives of those whose only message and goal is to divert our attention. Be suspect of those who believe we can be distracted so much that we will not notice they have no plan for this country, no vision and no intellectual ability as a leader. It is time to stand tall and proud. It is our time as Americans to stand for what we believe in and to regain the dignity and respect of other countries. It is their time. It is our time, the time is now. Make the difference by supporting John McCain for President or Joe Biden for Vice President of the "New" United States of America.

Because She's a Woman

This gentleman asked his female friend, 'Are you voting for Sarah Palin just because she's a woman?' So the woman fires back and says, 'Are you not voting for her because she's a woman?'

Why can't I vote for her just because she's a woman? In this country women are denied jobs everyday just cause they are a woman, passed over for promotions just cause they are a woman, considered to be soft, emotion and too weak to do the things that man do just cause they are a woman, used as sex tools and treated like sluts for what they wear, criticized and disrespected time and time again with slurs such as B**** or 304, all the while they have birthed, clothed, and took care of hundreds of children by themselves while many men abandoned their duties as parents forcing women to play both father & mother in single parent households but you don't seem to have a problem with that in this country that was built with women taking care of homes while the man worked in fields all day, made sure food was on the table while the man went to work at factories, contributed to World War I and II by working in factories to supply many resources for our troops overseas, and now a descendent of those same women has a chance to be a strong leader in this same country where they didn’t get their right to vote until 1920 and were not considered equal to men and even until today are still paid less than so many male counterparts who do the same job they do, so you right I'm going to vote for her!

Not just because she's a woman,

But because she is hope, she is change, and she now allows me to understand when my granddaughter says she wants to be president or vice president when she grows up, it is not a fairy tale but a short term goal,

Because she sees, understands, and knows, she can achieve, withstand, and do anything just because she's a woman!

Don't be influenced by the naysayers or the haters. Listen and understand the motives of those whose only message and goal is to divert our attention. Be suspect of those who believe we can be distracted so much that we will not notice they have no plan for this country, no vision and no intellectual ability as a leader. It is time to stand tall and proud. It is our time as Americans to stand for what we believe in and to regain the dignity and respect of other countries. It is her time. It is our time, the time is now. Make the difference by supporting Sarah Palin for Vice President of the "New" United States of America. Thus voting for John McCain for President of the United States of America this November.

Because He's Black

This older gentleman of another race, asked his older black friend, 'Are you voting for Barack Obama just because he's black?' So the older black guy fires back and says, 'Are you not voting for him because he's black?'

Why can't I vote for him just because he's black? In this country men are pulled over everyday just cause their black, passed over for promotions just cause their black, considered to be criminals just cause their black, but you don't seem to have a problem with that this country was built with the sweat and whip off the slaves back, and now a descendent of those same slaves has a chance to lead the same country where we weren’t considered to be people, where we weren't allowed to be educated, drink from the same water fountains, eat in the same restaurants or even vote, so you ____right I'm going to vote for him!

Not just because he's black,

But because he is hope, he is change, and he now allows me to understand when my grandson says he wants to be president when he grows up, it is not a fairy tale but a short term goal,
Because he sees, understands, and knows, he can achieve, withstand, and do anything just because he's black!

Don't be influenced by the naysayers or the haters. Listen and understand the motives of those whose only message and goal is to divert our attention. Be suspect of those who believe we can be distracted so much that we will not notice they have no plan for this country, no vision and no intellectual ability as a leader. It is time to stand tall and proud. It is our time as Americans to stand for what we believe in and to regain the dignity and respect of other countries. It is his time. It is our time, the time is now. Make the difference by supporting Barack Obama for President of the "New" United States of America.

Candidates' responses to CDC study reveal vastly different levels of commitment

Presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain both responded to this weekend's news that the U.S. AIDS epidemic is 40 percent larger than previously believed with statements vowing to take action against the epidemic. The Black AIDS Institute is heartened to know that both candidates are at least paying attention to this spiraling epidemic-a far cry from previous elections.

However, these statements again make clear that Sen. McCain has a long way to go to earn the votes of those who care about HIV/AIDS in America. While Sen. Obama repeated his pledge to draft and implement America's first national HIV/AIDS strategy, Sen. McCain again offered no specific commitments or proposals for how he will deal with the epidemic. He merely vows to "work closely" with all stakeholders.

Sadly, this seeming disinterest in the epidemic is not new for Sen. McCain. His record on AIDS vacillates between total disengagement and reactionary cant.

In fall 2007, the Black AIDS Institute joined a handful of AIDS watchdogs in reviewing all candidates' records and statements on AIDS. Sen. McCain's campaign has not to date offered a detailed AIDS platform. During his decades in the Senate, he has not meaningfully participated in AIDS policy formation other than to support poorly thought out bills that stigmatize people living with HIV.

Voters considering supporting Sen. McCain must demand that he take this epidemic more seriously and articulate meaningful proposals and specific commitments for dealing with it.

Sen. Obama, on the other hand, has vowed in his AIDS platform and in subsequent statements like yesterday's to draft a national strategy for dealing with the domestic epidemic. America wisely requires countries seeking foreign aid for their AIDS programs to first have a national plan of action, yet we have never had one of our own.

Sen. Obama's pledge is a welcome commitment. And should he become president we must all hold him accountable for following through on that commitment.

TEXT OF OBAMA AND MCCAIN STATEMENTS

Sen. Obama's statement:
"We have now learned that 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006, not 40,000 that had been previously cited. These new figures should bring new focus to our efforts to address AIDS and HIV here at home.

"As president, I am committed to developing a National AIDS Strategy to decrease new HIV infections and improve health outcomes for Americans living with HIV/AIDS. Across the nation, we also need to prevent the spread of HIV and get people into treatment by expanding access to testing and comprehensive education programs. This report also demonstrates the need for more timely data about HIV transmission so that we can effectively evaluate prevention efforts.

"Combating HIV/AIDS also demands closing the gaps in opportunity that exist in our society so that we can strengthen our public health. We must also overcome the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS - a stigma that is too often tied to homophobia. We need to encourage folks to get tested and accelerate HIV/AIDS research toward an effective cure because we have a moral obligation to join together to meet this challenge, and to do so with the urgency this epidemic demands."

Sen. McCain's statement:
"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday announced that in 2006 there were 56,300 new HIV infections in United States -- significantly higher than the previous estimate of 40,000 cases. More than a million Americans live with this devastating disease. As President, I will work closely with non-profit, government, and private sector stakeholders to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS. By focusing efforts on reducing drug costs through greater market competition, promoting prevention efforts, encouraging testing, targeting communities with high infection rates, strengthening research and reducing disparities through effective public outreach, we as a nation can make great progress in fighting HIV/AIDS."

The Black AIDS Institute is a 501(c)3 non- profit organization with a mission to end the AIDS pandemic in Black communities. The Institute interprets public and private sector HIV policies, conducts trainings, offers technical assistance, disseminates information and provides advocacy. In the Black community, HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death amongst children, women and men aged 25-35; and the leading cause of death amongst women aged 24-34. As HIV/AIDS continues to devastate Black populations across our country, Heroes in the Struggle, our portrait exhibit and annual gala, gives us the opportunity to showcase examples of heroism from within our communities.

