RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Sarah Palin for VP

Montana Republicans say they received a morale boost thanks to this week's Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St.Paul.

Montana GOP Chairman Erik Iverson said the state party, which suffered a major setback in the last election cycle when Democrat Jon Tester unseated three-term incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, is beginning to rally in the final two months before the Nov. 4 general election.

"I think five months ago, psychologically, the party really hadn't recovered that well from 2006 mid-term elections," Iverson said. "We lost both houses of Congress and a Senate seat here in Montana. President (George) Bush, and the Republican brand in general, really weren't doing very well in the polls. It seems now that we have a candidate, in John McCain, who is defying the problems that Republicans are having nationally."

Republicans in Montana are especially energized by the addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket. Iverson said Palin, a popular Republican governor of a Western state, gives Montana conservatives who were wary of McCain's self-styled "maverick" image a reason to vote Republican on Election Day.

"That's why it was such a shrewd pick," Iverson said. "She appeals to a wing of the Republican Party that has not had the high level of enthusiasm for John McCain as they had with George Bush."

Iverson said Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown could be the main beneficiary of the renewed GOP enthusiasm.

"This is significant for Roy Brown if he can figure out a way, through his targeting and his polling, to appeal to McCain voters," Iverson said. "The key for him and his campaign management team is to figure out how they can capitalize on what I think is going to be a McCain victory."

For his part, Brown said his campaign is definitely experiencing a burst of energy in the wake of the convention.

"You know, I've never seen so much excitement — especially after the announcement of Sarah Palin — in the party. In fact, I haven't seen so much excitement since Ronald Reagan," Brown said. "She has energized the base in Montana like it hasn't been energized in a long time."

Brown said if state Republicans can maintain that excitement over the next two months, he might have a shot at unseating Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a powerful incumbent who continues to enjoy high approval ratings across the state.

"I think what's going on in the McCain/Palin race is going to help my race because they are energizing Republicans to get out and vote," Brown said. "That's one of the issues that has been difficult for my campaign — getting Republicans energized. I feel confident that if we have the resources to get our message out to those McCain/Palin voters, we can win and we will win."

The selection and nomination of Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for Vice President has generated unbridled panic on the left. Senator Obama and the liberal media are terrified of the McCain-Palin ticket and are pulling out all the stops in their attacks on Governor Palin. And all of the attacks boil down to one thing—Governor Palin is a “commoner” and not entitled to high office because she lacks any elitist credentials.

The leftists in this country are infuriated that the expected coronation of the most liberal person in the U.S. Senate may not come to pass. Instead, a strong young woman steeped in the traditional values that made this country great is reviving the conservative revolution. Ain’t life wonderful?

The mainstream media has removed all doubt as to where it stands. The mainstream media is unabashedly biased and, let’s be honest—it is corrupt. When the media tries to dictate the results of a national election by withholding information from its citizens and selectively reporting the facts, it is surely as guilty of election fraud as someone who attempts to buy votes or stuff the ballot box.

The frenzy we are seeing in the mainstream media today is aimed at smearing and destroying Governor Palin before the momentum of the campaign can build and become unstoppable in the next two months. Such a goal is not a legitimate function of a free and open press.

If it were not for talk radio, the Internet and the generally fair and responsible people at FOX News, we would all have the choices of the mainstream media forced upon us. Some of us would not realize that we had been propagandized into thinking and doing exactly as our elitist handlers want us to think and do. Others of us would have doubts, but who to take those doubts and give voice to them, without fear of being ridiculed and shouted down? And still others might actually resist the collectivist juggernaut and be branded as dangerous enemies of the state in need of counseling and reeducation.

Thankfully, there are alternative sources of news out there and Americans now have a voice and a champion who came along at the right moment in history. There is change in the air—and it is nowhere near the Obama camp.

The initial assault on McCain-Palin is to portray Governor Palin as an unknown with no real record of accomplishment who is not ready for the responsibilities of being vice president. Stop and think about the ridiculousness of this attack, given the lack of experience of Senator Obama.

