The Alaskan press: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (EDITORIAL): She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?…Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might fill it. It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance. LINK Anchorage Daily News: “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said [State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla]. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” LINK Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Lately her reputation within the state has been bit by allegations of mixing political and family business, and by mistreating one of the state’s premier marine mammals. Palin’s catch-phrase of “openness and transparency” has been tarnished by revelations that staff members tried to have Palin’s former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper. Also, the governor of the only state with polar bears has adamantly opposed listing the animals as a threatened species, despite strong evidence that global warming has devastated their sea ice environment off Alaska’s coast. Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist for Alaska’s second largest newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, called McCain’s choice of Palin “reckless” and questioned her credentials. “Sarah Palin’s chief qualification for being elected governor was that she was not Frank Murkowski,” Cole said of her enormously unpopular predecessor, who lost favor with Alaskans in part because of unpopular budget cuts. “She was not elected because she was a conservative. She was not elected because of her grasp of issues or because of her track record as the mayor of Wasilla.” LINK Juneau Empire (Kate Golden) “Some in Ketchikan react to nomination with concern, ire”: In her acceptance speech as McCain’s running mate Friday morning, Palin held up her opposition to the bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina - the “bridge to nowhere” - as an example of “the abuses of earmark spending.”…When campaigning in Ketchikan in September 2006, Palin promised Ketchikan residents the bridge LINK And the national press: The Denver Post : Palin an odd choice for VP; Alaska guv’s inexperience is glaring �' and a probe into the firing of her public safety chief is due just before Election Day.... “I served with Hillary Clinton. I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. You, Sarah Palin, are no Hillary Clinton.” McCain’s pick of Palin jettisons his attack that Obama isn’t ready to lead and looks more like a desperate “Hail Mary” campaign tactic aimed at female voters. Detroit News: McCain rolls the dice. Sarah Palin can’t be sold as ready to step into the presidency if called upon. Arizona Sen. McCain, if he wins, will be 72 when he takes office, and the question of succession is likely to be a concern for voters. Kansas City Star -- But Palin, with no national political experience, is a very tough sell for the Republicans on that score. McCain’s age certainly doesn’t help. Tampa Bay Tribune: McCain makes risky choice -- John McCain can forget about trying to make a campaign issue out of Barack Obama’s relatively thin foreign policy resume. It is a risky move that stunned even some party leaders who fear that voters will have trouble imagining the former beauty queen as commander in chief, if it should ever come to that. Palin has no experience in foreign policy Bangor Daily News: “A puzzling pick” : It is a big risk. She is the least experienced major party candidate nominated for national office since Spiro Agnew was picked by Richard Nixon in 1968. “If you are going to go after Barack Obama on experience … this pick makes no sense.” Seattle Times -- She’s inexperienced enough to give fits to people worried about McCain’s health and longevity. If something happens to him, she does not have time to grasp all the facets of the job, especially in the area of foreign policy… In a small boon to Democrats, selecting Palin mutes future Republican attacks on Sen. Barack Obama’s inexperience. Register Citizen: Palin is not ready The Alaskan economy is nothing like the rest of the country because it is boosted by oil profits. It’s also obvious that McCain, if elected, is counting on surviving a presidential term. Dallas Morning News -- The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s pick of Palin is the most risky Republican pick for vice president since George H.W. Bush tapped Dan Quayle as his No. 2. Washington Post (EDITORIAL): But the most important question Mr. McCain should have asked himself about Ms. Palin was not whether she could help him win the presidency. It was whether she is qualified and prepared to serve as president should anything prevent him from doing so. This would have been true for any presidential nominee, and it was especially crucial that Mr. McCain get this choice right …Once the buzz over Ms. Palin’s nomination dies down, the hard questions about her will begin. The answers will reflect on her qualifications �' and on Mr. McCain’s judgment as well. New York Times (EDITORIAL): Governor Palin’s lack of experience, especially in national security and foreign affairs, raises immediate questions about how prepared she is to potentially succeed to the presidency. Los Angeles Times : What happened to his insistence that a running mate be qualified to serve as commander in chief? In one respect, McCain is in even less of a position to gamble than were Mondale and Bush. His age makes it especially important that his running mate be prepared to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice. Boston Globe : In picking a first-term governor with no foreign-policy record, the Republican presidential candidate undermined his own central themes - experience and national security - and exposed the deep fault lines within his campaign…But the pick is hard to square with what Republicans have been saying all week: that Obama is too green to be president. Because Obama has bared his soul in a bestselling memoir and his decisions have been under a microscope for the last four years, voters can assess his judgment. Palin, in contrast, has next to no track record. Her