When Sarah Palin burst onto the big political scene back on 29 August, most Americans outside the state of Alaska had never heard of her.
News outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and FOX snappily established process-action-teams to search feverishly on Google for information about the GOP choice for Vice President. John McCain had shocked the world with his selection of Palin – just as Muhammad Ali did back in 1964 with his upset defeat of Big Bad Sonny Liston.
Not mighty was gained through those searches on the young and little known Gov. from Wasilla, AK. Her defeat of incumbent mayor (R) John Stein in 1996 was the biggest breaking news information garnered.
She gave an impressive speech at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, St Paul, Minnesota that elated the crowd of 11,000 – considerably more people than she had ever spoken before when you mediate the entire town of Wasilla is honest a tiny more than 6,000.
Palin’s speech was enthralling and consuming. She hit below the belt as many politicians are known to do – her sarcasm was greeted with resounding applause when she made light of Barack Obama’s work as a community organizer while working in the inner cities of Chicago, IL. She stomped on his experience in the Senate – inferring to his time there as insignificant.
She hyped on her executive record while ceremoniously praising her decision to tell the good ole boys back in Washington “Thanks, but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere.” It became a rally roar of her maverick image in the days that followed the convention. She lauded about her crack-down on wasteful spending by taking that multi-million dollar jet she inherited after becoming Gov. and said, “I sold it on EBay.”
Sarah Palin had become that pitbull with a ferocious bite that no one wanted to fall victim to – she was, as she claimed, “Just another hockey mom.” But she let it be known to all that the only difference between that hockey mom and a pit was…you guess it “Lipstick”
Palin gave John McCain a huge boost both within the Republican Party and across America. McCain’s numbers in national polls began to grow – he’d gone from an eight point deficit before the RNC to a two point lead after the convention.
Sarah Palin had become the new rock star. Men liked her because she was cute. Women liked her because she was tough and full of spunk. She was going to…ok, I will say it, crash that glass ceiling. More importantly, however, she had effect the Democrats on alert.
For the first time in 19 months on the campaign trail, Barack Obama began to sweat. His suit ties were coming off more frequently than ever before during his speeches and he seemed a bit uneasy. With Palin, McCain had delivered a crunching left-hook that knocked the cool and resolute Obama help on his heels. Obama found himself in uncharted territory – on the defensive.
The Democrats did not know how to react. They did not know how to respond to the barracuda as Palin was affectionately known as in college.
Political strategist believed the soft spoken cool witted Obama should hit back impartial as hard as Palin and McCain were on the trail at events where they were now drawing 20,000 plus people.
But Obama remained the gentleman and refrained from the traditional useless back and forth attacks which are usually much to do about nothing but distraction. He held firm and refused to cave into the same old nasty politics that he says he’s trying to change.
After September 11, an ominous characterize began to emerge of Sarah Palin. The glow of her star began to fade and when the dust from her boots settled, America started to gain a better perspective of her:
That rebuke for the bridge to nowhere she claimed at the convention was not entirely true. As we all know now, she did receive funding for that bridge but once she moved into the governor’s office, used the money for other endeavors. Suffice to say if one does a fact check on it, the verdict would be: Misleading or arguably, False.
There were allegations of her using executive influence to force the resignation of her Public Safety Commissioner for his refusal to fire her ex brother-in-law from the Alaska Location Police force. As we all know, an investigation to these allegations has begun, so we all will wait to see how that turns out.
We learned she former her personal Yahoo email account to conduct official government business. This has yet to be disputed by Palin.
Videos emerged from archives of her in church preaching how the war in Iraq was a message from God. The war is God’s will.
In her second term as Mayor, Palin pushed hard for a $14.7 million sports complex in Wasilla to help create jobs and stimulate the economy. All her efforts, one can assume, were of good intent. But Palin forgot one very important thing – she failed to secure the proper documentation for a title to the property before building. Her oversight caused the city an additional $1.3 million in lawsuits.
Before Palin became Mayor, Wasilla had a surplus. When she left, it had a $25 million deficit.
Many of these unnerving revelations believe reproach. But they also give just cause to question Palin’s objectivity and motives.