For opportunities to join us and support our Fundraising or Special Events, please visit our website at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Dn0xNxCPde8eWljjhgFPX63aBdWhz5Q_7uoXcU8dKEZIAPoqa6o62J8bcNIOl1L9Xx4QGLg3bXxh5_4xH_T9NMDoW0TJluK1VHx3yaaFfQoqlBJ7KgimJg== or contact Jasmine Burnett at 213-353-3610 extension 116.

Storm Disrupts Republican Plans for Convention

The Republican Party National Convention is set to start Monday, September 1, 2008 but with the recent emergence of Hurricane Gustav, plans are starting to change. Yes the Republican National Convention has to deal with the storm that will disrupt whether or not many of the slated speakers show up to the convention or not. President Bush and Vice President Cheney who were each slated to speak tomorrow will probably not attend the convention in order to properly deal with the emergency efforts to evacuate American cities and to assist state Governors with the rebuilding and recovering efforts.

So much is being said and so much is been doing in order to make sure each state and each city receives the proper aid and resources it needs so that another Hurricane Katrina disaster doesn't happen again. While the storm is coming on the eve of the Republican National Convention, I am glad that the Republican Party realizes that it won't be good to be seen partying like the Democratic Party did last week in the wake of a storm that could lead to many deaths and tons of damages to American cities that were hit by Hurricane Katrina just 3 years ago. I am glad that the Republican Party and their Presidential candidate are not trying to make this a political issue but they are trying to figure ways to ensure that each person in the possible disaster areas receive the proper care that wasn't given to Hurricane Katrina victims.

While so many of us might try to say that President Bush and the Republican Party don't want to be seen as failing to help the same victims twice that's why they are doing so much planning and maneuvering around particularly because its a Presidential election year. I say that Hurricane Katrina was not just a Republican failure but a Democratic failure and American failure. What many of us have to realize that whenever something bad happens, we are quick to blame someone else for what went wrong instead of saying that's its all of our fault. That's what they have done in Washington for years. Year after year, Democrats and Republicans talk about who did this and who didn't do that but the reality is both parties succeed and fail together. However when they fail, they are quick to blame the other party for the failure and when they succeed, they are quick to take all the glory.

I for what to commend the Republican Party for at least showing they care right now by modifying their convention plans. I know the Democratic Party will do some things to help the Gulf Coast region but let's do it in a way that shows American unity and America's purpose of surviving and striving together instead of doing it in a political way that could ruin so many dreams in America because of political divisiveness.

BREAKING NEWS: Gustav might crash GOP Convention!

CNN's Rick Sanchez talks with Ed Henry about the possible impact of Gustav on the Republican National Convention.

My verdict: We can't deny that Hurricane Gustav will cause a considerable amount of damage..but I just hope that the people of New Orleans are treated well and are given what is necessary after the Hurricane. As for the Convention, if it has to wait..then so be it.

The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand

Barack Obama plays the fence on the War in Iraq by saying he was against the war and against the surge but than saying that he was for the surge and speaks on how the surge has worked. So what is it? Did the surge work Senator Obama or didn't it? Check it out on youtube!

Barack Obama's "No Change" Ad

"No Change" discusses how John McCain's choice for Vice President will not change the fact that he still desires to just offer four more years of the same failed Bush policies. On the air...

No Room At The Table For Black Republicans By YVONNE R. DAVIS

With stiff upper lips and phony grins, black Republicans are going to the Republican National Convention in Minnesota to be dissed by the party. Many will make believe they are down for Sen. John McCain — too afraid to come out the closet for Obama.

Since the 2000 and 2004 Republican conventions, a lot has changed for African American Republicans. I was a vice chairwoman for Bush in Connecticut, a national co-chairwoman for African Americans for Bush, a surrogate spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee and worked on Latino outreach efforts nationwide. With a number of blacks, I served on various committees to plan events at the Philadelphia and Big Apple conventions. There were rainbow coalitions of interns and delegates. Featured speakers such as Colin Powell, J.C. Watts Jr., Condolezza Rice, black actors and ministers and gospel singers played a role on prime-time television.

Black Republicans had a voice, working in key positions participating in everything from building the Republican Party platform to prayer breakfasts, hosting events and most important, being heard on issues vital to us. George W. Bush was a "new kind of Republican." He desired to show we were a part of the party of Lincoln. But oh, how times have changed.

I've gone from having VIP seats sitting in the Bush family box to having a premier seat on my living room couch in Windsor from which to watch the Republican convention. I will miss the hurrahs, shout-outs, fist pumps and holding up the signs. I will miss talking to the president, his family and so many people who were interested in what was important to African Americans. Real or perceived, there was an effort to engage us.

The 2008 convention has only one African American speaking — a man I personally know and admire, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. He is also the chief black for McCain. However, will he be seen by all on prime-time television?

Black Republican pundits at the convention have tremendous pressure to make negative remarks about Obama — there are well-scripted key message points to keep them in line. One group called the National Black Republican Association purchased 50 billboard ads in Denver to taunt that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican and that Obama is no MLK. In a three-minute video, MLK's niece Alveda King, a Republican, supports this claim. I'm not sure what time she is living in, but in the video she refers to us as Negroes.

To use the King legacy to divide and conquer is a useless tactic to prove one is not "monolithic." It's typical "crabs in a barrel" against Obama. It may be believed that acceptance brownie points will be garnered from white Republicans.

Black Republicans faking to feel included should ask why African American Republican Dr. Deborah Honeycutt, a highly educated, beautiful and successful physician running for the U.S. House in Georgia's 13th Congressional District, can't get support from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee or the Georgia State Republican Party. Since 2007, according to the Federal Elections Commission, she has raised over $5 millionto try to defeat her white Democratic opponent, incumbent Rep. David Albert Scott. To date, he raised nearly $700,000.

I asked Honeycutt's campaign manager, Michael Murphy,if John McCain has reached out to her or whether anyone of significance from Washington or Georgia is offering help.

He hesitated and gave an embarrassing "No." I then asked him why and he said, "Well ... I don't know. Perhaps when she goes to the convention they will change their minds once they see her."

While I strongly support Barack Obama, there are still so many values in the Republican Party I hold dear. John McCain's website now has a listing for African Americans along with a number of other minority groups, but the truth is that the outreach is only implied.

The 2008 Republican convention and the presidential election should be a wake-up call for black Republicans. In the end, if we choose to support Obama, we should not do it in the dark.

If we choose to support McCain, then we must get the courage to challenge a party that we have allowed to act as if we don't exist.

Yvonne R. Davis of Windsor is a former appointee of President George W. Bush.

The REAL Presidential Race: Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama by Akindele Akinyemi

I think it is completely unfair to think you are a sell out or traitor to your race because you have Blacks supporting the McCain/Sarah Palin express. Just because Sen. Obama gave another speech this past Thursday does not mean I should automatically support the Obama/Biden ticket.

