Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Sarah Palin and the Upcoming Election

By Theresa Camoriano

Sarah Palin was a great choice!  For the past couple of months, I mostly ignored the little on-line polls asking who you want McCain to pick for his running mate, assuming they were gimmicks and nobody would pay attention to the vote anyway, but near the end I took the bait and voted for Sarah Palin.  What a pleasant surprise to learn that McCain actually picked her! 

Palin is a real conservative, and the excitement surrounding her selection provides hope that the values that have made America great will have a resurgence.  Of course, the left, which cannot bear the thought of a conservative woman, is beside itself and is doing everything it can to destroy her personally or at least destroy her career – trying to stir up sex scandals, saying she needs to stay home with her family, saying that her speech was written by a speech writer (implying that she is not intelligent enough to have written it herself), denigrating her education and experience, trying to make her look like trailer trash, and on and on.  No doubt they will take many more cheap shots at her before election day, but Palin, the self-described pit bull with lipstick, is not going to take it lying down. 

The left is beside itself because it relies on “victim” politics – telling blacks, women, middle class workers, and others that they are victims and must support the left in order to be protected from the bad guys.  But Palin’s candidacy and her courage in “speaking truth to power” expose the left’s hypocrisy.  If the left really wants women to succeed on their own merit and to have successful careers as well as families, why are they attacking Palin, who has done just that?  If they really want women’s achievements to be judged on a par with men, why do they ignore or belittle Palin’s substantial achievements while pretending Obama has achieved great things?  Why do they highlight her lack of foreign policy experience while ignoring the same lack on Obama’s side?  Palin’s candidacy lays bare the left’s hypocrisy for everyone to see – no wonder they want to destroy her!

No doubt Palin is human and has made many mistakes, but she has basically the right instincts, favoring small government and empowerment of the individual, and many voters can identify with her better than they can with older men.  Let’s hope she will continue to be the same person if elected and will not be spoiled by success.  If so, she may be a powerful force in the right direction for many years.  To show my support of her candidacy, I even have ordered a “pit bull with lipstick” bumper sticker! 

While it is wonderful for people to be able to identify with their political candidates, what is most important is the policies those candidates will pursue if they get into office.  It boggles my mind that Obama claims he will improve the economy, when every step he plans to take will harm it and will harm working people and poor people who depend upon a good economy to provide them opportunities.  Obama believes in redistributing the wealth -- taking from those who produce wealth and giving it to those who do not.  But beating up on businesses and on wealthy people will not create jobs or increase the value of people’s pension plans.  Keeping oil prices high will increase the price of everything and will harm poor people the most.  Increasing taxes will punish productivity and achievement, which means we will get less of both.  If Obama really thinks his policies will improve the economy, then he’s not nearly as brilliant as he thinks!  At least McCain admits he is not strong in the area of economics, and we can hope he will listen to Sarah Palin or other advisors who have a better grasp of the issue.

In terms of foreign policy, Obama projects the image of an appeaser whose response to any form of aggression will be “let’s talk”.  He takes one position, then changes it in a day or two, and then changes it again.  In other words, he projects weakness and indecisiveness.  The evil tyrants of the world would see his election as a green light to abuse their own people and to engage in aggression against others, which would make the world a very dangerous place and would make it much more likely for us eventually to be drawn into a large-scale war. On the other hand, because McCain understands that there is real evil in the world and understands how evil tyrants think, he will project an image of strength and decisiveness that will tend to suppress their inclination to behave aggressively.  As a result, the world would probably be a much safer place under a McCain presidency, and we are less likely to be drawn into a big war.  Palin has the right instincts and can be expected to learn quickly.  On the other hand, what can we expect Obama to learn from Biden in the area of foreign policy other than how to ridicule and belittle people who come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee?

And let’s not forget about the importance of judicial appointments.  The next president will have the opportunity to make judicial appointments that will have a profound impact on this country for many years.  Obama has made it clear he intends to appoint judges who will ignore the law in order to reach a desired outcome.  These kinds of judges believe the Constitution and other laws are “living documents”, which means that these protections of our life, liberty, property, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, etc. would be eroded and could disappear at any moment on the whim of judges.  McCain has said he will appoint judges who will respect the law, which is extremely important for the future of this country.  Even people who fear the loss of unfettered abortion rights should recognize that they will be much better off in a country where people can rely on the rule of law than where laws and their protections can evaporate on a judge’s whim.  

Many people are disgusted with the performance of Republicans over the last several years and think it would be good for them to lose an election and spend some time in the wilderness in order to reform themselves and return to their principles, but Americans do not deserve and cannot afford such punishment.  The selection of Palin as the candidate for Vice President gives us hope that Republicans can be given power and can reform themselves at the same time.  When a vote for McCain/Palin, which carries some risk and some promise of substantial improvement, is compared with the only other real alternative, which is a high likelihood of serious harm to the country,  the choice should be clear.

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN