Sarah Palin emerges as key player in 2008 election
Published Sunday, September 7, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — In the week since Sarah Palin was named Sen. John McCain’s vice-presidential nominee for the Republican ticket, the national spotlight hasn’t left the Alaska governor.
On the bright side, she was introduced to the Republican party’s backbone at the national convention — and enthusiastically embraced, earning high marks for her first high-profile public address in the campaign.
But on the flip side, bold headlines have shouted out details of the Palin family’s private lives, the media taking up where some allege McCain’s staff failed in vetting his running mate’s background. She’s shot some sharp jabs at opponent Barack Obama in response to criticism from Democrats about her executive and foreign policy experience.
The week was historic, marking the first time a woman has run on the Republican ticket and the second time a woman has contended for a White House position on a major party ticket. Democrat Walter Mondale picked Geraldine Ferraro as a running mate in 1984.
“It’s the first time that a woman has served in that capacity on the Republican ticket,” said Ralph Seekins of Fairbanks. He was one of Alaska’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. “You also have a minority on the other ticket. It’s kind of a double-whammy.”
The governor will spend the next month campaigning around the nation for the McCain-Palin ticket before the next critical appearance — the vice-presidential debate Oct. 2 in St. Louis.
Dr. Jerry McBeath, a political science professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said the real test may come at the October debate when Palin stands before a less homogenous crowd.
“This (the convention) and the vice-presidential debate, these are the two high-stakes performances,” he said.
Questions linger. Is the two-year governor qualified to lead the nation? Will she, in fact, fight earmarks when she has accepted them openly in the past, and as many voters in her home state support them? Will she be cleared in an investigation into an alleged abuse of power?
Here’s are the highlights of the first week:
Day 1
Friday, Aug. 29
Presidential contender John McCain shocks the country naming little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. The news steals headlines from presidential challenger Barack Obama, who, the night before, had roused his party faithful with a speech before the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Across the country, people and political pundits wonder who Sarah Palin is — and what she’s done to warrant McCain’s confidence to hold the second-highest office in the land.
In Fairbanks, voters and conservative family values groups offer an enthusiastic response. The lone book offering a glimpse into Palin’s background, “Sarah,” by Kaylene Johnson, sells out by mid-day in local stores. By evening, the slim volume is on Amazon.com’s top-25 list.
Day 2
Saturday, Aug. 30
Palin emerges as a maverick in the same vein as McCain — an anti-establishment politician willing to take on the party old guard and root out corruption. She joins McCain before supersized crowds at rallies in Pennsylvania. Her image quickly becomes one of the everyday American woman, juggling five children and family life with the solemn responsibility of governing a state.
Day 3
Sunday, Aug. 31
Campaign stops in Missouri draw thousands, and crowds welcome a first look at the Republican vice-presidential hopeful. They seem to like what they see. Palin is touted as a candidate with social conservative values — as well as a woman who hunts moose; helps her husband, Todd, fish Alaska’s harsh waters; and is a solid shot with a firearm. She emerges onto the national consciousness as a political reformer who has challenged the “good old boy” network as well as Big Oil, and maintained approval ratings between 75 and 89 percent.
Day 4
Monday, Sept. 1
Scandal breaks fast as Palin announces her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant. Republicans stand by McCain’s choice, saying the Palin family was doing the right thing in an unfortunate situation by supporting the teen’s plans to keep the baby and marry the father, a teenage hockey player also from Wasilla.
The boyfriend, Levi Johnston, joins the Palins later in the week at the Republican National Convention, appearing on stage as part of the family.
The news of the pregnancy is somewhat compounded by headlines revealing that Todd Palin had been arrested at age 22 for drunken driving.
McCain comes under attack for what opponents view as a failure to properly vet Palin. Questions persist through the week as to whether his staff went beyond a basic public records search. The campaign says Palin had told McCain of her daughter’s pregnancy.
Day 5
Tuesday, Sept. 2
People nationwide are excited to see how Palin will hold up under the new pressure of the national lights at the RNC. Delegates from Alaska say if she comes across as open, direct and personable as on her home turf, the nation will love her like Alaskans do.
McCain sounds off against the surge of questions surrounding Palin’s past and charges that his Democrat opponents have launched a smear campaign.
Meanwhile, Palin asks the state personnel board to look into allegations that she was out of line in firing Walt Monegan, the former Alaska public safety commissioner. The state legislature already has one investigation under way into the matter.
Some charged that Palin ousted Monegan because he didn’t fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who allegedly made death threats to Palin’s father, among other things. Wooten was married to Palin’s sister.
Day 6
Wednesday, Sept. 3
In a much-anticipated launch before the American public, Palin wows TV and convention audiences with a confident, 40-minute speech. She comes off both all-American mother and political reformer, defending herself against an onslaught of media criticism and firing off shots against opponent Obama’s experience.
