I think some of the news was trying to downplay the Palin announcement while basking in the afterglow of Obama's Greek Tragedy.

But the public reaction, judging from where I work, is that there's substantially more interest in this annoucement and they had to elevate coverage appropriately.

with zero foreign policy experience

That's just it. How does an intellectually honest person argue that, on the basis of foreign policy experience, Palin isn't qualified for Vice-President at the same time arguing that Obama is qualified to be President.

The reaction of Obama's campaign has been that they are knocked off their feet. They are regurgitating their talking points, which go wide of the mark. In other words, they are striking out.

Now the Obamanauts are saying that Sarah Palin is NO Hillary Clinton and as part of the process are dredging up Republican comments on Obama, which is sorta stupid.

Anytime someone says "For the fact of the matter," they are usually about to lie. This also is a pause comment to allow thought. So far, Obamanauts are charging around trying to find something, anything, that will stick. And failing.

Sarah Palin is all about real change instead of the tired old Liberal Democratic stuff that has been retreaded since Carter. It is my belief that Obama talks the talk and Sarah Palin walks the walk. I am real happy about McCain's pick.

Larry Summers
Winters, TX

The Obama response is fascinating - bitter, juvenile, factually inaccurate, and emotional.

It tells me they are running spitless over Obamaland. It has just dawned on them that they could lose.

McCain's pick of Palin has had a tremendous energizing effect already. I come from a family of strong, politically conservative females (five sisters and a mom) who have generally been luke-warm at best about McCain. Without exception, I've received calls from all of them this morning saying that now he definitely has their vote, and for the first time in their adult lives.... oh, wait, that's a different woman.

C'mon, Obama has plenty of foreign policy experience since Illinois shares a border with Canada. Or at least it's closer to Illinois than Kentucky.

Well, Palin needs to memorize this line for any debates with the gaffe-prone, exageration-prone Biden: "There you go again."

...a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Well, at least he got that part right. The rest of it sounds like a broken record. His speech writer must have had the day off.

Palin is the governor of a state bordered by two countries, Russia and Canada. That alone likely gives her more diplomacy experience than Obama and Biden combined.

This is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read in my entire life. Biden's been on the Senate Foreign Relations committee for how many decades? He's been on official visits to how many countries? He has how many powerful friends in the international community because of his years of experience? All of those questions are rhetorical, BTW. And you're trying to tell me that Palin, being governor of Alaska for a mere 18 months, has more foreign policy experience because it shares a border with Russia (it's a water border, BTW) and Canada? Are you f*cking kidding me?

You, Lorie, in the gold medal of the week in idiocy.

No, I didn't say more "foreign policy experience" than Biden. I was careful to say "diplomacy" and I stand by that. Biden is hardly known for his diplomacy. Do I really have to pull up all of his quotes again or can we at least agree on that?

As for more foreign policy experience than Obama, I base that statement on what I have seen after watching a week's worth of touting his great attributes. If he has any foreign policy experience please outline it. If he has any it would probably be a good idea to share that with voters.

Just talked to my parents and brother and sister in law... ALL hardcore Democrats... ALL now voting for McCain... They told me between 'Slow Joe' and the slap at Hillary that they now realize Mr Hopechangey is Morethesamey...

Well Virginia's Gov. Kaine said his state bordered Delaware - TWICE!!

Did Obama give some speech last night? With all this excitement about Palin; I haven't heard much.

Palin did go to Kuwait (and I think Iraq) because her son will deploy in a few weeks.

"Especially classless after John McCain's classy congrats to Obama last night."

I have to disagree with this point. I disagree with Obama on most substantive things. But this is just politics. In the Thursday video McCain said "we'll be back at it tomorrow" (or something to that effect). It's tomorrow so an attack from the Obama camp is hardly out of bounds or classless.

Obama doesn't even need to do the classy "historic moment" thing in response because of Geraldine Ferraro in '84.

McCain is so going to win. At least poor Barack can finally pull of his Moderate mask and start getting down with the struggle, again.

I'll tell you it's a chuckle to listen to these wingnuts go on and on about "foreign policy experience."

When George the Dunce first ran, when someone mentioned Europe he thought they were referring to Europa, his favorite topless bar when he was, ahem, on "active duty."

