Coleman: 'I would have picked Pawlenty'

Great little video.

Coleman wisely didn't get pulled into praising Palin. Now that the convention has been abbreviated, we may not be subjected to the fulsome praise we've heard from too many conservatives. Still there's a lot more he could have said.

Other Republican women could have been tapped who wouldn't have drawn nearly so much shock and disbelief. Olympia Snowe, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Susan Collins. The Governors of Hawaii and Connecticut both have longer records. Not that Dems would have warmly applauded these selections, but they certainly would have been able to focus on public service rather than a bubbly hockey mom ticked off by the bridge to nowhere.

Her willingness to take on the entrenched Republican old guard in her state sounds admirable; however, her work was done for her by the national uproar and continual media embarrassment for Alaskans. Her supposed executive experience (18 months as governor of a state less than half the size of our metro area) seems to be focused on firing people.

I know many sharp and feisty local politicos who would not be prepared to take on national and international issues. Heck, Coleman himself had more executive experience in St. Paul than Ms. Palin has had in a tiny bedroom community and a state whose legislature (all 60 of them) meets for 90 days. McCain said the ability to step into the presidency was his prime criterion. He chose Palin, a cute little gal who echoes his every statement and loves guns.

No wonder Coleman had to tapdance.

Well, we can say that Senator Coleman's judgement on VP selection would have favored experience over gender and large family . . .

but I remember that Senators Coleman and McCain both voted NAY on closing corporate loopholes to increase funding for veterans VA health care by $1.5Billion in March 2006.

Senator Coleman had lunch with the Minnesota National Guard on the day after and the day before he cast his 2 NAY votes for VA health care in March 2006, so he can't say that he didn't recognize that military/veterans were one if his important constituent groups.

Favoring corporate loopholes over military veterans is probably one of the reasons that Republicans lost the Majority status in Congress in the 2006 election. This 'corporate value' does not seem to match that of most Americans.