Posted by The suspense over John McCain’s selection of a running mate is now over. While Governor Palin is unknown to many of the beltway pundits and talking heads I think she is going to resonate well with the people of Alabama. Her down to earth people skills and experience as an outdoorsman make her someone who people in Alabama will be able to relate to.
To begin with the 44 year-old Governor will compliment McCain’s reformist politics well. She rose to prominence in Alaska by taking on the political establishment. When she saw unethical behavior by those of even her own party she did not hesitate in confronting them head on. First, as a member of the oil commission she called out the Alaskan Republican Party Chairman for what she felt was an abuse of power. After that she went on to challenge an ethically challenged Republican governor in the primary and beat him because of her crusade for better ethics is state government. In short, she has the courage to take folks on regardless of the political consequences much as John McCain has done over the years by confronting Democrats and Republicans alike when he saw something he disagreed with.
I think as Republicans we have lost our way because we have neglected this style of governing. We need more leaders who are willing to stand up to unethical behavior, fiscal irresponsibility and the abandonment of our conservative values. Governor Sarah Palin does this.
Speaking of conservative values, Alabamians are going to find that Governor Palin is very close to the majority of people in our state. Her pro-life, anti-tax and strong support for energy independence for the United States make will make her a popular candidate in Alabama.
One final note- Democrats will crow about Palin’s experience, but do they really want the election in the months ahead to be about who has less experience Palin or Obama? If that conversation dominates the political battle ahead then the Obama campaign has steered off course. Interesting side bar- Palin has two more years of executive experience than Barack Obama.
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No, the suggestion is that Obama has poor judgment regarding his associations, that many of his associations are with radical leftists (Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Marxist professors), and that, IMO he shares many of their leftist beliefs.
Don’t forget that Obama and Ayers spent $49 million on ’school reform’ and achieved nothing.
I’ll take that he’s had some bad associations, and that he politically made bad associations. But I’d argue that he associated with Ayers because he was a major school reform expert asked to sit on a school reform commission. Not that he shared the political views Ayers was known for in the ’60s.
I don’t know about Wright. Maybe it helped Obama in his Senate race to attend Wright’s church. But every part of Obama’s message to me suggest that his views are the opposite of black separatism.
I have an acquaintance that talks a lot about revolution, violent and otherwise, and has even tried to convince me to join him. I don’t, because I don’t think we’ve sunk that low. But I don’t avoid him because of his political views. I avoid him because he’s annoying when he plays the guitar, he always tries to one up you if you’re swapping songs. And he never brings his own beer. Nonetheless, I look past his political views (only to find the crappy person underneath). He means more to me than that, he’s a good source of entertainment, and we’ve had some pretty good jams.
Associations are associations. But I did judge McCain for coming back only to associate with the radical fundies like Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell. So I’m probably being a hypocrite here, to some degree.
(I should note that my acquaintance argues from an ideological standpoint, not planned anything. I feel pretty sure I’d have major issues with that).
When were Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List? Ayers’ wife Bernadine Dohrn spent most of 1970s wanted by the FBI for her terrorist activities. Obama kicked off his State Senate campaign at their home.
Your comparison of Robertson and Falwell to terrorists is disgusting…
I, for one, am glad that she took steps to fire that turd of an ex-brother-in-law. He tasered a step son? Some one like that has no business being a state trooper. bad news for him is that he had someone who new of his poor behavior elected as his boss. You mess with the bull – you get the horns. Good For Sarah!! You go girl!!
For clarification purposes only, my comments were not addressed at Palin’s decision to accept the VP nomination, 18 and 19; they were addressd at McCain’s lack of judgment in asking a mother of five children, one of whom has downs syndrome and one of whom is pregnant, to leave her family in Alaska to campaign for him.
Thos comments simply state fact and in no way “demean all women by suggesting that they don’t have the good sense to do what is right for their family and merely follow the orders of boorish men who have no regard for the welfare of children.” Palin did what any aspiring public figure would have done, and McCain expected nothing less. The fact that McCain put her and her family in that position in the first place is my only complaint.
I have no doubt that Palin’s husband and kids will help take up the slack, but that doesn’t replace their mother. I say that not as a “boorish man,” but as someone who helped his father raise three siblings, including an autistic brother and a four-year-old sister, after my mother died.
I don’t think these issues are being raised only by “boorish men” or the “liberal media.” Recent polls show that many women are offended by this VP pick, and it is a sentiment I have heard from women firsthand.