“Dur, Alaska is Close to Russia” (and other discredited liberal taunts)

Liberals have been mocking the McCain campaign’s references to Governor Sarah Palin’s role in relations with Russia by pointing out their proximity. Well, it turns out that Governor Palin has been involved in trade and cooperative environmental/resource-gathering with Russia (source).

In addition to negotiating trade and cooperation with Russia, Governor Palin has been involved with negotiations with Japan, Korea, China, Canada and Germany (and those are just the top five! [source]).

I found these results by googling “alaska trade”. I didn’t have to log in to anything and required only an internet browser and Adobe Acorbat Reader (which is free), so I can certainly see why the media has been as yet unable to discover these obscure facts.

Obama: No Lies Here!

Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need | Invalid URL.

If you’re wondering why there is a link to the Obama/Biden campaign website with an invalid URL, there’s a good reason. This is the page that once listed a copy of the list of books that Sarah Palin wanted banned. The list is undeniably false, given that it contains books that were written and published after Governor Palin’s alleged attempts to ban them.

Yes, Obama is change we can believe in, all right. His campaign has become Rovian in their use of dirty tricks, lies, and half-truths to attempt to smear their enemies.

But what’s telling is that, instead of issuing an apology to Governor Palin for continuing an absurd, slanderous lie, the Obama campaign has simply deleted the page and are content to pretend that it was never there. Classy.

Oprah Won’t Interview Palin

After using her show and her massive podium to promote the presidential ambitions of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey has finally discovered the idea of neutrality. She will not have Sarah Palin, the first woman to be nominated on a national ticket in nearly a quarter century, and the first woman to be nominated in a Republican ticket, on her daytime talk show that caters to women.

Why Oprah would consider Sarah Palin of no interest to her television audience is beyond me. Oprah has made no secret of her support for Barack Obama. She is a Chicago-style maven. Barack Obama is a Chicago-style politician. It’s not rocket science.

The problem as I see it is that Oprah is saying that she doesn’t want to use her show as a “platform” for any of the candidates. After months of using her massive power and appeal to promote Barack Obama, she’s decided that it’s a bad thing to provide a venue for discussion about any other candidate.

I think Oprah is passing up an opportunity here, but ultimately it’s smart. She could have Governor Palin on the show and grill her on the issues, but that would risk her looking like a rabid partisan, something that her audience would not approve of. Or she could have Governor Palin on the show and chit-chat about her experience as a working mother, and risk allowing the governor to set the record straight on some of the more outrageous scandals that have been circulating around her, and Oprah wouldn’t want that.

It would be refreshing if Oprah would be honest with us instead of giving us some nonsense about not using her show to support a candidate. But what do you expect from a Chicago-style media mogul?

Sarah Palin vs. Hillary Clinton: the True Battle?

The New York Times has an interesting hypothesis: that the true battle this fall could very well be Sarah Palin vs. Hillary Clinton. 

This raises an interesting question for Hillary Clinton. Does she want to work very hard to elect Barack Obama? On the chance (however slight) that he doesn’t make a complete disaster out of his presidency, Hillary will be another 4 years away from running for President. But on the other hand, if Obama utterly fails and ends up damaging the nation even more, Hillary will be one of the people who put him there. There’s only so much that saying “I told you so” can help.

But to make matters more complicated for her ambitions, if Hillary doesn’t break her back to elect Obama and he loses, the far-leftists who make up Obama’s base won’t lift a finger to elect her in 2012. It’s a very interesting conondrum in an election where white working women (or “Wal-Mart moms” as Democrats condescendingly refer to them) could swing certain battleground states. 

But the true danger, I think, is Barack Obama running against Sarah Palin. The reasons for this are twofold: because it raises Governor Palin to an even higher level; and because more people find Sarah Palin favorable than find Obama or McCain or Biden favorable. The more people learn about Sarah Palin, the more they seem to like her (unless they’re liberals). If he tries to go after her, even if she goes after him, it will backfire–we’ve seen this already in the past week. I could go on for days about how people only find Governor Palin’s attacks on Obama’s smug self-worship to reaffirm their distaste for his antics, but that’s for another post. The long and short of it is that the usual tricks aren’t going to work against Governor Palin. 

But can Obama trust the Clintons to try to move against her, given the way he threw Hillary under the bus?

Ann Coulter Touts Palin as Only She Can

Ann Coulter, who has been outstripped as reigning diva of the right by our own Governor Palin, launched into a full-throated defense of the Vice Presidential nominee today as only she can.

The link above will take you to Ann Coulter’s webpage, which has the Palin article on the front page currently. But just to whet your appetite, here are a few of Ann Coulter’s nuggets of wisdom:

After drawing “Keith + Obama” hearts on their denim notebooks, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews stayed up all night last Thursday, writing jokes about Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the presumed vice presidential pick. Now they can’t use any of them.

So the media are taking it out on our brave Sarah and her 17-year-old daughter.

She went on to comment on Troopergate:

They tried to create a “Troopergate” for Palin, indignantly demanding to know why she wanted to get her ex-brother-in-law removed as a state trooper. Again, public corruption is not a good issue for someone like Obama, Chicago pol and noted friend of Syrian National/convicted felon Antonin Rezko.