TV viewers number about 40 million — nearly equal to those watching Obama’s speech at the DNC a week before.
The speech established Palin as “the outsider,” McBeath said, and the challenger to the status quo in Washington, D.C. She offered more specifics in her credentials than she’s known for — Andrew Halcro criticized her for being the “mistress of glittering generalities,” McBeath said. Halcro is an Alaska political blogger who ran as an independent against Palin in the 2006 contest for Alaska governor.
Fairbanks delegate Nick Stepovich was in St. Paul when Palin gave her speech.
“Alaska is more on the map, and there’s going to be more,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Already, he said, people’s perception of McCain’s presidential run was changing.
“Her shine is working on him,” Stepovich commented.
Day 7
Thursday, Sept. 4
Known as a euphemism outside of Alaska for political corruption and pork-barrel projects, the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” creates a stir.
Palin and McCain numerous times through the week make much about Palin’s supposed refusal to accept an earmark to pay for a bridge connecting Ketchikan to its airport on Gravina Island.
“I told the Congress thanks, but no thanks, for that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves,” Palin said in her speech.
“She should have left that out,” McBeath said, noting that Palin may have called off the project but didn’t return the money.
Her repeated references to the bridge throughout the week fed Obama’s first direct attacks on the Alaska governor in stump speeches Saturday.
Day 8
Friday, Sept. 5
A state investigation into Palin’s firing of the public safety commissioner heats up as the Alaska legislature bumps up the due date of its final report and trooper Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law, makes the circuit of national media.
Some have charged that Palin abused the power of her office by firing Walt Monegan for keeping state trooper Wooten on duty despite personal misconduct.
Palin said earlier this summer that she did not pressure Monegan and that she did not direct anyone else to do so.
In an abbreviated internal investigation, Palin found that a state employee, Frank Bailey, had made calls to Monegan about Wooten.
She placed Bailey on administrative leave pending further investigation.
From the start, Palin has publicly denied any abuse of power and urged the state to investigate and clear her name.
A state oversight committee approved $100,000 for an investigation, which the Legislature launched recently and originally expected to wrap up by the end of October.
The timeline has since been bumped up to Oct. 10.
The investigation will go into whether Palin abused the power of her office by pressuring the state public safety commissioner to fire Wooten, who went through a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister.
Meanwhile, Palin and McCain board the Straight Talk Express bus for campaign events in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Day 9
Saturday, Sept. 6
The Straight Talk Express stops in Albuquerque, N.M., and Colorado Springs, Colo., drawing thousands as the two Republican candidates promise change in Washington, D.C. At McCain’s request, Palin was the voice behind his weekly radio address.
Obama launched his first direct attack on Palin, questioning how she can stand on an anti-earmark platform with McCain when Alaska has been the beneficiary of so many.
Palin and McCain are scheduled to resume campaigning Monday in Missouri before stumping at rallies in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday. In a joint statement issued by the McCain and Obama camps, both sides agreed to shelve politics and come together as nonpartisan Americans on Thursday in remembrance of Sept. 11, 2001.
In Alaska, a close race between U.S. House incumbent Don Young and challenger Sean Parnell — the state’s second-in-command — is still undeclared as ballots trickle in from overseas. The margin is narrow, and voters wonder, should the lieutenant governor win, who will run Alaska if Parnell and Palin are both on the campaign trail.
And already, at least one Web site, www.palin4pres2012.com, is calling for a Palin run for the presidency.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
The implication is that McCain did not properly vet Sarah because of, what, a teenage daughter's pregnancy? That two years before Sarah was married, Todd had a DUI?
This is crazy talk. The media "elite" is grasping at straws if they can assert that any of this trivia is pertinent. Sarah is somehow not qualified to be VP because of her daughter's situation? Nonsense.
Lets look at the Democrat candidates for a moment. There is Ted Kennedy who ran for president. He got drunk, drove off a bridge, killed a gal he was sleeping with and, oh yeah, did not report the fatal accident until he had sobered up, and lawyered up.
Pathetic.
There is Biden, who is a proven plagiarist. Isn't the issue of honesty more relevant than what Sarah's teenager is doing?
How about John Edwards who was cheating on his cancer-stricken wife while running for President?
Then there is Obama, a guy who has surrounded himself with racists for a few decades. You know, the black guys that shout, "God Damn America!". And Obama's lovely wife who got a $300,000.00 per year Chicago patronage job because of who she was married to. Or how about Obama's direct real estate dealing with the felon, Rezko?
I could go on and on about the double standard that Sarah is being held to, but I'm tired.
Hey. I pretty much agree with you, but I don't think you should drag Gene Therrieault into this.
