BlogBlurb - Palin (Pay-lin) is the "Hockey Mom" to Veep the GOP

Who is Sarah Palin? The GOP's pending choice as Vice-President as McCain prepares to make the announcement of his preferred running mate in the next 15 minutes while I write this Blurb.

A first term Governor in Alaska who has also served on her local city council and as mayor of the same city, serving two terms in each capacity with wide margins of reelection victories.

A former beauty queen and moderate personality, she has an aggressive position on Government accountability and transparency, reducing even her own salary to fulfill a campaign promise to reduce wasteful spending and taxes. (While mayor of Wasilla, she managed to reduce city property taxes by 60%)

Known for challenging corruption in her own Party, she has taken on the big wigs in Alaska and brought justice to members of her OWN Party while maintaining enough support to win landslide elections among the public. Elizabeth Arnold of NPR reported in December of 2007 that Sarah Palin is "also a moose-burger-eating, snow-mobile-riding maverick who's not afraid to take on fellow Republicans she disagrees with."

Fred Barnes wrote an excellent piece on Palin in 2007 that highlights her record against corruption and her ability to bridge the gap and excercise sound government.

She has a strong environmental record, balanced by her having served on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation council and signing aggressive research and development legislation to increase oil and gas production. Her husband Todd also works for BP on the North Slope in Alaska.

A mother of five, adamantly pro-life (after genetic testing revealed her 5th child Trig had Down's Syndrome she refused to terminate the pregnancy, saying "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection") and a member of "Feminists for Life", she is reasonable but principled on social issues, rejecting the concept of gay marriage, but fighting for equality, not special rights, for gay and lesbian citizens.

I think this makes for a fascinating pick for the Vice Presidency, essentially equalizing the female force in this election and harnessing some of the lost momentum that was previously monopolized by the Democrat Party. More time will tell whether the American Public accept this woman as their endearing Veep choice in the Fall, but I think she has all the right elements to make her both invigorating (being a woman), empathizing (having a newborn with DS), fiscally respectable (lowering taxes, decreasing spending and making services more efficient), articulate and a stalwart of integrity (taking her own Party to task over ethics). Palin's only potential weakness - inexperience - is cancelled out by Barack's own inexperience, and furthermore, she is a VP candidate, not the Presidential candidate as Obama finds himself. What a brilliant choice.

Barack Obama's message has been one of "change, change, change", blah blah blah... Well, I want change too, as a conservative made nauseated by the behavior of unethical Republicans over the last 8 years. We don't need to elect another Party into power to change the direction of the country. McCain just made it clear that he too is an agent for change, and in fact, the only candidate who has the experience and the ability to get it done. As a spending hawk and virulent opponent of wasteful government programs himself, McCain has just selected a woman who went against her own Party in Alaska and cleaned up the Government's ranks of tree-stump politicians who had failed the people.

You want "change"? McCain/Palin, with their occasional faults and weaknesses, just made themselves the only authentic "change" in this election.

Oh and one more point... I think McCain's Campaign management staff showed shrewed brilliance in how they handled the media in this matter, effectively shutting down the news media's Obamagasm last night by 6am this morning with speculation over his choice. His campaign kept his name in the flow last night with his nationwide ad campaign and his non-leak news leak about a possible Veep selection yesterday. Those of us who are looking for "anyone but Obama" have increasingly more to be pleased with as McCain shapes his true image in the minds of Americans over the next 60 days.