Sarah Palin Belongs to America

Last night at about 2:45 a.m., this blog broke the news (with help from Sharon Caliendo in Oklahoma) that John McCain would name Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to his ticket. I've been writing on -- and advocating -- Sarah for V-P for a year-and-a-half. When I discovered that Sarah was in fact reading the blog posts about her, I started "talking directly" to her. At one point, I observed that she was the ultimate "Daughter of Alaska." Then, I said, "But now, Sarah you belong to America." I got that right.

{I was just talking to Zoe on the BBC from London about Gov. Palin! Yikes.]

Above in Picture: Gov. Sarah Palin with husband Todd and daughters Piper, Willow, and Bristol. In the past three months I've had nearly 8,000 "hits" on one of my sites. Today, I will go over 10,000 -- in one day on one site! Thanks to visitors. Keep returning, and you'll have the most relevant information about Sarah, who's a regular reader of my blogs. God bless you, Sarah! Soon I'll put up material about how Pennsy

My political buddy Sharon Caliendo of Norman, OK, broke the Palin Story last night to me shortly before 3 a.m., and I took a chance on put it on my blogs then. Much more will be on here today and tomorrow about a thoroughly remarkable human being, Sarah Heath Palin.

If you want to have fun, go over to a truly ecstatic web site, Adam Brickley's at http://draftpalinforvp.blogspot.com. Adam has been in total managerial charge of the national Draft Palin for VP effort. Adam just turned 21 (!!!!!!!!!!!).

I'm so delighted that four of Sarah's children are able to participate in this historic moment. Piper (age 7 now?) is going to become a national media darling. I believe Sarah will make a great vice-president. I also believe she will make a great President of the United States. In my somewhat hyperbolic way, I called her "Mt. Rushmore Material." (But I don't think that's really hyperbole.)

Jack Kelly, national security analyst and columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade -- and a great buddy -- wrote the following piece about Gov. Sarah Heath Palin. Jack paid me the compliment of being the one who recommended Sarah to him. God bless the USA. If you want to have fun, go to http://palinforvp.blogspot.com and you will see the first case of Blog Ecstasy in recorded history.

By Jack Kelly
"Who? When?
Republicans including, I imagine, Sen. McCain himself are asking these questions about his selection of a vice presidential candidate.Ideally, a presidential candidate wants a running mate who will help him or her win the election, and (maybe) to govern afterwards. But most will settle for a veep who isn't a drag on the ticket, as Dan Quayle was for the first President Bush.

Traditionally, a presidential nominee has chosen a running mate to balance the ticket
geographically, or to appease a faction of the party. The most successful example of this was when John F. Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson, though neither liked the other, and LBJ joined the ticket only because he thought Kennedy would lose.Bill Clinton broke with this tradition when he chose another young (purported) moderate from a neighboring southern state. By picking Al Gore, he hoped to reinforce his campaign theme of generational change.

Which way will Sen. McCain go?

The potential running mates most often discussed have downsides nearly as great as their upsides. Gov. Tim Pawlenty helps only in Minnesota, and not enough, according to current polls, to make a difference there. Sen. McCain's friend Sen. Joe Lieberman would bring in some moderate Democrats, but could further antagonize conservatives already suspicious of Sen. McCain.

Gov. Romney would have little appeal to working class whites unhappy with Sen. Obama, and evangelicals fret about that Mormon thing. A Huckabee nomination would irritate economic and foreign policy conservatives as much as it would please evangelicals.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is a rising star. But he's only 36, and he's been governor for less than a year.There is one potential running mate who has virtually no down side. Those conservatives who've heard of her were delighted to learn that McCain advance man Arthur Culvahouse was in Alaska recently, because they surmised he could only be there to discuss the vice presidential nomination with Gov. Sarah Palin.

At 44, Sarah Louise Heath Palin is both the youngest and the first female governor in Alaska's relatively brief history as a state. She's also the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating that has bounced around 90 percent.

This is due partly to her personal qualities. When she was leading her underdog Wasilla high school basketball team to the state championship in 1982, her teammates called her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her fierce competitiveness.Two years later, when she won the "Miss Wasilla" beauty pageant, she was also voted "Miss Congeniality" by the other contestants.Sarah Barracuda. Miss Congeniality.

Fire and nice.

A happily married mother of five who is still drop dead gorgeous. And smart to boot.But it's mostly because she's been a crackerjack governor, a strong fiscal conservative and a ferocious fighter of corruption, especially in her own party.Ms. Palin touches other conservative bases, some of which Sen. McCain has been accused of rounding.

