Other than the fact that she’s been picked as McCain’s VP, I have never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
If there’s some logic in this choice, feel free to explain it to me. Otherwise, I’m sticking with the notion that the GOP continues to make less sense with every passing day.
There was no ideal choice this year. But, she’s smart, pro-life, anti-pork, popular among those that know her, and not Mormon.
Although it doesn’t qualify her to be president, I am so impressed by her public pro-life stance:
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=27797
It is one thing to TALK about the value of life, it is quite another to show people what love is by accepting and loving a child with Downs Syndrome.
What a remarkable, beautiful, and timely contrast to Senator Obama, Senator Biden, and especially Speaker Pelosi!
Fiercely pro-life, a hard-line fiscal conservative, and a tenacious political reformer who took on Alaska’s corrupt GOP and won. She’s an outdoorswoman who hunts, her husband works on one of the oil pipelines, and she just had her fifth child this year, a boy with Down’s.
Here’s an interesting profile of her by Fred Barnes.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=13851&R=13BBD174C4
Wait . . . serious question here. Besides not murdering her own son (thanks be to God!) what has she done to help the pro-life movement in Alaska? I keep reading how pro-life she is! But I can’t find anything she did. I must be looking very poorly if she is SO pro-life. And for some reason when I look for pro-life articles, it is mentioned that she was forced by the State Supreme Court to give gay couples medical benefits and such. Isn’t that immoral?
How is Sarah Palin going to help the pro-life movement as Vice President, especially with a President McCain who clearly doesn’t care? Will she be able to . . . I don’t know . . . talk McCain into being more active . . . A LOT more active? Where is the evidence behind a conclusion one way or another?
Steve, I hope you and your readers don’t mind me asking those questions. I’d hate to think we (pro-lifers) banded together to vote for someone who, while seems nice, doesn’t do anything to stop the holocaust.
John, your questions are good ones, and would be welcome even if they weren’t.
You’re blood, man. That has to count for something.
I am glad to see this discussion because I wasn’t kidding when I said I had never even heard her name before this morning. Talk amongst yourselves.
She’s intended to neutralize Biden. The Dems hope Biden can pull in working-class Northeast Catholics. Palin is intended to neutralize that effect by being more popular with Catholics, despite being an Evangelical herself. It’s also hoped that she can keep the Evangelical vote from straying, and finally that she can pull in some Hillary partisans. I’d say that last is a long shot, but I don’t know many man-eater feminists, so it’s hard for me to judge.
Frankly, she’s a lot better than any of the other names I heard over the last month or so. She will definitely keep a lot of conservatives on the bandwagon.
Cousin John:
Here’s something from LifeNews:
http://www.lifenews.com/state3460.html
Steve,
I’ve written about her a few times, touting her as a solid pro-life (not to mention a government-reform) possibility for McCain’s running mate.
I’m guessing you may change your mind abot Gov. Palin once you find out more about her. For the first time, I’m actually considering voting for McCain (and, like you, I’ve been one of his harshest critics among conservative Catholic bloggers).
And I’m even somewhat enthusiastic about the prospect.
And apparently, as the rumors go, she’s still breastfeeding her four-month-old little boy. I wonder if she ever does that in public…?
“she’s *still* breastfeeding her four-month-old little boy”?
Wow! Four whole months! Give it a rest already! Geesh!
Allow my cynicism to show for a moment - this is a throwaway pick to get us pro-lifers on board. What does a Vice President do? Nothing. John Adams said it best:
“My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet common fate.”
In which case, Steve, you would have been fine with VP Joe Lieberman?
Some VPs become presidents.
Jeff,
True. Some do. So to answer your question, Eric, it’s better that he picked Palin than Lieberman.
But then again, despite the fact the Methusela John McCain may actually have a shot at kicking the bucket while in office just because of his age, the odds are still against it.
However, by picking her, and by us realizing he’s nearly 1,000 years old and therefore may pop off, he’s substantially increased his odds of getting our votes. In fact, he may even be banking on the currency the idea of his untimely demise may have. Nothing is beyond the grasp of political calculation.
Either way, it’s a win-win for him. Either this helps get him elected and she does nothing, or he heads for the pearly gates and no longer cares who’s sitting in the big house on Pennsylvania Ave.
It’s less of a win for us, because, well…he’s still John McCain.
I’m on the band wagon with what Jay Anderson said(I’m actually considering voting for McCain). The thing I appreciate about her as much as a traditional Catholic mother I am, is the fact that she has FIVE children. In today’s society which seems to deem having children as a burden so therefore don’t have any or just two so you can achieve your career goals, this Mrs. Palin lady seems to rise above that “cultural view”.
I also think that her speech was nice to hear about serving for the people not just for the “party”. But I’m still learning more about her and will be interested in how the debates go and such.
Over at National Review’s Corner, Jay Noordlinger makes this point:
” Will some conservatives (and maybe some others) object that she is a mother with children, including an infant, who should not have time for such a demanding job? You bet.”
He is talking about me.
Ben,
Me too. I was just about to write something about that.
Dale, thank you very much for the link! This is exactly the type of information I was looking for.
Based on this article . . . (http://www.lifenews.com/state3460.html)
Two things struck me . . . one is that not many pro-life bills came across Palin’s desk. Did she try to introduce pro-life bills in her State Congress? Would she try to do this as President or Vice President? After all, bills don’t even have a chance to be signed into laws unless people are willing to TRY to bring them up.
And second . . . doesn’t the article give you a sense that she’s a “wait for the right moment” kind of pro-lifer? Everything has to work out juuuuust right in order to even debate the issues?
Thank you very much for everyone’s time and effort!