How come so many Blacks are trying to twist our arms to vote Obama? I mean what l has Obama done? He has not even finished a full term in the U.S. Senate. We are voting for Obama as Black people because he is Black.

If we were serious about voting for people because they were Black then Michael Steele would have been in the U.S. Senate from Maryland. How come Blacks did not support him? Because he is a Republican. The same with many other Black Republicans who are telling our community to get up off their asses and work for once instead of waiting for the government to do for us.

Liberals and moderates are criticizing how McCain does not have a urban policy agenda. I am aware of his plan for designing an Office of Urban Policy. However, when I read this below:

When I'm President, I will raise the minimum wage and make it a living wage by making sure that it rises every time the cost of living does. I'll start letting our unions do what they do best again – organize our workers and lift up our middle-class. And I'll finally make sure every American has affordable health care that stays with you no matter what happens by passing my plan to provide universal coverage and cut the cost of health care by up to $2500 per family.

It sounds like a page torn from President Lyndon Johnson. In other words, he preaches change but nothing is new under the sun.

In Michigan, places like Detroit, Benton Harbor, Saginaw and Flint do not need more failed policies that never work. I'm sorry but Obama is not about change. I did not hear anything in his speech about making school choice the law of the land, cracking down on drugs and gangs, lowering taxes in urban areas to encourage the growth of the private sector, and a host of other free market solutions that have been advocated for decades.

I have said for months that the only way places like Detroit and Benton Harbor will be revitalized is if we transform those areas into financial markets. Not automotive markets but 21st century global hubs that are technologically based.

Both free market education and economics work in the inner city if implemented correctly. I would love for Gov. Palin to come into an area like Detroit and ask the residents here why are you still voting for a party that has made you America's Poorest City?

But asking these big urban Democratic mayors in Michigan to lower taxes and seek more free market solutions to their problems flies in the face of their own interests in feeding the numerous interest groups, special pleaders, and cronies who have gotten used to the contracts, the handouts, and the barely disguised bribes that pass for local government action these days. We can see why Detroit is America's Poorest City.

When we strive for a handout and not a handup we cripple ourselves. And if you think I am going to have a wait and see approach to the issues in our city then you are highly mistaken. Even if Gov. Granholm was to remove Mayor Kilpatrick from office in Detroit do we want Ken Cockrel running the city?

I personally do not think this is a time where Republicans should ignore the Black vote. Just because a majority are voting for someone solely on the color of their skin does not mean you should try. There are thousands of people in Detroit alone that are sick and tired of the Democratic Party. But if you put a Victory Center in Wyandotte and not Detroit you are missing the point of urban outreach.

Black politics in our community normally means liberal policies that continue to keep up strapped to a plantation mentality. A polarizing effect of this is how we are making Detroit poorer by stripping the copper, gas meters, wiring and furnaces out of the homes. If you live in Warrendale where I live in Detroit they tore the awning off the house across the street from where I live recently and spray painted the houses around the corner. Should we blame the Republican Party for this crisis?

What about Black men in my community climbing on top of electric poles being electrocuted because they are trying to steal the transformers on the poles for copper? Should I blame the White power structure for this type of behavior?

The Democratic Party once again have Blacks clueless. While we sit and clap at Obama's speeches will the Michigan Democratic Party next week nominate Deborah Thomas for Michigan Supreme Court? Thomas is a Black woman from Detroit. If they do not nominate her I hope those Black precinct delegates who will be in Lansing join the Republican Party or become Independent Conservatives and give the Democratic party the finger.

What urban Michigan needs is a makeover. It's time to stop with the partisan bickering. Yes, I am an urban conservative who votes Republican and have been known to support my Democratic colleagues from time to time but we now need policies that work. Adult illiteracy is a policy issue that anyone can jump on. So is rebuilding families. But those points of views should be from a free market perspective and not expanding government.

I have to often tell my White colleagues that Blacks feel that the government should take care of us because of slavery. We use any and damn near all excuses to feel good. However, when it comes to personal responsibility in our community we are absent at the table. The reason why most Blacks will not support McCain or Sarah Palin is because Republicans want Black people to pursue happiness while Obama and the Democratic Party wants to provide happiness to Blacks. The latter is a dependency mentality that has crippled our people for well over 400 years.

Many Blacks in our community cannot shake the notion that a political party is supposed to provide quid pro quo. That the Republican Party won't do anything for them besides get off their backs, get other citizens off their backs, and get out of their way so they can pursue happiness just isn't good enough.

Going back to Obama's Great Society again this was a page torn by President Johnson. This Great Society was many programs that amounted to life subsidy for indolence, whoredom, and irresponsibility. At the bottom, liberals, leftists, and Democrats inserted themselves wholesale into the educational processes of the black poor. That education put forth a portrait of America as a full-scale villain, which made her history unneeded — except the parts necessary to understand the crimes perpetrated on her perennial victims. With that in mind, why would liberals, leftists, and Democrats teach their captive audience about the historical role that their political opponents played in setting and keeping them free? Between the manipulation of education and the government handouts by Democrats, the Left could even convince Black people that it was the Republicans who had actually been Black folks oppressors — and that idea, that lie, would become far more useful to the Democrats than any Great Society program, as LBJ allegedly foresaw.

Unfortunately, many Blacks who I speak to about why they support Obama cannot give me a serious response. This is a serious form of voter illiteracy that has already decimated Detroit. They are voting for him because of his celebrity status not because he is ready to lead.

The Republican Party that John McCain and Sarah Palin are re-building has not been designed to reach out to a group on the basis of race identity, but on the basis of a given group's ideas and values. By the party's very definition — its basic principles — this precludes reaching out to groups which have race, ethnicity, and/or gender as their sole criterion for a political entity. So when some observers wonder what the Republican Party is going to "do for" the "Black community," most Republicans will have a certain look of puzzlement on our faces.

And if the Black community is a primary concern of ours then it is OUR responsibility as Black Republicans and urban conservatives to do something about it not sit on our ass and complain about Obama on CNN. We have to talk, meet, eat and pray together to move mountains. It is not the responsibility of the RNC to make that happen but the grassroots Republicans to be a force.

Finally, while we applaud Obama for getting the nomination for U.S. President how come Black people put God or Jesus Christ on the mantle when dealing with Obama's policies? Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson from Los Angeles, California who runs the Brotherhood of a New Destiny (BOND) outlines some strong points below about Obama.

(1) 70% of Black children are born out-of-wedlock; yet Sen. Obama has no plan for this crisis.

(2) According to CDC reports AIDS remains the leading cause of death among Black women between ages 25 and 34. In Washington D.C., more than 80 percent of HIV cases are among Black people. Yet, Obama is counting on condom distribution to deal with this scourge.

(3) Since 1973, 13 million Black babies have been aborted; meanwhile, as an Illinois state senator, 'pro- choice champion' Obama even opposed legislation designed to protect babies who survived late-term abortions.

(4) Sen. Obama opposes CA Prop. 8, which recognizes marriage only between a man and a woman, yet supports Sex Ed for Kindergartners as long as long as it's 'age-appropriate'.

