Found this over at Dirty Harry’s Place.
If you like, you can also listen to a 1/2-hour interview podcasted by IBD, and it’s interesting and heartening. She’s very well spoken.
UPDATE: And reading this piece, I find that I am more and more pleased that she is not another Ivy League lawyer who planned and plotted a political career, but rather a concerned and active, intelligent woman who simply followed her own interests and concerns, and walked through the doors and opportunities as they were placed before her. That’s refreshing – it is also so very “can-do American.”
We forget, sometimes, that Harry Truman was just a haberdasher, and not an elitist, too. (end update)
I saw some negative comments from people, today, suggesting – on the basis of what, besides simple mean-spiritedness, I cannot tell – that Sarah Palin is “Dan Quayle with a vagina.” That sentiment seems to have started here.
I found her pretty impressive in that clip. Smart, articulate, forthright and authentic.
Bookworm has McCain’s response to the Obama camp’s initial, and rather ungenerous response to his veep pick. I had always thought that a gracious acknowledgment was simply the way it was done.
Anyway, it seems like they’re wasting no time taking Palin out of context. That’s how it goes, I guess. Unsurprisingly, they’re also saying really gross things about little Trig, and about her children. Classy, classy bunch.
You read the crap they’re coming up with and you realize, they’re terrified.
But you know, in the past few weeks we’ve seen several right-wing blogs defend the Obama team against excessive nonsense (the birth certificate carrying-on, for example) – I do hope we’ll manage to see one or two blogs from the other side actually give Palin a hearing – in context – before jumping aboard.
Elizabeth, thanks for your commentary on the inspired, and inspiring, choice of Governor Palin as Senator McCain’s running mate. While a life-long Republican, I’ve been disgusted by the corrupt, cowardly and fiscally-irresponsible GOP for several years. As is true of many, I was planning to pull the lever for McCain as the lesser of two evils.
In fifteen minutes, that changed: I found a pair of candidates I can support enthusiastically. I called my local GOP and will volunteer. And I sent the first contribution to a campaign in years.
This is paradigm-shifting move and while I still think McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional, I can vote for McCain/Palin now.
Best to you. Carlos
I have a sense that John and Abigail Adams would think quite a lot of Governor Palin.
This is an absolutely inspiring pick. Here is a woman with a very different background, self-made, who definitely has more ties with working-class America than with Park Avenue.
I see now why you commented months ago that choosing Palin would shake things up. It has; I’m overjoyed, and I will now be able to vote McCain with a better conscience. I’m absolutely shocked with joy to find VP ticket who sounds, acts and behaves like the women I know in real life.
[MOM - this is the thing about Palin; you and I and other women who did not fall in line behind Hillary were told we were "self-hating" and afraid of strong, powerful, intelligent women. No; we simply did not find two of those three qualities in Hillary, whose political career came on her husband's coat tails, and who has tons of rhetoric surrounding her but very little real accomplishment, very little to show for her "35 years" in politics. Palin was a mom who got involved, and she went where her capabilities allowed. This is very intriguing, and it says to America - you do not have to be an ivy league lawyer to get anything done. In fact, quite the opposite. I think of Nancy Pelosi and her absurd broom - she who has done NOTHING in her congress these two years, but obfuscate and say "no," - and I think, Palin would actually be getting things done. She's (in Bushian parlance) a "do-er". I'm very stoked on this move, and now I too can vote for McCain more enthusiastically. The Democrats had better drop the mysoginist overtones they're playing with and strap in ... Palin is going to make theirs a very bumpy ride! - admin]
We’ll have to see how this plays out but quite frankly this selection is a stroke of brilliance on the part of Mr McCain. It also puts the obamabots in a box. It will bring some of the gender loyal Hillary Clinton supporters. However if the obamabots come after with the venom i’ve seen on some blogs…it will drive another group of women over to the McCain side. And after all it really is all about winning. And she is from an oil rich state. Drilling is a huge positive issue for republicans. She passed the biggest tax increase on oil companies and rebated the money back to Alaskan’s to the tune of 1200 bucks per family. No wonder she has a huge approval rating in that state.
