Thursday, September 04, 2008

Palin for President

I loved her! I watched the entire speech and roared in delight. I loved when she said that when she became Governor she immediately dispensed with some of the accouterments "that were over the top," she said. "I didn't need the luxury jet." Pause. "I put it on eBay."

Woo-hoo, Go Sarah! And this rejoinder to her perceived lack of experience, which is actually more than Obama's:

"And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

She can do everything from field dress a moose to bust up the Good Ole Boy network, and do it in heels. My kind of woman. If she runs in 2012, she has my vote.

The UK Sun posted the following this morning. I concur completely.

Palin strikes back at critics

A WEEK ago nobody had ever heard of her. Today she is the most talked-about woman in the world. And with good reason.

Sarah Palin's sensational performance at the Republican Party Convention may turn out to be the tipping point of this rollercoaster American election. Obama fans hoping she would fluff her big night were in for a nasty shock.

This speech has turned the election upside down. It was simply stunning. Democrats and their Lefty media backers had been sneering that she was a small town nobody, a hick from the Alaskan sticks put into a job way beyond an inexperienced woman.

Believe me, you will not be hearing that again.

Palin turned out to be an electrifying mix of intelligence, passion, energy, optimism and plain speaking. Full of self-assurance and aggression, she popped Barack's balloon big-time.

From the moment she walked on stage in this cavernous bear pit, bandbox smart in cream jacket, trim black skirt and black heels, she proved that John McCain knew exactly what he was doing when he picked her as running mate.

Hair piled into a slight beehive – more Sarah White House than Amy Winehouse – she blinked and smiled behind her geeky spectacles as the vast crowd went ballistic.

For an unpopular party divided over Iraq and struggling to compete with Obama's Messianic glamour, the choice of Palin looks absolutely inspired. Main Street America will have loved her performance.

And it was seen by 30million voters – the greatest number ever to watch a candidate for the much-derided VP post. She is popular with voters for the very reason America's snooty political establishment despises her: She isn't one of the Washington gang.

She's a moose-hunting mum of five with a sledge-load of problems behind her own front door that workaday Americans can relate to. A child with special needs. A daughter of 17 pregnant. A constant juggle between family and career.

As she said, her family has had its ups and downs like any other. Last night her first task was to introduce herself and her family to an American public incredulous that the unknown Alaska governor could within weeks be a heartbeat away from being their commander in chief.

Compared to the journeyman career politicians dominating both parties here she seemed fresh, natural, one of us and not one of them. She spoke to America as one mum to another. She cracked good jokes.

What's the difference between a hockey mum and a pit bull?, she asked. Answer: One wears lipstick.

What will have scared the enemy camp most is the devastating series of prime-time punches she landed on the jutting Obama jaw. Showing steel beneath her magnolia jacket, she slaughtered his lack of experience, his vanity, his emptiness beneath the windy waffle.

It was the most powerful demolition of the Democrat hero I have heard in two weeks on the US election trail. The St Paul audience adored her.

When she duffed up the Lefty media commentators for their sexist sneers, the vast crowd roared approval and pointed in anger at the titans of the American press aloof in their special enclosure.

And quite right too: who ever asked whether Obama could still be a good dad if he became president? The irony, as Palin pointed out, is that liberal media sniping has only succeeded in uniting Republicans behind her.

The wagons have been drawn up and the Republicans are ready for battle. The McCain-Palin ticket now looks in exciting shape.

A war hero and a heroic mum. Experience and optimism. A man and a woman.

And when McCain joined the Palin gang – babies and boyfriends and all – on stage after her speech there was a sense of cheeky fun absent from last week's solemn Obama coronation.

How the Democrats must be regretting Hillary isn't running with Obama. Barack's sidekick Joe Biden looks a dull old dog compared with the ball of fire that is Palin.

But most fascinating of all, consider this: If Obama loses, Hillary Clinton will run in 2012. Opposing her is sure to be Sarah Palin. That would guarantee America its first woman president.

