Politics to Me - Sarah Palin

So, John McCain decided to contrast his strengths and showed again his political maverick attitude by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Who is she? She was born in Idaho and moved to Alaska with her father and mother who were both teachers. She played sports in high school and was captain of the basketball team. She won a local beauty contest and finished second in the Ms. Alaska competition. She won a free education with her second place finish and went to school where she majored and graduated with a degree in Journalism and Communications with a minor in political science.

Why would he do this? Remember, the Republican Party is supposed to be the conservative party and not the progressive party. Too many times in the last few elections, that line has been blurred and crossed.

I read a few blogs and I’m not shocked with what I read… She’s inexperienced, she’s just a pretty face, she doesn’t know anyone in Washington, and she’s not Hillary. I’m glad that he choose someone that is not mainstream as it shows what made McCain so loved when he first became a senator. He used to always ruffle the feathers of the republican party as he would extend the olive branch across the isle and work with them to pass important bills into law. His other VP candidates included Joe Liberman and Tom Ridge not your standard bearer for all things Republican… heck, Liberman isn’t even a republican

So let’s talk about her faults… her experience I’ll grant you is that of a small town mayor who then becomes Alaska’s Governor where she has only been in office for 1 ½ years, but what has she done in that last year and a half?

1. Her first action as Governor was to stop the building of a gravel road to a mine from Juno a decision made from the previous republican administration (this move ruffled fellow republican’s feathers)

2. She used her veto power and cut the second largest construction spending in Alaskan history by nearly 15%. Among the cuts was the “Bridge to Nowhere”

3. In response to high oil and gas prices, she gave back $1200 to every person in Alaska, which she paid for by the surplus in her budget caused by the high oil prices. (Not borrowing money from China so that we give it to the populace to buy products from China)

4. Palin objected to the decision of Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican United States Secretary of the Interior, to list polar bears as an endangered species. She filed a lawsuit to stop the listing amid fears that it would hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts.

She’s just a pretty face… what’s so wrong with that. I don’t remember the qualifications for VP stated that you needed to be Quasimodo. Last time I checked, politics held charisma as a major trait to hold.

She doesn’t know anyone in the Washington beltway…duh… she lives in Alaska, it’s not Delaware where you can just take the train to work. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good thing to know Washington during this day and age.

She’s not Hillary Rodham Clinton… how ‘bout that… of course she’s not HRC… she’s a republican and therefore believes in republican values… she’s is fiscal responsible, she is opposed to same sex marriage, is for drilling for oil in ANWR, strongly supports the 2nd amendment and is pro life.

So in conclusion… was it a good choice? Apparently the people think so as McCain shot past Obama to take a 2% point lead and received seven million dollars in contributions the day after the appointment. I on the other hand think that this was not the safe choice, but then again that was always one of the strength and weaknesses of McCain. He never does things like what Republicans want to do it.