As for Mr Obama; to be honest his speech lost me. To me it was simplistic and somewhat condescending. There was nothing new here. But that could be that i’m one of those republicans that “just doesn’t get it.” God i hate that phrase. I have always found that to mean…intellectual debate over; you are a moron. Ugh! I run from people who use that phrase.
BTW…the Mystic Monk coffee is a big hit in my house! No bitterness at all. I’m waiting for the espresso coffee to arrive for the big test!
[Joe, so glad you like the coffee - I just ordered another batch myself, please let me know how you like the espresso. As to "You Just Don't Get It" - Dick Meyer talks about conversation enders like that in Why We Hate Us, which is a book I think you'll like! - admin]
If a Clinton were the DNC Nominee, the attacks would be far more ugly.
But with Senator McCain as the lead, after years of placating the MSM, it seems it will be harder for them to treat the current ticket the way they treated the Bush – Cheney team.
Both Bush and Cheney had well established names in the GOP, with major connections to the Reagan Administration, and the rabid uninformed used baseless stereotypes to demonize and dehumanize.
Liberal Democrats have vilified so much, fired by the ugly political bigotry, denying any reason that suggests the contrary.
I have encountered this in NYC often, and some of the most overused words include the term ‘fascist’.
GW Bush has led many to liberate 50 Million in Afghanistan and Iraq. But it doesn’t matter to the Partisans on the Democrat Side.
If a Democrat had been President, they would be cheering overtly, but the reality is, the more a Republican succeeds, the more intensely their hatred grows.
But like GW Bush, Mr. Cheney, Tony Snow, Condi Rice, etc., I think Gov. Palin can handle it will grace and strength.
And we can simply hope the ugly, finally see the light, and recognize their bitter angst might be coming from within.
We shall see, but like the others unfairly slandered before, Gov. Palin will have plenty of support…
I do think that the ordinary, non-saturated-by-politics types, the sort that catch whatever they learn about the news from blurbs on the radio or the evening news, will be very much put off by attacks on Palin. Her ordinariness, her hair and dress looks like the style so many women who tote children around wear, her plain speech that seems to mean what she says it means (no ambiguity) and her mid-west accent all seem to be so much like the ‘regular Jane down the street.’ Ourselves. The Ourselves of the suburbs and the farm lands. She made a HUGE connection with those ordinary folks, like my enthusiastic dad. We know her and her family very well because, outside the fancy title of Governor, we are her and her family for the most part.
I am thinking that vicious attacks on Palin and her family are going to backfire miserably for the Democrats if they go that route because it will be a direct and vicious attack on regular people, and we out here in flyover country, lost and often quite forgotten between the Big Cities, still value families and plain talkin’ folks and practical hair!
And there are an awful lot of us.
Bring it on, I say. I believe she’s man enough to take it, but I also believe that most ‘ordinary’ Americans won’t.
I had fingers and toes crossed in the hopes that Fred Thompson could, maybe, just maybe, be McCain’s pick. He would energize the conservative base and give the GOP the much-needed kick in the old kiester.
What a very pleasant surprise that he picked Sarah Palin. She is so good on so many levels that I don’t know where to start. The clip above shows her command of the energy issue and her common sense solution. Conservatives everywhere now have a good reason to order those GOP yard signs.
Her selection blunts every criticism that liberals can throw at us. She represents someone who not only talks the talk, but has proven that she walks the walk when the subject turns to reducing the size and scope of government.
A young, energetic version of Reagan? She certainly appears so. And a Biker Babe to boot. Ahh, life is good!
Oh, and in case of an election tie, say we pit Sarah Barracuda against The Vapid One in a game of 1-on-1, winner takes all.