Track, her eldest son, enlisted in the Army last Sept. 11. She's a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association who hunts, fishes and runs marathons. A regular churchgoer, she's staunchly pro-life. Kimberley Strassel of the Wall Street Journal said Sen. McCain should run against a corrupt, do-nothing Congress, a la Harry Truman.

If he should choose to do so, Gov. Palin would make an excellent partner "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who have crossed Sarah," pollster Dave Dittman told the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes.

Sen. Barack Obama's support has plunged recently among white women. Many Hillary Clinton supporters accuse him -- I think unfairly -- of being sexist. Having Sarah Palin on the ticket could help Sen. McCain appeal to these disgruntled Democrats.Running mates usually aren't named until the convention.

But if Sen. McCain should name Gov. Palin earlier, it would give America more time to get to know this extraordinary woman. And because she's at least a dozen feature stories waiting to be written, she could help him dominate the news between now and the conventions.Another reason for selecting Sarah Palin early would be to force Barack Obama to make a mistake.

He'd have to rule out choosing someone like Virginia Sen. Jim Webb as his running mate, for fear of exacerbating charges of sexism. And if he chose a woman other than Hillary, the impression Democrats are wimpy would be intensified.

Links to important Palin Material: http://michaelschuyler.blogspot.com/2008/04/sarah-palin-subject-of-new-biography.html is a review of the only biography available on Sarah that I published in April. And this one: http://michaelschuyler.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html is from July.

GOP Candidates and Gasoline Prices

"This election will be won or lost at the gasoline pump." (Jack Kelly)

A candidate's best friend is the one that tells him or her the unvarnished truth. In that sense, national security writer Jack Kelly is John McCain's best friend. In the following column Kelly (a former Marine, former Special Forces soldider, and former Congressional candidate) Kelly criticizes John McCain for a lack of political shrewdness.

Kelly is telling McCain what he must do to win the election. If Sen. McCain does not do such things, he cannot win. (Kelly writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade.)

What relevance does this have to Republican challengers like Melissa Hart, Toni Gihooley, Marina Kats, Tom Manion, Bill Russell, and others -- inside and outside Pennsylvania? The suggestions Kelly makes are relevant to all candidates. They need to pin the rapid rises in gasoline prices -- most of which have taken place since the 2006 election -- on the Democrats. If Toni, Melissa, Marina, Tom, and Bill do the things Jack suggests -- and do them every day between now and Nov. 4 -- they have a good chance of winning.

If they don't, they will lose. It's just that simple. Jack's column follows:

JOURNAL PRESS SYNDICATE
545 West End Ave. (Suite 2C)
New York, N.Y. 10024-2713
Tel: (212) 580-8559
Email: ijbnyc@aol.com
[Note: If your local newspaper doesn't print Jack Kelly's syndicated column, please call them up today and ask them (nicely but firmly) to start doing so. If they continue not to, keep calling]

BY JACK KELLY

Barack Obama has the lead for the time being. But three sign posts point the way to a McCain landslide in November -- in the unlikely event the Arizona senator has the wit to heed them.What figures to be by far the most important issue this fall is the skyrocketing price of energy and its deleterious effect on the broader economy and national security.

Now that Sen. McCain has flip flopped on drilling off of our coasts, there is a substantial difference between him and Sen. Obama on the issue. Sen. McCain also supports building more nuclear power plants, which Sen. Obama opposes.

Opinion polls indicate a large majority now supports drilling for oil off our coasts and in Alaska. That majority is likely to expand and harden as gas prices rise this summer. But Sen. McCain can't fully capitalize politically on this change in public attitude unless he completes his flip flop, and consents to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Commentary editor John Podhoretz fears Sen. McCain's ego will prevent him from doing what is in his, and his country's interest:"So McCain 2 makes a big speech about offshore drilling and the need for it. Fine. But the message is muted and confused.

"Why? Because McCain 1 voted against oil exploration and field development in (ANWR) and McCain 2 doesn't want to look like a flip flopper by changing his stand on the matter...In acting out of a combination of holer-than-thou piety and political pique, McCain 1 has made it all but impossible for McCain 2 to run with this issue and go on the offensive with Obama on a matter of central concern to the American people."

I fear Mr. Podhoretz is correct. But few Americans would hold flip flopping against Sen. McCain, because they've flip flopped, too. Soccer moms were happy to genuflect to environmental pieties when gasoline was $2 a gallon. But now that they have to sell their firstborn to fill up their SUVs, their attitude has changed dramatically.

