And, yes, she is designed to appeal to Conservative Dems who mostly agree with Republicans on social issues.

Her personal style and story will appeal to a wide swath of non-ideological voters.

And the boldness of the choice, earns McCain back some of his maverick cred.

As for the religious side, I think there are many interpretations that talk about life beginning when life is "breathed" into the child. Meaning life begins at birth when the child is breathing. And that's a Christian belief from some quarters, and perfect valid as far as religious based ideas.

Her office issued this statement on the veto: (States News Service December 28, 2006)

Governor Sarah Palin vetoed HB4001 late this afternoon, under the authority vested in her by Article 11, Section 15 of the Alaska Constitution. This is the Governor's first veto.

"The Department of Law advised me that this bill, HB4001, is unconstitutional given the recent Court order of December 19th, mandating same-sex benefits," said Governor Sarah Palin. "With that in mind, signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office."

HB4001 passed during the special session of the Legislature in the final month of the Murkowski administration. The bill prohibited the commissioner of the department of administration from adopting same-sex regulations, allowing them to become law, or implementing them. In the Department of Law opinion passed along to the Governor, Attorney General Talis Colberg writes, "the bill effectively eliminated the regulatory process as a way to comply with the Court's order to provide same-sex domestic partner benefits for state employees and members of state retirement systems." Colberg further states that the December 19, 2006 order is "legally sufficient to authorize the commission of administration to expand state employee health benefits or change the retirement systems to provide benefits for same-sex domestic partners."

The Governor's veto does not signal any change or modification to her disagreement with the action and order by the Alaska Supreme Court. It is the Governor's intention to work with the legislature and to give the people of Alaska an opportunity to express their wishes and intentions whether these benefits should continue.

The Court-ordered regulations are already in effect in accordance with the December 19th order.

Are you telling me this one actually vetoed something she agreed with because she thought it was unconstitutional?  How is this argument supposed to make me think she is a nutcase?

Of course that's just the same kind of courage that Obama showed when he voted against the wiretapping bill, right?

But another comment here says she did it because she wanted to save the courts money.  So her choices were:
A. sign the bill into law, take credit for it, and make a big political stink about activist judges
B. veto the bill, piss off the righties who supported it, and lose the ability to campaign on the issue later.

My father used mythology all of the time in his Astronomy class.

And he had no problem (HS science) with using the Evolution/Creation debate as a place to get the students thinking critically about what makes a scientific theory scientific rather than pseudo-science. Instead of banning the discussion, he had no problem getting students to think critically about the differences and requirements that go into Scientific Inquiry.