I can’t begin to explain how I felt on Friday morning when I first heard Palin’s name. I had battled my eyelids during Obama’s speech so first thing Fri. morning I scrambled around to find a transcript to read what I missed. I should have let my eyelids win completely. I found nothing inspiring about his rhetoric. Then it happened! Fox news says McCain’s pick is Palin… Palin Who?!? More scrambling to find out who this was. Then I watched the event at Dayton. That John McCain, he must be the smartest man on earth. There, standing before America was a young woman who must be the epitome of women everywhere. She doesn’t just talk the talk–She walks it!!! I could go on for hours. In short, in what appeared to be a very dark chapter in American history, a bright, shining star of heroic proportions has entered the American scene as the McCain/Palin ticket. True American HEROES–both of them! Totally unselfish, totally thinking about what’s best for you, totally different from the other party’s ticket.
I suppose that when Barack has nightmares, Sarah Palin’s face will be the image he sees.
Okay, let’s stop the tape and do some math. I know sums are dull, but we could use them right now. Fifteen billion bbl oil over 30 years–sounds like a lot of oil doesn’t it? The world currently drinks 30 billion barrels a year. The entire thirty year Alaska production would supply the world for six months.
Well, hey, what do we care about the world? All the world is doing is building new industry while we ship all of ours abroad. All they are going to do is just keep increasing their consumption, bidding up the oil prices, and paying for it from the growing wealth they are extracting from us in trade and on all that interest they are collecting from us by buying up our insane national debt. What about the good ol’ USA?
Gee, the USA is drinking about seven and one-half billion bbl a year, one-fourth of the world total. The entire Alaska production would keep us afloat for two years.
There is no way on earth that “Drill! Drill! Drill!” is ever going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Period. We sit on about 3% of the world’s oil. We drink 25% of it. Those figures won’t go away.
Barack Obama happened to mention those last figures in his acceptance speech, by the way. But then, after all, he was simplistic and condecending and had nothing new to say. Democrats have been talking about things like that for thirty years while that 500 million barrels of oil a year from Alaska have just kept on flowing!
The problem with McCain/Palin is not that they want to drill, drill, drill. The problem is that they have no serious proposals to do anything else–except wait for renewables to “prove” themselves to be economical. This is a con game and, unfortunately, they are just as much the conned as we, because I am perfectly certain Palin believes exactly what she is saying, and that were she asked, she would say that reducing consumption would stifle enterprise. The only problem is that the enterprise we are funding is in Mumbai and Shanghai and the UAE, not here.
If renewable sources don’t get built, how are they ever going to prove themselves? And if somebody doesn’t capitalize them in the absence of such proof, how are they going to get built? You don’t wait to “prove” that there is oil under any particular well–you drill on speculation that you might strike it.
Will the oil companies capitalize them? Why should they? All they have to do is keep pumping oil and with the prices going up, up, up and they will keep making more, more, more. Will corageous wildcatters do so? How can they? Banks are collapsing right and left because they are writing off millions in foreclosed home loans. They aren’t going to be lending money anytime soon to some crazy tinkerer who hasn’t “proved” himself, now are they? If private enterprise alone was capable of capitalizing renewables, why have they not done so? The market for energy has had an enormous growth slope for the last 100 years.
Could it be because energy companies already in place would rather not have those pesky little renewables as competition? And, of course, any serious attempt at reducing consumption would set off alarm bells throughout the energy industry boardrooms worldwide.
You see, I heard all this same line of patter thirty years ago when the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was under discussion. Thirty years have passed, twenty of them under Republican Administrations and nothing has been done. Nothing, that is, except oil wells were drilled in Alaska and 15 billion bbls have been pumped. Under McCain/Palin nothing will get done, other than drilling for more oil and pumping out some of our 3% drop into the worldwide bucket, leaving us still energy dependent and more impoverished than we are now.
The only way our energy dependence can be fixed is how Barack Obama has proposed to fix it—set a clear goal, with a time limit, and put the entire force of the United States Government behind both increased production of all energy sources and reduced consumption of all energy no matter whose cash cow may have to be put on a diet in the interim.
What’s the con? Oh, I’m sorry, The con is that it’s all about caribou.
