Where do I start?...I'm so filled with thought and emotional right about McCain's VP pick that I'm a bit at a loss of words. And that's rare for me.
Let me start where anyone who knows would say has been the center of my political world for the past year or so: Mitt Romney. I remember back to the day that I was watching Mitt's CPAC speech and he stunned the crowd by bowing out of the race. I was hurt. I was angry. I was sad. I felt so alone, so leaderless, so empty. I know, I'm melodramatic, but seriously it was a very real emotion, almost like being dumped in high school. The weeks leading up to the Veepstakes I had convinced myself that Mitt was gong to be McCain's guy, despite the obvious fact that the latter pretty much despises the former. I had gotten my hopes up, and those of many of my family members and friends. A few days ago I remember wonding to myself whether I could get excited about any VP pick other than Mitt, and I found myself dreading the thought of going through all those disappointing emotions again and wanting to just forget about politics until November 5th. Who could get me excited? Fred? Too boring. Huck? Too evangelical. Pawlenty? Too random and unknown. Rudy? Lieberman? Ridge? Too pro-choice. Governor Sarah Palin was far from my mind, not even on the short list, as far as I had known.
And then I read the headlines, "McCain Picks Unknown Alaska Governor as VP Nominee." Before I even allowed myself a knee-jerk reaction, I YouTubed the video of the announcement and fast forwarded to her speech. Wow. Home run. Grand slam. Slam dunk. Knock out punch. Hole in one. Touchdown. Need I go on with the sports metaphores? Let me tell you why Palin is a perfect pick for McCain:
1. Maverick McCain is just that - a maverick. Why did we ever even think that he would pick anyone from the list we were providing him? He has never been a typical politican and has never run a typical campaign. This pick highlights what all those wonderful fence-sitters (I mean "independents") have always loved - that he is his own man and owes his allegiance to no group other thant the U.S. of A. Also, the dark horse nature of the pick has COMPLETELY stolen the spotlight from Obama after his worship session last night at the DNC.
2. Palin is like the bizzarro Obama. She is young, vibrant, a wonderful communicator, smart, and charming. Anything Obama brings to the table personality she can bring, as well. So much for a stuffy old campaign.
3. Palin has worked tirelessly on the exact issues that are central to the McCain campaign - ethics reform, bi-partisanship, and government waste. She promises in words and in her record that she will work to clean up our own party first and bring us back to our conservative principles and morals.
4. Palin is BY FAR the most relatable, likeable, and REAL candidate. Hands down.
5. Palin is the ONLY candidate with executive experience.
6. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't acknowledge that Sarah Palin is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS.
My compliments to John McCain for the best (by far) political decision thus far in his career. I am so glad that I am able to be excited about this campaign, and particularly this woman who, I think, is the future of the Republican Party. I will be knocking on doors, putting up signs, and driving people to the polls this November with vigor.
P.S. Mitt for Secretary of Treasure!
Friday, August 29, 2008
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6 comments:
I take no stand on her at this point.... but here is an article that balances the "green" that folks are throwing around.
http://digg.com/environment/How_Green_is_Sarah_Palin
The article is anti-Palin [I assume] but the 3rd and 4th comments are a good balance for truth.
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/McCain_Would_Rather_Win_an_Election_than_Pick_a_Qualified_VP
I know the article is from a far leaning source, but the first comment to the post about Rove's comments are interesting.
I have taken no steps to verify the Rove comments BTW
Those are both good points to look at. I just wonder why the people who make them don't apply the same questions to the Obama campaign.
Take, for example, the experience question. Does he have more experience in "governing" than Palin? If I had to choose between an inexperienced presidential nominee and an inexperienced VP nominee, I think the choice is obvious. Are these people who are outraged at Palin's inexperience outraged at Obama's inexperience? (That particular blogger that you referenced is a huge Obama supporter.)
As far as being "green," I think those comments you referred me to are far more on-the-nose than the original blogger. Environmentalism has strayed far from it's Teddy Roosevelt-ian roots. Hunting, in and of itself, is not "un-green." Neither is drilling, fishing, or fur. I truly think Alaskans have a much better idea of what real environmentalism is...
I talked to Tennille, Alaskan born and bred, about whether or not she thought that Alaskans [residents of 5+ years] would be able to police themselves without the Feds. She said that there was an issue of clear cutting, but that was stopped before the Clinton administration brought a federal law that was even tighter.
The gist of the conversation was that Alaska does fine on its own. The corporations there understand the need to be self policing [fishing etc] or there will be problems.
Also, most folks don't remember that Alaska is 1/3 of our country.... and has an extremely low population. Tennille grew up in the 4th largest city, with 14,000 residents. There is plenty of area out where no one goes to selectively log etc.
Another thing, it's hard to get a huge population of dumb people moving into the state because of the conditions... this means that the state can maintain control with people who know the limits.
This article, like many, talks about Palin and the "Bridge to Nowhere."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_bridge_to_nowhere
She did, in fact, support the bridge according to residents of Ketchikan.
More balance to the story:
You have to pay $5 per person, more for cars, to get to the airport.
The island with the airport is big enough to have many more homes added to it, which becomes more attractive if you don't have to pay to get to work.
The airport runway is being extended to allow larger aircraft to land there.
The city of Ketchikan has VERY little room to grow do to the lock on the Tongass National Forrest that takes up 90% of the island.
The money was taken by the state, just not used for the bridge.
The only reason the bridge would cost that much is because of the remote area the supplies need to get to.
The bridge would be, by my estimations, 300 yards long. [That is from an imperfect memory]
I like this article better about Palin's apparent change in position on the bridge to nowhere:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-31-palin-bridge_N.htm
My take after reading a bunch of articles and blogs on the topic is that she had her sights on Alaska, and she was trying to clean up Alaskan politics from within. I don't think she realized the problem that was going on in Washington with earmark/pork barrel. When such a big deal was made of the bridge, she obviously realized that Alaska was getting a LOT of money and that earmarks are not the best way to get it.
Flip flop? Maybe. Learning experience? I think that is more likely. Either way, a cynic is left to say she is either a flip-flopper or naive.
As far as I can tell, Obama and Biden both voted in favor the bridge. They also voted against a bill that would take money from the bridge projects and divert them to post-Katrina projects. Here's the link on that:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200511/ai_n15845814
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