Yes, yes, okay

This is a personal blog that eschews politics, but yes, our governor is McCain's running mate. I have not really formed an opinion of her, except that she kind of seems to fill the same PR role as Obama--relatively young, charismatic, good-looking, criticized for inexperience but lauded for being a fresh face in politics.

It will be interesting to see how this goes.

I also wonder how she will fare, personally, if she and McCain win. She has five children, the youngest of whom is an infant with Down's Syndrome. Her husband is part native Yupik and a competitive snowmobiler. By all accounts, her family loves their lives here in Alaska. Could she in good conscience uproot them to Washington DC, probably one of the harshest contrasts to Alaska that I could imagine? I'm all for women in power and breaking the glass ceiling and all that, but neither gender should sacrifice too much of their family. Oh well.

Earlier this week, I voted in person for the first time in my life (I'd always voted absentee, out of sheer laziness). Because we only moved so recently, my polling place is still in Ester, at the Ester Firehouse. Volunteers guided me through the process and had bowls of candy out. It was all so quiet and charming. Later, I had to run an errand in town, and saw that the polling place there had campaigners outside, just outside the minimum allowed radius. They wore loud colors, held signs, chanted slogans, and encouraged cars to honk their support. It was such a contrast to the quiet scene at the Ester Firehouse, that I'm not sure I want to change my voter registration address at all.