Why Palin Is a Fantastic Choice
It seems that more and more women are going into business for themselves; in fact, a recent study shows that women are emerging as a fast-growing sector of new small business owners. That matches my experience: I hear women at my gym all the time talking about their start-up home businesses, such as working with Ebay selling furniture and other items. Some are making a very good living at it. A living, I am afraid, that will be eaten up by regulation and taxes if they are deemed “too successful” by the Obama camp. I hope Palin has more sympathy for entrepreneurs and those who run their own businesses, for they are the backbone of this country. Their success should be rewarded — not discouraged.
Unlike many liberals, I believe that women are capable of surviving and prospering on their own — and Palin is proof of that. And unlike some female politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Palin made it herself without the help of a career politician husband to give her an added advantage. Palin strikes me as someone who is fair to both men and women and who does not give women special rights and privileges just for the sake of being female. Kathy Hendrickson, a blogger, is also jazzed about Palin:
In my opinion, Sarah Palin comes off as a capable, confident woman, a no-nonsense mother of five who doesn’t treat her gender as a handicap or a get-out-of-jail-free card. Her neutral treatment is what allows her gender to be a non-issue, and I’d love to see her in the White House, so that at last, women can run as reformers, or conservatives, or beltway outsiders, and not as gender novelties.
Palin strikes me as a no-nonsense woman who would treat men and women alike with civility and fairness. After all, she has a 80-90 percent approval rating as governor of Alaska, which is one of the few states that has more men than women (although that is changing). And unlike Obama, who would treat fathers unfairly, with little forethought, or “chivalrous” Biden who wants to give women a free divorce lawyer, I think Palin would focus on helping Americans achieve their dreams by staying out of their way. I hope she lives up to my expectations and will get the chance to serve as our vice president come November.
I believe that Sarah Palin as Vice President has the potential to change American Culture for the better. Perhaps I’m projecting, but I can’t see her trying to get Larry Summers fired, claiming that colleges are biased against women, claiming that marriage oppresses women, claiming that pro-life women are dupes of evil men, etc.. etc.. basically, she seems to embody feminism without the man-hate. Think about all the young girls looking at politics for role models– all Hillary and Nancy in the news, all the time these days.
I am extremely hopeful.
I’ve noted that the Republicans sit at a game board playing chess while the Democrats think they’re playing checkers.
Governor Palin is the Governor of the largest state in the union, the direct manager of our largest oil reserves and natural gas reserves; this election is about energy sources, not color as the Dems would like to believe. Mac was told early on that if he could just tie himself into new sources of energy that would allow America to separate itself from the Saudis and Chavez he would win the Presidency.
And he has done that in spades, now that the Dems have taken the bait about a state with a population smaller than Brooklyn out will come ads describing the vast natural resources being managed by Sarah Palin in a state twice the size of Texas.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the male talking heads out there don’t get it. Charles Krauthammer, for example, a brilliant conservative thinker with whom I agree 99 per cent of the time, said yesterday just before the announcement that McCain should make a “safe” choice. At that point, I had already allowed myself to get swept up in the possibility that Palin would be the one, and I knew in my heart and soul that Charles and other men of un certain age just didn’t get it.
Obama, like the proverbial deer — moose? — in the headlights, obviously didn’t see it coming either.
Could we swap them around and have President Palin and VP Mccain? Now that would be a great ticket.
Right Brain – Governor Palin is the Governor of the largest state in the union, the direct manager of our largest oil reserves and natural gas reserves.
You really don’t have a clue. The companies that own or lease Fed lands manage their claims, the Indian tribes have relationships with oil and gas firms on their lands, and the largest manager of Reserves is the Federal Gov’t Dept of Interior.
Palin has nothing to do with it.
Even the Revenue Trust giving out the oil dividends to Alaskans is deliberately set up to keep politicians fingers out of it.
Also you play silly word games. When people generally talk about largest states or cities they follow a general convention to describe “largest” by population and GNP. Making California, Texas, New York, Florida our largest states.
NYC is our largest city – even though Dallas-Ft Worth has a far physically larger size in square miles.
out will come ads describing the vast natural resources being managed by Sarah Palin in a state twice the size of Texas.
NO, they won’t run such ads, because Palin doesn’t manage those resources. And Alaska’s about 2 1/2 times the size of Texas.
I’ve noted that the Republicans sit at a game board playing chess while the Democrats think they’re playing checkers.
In taking the Republicans from a majority Party to a minority one with a reputation for corruption, favoring fatcats, beset by sex scandals, reckless spending, inept to incompetent government management under Ted Stevens, Trent Lott, Tom Delay, Denny Hastert, George Bush, the Neocons – they weren’t playing chess.
Perhaps it was “Pay to Play at the K-Street Feeding Troughs”? Maybe it was just a big circle jerk.
But as Rep Davis said, the fruit of the Republicans from Bush on down was a near-ruined brand. “If the Republican brand was on dog food, they’d yank it off the shelves.”
No one would have been excited by the choice of Romney. Now everyone in the party is energized by this fresh face. The Dems will keep blasting that electing McCain means “business as usual.” This selection shows how wrong-headed that claim is. Palin’s pick shows that McCain “gets it;” the conservative base would not have put up with a Lieberman selection and wanted someone that is not an in-side-the-beltway pol. Being politically involved while raising 5 kids and quickly rising to be governor of our largest state – with a 65% favorable rating from her constituents – shows she is smart and resourceful. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her this week at the Republican Convention.
Palin was a fantastic voice for two reasons: the Republican base is now firmly behind the ticket and it brought enough excitement that many outside the base will look again at the ticket.
Wonderful piece, Helen, with many good points about what’s helpful and not to women and men in America. As always, usually less (as in government) is really more. But our politically correct Nanny Statism and Daddy-Knows-Best just won’t see it that way.
Very excited about Sarah Palin. What a ride it’s going to be!
thanks for your thoughts, Helen; what a contrast to the spiteful, sophomoric drivel served up by taylor marsh.
An inspired choice by McCain. The Democrats are betraying their purported values on women’s rights, equal opportunity, etc. in efforts to discredit Palin. Listening to CNN has been a real education that last 20 hours.
But, Palin may be the epitome of the “new” woman. Except I’m sure some feminists will hate it that she admires her husband and is happily married. She is a straighter talker than McCain. She beat an incumbent governor in the primary on her way to becoming governor.
The more I think of it, the more I like this VP choice, although I thought McCain playing it safer, w/ Romney as VP was the direction to go.
Now the Obamatons are all out in arms, braying that Palin has no experience in facing important decisions – and contrasting this with Glibama’s achievements! Absurd & easy to dismiss charge & comparison:
Yes, it is true that Alaska has more reindeers than people, and population smaller that Obama’s following in the US penitentiary system, but now look at the map of the North-West America – the Behring strait (just 50 miles between Russia and the USA), then Kamchiatka, Vladivostok, and Russia’s enormous military system lurking in Siberia, eyeing the US and Alaska (with its enormous oil and mineral reserves – and don’t forget that Alaska purchase is another object of nostalgia amongst irredentist Russians. And I don’t introduce now in this ominous reality the N. Korean and China menacing proximity!)
This position gives Alaska a particularly important geopolitical weight, and this situation places on the Alaska governor’s office more strategic concerns and matters to deal with than most US governors face.
So, the comparison between Sarah Palin’s, governor of Alaska and mister Glibama’, the community activist job weight is ridiculous – the Alaska governor has more US strategic problems to envisage daily than the community activist from Chicago ever had, and ever will have during fifteen life-times.
Topping this, mister Glibama anyway never-ever-ever held a job of minimal responsibility, of any nature – except an unsuccessful shot as laudromat manager in New York, shot which credentialized him for sitting together with Ayres in a straw-men board to spend the Annenberg millions (we’ll learn more about this later).