Theodore Roosevelt, generally accepted as one of our great presidents, was 42 years old as Vice President under President McKinley, when he was elevated to the presidency. Roosevelt had two years as governor before that and not quite two years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Palin’s more than two years as Governor of our largest state and prior service as a mayor is comparable.

John F. Kennedy was 43 years old when elected President and had no real executive experience, having been in the U.S. Senate for 7 years and the U.S. House for 6 years.

How can it seriously be argued that Roosevelt and Kennedy were unprepared for the presidency when their prior experience was roughly comparable to Palin’s? If Sarah Palin could lead as Governor of Alaska and accomplish as much as she has, all the while raising 4 children, aren’t her capabilities as great as men who have done similar things but without the equivalent family responsibilities? And let’s not forget that Palin is running for the office of Vice President (something Vice President John Garner said wasn’t worth “a warm bucket of spit”)—not the presidency.

The attack on Palin is a calculated sexist attack disguised as a debate about qualifications. The majority of Americans simply will not fall for that once the voices of reason and fairness point out the very obvious flaws in this argument.

What is really exciting conservatives and the Republican base is the thought that they finally have a courageous and articulate spokesperson who is not intimidated by the mainstream media and the various left-wing lobbies and special interest groups.

We are about to engage in a two month campaign that promises to be as exciting as anything we have seen in a long time. We owe a debt of gratitude to Senator McCain for having the courage to lead this fight with such a ticket. If we are fortunate enough to elect the ticket, maybe we can finally break the monopoly power of the mainstream media and once again allow ideas and discussions to flourish in a free and open environment. Free and independent people do not follow messiahs for long—they follow leaders who share their ideals and values.

Commentary:

• Howard Guttman, an original member of the Obama national finance committee, went on Laura Ingraham Friday to again and again infer that Palin’s parenting skills and the choice to run for VP were suspect.
  
  Gutman said the issue wasn’t one of gender, but one of parenting -– regardless of the gender of the parent.
  
  
  “This has nothing to do with gender, whether Todd Palin was the nominee or Sarah Palin was the nominee,” Gutman said. “If my daughter had just come home at 17 years old and said, ‘Mom, Dad, I’m pregnant, we have a family problem,’ I wouldn’t say, ‘You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to take this private family problem…and you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go on the international stage and broadcast this to the world.’”
  
  Gutman continued, “this wasn’t a working mother issue, this was a parent issue…The proper attack is not that a woman shouldn’t run for vice president with five kids, it’s that a parent, when they have a family in need, a Down’s baby who needs them — mother or father.”
  
  “So you are judging her parenting skills,” Ingraham said. “You’re saying you don’t think she’s a good parent for doing this job.”
  
  “I’m saying the proper criticism is not that it’s a woman or man – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Todd or Sarah,” Gutman said. “Think of how many politicians have said it’s not the right time in my family’s life for me to run.”
  
  The Obama camp denied that this outburst represented their views.

So much for Obama's promise to fire anyone in his camp that attacks Palin's family.

Commentary:

• Howard Guttman, an original member of the Obama national finance committee, went on Laura Ingraham Friday to again and again infer that Palin’s parenting skills and the choice to run for VP were suspect.
  
  Gutman said the issue wasn’t one of gender, but one of parenting -– regardless of the gender of the parent.
  
  
  “This has nothing to do with gender, whether Todd Palin was the nominee or Sarah Palin was the nominee,” Gutman said. “If my daughter had just come home at 17 years old and said, ‘Mom, Dad, I’m pregnant, we have a family problem,’ I wouldn’t say, ‘You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to take this private family problem…and you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go on the international stage and broadcast this to the world.’”
  
  Gutman continued, “this wasn’t a working mother issue, this was a parent issue…The proper attack is not that a woman shouldn’t run for vice president with five kids, it’s that a parent, when they have a family in need, a Down’s baby who needs them — mother or father.”
  
