Special Extra — EDITORIAL: Sarah Palin for Vice President

The worst nightmare Vladimir Putin will ever have

EDITORIAL

Sarah Palin for Vice President

Last night, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, gave one of the most breathtakingly inspirational political speeches in American history at the Party’s National Convention in Minnesota.  Leader of a state with massive untapped fossil fuel resources, as part of that masterful performance she declared:

With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus, and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.

She spoke of John McCain as being among those who “have seen evil, and seen how evil is overcome.”

When the Republican primary season was just beginning, we endorsed John McCain for the Republican nomination without hesitation, and when he got it we ethusiastically endorsed him for the presidency. Our blog is now honored to carry his campaign badge in its sidebar.  His choice of Governor Palin, by far the most qualified of all the four major-party candidates in the race as the only one who has ever held elected executive authority, stands as one of the most brilliant political moves in the history of the presidency, and we endorse her for vice president without reservation. When we think about a sexist pig like Vladimir Putin being forced to sit across the table from a President Palin, a person he can never possibly hope to comprehend, we quite literally get goosebumps.

It is clear that the barbaric actions of Russian dictatator Vladimir Putin have unified American political leaders on Russian foreign policy. At the Democratic Convention in Denver just days ago, their nominee Barack Obama blasted and condemned Russian aggression, and his vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden has taken the lead in confronting Russia over Georgia, speedily passing a $1 billion aid package to make the clearest possible statement of American policy.

But as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said at the Republican Convention last night, Obama has not spent one single day wielding executive power in his entire life.  He’s a state legislator who recently became U.S. Senator, and while he was in the state body he refused to cast an up or down vote more than 100 times while he was in the chamber, choosing instead to vote merely “present.”  Giuliani scathingly mocked Obama for his cowardice, saying that an executive has no such option but must instead make the tough decision every time, as Palin has been doing in Alaska for nearly two years now. Once in the Senate, Obama accomplished nothing more than strutting, preening and launching a presidential compaign based entirely on those qualities. John McCain’s experience is even more vivid and salient, having commanded large numbers of men in battle, and coming from a long line of naval admirals, and serving a brutal period of captivity as a prisoner of war.  He is, in short, a bona fide American hero and the perfect choice to lead the U.S., and the world, in the new cold war with Russia.

As Palin spoke last night, a palpably electric current of joy ran through those assembled, and through the mighty American nation. For Sarah Palin is the American dream, personified.  A plain-talking, straight-shooting (literally, she hunts) Westerner, Palin has risen from “hockey mom” to mayor to become the first female governor of Alaska and a wildly popular state leader.  The executive achievements she touted in her speech were very real and tangible; and Barack Obama has nothing in his resume to answer them.

Palin is a staunch conservative, who energizes McCain’s political base to rapture.  She is a dynamic young leader, a perfect foil for the elderly McCain — indeed, a beauty contest winner, easily the hottest vice president in U.S. history.  The scurrilous smear campaign that panicked Democrats immediately launched against her has only served to further galvanize conservatives. And she stands an excellent chance of becoming the very first woman to hold national executive power in the United States, a moment that is long overdue.  As such, she thrills and empowers American women, who ought to come out to the polls on election day in record droves to support her.  They should be shocked and appalled at the Democrats’ smear campaign, so soon after the party mistreated Hillary Clinton in a similar manner.  And they are.

And as the only person with elected executive experience in the race, Palin sets the total lack of such credentials on the Democratic side into stark relief.  It is, to say the least, utterly laughable to hear Obama claim that his experience running his own campaign for president qualifies him to be president.  He is the most unqualified candidate for the position since the one who gave us the Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam War, a hidden drug addiction, mafia ties and sordid affairs with cheap floozies, betraying his young wife and beautiful children — an candidate who was elected by one of the narrowest margins in electoral history.

For all these reasons, McCain’s choice of Palin was a true master stroke.  But all that fell aside when Palin spoke, and her ringing, history-making words made it clear that she is quite simply a great American that the country would be lucky to have as president.  In a rock-solid, tough-as-nails but still warm and engaging tone, Sarah Palin looked America in the eye and showed the country what she is made of, reminding the country of its bottomless inner strength in the heartland: 

We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity. grew up with those people. They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America … who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country, in good times and bad, and they’re always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better.

Her son is being deployed to Iraq as a solider.  Her stunningly beautiful young daughter smiled radiantly and waved happily to the assembled crowd.  She held her new baby in her arms.

And she said to the world:  Watch out.  Here comes a new generation of Americans, and as much greatness as we have already achieved in our glorious history, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!