Olympian readers split on McCain's VP pick

THE OLYMPIAN • Published August 30, 2008

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I think Sarah Palin is a surprising but excellent choice as the Republican vice presidential candidate. She is the only one of the four candidates that has actual executive experience. I think she will be a good campaigner and will improve the Republican’s chance of winning the election.

Jim Fogle, 71, Lacey

Gov. Palin is a top choice! She is a true conservative, pro-choice and pro-guns and fights corruption. Obama is just words and performance. McCain and Palin are all action and my choice. If anybody is paying attention it has to help McCain.

Don Brown, Thurston County

Surely one has to question the judgment of the 72-year old John McCain in choosing Gov. Sarah Palin, who has such a thin resume and little experience, as his choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. She was mayor of a small, a very small (6,000 or so residents) town in Alaska and has been governor of that sparsely populated state for only a bit over a year and a half. Talk about not being ready to be president if something happened to a president McCain. Yes, she’s reputed to be a social conservative, and she is female, but are those good enough reasons for choosing such an unknown, untested person to be vice president? I don’t think so. In fact, this is a case of being too cleaver by half. I guess that John McCain wanted to show he’s “different” and not wedded to the Bush agenda, but this choice only shows a kind of desperation in trying to one-up Barack Obama. I’m more convinced than ever that the Barack-Biden ticket is the best for the future of this country.

Joseph Bucuzzo, 68, Olympia

John McCain’s VP choice is to play against the successful Democratic convention, to have a women with children to counteract the wonderful warm roundup at the end of the convention. If he thinks Hillary voters are going to vote for their ticket, he is wrong. He is not for a woman’s choice, not for equal pay for equal work, (his answer was women should get more education). He needs to look around at the women in government, they are educated. He is so out of touch, I wonder if he is even in the real world. Shirley Harper, 73, Olympia