Gene has stuck up for Alaskans, refused to join Lyda's et al. orchestrations, and done his work honorably.
IMO, Gene is one of the few non-sellouts.
This is not to say I agree with him on-down-the-line, but he has shown integrity, I appreciate that, and let him know everytime I see him.
I'm sorry but Sarah is being used and she don't know it! Her admirers are here in Alaska. McCain needs a decoy cloud and he got it. Sarah still has a choice to resign and remain her fate.
Sarah, after your Alaska term then take the throne in your own terms then we will vote for you in an honest way.
1.) Monegan himself says he was never asked to fire Wooten.
2.) Wooten signed a release on his record, relinquishing his "privacy". This release has been turned over.
3.) The "trooper-gate" case is going nowhere. McCain already knew that when he decided to offer Sarah the job.
4.) Per the most recent Zogby poll, Sarah is more popular than Obama, Biden, AND McCain.
5. If it seems like a lot of stuff has come out, remember that Sarah is only now being studied by the media. Biden and McCain were studied decades ago, and Obama has been running for president for 2 years now, so his bad stuff has already dribbled out and been glossed over.
6.) Go Sarah!
Allhaileris, "6.) Go Sarah" for what? Did you lost your mind? As we suffer our great loss in the American ways you sit there and feel nothing like the Republicans!
I think it is great that a woman with a husband that has native american blood is running for VP.
What a great country we live in. The American way is alive and well.
God bless America!
The lies from the McCain camp need to stop or they will come back to haunt them. McCain telling his supporters that Palin sold the state jet on Ebay, and for a profit, no less, is an outright lie.
Leave it to the dnm to be the master of the understatement on this headline.
PK, if you really think that you can/will change anyones mind blabbering like you do you are wasting your time.
Poor Old Alaska---
Astonishing that the Shot-Gun Marriage in St. Paul is no different than the shot-gun marriage proposed by the Palin family for their personal problems.
The am radio fanatics two weeks ago trumpeted their angel of inquiry, The National Enquirer, for the Edwards affair. Well now that "scumbag press" is after our Sarah and her Alaskan lifestyle.
Get ready for the continuous exposure of the "real" Alaska: The corruption, the indictments and jailings, the oil influences, the pfd, earmarks, Pilgrims and hillbillies, and guns and oil. Then Sen. Steven's Trial which is going to be a spectacle. Then the minor Wooten affair blown into the spectacular "Wootengate". Sarah's coming out party is going to be Alaska's National Outing and it is not going to be pretty.
You think that's bad -what if they win??? Already Sarah is starting to shriek the writings of her party from her pulpit. It is not the composed rhetoric we heard from her as Governor. This morning she was Shrieking about Washington insiders- Good God -Sen. McCain grew up in, attended prep school in, served at the direction of the Pentagon in, and returned from his only long time away from DC (in the Hanoi Hilton)to be in Congress in DC. The head of her Party and their script writer is now dozens of years of DC, Ted Stevens is older in DC than the average age of Alaskans, The only DC outsider is poor old Sarah who could not even handle the mansion in Juneau. How is she gonna handle the Naval Observatory. Time to send in Jethro Jed and Granny Clampet ---
Her exposure, her letting down her hair, and her shriek is going to get old. It already is. So far she just shrieking at her own kind "We're going to take back America" -but from Bush??? I thought they already took back America? Here we are eight years later -here we are about to plunge into a National Recession after years of War, and 10 Trillion in national debt. And this morning it just grew by another $5Billion with the acquisition of Freddy and Fannie.
Sarah come home, Sarah come ho--- Oh, I'm afraid she has lost her hearing.
Goes to show that Obama should have picked Hillary as running mate!
A minority and a woman that would have sure been a winner?
I'm a big fan of Sarah as governor. As vice president, I'm less sure.
She is fortunate the media went crazy for a while. Most of their accusations were not only wrong but mean. She is shining a spotlight on why the American people hate the media even more than politicians. But most importantly, she is showing the difference between politicians and chief executives. America is a business, and she has run one. None of the others have.
“It’s the first time that a woman has served in that capacity on the Republican ticket,” said Ralph Seekins of Fairbanks. He was one of Alaska’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. “You also have a minority on the other ticket. It’s kind of a double-whammy.”
The noun whammy has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1: a serious or devastating setback
Meaning #2: an evil spell
WOW did he really say that?????? I can't imagine someone making such racist and sexist remarks and all in one breath. How sad but then he is part of the 'good old boys club' so obviously thinks nothing of it.
I found this on the Michae Dukes website:
The Brits Like Her Too
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/new...
Mr Obama on earmark spending LOL. He has Senator Durbin handle Illinois earmark requests.