(5) In Los Angeles, illegal alien gang members randomly shoot down Black Americans, but Mr. Obama says immigration raids are ineffective and that illegals should have a 'path to citizenship.

I will not support any leader who supports the above points. I am a Christian first not a politician or educator. And of people have a problem with that then I can clearly see why the Black community is in the condition it's in today. I will continue to support my values, my beliefs and other Blacks who are tired of the same party that is pushing Detroit further in the ground should take a look at other options.

This Presidential race is not going to boil down between McCain and Obama but Palin and Obama. McCain and Biden will battle it out between who has the strongest foreign policy agenda for the country. For Obama it's Hillary Clinton all over again and this time the Hillary supporters are getting behind Palin because they want to see a woman in the White House.

So its curtains for Obama. Good night and last woman coming over from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party don't forget to turn off the lights when leaving the Obama camp.

-- Other websites to check out with Akindele
www.michiganminorityreport.com
www.indianaminorityreport.com
www.whoisakindele.info
www.onenetwork.bravehost.com
www.brotherakindele.com
www.blackconservative.net
www.onechoicepac.com
www.myspace.com/akindele
www.blackplanet.com/akindele
www.nationalcenter.org/bios/P21Speakers_Akinyemi.html"

Anger Gives Me Focus..Makes Me Stronger..Keeps Me Sharp"

Assessing Risk Of McCain-Palin Ticket

Republican John McCain introduced first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate Friday, a stunning selection 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 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.

"This is John McCain the fighter pilot," said CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer when he heard the news. "He is willing to take a risk and put it all up on the line. I think the Republican base will be pleased by this."

"This the most out of the box pick in a very long time," added CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield. "It says to me that the McCain camp believes the democratic convention was a success for the Democrats, they cannot afford to play it safe."(Read Jeff Greenfield's analysis of the pros and cons of McCain's choice)

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 Palin, 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. He settled on her six months after first meeting the governor and following only one phone call between them last Sunday and a single face-to-face meeting Thursday, according to a timeline provided by his campaign. (Learn more about Sarah Palin.)

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.

While members of his campaign staff attacked the pick, Obama praised Palin, calling her a "compelling person with a terrific personal story," reports CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds.

Obama placed a short phone call to Palin Friday afternoon to congratulate her.

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."(Read more reaction to the Palin pick)

"It definitely reflects a decision on two fronts," said CBS News political analyst Dan Bartlett, a former adviser to President Bush. "One that with the departure of Hillary Clinton from the race that this is an opportunity for McCain to make even more headway to a key voting block."

"Second, they’re aiming to reinforce message of reform. Palin is someone who has made a mark on both the state of Alaska and nationally as someone who has taken on ethics reform boldly," Bartlett added. "The McCain campaign seems to believe those two qualities will more than make up for her lack of national exposure."

On the flipside, CBS News political analyst Joe Trippi, a former Democratic strategist, said: "If he’s going to argue she’s ready, he’s taken away the argument that Barack Obama isn’t."

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 Middletown, 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.

Asked why McCain chose her, his campaign manager Rick Davis said, "Part of it is personal fit."

"He sees Sarah, Governor Palin, as the future of the party," he added. "These are people he'd like to elevate in that regard. reformers."

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, Minnesota.

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

Her political career started with the PTA, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid. She quickly moved up to the town council, then the mayor's office of Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage. Along the way she revived her old basketball nickname, Sarah "Barracuda," given for her aggressive style and willingness to take on corruption in a state notorious for its wild west ethics.

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.

Palin is also celebrating her 20th wedding anniversary, reports CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

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.

It was discovered during pre-natal testing, but the fierce opponent of abortion said she sees only perfection when she looks at her son, reports Couric. Her oldest son, 19-year-old Track, enlisted in the army a year ago and will be deployed to Iraq next month.

Not-so-perfect Strangers

We've been told for quite a while about John McCain's style of inter-personal interaction. He likes to take time to get to know people, trust them, and get a sense of their character before knowing whether or not he can count on them.

I mentioned yesterday that McCain barely knows Sarah Palin, hasn't worked with her in any capacity, and hadn't even asked her to serve as a campaign surrogate at any point in the process. The two are, for all intents and purposes, practically strangers.

But let's flesh this out a little more. John McCain, literally, spoke to his running mate, the person he believes should be one heartbeat from serving as the leader of the free world, exactly twice before offering her a spot on the ticket.

1. McCain met Palin in February at a meeting of the National Governors Association. The one-on-one interaction between the two, according to the McCain campaign, lasted 15 minutes, at a reception after the meeting.

2. McCain talked to Palin on the phone on Sunday, while she was at the Alaska State Fair. The conversation, according to Palin's press secretary, lasted five minutes.

3. McCain had a brief meeting with Palin at one of his Arizona homes on Thursday morning, offering her a spot on the national ticket.

There's no personal relationship. There's no sense of how the two might work together running the executive branch. There's no way for McCain to know how she thinks, how she processes information, and how she responds when the pressures on. There's just nothing.

John McCain doesn't know Sarah Palin, but he wants the nation to trust her. We are, of course, also supposed to trust him, despite the fact that he just picked someone to help him lead the nation who he barely knows anything about. Indeed, when introducing Palin at an event yesterday, McCain had to carefully read from a script, as if he wasn't sure what what his running mate's name was.

I wrapped up yesterday thinking there's something deeply wrong with John McCain's decision making. This morning, I'm pretty certain of it.

The Hillary factor . . .

Hmmm: Will John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as veepmate energize Hillary Clinton's supporters to cross party lines . . . or have the opposite effect?

• • To wit: Will it invigorate Clinton, who wanted to make history, to make sure another women doesn't become the nation's first female vice president?

• • Translation: "I've worked for Hillary Clinton, and I will tell you this," a male African-American Obama delegate from New York said while watching McCain's veep announcement on TV in Denver. "The selection of Gov. Palin will energize Hillary to the extreme to elect Obama. This woman is very serious. She's driven. Do you think she wants another woman eclipsing her place in history? I doubt it."

The GOP convention . . .
Dateline: Twin Cities . . . The Republicans are readying for a dual headache: An estimated 50,000 Iraq war protesters and Hurricane Gustav hitting the U.S. and messing up their convention.

• • The trouble: Although security was heavy in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, the roar of protest resulted in a whisper.

• • The kicker: McCain, who is trying to distance himself from President Bush -- whose approval rating is in the toilet -- may have a hurricane at his disposal, forcing Bush to spend less time at the convention and more time with hurricane victims.

The GOP shocker . . .
Pssst. Word is John McCain took only two hours to interview Palin after rushing her to Dayton, Ohio, Thursday night to solidify his decision. Word is he was still hoping to select U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman as his veepmate until the last minute.

Flash flash . . .
Dateline: Denver . . . Sneed watched U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. get more bulb coverage/photo attention than his famous father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, in the Illinois delegation section before Obama delivered his acceptance speech. Rep. Jackson and wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson, sat smackdab in front of Barack Obama's podium. The Jacksons were seated next to Tonya Lee, wife of movie director Spike Lee, who was busy capturing the Illinois delegation excitement on his handheld-movie camera.