As far as Joe Biden part of this equation: for any Glibamaton out there – can you tell where is the hope’n change and the no more politics as usual in Washington? Where is the “people want change, want new faces in Washington?” Sure Biden’s 35 years in the US senate trumps McCain’s, don’t they? And what about fresh figures? Have you prepared in your budget some money for Biden’s face lift?
MARY POPPINS GOES TO WASHINGTON
Mark Steyn may once have written that he couldn’t listen to a speech by Obama without giggling.
I wonder if he’d be so forthright as to admit that he couldn’t observe the new Republican VP candidate Palin without gaffawing.
Wherever I turn, whomever I hear, McCain’s VP choice is lambasted left and right as a preposterous turn of events. What’s next? Anita Bryant for Secretary of State?
As I’ve said before, it really doesn’t matter who wins the White House. Like it or not, within a month or two “they” will be embroiled with the “Palestine issue”, the “Russia/Georgia” affair, the madpersons (formerly: madmen) of Iran and so on, and all the pre-presidential rhetoric and promises will long since have been forgotten.
But still, it’s sad to observe a basically decent man as McCain, who had no chance of winning anyway, hammer the last nail onto his political coffin with his outlandish choice for running mate.
Now, Obama’s winning the election is not only assured, it will be an avalanche in his favor.
The tens of millions of voters who were still uncommitted, the independents, the still vociferous and now embittered remnants of the 60s, the vast unwashed, tattooed and pierced members on the fringes of respectable society will all now make it a point of honor to go out and vote Democrat.
Larry, Moe and Curly…..are you watching what’s going on?
Sissy wrote:
I’ve noticed that a lot of the male talking heads out there don’t get it. Charles Krauthammer, for example, a brilliant conservative thinker with whom I agree 99 per cent of the time, said yesterday just before the announcement that McCain should make a “safe” choice.
I agree with Krauthammer most of the time, but remember, he too is looking at this from an Inside the Beltway perspective, (as are David Frum and other MSM commentators). They’re underestimating how appealing and refreshing Sarah Palin will be to the working mom in Cleveland. McCain needed excitement in his campaign.
Who on earth would have gotten excited about the “safe” Romney or Pawlenty? Much of the negative media reaction to this only underscores that the MSM are as out of touch with ordinary Americans as -well, as Obama and his running mate, the ultimate Senate hack.
A lot of commentators (not all) from blue state big cities also don’t get it. They’re all set to sneer at the hick, not realizing that that will only reinforce the negative perception of Obama voters as effete latte sippers looking down their noses at the masses.
I get a kick out of attacks on Palin based on the small population of Alaska. Many of these, if not the majority, come from people who whole-heartedly supported Howard Dean, from Vermont, the second smallest state in terms of population.
This pick has driven them inane.
Thank you for saying so eloquently what so many of us are feeling. As a woman I’ve never felt that my gender was a handicap, and what I’ve achieved in my career and my life I’ve done on my own merits and my own work. Sarah Palin and I share some views, but I disagree with her on others. That being said McCain’s gone up in my estimation in his pick and while I was undecided I’m now leaning toward supporting McCain/Palin. Her views on the drug war, energy policy, her veto of the bill that would’ve prevented same-sex couples from receiving state benefits, and her bucking of her own party on the “bridge to nowhere” project lead me to believe she thinks for herself and makes decisions on what’s best for her constituancy. I am thrilled to see a happy, beautiful mother of five who has her own thoughts and ideas come to the fore of American politics and as a strong independent woman she inspires me to continue to work for what I believe in as well.
Time for another webvid:
Mr. Palin working on a rig, covered in oil and sweat in a swarm of Alaskan-sized horseflies. He looks up, stops, stands (holding a 50lb KTSN-2 wrench) and says “send the dems a message this year by electing my lady and Mr. McCain, they’ll end this “not-in-my backyard” silliness that has shipped offshore 10s of thousands of great blue-collar jobs like mine.” Then have Mr. McCain barely visible in the background (masked by these giants of men) step forward into view and say “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”
With the video have the bottom of the page scroll through a list of legislation and supreme court findings that have crippled the energy business (with job counts, dollars lost, and pictures and party affiliation of those responsible). From Mr. Carter’s “windfall profits tax” to now. And on the right-hand side put up pictures of folks at pumps rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in disgust as the digits spin past against a backdrop of “brought to you by the democratic party, where you can spend more and not get less.”
/Ari
(Yes, I know Alaska has an energy severance tax keyed to price – mislabeled as windfall-profits, as do other energy-rich states. Neither pubs nor dems are pure on this matter save the pubs generally come down on the side of the citizen and their enterprise, and protect the freedoms required to strive to make life better).
Cedarford:
Yes, many people are referring to population when they use the term “largest.” It’s deceptive.
If Alaska is not the largest state in the union, then what is it – the biggest?
The people from whom I learned English and Geography would have corrected me if I had ever said that California was the largest state in the Union, unless I had qualified that with “in terms of population”. They preferred the term “most populous state”.
FYI – Dallas/Fort Worth are part of the “Metroplex” as they are two separate and distinct cities located in adjoining counties (Dallas and Tarrant, respectively) with the City of Arlington located between the two.
SO, assuming your statement to be true, it is correct that the combined areas of the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas are larger that the City of New York, it is false to say that the City of New York is larger than the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas. More populous, which means a greater population density, but not larger.
cedarford – The largest state in the United States IS Alaska. If one is referring to population, GDP they say so, that is standard convention moron. To suggest otherwise is nothing more than trite urbane penis envy.
Get a clue yourself. Gov. Palin canceled an oil/gas pipeline contract and re-opened that contract for bidding. Saying she has nothing to do with managing the resources of her state is nothing more than obama worshiping ignorance.
If sex scandals mean so much to you and your party why spend so much time, effort and money trying to bury the Edwards love child? Giving a $1,000,000 slab of pork to your wife’s employer is perfectly ok right?
As your messiah said “If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.” You’re so ignorant and deluded that you fail to see that the messiah played the only card he has.
Take your hurt little feelings back to the sewer you came from.
“In taking the Republicans from a majority Party to a minority one with a reputation for corruption, favoring fatcats, beset by sex scandals, reckless spending, inept to incompetent government management under Ted Stevens, Trent Lott, Tom Delay, Denny Hastert, George Bush, the Neocons – they weren’t playing chess.
Perhaps it was “Pay to Play at the K-Street Feeding Troughs”? Maybe it was just a big circle jerk.
But as Rep Davis said, the fruit of the Republicans from Bush on down was a near-ruined brand. “If the Republican brand was on dog food, they’d yank it off the shelves.””
I was going to write something like this but cedarford did so I don’t have to.
I voted for Bush in the last election but since then the Republicans squandered all the good will I had for them. They would have to put Jesus on the ticket before I could vote for a Republican in this election.
Not that the Dems are any better, but if we give the White House to the same party after 8 years of terrible approval ratings, tax and spend governing, and openly divisive politics then no politicians of any party will ever bother to listen to voters ever again.
Love her or hate her, this is what would be called in chess, a double exclamation point move. Precisely because after Obama beat the “hope and change” drum until we were all deaf, and then chose an inexplicable “safe” running mate, McCain shows us what “out of the box” means.
The “hope and change” talk from the Obama camp is going to sound so tinny at this point, he’s going to end up like the man behind the curtain on the Wizard of Oz.
And to be sure, this is out of the box, not because she’s a woman, but because, like McCain himself, she’s a maverick who defies pigeonholing. And also like McCain, she’s a consistent crusader for clean government.