  “So you are judging her parenting skills,” Ingraham said. “You’re saying you don’t think she’s a good parent for doing this job.”
  
  “I’m saying the proper criticism is not that it’s a woman or man – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Todd or Sarah,” Gutman said. “Think of how many politicians have said it’s not the right time in my family’s life for me to run.”
  
  The Obama camp denied that this outburst represented their views.

So much for Obama's promise to fire anyone in his camp that attacks Palin's family.

My colleagues in the American liberal press had little to fear at the start of the week. Their charismatic candidate was ahead in virtually every poll. George W Bush was so unpopular that conservatives were scrambling around for reasons not to invite the Republican President to the Republican convention. Democrats had only to maintain their composure and the White House would be theirs. During the 1997 British general election, the late Lord Jenkins said that Tony Blair was like a man walking down a shiny corridor carrying a precious vase. He was the favourite and held his fate in his hands. If he could just reach the end of the hall without a slip, a Labour victory was assured. The same could have been said of the American Democrats last week. But instead of protecting their precious advantage, they succumbed to a spasm of hatred and threw the vase, the crockery, the cutlery and the kitchen sink at an obscure politician from Alaska.

For once, the postmodern theories so many of them were taught at university are a help to the rest of us. As a Christian, conservative anti-abortionist who proved her support for the Iraq War by sending her son to fight in it, Sarah Palin was 'the other' - the threatening alien presence they defined themselves against. They might have soberly examined her reputation as an opponent of political corruption to see if she was truly the reformer she claimed to be. They might have gently mocked her idiotic creationism, while carefully avoiding all discussion of the racist conspiracy theories of Barack Obama's church.

But instead of following a measured strategy, they went berserk. On the one hand, the media treated her as a sex object. The New York Times led the way in painting Palin as a glamour-puss in go-go boots you were more likely to find in an Anchorage lap-dancing club than the Alaska governor's office.

On the other, liberal journalists turned her family into an object of sexual disgust: inbred rednecks who had stumbled out of Deliverance. Palin was meant to be pretending that a handicapped baby girl was her child when really it was her wanton teenage daughter's. When that turned out to be a lie, the media replaced it with prurient coverage of her teenage daughter, who was, after all, pregnant, even though her mother was not going to do a quick handover at the maternity ward and act as if the child was hers.

Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right.

In this, American liberals are no different from the politically committed the world over. David Cameron knew that he would never be Prime Minister until he had killed the urgent hatred of the Conservative party in liberal England. A measure of his success is that hardly anyone now is caught up by the once ubiquitous feeling that no compromise is too great if it stops the Tories regaining power. Hate can sell better than hope.

When a hate campaign goes wrong, however, disaster follows. And everything that could go wrong with the campaign against Palin did. American liberals forgot that the public did not know her. By the time she spoke at the Republican convention, journalists had so lowered expectations that a run-of-the-mill speech would have been enough to win the evening.

As it was, her family appeared on stage without a goitre or a club foot between them, and Palin made a fighting speech that appealed over the heads of reporters to the public we claim to represent. 'I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion,' she said as she deftly detached journalists from their readers and viewers. 'I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country.'

English leftists made the same mistake of allowing their hatred to override their judgment after the Iraq war. If they had confined themselves to charging Tony Blair with failing to find the weapons of mass destruction he promised were in Iraq, and sending British troops into a quagmire, they might have forced him out. They were so consumed by loathing, however, they insisted that he had lied, which he clearly had not. They set the bar too low and Blair jumped it with ease. 'When a man believes that any stick will do, he at once picks up a boomerang,' said GK Chesterton, and when the politically committed go on a berserker you should listen for the sound of their own principles smacking them in the face.

Journalists who believe in women's equality should not spread sexual smears about a candidate, or snigger at her teenage daughter's pregnancy, or declare that a mother with a young family cannot hold down a responsible job for the pragmatic reason that they will look like gross hypocrites if they do. Before Palin, we saw hypocrisy of the right when shock jocks who had spent years denouncing feminism came over all politically correct when Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.