If Sen. McCain were to fly to ANWR and announce his change of heart there, the attendant publicity would make it clear to Americans the sharp difference between himself and Sen. Obama on the issue most important to their pocketbooks.

He supports letting Floridians and Californians decide whether there should be drilling off their coasts. Why shouldn't the same principle apply to Alaskans? A large majority favor drilling in ANWR.

The second sign post is Sen. Obama's clumsy embrace of a Sept. 10th attitude toward the war on terror. The law enforcement approach toward fighting it is precisely what led to Sept. 11, 2001.Fortunately, national security is the one issue Sen. McCain knows something about.

The danger for him here is that he'll overemphasize it. The fact that we're winning the war on terror makes most Americans less interested in it, and more focused on economic concerns. Voter anxiety about Sen. Obama's fitness to be commander in chief is a strong subsidiary issue. But this election will be won or lost at the gas pump.


The third sign post was illuminated by the flap over the receipt by the (now former) head of Barack Obama's vice presidential selection committee and two prominent U.S. senators of below market rate loans from Countrywide Finance, which Sen. Obama has charged is in large part responsible for the sub-prime mortgage crisis. One of those senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, is trying to push through Congress a bill that would, in effect, bail out Countrywide.

This glaring conflict of interest hasn't attracted much attention from the news media, because for most journalists, a scandal isn't really a scandal unless Republicans are involved. But it's an issue tailor made for Sen. McCain. He has often stupidly (see McCain-Feingold), but always ardently, fought pork barrel spending and corruption. Congress has its lowest approval rating in the history of polling.

Replacing the Washington way with the Chicago way is not an improvement. Sen. McCain is the best person to make that case, and Americans are in a mood to hear it.

The sign posts also indicate who Sen. McCain should choose for his running mate. No Republican can better make the case for drilling than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and no governor has fought harder against corruption, especially in her own party.

So go to ANWR, Sen. McCain. Embrace Sarah Palin there. You'll have to eat some crow. But crow doesn't taste so bad when it's served on the White House china.

Email: jkelly@post-gazette.com

Sarah Palin Critical in PA Races

Important Note: This afternoon (Monday) I'll have up on my national blog(s) another column going into some detail about the Kelly endorsement of Sarah Palin (see below) and the criticality of the vice-presidential choices this year. If you want to see the column a little early, e-mail me at: TalkTop65@aol.com, and I'll send it immediately. Thanks so much for visiting. (I love the pic below of Sarah.) On my Hillary Supporters for McCain site I have a guest column by a Black woman strongly endorsing John McCain. Why is all this so important to what's happening in Pennsylvania? McCain's naming Sarah Palin to the ticket would great enhance the Senator's chances of carrying the Keystone State. The better McCain-Palin ticket does in generating votes, the more likely it will be that challengers (Melissa Hart, Toni Gilhooley, Marina Kats, Tom Manion, Lou Barletta, and Craig Williams, as well as Dana Walsh) can win their races. As McCain goes, so goes the GOP in PA. It's that simple. For reasons discussed below, Gov. Palin has tremendous appeal to working-class families (Hillary Supporters), military families, working mothers, gun owners, fiscal conservatives, and social conservatives, groups that make up a majority in PA (and most other states). I'm urging all candidates and their supporters to join noted columnist Jack Kelly and the editor of RealClearPolitics in strongly endorsing Sarah for V-P. Her presence in PA (and Ohio) campaigning for Republican candidates would be a tremendous boost to GOP chances in November.

Sarah Palin gets MAJOR endorsement and is now front-runner for the V-P slot on McCain's ticket. On my national blog, I speculate today that the two major party presidential candidates in the not-too-distant future might be Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.

Bulletin: One of the nation's most important conservative columnists, national security writer Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade, has just endorsed Sarah Louise Heath Palin of Alaska for the vice-president slot on John McCain's ticket. Please tell everyone in the blogo-verse! Good for Jack!

He calls her McCain's "secret weapon" and a major key to victory. He says she's "a running mate who's got it all."

Sarah's candidacy is critical to the victories of Republican congressional candidates like Melissa Hart (PA, 4th CD), Toni Gilhooley (PA, 17th CD), Dana Walsh (CA, running against Nancy Pelosi & Cindy Sheehan), Marina Kats (PA, 13th CD), and many others. Jack's column is at: http://post-gazette.com/forum.

To all bloggers and other onliners: please pass along this important information.

Scroll down to read more about Gov. Sarah Palin . . .