And my fistful of dollars, having seen both in action here, would be on Palin.

7 comments:

maggiegracecreates said...

i WAS THERE FOR THAT SPEECH - AND I FELL IN LOVE WITH HER - I HAD BEEN HOLDING ONTO MY OPINION UNTIL LAST NIGHT. GRACE AND FIRE. THE DEMOCRATS MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THAT COMBINATION. i'VE BEEN READING THE REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY ALL DAY AND IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE HAD TO GO INTO DAMAGE CONTROL MODE AFTER LAST NIGHT.

WAS OBAMA A GOOD DAD BEFORE HE ANNOUNCED HE WOULD RUN???? WILL HE STILL BE???? THE DOUBLE STANDARD EXISTS EVEN AS UNFAIR AS IT IS - MRS. PALIN WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF A NEW STANDARD.

Anonymous said...

She did indeed list the previous governor's Westwind II plane on the popular auction site—three times. But no buyer ever made the minimum bid. According to AskMen.com, she eventually sold the machine through a broker for a cool $2.1 mil, "at a loss of around half a million dollars."

Elizabeth Prata said...

wow. cool. Thanks for the info!

Anonymous said...

Loved the speech but sorry to learn she's no different than the rest.
**Palin has close ties to Big Oil. Her inauguration was even sponsored by BP.
**As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the library. Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them—shocking the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker. According to Time, "news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor."
**She DID support the Bridge to Nowhere (before she opposed it). Palin claimed that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. But in 2006, Palin supported the project repeatedly, saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

Elizabeth Prata said...

Well, she could be like all the rest, or not. I haven't made up my mind yet. The BP issue: this is what I found, this is from Wikipedia-

"For 18 years, Todd Palin worked for BP Oil in the North Slope oil fields of Alaska. In 2007, in order to avoid a conflict of interest relating to his wife's position as governor, he took a leave from his job as production supervisor when his employer became involved in natural gas pipeline negotiations with his wife's administration. Seven months later, because the family needed more income, Todd returned to BP, and again in order to avoid potential conflict of interest, he accepted a non-management position as a production operator."

The library issue, from Boston Herald:

In December 1996, Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her -- starting before she was sworn in -- about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose.

Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider any kind of censorship. Emmons, now Mary Ellen Baker, is on vacation from her current job in Fairbanks and did not return e-mail or telephone messages left for her Wednesday.

When the matter came up for the second time in October 1996, during a City Council meeting, Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla housewife who often attends council meetings, was there.

Like many Alaskans, Kilkenny calls the governor by her first name.

"Sarah said to Mary Ellen, ’What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?" Kilkenny said.

"I was shocked. Mary Ellen sat up straight and said something along the line of, ’The books in the Wasilla Library collection were selected on the basis of national selection criteria for libraries of this size, and I would absolutely resist all efforts to ban books.’"

Palin didn’t mention specific books at that meeting, Kilkenny said.

Palin herself, questioned at the time, called her inquiries rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion with a department head "about understanding and following administration agendas," according to the Frontiersman article.

Were any books censored or banned? June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, checked her files Wednesday and came up empty-handed.
-----------------------
Local issues about inappropriate books and discussions of same: Lewiston Maine, this week in the Portland Press Herald

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=208177&ac=PHnws

And in Gray Maine, an art display depicting inappropriate pictures was banned ten years ago.

In Palin's Alaska's case, nothing was banned. She merely asked the question to see where the Librarian stood.

Two sides to every story. Read both, then decide is my motto.

Elizabeth Prata said...

And from Slate, the Bridge to Nowhere has a mix to its story. She initially supported it but later said no.

"When she was running for governor in 2006, Palin said she supported a $223 million federal earmark for the Gravina Island Bridge. Congress eventually killed the earmark after it became a symbol of pork-barrel spending, but Alaska was given the same amount of money to spend on other projects. Last year, Palin put a halt to state support of the project, saying, "We will continue to look for options for Ketchikan to allow better access to the island." The reversal was hailed by budget hawks"

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