Senate summary for 2008 on Taxpayers For Common Sense:
Alaska - $664 million
Illinois - $723 million
As for what proportion are to fund federal infrastucture, mandated programs, onging projects, or pork, haven't done research to that depth.
On vetting, Governor Sarah Palin was in the press last spring as being on the list of possible nominees (admittedly a long shot). The media had every opportunity to research and vet the nominee on Senator McCain's behalf. Guess I missed the article where the Alaska borders were closed to journalist.
"Dogwatcher", it sounds like you've been watching only one part of the dog. It's tainted your perspective.
1. If you like Sarah Palin, which compared to the other candidates, a lot of people do, it's great that there is a good, conservative, family value, common sense, anti-corruption, anti-"good-old-boy", hunter, running in the U.S. Presidential elections. (She had me at pro-gun)
2. If you are an Alaskan that doesn't like Sarah Palin, you've got something in common with Arkansas & Arizona. You're getting rid of a politician by getting them elected out of state.
If you're not an Alaskan (or for that matter, an American), Tough. We really don't care what you think.
allegheny..........why would or should the media vet an admitted long shot? Who, in their wildest dreams (or worst nightmares) would have expected McCain to pick such an unqualified candidate?! I'm sure the media had their hands full with more pressing stories rather than go on a wild goose chase. Besides, it is not their responsibility...it was McCains camp and they failed miserably!
PK, do you wear your clown clothes to bed? Your venting on this site will accomplish nothing towards your socialist views.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz...
Everyone has the opportunity to vent on this site - that's why we are here - why do people have to be so rude and personally attack others for having a different opinion. How Lame. I don't support Sarah - but I don't hate those who do, I can handle some heated debate, it's healthy - it's fun - but personal attacks on each other are ugly.
Don't be haters!
My thoughts exactly cancergirl. Many people don't realize how lucky we are to live in a country that allows us to express our opinions freely. PK, don't let the haters get to you. Regardless of what side you are on, personal attacks are not necessary.
PK has done nothing but attack since registered on this site, I have been here a while and was amiable, PK has shown nothing in kind. Maybe he will tell us of Ashley Bidens jail time since he is so fond of the Palin's history.
Sarah:
The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people....
Woodrow Wilson
Perseverance is not a long race it is many short races one after another.....Walter Elliott
You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership....Dwight D. Eisenhower
There is great force hidden in a gentle command....George Herbert
Great leaders... motivate large groups of individuals to improve the human condition....John Kotter
Blessings to you & yours from ours.
i guess pk is on east coast time.
PK is on Pacific Daylight time and will not reply to inane posts from you or your ilk. Post something intelligent without a personal attack and I might respond.
Cheers!
right, you do nothing but attack and expect more, you are a art.
or to be more precise, a complete waste of human flesh
The “bridge to no where” was to be paid out of federal road taxes. When Palin found out we were being told to use the road taxes on the bridge, she said no and used the taxes on the roads like it was meant to be.
Palin said she put the plane on e-bay. I did not hear anything about making a profit. If nothing else we are not paying for fuel, upkeep, pilots, landing fees, etc.
When did "vetting" become so important? The parties pick their candidates and then you get to vote on them. It sounds like the media is mad because they did not get to put in their two cents. Think about how much money they lost not being able to sell their articles, news programs and how many hours they lost not being able to talk about it.
About the war. Does anyone remember in the 60’s and 70’s, the military was built to fight two regional wars and one area conflict AT THE SAME TIME. The Dem’s “peace dividends“ of the 70’s and 80’s was the cutting back of the military and spending it on “social” programs. After 8 years of Clinton’s “peace dividends” the military was smaller then it was at the time of the first gulf war. At the start of the second gulf war the military was not big enough to fight the first gulf war, much less an area conflict. Bush had to go to war with what he had. We should be happy (OK not happy but what would you say?) about how the war went. Just remember what happened to us at the start of WWII and Korea because the military was cut back so much.
Think back at how the congress voted (yes, both parties) and what the polls said we, the people, wanted. Think about what the military thought and did before the war started. How many wounded and dead they thought we were going to have. We lost more on D-Day alone then we have in 7 years in Iraq.
Now Obama wants to cut back on military spending again and spend that money on more social programs.
It makes me sick to hear the Dem’s talk about how much the military is over extended. How much the families are suffering. How we should have sent more men in at the beginning. They have spent all their time cutting back on military spending while at the same time giving them more to do (think about Dafur). How many places are we still in because Clinton did not have an “exit plan”? Until this war the only “exit plan” I have ever heard of for our military, is “victory”. Every time I hear Obama talk about an “exit plan” for Iraq, I think back to what happened to the country and the military after Viet Nam.
For more info on Sarah and "Tasergate" check out www.palinfightscorruption.com She has been fighting the corrupt practices of the very people who are trying to smear her through the tasergate investigation.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.