So let the cookie-cutter politicians try to portray themselves as reformers. Nobody but the yellow dogs are going to fall for that, coming from a couple of professional panderers.
The problem with conservative women for liberals is that we do not view ourselves as victims and wards of the state. We are the Uncle Toms of our gender. We Palin a Dem she’d be celebrated on the mountain high (oh, Obama already got that spot). We all know it.
Personally I haven’t been this excited about a presidential campaign in just about ever. Just a few short months ago when I thought it would be McCain vs. Hillary, there was not only excitment, there was full depression. It’s just endlessly fun that one party talks about a woman on the ticket and the other party actually puts one there. Glenn is right; this has become vastly entertaining the past few months.
Obviously some people, alo?, are very “selective” in where he/she/it gets their information. Lambasted? If you’re in the tank for the messiah at least have the stones to say so.
Alo, hallo: [...] a basically decent man as McCain, who had no chance of winning anyway, hammer the last nail onto his political coffin with his outlandish choice for running mate. [...]
Halloooooo? Alo, wake up! McCain won the election! Alo! Wake up, McCain won the election!
much of the knee-jerk knock on Palin is simply sexism: i guarantee its proponents haven’t bothered to examine whether her experience is less than every prior male candidate.
that this raw sexism is emanating from the self-proclaimed progressives would be funny were it not also so sad.
it is also untintentionally revealing in detail: for example, if you look closely at the comments of “feminists”, many of those now hating on Palin are forced to admit that their difference with her on “women’s rights” is really about one thing – their deperate search for absolution on the subject of abortion. perhaps you, helen, as a shrink, would agree that in many cases that need for absolution is driven by guilt and shame and onle dressed up as high principle?
(and, by the way, I believe a similarly self-serving, albeit different, need drives much of the pro-abortion rights energy from the male side too.)
In addition, Palin is a relief from the endless comedy and tragedy portrayed by moral cripples in Washington. Also, she is the only candidate on on either ticket who has proven executive prowess.
It would be wonderful if Sarah Palin could *also* be a role model for our current crop of Republican politicians, from Congress all the way down to local town councils. I see that yesterday the McCain Web site brought in $3 million in donations (could have been more if the servers weren’t swamped). That’s an interesting alternative to buying votes with endless earmarks.
Cedarford made the best argument FOR Palin of anyone on the board:
“In taking the Republicans from a majority Party to a minority one with a reputation for corruption, favoring fatcats, beset by sex scandals, reckless spending, inept to incompetent government management under Ted Stevens, Trent Lott, Tom Delay, Denny Hastert, George Bush, the Neocons – they weren’t playing chess.”
She is Mrs. Anti-Corruption and single-handedly cleaned out the Republican party of Alaska, perhaps the nation’s most corrupt (for Republicans, that is). She shut down the Bridge to Nowhere, reduced her salary as mayor, cut property taxes, gave money back to the citizens when oil revenues increased the state income, sold the brand new governor’s private jet bought by her predecessor.
Cedarford, if you truly believe the problem in politics is corruption and sex scandals, who better than a mother of five with a proven record of fighting corruption? She is the anti-Ted Stevens, metaphorically and literally. From your standpoint, you should be jumping for joy that someone will finally clean out Washington and you shouldn’t hesitate to vote for McCain-Palin.
pete – you dislike what you perceive to have been the current administration’s “tax and spend governing, and openly divisive politics.”
and you seriously think an Obama administration will tamp that down?
if you want to ‘send a message’ to the republicans, write to your representatives.
I love the way that Obama stands out as an effete, narcissistic wimp in contrast to Sarah Palin. This woman rocks!
Palin saw corruption and declared war on it. Obama saw corruption and embraced it.
Finally! A real woman that real men can respect, admire, and support! Bravo!
A berman said “basically, she seems to embody feminism without the man-hate.”
Yes, precisely. That’s why I’m thrilled by this choice — and I’m an independent voter, not a Republican. Palin appears to believe in her own power and to understand that genuine feminism doesn’t require a woman to see herself as a victim or to cut herself off from the love of a husband and family. More power to her, I say — with luck, beginning in 2009.
McCain’s choice of Mrs. Palin for VP is great. She is one of those women who only seem to grow up in the “sticks”. She will drive the liberals nuts, and she is the most photogenic politician on the planet. Check out these pics of her on their fishing boat, etc:http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/08/021365.php
So they’ll say that Alaska has more reindeers than people, true. But Chicago has more cockroaches than people. I’ll take reindeers.
Palin has all the women in my home jumping up and down with joy. And the women in my family run the gauntlet from conservative firebrands to FDR liberals…all of them were absolutely wowed by Sarah’s interview on CNBC. She is smart no bullshit sort of lady that will eat Biden for a snack during the debate and smile cutely after he is left writhing on the floor.
The elite insiders of Washington think they are the solution…they simply don’t understand or cannot even conceive how much the rest of us hold them in contempt.
Helen great article!
ex-democrat,
That’s a whole other topic for another day, but I came across something tangentially related to that question that tries to answer that in relation to a different basic issue:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=A593C5BB-315C-415F-A26B-335CC94D9913
Interesting read, that probably could be expanded to help explain a lot of issues.
Cedarford: many good points. However: “Ted Stevens, Trent Lott, Tom Delay, Denny Hastert, George Bush, the Neocons” — is that who your party is running against? Because I have to break it to you: none of those guys are running. Except Ted, but he might be in jail soon. As far as the universal leftist bugaboo of “Neocon” – each passing day appears to validate most of their policy views, at least when it comes to foreign policy, so you can go ahead and run against them as well.
Thanks for a great piece. The more I read about Palin the more I like her. She is an independent woman who can think for herself. She doesn’t let an outside group define her. In this sense I think McCain also picked a person who is a good match for him. I may not always agree with him but I can give him credit for thinking for himself.
Palin closed on the $26 billion gas pipekine for Alaska which was sittingon desks for almost 30 years. And it wasn’t by kissing the oil & gas companies’ tootsies. Google IBD Palin and gas pipeline for the story.
[Of course, that's Investor's Business Daily, and the Dem meme is that big business and ivnvestments are suspect .... But just the facts. m'am.]
Beats squandering someone else’s $1.46 mill in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
“Mr. Palin working on a rig, covered in oil and sweat in a swarm of Alaskan-sized horseflies. He looks up, stops, stands (holding a 50lb KTSN-2 wrench) and says “send the dems a message this year by electing my lady and Mr. McCain,”
Brilliant ad idea.
Though I’d rather it be Mrs. Palin covered in oil and sweat…woof!!!
McCain does not have to bring up the experience issue, he just has to play that ad where Obama and his primary opponents are all saying he is too inexperienced.
If Palin/McCain can reach the whitehouse, they will break another glass ceiling, and quite frankly, a more important glass ceiling for the health of the nation, that being the glass ceiling stopping anti-machine politics from reaching national elective office.
Washington D. C. needs 635 Sarah Palins on capitol hill, and hundreds more in appointee positions over the bureaucracy. Will that happen in a McCain administration? I give it about a .00001% chance of happening that quick. But I think Palin offers a real type of hope, that you do not have to be the son or daughter of a sitting senator to be a senator. You do not have to toil away for decades as a cog in a political machine to get your shot at national elective office. That the mere qualities of wanting to serve the needs of the nation, with disdain for corruption and pork, are enough to gain the votes needed to win national elective office.
The ivy league educated minions,who have paraded through the beltway for the past 30 years, failed to avoid the mistakes we committed in the 1700′s regarding the middle east, I think perhaps we can afford to see what a state school educated neophyte with an honest desire to do her best by America can come up with.
“The problem with conservative women for liberals is that we do not view ourselves as victims and wards of the state.”
