Why Sarah Palin is a Brilliant Choice
Jack McMullen
What Makes Sarah Palin a Brilliant Choice?
John McCain’s selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a brilliant choice. Dick Morris (former political advisor to President Clinton) agrees with me.
- She has 16 years in politics at all levels, starting with the PTA.
- The last two years were spent as governor of one of the biggest oil and gas states in the USA - a state one-third the size of the entire lower 48.
- Palin has two more years of executive experience than Barack Obama has from 3+ years in office as Senator.
- The Democrats have already attacked Governor Palin for lack of experience, which Morris thinks is a big mistake due to the fact that she is running for Vice President (VP) with more executive experience than Barack Obama who is running for President. Any criticism from that quarter bounces right back on Obama. Morris says Palin has the wisdom to know she needs some mentoring from one of the most experienced politicians in Washington before she would be ready for the top slot. By comparison, Obama, not withstanding his eloquence and fine acceptance speech, appears to be possessed with overreaching ambition in running for the top slot himself based on his (lack of) experience.
- She is a solid conservative — which McCain desperately needs to solidify his Republican base — yet she is a take-no-prisoners reformer who bucked her own party to clean house and break the control the oil industry has had on Alaska politics for almost 30 years.
- As a member of the state Oil and Gas Commission, she researched the corruption of the commission’s chair, resigned, and then turned him in for investigation. He was chairman of the state Republican Party at the time. He resigned both posts.
- She fought hard to build a new pipeline through Canada to ship the natural gas (that the oil industry had been warehousing) to the lower 48 — and won this fight over the objections of the oil lobby and the state party establishment.
- She knows the oil industry well and how to free up more supply, a key point of contrast in this year’s presidential election.
- She defeated a 22-year former Republican U. S. Senator (who was also the then-sitting Governor of the state) in the Primary when she ran for governor.
- She won the governorship over a popular, former Democratic governor in the general election — a part of the long-running, “old boy” network in the state.
- The former governor lived large and had a private jet to fit his lifestyle. Palin sold this unnecessary plane on eBay in the first month after taking office.
- She is the mother of 5 children, the youngest born to her this year at age 44.
- She was at a state meeting three days after the birth.
- She hunts and fishes, in part, to provide food for her family.
- Her husband is a commercial fisherman and, in the past, she has helped with this very hard work. He is also a seasonal oil rig worker and union man.
- She is a third-stage feminist, a believer in women being able to do whatever their talents permit, yet is a great family woman, feminine, and no hater of men.
- She was a starter on her high school basketball team despite being a beauty pageant contestant.
- She makes McCain look younger for having chosen her and having her presence around him.
- As for her lack of foreign policy experience, Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as former governors, entered office without foreign policy experience. Palin will be VP and McCain has extensive foreign policy experience. If Palin should become president, she will have had the benefits of watching McCain operate in that area as well as the advice of his foreign policy team. Like Obama, Palin is a quick study. She is currently running a state very effectively — and because of the oil and gas that the state of Alaska sends abroad, she has experience dealing with Japan and Canada. Alaska is the furthest state from the lower 48 save for Hawaii. It borders Russia, and Alaska’s markets are chiefly Asian. In running the state, Governor Palin has interacted with Koreans and Russians.
Sarah Palin will appeal across the board as well as to a lot of women, her pro-life stance notwithstanding.
Jack McMullen is the Managing Principal of Cambridge Meridian Group, Inc., a strategy-consulting firm that serves Fortune 500 and technology-based companies. Mr. McMullen previously taught business strategy at Harvard Law School. He serves, or has served, on the Boards of three NASDAQ-listed technology companies as well as 12 other privately funded, chiefly technology-oriented companies.
From 1993 to 1997, he was an informal advisor to Senator Bradley (D-NJ). In 2004, he was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate from Vermont. He is a Navy veteran who served on the staff of Admiral Rickover overseeing the retrofit of advanced technology reactors into the Navy’s nuclear fleet. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia University in Applied Physics and Engineering, received a JD with Honors from Harvard Law School and an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was elected a First Year Baker Scholar.
on September 6th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
From The New York Times, September 6, 2008:
In Cedarburg, several women in the crowd said the draw for them was Ms. Palin, not necessarily Mr. McCain, and that the Republican vice presidential nominee, the mother of five children, whose 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, is pregnant gave voice to their own struggles. Ms. Palin’s youngest child has Down Syndrome.
