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John McCain said he's searching for a VP who shares his views. Let's hope he's not seriously considering Mitt Romney (who is falling all over himself hinting that he wants the job..."...any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included." Leave Mitt, Guiliani, Huckholio, and even Thompson on the sidelines looking in; they had their chances. I want Change.

McCain should pick a candidate based on performance, fiscal Conservatism, and some Real Conservatism, to balance out his, you know, weaknesses.

I would like to see a woman, a black woman preferably, offered the position; it's past time for that. But I don't think my first choice, Condoleezza Rice, would take the job. Just a hunch.

Eric Dondero, of Mainstream Liberatrian, sends this email...

"Adam Brickley: We might (emphasis on "might") have our first confirmation that the McCain campaign is vetting Gov. Palin as a potential running mate.

"Yesterday, the domain names SarahPalin.org (info) and SarahPalin.net (info) were reserved by a company called "Domains By Proxy, Inc." (SarahPalin.com was reserved by Palin's web team during her gubernatorial run). Domains By Proxy is an internet privacy service based out of Scottsdale, Arizona. Basically, their business is protecting the privacy of registrants who don't want the public to know that they own a domain name (owners of all domain names must be registered in a public database called "WHOIS")

"HERE'S THE KICKER: "Domains By Proxy" is the service used by the McCain campaign to secure domain names for all of their websites, including the official campaign site JohnMcCain.com (info). In addition, the purchase came on the exact day that the McCain campaign told the press that the VP search process had been started.

"Now, we can't prove anything conclusively. However, I think that the circumstantial evidence is very strong that the domain names were purchased by the McCain campaign. So, we don't know waht the VP list looks like, but I think that the evidence definitely suggests that Gov. Palin is among the people being vetted. Unfortunately, we cannot find out the number or identities of the other potential veeps because most domain names associated with other supposed candidates (Crist, Pawlenty, Portman, Ridge, Sanford, etc.) were purchased by various organizations before yesterday, so they cannot be secured as easily as the Palin domains."

So, who is Sarah Palin? (Click on the image for a bigger one.)

Sarah Heath Palin is Republican, is the first female Governor of Alaska, and the youngest (42) to hold that office. This bit of politics is interesting, and may be why McCain is taking a second look...

"Governor Frank Murkowski appointed Palin to serve as ethics commissioner on the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission which she served on during 2003–2004, but later resigned, in protest over what she perceived to be the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders. This included the state party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, a fellow commissioner..."

McCain likes to slap around those in his own party. Maverick, and all that...I guess he's looking for a soul mate. Not that there's anything wrong with strong ethics, but I like to see Republicans who slap Democrats, first. And maybe not sidle up to them so much, eh?

Sarah's politics?

"Palin is strongly pro-life and belongs to Feminists for Life. She opposes same-sex marriage, but has gay friends and has otherwise been receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination. While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin followed an Alaska Supreme Court order and signed them into law.

"She supports a democratic advisory vote from the public on whether there should be a constitutional amendment on the matter. Alaska was one of the first states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage, in 1998, along with Hawaii.

"Palin's first veto was used on legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to gay state employees and their partners. In effect, her veto granted State benefits to same-sex couples. The veto occurred after Palin consulted with her attorney general on the constitutionality of the legislation."

Which is fine. I believe that "marriage" as a traditional, Church-sanctioned process should be protected and reserved for only a man and a woman. Purely in the traditional sense. Gays can go ahead and get some sort of 'civil' secular mutual-service agreement where they can get some rights and benefits, but please, don't mock the real thing. There's enough of that already, by those who are allowed to marry.

As far as fiscal policy, Sarah seems perfect for the job. She sold the Governor's jet on Ebay; squashed some pork spending left over from the previous governor's sloppy reign, and really seems to want some tighter controls on spending. Exactly what the Republicans need: a fresh, new approach to fiscal Conservatism.

Say, Sarah sounds better than....

Nevermind.

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