Being Meeks . . .
The Rev. James Meeks taking a momentary break from clapping during Obama's speech to tell Sneed he's still going full speed ahead with his school boycott focusing on New Trier High School in Winnetka.

"The people in Winnetka have been wonderful to us," Meeks said. "They couldn't be nicer. They are planning to even feed us during the boycott!" (Meeks had hoped to broker a deal with city and state leaders during the Denver convention -- and it didn't happen.)

Denver driblets . . .
Greater love hath no father: Ald. Ed Burke sitting on the sticky, dirty convention floor in the Illinois delegation section, so his African-American son, Travis Olison, could have his seat -- and be photographed with Spike Lee . . . Legendary footballer Rosey Grier, a member of Dem presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy's coterie, was spotted at the Obama acceptance speech using two canes . . . Actor George Clooney did not come to the Dem Convention, keeping good on his promise to pay someone $1 million dollars if he did . . . Oprah Winfrey spotted waving a small American flag and sobbing throughout Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field.

The job market . . .
Retiring Senate President Emil Jones, who is this/close to Barack Obama, tells Sneed he is not looking for some big job in the Obama administration should Barack win the presidency. "I don't want to work that hard," he joked.

So how about an ambassadorship? "I'd consider it," he joked. Bermuda? "Amen to that," quipped Jones' wife.

He told Sneed: Obama "will be the first person in the White House I knew personally."

Choice of Palin Is a Bold Move by McCain, With Risks

Senator John McCain spent the summer arguing that a 40-something candidate with four years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience was not ready to be president.

And then on Friday he picked as his running mate a 40-something candidate with two years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience.

The selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska proved quintessentially McCain — daring, hazardous and defiantly off-message. He demonstrated that he would not get boxed in by convention as he sought to put a woman next in line to the presidency for the first time. Yet in making such an unabashed bid for supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, he risked undercutting his central case against Senator Barack Obama.

“Here’s what I’m worried about,” said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist and former aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. “McCain had to protect his reputation as an opponent of status quo Washington. He had to pick someone with the shortest Washington résumé. He did that. He picked someone the right wing is going to be happy about. But it’s a gamble.”

“The question is,” Mr. Rogers continued, “what does it do to the argument that Obama’s not ready?”

The question is particularly acute for Mr. McCain, who turned 72 on Friday and would be the oldest person elected to a first term as president if he won in November. His campaign now needs to convince the public that it can imagine in the Oval Office a candidate who has spent just two years as governor of a state with a quarter of the population of Brooklyn.

But Ms. Palin, 44, brings clear assets to the ticket. The “gun-packing, hockey-playing woman,” as the Republican strategist Karl Rove described her, instantly bolstered Mr. McCain’s wobbly conservative base, which rejoiced over the selection of an anti-abortion evangelical Christian.
Her reputation as a reformer who took on her state party over corruption and wasteful spending could reinforce Mr. McCain’s own maverick appeal.

Her personal narrative as a working mother raising five children, including an infant with Down syndrome, with a husband who belongs to a union, might prove attractive to working-class voters in swing states who have been suspicious of Mr. Obama. And her presence on the ticket will allow Republicans to argue that Mr. Obama would not be the only one to break barriers if elected.

“He’s chosen a Washington outsider who will be an ally for him in shaking up the way things are done,” said Ron Nehring, chairman of the California Republican Party. “This is someone with solid conservative credentials but solid credentials as a reformer. And it’s clear after watching today’s event, no one is going to push Sarah Palin around — not Barack Obama and not Joe Biden,” the Democratic vice-presidential candidate.

In picking a running mate without deep experience but who would make history, Mr. McCain chose someone who in some ways resembles Mr. Obama. At the same time, by choosing Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware as his running mate, Mr. Obama tapped a longtime Washington hand with even more time in the Senate than Mr. McCain. Just as it might be harder for Mr. McCain to attack his opponent over his level of experience, it might be tougher for Mr. Obama to paint his rival as a creature of the capital.

The selection of Ms. Palin offered clues to how Mr. McCain would govern: holding deliberations to a tight circle of advisers, looking beyond the obvious options, taking risks and relishing surprise.

Yet if he disregarded more conventional prospects, like former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, it might be that Ms. Palin was still the fallback from a more audacious decision that Mr. McCain ultimately eschewed.

In the end, he passed over two of his best political friends, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, knowing their support for abortion rights would inflame conservatives at next week’s Republican convention.

Ms. Palin has been a rising star on the right since she beat an incumbent governor in a Republican primary in 2006 and then a former Democratic governor in the general election. With an approval rating around 80 percent, she is among the most popular governors. But her success has come on a small stage. The 115,000 votes she received in winning the governor’s office two years ago barely eclipsed the 80,000 people who packed a football stadium in Denver on Thursday night to watch Mr. Obama’s acceptance speech.

Democratic strategists compared her selection to those of Geraldine A. Ferraro in 1984 or Dan Quayle in 1988, suggesting that the decision reflected desperation by Mr. McCain. “He feels a little like Walter Mondale,” said Jim Jordan, a Democratic political consultant. “He’s a respected Washington lifer who’s run into political forces that are bigger than himself. And he’s responded by making a decision that feels panicky.”

Some Republicans, though, distinguished her résumé from Mr. Obama’s by arguing that Ms. Palin’s executive experience as governor was more valuable than Mr. Obama’s legislative history. The “not ready” argument against Mr. Obama, they suggested, will focus more on judgment than pure experience. And they maintained that Ms. Palin would get the better of Mr. Biden, predicting that the veteran senator, who is known for his slashing attacks, would have a hard time not looking as though he was being condescending to a woman.

“In a way, McCain has set a trap on the experience argument,” said Scott Reed, who managed Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996, “because if they start picking on her on experience, it’s going to backfire with women.”

6 things the Palin pick says about McCain

The selection of a running mate is among the most consequential, most defining decisions a presidential nominee can make. John McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says a lot about his decison-making — and some of it is downright breathtaking.

We knew McCain is a politician who relishes improvisation, and likes to go with his gut. But it is remarkable that someone who has repeatedly emphasized experience in this campaign named an inexperienced governor he barely knew to be his No. 2. Whatever you think of the pick, here are six things it tells us about McCain:

1. He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters — and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election — and very sick of the Bush years.

McCain could easily lose in an electoral landslide. That is the private view of Democrats and Republicans alike.

McCain’s pick shows he is not pretending. Politicians, even “mavericks” like McCain, play it safe when they think they are winning — or see an easy path to winning. They roll the dice only when they know that the risks of conventionality are greater than the risks of boldness.

The Republican brand is a mess. McCain is reasonably concluding that it won’t work to replicate George W. Bush and Karl Rove’s electoral formula, based around national security and a big advantage among Y chromosomes, from 2004.

“She’s a fresh new face in a party that’s dying for one — the antidote to boring white men,” a campaign official said.

Palin, the logic goes, will prompt voters to give him a second look — especially women who have watched Democrats reject Hillary Rodham Clinton for Barack Obama.

