Note: The slogan was originally posted to FR by Renfield. Islander7 created the graphic. I've merely taken the initiative in publicizing it. It's so good, it may well be the "Sore/Loserman" of the 2008 election.
Posted on 08/31/2008 3:18:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
By putting the relatively unknown governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, on his presidential ticket, John McCain has demonstrated that rarest of all political qualities: willingness to take a real risk on a serious new venture with great potential. It’s a sign of confidence, not desperation.
If the response from the conservative base is any indication, McCain has hit a home run with the Palin selection. A sullen GOP, set to vote reluctantly, if at all, for the “maverick” (some say unprincipled) senator from Arizona, has suddenly become electrified. In the first 36 hours after McCain announced his pick, $7 million in new contributions poured in online. This isn’t because Palin is making history as the first woman on a GOP ticket. It’s because of the type of woman and politician that she is. She’s a normal person, a mother and wife, who entered politics in 1992 by running for city council in Wasilla, Alaska to oppose tax hikes. She became mayor and swept a bunch of cronies out of the bureaucracy. She ran for, and lost, a race for lieutenant governor. She served on the state’s Oil and Gas Commission, where she went after the corrupt state GOP chairman, who had taken money from oil companies. In 2006, she ran for governor and won, after first beating the Republican incumbent for the nomination.
Throughout, she hewed to a few clear principles. She championed fiscal responsibility, cutting pork in the form of capital projects as well as larger symbols of waste, such as the infamous “bridge to nowhere” sponsored by Republican senator Ted Stevens. In a state that has been awash in oil money and political corruption, she also demanded real ethical standards and sent people who didn’t meet them to jail, never hesitating to challenge Republicans who were corrupt or ineffective. And she was pro-development, supporting drilling in ANWR; for that matter, she has dealt extensively with the tricky energy issues that have become central to this year’s election, and she understands them better than anyone else on either ticket.
In summary, Palin worked her way up the political ladder, rising on talent (she’s likable and a good speaker) and incremental achievement. She didn’t marry into power, and no one handed her anything. This is what conservatives say they want in female and minority candidates for high office. Further, she’s a reformer and a Washington outsider in a year when, as Republicans know, their own party is part of the problem. She represents real “change,” to adopt a word of the moment, and for Reaganites who have been waiting for the first post-Reagan conservative generation to rise to power, Palin represents “hope” as well.
Now about that woman thing: some commentators object that Palin was chosen primarily as a sop to female voters, especially disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. Well, of course the McCain campaign wants to entice those women to vote for the Republican ticket. Putting together coalitions is how elections are won. Women happen to be 52 percent of the electorate. Ignoring them, let alone insulting them as Barack Obama is perceived to have done, is politically foolish. Some worried that McCain would pick a token woman, such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas—she of the long Washington tenure, liberal Republican views, and few accomplishments (though she does look the part). Instead, he surprised many by picking Palin.
Is it irresponsible to put a half-term governor in the vice presidential slot? It depends on her record. But surely for a Washington novice, the vice presidency is more appropriate than the presidency. A half-term governor has more claim to leadership and experience than does a one-third-term U.S. senator who has risen through a big-city political machine. Palin is a woman of action, moreover, who has used her political capital at every stage to fight corruption and bad policy. It’s hard to find anyone in politics who does that; pols “save” their capital instead, as Obama has done by voting “present” on numerous occasions, lest spending it cost them something somewhere down the road. Her personal profile—raising five children, hunting, fishing, and being a real NRA member—make an appealing contrast with the overly cerebral, political calculations of those who merely hold positions and whose lives have been led in the service of their résumés.
Add to all this that Palin was a brilliant choice compared with everyone else McCain was considering. Mitt Romney, who has much impressive experience, was another rich white guy, and he bombed in the primaries. Joe Lieberman is a liberal Democrat who is sound on Iraq but on little else, from a Republican perspective. Tom Ridge is terminally boring and didn’t really succeed at the Department of Homeland Security. True, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty is another young Reaganite conservative who should have a big future, with impressive “Sam’s Club” working-class credibility, but he lacks dazzle. Making the ticket attractive enough to pique interest is a reasonable political choice, considering that McCain can’t govern if he doesn’t get elected first.
