The surprising (for some) choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as running mate was truly a bold move by John McCain. When all those “talking heads” were encouraging him to play it safe, he proved that he is still a bit of a maverick. Thankfully, he chose to play the risk game with a proven conservative and not a liberal. Sarah Palin is the real deal.

I wrote that first paragraph a couple of hours after the announcement of Palin as VP. Since then, many things have come to light. Not that any of them originated in the light, mind you, but in the dark recesses of the world of political mudslinging. Did any of these “startling revelations” change my mind about Sarah Palin? Well, yes and no. Let me explain.

The confetti had hardly finished dropping when the MSM, liberal blogs, weak-kneed Republicans, and those members of our Party that merely tolerate Social Conservatives began the onslaught of whining. “She’s not experienced enough to be President!” “No one knows who she is!” “What about Troopergate?”
Allow me to address these initials complaints before delving into the more nefarious diatribes that came later. I just finished dinner and it would be more than I could stomach to deal with the Daily Kos right now.

First, as to experience, Sarah Palin has more executive government experience than anyone still in the race. Even more than the man that chose her. She has been a mayor (I know, a little podunk town in AK, but what have any of those men been mayor of?). She is currently the Governor of Alaska, which may be one of our least populated states, but is the largest geographically. Last time I checked, a Governor did not just govern the people of a state, but also it’s resources. If I had to pick a state that I would want my next President trained in, Alaska would be right up there. It’s rich in natural resources and is basically wedged between Canada and Russia. What other state can claim to be bordered by two different foreign countries? Ok, technically, it doesn’t border Russia, but you can see it on a clear day and if you’re really good, you could probably spit on it. My point is that Sarah Palin has got foreign policy experience by virtue of which state she governs. In fact, she just signed a deal with a Canadian company to begin development of a 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline from a treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay to the Alberta Hub in Canada. Most people are unaware of how much dealings Governors have with foreign interests in the course of their jobs. Is it the same as negotiating a treaty or deciding whether or not to go to war? Of course not, but no one has that kind of foreign policy experience when they enter the Oval Office unless they’ve been VP or Secretary of State.

Now, the question of unfamiliarity. I totally understand that only Alaskans and political junkies had any real prior knowledge of Sarah Palin. I just don’t see why that’s a bad thing. It seems to me that when you are running against a candidate whose only calling card is “change”, an unknown might just fill the bill. Look at how much grief Obama got for choosing a long-time Washington insider! If McCain had made a similar choice, the mantra of “four more years of Bush” would be ringing across the land. Anyone who is even vaguely aware of JM’s prior record knows he would have never gone for that. So what were his options? Well, it’s since been revealed that he really, really, really wanted Lieberman. Thank goodness he was convinced, at the eleventh hour, of the foolishness of that choice. That pretty much left Sarah Palin. Does that mean that it was a rushed decision. One without proper forethought? No, it doesn’t. It was a process of elimination among qualified, fully vetted candidates. I suspect that the more America gets to know her, the more they will love her. She’s one of us.

Then there’s “Troopergate”. I admit, when I first got a whiff of that one, I was a little worried. I was worried for exactly as long as it took me to google it. Trust me, Palin ought to get a medal for this one. The problem began when her sister left her husband, Mike Wooten, who was a state trooper. Wooten made death threats against his father-in-law, his estranged wife, his stepson, and Palin. This was all before Palin was governor. When she became governor, she brought all of this to the attention of Walt Monegan, her appointee to the Board of Public Safety. I can’t imagine why she expected him to fire a trooper that had a restraining order against him for domestic violence, had tasered his 10 year old stepson (supposedly to prove the child wasn’t a “mama’s boy”), was known to drive while intoxicated and was stupid enough to have a picture taken of him riding a snowmobile while he was out on Worker’s Comp. Silly me. I actually expect law enforcement officers to obey the laws, not just enforce them on others. Still, that’s not the reason given for the dismissal of Walt Monegan. He was offered a position with the Bureau of Alcohol, but turned it down and was, subsequently fired as the head of Public Safety. Palin’s administration sticks to her story that it was because of his dereliction of duty in the filling of vacancies in the department and his inability to “play ball” when it came to the budget. We’ll probably never know what the real reason was. I, frankly, don’t care. Government appointees serve at the pleasure of the governor. She obviously wasn’t pleased. Nuff said. My only problem with the whole thing was that it took her so long to get rid of the idiot.

So, you see, I still really like Sarah Palin, but the news of the last few days did change my mind. It made me like her even more.

I’ll deal with the despicable treatment of the Palin’s children in another blog. It’s still too soon after dinner.