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.
“my father (Black) passed when i was young, and i was raised by my mom (Korean).”
you’re Korean.
“you don’t seem to have an understanding that society doesn’t treat people of mixed ethnicity in terms of who the parent is that raised them.”
I actually do, I just think it’s racist and bogus when you know otherwise.
twilightmoon—
ok, this is getting tiring.
Palin’s experience v Obama’s as you or I see it is not the issue.
She does not meet McCain’s standard for experience as he has defined it throughout the election thus far–
this is not in dispute–
She is younger
She has no national experience
She is a governor of a small state (for 18 months)
She has been a Mayor of a tiny town (less than 10000)
She has experience, she may be qualified
BUT
McCain says she is untried and untested and too young to be Commander in Chief.
That is all.
james73: “Granted, all states want as much federal money that they can get. However, if you’re against a project, and obscene pork barrel spending, don’t keep the money. But like the article states, “any governor who would turn that tax money down likely would be turned out of office.”
As I understand it the money was part of a highway appropriations bill, she kept the money that was for highways and spent it on something other than a silly bridge.
Are you arguing that is not true, or are you saying that’s not a legitimate decision on her part? What would you have done differently?
ccap1: “McCain says she is untried and untested and too young to be Commander in Chief.
That is all.”
Finally you make a decent argument, only took you 6 pages! And major props for not making it with vitriol and hyperbole.
No one in my view is really “tried and tested” fully to become president until they sit in the office. Not even McCain. There’s a reason that pretty much everyone who goes into that office comes out looking much older, it wears people down.
I agree you might be right that she doesn’t fit the mold of someone tested on a national stage, but she’s a Washington outsider and one who has a proven record of cutting taxes, fighting corruption and reforming wasteful spending. I think those were exactly the qualities that McCain was looking for, the fact that she’s a woman is just a bonus. I really don’t think he picked her merely because she is female.
I’d also argue that the qualifications for being Vice President are different from being president, as you generally have some time to learn the lay of the land in that position. Certainly McCain’s age could make some people feel otherwise, but I’d still put better odds at McCain living years past the end of his presidency if he’s elected, than dying in office.
There’s no guarantees in life tho.
gzero: “remember the last state governor who had “executive experience” to get into the White House? His name is George W. Bush, and we all know how well that went.
Now before any of you try to counter with “Clinton was also a state governor before he became president” (which is a valid argument) the country was MUCH better off under him than under Bush, no matter how you try to spin it.”
couple points here gzero,
1. Not everyone hates Bush the way that liberals and Democrats do, I suspect you dislike and or hate him far more than the average American. Keep this in mind.
2. Clinton did some good things, I’ll grant you that, but I can’t consider him a great president (dispute how I feel about his policies some of which I liked some I did not), because he completely dropped the ball on terrorism, which was a major contributing factor to Sept 11. If he’d taken it more seriously, and not tried to make it a law enforcement issue, had she pursued the matter more aggressively, and done what he could to make sure the various portions of government were working together to fight it effectively, then I’d overlook most of his other faults.
3. Also a good chunk of people’s feelings about Bush are tied to the economy, and the price of fuel cannot be divorced from our economic situation. Clinton did not have 4+ dollar gasoline to deal with in office, if he did his approval ratings would have been far lower. Bush has actually tried to do something about the situation with gasoline by allowing more domestic production which is part of the solution, but Democrats have blocked this without providing a viable alternative. The same people that do not want drilling also are against building nuclear power. Apparently we should all just ride bicycles and I should turn off this computer and go back to using crayons.
MCCFR:
excellent post.
couple points..
1. I’d welcome an open national dialogue about abortion. We’ve never had this because we were cheated out of any sort of popular decision by a rogue Supreme Court that saw fit to legislate from the bench. If Americans want unrestricted access to abortions, lets find that out and pass that law. But lets do it through democracy, not court tyranny.
2. There’s really no way to know what being Vice President would to to Palin’s principles, we can only go on her prior record. She’s already resigned in protest when she came up against corruption in the past that she could not defeat internally. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, she’s already impressed me with her character.
3. I agree that technology issues and Mac vs PC are far down the list of anything I’d look at in voting for a president. I do care about net neutrality and copyright issues, but they are not something I’d select a president over.