On the Democratic side, Palin’s counterpart Joe Biden has a hard-core liberal voting record in 36 years in the Senate, during which he has helped radicalize the judiciary. True, he knows more than Palin does about foreign policy; but much of what Biden knows is wrong—he argued, for instance, that Iraq should be partitioned. As for his sounder impulses to send more troops to Iraq and to resist the temptation to withdraw prematurely, it’s important to note that the man at the top of the Democratic ticket, Obama, disagreed with both.
No vice-presidential pick is ever perfect. Presidential candidates perforce make tradeoffs among competing considerations of appeal to key constituencies, particular expertise, ability to muster electoral votes, and compensation for perceived weaknesses at the top. But Sarah Palin brings real reform credentials, authentic Reaganite conservatism, small-government values, and the pragmatic ethos of a middle-class mother of five. And she is a natural talent. It couldn’t get much better than that—not even if she were a man.
the moose ate my cheese? or moved my cheese? how does that go?
When you give a Moose a Cookie...
:)
The Real CHANGE AGENTS.
I’m was jazzed to see Palin nominated - it will make pulling the handle for McCain doable without holding my nose.
First, it was that Sarah wasn't Trig's mom. Rather, Bristol Palin gave birth to Trig, and it was all covered up.
Now, it's moving to yes, Sarah did give birth to Trig, but Bristol is pregnant right now.
Here's a hint for all you guys: if they say a photo was taken in "late 2006" or "early 2007" and then in the background, there are all green trees, then the shot probably wasn't in winter in Alaska. If there's no snow or colored leaves in the background, then the photo is probably between April and October... Yeah, global warming blah blah blah, but it ain't that bad in Alaska.
Let them keep obsessing with this. It's sort of funny, and it'll go nowhere.
Reporting from Amerika,
B. Badinov
Sarah speaking live on C-Span from Fallon, MO.
With McCain. Huckabee and Romney there as well.
And her hair is down.
She needs to keep wearing the glasses. The Sexy Librarian look works for me.
The VP's sole Constitutional duty is to preside over the Senate and cast a tie-breaking vote if needed. Other than that, the VP job is a nullity.
If the Democrat-controlled Congress passes an amnesty bill, the odds are McAmnesty will sign it. Palin will have nothing to say about it.
If the Democrat-controlled Congress passes another gun ban, it will be up to McCain to decide whether to sign it or not. Palin's pro-gun history will have nothing to do with the issue.
Palin's selection is at best a straw in the wind about what McCain will do once in office. His history isn't very encouraging.
When she takes them off during the debate, it'll be all over but the shouting for Joe Blowhard Biden.
She is speaking so well--because she lives what she is talking about--she is the real deal.
“She’s a normal person, ...”
The REAL reason she appeals to so many.
U so funny. lol
Sweet!
bttt
Not only will we not have to hold our noses, we can breathe the sweet smell of the FUTURE !!
Exactly. Four presidents generally ranked in the top fifteen by historians have had experience comparable to Governor Palin’s prior to assuming office: Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Grover Cleveland.
Sarah Palin spent four years as a City Council Member for Wasilla, Alaska, two years as Mayor of Wasilla, and two years as Governor of Alaska.
FDR spent just over two years in the New York State Senate, eight years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and four years as Governor of New York.
Theodore Roosevelt spent some time in the New York State Assembly(?), two years as Governor of New York, two years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and less than one year as Vice President of the United States.
Woodrow Wilson spent eight years as President of Princeton University and two years as Governor of New Jersey.
Grover Cleveland spent two years as Sheriff of Erie County, two years as Mayor of Buffalo, and two years as Governor of New York.
Overall, I’d say that Palin’s background is comparable with that of several presidents considered highly successful, even considering that her state has a smaller population than the other two states on the list.
In contrast, I was unable to find a single President of the United States who had a complete absence of executive experience and as little legislative experience as Obama’s four years in the United States Senate after eight years in the state senate. While there were several presidents with experience comparable to Biden’s 25 years in the United States Senate, his notable accomplishments tend to be in the direction of millions of dollars per year in earmarks for his district rather than reducing wasteful spending or fighting corruption in either his own party or in Washington as a whole.
While Obama has been running for office for as long as Palin has been running a state, I find it hard to consider the two tasks as comparable preparation.
One final note: I will be posting this multiple times because I think it is important to get the word out that that her experience is in keeping with previous presidents. I apologize to those who are annoyed by seeing it too often.
I just sent in my stimulus payment to them anyone wanna match it
Go MCCain Palin
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