I had never heard the name Sarah Palin, until perhaps a month ago. Then a few days ago, I learned that John McCain picked her as his running mate. My first thought was that now, I know the man is crazy. But after seeing his "short list" for the past few weeks, I had decided that he had no one on it that would enhance his chances anyway, so I did not think much more about it.
I have spent these last few days diligently reading whatever I could find about her though, and now I'm thinking that perhaps he has made one good decision in his life. She has more credentials to appeal to the conservative base than almost anyone he could have chosen, although I had a few that I preferred, who may have had as many minuses as they did pluses.
First and foremost, she is a hard shelled anti-abortionist. She gets my vote whole heartedly on that. She has shown her ability to get things done since assuming the governor's office and has also shown that she shows no favoritism to even her own party hierarchy.
The Palins have 5 children, ages from 19 years to the most recent one, a son named Trig, born in April, this year. The youngest has Down Syndrome which she knew from the fourth month but opted to have the child rather than abort the pregnancy. Her oldest son, Track, joined the U.S. Army on September 11, 2007 and is in an Infantry brigade. He is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq this September. They also have three daughters, Bristol 17, Willow 13, Piper 7.
The Democrats are already crying that this woman's lack of experience makes the possibility of her having to assume the presidency highly troubling! When they are touting Obama who has no more experience in foreign affairs or domestic affairs than she does and no administrative experience. This lady has proven her ability to take charge and accomplish what she undertakes. She has a desire to shake up the old politics, which appeals to a lot of us, and she has accomplished a lot of that in Alaska.
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. (Fred Barnes. July 11, 2007 The Weekly Standard)
Her lack of experience is one of only two items the Obama camp has been able to come up with against her. The lack of experience is a mute argument when they are contending for Obama as president. The other is that there is now an investigation being conducted for the possible abuse of power against her in the firing of the Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan. She has welcomed the investigation and is cooperating fully with it. An article on the KTVA TV website entitled "Bombshell in commissioner controversy" gives her responses to the charges of abuse of power. There is an enormous amount of information and links to other information from this web site. There is a yellow block table down the left side of this article with links to court records, investigations, etc., concerning Palin's state trooper brother in-law. And more.
Although she denies that she fired Monegan (in fact he was offered another position and rejected it.) It would seem to me that it would have been justified if she had. Her brother-in-law committed acts that were against the law, against state trooper regulations, threatened to kill his father-in-law, was abusive to his wife, tazered his 10 year old stepson (even though the boy asked him to) and numerous other things. He should have been fired and imprisoned. But the commissioner refused to fire him. All this information can be found in links from the KTVA website. http://www.ktva.com/ci_10195264?source=most_viewed Be certain to visit link to document 1, which is a letter of suspension to trooper Wooten and warning of termination for any further infractions.
In the yellow box down the left side, there are links to several articles and 11 documents, most of which are the records of investigation of trooper Michael Wooten by a Sergeant Wall. An awful lot of reading but also very informative.
My conclusion from all of this reading is that Sarah Palin is an extraordinary person to be in politics. Not often do you find a politician whose integrity and morality dictates their directions over all else, including the possibility of damage to their career. When she became mayor, she soon replaced the chief of police which brought outcries from several town leaders who talked of getting up a recall petition, until a district judge ruled that she had a perfectly legal right to terminate the then chief. Later in her career, she agonizingly turned the guns on some of those who had helped her advance when she learned of the corruption they were engaged in.
Her record as governor has been unusually successful and she has shown her mettle in getting things done and wrong things, made right. She is aggressive and tenacious, shows no fear or intimidation of anyone. I wish she was running for the presidency rather than the vice presidency. Needless to say, she has created enemies during her career, but for the right purpose. There is a world of information about her on the internet, so check her out. I am curious to see the debate between her and Biden on October 2. Senator Biden is known for his overbearing harshness. I believe she can take him. She was nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda" in high school basketball. If McCain and Palin are elected, and if we can live through 4 years, maybe she'll run for the presidency.
