What an amazing pick by McCain!! Gov. Palin brings in a distinguished record of executive experience, running a successful and popular Government in Alaska. An ideal ticket is one where 1 person brings in the Washington experience/foreign policy/national security experience and the other brings in executive/administrative experience. This can be seen from all winning tickets in the past few decades. The republican ticket is the perfect ticket now. She has a record of clean governance, bipartisanship and reducing wasteful spending and is an ideal choice for McCain's VP.

For all those who wish to raise the 'experience' question - do you honestly believe that Gov. Palin is too inexperienced to be President (a post for which, btw, she is NOT running for) despite being the Governor of Alaska for nearly 2 years and a mayor for many years before that, while Sen Obama is experienced enough to be President (a post he is running for)? If you honestly believe Palin is inexperienced, there is now way you could support Obama. Palin brings in executive experience, McCain and Biden bring Washington, foreign policy experience - what exactly does Obama bring in? Neither of the 2.

Also, it is incorrect to see the choice of Gov Palin as a gimmick to pander to the women voters. While that is a bonus, the most important point is that she would be an excellent person for the role of VP in McCain's administration, with the executive experience, to help him run the country effectively. None of us know too much about her, but whatever little Ive heard so far is immensely impressive. I request all voters to give her a fair chance, do some research and find out about her, and you will see that her candidacy is no gimmick.

Experience?

Palin has accomplished more in two years than most governors can do in two terms.

And -- amazingly -- she's done more to cut wasteful spending in Washington than most congressmen do in a career!

It's not just about having experience -- it's about having the right experience.

Mr. Downing's post is ridiculous. He starts by saying that she has a distinguished record (without articulating what that is) and then concluding by stating that we don't really know much about her. Huh? Which part is true? Seems to me that we don't know anything about her (because she hasn't really done anything of note). If you request people wait to see more about her before passing judgment, perhaps you should consider doing the same!

Also, yes, Mr. Downing, she isn't running for President, she's running as the person who is a heart beat away from the presidency. And, given McCain's age (not a knock, a legit point) this is a reasonable consideration.

Did you catch the part where Palin mentioned that Biden voted AGAINST the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970s? Great "experience" Biden brings to the table, don't you think?

I wish our governor would get rid of the foolish earmarks in this state. Bart Gordon and Alexander don't have the time or staff to do highway engineering. They do not have the ability to do anything but politically analyze the vote value of an earmark. Wake Up! This is money you already paid for a service they already owe the public. To get the most out of a transportation project, you have to know the transportation value. That is too boring for most people and a correct analysis would make a lot of the people who like to vote for the governor uncomfortable. Once you start analyzing projects for their transportation value, the museums, posy plantings, bike trails and ethanol fiascos go to the back of the line.

Transportation spending on a per capita basis rivals that of the Depression and pre-depression years. We are living off of the reserve capacity within the system. The percentage of highways that make enough tax money to sustain themselves and the losers too is decreasing every year. There are 22 miles of Interstates that can not make enough money to pay for the routine maintenance. This governor does not have the guts to take charge of the problem and is waiting for a bailout at the federal level. The only problem is that when the bailout comes, he will have to come to us for more gas tax money to match the bailout money.

At least Governor Palin had the ability to be embarrassed and the guts to do something about it.