Pregnancy: Help or hurt Palin's VP chances?

[Spaghetti Cat]

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[Aizen]

For this election? Hurt I guess but I never considered her in the running to begin with. Mayhap in 2012.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Defintely a hindrance.  What happens if we get attacked and she starts going into labor?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's moot because she never had a chance to begin with.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

We don't need some woman having babies all over the White House or VP's house.

[Democratic Hawk]

Is Palin even a serious contender? Hell, I'm not expecting Alaska to be in play. I can see how she brings youth and vitality to the ticket but what else? Women

Dave

[Mr. Morden]

What happens if we get attacked and she starts going into labor?

Lol.  OK, that was a good one. 

[Spaghetti Cat]

She's seven months, so the baby will be born in May.....even before McCain will choose his VP

[Democratic Hawk]

She's seven months, so the baby will be born in May.....even before McCain will choose his VP

I can just imagine it now. McCain and Palin on the stump with baby in tow. Loads of photo ops complete with McCain kissing the baby's brow and the baby screaming the Town Hall down

Dave

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I don't think she ever had a chance.....pregnant or not.

[Nutmeg]

Her chances are none anyway, because her presence on the Republican ticket would undermine the main legitimate criticism of Obama - his short tenure in high-profile office.

[Lincoln Republican]

Neither, as Palin is irrelevant to the GOP VP sweepstakes anyway.

She will have much more important things to do after the baby is born, like love and nurture the new little tyke.

Best wishes to her and her new baby.

[Padfoot]

If she's any kind of sensible she won't go on the campaign trail with a new baby.  It'd be way to stressful for the both of them.  She would have been an interesting choice but I don't think she had much of a chance anyway.

[Torie]

What hinders her is that she is not competent to be president, and will be perceived as such. There is no need to get too "cute."

[Verily]

I seriously doubt a new mother would abandon her child to spend months on the stump, and, frankly, it would give me great misgivings about her positions on social policies relating to children.

Not that she was much of a likely choice this year anyway. She's a good governor, as far as I can tell, but Alaska is remote and politically solid for the GOP for the time being and her on the ticket would immediately call into question any attempts to paint Obama as inexperienced, which is really all McCain has got (especially as McCain's advanced age makes his VP choice considerably more politically sensitive even than usual).

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I didn't think that Governor Palin was being considered as a potential GOP running mate in 2008, with or without pregnancy. Maybe in 2012 she might be a serious contender in the Veepstakes, but definitely not in 2008.

[AltWorlder]

Besides youth, vitality, and token female status (granted, all things that the GOP needs at this point), she does seem to be a moderate while solidly conservative, and like Bobby Jindal is an anti-corruption governor.  But like Jindal, she's too new at the job, and lacks as much experience as she could have if she just waited for a future run.  Hopefully she'll be better than either Ferraro or Rice as far as a potential female candidate goes.

On the other hand, there's the Obama effect.  Not to discount him, but consider what the Democrats felt in 2004, and what his appearance at the DNC at least salvaged their year.  Perhaps at first everyone was announcing that he would be the new liberal savior because of desperation from defeat, but in time the hype merged with reality to create a candidate who's pretty qualified to be president.  If Obama had never arose in 2004, then right now we'd be probably seeing Richardson or Biden or Gephardt or someone else as equally experienced as the front runner against Hillary, but not exactly young and inspiring.

So, who knows what happens in the next few months.  The GOP can play the desperation card as well as the Dems can.  The Jindal rumors are even worse- the guy's only been a governor for barely two months now!

[Meeker]

Speaking of Palin, apparently she's buddies with the AIP or something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4iCDBIAde8

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

It would hurt.  Going from new motherhood to VP is borderline neglectful.

I think Jane Swift did a pretty good job of showing that while it can be done, it probably shouldn't be done.

[The Hack Hater]

A first term governor from a remote, underpoulated state that always leans GOP. And on top of that, she's preggars?

This would never fly.