Obama V. Palin

Over the past several years I lost my faith in the Republican Party. As a Southern Democrat who joined the Reagan Revolution, I began to witness the Republican Party abandon its ideals of limited government and fiscal responsibility. The leaders of the Party began to sell their souls to the highest bidder. The President I voted for twice and admired, began to call those like me bigots because we wanted our borders secured. He went to odds with citizens standing up to fill the gaps in border security, calling them vigilantes. Although I supported his incursion into Iraq to remove Sadam, I became greatly dismayed that our children were dying on foreign soil with no obvious plan for victory. Further, those we went to war to find and eliminate (Osama bin Ladin and Al Qaeda) were still free, living and operating with relative ease in Pakistan. Then to add insult to injury, the Party nominated John McCain for President in 2008.

Please don’t get me wrong, I have great admiration for John McCain as a human being and as a Patriot. I do not however, agree with his politics, especially on immigration (McCain – Kennedy) and the restriction of political speech (McCain – Lieberman). His obstructionist activities in the Senate blocking the President’s Supreme Court nominees is also a sore spot (except I have to admit blocking Harriet Myers was probably a good thing) with me. I just don’t see much difference in Obama or McCain, except that McCain is much better suited as Commander-in-Chief.

I respect the Ron Paul movement, and I voted for Ron Paul in the Primary. He garnered less than 5% of the vote and failed to inspire the bulk of Republicans to his cause. As I stated many times, Paul never struck me as someone I wanted representing America on the world stage. My vote was for the Constitutional principles he articulated. Since the Primary, I have been adrift on the political ocean without a candidate to hitch my little boat along side of. I had pretty much made up my mind that I’d most likely cast my vote for Alan Keyes if he made his way onto the ballot here in Tennessee (he is running on a little known Party banner). Then enter Governor Sarah Palin onto the National stage.

My initial response to her was one of love-at-first-sight, but I wanted to know more about her. In the span of a few days, I’ve read everything I can find on her (both positive and negative) and my affection for her has only grown stronger. The only remaining question was whether or not she was ready for “prime time”. That was the problem with Ron Paul, he simply was unable to articulate himself or project a persona of competence to the majority of American’s. I know the Pauli’s claim it is a media conspiracy, but they treated Mike Huckabee just as badly; yet he over came and did relatively well for an unknown with meager resources. All of the idealism and principles aside, if a leader cannot project those ideals and instill confidence in the electorate, they are not a leader.

I knew that something special was happening in America when the media went on feeding frenzy the past few days. There were allegations that her recent child was really her daughters and that she was trying to cover up for her daughter. Then the focus shifted to the same daughter with revelations that she is currently pregnant. It did my heart good to see her sitting with the father, her fiance, at the RNC this evening (sort of an in-your-face directed at the media). Professional journalists claiming she was a rotten mother abandoning her downs-syndrome baby to pursue her political aspirations when she should give her time and energy to her child. The bias in the reporting on all of the major news channels was blatant and disgusting.  Then by yesterday, the National Enquirer is joining the fray with a story about how she had an affair with her husbands business partner.

I think the covers of US magazine clearly demonstrates the bias and tabloid mentality applied to Palin by all of the news outlets I’ve read or listened to.  I did not see this level of viciousness applied to Senator Biden when his selection was announced. This woman has someone in the establishment clearly worried, and I for one see that as a plus.

I have often been accused of promoting “class warfare” because of my outrage at those in the leadership of the Republican Party who I classify as country-clubers. They do not share the same interests as most citizens because theirs is the quest for power, wealth and personal ambition. Yet we have some wonderful people in public service as well who believe in the word “service” (TN State Representative Steve McManus to name one). I believe Governor Sarah Palin to be one of those. Tonight she demonstrated in her acceptance speech before the RNC that she is indeed ready for prime-time. For the first time in several years, I was proud to call myself a Republican again.

The media and the establishment are not through with Governor Palin yet. This election has turned 180 degrees in less than a week. One week ago, the candidacy of John McCain was doomed due to a lack of enthusiasm among conservatives. Now, the troops are energized and ready to make up lost ground. I for one no longer have to limit my writing to “anti-someone”, but for someone. I am now committed to electing Sarah Palin Vice-President of the United States. It is the perfect slot to prepare her for 2012 and what could be a historic showdown between her and Hillary Clinton for the Presidency. It is now Obama v. Palin, and out of the ashes of defeat and failure, the Republican Party may well be approaching its finest hour.