Gov Palin is a living example of the awesome power women once believed in themselves to have until they turned themselves into Oprahfried victims of everything.
Sarah Palin is everything that feminism is not; she is secure and confident in herself built upon her own accomplishments, a champion of human decency, outstanding respect for the power of our wombs and our Womanhood, admiration for males with an understanding and appreciation for their value in our society, a pioneer who helps her husband bring home the bacon to cook in the frying pan to feed their five children, she is a warrior, a nurturer and a faithfully devoted lover.
For the first time in my 47 years of living I have finally come across a woman who makes feel great about my gender; until yesterday came along I had given up all faith in women however today all that has Changed.
I think The Anchoress has a very astute observation on Palin’s atractiveness: “…I find that I am more and more pleased that she is not another Ivy League lawyer who planned and plotted a political career, but rather a concerned and active, intelligent woman who simply followed her own interests and concerns, and walked through the doors and opportunities as they were placed before her. That’s refreshing – it is also so very “can-do American.”
Can the citizens take back Washington?
The best line I have heard is that Palin has run a commercial fishery, a town and a state. All Obama has done is run his mouth. While funny, it doesn’t fully give him credit. He managed to spend $100 million dollars on an education program run by a terrorist/Marxist with nothing to show for it and he “organized a community” resulting in a housing disaster.
The brilliance of this pick is that Obama suffers so unfavorably from any comparison to Palin that every criticism of her inures to McCain’s benefit. The leftists are apoplectic and their seething has already started.
I agree with Palin on more things than I do any of the four VP and presidential candidates. That is all that really matters to me. The leftists coming totally unhinged and making fools of themselves is just a fringe benefit.
I’d bet that the State of Alaska gets at least 2/3 of its state revenue as a result of the severance tax (a severance tax is not a windfall profits tax–it’s a charge per barrel of oil pumped) imposed on the North Slope operators.
The “progressives” have long claimed that Messrs. Bush and Cheney “are in the pocket” of their oil buddies.
Now I think that claim is bogus. But Ms. Palin did actually get into the pockets and the wallets of the North Slope operators. She got the severance tax negotiations out of the backrooms where her predecessors and kept it.
She brought the negotiations out into the open in a transparent process AND she managed to get an agreement to raise the severance tax from 22.5% to 25% BP, Exxon and Conoco negotiators are not pushovers. She handled them, and put the State of Alaska’s hands deeper into their pocket.
You can say it’s a good thing or a bad thing–but if you want someone who knows how to beat up on oil companies, Ms. Palin is your girl.
cedarford – Keep up the good work here on PM! You are a beacon of light for all the NeoComms who will not be confused with the facts. Keep the blabber coming comrade!
Palin is a cool, refreshing breeze of arctic air that will shape the landscape of GLOBAL politics for the next 25 years and beyond. The neocomms and liberal socialists are on notice… Sarah Barracuda is not buying your B.S. and she is going to artfully explain why.
SISSY,SISSY,SISSY: “and I knew in my heart and soul that Charles and other men of un certain age just didn’t get it.”
This sixty eight year old Marine watched the Palin announcement and got a “Chris Matthews thrill” down my leg. I love being around smart women, married one, and as a Realtor I work with them on a daily basis.
Open your eyes Sissy, you can only see what you want to see.
The selection of Sarah Palin is the excitement and new energy the entire 2008 election process was lacking.
It’s incredible just how many issues are reinvigorated in a spirit akin to American values and tradition.
John McCain has made a selection that is multi-faceted, picking a running mate that both satisfies a wide majority of voters – from right-wing conservatives to Independents to caring Democrats; and, steals the wind out of Obama’s sails.
Obama’s Greek tragedy ended Thursday night and the following day reports of it were buried or relegated to small print at the bottom of the news.
On Saturday, the news that carried over to the front pages of Internet news and blogs is still that of Palin’s addition to McCain’s campaign.
Nice.
thanks boomer – very interesting, but for heaven’s sake don’t let Cedarford see that, his giant head will explode
“Palin was chosen because she is a woman and maybe this is true. But it is not the reason I will be pulling for her and McCain come November. For me, Sarah Palin represents many right-leaning libertarian ideas that I personally support: low taxes, gun rights, and smaller government. ”
Those are among the reasons I hailed this choice as well. I am offended by the talking heads who think women will be happy about this choice simply because she is a woman. I’d be happy with the choice of any person who had her history and held her positions on the issues regardless of their gender.
The choice of Palen shows that the Republican party will remain Conservative and that is what I’m pleased about.
The announcement of the choice the day after the Demo convention and also on Friday before a three day weekend was brilliant. The blogosphere and the TV news will be talking about nothing else all weekend.
Sorry about the typo in the name there. Palin, not Palen.
Ms. Smith, you are aware aren’t you that in fact, Ms. Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. You are aware that the Palin Administration requested 54 earmarks in 2007 and 31 in 2008. You are aware aren’t you that a few weeks ago when being interviewed by Larry Kudlow, one of things Gov. Palin wanted to know before she would take the VP slot is “what it might do for Alaska.” Appears her reformer image is not quite what it was cracked up to be, not to mention the parochial image of wondering how the VP slot might help the folks back home. Putting Country First, or Putting Alaska First?
mockmook: “Though I’d rather it be Mrs. Palin covered in oil and sweat…woof!!!”
I’ve no doubt she has been covered in grease from working on something, and she’s probably gone through more DEET than she has makeup.
And not as a cute “pretend to be” to turn on the boys.
I am one of the newly-energized base for McCain. Almost despite him (he really screwed up on campaign finance: good intentions trampling free speech). But he’s a fighter pilot, he got inside Obama’s OODA loop with this pick, and it’s not just clever tactics to cover some demographic bases and neutralize Biden, it is brilliant deep strategy. Sarah Palin looks like the real deal, the next gen of American political leadership. She is both GOP and more than that, and I think McCain’s problem now is how to keep her from stealing the show. I agree with a lot of the commenters up-thread, she is as authentic and independent and self-confident as the state she comes from. And SHE is the change we’ve been waiting for.
A bold, game-changing choice that might just win the election for McCain.
This completely takes the “experience” card off the table for Obama — he can’t talk about his experience without it being pointed out that Palin has as much, and he can’t attack Palin on experience for the same reason.
In addition, just as any attack on Obama can (and has been) characterized as racism, any slam on Palin can just as easily translated as sexism.
Perhaps Vice President Palin will become the role model for post-feminism.
Jim. You are aware that the Palin Administration requested 54 earmarks in 2007 and 31 in 2008.
You are aware that means she cut them nearly in half? In one year? Find another Governor who did the same. You are aware that cleaning up a government (in this case, from corrupt members of HER OWN PARTY!) has to be a gradual process. You cannot alienate the entire government apparatus at once. Nothing will get done. She is doing it precisely the right way, step by step, changing the culture. This shows tremendous executive smarts and pragmatism. If she cut them from 54 to 0 you’d be complaining she was a dictator who refuses to listen to anyone. And you are aware that not every earmark is necessarily wasteful spending? I would expect in a place like Alaska there are some very unique infrastructure needs that legitimately require federal funding.
Putting Country First, or Putting Alaska First?
I would take either one of those long before I took someone who puts “the world” first. Palin is openly and proudly a citizen of AMERICA, not a citizen of the world.
I think McCain should say he will task Palin with cleaning up corruption and waste in the government. This will attract non-idealogues from both sides of the aisle, and Palin already has shown she won’t hesitate to bust balls even against her own party. Hell, after they’re elected McCain and Palin should go start a third party.
What’s the movie where Richard Prior says,”This is no time to panic.” , And Gene Wilder screams back,”What are you talking about! This is a perfect time to panic!”?
I think that’s going on over at Obama’s headquarters.
If Obama is now a deer in the headlights, who better than Palin to pick him off?
I think Obama and Biden are also like the scene where Pryor and Wilder walk through the prison saying “That’s right, we bad!”
Two metrosexuals trying to be men. Palin is ten times the man than both of them put together.
The movie was “Stir Crazy,” I think.
Here’s what’s so shrewd about this VP pick…
If Obama had spent the last four years working hard as a Senator and serving the people of Illinois, and then an older, more experienced Democrat presidential nominees picked him as his running mate, nobody would be talking about his lack of experience, and justifiably so.
It’s perfectly legitimate for an older, experienced presidential nominee to pick a young rising star of their party for the VP. Someone who they feel has great potential and intellect. Someone who can be groomed as a future presidential frontrunner.
But Obama didn’t want to wait around for someone to pick him as VP. After serving less than five months in the Senate, he decided that he was ready for the top job.
What McCain has done with this VP pick is to call attention to the contrast between young rising political stars like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal, who are focused on doing the job that they were elected to do, letting others sing their praises and speak of their potential, and young rising political stars like Barack Obama and John Edwards, who look at themselves in the mirror and see great potential, and use the office that they were elected to as nothing more than a springboard to a job that they have no business trying to convince others that they’re qualified for.
Sarah Palin is more “manly” than both of the two democratic contenders combined. Obama and Biden are spineless Ivy League lawyer dweebs who have been nothing but lawyers or politicians. Sarah Palin catches and cleans fish, and shoots and dresses big game, and cleans out the entire political establishment in Alaska, the last frontier state. I bet Barack and slow Joe wouldn’t even know which end of the gun is the business end. I can’t wait to see her shooting baskets too…And every time the Obama campaign attacks her for anything – experience, her “scandal” religion, whatever, she can counterattack against Obama. And if he responds…he is a condescending phony pig…tee hee. I wonder when the republicans in the Senate will request a congressional investigation of Obama’s involvement with Tony Rezko, to match the Alaskan legislative investigation of Palin. God, I love this. McCain brought her in to be his Obama buster!!
So it is a victory for women if she is selected to a position as opposed to elected? The fiercely independent women I’ve encountered in my life would find such a handout insulting. If Palin was such a beacon of feminism and intent on shattering the glass ceiling, then she would have contested the primaries and won it on her own effort.
I’m sure Republicans have many more capable women in their fold if they were looking for public service experience, pro-women rights, or reformist ideas. I wonder what they must be thinking. BTW being the governor of the smallest state (in terms of population) for less than two years doesn’t count as experience especially since McCain harped on Obama’s lack of experience. PTA and Mayor of a town less than 7000 people doesn’t count as experience. I was the student body president for more people than that and I wouldn’t dare use that as an primary example for experience for the VP spot.
If social conservatism and not gender was the criteria for selection then Huckabee who was winning states long after McCain got the nomination would have been an excellent choice.
that’s right, patrick, in the dem world it’s an insult to women to select one as your vice president.
by the way, who ties your shoes for you?
If Palin was such a beacon of feminism and intent on shattering the glass ceiling, then she would have contested the primaries and won it on her own effort.
I notice that you talk about Republicans as if you are not one of us. Shut up and sit down you whiney little demoncrat. You have been baracked…hahaha.
“I think Obama and Biden are also like the scene where Pryor and Wilder walk through the prison saying “That’s right, we bad!”
Two metrosexuals trying to be men. Palin is ten times the man than both of them put together.
The movie was “Stir Crazy,” I think.”
I was thinking “Silver Streak,” where Pryor teaches Wilder in the bathroom how to act black so they could evade the police in the train station.
As for Palin, why shouldn’t all women be excited for her? She earned her way up, she’s risked her political career taking on her own party, and she beat a GOP governor in the primary AND a former Democratic governor in the election.
It seems perfectly understandable for all women to cheer her and admire her accomplishments, and then (for some) to turn around and vote against her because of the issues she supports.
Call it “respect.” Call it “mad props.” Call it a way to restore civility in politics, while still fighting it out over the issues, which is where the fight belongs.
“BTW being the governor of the smallest state (in terms of population) for less than two years doesn’t count as experience”
Actually, Alaska is only the third least populous state; it is ahead of Vermont, home of ex-Governor Howard “YAARGGH!” Dean.
But, of course, you knew that, Patrick; you’re just pretending to be an ignorant leftist.
TO: cedarford
RE: Right AND Wrong
She doesn’t deal much with the day-to-day operations, and in that respect you are ‘right’.
But as governor of the Great State of Alaska she has a LOT to do with keeping a sharp eye on activities of the oil companies and the lands from which oil is taken and transported across as it transits her state.
Or are you suggesting that the governor of the state of Alaska was NOT involved in any way, shape or form with the mess that resulted from the Exxon Valdez disaster?
I kind of thing they WERE involved, quite a bit.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
TO: ex-democrat
RE: OOooouuuuchhhhhh
That’ll leave a mark.
I’m going to keep it, along with the one I’d apply to Patrick….
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson]
I suspect folks in Alaska don’t have much respect for fraud, phonies and people who trade in moose manure. You have to be Ivy League educated to appreciate liberal nuance and they have somehow missed out on that benefit.
So they have put their trust in a feisty young woman who they know to be genuine and honest. What a great gift they have given our nation. May she go far and make her country proud.
Palin is just a stunt to get the bitter Hillary supporters to betray the Democratic Party and vote for the GOP.
You know the Hillary supporters – older white women with pendulumous tits.
So Palin is a play on the pendulumous vote. That is what this voting block is called. Palin herself is plenty pendulumous after 5 sprogs.
Guess what. Obama doesn’t need this block. He will win, and the Hillary/Palin supporters can go back to their post-menopausal stories.
Obama/Biden ’08 and ’12.
Computer time is over for today, “Obama wins.” Time to go out and get beat up by the neighborhood kids. As usual.
I believe that Gov Palin is just what the founders intended when they laid out the qualifications for the highest jobs in the land. It’s all about three things, character, character and character.
I find both Obama and bomb thrower Biden sadly lacking on all three counts.
sso much BS form teh GOP side.
she does NOT manage gas/oil in alaska
DUH!!!
The vice-president pick only matters for the very short run. Obama picked a very boring Washington insider. Everyone yawned. McCain’s pick has the Democrats scratching their heads and the Republican base energized. It was politically brilliant.
Obama is a political coward and a complete novice. He should have picked Clinton, but played it safe, likely because he listened to the morons running his campaign who assured him that McCain would play it even safer by picking Romney or Pawlenty.
The reaction so far to Palin shows the Obama campaign and his useful idiots to be extremely petty. Even better (from McCain’s perspective) is that they’ve continued to forget that Obama is running against McCain, not Bush and not Palin. In this regard, Palin has already done her job and could just go on holiday (which would drive the Democrats crazy!)
Obama Wins – you are an offense to whatever sex you belong to – though I respect your right to say what you did – and continue saying those kinds of things….., by Nov 4 all 35 of the people who voted for the O can go to your local bar and have a drink….
Can anyone deny that Palin was chosen solely in order to get the pendulumous vote to betray Obama and vote for McCain?
Obama doesn’t need the pendulumous turncoats to win. Even if there are 18 million of them (which are 36 million pendulums), it matters not.
Wow. A classy, moral, with-it woman who is not an attorney, and politically adept. As one of my favorite movies (Rio Lobo)and characters (Jack Elam) says: “Legs like that and she can shoot, too!”.
I also remember very well that the three smartiest, guttiest women I have ever known were mayors of small to middle-sized cities. So Sarah Palin might be just what we need on the national scene.
