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.
wrong choice. Mccain misreads on what’s really problem. preserving environment is big issue. but sarah? developing Alaska (drilling oil?)? what the hell is he thinking?
Well, at least Obama is a Mac user.
Weird how all these McCain supporters are calling her “hot” and a MILF. She’s a 44 year old mom with caked-on make up, creepy eyes and an annoying cheerleader voice.
She looks like a tranny. An amateur tranny impersonating Tina Fey.
I understand that people are for one candidate or the other. This is where the strong pro and con opinions are from. If we step back from all of the truly moronic comments (I thought Mac users were better educated, more sophisticated, etc) just look at the choice. This women is not qualified to be vice president, much less president of the US. PTA to US president is not a great idea. She is not a Hilary replacement, as her politics fit better with Huckabee. Assuming women or men who supported Hilary will vote for her because she is female is insulting to both. If someone who voted for Hilary would be voting for McCain, they would do this regardless of the gender of the candidate. Why would republicans gut the last 18 months of attacking Obama on experience, then pick this VP candidate? The logic escapes all unless PT Barnum is correct: No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public.”
Whoa…. Did I just stumble into Fox New’s site all of the sudden? Oh wait, McCain’s ads are all over MDN… So they have to write about Palin. I got it.
Palin is a big supporter of Ted “The-Internet-are-bunch-of-Tubes” Stevens guy. So much for tech knowledge… Oh and yeah, she ‘s already lying…
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/palin_ad_starring_ted_stevens.php
Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. She’s anti-choice AND supports teaching creationism in schools! Asking her to run as VP is a cynical and transparent grab for Hillary voters. And Hillary voters are far too smart to be duped by such a pathetic and desparate choice for a running mate.
“She’s a 44 year old mom with caked-on make up, creepy eyes and an annoying cheerleader voice.”
That’s what Republicans consider as sexy especially if they are actually men in airport bathrooms.
Thanks, Jen.
Oh, and bamboozling a lot of people into voting for you (Obama) is not an accomplishment, at least not in my book!
Go McCain/Palin!!
To boost expected sagging ratings at the convention, Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain are going to mud wrestle. It was Karl Rove’s idea.
Just because Obama is black, McCain had to also bring in someone “different.”
Pretty cynical pick for VP running mate.
To Basil Ganglia
You’re an idiot. People aren’t responsible for global warming because the fscking globe isn’t warming. Were we responsible for the fscking ice age. NO. the world climate changes. It goes in cycles. The same fscks saying we are in a global warming were the same ones saying were were entering another ice-age back in the 70’s. Scientists don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. I agree we are polluting the air. We are also polluting the water and the soil too, but no one is bitching about that. And as for pro-life, I believe a woman should have a choice. It should be made when she decided to part her legs. If you can tell me the day between conception and birth that the embryo becomes a human and prove it to me then we can say abortion to that day is OK but until then you don’t know. I do agree that a woman or girl should NEVER have to carry a child if she is raped or incest etc.. but a woman should be aware of the fact that intercourse leeds to pregnancy.
“Were we responsible for the fucking ice age(?)”
My mistake. Sorry.
“Scientists don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.”
THANK YOU! I was wondering why the chemistry lab smelled like shit.
If fscking women hadn’t been given the fscking right to fscking vote in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. Fsck you crackas, I wuz da announted Oreo and now it’s all gone thanks to dat bitch ho Sarah. Fukin whitey!
Think of this woman as commander in chief. I anything happens to McSame, she will be the one charge.
Now, tell me again about Barack Obama’s lack of experience.
Anti-science, pro-creationism, against reproductive choice. What next? Ah yes, a christian dominionist who doesn’t believe climate change is caused by human activity.
OK. That’s enough.
And anyway, what does this have to do with macs? Nothing. But when the conservative crazies invade even macnn, a response has to be provided.
Amy!
Agree with everything you said, awesome post. My vote for best MDN post of the year.
Cheer!
Aldebaran: “Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. She’s anti-choice “
Aldebaran doesn’t believe in human life cheerfully murdering innocent babies…
That’s not quite as moronic as your stupid “anti-choice” bogus term.
If you’re not going to be respectful of people with principled positions on abortion than do yourself the favor or shutting the fuck up.
Thank you.
I think the pick of Palin wasn’t so much to get Hillary voters as it was to excite the republican base. People who don’t think, but just believe stuff, and Palin is their perfect representative, a creationist, anti-choice, and someone McCain probably thinks he can dominate (anyone who would call his wife a c**t in public doesn’t have a very high opinion of women, including his VP pick).
I don’t think he picked her to make his ticket a better ticket for America, he picked her because all he wants is more political power, and he always has, and his flip-flops on every issue he’s ever held prove that political ambition is his only guiding light. Anyone that had been tortured in the past, as he has, who’d excuse waterboarding and other torture has no objective principles whatsoever.
I’m no giant fan of Obama, or Biden for that matter, but McCain/Palin is worse than a joke of a choice. The fact that the polls are even close shows that the joke is on us.
Lioppa: “Just because Obama is black, McCain had to also bring in someone “different.”
Obama is white, he just happens to have a very absent black father who abandoned his mom (who raised him).
I have just as much right to claim him as white as any black has right to claim him as black, far more so. Only that he apparently wants to use slight skin pigmentation to further his political career. Just another opportunist politician. Big phony.
No wonder liberals love him so much.
lemecdutex: ” Palin is their perfect representative, a creationist, anti-choice,”
Stop with this “anti-choice” bullshit.
Look, I get you have no principles and you do not value human life, but seriously, go crawl back under your rock.
Thanks.
wintermute1: “Now, tell me again about Barack Obama’s lack of experience.”
Obama has absolutely NO experience and NO qualifications.
Sarah Palin has quite a bit.
You were saying?
“Sarah Palin has quite a bit.”
With what? Contractions?
She’s got more executive experience in government office than any of the other three men on the ballot. As for Obama, he’s been in Congress for less than four years (as a legislator), and half that time, he’s been campaigning for President. Talk about lack of experience… and he’s at the top of his ticket.
What’s the population of Alaska? Of Wasilla?
Executive experience? Sure. Top soccer mom of a frozen tundra with less than a million people.
You’re funny (and not ha ha funny either).
It’s amazing how many MDN readers are dumbass racists.
Nice election trick with Sarah Palin there, John. It’s all about winning, because if McCain wins, Republicans will go back to hating him, because McCain is, after all, a Democrat in sheep’s clothing.