Wilson would change her name to Palin

Last night U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson represented Sen. John McCain at a Georgetown University Young Voters Forum in Washington, D.C., and referring to the popularity of McCain’s running mate, Wilson said that if she were running for reelection (which she isn’t, since losing the Republican primary to Rep. Steve Pearce), she’d "change my last name to Palin." That’s according to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post’s politics blog The Fix.

Cillizza blogged this afternoon about the event last night, which he moderated along with fellow Georgetown alum James Kotecki of Politico.com.

The campaign surrogates mostly stuck to their talking points without much partisan fire, until it came to Palin. As Cillizza writes:

Wilson added that Palin brings a "different" kind of experience to the national ticket than do the senators on the ballot; "She is a reformer and an outsider [who will bring] a breath of fresh air to Washington," said Wilson of Palin.

[U.S. Rep. Artur] Davis for most of the discussion exhibited the calm demeanor and political moderation that makes him the Democratic frontrunner for the Alabama governor’s race in 2010. But he was far more strident when it came to his assessment of Palin.

"She has an infectious personality and reads a TelePrompter well," said Davis to applause and laughter from some in the crowd. Davis went on to insist that the "old John McCain" would have been "responsible enough" to ask either Gen. David Petraeus or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be his vice presidential running mate and not have taken "no" for an answer.

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