We sure know what we DON’T need.
When it comes the eventual McCain Administration, it will be a shame to see Palin languish as VP with nothing to do. Can we also appoint her Secretary of Energy? She seems to make all the right calls about this critical issue.
As to experience, a mayor who keeps the potholes filled and the snow plowed has shown some skills that Americans can appreciate and have a right to expect from elected officials.
Bet PootyPoot isn’t looking forward to the McCain/Palin Administration.
Hey Obama Wins: It’s “pendulous” you gormless twit. Not “pendulumous”.
Some important issues to consider. Maybe it is finally the right time in Congressional history for us to address Term Limitations and enact them. What impetuous will the finally addressed issues of the patiently waiting Independent party bring to this election now that Palin has been chosen. Given that many of the core platform issues affecting our country are dependence on foreign oil and gas for energy, our failing valuation of the US dollar both home and abroad, and our complaints about Big Government Controlling or Oversighting business, wall street, banking, health care, education, and every privacy facet of our lives.
Biden has not been a “saint” or comes without many, many years of cronyism baggage and, Is he really a “safe” choice for VP or for what is envisioned as hope and change? Reminds me of Pavlov’s dog to a lobbyist’s kibble.
Democrats have equally performed their ritualistic overkill on taxing, robbing Peter to save Paul, scandals, moral and ethical improprieties, and generally “stalling this country’s progress” for the last 8 years.
Is Palin as VP, a gender issue? Pretend for a moment that Palin is not a woman. Would you still think HE wasn’t a “safe” choice? Think about the Gore, was he “safe” as a VP choice?
I must agree this is about “The MIX” of the personal and professional characterizations of the candidates that make this or any good healthy ticket work. When I look at them in the mirror, I want to see a part of me staring back.
My Independent vote has been “REFORMED” and just swung from staying home on election day, to happily jogging down to that polling station and pulling that McCain/Palin lever! Finally, with lots of prayer, some of my core issues are represented with Palin’s character.
KEEP IT CLASSY, “O.W.” :
“Palin is just a stunt to get the bitter Hillary supporters to betray the Democratic Party and vote for the GOP.
You know the Hillary supporters – older white women with pendulumous tits.
So Palin is a play on the pendulumous vote. That is what this voting block is called. Palin herself is plenty pendulumous after 5 sprogs.
Guess what. Obama doesn’t need this block. He will win, and the Hillary/Palin supporters can go back to their post-menopausal stories.” “Obama wins” – Aug 30, 2008 – 1:11 pm
Please keep posting these thoughts, “O.W.”; I’m sure it will help you achieve your stated goal of not receiving their votes.
Now, there’s “self-confidence” for you! /sarc
Appreciate the comments showing me to be a Democrat. I was a McCain leaning independent. Thanks for the reception on what I thought was an independent leaning blog.
I admit the least populous state mistake but stand by my no-experience charge; after all I respected McCain for saying the same about Obama. But guess it doesn’t matter when one of your own is guilty of the same.
McCain just lost one. So did this blog. Farewell.
TO: All
RE: Liars, Anyone?
Typical progressive. All lies and jest.
As some Wag put it, about 2000 years ago….
And I have to wonder if Patrick understands the parable.
RE: An Independent Blog
He thinks that just because people in an independent environment disagree with him in an effective manner, he’s being persecuted? I suspect he’s been hanging on Daily Kos and thinking IT was ‘independent leaning’.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Reality seems to be a constant intrusion on his dreams.]
Watching all this from the Great White North, with a great deal of interest, I noticed in this thread the comment about McCain playing chess against opponents playing checkers. Much the same thing is going on here between the Conservatives and the Liberals, with Stephen Harper playing chess several moves ahead of the checkers playing Liberal leader (like BHO an esteemed prof with almost no real world experience). Why would this matter to my American friends, you may ask? Our political situation may come to a head next week if (as many pundits believe) the Canadian Government falls, and a general election is called, which would happen a few weeks before yours. And we shall see the outcome of checkers versus chess, a few weeks before yours.
Sarah Palin will be our next vice president. (Pardon me for thinking she’s Heaven sent, you atheistic democrats.) The loony left knows full well that August 29th will henceforth be known as the day their messiah was booted to obscurity. It’s best to simply ignore their temper tantrums, poor things.
Just the kind of woman any right wing geek loves, a beauty queen, hunter, gun nut but still a mom and a wife.
I don’t know…when I see that photo that was posted with this article I just had to smile, along with millions of other Americans, apparently. And while we may not be having any mini-orgasms running up and down our leg Hitchens-like, and while there will not be any silly swooning and sweating, nor gaudy temples to the limitless human ego at next week’s events, there will be one enormous sigh of relieved satisfaction that we have the right team to lead us in these darkest of days.
Finally after nearly a year of wishing, hoping and a lot of praying a “Conservative” Republican has come along to save the ticket. Every night I have prayed that our leader would make the right decision and my prayers were answered by John McCain’s choice. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for answering our prayers and sending us Sarah Palin.
Papasnake
What a wonderful choice in Gov. Sarah Palin for VP! Gov Palin balances the ticket beautifully and is the best person to aid John McCain as Vice President in his administration to run our country well. She brings in a distinguished record of executive experience – running a successful and popular government in Alaska. She has a record of clean government, reduction in spending and bipartisan dealings. An ideal ticket has 1 person who brings in Washington experience – experience with foreign policy, national security etc. while the other brings in executive experience – that of running a government. All major tickets, especially winning tickets in the last 4 decades or so have had such a combination. The Democratic ticket has no experience in running a government smoothly whatsoever.
As for the argument of experience – it is by no means of the table! It says a lot when the nominee for President is comparing his resume with the opposite parties nominee for VP! The VP position does lend itself to on the job training, but the office of President most certainly does not, like Joe Biden himself said. And anyway there is a world of difference between running for President and running for VP. The question of her becoming President and being capable/incapable of doing that arises only if something unfortunate were to happen to President McCain in the next 4 years. Obama could be President in under 4 months! Anyone who believes that Gov Palin is too inexperienced to be VP cannot even dream of Obama as Potus. I’m guessing we wont hear much from the Obama campaign this fall about the (in)experience of Sarah Palin – they would just be shooting themselves in the foot.
I however believe Gov. Palin is definitely ready to be VP, and even the President should such an unfortunate event arise. She has an amazing track record of running a Government and would certainly be able to do the job well atleast to serve out President McCain’s term. Anycase by all indications Sen. McCain’s health will be fine for atleast 4 years.
Also she has been the Governor of a state (a small state perhaps but a state none the less) and the Commander-in-Chief of a State National Guard (again, a small force perhaps but a force none the less). This alone put her as having more experience than the Democratic Ticket combined as neither of the 2 people on that ticket have any experience running a government or any experience of commanding an army (the person on the top of the ticket has no experience of being in an army, let alone commanding it!). Who would you rather have as CIC? For me its a clear choice – Palin. People ask whether you want to have Palin as CIC if anything happens to McCain – I ask whether you want to have Obama as CIC if anything happens to Biden (him not being there to mentor him and hold his hands every step of the way) or want Biden as CIC if anything happens to Obama. All this talk about heartbeat away really gets me – I would rather have Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency than Obama at the Presidency! Also Nancy Pelosi is 2 heartbeats away from being CIC – now thats scary!!