ticketmate would be the oldest first-term president ever and has had health troubles in the past. McCain, meanwhile, is struggling to accommodate Palin within the logic of his campaign, which up to now stressed an existential threat from Islamic fundamentalism. Journal News: Any woman won’t do (Nancy Cutler): I’ve got a message for McCain: Hillaryites didn’t want a woman; they wanted that woman. If this is his attempt at wooing disaffected Hillary backers, he has sold all women short. Altoona Mirror - Locals shocked by McCain’s VP selection -- Local voters and party leaders alike expressed shock and surprise when McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick. Miami Herald: Political strategists say Clinton’s rank-and-file supporters will be tough for McCain and Palin to win. The ticket’s strong anti-abortion positions make them anathema to liberal Democrats concentrated in places such as South Florida…On Friday, she may have made her first official flip flop, saying that she opposed the so-called ”bridge to nowhere” that became a symbol of pork-barrel Washington spending. Yet in 2006, her spokesman told the Associated Press that she supported the project Philadelphia Daily News (Dave Davies) -- pollster Terry Madonna said he would describe McCain’s pick in three words. “Risky, risky and risky,” Madonna said. “We just don’t know how she’ll handle the next nine weeks of campaigning, dealing with all these complicated national and international issues, debating Biden, and having every word scrutinized by an aggressive press corps.” The greatest unanswered question is whether putting Palin on the ticket will bring many Clinton Democrats into the McCain column. The Daily News reached five women who were Clinton primary-election supporters in a March poll, and none said Palin’s candidacy would change their vote. Pittsburgh Tribune Review-- How can she prep on so many national and international issues? She hurts the ticket because now the experience argument is weaker.” South FL Sun-Sentinel --Sarah Palin faces uphill battle swaying South Florida women”. Several voters said she’s not ready to take over the presidency, should something happen to McCain. He turned 72 Friday. Chicago Tribune -- Palin: McCain’s inexcusable choice: John McCain has described national security, defense, the war in Iraq and the war on terror as “the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day.” So who did he choose for his running mate? Someone who has zero acquaintance with those issues. The first and last question to be asked about a potential vice president is: Is he or she prepared to take over immediately as president? The chances are considerably higher than usual that McCain’s vice president would have to step into the Oval Office without notice…this decision mocks McCain’s seriousness on the issues that are supposed to be his strength. It tells us that he puts his own political fortunes above the safety of the nation. McCain has done a lot things for his country. He should have done one more and picked a running mate who makes a plausible commander-in-chief. New York Times (Gail Collins): I do feel kind of ticked off at the assumptions that the Republicans seem to be making about female voters…The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong. AP --She brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. Palin’s lack of experience flies in the face of GOP charges that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief. Boston Globe-- McCain will have a hard time persuading people that he chose the most qualified person to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Palin, at 44, has been governor of one of the nation’s least-populous states for just two and a half years. TIME --This could be Harriet Miers redux. And that didn’t work out so well the first time. Chicago Tribune-- McCain may have some work to do with Republican Party pros regarding his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. ABC News --Palin doesn’t exactly scream “experience,” which is McCain’s main argument against Obama. For a decade she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, which has a population of approximately 8,471, which the Obama campaign says is less than 1/20th the size of his former state senate district. Palin has been governor for two years. Some might argue that in terms of experience she makes Obama look like Robert Byrd. In July, Palin told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that “as for that VP talk all the time, I tell ya, I still can’t answer that question until, until somebody answers for me ‘What it is exactly that the vice president does every day?” TIME --McCain’s mighty and oft-swung Obama swatting hammer of experience has been instantly changed from steel to rubber. VP examination stakes are a little higher for McCain, will she pass the ready on Day One test with less than two years in a (small) statehouse? Washington Post --When he ended months of speculation Friday, McCain did not laud Palin as immediately ready to take over, which he once said was his highest priority for a running mate. Chicago Tribune (Mark Silva) When Obama was looking at Kaine as a possible running mate, Karl Rove, dismissed his experience - a governor for three years and mayor of 103rd largest Richmond. We’re not sure where Wasila ranks. CNN David Gergen: But what surprises me so much is, that John McCain again and again and again has said the transcendent issue of our times is the fight against terrorism and that we live in a dark, dangerous world. And the most important thing is to have a commander in chief that’s ready. So, here to reach out to Sarah Palin who has no national security experience, no national security exposure, and say you’re my standby and I’m 72 years old and I’ve had some bouts with melanoma, I think that’s a very large gamble and I wonder how it’s going to play out with the American people. MSNBC Chuck Todd: But I tell you there’s going to be a lot of questions about somebody who was the mayor of Wasilla just three years ago, whether she is ready to be Commander-in-Chief, and just as you brought up, Matt, because of McCain’s age, that’s going to be an issue.