By the way, Anchoress, I must complement you heartily and thank you sincerely for posting this clip. It is exactly what I was talking about a little upstream when I wrote of getting the candidate’s views unmediated and at their best. I hope you put up more of them.
Nice spin, Joe. Although completely wrong as usual.
Sorry you lost again.
One day, when all of us that know Socialism as the greatest evil are gone,
you might actually win.
See you then.
Anchoress:
I thought about emailing you, but maybe this is a better way to get something to you. Over at Hot Air Ed Morrisey has a post up on a conversation between high ranking Democrats, which has to be heard to be believed:
Red State blogger “absentee” had the good fortune to travel from Denver to Charlotte after the Democratic convention with DNC National Chair Don Fowler and Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina. His fortune turned into Fowler’s misfortune, as it turns out the blogger videotaped a conversation on the plane between the two prominent Democrats, who seem pleased about Hurricane Gustav. In fact, Fowler apparently believes it to be divine intervention, as shown in this clip:
The hurricane’s going to hit New Orleans about the time they start. [Chuckle] The timing is — at least it appears now that it’ll be there Monday. That just demonstrates that God’s on our side. [Laughter] … Everything’s cool.
This comes just a day after Brother Michael Moore saw the Face of God in a natural disaster bearing down on New Orleans. Did the Democratic convention hold a seminar in Denver on how to take glee in the misfortune of others, as long as it works for you politically? While we’ve come to expect this from Moore, who is obnoxious even at the best of times, seeing this kind of weird schadenfreude from elected officials and high-ranking party members comes off … rather ghoulishly.
[Yes....who cares if people die and homes and businesses are lost? As long as it serves our politics, it's okay with us, tee-hee-tee-hee. But I've been lectured to in my email - all day - that it is the GOP who does not "care" about the carnage of Gustav, and that the Dems are little godlings of compassion. It's grotesque. - admin]
My husband and I were on our way to Virginia to babysit the grandchildren when we heard the news on the radio – talk about A HAPPY DANCE!!!!! It’s a good thing I wasn’t driving at the time. I had been so discouraged lately about the whole political landscape that it was like a shot of adrenaline. Thank you God – I knew you had a good sense of timing.
I care about the carnage. I care a lot. That is why I and countless others repeatedly said, after Katrina, that we should NOT rebuild anything, anywhere 12 feet under sea level. Spending gobs of money and rebuilding in areas that should not have been built in the first place, because they are so dangerous and high risk, and you are inviting disaster to happen, again. And for such talk, we were called cold-hearted bastards.
But we rebuilt there anyway. Those “warm-hearted” people who “really care” insisted that we rebuild in hyper-high-risk areas. And now some folks are, again, going to suffer — needlessly.
Don’t say we don’t care. Don’t say we didn’t care. It’s easy to care AFTER the disaster. Why not care BEFORE the disaster, so that you don’t have the suffering in the first place?
But at least School Bus Nagin is telling people the right thing — get the hell out now. And if you don’t get out, if you are obstinent enough to stay, you are on your own. That’s not being cold-hearted. That’s caring enough about people to smack them upside the head and pound some reality into them.
That said, we already know what they will say after — how it is all Bush’s fault, and if not his fault, then it is the fault of “John McSame.” They are going to say that they purposely did not rebuild the levies, that they purposely are keeping first-responders away. You know, because they hate black people.
It’s the vicious spin of history, going round and round like a hurricane, repeating itself over and over.
Well, Darrell, I’m open to persuasion. Do you know of any concrete proposals McCain/Palin have for finding seven and one half billion barrels of domestic oil a year? Do you know of any concrete proposals of McCain/Palin for reducing the amount of oil we use? Do you know of any serious plan McC/P have shown us to get more energy any other way?
Without something like this, Palin’s talk of an “national energy policy” is absurd and her talk of “reducing our dependence on dangerous regimes” is beyond absurd. I said I think we have Palin here at her best. She is talking about Alaska, which she knows about, and talking about a part of the energy issue that she should know something about given how intimately Alaska is involved with it. But has she said anything of real substance besides the fact that the caribou are doing just great, so we should drill?