@twilightmoon,
– I neither like nor hate Bush. I’m simply looking at the current state of the US and on whose watch everything is happening.
– President Bush also didn’t have $4 a gallon gas prices to deal with when came to office. Again, all this happened on his watch, and his administrations energy policies (or lack thereof) contribute to the perceived misery many US citizens are feeling. I say “perceived” because I’m always amazed and amused by how we Americans complain about supposed high energy prices, when the fact is the US has some of the LOWEST energy prices – especially gas prices – in the industrialized world. In Europe, they’re currently paying approximately $6 – $7.50 per gallon of gas at the current exchange rate.
– Clinton’s supposed failures regarding terrorism are no greater than the Bush administration’s failures. In fact on could argue that Bush’s failures were worse, given that he had the exact same intel about al Qaeda when he took office that Clinton had when he left, yet he failed to act upon it. When Clinton did attempt to act after the bombings of the US embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole, the right accused him of “wagging the dog”. The (well documented and reported upon) fact is that it was Bush who didn’t take the terrorism threat seriously, and when the time came to act, he poured our resources into Iraq, who was not an immediate threat to the US and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack.
– Perhaps I have a slightly different perspective since I live outside of the US (I’m a US citizen living and working in Germany for the US military as a civilian). What i can tell you is that after 8 years of bad judgement and failed policies of the Bush administration, nowhere near as many people in the US like Bush as you tend to believe, especially in the military. I see it every day. Based on this alone, I honestly think that McCain / Palin will not win come November.
Whether or not Obama is at the end of the day the right man to be POTUS can be debated, but he does benefit from the current anti-incumbent mood in the US, and the incumbents are the Republicans. McCain’s pick of Palin – effectively killing his strongest argument against Obama to date – did not help his cause. If she’s actually qualified or not is at this point politically irrelevant IMHO.
I’m amazed. At the otherwise intelligent people who believe that this very charming, physically attractive ultra-conservative woman would actually help the Republican ticket actually win in November.
To anyone reasonably objective on this issue it is very clear that Obama can now sleepwalk through this election. Anything than a landslide in November will be surprising. Average America feels extremely uncomfortable voting for a black guy over a white guy. However, they feel infinitely more uncomfortable voting for a white woman over a black guy. The only worse thing McCain could have done for his ticket would have been picking an openly gay man (of either race). America is incredibly very bigoted; the only thing they are more is sexist.
Welcome to MacTwilightMoonNews!
Jeez, give it a rest. It’s Labor Day weekend.
gzero: “In Europe, they’re currently paying approximately $6 – $7.50 per gallon of gas at the current exchange rate. “
They tax gasoline much higher, people in those countries do not *expect* cheap gas so they can get away with it easier. I hardly think Americans would appreciate paying the gas prices that Europeans do. It certainly would nose dive our economy.
If you’re blaming Bush for the 4 dollar gas, explain what you could have or would have done differently in his shoes which would have led to Clinton era gas prices?
“Clinton’s supposed failures regarding terrorism are no greater than the Bush administration’s failures. In fact on could argue that Bush’s failures were worse, given that he had the exact same intel about al Qaeda when he took office that Clinton had when he left, yet he failed to act upon it”
We could certainly go back and forth on this. I won’t let Bush off the hook, but to say that Bush was worse than Clinton?
He was barely in office what, 8 months before Sept 11? Of those months, how many was he trying to put his cabinet together through a contentious congress who was angry at him being president?
I know he and Cheney were working to try to modernize the military to deal with terrorism, against a very entrenched and stubborn old school military bureaucracy which didn’t see the need for such changes.
“nowhere near as many people in the US like Bush as you tend to believe, especially in the military. I see it every day. Based on this alone, I honestly think that McCain / Palin will not win come November.”
You could be right, but I hardly think living in Germany gets you a good pulse on the feelings of average Americans.
“If she’s actually qualified or not is at this point politically irrelevant IMHO.”
Politics is about appearances. Sad but inarguable truth.
Predrag: “To anyone reasonably objective on this issue it is very clear that Obama can now sleepwalk through this election.”
