Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced his vice presidential running mate yesterday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, 44.
Casey Mayville reports for Government Technology, “Elected governor in 2006, Palin became Alaska’s first female governor, as well as its youngest. She will be the first politician from Alaska to run on a national ticket in a campaign for vice president.”
“Palin has made efforts to expand the use of technology in Alaska. In 2007, Palin announced a new online training program for workforce development. The Work Ready/College Ready program helped to assess skills and offered training courses,” Mayville reports. “‘The skills needed to enter many vocations are similar to the skills needed to get into college,’ explained Palin at the time. ‘Work Ready/College Ready lets students know what level of skill they need for the occupations they’re interested in, how well they match up in those skill levels and it provides training to reach their goals.'”
Full article here.
More about Alaska’s “Work Ready/College Ready” program that was announced by Sarah Palin last August via GovTech here.
Carrie Tait reports for The Financial Post,” Ms. Palin, 44, is a lifetime NRA member who is in charge of a conservative state. She’s bullish on drilling offshore and opening up more of the contentious Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration and production. ‘People are realizing, too, there’s been some deception, I think, from some on what ANWR is all about. Of the 20 million acres up there, we’re looking at 2,000 acres as a footprint,’ she said in the interview. ‘With new technology, with directional drilling, maybe that footprint [will] shrink even more.'”
MacDailyNews Note: CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo talks with Sarah Palin about ANWR drilling, which also touches on technology, in an 11:41 video interview here.
Stefanie Olsen reports for CNET, “Mead Treadwell, a technology-focused venture capitalist and chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, a federal advisory commission to President Bush and Congress on Arctic research issues, said he met Palin when she was the mayor of Wasilla, a small town in Alaska. Treadwell said that she has long been open-minded about the need for technology to solve problems.”
“‘We’re a natural energy economy and you can’t drill on- or offshore without bringing the best technology, like 3D seismic technology to find areas for drilling, directional drilling to exploit it, and satellites. She’s supportive of new tech,’ Treadwell said,” Olsen reports.
“Palin’s father-in-law was at one time staff officer at the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation, the state’s seed capital fund for technology. According to Treadwell, she was critical of her incumbent Republican rival Frank Murkowski in 2006 when he shut the foundation down. In her inaugural address as governor, she emphasized the value of research into science and technology,” Olsen reports.
“Despite Alaska’s absence of a big tech industry, the state’s chief industries, oil and gas, as well as some telecommunications, require cutting-edge technology. Treadwell said that in discussions with Palin about balancing development vs. the environment, she typically points to technology as a solution,” Olsen reports.
Full article here.
While we’re still exploring exactly which tech devices Palin uses currently, Bridget Carey reported yesterday for The Miami Herald of “the BlackBerry-wielding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had bloggers buzzing early Friday about her tech-centric lifestyle. She’s also three years younger than Obama.”
MacDailyNews Take: Send Palin an iPhone immediately, Apple!
As for Obama’s V.P. pick, Joseph Biden, 65, Carey reports, “The technology issue isn’t so much of his wired lifestyle as it is about his past stances on technology issues like Internet freedom and privacy. Biden has spoken out against peer-to-peer networks that allow the sharing of music and other copyrighted material. On the topic of Internet privacy, he is in favor of allowing communications companies to hand over a user’s personal information to the government, but with the intention to crack down on child porn and piracy.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Michael R.,” “Dennis,” and “Jen” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: If anyone has links to articles and/or photos of Palin and technology (listening to her iPod, using a Mac, or even a ratty old Dell) or any of the other candidates – Biden, McCain, and/or Obama – please send them to the MacDailyNews Webmaster (link below) for inclusion in this or future articles.
I will say this: Sarah Palin is a very intriguing candidate. I’d like to know more about her stands on tech and other issues – I’m sure we’ll get the opportunity over the coming weeks.
I hope she’s a Mac user!
I dunno, she sounds interesting. But the Obamabots will smear her. I personally think this type of person should have been Obama’s pick for VP. Instead, Obama decided to pick a career politician. Change? Meh.
I wish we had more people/parties to choose from. This election cycle sucks. We have the democrats version of Bush/Cheney, and we have McCain/Palin.
Dudes,
the vote is for pres here….
from a tech standpoint McCain v Obama is a no brainer…
Wow.. She’s a MILF! but with her politics, I wouldn’t touch her with a 10 foot pole.
