The Winning Formula: Palin-McCain ’08!

Just to be clear, I was pulling for Mitt Romney.

The McCain camp has made a fabulous choice in Gov. Sarah Palin as the VP pick. (And it's 'Palin' like 'whalin''…like hunting whales. I know, gross, but the best Alaska analogy I could come up with.)

The only way this could be any better would be if the RNC were to completely ignore the will of the people and make McCain-Palin into Palin-McCain. Okay, I'm being a little sarcastic. But only a little.

Of course, the Dems, the MSM and their mindless minions are furious and disappointed. Their comments toward Palin (aside from the asinine lies, like that her Downs son Trig isn't really her son…yeah, I know) can pretty much fall into two basic groups: "She's too inexperienced" and "She's an unknown."

Both of these are pretty easy to shoot down, if one is willing to analyze the data in an objective way.

To say she is inexperienced betrays a flawed concept of what "experience" is. She's "too inexperienced" because she hasn't served 100 years in the Senate like Biden or McCain?

She is the ONLY person anywhere near the Presidency right now who has served in the executive branch of government, rather than the legislative. This is far more significant than even Conservative pundits are acknowledging. Having a legislator jump from a legislative position to an executive position automatically inserts a learning curve the candidate would face between the two branches of government.

A Governor is merely a President on a microcosmic level.

Legislators (Senators) have never had to actually balance a budget. A governor has.

Legislators have never had to function as the Commander in Chief of a military. A governor has (State National Guard, FYI).

A Legislator doesn't have veto power (don't they wish). Legislators cast votes, but they don't sign bills into law.

Legislators have very limited realms of responsibility compared to governors. They sit on committees and pontificate in the legislature. They don't have to sit behind a desk with the knowledge they may one day have to push the button.

And what has Palin done with her time in office?

She decimated Alaska's budget by over $200 billion dollars.

She has stopped, canceled or repealed many wasteful projects through the state, saving Alaska millions.

She lived up to every one of her campaign promises, including that of reducing her own salary.

She was a major player in stopping the Bridge to Nowhere pork-barrel project (along with our own Sen. Tom Coburn).

She is fiercely Christian and pro-life (both proved by her accepting her teenaged daughter's pregnancy and choice to keep her child rather than abort it), pro-Second Amendment, and has already started America toward energy independence by getting Alaska to build a pipeline to America's oil reserves, all while raising a family, including her oldest son Track, about to be deployed to Iraq.

Of course, when the extremely biased members of the MSM (I'm talking to YOU, Bill O'Reilly) hear these facts – not opinions, facts – they dismiss them by saying, "Well, but she's an unknown."

That happened to me recently. After trying to outline Palin's accomplishments (and getting cut-off before I was able to finish my first sentence), the person I was talking to gave me a "talk to the hand" gesture and said, "You're just trying to justify her as a choice because you're a Republican. I'm a Republican, too, but I'm not going to try and make the best of this when no one knows who she is."

Translation: "She doesn't work because I've never heard of her." The bottom line in this argument is arrogance. That makes you feel special, doesn't it? If YOU haven't heard of this woman, then obviously she can't be any good.

Of course, following that same line of thought, that must mean Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman would have been a better choice, eh? Hey, don't let the facts get in the way of my opinion!

No objective Conservative can be disappointed by the choice of Sarah Palin, unless it's that she's up for veep rather than actual President.

Help us, Sarah Palin. You're our only hope.

Open Letter to Joe Lester

Dear Joe Lester,

I am writing to tell you I will not be voting for you. I will be recommending to any Cleveland County voter I encounter that they do not, either. Please let me explain why.

Early in the primary race, I met you and heard you speak at the Frontier Country Republican Women’s meeting. During your speech, you mentioned that your most recent “law enforcement” experience was that of 12 years of involvement in Campus Security at the University of Oklahoma.

Being the only female at the meeting having attended college within the last decade, that piece of information was deeply troubling to me. As a recent college graduate, I know first-hand that the term “Campus Security” is an oxymoron. As omniscient as campus security officers are about parking violations, never once in either of the campuses I attended was a campus security officer personally involved in protecting a student, though students’ cars were broken into, students were held up on campus, and there was even a girl randomly and brutally attacked in her dorm, which Security didn’t respond to for hours.

This is why I am a strong advocate of Students’ Right to Carry. Aside from the fact it is clearly a Constitutional right, without it, students like me – unarmed female college students - are what’s known as “prey” on college campuses. Even at OU, unless she is lucky enough to be assaulted while already using a callbox, a female student’s chances of walking away from an encounter unscathed are basically nil. So, I’m sorry, but no one who has ever been involved in “Campus Security” has any business being anywhere near real-life law enforcement.

Secondly, you made a point of emphasizing that you were being supported and endorsed by David Boren. That’s right – that David Boren. Oklahoma’s most liberal Governor in the last 30 years, maybe more. Now, I realize you have no control over who donates to your campaign or makes a statement of support. And I also realize that you have a good personal relationship with David Boren through OU. But the fact that you would stand in the middle of a room of Conservative Republicans and proudly state that he is behind you concerns me. This gives me cause to doubt your own stated Conservative principles.

Both of these reasons are why I did not vote for you in the primaries. And honestly, that would have been enough to turn me away at the run-off vote. But, you’ve made the decision even easier with your recent campaign behavior.

Back several years ago, Mark Hamm was involved in a car accident. He was cited at fault, and received a ticket. His insurance company was supposed to pay off the ticket prior to the date he was to appear in court. The insurance company did not act in time, but did not notify Hamm of their lapse. Therefore, he was not aware he still needed to appear in court. Years later, someone noticed the ticket hadn’t been paid and issued a warrant. Once notified, Hamm paid the ticket.

But is that how you represent the story, Joe? No, it isn’t. I know, because I have gotten your mailer regarding it. And just the other night, I received a phone call from a supposedly “bipartisan” polling place trying to retell your distorted version of this story, implying that Mark Hamm had been issued a warrant for a deliberate, recent conflict with the law. This is false.

As a candidate running against another Republican, negative campaigning is unacceptable. Ronald Reagan told us to never speak evil against another Republican. After the particularly nasty primary races that I and many other Cleveland County Republicans were involved in that involved similar gross smear attempts, mailers and phone calls of this nature leave a particularly bad taste in my mouth and in the mouths of many other voters.

Joe, as a Christian who emphasizes his missions background, openly engaging in smear campaigning by deliberately misrepresenting another Christian’s background to other Christian voters is not only damaging to the Republican party but to the Body of Christ. I realize now, after the primary races, that not all Christians take that seriously. But I do. And many others do. And you should.

Now, I realize that I’m not a very important person, and my opinion doesn’t matter any more than any other person’s opinion. But I am a voter. And I will not be voting for you tomorrow.