We’ll see.
don: “Jeez, give it a rest. It’s Labor Day weekend.”
Take it away, don. What do you have to say?
twilightmoon,
had my father not passed when i was young and i was raised by both a black american and a korean immigrant, what would you say i am?
james73,
You’re a human being, so it really doesn’t matter the whole issue is that it’s sad that it even is an issue in 2008.
Hopefully I’ll live to see the day when people see themselves as humans, not as blacks or whites or whatever.
If you are going to divide people up tho, I’d say that you would have been koreanblack or blackorean.. hmm that sounds kinda cool, maybe that.
twilightmoon,
you’re right, i don’t have any in-laws. i’m gay, i live in texas, and can’t marry. i’ll probably never will have in-laws; since as a gay american i’m not granted the rights to the “equal protection clause” of the 14th amendment and allowed the full rights to marriage or to have my marriage recognized in my home state if i married my partner in a state that allows marriage or civil unions.
but then again, my parents marriage would’ve been illegal too until the supreme court found that laws against mix raced marriage was unconstitutional several decades ago.
I think its safe to say you live an interesting life James.
twilightmoon,notfallingforitlibmedia et al.
You’re embarrassments to this country.
People like you who put party before country have, after 8 years of what we have seen, simply have mental or personality defects that are beyond repair.
Again,
Who do you want to go up against Putin,
Biden or Palin,
If you answer, corrupt hockey mom again, then seriously think about your lives and perhaps you should both consider playing with your WIIs all all day Nov 4th instead of voting, it will be fun for you and just my save the country for the rest of us.
twilightmoon,
you say it’s sad that it’s even an issue yet, you, yourself state that you view obama as a white dood; and your earlier statement was that obama was white because he was raised by his white mother.
if your logic now is that i should be viewed as a human, regardless of which parent raised me then why can’t you, or don’t you, apply that same logic to obama and just say you view him as a human being; all-be-it one you don’t support for president; instead of personally viewing him as the “white dood”.
to continue with the thought of personally viewing him as a “white dood” you negates your position of hoping to “live to see the day when people see themselves as humans, not as blacks or whites or whatever.” how do you justify this? you discount obama’s humanity by referring to him the way that you do, yet you hope to see the day when we don’t refer to ourselves by our ethnic make up.
your statements on this issue are somewhat contradictory.
Nothing to say other than I’m cleaning the grill for a BBQ tomorrow.
twilightmoon,
when palin ran for governor in 2006 she was for the “bridge to nowhere” earmark. when it became in issue of pork barrel spending the bridge earmark was changed to a general transportation appropriation, effectively changing the legal language, but not the money.
at the time, sen. coburn (r-ok) wanted to restructure the earmark to support the repair of a bridge that was damaged by hurricain katrina. congress abandoned specific earmarks for both bridges, alaska still received the full amount of appropriated money to use for transportation infrastructure as it saw fit. for a while, alaska, under gov. palin, still had plans to build a bridge, but in 2007 canceled the plan.
macdailyuser
go troll somewhere else.
james73 “to continue with the thought of personally viewing him as a “white dood” you negates your position…..your statements on this issue are somewhat contradictory.”
I guess I’m kind of mocking the whole issue. I would never vote for or against someone as president because they were black, or Korean or gay or whatever. I’d vote on how well I think they represent my interests and my beliefs.
twilightmoon,
people in europe pay higher gas prices because they are taxed higher on gas, not because of supply and demand (as it’s been argued to be in the u.s.). europeans also expect this tax revenue to pay for access to healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
twilightmoon,
i applaud you for voting for someone who represents your interest and beliefs.
i do, however, feel that you’re somewhat backtracking when you say that you’re “kind of mocking the whole issue.”
james73: “i do, however, feel that you’re somewhat backtracking when you say that you’re “kind of mocking the whole issue.”
how so?
If there was a black candidate or a korean candidate who I felt would represent my interests with integrity or honor do you think I’d hesitate to vote for them over a white candidate who did not?
The issue is race is not an issue except to people who it’s an issue to. I am not one of those people. Yet how do you explain that 90+% of blacks plan to vote for Obama?
If 90% of whites would not vote for Obama, do you think we’d even be talking about him?