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’m a fsking evil genius.
@natis “yeah, just what this country needs.”
What it doesn’t need is 4+ years of champagne socialism from the likes of Obama & Biden.
“Oh, you poor people, I feel your pain, but right now I have to get into my Gulfstream and fly back to my mansion in the suburbs.”
Beer and football fascism more to your liking?
At least she supports the 2nd Amendment. It drives me crazy how anti-gun the Democrats have become. I believe in some of their social, environmental and international policies, but I fear what they want to do to one of our most important fundamental rights. They weren’t always like this, and I think it is a foolish policy.
“She may be pro-technology but she seems to be anti-science…”
Why is believing in creationism, anti-science? What people often forget is that creationism and science go hand-in-hand. I believe that science is the language of God.
For instance, if the big bang happened, it may be how God created the world.
Yesterday was John McCain’s 72nd birthday. If elected, he’d be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for “inexperience,” here’s who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.
Huh?
Who is Sarah Palin? Here’s some basic background:
She was elected Alaska’s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She’s doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She’s solidly in line with John McCain’s “Big Oil first” energy policy. She’s pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won’t be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7
This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.
We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here’s a sample:
She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK
She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She’s a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK
As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK
Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK
She’s vehemently anti-choice and doesn’t care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK
I think she’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain’s part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he’ll get our vote by putting “A Woman” in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK
So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She’s a global warming denier who shares John McCain’s commitment to Big Oil. And she’s dramatically inexperienced.
In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he’s made a very dangerous decision for our country.
Sara Palin’s approval ratings DROPPED to the 80’s in July from previously being in the 90’s. Not all, but the vast majority of Alaskans REALLY like Sarah Palin.
Perhaps they know something?
They’re not all Republicans!
“Less experience than Obama”? How about more? She’s done more governing than he has ever, enforcing laws and enacting policy. That, my Mac bretheren, is when one in the executive branch does. He’s spent most of his time running for President rather than doing his job as U.S. senator with all those votes he’s missed. Any potshot you take against Palin evidences your fear that she’s actually more qualified to be President than Obama, the quintissential egotistical, corrupt Chicago/Cook County/Illinois Democratic politician. Palin represents demonstrated reform and real change for the better.
Most of you are talkin’ smack right out yo crack – Palin is a REAL Republican, anti-pork, anti-big-gov., pro life and pro religion with VASTLY more experience than Obama.
Fat resume VS fatuous words…
10 years counts. Real experience in the real world. Not real enough for ya? But Obama’s puny resume IS??!!? Too bad for you.
Vote for who ya like, Obama or McCain, but don’t make up stupid statements that Obama has more experience – that’s 100% unsupportable and makes your other (solid) arguments look suspect…
.
Bob Barr for President.
Sarah Palin for VP.
Check or write-in the rest as they fit.
I guess every one of the several hundred gray wolves re-introduced into the lower 48 should start looking up in the sky for those damn helicopters if this Alaskan MILF winds up succeeding McCain. Her philosophy on wildlife is that it ain’t endangered if it’s breathing and she can point her big automatic weapon at it. Gotta love that reasoning. I don’t give a crap how tech savvy she is (and the Blackberry thing makes me wonder…) she still sees the world through the eyes of an isolated parochial territorialist.
“If it grows, we can cut it down. “If it lives, we can kill it. “If we’re getting revenues from big oil, we can get addicted to it. “If the US government tries to enact laws that affect us, we can just tell them to ***k off. “We are close to Russia, therefore we are automatically experts in foreign affairs. “The lower 48 are all spineless dumbasses who would teach science in their schools and believe that humans had anything to do with causing global warming, when anyone who has half a brain knows the only thing humans are responsible for in this case is creating a hugely hyped hoax. “Polar bears can learn to live on land and become grizzlies if they don’t like open water. “If you’ve ever been up close and personal with a polar bear, you’d never fall for that crap that they’re endangered, because you’d be the one in danger. “What’s a MILF, anyway?
Magic word: “term” – as in, Not even one term for this lightweight.
Palin is the most unqualified choice for VP in American history. McCain’s choice was a “Hail Mary pass,” a desperate last attempt to distract the country away from the issues that McCain stands for – a collapsing economy, an expensive and unnecessary war, and a fundamental hatred of the middle class.
The choice for President became much more clear when Joe-I’m-a-pro-choice-“Catholic”-Biden joined the Obama ticket, and then with Palin’s pro-life stance on McCain’s ticket (She even gave birth to a child she knew would have special needs. Much respect!)
Obama and Biden can burn in Hell with the rest of the DEMONcRATS!
You Republicants (yes, Republicants!) crack me up. You have the audacity to talk about how the Dems will ‘smear’ Palin and you idiots are the originators and masters of it. You’ve done nothing but smear Barack and Hillary from day one. If Palin can’t take the heat she should stay home and bake cookies for the local soccer team. You didn’t see Golda Meir or Maggie Thatcher whine for a pass because they were women.
