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Copyright by John T. Reed

This morning, 8/29/08, John McCain announced that his vice presidential pick was Sarah Palin. The Republicans were instantly energized, and they do not even know the woman yet. I read a 2007 Weekly Standard about her and I must say to those who do not know her,

You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Or to paraphrase Jack Nicholson’s Joker character in the Batman movie,

Wait’ll they get a load of her.

A comparison between the VP picked by “Mr. More of the Same” (according to Obama) and by “Mr. Change” himself

Category
Republican Palin
Democrat Biden
gender
would be 1st female VP
would be 50th male VP
age
44 at inauguration
66 at inauguration
executive experience
mayor (Anchorage suburb Wassilla, AK) and governor (AK youngest governor ever there and first woman governor there)
none
prior professions
journalist and commercial fisherman
lawyer
radical change acts
 Fired AK Public Safety Commissioner, fired AK Board of Agriculture, filed ethics charges against two prominent AK Republicans, signed biggest dollar veto in AK history, resigned as head of AK Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on principle to be able to denounce fellow Republican member who was behaving unethically (she could not speak out by law as a member, he denied it but later paid a $12K ethics fine). Stopped Exxon, BP, and Conoco from building an overly costly gas pipeline at taxpayer expense; got sales tax increase passed as mayor in state where voters hate taxes; forced resignations of two high Republican officials who behaved unethically; reduced her own salary as mayor and reduced property taxes by 60%; enacted new ethics law and stopped Republican-sponsored pork barrel projects; refused to use state money to fund Republican U.S. Senator Stevens’ “Bridge to Nowhere” when federal funds for that project were stopped; rescinded 35 last-minute appointments made by her governor predecessor; publicly criticized a number of Republicans who have since been indicted, fined, or pled guilty; opposed polar bears being classified an endangered species; vetoed a law that would have prevented gay partners from receiving spouse-type benefits; sold on eBay state jet used for governor transportation; gave birth in April 2008 to a son whom she knew from testing had Down’s Syndrome
none known
athletic leadership
 fiercely competitive captain and star of high school basketball team that won state championship, a game in which she played in spite of a stress-fractured ankle
none
appearance
 Won Miss Wassilla, AK beauty contest and thereby competed for Miss Alaska where she came in second thereby winning a college scholarship; was also voted Miss Congeniality in Miss Wassilla contest about as good looking as Al Gore and Dick Cheney, should keep his day job, but probably would have won Mr. Congeniality if he had entered a male beauty contest
Size of state represented
Alaska governor—population 670,000
 One of two U.S. Senators from Delaware—population 853,000

Obama is all talk when it comes to change. He doesn’t have the balls to change anything, which explains why he never has changed anything in his 47 years (three more years old than Sarah Palin). The only change we’ll see if Obama is elected is the change of address he files with the Chicago post office.

By the way, McCain also showed that he is a lot better at keeping a secret (his VP)—a useful skill for a Commander in Chief—than Obama, whose text-message stunt fell flat coming out after the choice leaked.

Why am I comparing Palin to Biden? Compare her to Obama, who is quite clearly, utterly unqualified to be a governor, let alone president.

Category
Republican Palin
Democrat Obama
gender
would be 1st female VP
would be 47th male president
age
44 at inauguration
47 at inauguration
race
would be 47th white president
would be 1st mulatto (half white half black) president
executive experience
mayor (Anchorage suburb Wassilla, AK) and governor (AK youngest governor ever there and first woman governor there)
none
prior professions
journalist and commercial fisherman
lawyer
radical change acts
 Fired AK Public Safety Commissioner, fired AK Board of Agriculture, filed ethics charges against two prominent AK Republicans, signed biggest dollar veto in AK history, resigned as head of AK Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on principle to be able to denounce fellow Republican member who was behaving unethically (she could not speak out by law as a member, he denied it but later paid a $12K ethics fine). Stopped Exxon, BP, and Conoco from building an overly costly gas pipeline at taxpayer expense; got sales tax increase passed as mayor in state where voters hate taxes; forced resignations of two high Republican officials who behaved unethically; reduced her own salary as mayor and reduced property taxes by 60%; enacted new ethics law and stopped Republican-sponsored pork barrel projects; refused to use state money to fund Republican U.S. Senator Stevens’ “Bridge to Nowhere” when federal funds for that project were stopped; rescinded 35 last-minute appointments made by her governor predecessor; publicly criticized a number of Republicans who have since been indicted, fined, or pled guilty; opposed polar bears being classified an endangered species; vetoed a law that would have prevented gay partners from receiving spouse-type benefits; sold on eBay state jet used for governor transportation; gave birth in April 2008 to a son whom she knew from testing had Down’s Syndrome
none known
athletic leadership
 fiercely competitive captain and star of high school basketball team that won state championship, a game in which she played in spite of a stress-fractured ankle
bench warmer on state championship high school basketball team
appearance
 Won Miss Wassilla, AK beauty contest and thereby competed for Miss Alaska where she came in second; was also voted Miss Congeniality in Miss Wassilla contest, resulting scholarship paid her way through U. of Idaho, some resemblance to deaf movie actress Marlee Matlin (Best actress Oscar 1986 Children of a lesser God)
some resemblance to extras playing Somalis in the movie Blackhawk Down.

Dems instantly said Palin has no foreign policy experience. Let’s compare her to Obama. He lived in Indonesia from age 6 to 10 and he ate at an International House of Pancakes. Palin has also eaten at an International House of Pancakes. Joe Biden has been a member of a committee that sits around talking about foreign policy. John McCain lived in North Vietnam from age 31 to 37.

The only presidential candidate with foreign policy experience in my lifetime was George H.W. Bush (Bush the first) who was shot down fighting against Japan during World War II in the Pacific, ambassador to the U.N., Director of the CIA, the first U.S. envoy to Communist China, and two-term Vice President of the United States. That, “my friends,” is foreign policy experience.

Democrat candidates have lately been claiming they are more middle class than the Republican candidate. Obama made $4 million in 2007. His wife makes $310,000 a year when she works at the University of Chicago Hospital. McCain has never had a non-government job other than briefly working for his wife’s beer distributor father who was very wealthy. Joe Biden is one of the poorest U.S. Senators reportting a net worth in the low hundreds of thousands. Sarah Palin and her husband, of whom MSNBC immediately asked, “How many houses does she own?” may not own any houses. Her husband is a salaried union employee of Conoco. She was a TV sports reporter then a commercial fisherman with her husband. As far as I can tell, her only income is from her current job of governor of Alaska and she and her family are tenants in the house provided to the governor by the state.

Sarah Palin acccomplished more in her brief life than any of the other three candidates had by the same age, and more than Obama has yet. Other than seeking high office, he has never really even tried to accomplish anything substantive. She also appears to have the character of a real life verison of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the determined reformer played by Jimmy Stewart. John McCain has tried repeatedly to play his own version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and fancies himself as such, but he keeps falling off the integrity wagon. As far as I can tell, Palin does not fall off that wagon.

I am not sure how being middle class got to be superior to wealthy. Dems had no trouble with FDR or JFK being wealthy. But one would expect that claim to fame will now disappear from the talking points of the Democrats. Sarah Palin is not just posing as a member of the middle class like Obama whose main connection to the middle class was his pre-college life 24 years ago. Palin is apparently 100%, actual, true, no-kidding, right-now middle class.

I am not a Republican or a supporter of McCain. See my article on him at www.johntreed.com/McCain.html. But I would probably support Sarah Palin for President.