Palin-Why Bother?

Another really fine piece. The two paragraphs I like the most occur near the end and are: "Palin is comfortable...fits into most people's perception of "successful mother/wife/career woman". She's got 4 kids that the older generation can love and a husband that meets BOTH male AND female approval."

"Functions" that actualy work...like being fiscally and socially conservative...she's the mother you had or wish you did. The young teacher all the guys in school were secretly in love with and the natural born leader who either led her team to victory or made them feel like winners."

I think the remarkable Fred Barnes article in The Weekly Standard answers the "Sarah Who?" and "Sarah Why?" questions. For those of your readers who haven't seen it, the first two paragraphs go: The wipeout in the 2006 election left Republicans in such a state of dejection that they've overlooked the one shining victory in which a Republican star was born. The triumph came in Alaska where Sarah Palin, a politician of eye-popping integrity, was elected governor. She is now the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating in the 90s, and probably the most popular public official in any state.

Her rise is a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle--especially to transparency and accountability in government--can produce political success. And by the way, Palin is a conservative who only last month vetoed 13 percent of the state's proposed budget for capital projects. The cuts, the Anchorage Daily News said, "may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history."

I hope thousands of people -- not too much to wish for -- start coming on board. The "Good Ship Palin" has left the dock and is heading toward Washington, DC.

steve maloney
ambridge, pa

You asked me to reprint my Fred Thompson/Great Pumpkin piece, and I will do so sometime this next week. I was somewhat hesitant -- which is not my style -- to reprint it lest I offend some potential Thompson-Palin supporter. But if I have only one life to live, I think I'll do it saying what I really believe. I think Thompson on either side of the ticket would be a major loser. The guy has been a lobbyist for anybody with a handful of C-notes, including the dictator of Haiti for goodness sakes. He would be 67 on Inauguration Day, apparently a popular age for Republican candidates, and he already looks exhausted before he's announced his candidacy. After 9/11, he announced that "now . . . was not the time to leave," and then he left. He divorced his wife of many years and then married "Betty Boop." This is NOT our savior. He was pro-choice, pro-finance reform and pro-immigration reform -- before he decided he actually was against all those things. I wonder if this is even a guy you'd want as your next-door neighbor. Like you, I get a little frustrated having to defend my choice of a superb human being like Sarah against people who think "Fred" would be just ducky. One guy told me Fred had "Gravitas." I think he mistook chronic dyspepsia and grumpiness for gravitas. Ergo, The Great Pumpkin.

steve

Giuliani/Palin. I too am not keen on Fred. He will be solely owned by the "Conservative not Republican" crowd and would be beaten up just like Bush, by talk radio, as soon as he strayed from their agenda.

Also, Senators rarely win. They are too ingrained in "the system."

Sandra and Sanity:

The Draft Sarah for V-P Movement is growing rapidly. In the past two days, we added three new "Bloggers 4 Palin," and we're on our way to reaching our ambitious goal of having roughly 100 such bloggers by Labor Day (and approximately 1,000 by "Super Tuesday" on February 5, 2008).

This is Your Effort, one driven by people deeply concerned about the future of the Republican Party and the nation. The laudatory article about Sarah by Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, demonstrates the growing interest in making Sarah a national figure. An important figure in American politics recently expressed interest in recommending her directly to a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Without your participation, these things would not be happening. Please keep up your efforts to bring new people (bloggers, journalists, and others) into the Movement.

The Wikipedia article on Sarah, as well as the Barnes' piece, are good ways to introduce individuals to the Governor's background and her views on some key issues. The piece by former Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel (in http:/palintology.com/ Wednesday suggests some of the special qualities of Alaska politics that are applicable to the country as a whole.

Sarah Palin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://wikipedia.com)
The Most Popular Governor (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/851orcjq.asp)

To keep up to date on what's happening in Alaska politics, go from time-to-time to "palintology," a site run by a talented Alaska blogger, as well as http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/, the original Draft Palin site.

In my own blog today, I talk about our "modest" goal: to change the direction of our nation. To the amazement of some, we're doing just that.

When you can, visit your fellow "Palin 4" bloggers and share your insight and enthusiasm with them. The bloggers represent diverse political philosophies and support various candidates for President, but all are unified behind the candidacy of an absolutely remarkable young woman: Gov. Sarah Palin.

Steve Maloney
Ambridge, PA
http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com/
TalkTop65@aol.com

boarded the Palin express for two reasons: First I believe it is the right of the candidate selected to choose a running mate, and once a candidate wins the February primaries, that may be the place to start bombarding that winning candidate with Palin support between that point and the official nomination and the fall, encouraging them to see the energy she brings to a wide range of the electorate.

Second, I have searched and I have yet to find what Palin would do in the war. This is such a pivotal issue, that to me, a person one heartbeat away from the Presidency would have to show a grasp of this issue, and come to the right conclusions for me to consider them. True the VP does not set foreign policy, but they must be competent in it for there to be any confidence int he ticket as a whole. (Think Dan Quayle...despite the jokes, he was a departure from the old part of the old white guy club, yet his opponents played on his age and inexperience as weaknesses and exploited them for political gain)

Sanity, you are right in that as a teacher, I am open to criticism from individual students or their parents but when it comes in the midst of class in front of the crowd, it gets my back up and clouds the validity that may have existed in the criticism. I can see internal party disagreements being viewed the same way. As much as far left liberals hated welfare reform and NAFTA, they were very hesitant to criticize them in public, and never combined criticism of policy with personal attacks on their parties president. Sadly, many of us on the right could learn from that, myself included. The teacher analogy didn't occur to me until I read your post just now.