I provided a link to this in the original post above -- a perfect example of Biden's powers of diplomacy:

Michael Rubin: "As Gen. David Petraeus struggled to unite Iraqis across the ethnic and sectarian divide, Iran's Press TV seized on Biden's plan for partitioning Iraq and featured his statements with the headline "US plans to disintegrate Iraq." Biden's attack-dog statements about U.S. policy failures emboldened Iranian hard-liners to defy diplomacy. In the Dec. 7, 2007, official sermon, Ayatollah Mohammad Kashani speaking on behalf of Iran's supreme leader, declared, "This Senator [Biden] correctly says Israel could not suppress Hizbullah in Lebanon, so how can the U.S. stand face-to-face with a nation of 70 million? This is the blessing of the Guardianship of the Jurists [the theocracy] . . . which plants such thoughts in the hearts of U.S. senators and forces them to make such confessions." The crowd met his statement with refrains of "Death to America.""

They weren't attacking the town or the fact that shes is a women. How do you read that in the response? They are just stating that her experience as a major of a small town doesn't add up to enough experience possibly to be the VP.

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency."

What? Are they conceding already? Other indications Obama camp is throwing in the towel: Headlines calling Obama's speech his 'Grand Finale' . . . Picking Biden for VP so they have someone else to blame for the loss . . .

lorie-
I am not being facetious, but i am not sure i understand the point you are making with the blurb about biden and kashani. biden attacks bush foreign policy (presumably in america?) and then the iranians refer to his statements and then state their usual bellicose rhetoric. where's the diplomacy or lack of diplomacy?

simply making statements about foreign policy is not diplomacy. am i missing the wider context here? biden can criticize bush policy all he wants, but that may or may not have anything to do with diplomacy. were biden's alleged comments made in a diplomatic context, like a negotiation or something like that? if not, isn't it just biden shooting his mouth off, the iranians reading about it in the media and then commenting about it?

This was their response;

"We send our congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin and her family on her designation as the republican nominee for Vice President," said the Democratic ticket in a joint statement. "It is yet another encouraging sign that old barriers are falling in our politics. While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign."

That was the statement they released upon further reflection. The first response was the one from their spokesman Bill Burton, which I quoted in the post. Here is the story:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/the-obama-campa.html

Lorie, you are spot-on with regard to Palin's and Biden's respective diplomatic and foreign policy experience.

If one were to look closely at Biden's foreign policy record, they would see failure after failure, wrong-headed positions galore and few if any successes. His resume reeks.

So, based on their respective accomplishments and cursory examination of their character, I'd put my money on Palin in a foreign policy situation over Biden. No question about it.

"In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn't seem "productive."

In fact, she said she didn't know what the vice president does. "

read more here;
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12969.html

So you've never said something, and then had to explain further once people jump to conclusions ?

I think their further response shows great tact.

Your just throwing it out?

Diolomacy and foreign policy are pretty much the same thing. And Biden got an Iranian cleric to get people to shout "DEATH TO AMERICA!", ooooh -- Your heros Reagan and Dubya did the same thing numerous times and I don't see criticizing them.

So are you going to have an actual counterpoint or should I not bother coming back here today?

The Empty Suit from Chicago and his Team were knocked flat by this hay-maker from the McCain Camp. When they were talking about "lack of foreign policy experience" I thought they were discussing Obama, until I heard Palin's name mentioned.

Other than being four more years of Jimmmy Carter's presidency, it has become quite clear that Obama is a pathological liar, making even Bill look like a choir boy. He is a product of the countries filthiest political machine, Daley's Chicago Mafia. Its to bad the mainstream media is so far in the tank for him. I'd love to see more of the skeletons in Obama's closet.

No they aren't the same. Diplomacy is one element of foreign policy. There are many ways to effect policy besides diplomacy. Read Rubin's full piece , linked in my original post, for the full story in context, but here is a bit more of it:

"As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is well versed in policy debates and carefully choreographed trips. But his record on the Islamic Republic of Iran -- perhaps the chief national security threat facing the next president -- suggests a persistent and dangerous judgment deficit. Biden's unyielding pursuit of "engagement" with Iran for more than a decade has made it easier for Tehran to pursue its nuclear program, while his partisan obsession with thwarting the Bush administration has led him to oppose tough sanctions against hard-liners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."

As I wrote in the update to the post, on second thought, Biden does have a lot of diplomacy experience, but much of it has been failed. I don't care what people were shouting, I care that a senior Senator told foreign nations that the U.S. President was lying and could not be trusted, when our government was trying to pursue diplomacy. That is what Dems have done for eight years -- told the world that Bush is a liar that can't be trusted on anything, then they complain when we are not able to solve things through diplomacy.

I have a couple of daughters getting home from school any minute now so I will be going offline for a while so no more "counterpoints" today. :-)