You might have read this article already David in the NY Times yesterday, but I copied a few lines just in case. I get the free edition in email form every day. It comes in about 1:45am each day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/po ... &th&emc=th
Several Republican delegates said they too were shocked by the selection of Ms. Palin and, while they wished her well, were deeply concerned that she did not have the experience in foreign policy or national security to be commander in chief.
“We’ve been told for the last few months that experience is what matters most in the next White House,” said John Scates, a delegate from St. Louis. “But McCain is picking someone whose experience is little to nothing or, at best, unknown.”
In the days ahead, Mr. Obama’s advisers said they would not just seek to define Ms. Palin as extremely conservative on issues like abortion and raise questions about her credentials as part of a larger effort to challenge Mr. McCain’s judgment. They will also argue that Mr. McCain’s decision would prove to be a mistake in terms of appealing to women and that it would hurt him in important battlegrounds like the Philadelphia suburbs.
“In terms of the classic suburbs, it’s a bomb,” said Marcel L. Groen, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Montgomery County, outside Philadelphia. “So far as suburban woman go, this will not help McCain at all: they’re pro-choice and anti-gun.”
It is complicated terrain, aides to Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain acknowledged. Any perception that Mr. Obama or his supporters were trying to tear down Ms. Palin could renew anger among supporters of Mrs. Clinton.
“I can’t imagine the Obama team will spend their time on Palin; they’ll spend their time with their negative ads attacking McCain and Bush,” said Mandy Grunwald, Mrs. Clinton’s chief advertising strategist. “You always have to be careful not to rally people to her side by attacking too much.”
Republicans said Ms. Palin would provide an outlet for women angered at what they said was the poor treatment of Mrs. Clinton by the Obama campaign, the Democratic Party leadership and the news media. Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain, said: “I think the public pretty much accepts the fact that they played pretty dirty and that sexism played a role in the primary.”
Mr. Obama’s campaign has moved on a variety of fronts to increase his appeal to women. Leading women in battleground states are being mobilized, and a disproportionate number of female surrogates are being sent to argue for him on television. They are being asked to focus on abortion rights and pay equity, aides said, and to steer clear of criticizing Ms. Palin as having limited experience in elected politics and government.
And Mrs. Clinton is likely to play an even more active role on behalf of Mr. Obama in the fall campaign, her aides said, because of Ms. Palin. She is expected to participate in television appearances, fund-raisers and conference calls with reporters to rebut efforts by the McCain campaign to court her supporters.