…for every time I heard a Republican at the RNC say “Ronald Reagan,” I’d have as many homes as John McCain and Mitt Romney combined.  If you’re counting, that’s 11. This is getting ridiculous…are we looking back, or moving forward?

Amen, brother. To quote The Who, hopefully, people “won’t get fooled again.” Paul Loeb from the Huffington Post:

What makes Palin such a cynical choice is that McCain doesn’t know her and doesn’t know what drives her. Until she was selected by the Karl Rove types running his campaign (like campaign manager and Rove protégé Steve Schmidt), McCain might not even have recognized her on the street. Instead, she’s a category selection, made for the crassest reasons by the same kinds of political operatives who brought us George W. Bush.

Their motives are obvious: Palin is an energetic and attractive woman who just might pick up some disgruntled Hillary supporters. She’s a westerner and a hunter who might appeal to rural voters. She might energize a previously tepid base of hard-shell religious conservatives through her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Hard right king-maker James Dobson just said that because of her he’d vote for McCain.

From HuffPost:

Asked about Palin’s national security experience, Cindy McCain could not come up with anything beyond the fact that, after all, her state is right next to Russia. “You know, the experience that she comes from is, what she has done in government — and remember that Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia.”

She’s the second person to say this. The first was some idiot on Fix News. In my opinion, that makes this even worse.

That one word best sums up McCain’s foolishness and recklessness. Sweet judgment.

Sarah Palin. Pretty face. Neat story. Good person.

But she’s no Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s backers didn’t just vote for her because she was a woman, but instead because she was a woman who was a champion of women’s rights. Palin is nothing of the sort. That’s what makes this pick condescending to women. Hillary voters didn’t want just any woman–they wanted Hillary. I don’t think Sarah Palin will appeal to them. But I know Joe Biden–who wrote the 1994 Violence Against Women Act and has been fighting for women his entire career–will. I know Michelle Obama, a real champion of our daughters, will. I know that much.

Additionally, she has no foreign policy experience. Also, the little town she was mayor of before recently becoming Alaska’s Governor was about the same size of the crowds I played in front of as a high school football player back in the day. Is this the person we want to be a 72 year old’s heartbeat away from being Commander-in-Chief? That’s an argument that I’m sure Joe Biden is willing to have.

Yes, it is a neat story. I’ll give you that. But like Obama said last night, this isn’t about them–it is about us. Like Biden she has a neat story. Like Hillary she is a woman. Like Obama she is fresh and a dynamic speaker. But that is all she has in common with the powerhouses of the Democratic Party.

When it comes to the issues, she’s just like Bush, Cheney and McCain. Sarah Palin may look different, but in the end she is more of the same disguised as a pretty little Trojan horse. Maverick my ass.