And McCain… isn’t that a brand of frozen french fries?
Magic word = Might… Might don’t make right!
I’m excited about Palin, she’s a real American success story. She went from PTA mom to Veep nominee.
I am so fscked. Why, oh why, the (half) black man can never catch a break!
Now I gotta travel around with that old gray whitie Biden for two fsckin’ months? Well, at least it’ll be over in November. Then back to the Senate to resume my do-nothing ways.
I’ve been out campaigning for so long, I barely know where the fsck that cracker-packed place even be!
Shit.
Make that a GILF, or possibly VPILF after November 4th.
What? TIna Fey is running for VP?
Where the hell did my white mama go? She didn’t even show up to my staged acceptance speech? Shiiit, mama. Don’t you love me anymore? Oh, yeah, you’re white, and that screws up my whole “dupe the blacks yet again” plan.
Surprise, not another old white dude. Still, a pretty cynical selection. She’s anti-choice. Quite the feminist there. That’ll appeal to Hilary’s disaffected supporters.
She’s certainly smart and attractive, with an affinity for technology issues. But she seems to take a lot of bad stances. In other words, a Republican.
Technology needs to be used to STOP using oil, not hunting for more while irreversibly raping natural areas is no answer for anyone but the Bushies and their ilk.
If the US had poured a fraction of what has been spent on a misguided and illegal war into new energy technologies we’d at least have made a start toward energy independence and strategic stability.
OPEC and for that matter EXXON, etc. can’t shut off or put a meter on the sun.
Sarah Palin from MILF to GILF and, soon, to VPILF.
I do believe that we met the first woman U.S. President yesterday.
After the McCain presidency, of course.
Holy cow! No wonder McCain was holding off announcing his running mate until after Obama did. With Hillary’s supporters all the more further ticked off that he never so much as considered her, they will be flocking to McCain, especially now that his running mate is a female. McCain just won the election.
Obama Can’t Compete:
Yo, doofus, Obama’s mother is DEAD.
Whoah, dude, McCain picked a MILF? She’s a terrorist?
Twat was he thinking?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_Islamic_Liberation_Front
Just a quick question… a nasty one with terrible implications…
Which is the more likely scenario?
McCain has a heart attack and Palin succeeds him?
Something nasty happens to Obama and Biden succeeds him?
The magic word is “color” (spelled wrong eh? should have a “u” in it. Strange.. would that have anything to do with the question?
This is anther of MDN’s famous Gotta-Pay-the-Rent-Day™.
The formula? Post a blatantly political story and the Hits Will Keep on Comin’! Isn’t that the same tactic that our good ole buddies Enderle, Thurott, Dvorak (not Antonin) use to pay their rent or their meds?
Cha-fsckin’-CH-I-I-I-ING!!!
What will this one hit? 200 comments?
Shall we start a pool?
Nobody with a brain ever accused MDN of being stupid.
Sarah Palin and Tall
How is this relevant to Apple and the Mac World?
(yes, she’s hot, alright!)
It’s the MacDailyNews site’s site, so I think they can post whatever they want to post.
Congrats to McCain on a great choice.
Ottawa Mark…
McCain wants Steve Ballmer for his cabinet? At least he knows the internet isn’t a series of tubes. The entire country would become one, giant BSOD. We’re almost there now.
Now THAT’S SCARY.
I’m a feminist and I still do not believe in vacuuming babies out of wombs.
It sounds like murder because it is murder.
Feminist does not equal Pro-Choice.
I’m voting McCain-Palin!!!
She may be pro-technology but she seems to be anti-science…
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/mccains-vp-want.html
I hope this story is not true…
Aside from that, she looks a lot like Gidget !!!! Time for a Sally Field appearance on SNL !!!
so mccain hammers home his point that a 47 year old one term senator is not ready to lead by choosing a 44 year old less than one term governor as his running mate? that’s some fine detective work there, lou.
her experience: beauty queen > sportscaster > mayor of town of 6,500 > governor of state with population approximately that of the omaha metro area > one heartbeat away from the presidency?
nice pick there, republicans.
Pssssst… Haven’t you ever noticed that whenever Sally Field is around, Sarah Palin isn’t? Or is Sarah Palin is around, Sally Field isn’t?
I have it on good authority Sarah Palin and Sally Field are the same person (and she also happens to be from Arcturus 6 and therefore ages extremely slowly)
Again with the prophetic magic word… age