In Britain, the most snobbish attacks on Margaret Thatcher did not come from aristocrats but from the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who opined that Thatcherism was the 'anarchism of the lower middle classes' and the liberal Jonathan Miller, who deplored her 'odious suburban gentility'. More recently, George Osborne, of the supposedly compassionate Conservative party, revealed himself to be a playground bully when he derided Gordon Brown for being 'faintly autistic'.

In an age when politics is choreographed, voters watch out for the moments when the public-relations facade breaks down and venom pours through the cracks. Their judgment is rarely favourable when it does. Barack Obama knows it. All last week, he was warning American liberals to stay away from the Palin family. He understands better than his supporters that it is not a politician's enemies who lose elections, but his friends.

...McCain has vowed to wipe out earmarks, which are targeted funding for specific projects that lawmakers put into spending bills. As governor, Palin originally supported earmarks for a controversial $398 million Alaska project dubbed the "bridge to nowhere." But she dropped her support after the state's likely share of the cost rose. She hung onto $27 million to build the approach road to the bridge.

Under Palin's leadership, Alaska this year asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from one of McCain's top adversaries: indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress for the current budget year. Other states got just $34 worth of local projects per person this year, on average, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group.The state government's earmark requests to Congress in her first year in office exceeded $550 million, more than $800 per resident. Palin actually reduced the state government's requests for special projects this year in the wake of President Bush's demand for a cutback in earmarks.
...

The five children. The newborn diagnosed with Down syndrome. The pregnant daughter. Sarah Palin's life – chock full of challenge – confronts her opposition with some formidable challenges of its own. After decades of pushing equal rights and treatment for women, the Left is backtracking.

Suddenly motherhood – well, at least too much motherhood or too-complicated motherhood – is incompatible with executive responsibility. Fathers with little children or complex family issues – even some who cheated on their wives – have held office without having to justify their continuing careers. Yet women once again face a very different standard.

Who knew that beyond the glass ceiling feminists vowed to shatter there existed another barrier, imposed by feminists themselves? What happened to choice? To having it all? Have we had a paradigm shift since Aug. 29? What's to stop Governor Palin from doing it all?

This debate matters a lot to me. I have 12 children, including four diagnosed with Down syndrome. Three were adopted. I'm a professional writer. And yes, some people wonder how I do it all, or if I'm doing any of it as well as I should.

The skepticism about Palin's ability to juggle responsibilities has been punctuated with below-the-belt punches. My heart goes out to her and to every mom who soldiers on in the face of such flak. Sisterhood can be powerful, but only when we celebrate one another's accomplishments and growth – in all our diversity.

The hardworking mother rolling up her sleeves to tackle a "man's job" is a staple throughout American history and folklore. Think Rosie the Riveter. Think "Places in the Heart," featuring Sally Field as a Depression-era widow succeeding against all odds. These tales of women transformed through their work – even as they transformed the culture – resonate with me. As a second-wave feminist, I recall how we turned the medical establishment on its head over childbirth.

In 1969 it was barbaric: flat on your back, bright lights and stirrups, no husband allowed. My first, Samantha Sunshine, was whisked off to the nursery, and I was forced to stay in bed without her. Just standard procedure.

When Jasmine Moondance was born at home in 1975, I was up in 20 minutes – an older and wiser counterculture mom hip to the global portrait of motherhood as part of the fabric of life, including rice-paddy moms who simply pushed out their babies, wrapped them up, and went back to work. This kind of "Sisterhood is Powerful" approach had put women in control of their birthing experience.

And our mothering experience as well. At first it was an either/or choice: stay-at-home motherhood – discredited by Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" and Ms. magazine – or "real work" alongside men. But as time went on and women seemed disinclined to give up their biological imperative, word came down that we could have it all – work and motherhood – and outclass men at the same time.