“She’s me,” said Tana Krueger, 58, a mothger of six from Fond du Lac, Wis., who said she drove an hour to see Ms. Palin.
Ms. Krueger, a risk manager at a state hospital, said that she might not have come out to see only Mr. McCain, and that while she is a Republican she might have voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton had she been the Democratic nominee. Now, she said, she was now definitely going to vote for Mr. McCain because of his selection of Ms. Palin.
“I can just really relate to everything in her life, children with disabilities, teenage pregnancy,” Ms. Krueger said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/politics/05campaign.html?hp
on September 7th, 2008 at 4:19 am
Palin a Plain poor choice for VP
by master_jim2008 | August 29, 2008
“McBush, oops McCain, must be thinking of only disgruntled Hilary votes by picking Palin as his running mate. Could he really care so little about this country as to pick a running mate who is not experienced enough to lead? Oh wait, it seems I remember hearing that said about Obama by McCain, but lets face facts, Palin is less tested than Obama is.
The fact that McCain is picking a woman is designed for one purpose, and that’s to pick up women’s votes. It sure isn’t because either of them are qualified to lead. McCain offers 4-8 more years of Bush, and oh, did you notice, Palin’s hubby is an oil man from Alaska? Geesh, just what we don’t need, we have 2 oilmen in power now, and now McCain wants the wife of an oilman as VP? No thank you Senator McCain.
To top it off, I find it HIGHLY unlikely that McCain will last a year in office due to his age and poor health. Do we really want an unknown commodity like Palin taking over? Again, No thanks Senator McCain. In fact Senator, the majority of Americans feel you’ve served our country long enough, as a prisoner of war and as a Senator, the latter of which has been a dismal failure since you follow Bush most of the time, and we think it’s time for you to just step out of the limelight altogether.
The Republicans railed on Obama for picking Biden, even some Democrats did, as they felt Biden to be more of the same on the democrats side, which means Obama isn’t really an agent for change. I couldn’t disagree more, however, at least he’s fully qualified to be president should something happen to Barack.
McCain, you forgot the first rule of picking a VP. Pick someone who is tried and tested and ready to lead should cancer or a heart attack befall your sorry carcass. And Senator, like Barack, I’ll debate that with you any day, any time, any where.
Bring it on old timer!”
on September 12th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Every time I hear Palin speak, I have the same thought - “Palin, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
on September 12th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
a minor point, but worth mentioning since so much has been made of it, while the alaska governor’s jet was supposedly sold on ebay, in fact the ebay sale attempt failed and the jet was eventually sold thru a standard aircraft broker (at a loss) (according to NBC news)
on September 12th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Both Palin and McCain appealto americans. They are both cowboys - they shoot from the hip and are powered by their “gut feel.”
Neither is particularly collaborative - they take pride in not getting along.
Such is NOT the stuff of leadership.
Such is NOT the way to handle America’s three big issues.
Their world view is black or white, right or wrong, all or nothing, right of wrong - they see no middle ground. But even worse they do not see that collaboration is the way to create more wealth and more security for ALL Americans.
on September 13th, 2008 at 1:14 am
If McCain-Palin are elected, I may have to leave the country - its too horrifying to tolerate…
on September 16th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
The new definition of Stupid is doing the same thing over and over again; expecting the same results.!
I probably will not change anyone’s opinion. Just consider this, I have friends who have more PTA experience than Sarah; and her appointment
to the Oil and Gas commission wa sa hand out from a guy she defeated!
Her Mayoral campaign which is usually a non- partisan event in the large metropolis of Wasilla ( yup been there myself) was garnered because an Anti - Abortion group funded her election, they even passed out post cards urging people what was a stake. We may choose to vote someone into office. But let’s be clear: there is a difference from being a true conservative, and being a “Social Conservative”, who the Far Right
have used Religion and Abortion to corral voters.