CNBC.com on the McCain VP pick.

Try watching this first.http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=836384597&play=1
Flipping channels on the kitchen TV I caught the interview less than 10 minutes into the hour. They filled in with more footage and background so it make for a full hour show with commercials. The CNBC "filler' seems useful so it made for a very good one hour show. This is a common, they don't trash the footage after the "first cut" of a shorter feature story.
CNBC repeats their one hour "special reports" frequently so it should be easy for catch. I haven't seem the 12 minute version yet but that should have the essence of it.
From the one hour TV CNBC special. She looks great on TV. She helps on the family Alaskan fishing boat (look like a line net rig) It's not quite "Deadliest Catch" but it is physically demanding work. I'm Sure Sarah Palin could actually "tune up" and engine or do other mechanical repairs. This is necessary on the fishing boats.
Next off, in interviews she seemed "sharp as a tack" and gave good answers in a second. She seemed an excellent public speaker who knows her subjects in depth.
For me, the important thing is that she seemed, in the CNBC interview to have an extremely good knowledge of energy, especially, the production side. Before this I felt that the major party political candidates were oblivious to the effects of higher energy costs. They mentioned them but they seemed small in the scale of their lives. Sarah Palen noted that in Alaska Gasoline and other fuels cost $5 in Urban centers and often $10 or more per gallon in more remote areas so Alaskans are way ahead on cost motivated conservation. Basicaly, she "feels our pain" on high energy costs.
This is important. As a personal example I now use under three gallons of gasoline per week so higher gas prices only cost me ten or twenty dollars a month. Obviously I can afford this (so what's the problem?) The problem is of course that many people drive a lot more starters and I constantly hear them say how it's "killing them". I must also heat http://searshouse.com this winter. It's pretty "tight" with and ultra high efficiency furnace but I figure my natural gas bills will be 50% higher. Also, prices for basics are up. My "must have" food is http://aldi.com oat bran bread. The one and price loaves are up 25%. Again at Aldi's I notice that canned tuna in oil is a dime more than canned tuna in water. Corn oil now costs more than Canola Oil even with Canola being a "poor persons Olive Oil" nutritionally. Let's not even mention meat costs!
I can afford it but I'm "street" enough to see how this is affecting people. Sarah Palin seems to comprehend this (IE the diesel for the family fishing boat is obviously getting far more costly in the last few years.)
Finally, a candidate who understand this and "feels our pain". (at the "pump"!) Sometimes instead of the "forest" you need to see the "trees".
I'll admit I knew little of Sarah Palin before this. I recall that beauty contest picture (which, for some reason reminds me of the TV show "Happy Days" though I can't find an internet reference). I was rooting for our Minnesota Governor Tim Palenty. I still think he would have made a fine choice. He is a known local who I have strong support for. (root for the home team!)
If John McCain anticipated the energy price situation when he started to considering Sarah Palen in February as the mainstream media now reports it was brilliant!
Cross posted to my http://excel08.com http://fourfiftygas.com and my http://fifthestate.net

I watched Hillary /clinton's speech last night.

I watched Hillary Clinton’s speech Tuesday night. Not a single “umm” “err” or “aww” they things that made her look “dumb” in the earlier campaign. I have complex theories about this but if Hillary had learned public skill earlier it might have made a difference. I specifically cite here pseudo announcement to run where, with other speakers before her and the knowledge that she would be asked to speak she did the “umm” “Err” “I’m in ---it, to -----win ----it”. This does not seem like the public speaking pattern of a leader.
That contrasted to Obama being a superb public speaker. I believe that that was the decisive factor for the voters, who don’t follow the campaign nuances closely.
One very interesting group is female Hillary Clinton supporters who are older or lower on the economic “totem pole”. From “street” they have a strongly negative view of Barak Obama. They tend to have had strong negative dealing with black males “from the hood” and they tend to associate this with Barak Obama’s inner city “hood” connections (IE his pastor Jeremiah Wright). I ask them what they think of Tiger Woods and Tiger having a blonde wife. They have no objection to that, the like Tiger so it’s not pure racism. This is a statistically large group both male and female. They don’t care that Obama is black and give as a plus that he has a black wife but don’t like that he seems way to “hood” Sort of like “Tupac”
Also these women are seriously affected by energy costs and they don’t buy the democratic/Nancy Pelosi/T Boone Pickens/Al Gore energy spiel. They don’t understand it but it is costing and they seemed to have noticed that energy prices have gone down since President Bush’s executive order on offshore drilling and how Nancy Pelosi and the democrats have seemed to be doing catch up.
I know energy quite well and love describing it. It was rare before now that women would more than tolerate this. Now they want to know about it.
This is a great opportunity for this large group of undecided voters.