Here are a few weekend poll result for your viewing pleasure:

First- How the Veeps compare in the eyes of the voters

In the poll taken Friday, 39 percent said (Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin) is ready to serve as president if needed, 33 percent said she isn’t and 29 percent have no opinion.

That’s the lowest rating any running mate has had since then-Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle was selected in 1988 to join George H.W. Bush’s team.

By contrast, 57 percent of voters rated Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as qualified after Obama selected him last week. Eighteen percent said he wasn’t qualified

And second- What was the most viewed television event of the summer?  (hint, it WASN’T the Olympics)

The just-concluded Democratic National Convention in Denver was the most-watched since at least 1960 and drew more viewers than the Summer Olympics, according to figures released by the Nielsen Co.

The quadrennial gathering was seen in 27.7 million homes, breaking the record of 21.9 million who tuned in to the 1976 Republican convention, when President Gerald Ford won the nomination over Ronald Reagan; and the 20.7 million who watched the 1980 Democratic convention when President Jimmy Carter beat back a challenge by Senator Edward Kennedy. The figures are the highest since New York-based Nielsen began keeping track in 1960.

On average, the four-day Democratic convention drew 30.2 million viewers as Illinois Senator Barack Obama, 47, became the first black presidential nominee of a major political party. This year’s Olympic Games averaged 27.7 million. Viewership of the Denver convention was almost 50 percent higher than the 20.4 million who tuned into the Democrats four years ago.

Obama’s acceptance speech before more than 75,000 people at Invesco Field Aug. 28 attracted viewers in 27.7 million households. The most-watched broadcast, the finale of the CBS television show “M.A.S.H.,” was seen in 50.2 million, Nielsen figures show.

The 38.4 million individuals who watched Obama’s address on television represented a 57 percent increase over the 24.4 million who saw Democratic Senator John Kerry’s acceptance speech in Boston four years ago.

How will the Republican National Convention compare?  Stay tuned, we’ll let you know.

Popularity: 2% [?]

How do you compete against the first black presidential candidate?  You tap that p**sy!

Crude, I know, but I’m allowed these jokes.  When you own a vagina, it allows you certain liberties:

Give it to us CNN:

Sen. John McCain on Friday announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate, calling her “the running mate who can best help me shake up Washington.”

“She’s exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second,” the presumptive Republican nominee said at a Dayton, Ohio, rally of about 15,000 supporters, who welcomed the surprise pick of the relatively unknown politician with cheers and flags.

“She’s got the grit, integrity, good sense and fierce devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in Washington today,” McCain said.

Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Palin

Palin, 44, told the crowd, “To have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best that I have to give and I promise nothing less.”

Palin is a first-term governor who unseated incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary in 2006 and went on to defeat former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election.

She will be the first woman to be nominated for vice president as a Republican and only the second to run for vice president on a major party ticket, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

Palin also will be the first Alaskan to be on the ticket for either party.

I was actually a bit shocked by the choice as such a blatant gimmick. I mean really, what better way to compete against the first black presidential candidate than to tag team with a woman? If America thought they had come to terms with their highly suppressed sexism and racism guilt, I can’t WAIT to see what level it’s taken to now!

Ironically, I think his choice will make feminists across the nation’s blood curl.

UPDATE: Bloomburg gives us more information about who this Sarah Palin chick is:

Palin has a strong anti-abortion record. She is a member of Feminists for Life, a group that works to make health-care and child-care resources available to “pregnant or parenting students,” according to the group’s Web site.

Palin, a former beauty queen, high school basketball star and television sportscaster, began her political career in the 1990s as a city councilwoman and then mayor in her home town of Wasilla. The town’s estimated population in 2007 was 9,780, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Earlier this year, Palin threatened to evict Exxon Mobil Corp. and its partners BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips from a state-owned gas field, winning a promise from them to boost Alaska’s natural-gas output by 17 percent.

Palin hasn’t been implicated in the four-year-old federal corruption investigation, which has resulted in convictions of or guilty pleas from three state legislators, Murkowski’s former chief of staff and two executives of an oil-services company, as well as the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I’m guessing it’ll be less than 48 3 hours before scandals or scrutinies (real or imaginary) of Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Biden are jammed into our faces.

Here are three I guarantee will come out of the gates early:

1. Military service record:  At the height of the Vietnam war in 1968, Biden was prime for the draft at 26 years old but was rejected for “medical reasons“.  I’m sure details of his rejection will become clearer in the following weeks.  It should be noted that his son, Beau Biden, has orders to deploy to Iraq on October 3rd, 2008 with his Delaware National Guard JAG unit.  Will his son bring a balance for the senior Biden’s lack of military record?
2. Biden supported the Bush Administration post 9/11and voted in favor of the Iraq invasion.  Flip-flopping. Our favorite campaign hyphenation.
3. In 1988, Bidden was caught plagiarizing several lines from the speech of Neil Kinnock, then British Labor party leader.

Got another one? Let me know…..

Popularity: 19% [?]

The AP reports Obama’s choice for VP will be Joe Biden.  At least the wait is over.  I was starting to get annoyed by all the Obama campaign emails asking me to join their text-messaging and email lists to be the first alerted of his veep choice.

What’s that you say?  You still haven’t received your “first-to-know” text message??  oops…

Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with an older congressional veteran well-versed in foreign and defense issues.

Biden, who has twice sought the White House, is a Catholic with a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.

Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation and Constitutional issues.

The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning.

Obama’s campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfiled, Ill.

The Democratic National Convention meets next week in Denver to hand Obama his long-sought presidential nomination, and then confirm Biden.

It’s a nice way for an organization to boost it’s voter contact list with phone numbers and emails, eh?  Does anyone else feel a little cheated?

UPDATE: 3:00 am EST

Obama’s decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 3 a.m. on the East coast.

Good morning!

Popularity: 5% [?]

The easiest answer would be- seek out the backing of one who has been there in your stead.  And that may well be what Dem Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is doing at present moment.  In this time of consistent military action in the Middle East, and with the ever looming threat of escalation always casting a shadow on the future, Obama has a mighty disadvantage against a far more experienced war vet such as Rep Presidential Candidate John McCain.

North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad told The Associated Press said the team asked him about potential candidates from three broad categories — current top elected officials, former top elected officials, and former top military leaders.

Conrad would not disclose which names they discussed, and the Obama campaign has been keeping the process a closely guarded secret.

‘‘We talked about many names,’’ Conrad said, including ‘‘some that are out of the box but I think would be very well received by the American people, including former top military leaders.’’

Many former military leaders have been involved in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. Some of Obama’s most prominent campaign advisers have been Gen. Tony McPeak, who was Air Force chief of staff during Operation Desert Storm; Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who flew repeated combat missions and has worked with Obama on a range of military issues since before he began his presidential campaign; and Richard Danzig, who was secretary of the Navy under President Clinton.

He might also look at some of former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top military advisers in a gesture of unity, retired generals who include Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; or Wesley Clark, who led the war in Kosovo and ran in the presidential primary four years ago. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who served as Navy secretary under President Reagan, has also been frequently mentioned as a possible running mate.

In an area where Obama has been seen lacking, picking up a veteran could bring a great hand to the table.

Popularity: 3% [?]

That’s right gang, the time in the election process where the Presidential Candidates begin to hunt down their 4-8 year soulmates. The yin to their yang, the Ed to their Johnny, the Triscuit to their Easy Cheese…

You get the idea.

So while Obama does but doesn’t have someone hunting for possible running mates (he’s keeping mum about the whole ordeal), McCain is using his hunt in a more savvy a way… as an election tool with battle ground state Florida providing the home for at least one contender for the next best thing.

Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a onetime rival for the Republican nomination, have all accepted invitations to visit Mr. McCain at his ranch in Sedona, Republicans said.

Mr. McCain himself has said his choice of a running mate would draw particular scrutiny from voters given Mr. McCain’s age; he is now 71, or “as old as dirt,” as he likes to joke, while quickly adding that he is in good health. More than that, with Mr. Obama’s selection as his party’s nominee now almost assured, Mr. McCain is contemplating a contest against an energized Democratic electorate after a campaign that has highlighted race and gender issues.

Mr. Crist, a fairly popular first-term governor, has been included on various lists of potential running mates for Mr. McCain, whom he endorsed shortly before Florida’s January primary, which effectively helped Mr. McCain claim the nomination. Mr. Crist said Wednesday that he and Mr. McCain had not discussed the prospect, not even at a fund-raiser in Miami that the two attended Tuesday night.

As governor of Florida, Mr. Crist, 51, would bring obvious assets to the Republican ticket, beginning with his popularity in a state that is almost always an electoral battleground — and where Mr. Obama appears to be struggling. Mr. Crist’s relative youth could also be an asset for Mr. McCain, who has made clear that age will be a consideration in his search for a running mate.

In Florida, Mr. Crist has long been known for his affability and a campaign skills. Instantly recognizable because of his perpetual tan and striking white hair, Mr. Crist, who was Florida’s attorney general before being elected governor in 2006, has also acquired a reputation as something of a hard-liner on law and order issues.

He supports the death penalty, largely opposes restrictions on the rights of gun owners, early on earned the nickname “Chain Gang Charlie” because he favored allowing convicts to be used in road work, and has described himself as a “pro-life and pro-family” candidate.

Mr. Romney, the former chief executive who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008 and who was born in Michigan, has made no secret of his desire to join Mr. McCain’s presidential ticket. Mr. Romney’s M.B.A. skills, and business background — including running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games — could address concerns about Mr. McCain’s ability to manage a struggling economy.

Mr. Jindal, who was born in Baton Rouge, La., to a family that had just arrived there from the Punjab area of India, took office in January after serving three years in the House of Representatives. In a race with four candidates, Mr. Jindal, who was born a Hindu but converted to Roman Catholicism as a teenager, won 54 percent of the vote after campaigning as a social conservative, opposing human embryonic stem cell research and abortion in any form, and favoring teaching “intelligent design” in schools as an alternative to evolution.

So we’re looking at “Chain Gang Charlie”, Romney (the guy who failed at getting the nomination because of party distrust an inability to connect with voters and record of flip flopping on issues), and the guy who (prepping for backlash now) believes in magical tales of how we came to be against evidence that would prove the contrary, and wants all our kids to learn it that way too, regardless of whether they follow the same beliefs or not (and I won’t even further the shit storm I could be earning here by getting into abortion or stem cell research).

Those all sound like solid arguments to keep from voting on the Republican ticket, and here I thought I’d already had enough reasons.

As of this moment there’s no word on who Hillary Clinton in her alternate universe version of the elections is going to choose for her running mate.

Popularity: 3% [?]