The Alaskan press:

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (EDITORIAL): She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?…Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might fill it. It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance. LINK Anchorage Daily News: “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said [State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla]. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?” LINK Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Lately her reputation within the state has been bit by allegations of mixing political and family business, and by mistreating one of the state’s premier marine mammals. Palin’s catch-phrase of “openness and transparency” has been tarnished by revelations that staff members tried to have Palin’s former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper. Also, the governor of the only state with polar bears has adamantly opposed listing the animals as a threatened species, despite strong evidence that global warming has devastated their sea ice environment off Alaska’s coast. Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist for Alaska’s second largest newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, called McCain’s choice of Palin “reckless” and questioned her credentials. “Sarah Palin’s chief qualification for being elected governor was that she was not Frank Murkowski,” Cole said of her enormously unpopular predecessor, who lost favor with Alaskans in part because of unpopular budget cuts. “She was not elected because she was a conservative. She was not elected because of her grasp of issues or because of her track record as the mayor of Wasilla.” LINK Juneau Empire (Kate Golden) “Some in Ketchikan react to nomination with concern, ire”: In her acceptance speech as McCain’s running mate Friday morning, Palin held up her opposition to the bridge from Ketchikan to Gravina - the “bridge to nowhere” - as an example of “the abuses of earmark spending.”…When campaigning in Ketchikan in September 2006, Palin promised Ketchikan residents the bridge LINK

And the national press: The Denver Post : Palin an odd choice for VP; Alaska guv’s inexperience is glaring �' and a probe into the firing of her public safety chief is due just before Election Day.... “I served with Hillary Clinton. I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. You, Sarah Palin, are no Hillary Clinton.” McCain’s pick of Palin jettisons his attack that Obama isn’t ready to lead and looks more like a desperate “Hail Mary” campaign tactic aimed at female voters.
Detroit News: McCain rolls the dice. Sarah Palin can’t be sold as ready to step into the presidency if called upon. Arizona Sen. McCain, if he wins, will be 72 when he takes office, and the question of succession is likely to be a concern for voters. Kansas City Star -- But Palin, with no national political experience, is a very tough sell for the Republicans on that score. McCain’s age certainly doesn’t help. Tampa Bay Tribune: McCain makes risky choice -- John McCain can forget about trying to make a campaign issue out of Barack Obama’s relatively thin foreign policy resume. It is a risky move that stunned even some party leaders who fear that voters will have trouble imagining the former beauty queen as commander in chief, if it should ever come to that. Palin has no experience in foreign policy
Bangor Daily News: “A puzzling pick” : It is a big risk. She is the least experienced major party candidate nominated for national office since Spiro Agnew was picked by Richard Nixon in 1968. “If you are going to go after Barack Obama on experience … this pick makes no sense.” Seattle Times -- She’s inexperienced enough to give fits to people worried about McCain’s health and longevity. If something happens to him, she does not have time to grasp all the facets of the job, especially in the area of foreign policy… In a small boon to Democrats, selecting Palin mutes future Republican attacks on Sen. Barack Obama’s inexperience.
Register Citizen: Palin is not ready The Alaskan economy is nothing like the rest of the country because it is boosted by oil profits. It’s also obvious that McCain, if elected, is counting on surviving a presidential term.
Dallas Morning News -- The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s pick of Palin is the most risky Republican pick for vice president since George H.W. Bush tapped Dan Quayle as his No. 2. Washington Post (EDITORIAL): But the most important question Mr. McCain should have asked himself about Ms. Palin was not whether she could help him win the presidency. It was whether she is qualified and prepared to serve as president should anything prevent him from doing so. This would have been true for any presidential nominee, and it was especially crucial that Mr. McCain get this choice right …Once the buzz over Ms. Palin’s nomination dies down, the hard questions about her will begin. The answers will reflect on her qualifications �' and on Mr. McCain’s judgment as well.
New York Times (EDITORIAL): Governor Palin’s lack of experience, especially in national security and foreign affairs, raises immediate questions about how prepared she is to potentially succeed to the presidency.
Los Angeles Times : What happened to his insistence that a running mate be qualified to serve as commander in chief? In one respect, McCain is in even less of a position to gamble than were Mondale and Bush. His age makes it especially important that his running mate be prepared to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice.
Boston Globe : In picking a first-term governor with no foreign-policy record, the Republican presidential candidate undermined his own central themes - experience and national security - and exposed the deep fault lines within his campaign…But the pick is hard to square with what Republicans have been saying all week: that Obama is too green to be president. Because Obama has bared his soul in a bestselling memoir and his decisions have been under a microscope for the last four years, voters can assess his judgment. Palin, in contrast, has next to no track record. Her ticketmate would be the oldest first-term president ever and has had health troubles in the past. McCain, meanwhile, is struggling to accommodate Palin within the logic of his campaign, which up to now stressed an existential threat from Islamic fundamentalism.
