I did not expect to be this excited at any point during the presidential election this year. I couldn’t sleep last night. I had to watch the replay of Sarah Palin’s speech because it was too good not to experience again. Is it too late to flip the ticket? Palin-McCain would ratchet up the excitement even more. At least this way there’s the potential of 16 years of Palin in the White House. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Let’s start with the first home run. In Rudy Giuliani’s speech at the RNC last night, he said this:
What do you think most other candidates would have done in that situation? They would have acted in their own self-interest by changing their position. How many times have we seen Barack Obama do that?
Obama was going to take public financing for his campaign, until he didn’t.
Obama was against wiretapping before he voted for it.
When speaking to a pro-Israel group, Obama favored an undivided Jerusalem. Until the very next day when he changed his mind.
I hope for his sake, Joe Biden got that VP thing in writing.
The Mayor’s best line of the night, in a speech where he had several great ones. And he’s absolutely correct. I worry about someone who has to formulate every answer and wait until his handlers come up with an answer to whatever issue comes up. Being a President means being a leader, not being “handled”, as Mayor Giuliani explained later in the speech:
John McCain said, I’d rather lose an election than a war. Because that’s John McCain.
When Russia rolled over Georgia, John McCain knew exactly how to respond.
Having been to that part of the world many times and having developed a clear worldview over many years, John knew where he stood. Within hours, he established a very strong, informed position that let the world know exactly how he’ll respond as president. At exactly the right time, John McCain said, “We’re all Georgians.”
Obama’s first instinct was to create a moral equivalency — that “both sides” should “show restraint.” The same moral equivalency that he has displayed in discussing the Palestinian Authority and the state of Israel.
Later, after discussing it with his 300 foreign policy advisers, he changed his position and suggested that “the UN Security Council” could find a solution. Apparently, none of his 300 advisers told him that Russia has a veto on any U.N. action. Finally Obama put out a statement that looked … well, it looked a lot like John McCain’s.
Here’s some free advice: Sen. Obama, next time just call John McCain.
This pretty much sums up the election for me in just a few lines. Look, I don’t agree with Senator McCain on several issues, most notably immigration and campaign finance reform, but McCain gets it right on the issue that is facing our country today and he doesn’t need advisors telling him what to say. McCain can lead our country in the war on terror while Obama needs polling to come up with a pat answer to any question.
After the mayor rocked the house, it was Sarah Palin’s turn. She started off doing a great job of laying out the case for a McCain presidency. She spoke well of his early campaign struggles but how he came back and ended up the Republican nominee and then used that to describe how a McCain administration would fight on also.
Then she switched gears a little bit and introduced her family. I was a little disappointed in a couple of lines where she seemed to be addressing the media stories of her oldest daughter’s pregancy, but then it was obvious what she was really talking about was the birth of her youngest son in April. I thought that was a little akward and I wish she would have worded that a little differently as I’m sure others thought the same.
Then came the fireworks.
I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better.
When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
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God, I love this woman.
Not like that… I’m a happily married man.. stop it.. really…
Geez, you people.
I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
She’s talking about us, Fly Over Country!! We have a candidate for VP who gets it! She’s real and she’s one of us.
But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.
What about that, folks? I believe her. My Fly Over Country friends, we have the second coming of Reagan. She doesn’t care what the media says or does and she’s not going to pander to anyone. That’s exactly what we need in Washington!
fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history.
And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.
The stakes for our nation could not be higher.
When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we are forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
And families cannot throw away more and more of their paychecks on gas and heating oil.
With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus, and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.
To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies … or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia … or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries … we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.
And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we’ve got lots of both.
Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems – as if we all didn’t know that already.
But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines … build more new-clear plants … create jobs with clean coal … and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.
Yes, Yes, Yes!!! Common sense is returning to politics, can this really be true?? Am I dreaming?!?
I’ve noticed a pattern with our opponent.
Maybe you have, too.
We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.
And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform – not even in the state senate.
This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot – what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger … take more of your money … give you more orders from Washington … and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy … our opponent is against producing it.
Victory in Iraq is finally in sight … he wants to forfeit.
He wants to forfeit. What a great line. What a great word: forfeit. It’s better than “withdrawl” or “pull out” or any other nice way of putting it. Forfeit. Quit. That’s exactly what the Democrats want.
Did I mention that I love this woman?
In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
I love it. Agree with him or not, you can’t deny that McCain follows the beat of his own drum and when he sees something that needs changed, he goes after it. I’m speaking specifically about campaign finance reform. While I disagree with McCain’s stance, he saw a perceived injustice and went after it. He used his career to promote change. What has Obama done?
Speaking of Obama.. something occurred to me last night. The crowd kept chanting “Zero, zero, zero” at one point and it made me think. Maybe we should start spelling Obama’s name with a zero at the beginning instead of an ‘o’. Like this: 0bama. Works for me.
Sarah Palin proved she was a great choice for a running mate. It’s finally time to be excited about the presidential election in Fly Over Country