The fact of the matter is that McCan’t just pre-empted his ‘experience’ argument and you guys are now the laughing stock of the political world but don’t let facts get in your way.
While the Democrats are working on the messes you always seem to create all you can do is talk about what a MILF she is or try to control the flow of the conversation by BEGGING the world NOT to be rough on her or to take a hard look at her actions. The woman is currently under investigation for abuse of power for crying out loud. What IDIOT would be stupid enough to drag that into an election season with them? Oh yeah! That’s right! That would be YOUR candidate, John McCan’t and Won’t.
So now, not only has McCan’t lost the argument on ‘experience’ , he also loses the argument on ‘judgment’. It’s looking more and more like all Obama/Biden have to do is show up at the White House in January to get the key to the Oval Office and begin running this country in an manner that will bring dignity, honor and respect back to the U.S. of A.
I’ll not comment again until January and we’ll see if any of you are still pounding your chest (if you have one) after the citizens of this country make good on their mandate to get you Republicants out of our lives.
Barack Obama is the person who can lead our nation now.
Lead with what?
All I’ve seen from Obama is puff n’ fluff. What’s Obama gonna do, follow his voting record and sign “Present” on the bills Congress sends him?
And this “Change” business? Please. Believe me the new kid isn’t gonna clean up DC by himself, and having an entrenched insider as Veep will not help any.
Palin is the most unqualified choice for VP in American history.
You’re ranking her below Dick Cheney?
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Who would Steve Jobs vote for?
NOT the candidate that denies evolution, or global warming, or science in general.
McCain/Palin only care about science if it helps them drill for oil and fatten the wallets of their oil-industry cronies.
The propaganda on this site is Soviet-style.
Mr. Reeee. “Surprise, not another old white dude. Still, a pretty cynical selection. She’s anti-choice. Quite the feminist there.”
No she’s for choice – the choice of letting babies live.
Are you glad your mother didn’t kill you?
Before you dismiss Palin as just another pretty face, do some research on just what she HAS accomplished in her short tenure. She has accomplished more than Obama has in his 3 years in the senate (2 of which were spent campaigning).
She is the only one of the 4 that has executive experience and has balanced a budget, faced corruption head on and won.
Just because she is a ‘hockey mom’ and a former mayor doesn’t mean she is a bubblehead.
To further bolster her case to the working class, she was a commercial fisherman, union member and her husband is still both. He is also a world champion snowmobiler!
She’s intelligent, warm, and most importantly REAL. She is not full of platitudes, idealism and arrogance.
I’m only lukewarm on McCain, but Palin has made me very excited about the conservative’s chances Nov. 4!!
macmeister: “We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here’s a sample:”
Let me ask you this, if I put a list of quotes from Rush Limbaugh, or Fox News would you take them seriously and check to see what they said?
MoveOn.org is far more left than Rush Limbaugh or Fox is right.
I also read the responses, they are heavy on rhetoric and opinion, and very light on facts, as what you’d expect from an ideologically driven political board.
Anyone that uses the term “anti-choice” I’ll throw that back in your face, you’re pro baby murdering.
I prefer the terms “pro abortion rights” and “pro unborn child” myself, more descriptive and honest, and less propagandistic and euphemistic.
I’m moderately pro abortion rights myself but I have nothing in common with someone who would rudely use the word “anti-choice”. I have deep respect for people who are pro unborn child, I just don’t agree with their position.
clobber: “All I’ve seen from Obama is puff n’ fluff. What’s Obama gonna do, follow his voting record and sign “Present” on the bills Congress sends him?”
Awesome, I’ll have to remember that one.
😀
Hardy Har Har: “I’ll not comment again until January and we’ll see if any of you are still pounding your chest”
Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!
Bye.
Let’s see,
–The McCain/Palin number #2 is clearly more accomplished than the Obama/Biden #1.
–The McCain/Palin #2 has more executive experience than either the Obama/Biden #1 or #2.
–Palin is more knowledgeable about Energy Policy, the top domestic AND international issue of the day, than either Obama or Biden.
–Palin will very likely have years as VP to get up to speed on other international issues, while Obama will be in over his head on international issues on DAY ONE.
–Palin has challenged and beaten corruption in her party establishment in Alaska, while Obama played go along to get along with corruption in Chicago.
–Palin spends free time with hunters, fishermen, and snowmachine racers, while Obama spends free time with unrepentant terrorists (Ayers/Dohrn) and racist anti-American preachers.
–Palin speaks clearly and honestly, while Obama shifts and obfuscates.
Why is this even a hard choice?
Amy,
You’re right. It’s an easy choice: McCain- Palin. Obviously.