Think "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan" from the 1970s (and now clearly retro) Enjoli perfume commercial. Perhaps that's not what we mean today by having it all, but it's the confident spirit that rings a bell almost 40 years later.

That confidence took us places we never dreamed. In 2001, Jane Swift of Massachusetts became the first governor to give birth in office – to twins. Her maternity leave included a governor's council teleconference from her hospital bed. And while Ms. Swift was rebuked for using aides to babysit her daughter, Palin's record of eschewing the trappings of power – selling the governor's jet on eBay, for example – suggests she wouldn't make such mistakes. So what to make of the fire and brimstone raining down on Palin?

Is it because her choices aren't the ones feminists anticipated? Or was it ever really about choice at all? Just because Palin's choices skew away from abortion and toward the affirmation of life – even in difficult circumstances – does that mean they shouldn't be accorded the same dignity as those more in line with today's feminist party line?

"How do you do it all?" people ask me. All I can say is that my capacity has grown with each child. I've learned to assess situations quickly, gather information and advice, negotiate, delegate, communicate clearly, and work under great pressure and with little sleep. Put simply, motherhood is its own executive office. That's why it's a proving ground for political leadership.

"The personal is the political" was a feminist mantra I still believe. Which leads me to a qualification for office that sets Palin apart from her peers: Consistency.

You see, motherhood under pressure has a way of helping women become greater than they started out to be. And the fact that Palin has a baby with Down syndrome only makes me trust her more. Here's a woman who chooses sacrifice and challenge over expediency and convenience.

I've seen those pictures of Palin nursing her baby as she signs a bill into law and as she pushes a grocery cart. Moms understand that those photos might well have been taken just a few hours apart. That's the kind of life we lead.

Can she do it all? Trust me, there are lots of moms out here who know she can.

...
i think that the left while preaching equal rights have really been doing lip service as they have underestimated a woman's ability to do both. Their bashing of Palin for being a working mother will come back and bite them.

I'm saying Obama cant have it both ways, he cant say a third party ad is McCain slandering him, but then say he doesn't support 3rd parties disgusting attacks on a working mom and her children.

It doesn't surprise me that you want to focus on his words and not his deeds. I was responding to you comment that he said her family is off limits yet its been widely documented the anti-working mom stuff his surrogates do.

Has it? I haven't seen anything besides some liberal blogs.

....Howard Guttman, an original member of the Obama national finance committee, went on Laura Ingraham Friday to again and again infer that Palin’s parenting skills and the choice to run for VP were suspect....

It's odd how you saw through Obama's smokescreen, but now that Hilary is out you think he is telling the truth. Just do what your political party masters tell you to think.

....Howard Guttman, an original member of the Obama national finance committee, went on Laura Ingraham Friday to again and again infer that Palin’s parenting skills and the choice to run for VP were suspect....

The Obama campaign rejected Gutman’s comments.

“Obviously these comments do not reflect our frequently stated, crystal-clear view that families of the candidates should be off limits, and we hope that supporters on both sides will act accordingly,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail, pointing out that Gutman has apologized in a statement to ABC News.

Earlier in the week, Obama said anyone spreading rumors about Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy would be fired.

“I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits,” Obama said. “This shouldn’t be part of our politics.”

It isn’t clear what role Gutman still has in the campaign.

It's odd how you saw through Obama's smokescreen, but now that Hilary is out you think he is telling the truth. Just do what your political party masters tell you to think.

FOX
And as I pointed out people from McCain's campaign have brought up Ayers.

as well they should.....O'Reilly is apparently going to hammer him on that one. Mon, Tues and Wed this week his interview with him is continued.

Then why are you seemingly attempting to argue that criticizing Obama for his friendship with a known terrorist is the same as attacking Palin for her daughter's personal life?

It's sad but true. If McCain or Giuliani weren't the nominees I wouldn't be voting Republican for the hell of it. I felt the other guys were too conservative for my taste. More so than Dubya. If McCain put Romney on as VP I wouldn't support him.