I do not agree with people saying that the selection of Gov. Palin is a blatant attempt to get the women voters to vote republican this year. Anyone saying that is really insulting the intelligence of both the McCain campaign and more importantly the women of the country. I would ask all of you, especially women, to vote for the ticket not because of the gender of the VP candidate, but because this is the best ticket for a successful America for the next 4 years. Vote for Gov. Palin not because she is a women but because she is more than capable for the job of VP. None of us knew much about Gov. Palin till yesterday and I must admit that I was at first skeptical when I heard Sen. McCain’s pick. I did some research on her and liked what I saw. I hope all voters would do the same so that they would realize Gov. Palin is not on the ticket just because she is a woman, she is on the ticket since she would be an excellent VP with the executive experience she brings in. I am sure that as this campaign progresses and people get to hear more about her and her achievements, the initial backlash from some quarters (‘an insult to women thinking they will vote republican simply there is a woman on the ticket’, or ‘a pretty face totally incapable of taking tough decisions’) will evaporate and people will vote for Gov. Palin and Sen McCain on the basis of their combined experience and achievements.
Obama talked the talk about “change”, “hope” and “reform” and McCain walked the walk with his VP pick ( who knew).
She is not any woman, she is a smart feminist who has made it on her own (not by marriage). She is pro-growth, pro-family and pro-military. She is “real” and “authentic”, the two things that Barack and Joe can not be.
Here is a great blog dedicated to Sarah we love: http://governorpalin.blogspot.com/
Do Democrats really think they can use the issue of experience to their advantage? They are wrong.
But please, I am more than happy to switch the subject and lay off the expereince issue. Let us talk some more about Obama´s other baggage: his shady deals, his radical friends and mentors (especially the couple tied by testimony to the murder of a policeman whom his campaign calls “mainstream”), the money he steered towards different parts of the Chicago machine and his wife´s employer …I feel that these depths have not been properly plunged.
I was hoping for Governor Palin to be chosen but never believed it would happen. I am thrilled! I made this video in tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quvBbcFDPI0
I believe Sarah Palin represents everything that is great about America. I am only in my twenties but I think I may now know what it was like for those who were of age when Ronald Reagan first appeared on the national stage.
Sarah Palin hunts moose. Obama bowls 37′s.
I absolutely love it!
TO: Javelin
RE: Yeah
Eat your heart out, buckie.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife. -- The Big Ten]
From lgf
John McCain said the Republican National Convention may be postponed as federal officials said Hurricane Gustav was gathering to a devastating Category 5 as it headed toward star-crossed New Orleans.
“It just wouldn’t be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,” McCain told Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday,” in an interview taped for tomorrow. “So we’re monitoring it from day to day and I’m saying a few prayers, too.”
The wise old man is still playing chess.
TO: Terry Gain, et al.
RE: [OT] God Help New Orleans
Hope it won’t cost the RNC too much money to postpone things. And, indeed, I think it would be great if they bit the proverbial bullet in order to deal with this latest potential natural disaster. If the storm grows to Cat 4, I think it is fully justifiable for the delegates, governors and legislators to focus on reality as opposed to politics.
And MORE POWER TO THEM! Money is not the be-all-and-end-all.
As some Wag put it, about 2000 years ago….
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read. -- Abraham Lincoln]
Sarah is a Libertarian Republican.
She is very friendly with the Libertarians in Alaska.
Adam Brickley posts here: Libertarian Republican where your picture is featured on their latest post.
I explain at the first link who Adam is.
Good article.
As a Brit I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I think she sounds like a good choice. I wish we had someone in the UK that is in favour of small government, and, yes, that does help women (and men) more than special privileges.
McCain seems a bit dull, and perhaps she’ll brighten things up.
Did you see Obama and Biden being interviewed the day after the Big Extravaganza .. minus the makeup and fireworks! Biden looked like he was about to cry and Obama stammered and said Palin was “the same”. The same! Governor Palin is about as far as you can be from Washington and has a record of accomplishment that Sen. Obama cannot match. Gov. Palin has spent her time in office shaking up government in Alaska and achieving results. Palin has taken on corruption, passed ethics reform, stopped wasteful spending and the `bridge to nowhere’. Obama has spent most of his time in the Senate running for President. Palin has been in elected office for over 10 years with executive experience as a Governor, Mayor, head of the Alaska National Guard, and head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The Democrats are asking how we can have an individual with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the Presidency, meanwhile neglecting to mention that their candidate also has zero foreign policy experience and is running for the TOP of the ticket, NOT EVEN a heartbeat away! Obama talks about “yes we can” and “change”, yet Sarah Palin is the one who has brought about change and reform. She has shown what it means to be a true reformer.
As head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, Palin exposed ethical violations by the state GOP chairman, also a fellow commissioner. She is an ardent advocate for more drilling — off Alaska, off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the off-limits Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She pushed for more competition for the construction of a $26 billion pipeline to bring natural gas from the North Slope to the lower 48 states by favoring the TransCanada pipeline project, backed by independent companies over one proposed by BP and ConocoPhillips. She has tangled with Exxon Mobil and other oil companies over their reluctance to develop gas fields on state land.
“As governor, I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good-old-boy network,” she said at a rally yesterday in Dayton, Ohio, where she was introduced by McCain.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is now running with McCain as his choice to be vice-president. She is a tax-cutting, pro-drilling, environmentalist, gun defending, pro-life mother of five with a son in the Army about to be deployed to Iraq. “She’s exactly who this country needs to help me fight the same old Washington politics,” McCain said.
Obama said that change doesn’t come “from Washington, it comes TO Washington”. Strange that both Obama and Biden, are “from Washington”. Sarah Palin is coming “TO Washington” and is a breath of fresh air!
TO: All
RE: [OT] God Help New Orleans (Part 2)
I think I’m going to go out and buy myself a goodly supply of Tabasco Sauce. It looks like around 7 PM, tomorrow, the eye of Gustav will be directly over Avery Island, the home of their facilities. That is according to the track map being displayed at Drudge Report.
Who knows when they’ll come back into production after their ancient plant is washed out. Hopefully, they’ve an alternate position to continue making their excellent product.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Short of Thomas Sowell (Wow, now that I think about it, what a great choice that would have been) no other “jiu-jitsu” VP candidate of more impact comes to mind.
Thomas Sowell? I would love to see this very wise man on the Supreme Court. (You don’t have to be a lawyer to be on the court). The court deals with many economic issues and Sowell would be great on all economic issues.
Men AND Women alike are enthused about Palin for many different reasons. McCain’s selection of Palin erases the ire he induced in me in 2004 when he declared John Kerry his best friend in the Senate. Some friend. I will now send a donation to McCain-Palin, something I didn’t think I’d do. But apart from the selection of Palin, the McCain ads have been witty and fun and totally on target.
The future of America looks so much brighter with a superstar like Sarah Palin in our future. And after her eight years, Bobby Jindal for President. This will indeed be another American Century.
For the record, I despise the feminists who mask their marxism behind concern for women. The same is alas also true in the civil rights movement which is very disrespectful of Republican Blacks.
Palin brightens the prospects of all Republicans running for office, except for the corrupt ones, who will find Palin-type clones running against them in two years.
Palin has brought the Republican party back to life.
If anyone is worried about Sarah on national security matters, Uncle Jimbo at
http://www.blackfive.net
informs of Alaska’s unique role in those matters and how Palin is most likely more prepared – and informed – than BO.
Recently others have commented on BO’s naive statements regarding Russia/Georgia – showing a lack of knowledge most middle school students have.
Palin is totally unconventional, and I like that about her and her family. The fact that her husband is a proud union member already shows that they are a different brand of conservative Republicans. (By the way, to all the liberal readers: there are many union members who are conservative. Their union bosses, who try to influence their votes, don’t want the world to know that, though.) The Palin family is what Governor Pawlenty was referring to when he spoke of the conservatives and Republicans who belong to the Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart Club, rather than the Country Club. There are many of us who are not ‘rich, white men’ that Democrats and liberals like to proclaim are the out-of-touch Republicans. The Republican Party and the conservative wing of the Democratic Party are your everyday, regular, hard-working, patriotic, family-loving, America-loving, compassionate, no-nonsense Americans. Much like Sarah Palin. That’s why Sarah Palin is just the right person to be Vice President of this country of ours. She’s NOT out-of-touch, unlike the 30-year Washington insider, Joe Biden.
