04 September 2008

The Palinator

Maybe in retrospect it seems obvious that John McCain would select a woman running mate - hindsight and all that. But I don't remember seeing her name on any of the 'short lists' that were passed around the 'net and the airwaves. So I was surprised when Sarah Palin's name was announced and I quickly read all I could about her.
It makes me think, now, of the movie When Harry Met Sally. It's one of my wife's favorites, and I like it, too. Sprinkled throughout the movie are scenes of couples telling the story of how they came to be together. The scene I'm reminded of is of the Asian couple where the husband who talks about sneaking to the nearby village to see the girl who has been proposed as his bride. He says if he didn't like the way she looked then he would not agree. "But she look very good to me," he decides.
That's what I thought about Gov. Palin - "She looks very good to me" - and I'm not talking about her appearance. I'm talking about her character and who she is. She beat an incumbent Republican who was ethically challenged. Her approval rating among those she governs is stratospheric. She has five kids. Neither she nor her husband attended Yale or Harvard. She's never lived in Washington or New York or LA or Chicago. Those are all plusses to me.
She's pro-life. That, to me, is the only negative, but it's not the main issue to me in the election. I believe abortion needs to be legal, but I'd be fine if nobody had one.
She talks about lowering taxes and cutting expenses - and she did it as governor. She supports the second amendment. And she understands how people like me in the flyover states live their daily lives. She understands that we love the United States. It's not perfect, but it's the best country there is - the most generous country on the planet; the land of opportunity where the American dream is still possible. Certainly we have our problems but we're always trying to do better.
I would have voted for McCain-Whoever because I think a vote for Obama is a vote for higher taxes, higher gas prices, and a weaker approach to the war on terror. I would have voted for McCain, but I wouldn't have been especially excited about it.
I'm excited about McCain-Palin.
I know the vice-president doesn't do much, but that's not the point. The point is that possibl.y the GOP is thinking about getting back to its conservative roots. Smaller government; lower taxes; protecting individual liberty.
When McCain won the nomination, I was concerned that the party was moving even more to the center than we've seen the last few years. If my governor - Tim Pawlenty - had been selected for VP, that would have confirmed my fears. But the selection of Sarah Palin gives me a little hope for the future of the party.
We'll see how that turns out.

3 comments:

Glenn Gruber said...

Tom, are you kidding me?

"Her approval rating among those she governs is stratospheric"? Are you counting caribou? I know you're not counting polar bears because she's against having them on the endangered species list.

Pro-life is the only negative. What about her position on only teaching abstinence or that creationism should be taught alongside evolution. Is that how we're going to ensure our kids can compete in the future global economy? By turning back the clock on our educational system by 100 years?

Why is it only the purview of the middle of the country to love the US. I was IN NYC on 9/11. I went and volunteered down at St. Paul's cathedral to support Fire, Police and EMS personnel during the aftermath. Does that count for anything?

Taxes: You making over $250K? Care to remember that the greatest increase in federal spending...in the history of the United States...came during the first 6 years of the Bush administration with a Republican controlled Congress. And that doesn't include the spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which are funded outside the basic federal budget.

Care to rethink any of this?

Your buddy,

Glenn

tom said...

No, Glenn, not kidding.

I think the sample size on her popularity rating is sufficiently high - not counting caribou. And are you supporting adding the polar bear to the endangered species list?

As I understand her position on education she thinks parents should have some say on what gets taught. I don't think she's a big advocate for Creationism, but it makes a good sound bite on the left coasts.

I thought I'd heard that she has nothing against contraceptives. Either way that's not a big issue to me. Parents bear a larger responsibility for sex ed IMO.

(more to come ...)

tom said...

Glenn - of course your service after 9/11 counts for something. And of course it's not only in the middle of the country you'll find patriots. And maybe I'm just completely wrong, but the impression I've gotten is that there are a lot of people on the coasts - and in downtown Minneapolis, for that matter - who don't believe the US is the greatest country on earth. But that's exactly what I believe and what - I think - a lot of people believe who don't live in the urban centers of the country.
A lot of them worship at the alter of Euro-style collectivism. I don't. I don't think Commun/Social-ism works. I want a much smaller government and free-er markets. Europe as we know it is nearing the end of it's existence. In another generation it will more closely resemble Turkey than the Paris we've grown up knowing.

Taxes - no I'm not making 250k, thanks for asking. :-) I'm a software engineer, not an executive. That said, there's no argument from me that the last 8 years have seen a disgusting expansion of government. That has been a huge disappointment to me. But are you honestly trying to suggest that an Obama administration would be better? You can't say that with a straight face, can you?
Please.
That's why I said I'm excited about Palin - at least she actually DID reduce spending in Alaska and her government is running a surplus.
Obama would try to tax us out of an economic downturn, and I don't see that working too well.

thanks,
tom