Journal News: Any woman won’t do (Nancy Cutler): I’ve got a message for McCain: Hillaryites didn’t want a woman; they wanted that woman. If this is his attempt at wooing disaffected Hillary backers, he has sold all women short.
Altoona Mirror - Locals shocked by McCain’s VP selection -- Local voters and party leaders alike expressed shock and surprise when McCain announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick.
Miami Herald: Political strategists say Clinton’s rank-and-file supporters will be tough for McCain and Palin to win. The ticket’s strong anti-abortion positions make them anathema to liberal Democrats concentrated in places such as South Florida…On Friday, she may have made her first official flip flop, saying that she opposed the so-called ”bridge to nowhere” that became a symbol of pork-barrel Washington spending. Yet in 2006, her spokesman told the Associated Press that she supported the project
Philadelphia Daily News (Dave Davies) -- pollster Terry Madonna said he would describe McCain’s pick in three words. “Risky, risky and risky,” Madonna said. “We just don’t know how she’ll handle the next nine weeks of campaigning, dealing with all these complicated national and international issues, debating Biden, and having every word scrutinized by an aggressive press corps.” The greatest unanswered question is whether putting Palin on the ticket will bring many Clinton Democrats into the McCain column. The Daily News reached five women who were Clinton primary-election supporters in a March poll, and none said Palin’s candidacy would change their vote. Pittsburgh Tribune Review-- How can she prep on so many national and international issues? She hurts the ticket because now the experience argument is weaker.”
South FL Sun-Sentinel --Sarah Palin faces uphill battle swaying South Florida women”. Several voters said she’s not ready to take over the presidency, should something happen to McCain. He turned 72 Friday.
Chicago Tribune -- Palin: McCain’s inexcusable choice: John McCain has described national security, defense, the war in Iraq and the war on terror as “the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day.” So who did he choose for his running mate? Someone who has zero acquaintance with those issues. The first and last question to be asked about a potential vice president is: Is he or she prepared to take over immediately as president? The chances are considerably higher than usual that McCain’s vice president would have to step into the Oval Office without notice…this decision mocks McCain’s seriousness on the issues that are supposed to be his strength. It tells us that he puts his own political fortunes above the safety of the nation. McCain has done a lot things for his country. He should have done one more and picked a running mate who makes a plausible commander-in-chief.
New York Times (Gail Collins): I do feel kind of ticked off at the assumptions that the Republicans seem to be making about female voters…The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong.
AP --She brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. Palin’s lack of experience flies in the face of GOP charges that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief. Boston Globe-- McCain will have a hard time persuading people that he chose the most qualified person to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Palin, at 44, has been governor of one of the nation’s least-populous states for just two and a half years. TIME --This could be Harriet Miers redux. And that didn’t work out so well the first time.
Chicago Tribune-- McCain may have some work to do with Republican Party pros regarding his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. ABC News --Palin doesn’t exactly scream “experience,” which is McCain’s main argument against Obama. For a decade she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, which has a population of approximately 8,471, which the Obama campaign says is less than 1/20th the size of his former state senate district. Palin has been governor for two years. Some might argue that in terms of experience she makes Obama look like Robert Byrd. In July, Palin told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that “as for that VP talk all the time, I tell ya, I still can’t answer that question until, until somebody answers for me ‘What it is exactly that the vice president does every day?”
TIME --McCain’s mighty and oft-swung Obama swatting hammer of experience has been instantly changed from steel to rubber. VP examination stakes are a little higher for McCain, will she pass the ready on Day One test with less than two years in a (small) statehouse? Washington Post --When he ended months of speculation Friday, McCain did not laud Palin as immediately ready to take over, which he once said was his highest priority for a running mate.
Chicago Tribune (Mark Silva) When Obama was looking at Kaine as a possible running mate, Karl Rove, dismissed his experience - a governor for three years and mayor of 103rd largest Richmond. We’re not sure where Wasila ranks.
CNN David Gergen: But what surprises me so much is, that John McCain again and again and again has said the transcendent issue of our times is the fight against terrorism and that we live in a dark, dangerous world. And the most important thing is to have a commander in chief that’s ready. So, here to reach out to Sarah Palin who has no national security experience, no national security exposure, and say you’re my standby and I’m 72 years old and I’ve had some bouts with melanoma, I think that’s a very large gamble and I wonder how it’s going to play out with the American people.
MSNBC Chuck Todd: But I tell you there’s going to be a lot of questions about somebody who was the mayor of Wasilla just three years ago, whether she is ready to be Commander-in-Chief, and just as you brought up, Matt, because of McCain’s age, that’s going to be an issue.