I don’t think so.
I’m ready to take her seriously. I’m not interested in making snippy remarks about her hairdo or her family life or the size of the town she was mayor of. I’m ready to hear something of significance about a major issue that should be dead in the center of her actual knowledge from being the Governor of Alaska. I don’t have to agree with it, though I happen to think personally that ANWAR drilling is just fine. That’s a good a hearing as she’s going to get from any citizen.
Can you help me find it?
Okay Darrell, I’m open to persuasion. I’ve mentioned that I wanted to see Palin at her best. I’m willing to take her best quite seriously and listen to what she actually has to say, even if I don’t agree with it. And,though reluctantly, I’ve decided that we should drill ANWR and everywhere else for the reasons I’ve given above–all energy resources are fair game. It’s that important.
I’m not interested in making snippy remarks about her hairdo, her family life, or the size of the town she was mayor of. There’s some things I suspect she’s going to have to brush up on to politic on the national scene, but I don’t expect her to be up to speed on them less than two days after she stepped off the plane.
So here we have her. She’s talking about Alaska, which she surely knows about. Sne’s talking about energy, an issue that is smack in the middle of her duties as Governor of Alaska. And she’s commenting on the major problem underlying about 80% of our difficulties abroad. This is as good as it gets right now, which is why, I’m sure, the campaign scheduled the interview so early on this particular subject.
Now let me ask you a few questions, and anybody else who might be reading and is willing to tackle what she has to say, like I am, rather than who she is personally. I’m perfectly willing to be instructed or enlightened on them. It’s that important.
Do you know of any serious evidence McCain/Palin have that the private sector is capable and willing, on its own, of significantly reducing our depenedence on foreign oil?
Do you know of any McCain/Palin plan to find us seven and one-half billion bbls of domestic oil a year?
Do know of any McCain/Palin plan to convert vehicles to some fossil fuel other than oil based products?
Do you know any McC/P plan to either cut domestic oil consumption through conservation? or to supplement it with any alternative energy?
Do you know of anything she has said or done as Governor of Alaska that would actually help Alaskans to develop the wind power or tidal power she assures us is there?
Unless the answer to at least one of these questions is yes, her talk of a “national energy policy” and “reducing our dependence on dangerous regimes” is simply hot air.
Ain’t gonna happen, Charlie.
I’m partisan, but I think any reasonable person would come to this conclusion if they know as much about energy as she certainly should know as governor of Alaska.
Now I don’t begrudge her this. It’s been hot air under Carter, under Reagan, under Bush I, under Clinton, and under Bush II. But I want it to stop being hot air and I don’t care who stops it. It’s that important.
Do you?
There are press releases that spout how great it is that Palin was back at work, as Governor, the day after delivering her youngest child… but, that child is severely disabled! Seems she’s more interested in the photo op than her responsibilities. As a special ed. teacher, I’m appalled that she is leaving her youngest child, an infant with special needs, to a nanny to raise while she romps around the country to become VP. VP is not a ‘job’ it is your entire life… these are the “Family Values” she espouses?!? Having the income to hire a household staff is not the same as being a ‘working mom;’ it is simply managing a business. In addition, she is under investigation for an Ethics violation (abuse of power); she was for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” in a 2006 interview; then when it became a political liability she flip-flopped over to voice opposition for the project, and she owns three houses, but doesn’t apparently count two of them as they’re only vacation homes… whose the elitist? Every move she’s ever made has been to attain ‘fame,’ not to be in politics for service to the country, (beauty pageants, journalism, sports announcing, politics). No wonder McCain likes her – it’s someone just like him. I look at her and see “Handmaid’s Tale.”
[Comments are moderated, and that is why you were in a holding pattern. No need to keep posting the same thing. I see you have all of your talking points. I have a lot of folks on the left moralizing to me today about how Mrs. Palin needs to be home raising her child. Quite extraordinary, really. The same people who say they are all about CHOICE, and who say we should have government-sposored day care so that moms can immediately go back to work are having issues with Palin's choice.