The Sarah Palin TV movie should star proud conservative Patricia Heaton who greatly resembles Palin.
Memo to her biographers and the film script writers. What many of us want to know is HOW she did it. HOW she fought City Hall and the State government and won. Many people will go to school on how Palin did it.
Clint Eastwood and Jesse Ventura are only two of the citizens who got involved with local government because of disgust with the incompetence, highhandedness and sheer corruption of “civil servants” who get elected and proceed to act like our masters.
Governor Bobby Jindal has already made an enormous difference in one of our most corrupt states, Louisiana. Palin has cleaned up Alaska. Corrupt politicians should go look for another line of work.
I hope this campaign will expose the corruption of the Chicago machine Obama came out of and that Illinois will someday join Alaska and Louisiana as a formerly corrupt state.
Will the MSM please get off the “Hillary” voter nonsense. Many people put off by Obama, his wife, his minister, his shady friends, his violent cousin (Raila Odinga in Kenya) voted for Hillary in hopes of keeping him off the ticket. These people voted for her in a primary. That doesn’t make them “her” voters. They were hers only for the moment. And next time around the Atlantic article which exposed the chaos, friction and incompetence of her campaign team will certainly relegate her to the sidelines. But who knows, Democrats seem to be the stupid party.
And stop the gender nonsense. That’s an MSM fantasy. The only American woman I would have voted for heretofore was Jeanne Kirkpatrick. I admired Margaret Thatcher and I see Sarah Palin as being very much in her mode.
It’s Palin’s Libertarian side I respond to. Others respond to her Conservative side. Welcome, everyone. The tent is big enough for all just as it was in Reagan’s day.
To answer the title of this thread:
http://www.justsaynodeal.com/
Gail P you are a LIAR.
Palin uses her office for personal gain
that is CORRUPTION
“nick” (Aug 31, 2008 – 9:00 pm)
…only if one considers “personal salary” a “personal gain.”
Why these “Level 1″ smear attempts? How childish.
You O’bots gotta realize sooner or later that this doesn’t help Barack Obama…(or Michelle’s kids…ha!).
When the MSM comes around and asks Sarah Palin if she can spell potato, her response should be “not only can I spell it, but I can cook it too”!
TO: All
RE: Typical nick Hypocrisy
I wonder what nick has to say about Hillary vis-a-vis Tyson.
As I recall, her performance in the stock-market was superior to the vast majority of professional trading firms….thanks to Tyson.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
the wise old man! we often sit around the fire and talk about how it used to be back in the day. the old folks we knew when we were young. we reminisce about the manners and such we were expected to have, respect for our elders. it appears that the wise old man can handle running this country. Sarah Palin is the kine, thinking i want a barracuda flag with Alaska written on top. MCCain/Palin 08
What we know about Palin makes us wonder about McCain
She was a supporter of the bridge to nowhere, but denied it; so much for straight talk (and she didn’t give back the money.. an offense to all Americans
She was politically active in the Alaska independent party; so much for putting America first
She was a director of a 527 group supporting Ted Stevens; so much for fighting corruption
She doesn’t believe that people have a role in global warming, she doesn’t want to protect polar bears, and she is for drilling in ANWR
She believes that all forms of birth control are akin to abortion, that abstinence training works, and that sex education is a bad thing
She exhibits what has to be considered poor judgment by giving a speech, taking an 8 hour flight to Alaska after he water broke, and then failing to go to a hospital to deliver a special needs baby
She thinks the founding fathers wrote the pledge and put in the words “under God”
She supports creationism in the classroom
She might be willing to use her office to have her brother-in-law fired. And she is willing to fire a loyal state employee who does not carry our her vendetta
She has only had a passport for one year. Has she ever visited Canada?
She gave birth to her first child eight months after eloping; why would a good Christian woman elope?
Given all of this, is it any wonder that some of us question John McCain’s judgment. Assuming his staff did their research on Palin, did he really not think some of these things might bother people both on the left and on the right?
PUZZLED (1:56pm): Oh you MORALIST!!! AND I JUST SUPPOSE that you happen to support McCain /Palin ’08, right?!
Oh, NO?!!?
No, noooooo, not that you would be trotting out these canards as a “distraction” (see: Obama-speak), as an O’bot mindlessly spewing out the made-for-non-thinking-but-ready-for-consuming public.
How magnanimous of you. THANKS FOR SHARING, you fraud.
But, HEY, that’s why it’s called politics, right?! Even Socialists should “have a shot at it”, I suppose….
Puzzeled got a lot of facts wrong. Go back and research some of your points.
Dr. Helen, great piece. I couldn’t agree more.
The best part of all this is seeing the gnashing and wailing from the usual suspects. It’s revealing some interesting aspects to some on the right as well.
The thing to remember is, if Palin were a Dem they’d have nominated her for president, not Barack – except for the fact that Hillary would have destroyed her first.
Palin is way more qualified than Barry will ever be.
Me, I think we owe Puzzled a debt of gratitude. It’s useful to have all the talking points laid out at the start… Will somebody whose computer isn’t all gummed up with about a million digital pictures of kids and family vacations please save that comment so we can all count how many times it recurs in the next few months?
I predict it’ll have asterisks to begin each point next time we see it.
(Anybody want to join me in reciting the companion piece – “Bush is both colossal idiot and fiendishly brilliant deceiver, coward and cowboy, do-nothing rich frat boy and grass-chawin’ hick, fundie Puritan and alkie drug-doing wildman”? C’mon, you know you know the words.)
The choice of Palin as VP candidate will hand a defeat to Obama, especially since Obama himself is now saying he has more experience than she does. I’ve never seen an election where the prez candidate of one party is taking on the vp candidate of the other party over experience to lead. Show’s Obama isn’t ready for prime-time.
Its also interesting that now many liberal women are bashing Palin for running for office at the expense of her children. Are u kidding me? The old feminists cant take it when a woman breaks the ceilings but is of the wrong party. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Gordo, The old feminists cant take it when a woman breaks the ceiling but is of the right party, but the wrong political stripe. I’m still proud to have voted for Dixy Lee Ray for governor of Washington in 1976, one of only two Democrats I ever voted for. But she’d be tarred and feathered by today’s MoveOn cryptofacsist feminists. Too much common sense.
∅bama
All of you talk about how qualified Palin is, but in what way? Is it because she was a mayor, or the governor for two years of a state that is barely populated. Maybe it is her time spent at the hockey arenas, or neglecting her infant and pregnant teenage daughter. Man or woman, if my family were in such disarray I would not be running for VP. She said she didn’t think twice when John asked her to be his running mate, maybe thats why her family is in such bad shape she never thinks about them. Maybe she is qualified because of her great education from 3 different universities, except she only managed one degree out of the three. A communications-journalism degree from the prestigious University of Idaho. Frankly, I didn’t care that much before if McCain won the election. Now it scares me to see her in the Whitehouse.
Thank you, Mr. McCain, for handing over this election.
You made it too easy.
Palin LOLOL
Stop pretending she was a good choice.
its ok to be wrong sometimes.
executive experience?? come on.
in her brief expose as an executive leader her rap sheet includes millions in misappropriated funds and an ethics violation!
If Obama flakes you’ll have your chance again in 2012.
Get over her, and move forward.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
palin = the hindenburg…a flaming disaster.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!