She had just had a baby who had Down’s Syndrome and she had a large family, so it was a difficult situation to put someone in—especially a mom from Alaska. When you don’t know what you’re doing, you rely on “experts” a lot. As a Republican, I was super frustrated that McCain won the nomination—we all hated him and he was the last person we wanted to see, especially after a deep group of highly qualified candidates. But it was one of the first cracks in my realization that the elections were rigged. I think most of us were glad to have her as a breath of fresh air at an otherwise horrifying time.