And the winner is......Palin?

Okay, this is becoming old news, but I wanted to write on it as my first "real" post since it was such a surprise (for me at least). If you're wanting the Republican ticket to win in November, was Palin really the best choice?

(A couple of quick disclaimers: I have not seen Palin's speech in the Republican National Convention, which admittedly makes me less informed than I probably should be. Secondly, to be completely honest, I don't plan on voting for the Republican ticket in November; however, I am trying to write this without any political bias and wanted to give full disclosure).

My immediate reaction upon finding out was an immediate "No", and I haven't seen much to sway me otherwise. The main reason for my response is merely an issue of experience: McCain's best attack against Obama was that he wasn't experienced enough to be President; yet, by choosing Palin as his running mate he can no longer take that position.

Secondly, Alaska doesn't have a whole lot of electoral votes, nor is it a hotly contested state. Obviously that same point can be made about Obama picking Biden - but by also picking a candidate from a smaller state McCain lost the opportunity to gain an electoral advantage.

Obviously Palin's gender makes the ticket (and the election itself) more interesting, but I don't think many Hillary supporters will vote for this ticket, as some have suggested, simply because Palin is a woman.

Palin does have political beliefs that align very well with Conservatives, which should help appease those who weren't comfortable with some of McCain's views; however, I believe this could have also been accomplished by choosing someone with more experience, and thereby giving a double advantage to the McCain campaign.

So am I right on this? Is Palin a bad choice for the McCain campaign or was it a stroke of genius? I suppose only time will tell, but I'd love to hear what you think on it now....

PS - feel free to post thoughts on Palin's speech. I've seen parts of it now as I was typing, but I did not see the beginning.

What am I doing?

I wanted to create an area where I could express various opinions and also allow others to give their feedback, both good and bad, so that hopefully the end product will be an actual discussion of issues.

The main focus will be current events and issues that I find interesting. It seems to me that complicated issues are typically reduced in the media to mere sound bytes of emotional appeal without any attempt to actually discuss what is going on. I believe that there is a true need to discuss things and learn from them, rather than have a knee-jerk reactionary belief that is based more on ignorance than knowledge.

I hope that you post your own opinions/reactions to what I write, whether you agree or disagree with what I say. I welcome all opinions and beliefs as long as they are respectful to others. A discussion is boring if everyone says the same thing, so hopefully we'll have some true discussions here.

We'll see how well it goes....