I want to be on record that I called the Palin thing in February. Well, actually I put forward that it might be a good idea and that some people were already pushing for her as VP candidate then. In an e-mail to a friend I showed the now-famous picture of Sarah Palin in her teens as a beauty queen plus several current pictures of her as governor, as a fisherman on the family boat, and as a sportswoman.
The interesting thing about her is her fight(s) against corruption in all of the organizations she was connected with—the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state of Alaska itself (removed the entire state Agriculture and Conservation Board), and even her own party. She ran against a sitting Republican governor and, going directly to the people with little financial backing, resistance from the Republican party leaders, and against a former Democratic governor, she won election as Governor of Alaska. This was a remarkable feat noticed by many.
Having said all that, it is not at all clear that she will give the Republicans the shot that they need to win in November. At first blush, the blogs are full of good feelings about her selection; but the difficulites are yet to come in the next 6 to 7 weeks. She will have to be as strong as she seems to be to weather the slings and arrows sure to be flung against her here in the not-so-friendly lower 48.
Update: And now comes the news that her unmarried teen-aged daughter is pregnant. For someone who is supposed to be squeaky clean, this is a stunner. But it isn't Palin who has done something wrong; it's her daughter, who happens to be old enough to decide things for herself. Will this cause problems for the McCain campaign? Probably, but there is time to recover. If Sarah Palin can continue her stellar performance in the coming weeks, the daughter's transgressions will most likely fade if not be forgotten. The left, including their sycophants in the MSM, will certainly try to make something of it. But Americans, thanks to Bill Clinton and John Edwards, tend to be inured to sex in politics. "Let he who is without sin. . .."
