Donny,

I gotta agree with you. I think she is a good choice for McCain. From what I have read of her, I like her too. Like the Obama camp though, I would question her experience. Lets face it, McCain is no spring chicken anymore. If something were to happen to him, she would be our leader. Though she does have experience on a state level, which would equal a little bit, and I mean little, on the national level, it isn’t much. Would she be ready for the presidency? I don’t know. Only time will tell I guess.

I also like to read your blog because you do take such a hopeful view on things. So many people no a days talk about how the election is just a lesser of two evils. This is depressing to me because I think that either would be a good pick and, and like you, I would be happy with both. I like that you’re keeping positive too.

Can’t wait to see how things turn out.

hey donny, love your life story…truly incredible…i stopped by your blog to read this post cuz ur one of my buddies on myspace…( i heard about u through xxx church) but anyways, on the politics tip, if you haven’t read norman l. geisler’s book on “christian ethics” it is truly incredible….changed my life…. anyways… grace and peace bro… – MARK

Her experience concerns me as well. She’s only got a little more than Obama…

hi donny,
I stumbled across your blog one day and have been reading it ever since. YOu have a truly amazing story illuminating God’s love and grace.

I am also encouraged that you as a Christian are struggling about who to vote for. I too am a Christian and have been getting a lot of heat for leaning towards a pro-choice candidate. However, with McCains choice for vp, I dont know now! So far, I love this woman!! however, i resent how sneaky john mccain is to think that hillary voters will just vote for ANY woman. And, he voted AGAINST equal pay for women many times, so I dont think he has much respect for, nor heed to the opinions of the woman he chose to run with, even though I agree with her on everything she stands for. But, if something happens to McCain, is less than 2 years experience running one of the least populated states of the US enough to run the country? Im not sure, although God has done more amazing things than that. Im still leaning towards Barack. We need someone who is open to change, and McCain just doesnt seem open.

However, I have vowed to keep an open mind, and will sit through the republican convention just as i sat through the DNC.

Obama’s speech really impacted me though.

Keep us all updated on your thoughts! I love to hear em!

God Bless you,
-Jessica

I am thrilled with the choice McCain made! I first learned about her through a headline on my yahoo homepage yesterday morning, so immediately looked her up. When I learned of her very strong and very personal stand for the sanctity of life, and of her accomplishments and character, I became very excited! I turned on the tv to find John McCain introducing her, so watched her acceptance speech, and boy did she impress me. This is an amazing woman! Yes, I agree that McCain made an excellent and very smart choice!

Tracy,

There is only one negative about her, which is this ongoing investigation I linked to above. The allegations are that her sister is married to a trooper. The two of them are getting divorced, so the Governor (Palin) asked that he be fired. The man she asked to fire her brother-in-law refused, so she fired him. It’s been alleged that she and her sister are trying to do whatever they can to ensure the sister gets custody of their children.

Those are the basic allegations, as I’ve heard them. If true, it indicates an abuse of power and isn’t really a very good quality for a potential Vice President.

It shouldn’t take long before the investigation is wrapped up. I’d hope, for her sake, that she is not found to have abused her power as Governor.

I, too, think it’s wonderful that a racial or gender bias/glass ceiling will be shattered either way this November. I’m expecially excited about it because my daughter will be turning two in two weeks and this means she will never know what it’s like to actually wonder when a person other than an older white man will be president or VP. How great is that?!

Neat blog by Meghan McCain, with lots of pics….

http://mccainblogette.com/

Tracy, thanks for the link. That’s a really neat blog for sure!

It’s a win, win election, is it? I guess you can only feel this way if you don’t care which side of critical issues you are on. The fact that this is a historical election doesn’t imply that either way, America wins. I don’t mean to demonize either candidate when I say this, but it’s one or the other with regard to national security, health care, tax, or education reform, etc. If I were lazefaire on these issues, I guess it wouldn’t matter which candidate takes the cake.

I don’t even have kids, but if I were a parent who planned on private education for them, an issue such as vouchers is a win or lose situation. Your optimism and idealism leads me to believe that you are seeing the world through your Obama-colored glasses.

This could be just a really nasty rumor, just as bad as the people who tried to say Barack is a muslim terrorist, but if this is true about Sara Palin it would sink the McCain ship:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/121350/137/486/580223

Daily Kos is a pretty popular blog, or I wouldn’t bother posting that link. It’s a pretty long post so keep scrolling down…

The rumor has even made its way onto the Drudge Retort:

http://www.drudge.com/news/111694/baby-may-belong-daughter-bristol

Ah, politics… so much mud slinging…

Drudge RePort and Drudge ReTort are not the same (okay, they pretty much are, but it’s important to distinguish between the two and I assume it was just a type-o).

As a practicing EMT, I’ve had several patients who were ~7 months pregnant and hardly showed it. To boot, older moms are far more likely to have Down’s babies than younger moms. It doesn’t prove anything, but it increases the chances from what little we do know that Palin is being honest about this.

