Also, I agree with Jessica that PUMA just smells of a NeoCon front, much like the Swift-Boaters.

lisah, here's the ABC article: [link]

The 20K/2K donor Shakesville pinpointed -- which I misremembered from my first quick read, it's actually 40K /2K -- is Danit Aharon, mentioned on the second page of the 3-page story; the FEC "check contributions by individual donor" page is here [link] and confirms her impressive donations this year to McCain. I'm too lazy to do it now, but I expect that culling all the names from that article and running them through the FEC search would bring a lot of similar results.

thanks, JZ!

Trig Paxson Van Palin

Oh for the love of little green apples. That poor child.

Down's is the least of his problems.

And then I went and put a few names through -- it's totally a mix of longtime Republican donors with a history of throwing a few thousand every now and then at a random interesting Democrat, whom nobody in their right mind would have expected to turn into big Obama financial backers, and longtime Dem donors who only give a few times per election cycle and have continued in this election cycle to give money to the DNC, Emily's List and other Democratic party groups not aimed at specific candidates.

Looks rather like media people running around waving their arms and shrieking "FIRE! DEFINITELY A HUGE, RAGING, UNAMBIGUOUS FIRE!" over wisps of something that might be smoke, or possibly steam off a coffee cup, or maybe just dust.

it's totally a mix of longtime Republican donors with a history of throwing a few thousand every now and then at a random interesting Democrat

I think it was on TDS where I heard that this strategy (giving a TON of money to the candidate you support, and a minimal amount to the opposition) is to prevent the opposition from being able to say "And look who he's taking money from!!" during the campaign.

She has the same foreign policy experience Dubya had -- an international border on her State.

I remember them talking about that. Oh lawdy.

I'm not convinced it's a bad strategy on McCain's part.

What has everyone been talking about with McCain? His age. Palin is young.

Besides independents, whose votes are (supposedly) up for grabs? Pissed off HRC supporters who have been portrayed as thinking that HRC wasn't given the chance because she's a woman. Palin's a woman.

Also, McCain is the ultimate insider, despite his "maverick" status. You don't get much more outside Washington than Alaska.

yeah, but he didn't pick a qualified woman.

If he had managed to get Condi, then I'd find him formidable.

Still have no worries.

[link]

In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn’t seem “productive.”

In fact, she said she doesn’t know what the vice president does.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Co.” asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain ticket mate.

Palin replied: “[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that V.P .slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

She also believes Intelligent Design should be taught in schools.