The risks of a backlash from choosing someone so unknown and so untested are obvious. In one swift stroke, McCain demolished what had been one of his main arguments against Obama.

“I think we’re going to have to examine our tag line, ‘dangerously inexperienced,’” a top McCain official said wryly.

2. He’s willing to gamble — bigtime. Let’s face it: This is not the pick of a self-confident candidate. It is the political equivalent of a trick play or, as some Democrats called it, a Hail Mary pass in football. McCain talks incessantly about experience, and then goes and selects a woman he hardly knows, who hardly knows foreign policy and who can hardly be seen as instantly ready for the presidency.

He is smart enough to know it could work, at least politically. Many Republicans see this pick as a brilliant stroke because it will be difficult for Democrats to run hard against a woman in the wake of the Hillary Clinton drama. Will this push those disgruntled Hillary voters McCain’s way? Perhaps. But this is hardly aimed at them: It is directed at the huge bloc of independent women — especially those who do not see abortion as a make-or-break issue — who could decide this election.

McCain has a history of taking dares. Palin represents his biggest one yet.

3. He’s worried about the political implications of his age. Like a driver overcorrecting out of a swerve, he chooses someone who is two years younger than the youthful Obama, and 28 years young than he is. (He turned 72 Friday.) The father-daughter comparison was inevitable when they appeared next to each other.

4. He’s not worried about the actuarial implications of the age issue. He thinks he’s in fine fettle, and Palin wouldn’t be performing the only constitutional duty of a vice president, which is standing by in case a president dies or becomes incapacitated. If he was really concerned about an inexperienced person sitting in the Oval Office we would be writing about vice presidential nominee Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge or Condoleezza Rice.

There is no plausible way that McCain could say that he picked Palin, who was only elected governor in 2006 and whose most extended public service was as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (population 8,471), because she was ready to be president on Day One.

Nor can McCain argue that he was looking for someone he could trust as a close adviser. Most people know the staff at the local Starbucks better than McCain knows Palin. They met for the first time last February at a National Governors Association meeting in Washington. Then, they spoke again — by phone — on Sunday while she was at the Alaska state fair and he was at home in Arizona.

McCain has made a mockery out of his campaign's longtime contention that Barack Obama is too dangerously inexperienced to be commander in chief. Now, the Democratic ticket boasts 40 years of national experience (four years for Obama and 36 years for Joseph Biden of Delaware), while the Republican ticket has 26 (McCain’s four yeasr in the House and 22 in the Senate.)

The McCain campaign has made a calculation that most voters don’t really care about the national experience or credentials of a vice president, and that Palin’s ebullient personality and reputation as a refomer who took on cesspool politics in Alasksa matters more.

5. He’s worried about his conservative base. If he had room to maneuver, there were lots of people McCain could have selected who would have represented a break from Washington politics as usual. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman comes to mind (and it certainly came to McCain’s throughout the process). He had no such room. GOP stalwarts were furious over trial balloons about the possibility of choosing a supporter of abortion rights, including the possibility that he would reach out to his friend.

Palin is an ardent opponent of abortion who was previously scheduled to keynote the Republican National Coalition for Life's "Life of the Party" event in the Twin Cities this week.

“She’s really a perfect selection,” said Darla St. Martin, the Co-Director of the National Right to Life Committee. It is no secret McCain wanted to shake things up in this race — and he realized he was limited to a shake-up conservatives could stomach.

6. At the end of the day, McCain is still McCain. People may find him a refreshing maverick, or an erratic egotist. In either event, he marches to his own beat.

On the upside, his team did manage to play to the media’s love of drama, fanning speculation about his possible choices and maximizing coverage of the decision.

On the potential downside, the drama was evidently entirely genuine. The fact that McCain only spoke with Palin about the vice presidency for the first time on Sunday, and that he was seriously considering Lieberman until days ago, suggests just how hectic and improvisational his process was.

In the end, this selection gives him a chance to reclaim the mantle of a different kind of politician intent on changing Washington. He once had a legitimate claim to this: after all, he took on his own party over campaign finance reform and immigration. He jeopardized this claim in recent months by embracing ideas he once opposed (Bush tax cuts) and ideas that appeared politically motivated (gas tax holiday).

Spontaneity, with a touch of impulsiveness, is one of the traits that attract some of McCain’s admirers. Whether it’s a good calling card for a potential president will depend on the reaction in coming days to what looks for the moment like the most daring vice presidential selection in generations.

Mike Allen contributed to this report.

Analysis: Palin could complicate energy debate

If Democrats hoped to portray John McCain as captive to the oil industry, their task became more complicated with his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate.

She is an ardent advocate for more drilling — off Alaska, off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the off-limits Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Yet she also not shied from confronting Exxon Mobil, BP and ConocoPhillips.

As the presidential campaign moves into high gear, McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama will duel over two overriding energy issues: whether to expand offshore oil drilling into areas long off-limits and whether to impose new taxes on oil companies enjoying tens of billions of dollars in windfall profits.

Palin is a popular governor in a state that for decades has been closely tied to oil. She may be a political novice, but she is hardly a newcomer when it comes to these two issues. Her emergence as McCain's No. 2 and possibly the next vice president could shift the campaign's energy debate.

When it comes to the oil industry is Palin friend or foe?

The answer may not be black or white but shades of gray.

"No one is closer to the oil industry than Governor Palin," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club in comments reflecting the views of a cross section of environmental activists. They cite her eagerness to embrace expanded offshore oil development, her lawsuit against further protection of polar bears so as not to hinder oil drilling in Alaska's ice-filled waters and her ardent support to allow oil companies into the Alaska wildlife refuge.

Drilling in the refuge's sliver of coastal tundra in northeastern Alaska — an area viewed by environmentalists as a treasured wild place that also harbors 11 billion barrels of oil — was believed to have been a dead issue. McCain opposes drilling there, as does Obama.
But that too might be changing.

The selection of Palin places the refuge's "energy production front and center in the policy debate once again," maintains Brian Kennedy, senior vice president of the Institute for Energy Research. The group has pushed for increased domestic oil production and has some oil companies among its sponsors.

While McCain has said he hasn't changed his mind about drilling there, he also has said that he is willing to re-examine the issue.

When it comes to taxing oil companies, Palin's selection might well be a doubled-edged knife for the McCain campaign.

Shortly after becoming governor in 2006, she pushed new oil taxes through the Alaska Legislature, saying the taxes proposed by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski, were too favorable to the oil companies. She was bucking Exxon Mobil, BP PLC and ConocoPhillips, which strongly opposed the legislation.

The new tax brought in an estimated $6 billion in the last budget year, bulging Alaska's treasury with an expected surplus of as much as $9 billion. Thst enabled Palin to push a second initiative — giving each Alaskan $1,200 to help them cope with high energy costs.
Sound familiar?

Obama has proposed taxing the windfall profits of the five biggest oil companies and giving people $1,000 to pay for high energy costs. Palin called such financial help "a tool that must be on the table" although she differs with Obama on where the money's source.