For the cherry on top, then we found out Palin’s ex-brother-in-law had Tasered his own 10-year-old stepson. Defend that, Democrats.

And last but certainly not least:

When liberals start acting like they’re opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain’s vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels.

Truer words have never been written.

Enjoy!

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Palin Files Ethics Complaint About Self

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier today that Governor Sarah Palin has filed a complaint with the Personnel Board, which handles ethics complaints against government officials in Alaska. This comes after a $100,000 investigation was authorized by the Governor and the Legislature to investigate allegations that Governor Palin used improper influence to have her ex-brother-in-law fired from his position as a state trooper.

I think this is an encouraging sign. Where the Democratic investigation in the Alaska legislature is likely to drag on and on and continue to affect the Presidential election, an impartial investigation by a board that is empowered to do these kinds of investigations will be seen as less partisan and, therefore, the results will be more accurate.

Will this stop irresponsible speculation on Governor Palin’s actions? No. But it shows (just as all her other actions have) that the Governor is forthright and honest about her record.

Obama’s Executive Experience

According to a post at Fox News’ Election HQ that quotes Senator Obama, the Senator thinks that running for President qualifies him to be President.

Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We’ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years

-Barack Obama

If we’re going by experience, then, doesn’t that mean that McCain’s decades of experience, plus running for President, outstrip Obama’s experience?

All other issues aside, I’m not sure that having a president who claims ‘running for president’ as executive experience is such a good idea. Senator Obama, you should fire whoever gave you that talking point.

But while Barack Obama was running for president (and purportedly gaining all this magnificent experience), Sarah Palin was working for the people who elected her. In 2007, while Obama was making the rounds to benefit his candidacy, Governor Palin was tending to a state of emergency in Alaska. In 2008, while Obama was raging against McCain with misleading statistics, Governor Palin was helping to manage an emergency situation in Alaska.

Which experience would you trust?

Sarah Palin: Right From the Start

Much has been made of Sarah Palin’s selection as John McCain’s runningmate. The big complaint about the Alaska Governor from the left is her seeming lack of experience. I’d like to investigate this charge more thoroughly.

Leaving aside the fact that Governor Palin manifestly has more executive experience than the entire Democratic ticket, and the left’s gleeful and hopeful (and ultimately tacky) insinuations that John McCain will die in office, Governor Palin is a great choice. I trust her to make the right decisions for America should she need to assume the Presidency.

As Governor, Sarah Palin has dealt with natural disasters on a large scale. Alaska, being as remote as it is, relies on the Alaska National Guard to assist with natural disaster relief, such as the flooding that took place last year and in August of this year. The people of Alaska have come to rely on disaster management organizations and the Alaska National Guard, but most of all upon Governor Palin’s effective disaster management, to overcome these challenges. Meanwhile, the only experience Senator Obama has with dealing with deadly natural disasters is appearing on the political talk shows to play the blame game. That’s not leadership experience.

Even before becoming governor, Sarah Palin has stood strong against corruption, even when that corruption was found in her own party. While chairing the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and serving as the ethics commissioner, she found corruption among several other members of the commission. After resigning in protest of the corruption, she went after them in the courts, resulting in a cleaning up of the commission. On the other hand, Barack Obama has been implicated in accepting illegal campaign contributions from non-American-citizens (despite, in one case, the check being enclosed with a note that said “I am not an American citizen”). Furthermore, Obama’s association with Tony Rezko raises questions as to his anti-corruption credentials, especially given that Obama bought property at a heavily discounted rate from Rezko before his indictment. Obama only backtracked on these matters when the media caught wise. That’s not leadership experience.

While Americans are plagued by high energy costs,  Congressional Republicans and Democrats can’t seem to find a way to relieve the pressure. Governor Palin, in her capacity as Governor of Alaska, has repeatedly stated that ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve) is ready for exploration. Senators Obama and Biden (who, like 99% of environmentalists and unlike Governor Palin, have never set foot in ANWR) oppose exploration. Governor Palin, recognizing the need to get America off foreign oil and stop depending so heavily on unfriendly regimes in an unstable region for energy, advocates an “all of the above” energy plan. That means she wants to explore domestically for oil, but also believes that other forms of energy (i.e. wind, solar, hydrodgen, etc.) should be developed. The Obama/Biden plan to secure America’s energy future is to keep our tires properly inflated. That’s not leadership experience.

Instead of engaging Governor Palin on the issues, the leftist blogosphere and the media (with a wink and a nod from the Democratic establishment) have chosen to attempt to smear the Governor and her family with cheap innuendo and scurrilous lies. This just reinforces my opinion that Governor Palin is the right choice: if the left holds such an incoherent, sputtering hatred of her that they have to attack her and her family personally, it indicates that they know they can’t win a substantive argument on the issues.

So when it comes to who to trust to take over on day one, who is America going to look to? Politics-as-usual or a proven reformer? A complainer or a leader? An energy plan so idealistic that it seems childish, or a realistic plan to get the United States off foreign oil?

There’s no contest, the choice is clear. Sarah Palin: Right from the start.