The Presidential Race

[flew-da-coup]

Palin's experience has made one of McCain's arguments about Obama's null. She is a bold choice for the Republicans and may sway some of the disgruntled Hillary followers. Whoever gets into office, this will be a historic election.

Well, she has more exp. than Obama. In two years as a Chief Executive (the Pres is a Chief Executive) she has done alot for her state. She has an 80% approval rate in Alaska. Obama has done nothing in the last four years in the senate and he has no Chief Executive exp. so she is more qualified than Obama to be President. Besides she is one of us normal people that has lived most of her life as a normal everyday american. Personally, I would rather see her running for the top spot and not McCain. I think he has made a great choice for a running mate. Plus she is hot.

[Bryan]

NRA Life Member, that'll do it for me.
I'll be voting for her, McCain is just riding her skirt tails.

[mdbuike]

Some tidbits on Palin:

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Charles Heath and Saly Sheeran (Heath).[3] Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant. Charles Heath was a science teacher and track coach. The Heaths were avid outdoors enthusiasts; Sarah and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school, and the family regularly ran 5k and 10k races.

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Palin was the point guard and captain for the Wasilla High School Warriors, in Wasilla, Alaska, when they won the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982; she earned the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" because of her intense play.[4] She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.[4] Palin, who was also the head of the school Fellowship of Christian Athletes, would lead the team in prayer before games.

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In 1984, after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, Palin finished second in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant[5] which won her a scholarship to help pay her way through college.[4] In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.


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Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. She married her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, on August 29th, 1988, and briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband.[

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Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996, she challenged and defeated the incumbent mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes.[4] The ex-mayor and sheriff tried to organize a recall campaign, but failed.Palin kept her campaign promises by reducing her own salary, as well as reducing property taxes by 60%.[4] She ran for reelection against the former mayor in 1999, winning by an even larger margin. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

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Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission,where she served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest. After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican Party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail. Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine

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In 2006, Palin, running on a clean-government campaign, executed an upset victory over then-Gov. Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.[4] Despite the lack of support from party leaders and being outspent by her Democratic opponent, she went on to win the general election in November 2006, defeating former Governor Tony Knowles. Palin said in 2006 that education, public safety, and transportation would be three cornerstones of her administration.

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Highlights of Governor Palin's tenure include a successful push for an ethics bill, and also shelving pork-barrel projects supported by fellow Republicans.

"Alaska needs to be self-sufficient, she says, instead of relying heavily on 'federal dollars,' as the state does today."

She has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young[14] and publicly challenging Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings.

In 2007, Palin had an approval rating often in the 90s. A poll published by Hays Research on July 28, 2008 showed Palin's approval rating at 80%.[

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Palin's tenure is noted for her independence from big oil companies, while still promoting resource development. Palin has announced plans to create a new sub-cabinet group of advisors, to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska.

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Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded thirty-five appointments made by Murkowski in the last hours of his administration, including the appointment by Murkowski of his former chief of staff Jim Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. Clark later pled guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski's re-election campaign.

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She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination. 

While the previous administration did not implement same-sex benefits, Palin complied with an Alaskan state Supreme Court order and signed them into law.

Palin's first veto was used to block legislation that would have barred the state from granting benefits to the partners of gay state employees. In effect, her veto granted State of Alaska benefits to same-sex couples.

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In the first days of her administration, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. The state placed the jet for sale on eBay three times. In August 2007, the jet was sold for $2.1 million.

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On September 11, 2007, the Palins' eighteen-year-old son Track, eldest of five, joined the Army. He now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September 2008.She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17; Willow, 13; and Piper, 7.


On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome.She returned to the office three days after giving birth. Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?

Mike

[mdbuike]

And for those who like the pic's

[pmel68]

Palin's experience has made one of McCain's arguments about Obama's null.  She is a bold choice for the Republicans and may sway some of the disgruntled Hillary followers.  Whoever gets into office, this will be a historic election.

You're a PMEL troop, engage it and do the math.  Obama, the inexperienced, wins and he's the President.  McCain wins and she, the more experienced, is a heartbeat away from being the President.

Get it?

[USMCPMEL]

You do the math obama gets elected and almost immiedietly thereafter gets assasinated then we get Biden? I will take my chances with Mccain she (as you put it ) seems to be very down to earth and unlike most candidates has actually had to work in her lifetime.