Palin has chosen to raise Trig - his name is Trig, not "that child" - the same way she raised the rest of her family - with the support of her husband, Trig's siblings and "grandparents aunts and uncles" - you know...the way kids used to be raised, with the help of the whole FAMILY, not the village. Suddenly a woman with children and ambitions and ideas who actually pursues her career is a "bad" mother, "traipsing" around the country. She should be home "having teas and baking cookies," as Hillary sneered, I guess?
See, that's the problem with the left preaching to us all these years...we've listened to them and now we're simply reminding you of all the things you used to believe...because suddenly it seems you've forgotten!
As a special ed teacher you probably know that the best environment for a Downs Syndrome baby is in a supportive family, one that does not treat the child any differently than the rest. Growing up we had two DS babies in the neighborhood (bad Catholics, you know, having babies into their forties) and both boys were simply "part of the family" and part of the gangs. They played with us, they did the dishes; they were not "severely disabled." They were just different.
Oh, and so they have a few houses? How horrible of them. Did they buy the houses themselves or did they have Tony Rezko help them out? How many houses did John Kerry marry into? That never bothered you, I bet? How many houses do the Clintons own? I know of at least two and they're building one in the Dominican Republic. I don't begrudge them any...why do you begrudge the Palin's theirs?
Let's see...what else are you grousing about here...Having the income to hire a household staff is not the same as being a 'working mom;' it is simply managing a business.
Oh...and managing a business is easy. And Hillary had government staff help her raise her ONE child for the child's whole life but was a "working mom." Katie Couric has a staff to help with her TWO children, but she's a "working mom."
The "ethics violation" go over the Flopping Aces and read the facts, the reports and the timelines. Palin wasn't even governor when the events took place, and -unlike Obama, who wouldn't even produce his damn birth certificate or actual medical records - the investigators didn't even have to supoena Palin because she was so forthcoming about the details. So, you can try to peddle your smear with all this innuendo "oh....an ETHICS violation....ooooooooo" but we all know that William Jefferson is still in congress even though he had $100,000 in his freezer, and Al Gore got his Buddha money because "there was no controlling legal authority" so you can pack that one away, mmkay?
Every move she's ever made has been to attain 'fame,' not to be in politics for service to the country, (beauty pageants, journalism, sports announcing, politics).
Oh. My. Gawd. She used her pageant money to go to college because - as she has said - her folks were not rich; her father was a teacher and her mother a secretary. So she studied journalism...are you saying that all of our great journalist/patriots like Olbermann (who was also a sports announcer) and Cronkite and Matthews and Mitchell and the rest - they cannot have a serious love of their country? If Matthews or Olbermann run for office someday, they shouldn't because they were "journalists and sports announcers?"
No wonder McCain likes her - it's someone just like him. I look at her and see "Handmaid's Tale."
Funny, I look at Sarah Palin and see everything that someone like you, or your political party, has told women they ought to strive to be - and you and your party have told us, over and over, that women should be respected for the choices they make and the opportunities they bravely take. I look at Palin and I see a "working" mom - she and her husband BOTH were union members and BOTH commercial fishermen - who got involved and, because of her smarts and passion, (not because of her marriage or her connections) she progressed to the highest office in her state, all while raising a family But before I see her womanhood, I see her well thought-out policies. I know you're all about the identity-politics; the race card, the gender card, but I'm really more interested in Palin's policies than her periods.
Thanks for stopping by. When you have more talking points, just drop them in the queue and they'll be duly posted. - admin]
Re: fab40ies
A,
You go girl! I love it when you make me smile. Fab has cornered the market on snarkiness. It is not becoming to a woman in the 21st century. She reminds me of enlightened women who use to harass me for wasting my life being a stay at home mom. I hope that in this century women will stop consuming their own over trivial matters.
My apologies to every one for posting twice. I had a crash and thought I had completely lost version one. I’ll make sure to wait for at least a couple of new posts from other people to get through in the future.