http://tinyurl.com/5lgdx7
- - - But Palin uncovered Republican corruption in the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which she had been appointed to lead. She reported the violations of ethical regulations by her co-commissioner (who also happened to be the Republican Party state chairman). Barred by state law from going public with her charges, she quit and revealed her accusations. She was vindicated when her co-commissioner agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking the state ethics law. Then, in true McCain style, she took on the state attorney general over his corruption and forced him to resign. Finally, she challenged Gov. Murkowski himself in a primary and won 51 percent of the vote in a three-way contest. Since then, she has line-item-vetoed huge parts of the state budget that she found wasteful and has cleaned house from top to bottom. Her appointment demonstrates the crucial flaw in the Democratic attack on McCain: the accusation that he is another George W. Bush. Bush chose Cheney. McCain chose Palin. That's emblematic of the difference between them. ... The entire edifice Obama and Biden built in the Denver convention hinges on the supposed similarity between Bush and McCain. Every speaker hewed to his suggested talking points in calling a McCain presidency a third Bush term. As proof, Obama cited the fact that McCain voted with Bush 90 percent of the time. But most Senate votes are unanimous! They praise high school sports teams or American heroes for their accomplishments or rename post offices or courthouses. It's likely Obama and McCain voted together most of the time, too. Once McCain rebuts the supposed similarity between himself and the man he ran against in the bitter primaries of 2000, there is not a whole lot Obama can do to besmirch McCain's reputation. Reacting to Palin's selection, Obama called it "more of the same." To say that Sarah Palin is more of same is like saying that Cameron Diaz is like Doris Day. I had an opportunity to meet and spend half a day with Gov. Palin during a vacation cruise to Alaska sponsored by National Review magazine. The governor invited several of us, including editor Rich Lowry and former UN Ambassador John Bolton, to come see her. There we learned about her crusade against corruption in Alaska, her support for oil drilling there, and the quality of her leadership. I will always remember taking her aside and telling her she might one day be tapped to be vice president, given her record and the shortage of female political talent in the Republican Party. She will make one hell of a candidate, and hats off to McCain for picking her. ... But it was when I looked up her biography after the meeting that I learned one of the most salient facts about Sarah Palin. She knew she was bearing a Down syndrome child but refused to have an abortion. While I am personally pro-choice, pro-choice means just that, the right to choose to have or not to have an abortion. My head bows to the integrity, guts and courage it takes to embark knowingly on such a life challenge because of one's personal belief in the sanctity of life. When we look at McCain's loving adoption of a child from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa and Palin's knowing birth of a handicapped baby, we see a quality of character on this ticket worthy of the White House. - - - I have mixed feeling about Dick Morris -- after all, his (Rovian) strategy of political "triangulation" put Clinton in the White House. But in any case, I am enthusiastic about Palin as "new blood" in a party that really needs it. Her focus is on conservative reform -- change that is the means of our preservation, rather than some kind of penance or reckoning for who we are or what we have done, which is the kind of negative "change" that Obama is actually trying to sell. I heard about her before, and was hoping for her. As I said in this distinguished forum on August 1, 2008: "Somehow I deeply doubt McCain will pick anybody dynamic, conservative and fresh like Palin. It's just not his instinct, he'll go with whatever he thinks will make the media and "his friends" across the aisle like him more, and they'll only like him more if he self-destructs and hands the election over to Obama without a real fight." Well I was wrong about the old codger, at least as far as his instincts go. I will never agree with his past indiscretions (moral failings to his first wife, as well as his political blunders, especially McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy), but I am a lot closer to forgiveness of things past with his selection of Palin. She points to a brighter future for the Republican party after a terrible season of wandering in the wilderness the last 4 years. I think she has the potential to be our Lady Thatcher one day, and I wish her great success. - Bob _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