Like McCain, Palin says a national windfall profits tax on oil companies will hinder domestic energy production. Democrats are expected to be quick to ask: If it's good for Alaska, why isn't it good for the country?

But Palin has bucked oil companies in other ways. She pushed for more competition for the construction of a $26 billion pipeline to bring natural gas from the North Slope to the lower 48 states by favoring the TransCanada pipeline project, backed by independent companies over one proposed by BP and ConocoPhillips. She has tangled with Exxon Mobil and other oil companies over their reluctance to develop gas fields on state land.

Republicans hope that will neutralize claims that the McCain ticket is too cozy with the oil industry and shift more of the energy debate away from oil taxes to the need for expanded offshore drilling and generally more domestic energy production — issues on which Palin has been outspoken.

Don't expect the Obama campaign, not to mention many of the environmentalists activists, to cooperate.

"Big Oil extended its reach into the campaign of John McCain," said Margie Alt, executive director of Environment America, a federation of state-based environmental groups, after Palin's selection became known.

Mark Hellenthal, a GOP pollster in Alaska sees it differently. In the state "she's viewed ... as almost anti-oil. She's probably pro-oil from a national perspective, but she's not in the pocket of Big Oil. She's fought them at every step."

___
On the Net:
Governor's office: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_el_pr/storytext/cvn_campaign_energy/28866506/SIG=10pfilome/*http://gov.state.ak.us/ ___
EDITOR'S NOTE — H. Josef Hebert has covered energy and environmental issues for The Associated Press since 1990. AP writer Steve Quinn in Juneau contributed to this report.

Evangelicals energized by McCain-Palin ticket

Sarah Palin already has energized conservative religious leaders who had fretted that John McCain would pick an abortion rights supporter as his running mate. The Alaska governor was raised in a Pentecostal church and has called herself "as pro-life as any candidate can be."

To Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religion Liberties Commission, Palin is "straight out of veep central casting." Land said he had urged the McCain camp to consider the political unknown.

Gary Bauer, one of McCain's most enthusiastic evangelical supporters, said the Arizona senator had hit a "grand slam home run" and that adding Palin to the GOP ticket is "guaranteed to energize values voters."

The 44-year-old mother of five, who led her high school chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, was baptized as a teenager at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, where she and her family were very active, according to her then-pastor, Paul Riley.

She now sometimes worships at the Juneau Christian Center, which is also part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God, said Brad Kesler, business administrator of the denomination's Alaska District. But her home church is The Church on the Rock, an independent congregation, Riley said.

"The church was kind of a foundation for her," said Riley, who said he gave the invocation at Palin's inauguration and had her address students at the church last month.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Palin attends different churches and does not consider herself Pentecostal.

As a politician, Palin has sided with the majority evangelical view in opposing gay marriage and expressing a desire to see creationism discussed alongside evolution in schools.

During a 2006 debate, she said she was a proponent of teaching both evolution and creationism in schools. She later clarified her stance in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, saying that she doesn't think creationism needed to be part of the curriculum and that she would not push the state Board of Education to add such alternatives to the state's required curriculum.

Not only does Palin oppose abortion as a matter of policy, but she chose to give birth to her youngest child, a son, after a prenatal exam indicated Down syndrome. Studies show that about nine in 10 pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.

"That will resonate in a big way," said Quin Monson, a Brigham Young University professor who studies religion and politics.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, who initially said he could not vote for McCain but has since opened the door to an endorsement, called Palin "an outstanding choice that should be extremely reassuring to the conservative base" of the GOP. Dobson added that the ticket "gives us confidence he will keep his pledges to voters regarding the kinds of justices he would nominate to the Supreme Court."

"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."
Staver called Palin a "a woman of faith who has a strong position on life, a consistent opinion on judges. ... She's the complete package."

A Pew poll last week showed McCain leading Democrat Barack Obama 68 percent to 24 percent among white evangelical Protestants. But there was little enthusiasm: Only 28 percent of white evangelicals call themselves "strong" supporters of McCain, far short of President Bush's numbers four years ago.

Many evangelical leaders said McCain helped himself with a solid performance at Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, where McCain proclaimed, "I will be a pro-life president."
Mark Silk, who specializes in religion and politics at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., cautioned that while evangelical leaders are praising the Palin pick, it might not necessarily trickle down.
"The question is how this will be received by a lot of rank-and-file evangelicals who are just Americans struggling along, going to their megachurches, and care about values," Silk said.

Some question whether old-guard traditional leaders, like Dobson, hold as much influence as in the past. The evangelical establishment never warmed to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's candidacy, but grass-roots evangelicals contributed to his big win in the Iowa primaries.

Evangelical leaders got worried when McCain floated the possibility of a vice presidential candidate who supports abortion rights, including Sen. Joe Lieberman or former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge.

By choosing Palin, "McCain is saying to social and religious conservatives, 'I'm taking your views incredibly seriously,'" said Michael Cromartie, director of the evangelical studies program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.

___
On the Net:
Juneau Christian Center: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_el_pr/storytext/cvn_palin_evangelicals/28866653/SIG=10nq1c7ec/*http://jccalaska.com/
Alaska Assemblies of God: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_el_pr/storytext/cvn_palin_evangelicals/28866653/SIG=10qo4l3mm/*http://www.alaskaag.org/
Church on the Rock: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_el_pr/storytext/cvn_palin_evangelicals/28866653/SIG=10vbo9179/*http://churchontherockak.org/
___
AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll contributed to this report.

Obama ad: Despite Palin, McCain isn't change agent

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama begins airing an ad Saturday that responds to rival John McCain's selection of a running mate, carefully avoiding any direct criticism of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor whom McCain chose for the GOP ticket.

Obama's campaign promptly created the spot in advance of next week's Republican National Convention. The ad, called "No Change," sought to sustain the theme that Obama and Democrats worked to cultivate at their own convention this week — that McCain represents a continuation of the policies of an unpopular President Bush.

"Well, he's made his choice," the ad states. "But, for the rest of us there's still no change. McCain doesn't get it, calling this broken economy 'strong.' Wants to keep spending ten-billion-a-month in Iraq. And votes with George Bush 90 percent of the time."

The ad continues: "So, while this may be his running mate..." as an image of McCain and Palin appears on the screen. The image then shifts to a shot of McCain with Bush. "America knows this is John McCain's agenda. And we can't afford four more years of the same."

The ad illustrates the Obama camp's careful reaction to Palin's addition to the Republican ticket — a groundbreaking move that reintroduced gender into the presidential race just as the Democrats worked to resolve a rift between the Obama camp and supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, both called Palin to congratulate her on Friday. They also issued a joint statement that said her selection was "yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics." They called her "an admirable person and (she) will add a compelling new voice to this campaign."

Earlier, however, Obama spokesman Bill Burton issued a statement calling Palin an abortion-rights opponent and "the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience."
Obama, asked later about the message disparity, said: "I think, you know, campaigns start getting these hair triggers. And the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments."
As for the content of the ad, the reference to McCain "calling this broken economy strong" oversimplifies what McCain has said. In a recent radio interview, McCain said the "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." But he went on to say: "We've got terribly big challenges now, whether it be housing or employment. ... It's very, very tough times. It's very tough. But we're still the most innovative, the most productive, the greatest exporter, the greatest importer."