[USMCPMEL]

Just curious... why use Obama's middle name and not McCain's?

Mccain does not have a middle name but if he did it would be "patriot"

[K-Rock]

The Story of Nicki Gullett and Bridget McCain
September 02, 2008 9:25 PM

Sen. John McCain's former aide Wes Gullett just spoke at the Republican convention, telling the story about how Cindy McCain, visiting one of Mother Theresa's orphanages on a trip abroad, brought home two Bangladeshi orphans.

John and Cindy McCain adopted one of them, Wes Gullett and his wife Deborah adopted the other.

It's a remarkable story, one that probably doesn't get told enough.

Cindy was standing in amazement visiting 160 abandoned newborn baby girls at Mother Teresa's orphanage in Dhaka, Bangladesh when nuns handed her one with a cleft palate so severe she couldn't even be fed. As Newsweek reported, Cindy became worried that the baby, and another one with a heart defect, would die without medical attention so she applied for medical visas to take them back to the U.S., though the country's minister of health refused to sign the papers.

Reported Newsweek's Holly Bailey: "'We can do surgery on this child,' an official told her.

"Cindy, frustrated, slammed her fist on the table. 'Then do it! What are you waiting for?' The official, stunned, simply signed the papers.

"'I don't know where I got the nerve,' Cindy said.

"When she arrived in Phoenix, she carried the baby with the cleft palate off the plane.

"Her husband met her at the airport. He looked at the baby. 'Where is she going,' he asked her.

"'To our house,' she replied."

The McCains adopted the baby with the cleft palate, Bridget, and the Gulletts adopted the other one, Nicki. Both children required a lot of medical attention, but the Gulletts never saw a hospital bill.

There's a lot of really nasty stuff out there about both the Obamas and the McCains. The good stuff is rarely discussed.

[flew-da-coup]

Just curious... why use Obama's middle name and not McCain's?

Mccain does not have a middle name but if he did it would be "patriot"

Yeah, I agree. McCain is up there with Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee.

[K-Rock]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/opinion/05fri1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

[cobychuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/opinion/05fri1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

    Just goes to show that the Dems can't take a spotlight being turned on their campaign.  Pieces like this one are written by people who are more afraid of losing power over this country than actually being part of a fix for this country.  From what I have observed from Mr. Obama, it would be a tragedy for this country if he was elected and able to enact some of the changes he has in mind for America.

[Hawaii596]

As a staunch conservative who currently strongly supports our current president, I was a little concerned about McCain (mainly his earlier hesitancy to drill in ANWAR).  However, as we know, he is apparently a pragmatist, and I completely respect his DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW plan (along with other parts of the energy plan).

And I'm pretty excited about Sarah Palin.

So, in a spirit of good humor, I want to share a stupid remark my 19 year old son recently said (he's going into the military soon and wants to go to Iraq or Afghanistan).

We were talking about the presidential race a couple of days ago, and out of the blue, he referred to Sarah Palin as "A Trophy Wife."  I couldn't help laugh.  Again, I strongly support her and John McCain, and have a lot of respect for her.  But that was funny.  I thnk my son respects her too.  I am very excited to have such a great, intelligent, conservative woman be the first VP of the US (opposite of my feelings about Hillary).

Hope I didn't offend anyone.  And by the way, my family is known for their strange sense of humor.

On a slightly more serious note, I almost had a tear as John McCain - great gentleman that he is - made the congratulatory comments to Barack Obama that he did (not to mention what McCain said during the DNC on MLK day - very classy thing to say).  This is a very historic election in many ways.

GO DALLAS COWBOYS, too.

P.S. - we're in the process of moving back to Texas soon (Yay!)

[USMCPMEL]

When you move to Texas are you going to change your name to Texas596 intead of Hawaii596?? Or will it be Texas 597 and whats the 596 for anyways?

[Hoopty]

Just curious... why use Obama's middle name and not McCain's?

Mccain does not have a middle name but if he did it would be "patriot"

Actually, he does have a middle name.  It's Sidney, as in John Sidney McCain III.

[Hawaii596]

I will still be Hawaii596, in celebration of three years at Naval Station Pearl Harbor in the early 80s.  The 596 is a significant number I can remember.  But I WILL change being more happy in Texas.  Born and raised in New England, but I lived in TX for 7 years, and consider it home.