For info on Down’s and maternal age, there’s well-cited info on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome#Incidence

Bottom line for me is this:

Our Senate right now sucks. I don’t think that being a current senator is in any way preferential, and I don’t believe that being a senator somehow equates to having more “presidential experience.” People are critical of Palin because she’s been a mayor and a governor but not a senator? Doesn’t fly with me. I don’t want any of our senators for president. Not McCain, not Clinton, not Obama, and not Biden.

Palin has already demonstrated that she can take office, clean house, and expose and dispatch corrupt officials, even when they’re in her own party. She seems to practice what she preaches, which I find admirable even if I disagree with her on various items of policy. She’s resourceful enough to find capable advisers and then determine for herself the best political course of action. She doesn’t strike me as an egotistical know-it-all, which I feel like I get from McCain, Obama and Biden alike, but she’s certainly no indecisive wallflower, either. All that I’ve seen of her so far, despite the negativity of the pundits, is really impressive to me.

If we’re really looking for change, why have we given ourselves, as our only two choices, either an old, Washington-tainted senator or a young, Washington-tainted senator?

I think something like Sarah Palin is the best thing that could happen to Washington. Maybe we’ve been given a loophole here in this lose-lose choice of McCain or Obama. If Obama wins, he’s not going anywhere, and if he does, we’re stuck with Biden. McCain is at least old, and might die while in office, giving Palin an opening.

I’ll give Palin my vote and gamble that McCain will die before messing things up too much, and in enough time to give Palin a shot at shaking up our government the way it needs to be shaken.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, this picture (below) is from 2006. It’s the same one used to make the case that Bristol was pregnant. Daily Kos vs. Anchorage Daily News?! This speaks very poorly of the credibility and character for Daily Kos and those responsible for its content. It’s especially bad that they’re going so ruthlessly after the kids, and it’s even worse when they’re reckless (at best) with their “evidence.”

http://www.adn.com/photos/v-gallery/story/509850.html?/1521/gallery/509852-a509987-t3.html

Also, Sara’s baby was small and born premature. Many woman don’t show much during a pregnancy. Donny, when my sister Barb was 8 months pregnant with Wendy, she had only gained 12 pounds!

It would be a terrible shame to put Donny’s Ramblings on the level of the National Inquirer…..

This is getting REALLY close!

To rebut the rumors that she faked her pregnancy to cover for her daughter, Palin lets everyone know the 17 year old is pregnant right now:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080901/pl_nm/usa_politics_palin_dc

The story is also on CNN’s website:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/index.html

Jean,

To even say such a thing indicates that you’re not really paying much attention to the news. Donny’s Ramblings isn’t the only place talking about these rumors, as evidenced by the Yahoo and CNN news articles I just posted. The story has been all over the Internet.

Yeah I just saw on the news that the daughter is pregnant, and planning to marry the father of her baby.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26496189/
(McCain apparently already knew this when he chose Sara as his running mate.)

I saw this blog mentioned on one newscast:

http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/

Apparently, they’ve been blogging about Sara since February of 2007, asserting their claims on why she’d make a good VP candidate.

In an interview with one of the blog writers, he was talking about all of the enormous changes she made even in the first few months of her governorship.

The President of the US has to spread out his time to many areas of government. The Vice President, it seems, can focus on fewer goals or “causes”.

Do you think Sara Palin could do something about abortion? Could it be possible? If what people are saying about her is true, she just might have the drive to do what it takes to make some serious changes on the issue.

Who knows…

Could this woman help restore a bit of my faith in the Republican Party? ‘Cause y’all know I don’t have much at the moment.

Just a thought on a Monday morning…

Jean just sent me this article via email:

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2008/september/0901_evangelicals1.shtml

I thought I’d post the link for others to read, as I think several different perspectives should be included in the conversation.

Oh man, what a mess. The Internet is buzzing with so much “Palin” gossip today it’s not even funny. One site just posted Sara’s husband’s record of DUI, and another is saying that her daughter’s pregnancy doesn’t rule out that she could still be that last child’s real mom, because it would be 5 weeks after the birth that she conceived again.

Too much for me to handle right now. Makes me feel dirty just reading it all.

Time to take a break from reading this stuff….

It’s the “rumors” part that makes me cringe! There are plenty rumor mills out there; I just don’t want to participate with them on Donny’s Ramblings, OK? I know you are way above the rumor mills, Donny!

Thanks for posting the news I sent you. That’s so nice of you to offer another perspective. Should I say, you’re fair and balanced? Or would you cringe at that?? (Sorry, I’m just kidding!)

let me ask you, do you think mcain is just using sarah palin to get the swing votes that HE needs to get in office?

just a thought…im not saying that is what is happening but you know darn well that it was a very strategic move to grab a woman candidate because of obama.
how much do you think it was sarah being a woman that played into her getting picked?

i do really like her though. i saw some of her video clips before getting picked and EVEN she was concerned of what the VP actually did because she stated that she is actively involved in the process. she didnt want to do a job that accomplished nothing.

do you think her views will have that outlet that voters elect her and mcain for?

Of course, he picked her because she’s a woman! Very strategic move, I’d say.

I’ve always told my husband, we citizens don’t know half what’s going on, even though the news people think they’re doing a great job.