The Obama spot comes as the McCain campaign ramps up its own advertising.

McCain and the Republican National Committee planned to begin airing a new ad that depicts Obama as nothing more than an accomplished speaker, complete with scenes of his speech last month before a huge outdoor crowd in Berlin. The ad will run in his 11 key battleground states, but he also is adding Minnesota, at least during the Republican National Convention, which opens here Monday.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden visit Biodiesel Plant

Barack Obama and Joe Biden tour a Biodeisel Plant in Manoca, PA.

MUST WATCH: McCain's Huge VP mistake?

CNN's Jack Cafferty asks: Does McCain undercut his own message by picking Palin as his running mate? Just to let you know, Jack received 6,000 emails in an hour from Republicans furious about the pick. This could mean something..The verdict of some: Jack might absolutely be right. To think this woman, Governor of the small State of Alaska, will become Vice President of possibly the most powerful nation in the world is disturbing..(let alone President).

Day 3: Behind-the-Scenes with Hillary in Denver

This is Part 3 of a Behind-the-Scenes series following Hillary through Denver at the Democratic National Convention. We caught up with Hillary just before the roll call vote to nominate Senator Obama. Take a look and please continue to learn more by visiting http://www.hillaryclinton.com/.

McCain-Palin Rally in Dayton, Ohio

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announces Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate.

McCain’s Vice Presidential Choice—What a Choice?

Republican Presidential presumptive nominee revealed today that his running mate will be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who is a mother of 5 with her most recent child being born in April. The stage and the race for the General Election is finally set with Obama-Biden vs. McCain-Palin! Nonetheless, McCain’s choice of a Vice Presidential candidate is an interesting pick since Governor Palin was never in the running to be McCain’s Vice President with majority of the media speculating that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was going to be McCain’s running mate. However McCain surprised everyone with his pick for two reasons. Number one, no one knew who she was and number two, she is a woman. Thus McCain has revealed to the world and America that he is willing to do something that his opponent Barack Obama is not willing to do and that is put a woman on his ticket. While some will say that McCain only picked Governor Palin to appeal to Clinton supporters particularly the women who supported Clinton.

Nonetheless, the pick is brilliant for two reasons; it gives you someone who is not of Washington whatsoever. It gives McCain a strong conservative who can appeal to women and the family vote with her story. As a bonus the selection of Governor Palin gives McCain change appeal in the sense that this is the first female on the Republican Party ticket and the first Vice Presidential or Presidential pick from the state of Alaska. Thus McCain is showcasing that he is willing to make changes as well while still holding to his conservative values. One last thing that I didn’t mention is that while many will try to attack McCain’s pick for being too inexperience and will say that McCain can’t use the inexperience line anymore against Obama but the reality is, McCain can.

McCain’s Vice Presidential pick has executive and managerial experience by being Governor of Alaska. She is familiar with the terrain of making executive decisions because that’s what she has had to do as Governor of Alaska. Obama is inexperienced when it comes to making executive decisions. It is not a knock on Obama but it is the truth. No President since JFK has not had any executive experience and that is the reason why governors become Presidents because they have executive experience. Now as an even more impressive bonus, Governor Palin’s oldest son is in the military so this gives her appeal to the military families being torn apart and trumps Biden’s son being in the military and about to be deported to Iraq because her son and McCain’s sons are in the military and are fighting over there. To validate Governor Palin even more as a brilliant, smart and intelligent pick on John McCain’s part is the fact that she has a son that has Down Syndrome, which really intensifies her family voter ties and her ties to the handicap and mentally challenged voters’ families out there.

John McCain’s vice presidential choice is a pick for the ages in so many ways. It clearly caught everyone in America and across the world off guard. I know I was completely caught off guard as I received text message after phone call telling me who Governor Palin was and why they were shocked about her pick as well as impressed by it. McCain hit a homerun with this pick and the fact of the matter is that Governor Palin brings so much to John McCain’s ticket that appeals to so many voters. I forgot to mention that Governor Palin is not bad looking either so that could really win over some male voters who are into looks, considering the fact that Governor Palin was a former beauty pageant contestant/model.

It is clear that this year’s election is really becoming more and more historic by the second. It is becoming more and more clearer that John McCain will not allow any stone to be left unturned as he makes a huge dash toward the finish line to get elected to office. 4 years ago, no one would have ever thought a dark horse Vice Presidential pick like Governor Palin would be on the Republican ticket but 4 years and here we are with Governor Palin trying to make history as she attempts to become the first female Vice President of the United States of America. It was a bold pick that really pays dividends with voters but the polls will be the judge of the pick but nonetheless it leaves Obama supporters stunned and many Democrats to wonder whether Joe Biden is the right pick now after seeing the credential of Governor Sarah Palin. It is fair to say that Hillary supporters particularly the women supporters have a better reason now than before to vote for the Republican Party because they believe in progressive women’s rights by placing Governor Palin on their ticket, something Obama and the Democratic Party did not do.

Whoever advised John McCain on his Presidential picks were brilliant in their thought process behind putting Governor Palin on the ticket and leaving it a secret. McCain’s pick surely took away from Obama’s historical acceptance speech and now has the entire news cycle talking about Governor Palin and the Republican Dream Team. It is clear that Obama strategies will be formulating a plan to attack Governor Palin perhaps for being married to an oil man or oil executive or for simply being on McCain’s ticket or better yet being a conservative. No matter how Obama’s people shape it, they can’t attack her credentials and the fact that she has more executive and managerial experience than Obama. Thus Senator Joe Biden might be the attack dog for the Obama campaign but expect Governor Palin to be the attack dog for the McCain campaign as he goes after Obama and his inexperience as well as Biden being of Washington because he has been there 35 years and the same broken politics of Washington still exist in which most of it was under Democratic leadership in the Senate, she can add. Obama and Biden might go after Governor Palin for not having enough experience or for not having legislative experience but either way, McCain pick was a smart choice.

John McCain choose his Vice Presidential pick and what a choice it was. It was truly a remarkable choice that has left many pondering how did it happen, why did it happen and thank God it happened. McCain’s pick validates McCain in so many ways but most importantly in the corner of being about change and being willing to change at least how Washington chooses Vice Presidential picks. McCain’s willingness to go against his party was clearly shown in this pick since majority of the party and its delegates are made up of men not women but it is the women vote that wins elections. Soccer moms, military wives, stay at home moms, and national security moms that decide elections and that is what McCain has reached out to and that is the type of appeal Governor Palin will attract or at least give McCain a chance to get looked at. Finally a strong woman voice in the Republican Party who can speak to the women and appeal to independents in the process while being praised for her American story which is only possible in America. It is only fitting that McCain raises above the speculation to stun the hearts of America’s after so many were touched last night by witnessing Barack Obama officially become the first African American Presidential candidate of a major party in America. Oh what a night and what a day it has been so far!

McCAIN-PALIN 2008