Palin was then sequestered by the McCain campaign. She was to be out on the sprint but she would not be allowed to speak to reporters. The media was not their best friends, you might want to say. No gotcha journalism would be allowed to enter the campaign with respect to Palin.
However, the media wanted to interview her. Many wanted to know if these allegations were true, or know if she wanted to make a comment about them. But McCain refused. And his refusal only enhanced the media’s desires to question Palin. It was America’s right to know about her because we didn’t know her.
The Interviews:
Without real thought, or just one huge mistake, McCain allowed, yes allowed, Palin to have a sit down interview with Charles Gibson whose accomplishments need no introduction. Palin completely bombed the sit-down session with one of the most down the middle journalist in America.
We all saw the damage and cringed at the answers we heard from Palin with respect to dealing with Pakistan, the failure to correctly indentify the Bush Doctrine. Oh, and her reply about what President Bush’s goal is…Remember that one? “President Bush’s goal is to rid the world of Islamic Extremism.” I have one simple novice question, how do you rid the world of an ideology?
Then there was the Katie Couric mini-series interview with Palin which was even more painful than the Gibson session. From failures to come up with additional oversights John McCain has reached across party lines to precise change, to not sparkling any Supreme Court decisions… or defending her stance on her foreign policy experience based on the fact Russia is Alaska’s next door neighbor because she can see the Russian prime minister when he rears his little head in Alaska’s airspace. Whew, I made it through that session.
The love affair was over. Even loyal conservatives were demanding answers as to what the heck Palin was doing. She had become the antithesis of her beginning to the Republican designate. And she had lost virtually all confidence of conservatives who once supported her.
She had become great material for Saturday Night Live and was now wrecking the McCain train.
The VP Debate:
After a disastrous two weeks, the maverick lassoed Palin in and held her up at the senator’s ranch in Arizona for a debate Boot Camp in preparation for her showdown with Joe Biden. Expectations of how she would perform were low because Americans now knew, arguably, what Sarah Palin was about.
To sum up the entire debate, Palin dodged questions with her hasty wit or just did not retort questions correctly when pushed.
She exceeded expectations of those who did not reflect she would do well. Again, however, it’s not hard to exceed the expectation bar when the bar is right at your ankles.
You leer Palin was not there to debate the issues that disaster America, however, Republicans will tell us different. Sarah Palin was there to save her soul. To stabilize her fragile confidence that had been rattled around like a pinball.
Palin’s debate performance did not hurt McCain, but it did not help either.
With battleground states now shifting in Barack Obama’s favor, McCain has folded his tent in Michigan where he had hoped to secure victory and seize its 17 electoral votes. Polls now show the Sen. unhurried in Pennsylvania where there are 21 electoral votes for the taking.
Can all of this be blamed on Sarah Palin? No. With the bailout crisis occurring amid Palin’s colossal failure during two interview sessions…to McCain’s ruse of suspending his campaign to go to Washington to rescue the economy with the $700 billion bailout. All were contributing factors for McCain’s slide in the polls and battleground states.
But clearly, though, they will not all say publicly, Republicans know John McCain’s selection of Palin was something that lacked distinct cerebral consciousness. In the beginning, however, when petite was known of her, it seemed like an excellent choice given her outstanding performance at the RNC.
However, when Palin was pressed for an impromptu moment and did not have the security of cue cards or teleprompters, she often sounded like a person addicted to prescription medication or a small child trying to explain why she stole the chocolate chip cookies – neither able to render a coherent response.
In the ruin, this all falls on John McCain. His aids say Palin underwent a thorough vetting process – yet, McCain only spoke to Palin twice over the phone and saw her once in person before selecting her as his running mate. While this may be seen as a thorough process by some, to many, it is not.
McCain’s campaign will advance under harsh scrutiny if he fails in his bid for the White House. Those who have never agreed with his policies within his own party or who fair don’t like him will rake him over the coals about how he ran his campaign. For Sarah Palin’s part, well, she may have saved the house from burning down completely after her debate performance. But enough of the house had already burned to know that it could not be salvaged.
By Patrick Belvin…
655 Valley View Wy
Fairfield, CA 94535
TEL: (707) 439-9002
Email: pbelvin@comcast.net
Related Blogs
- Delta adds international flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul | Travel and Tourism
- Is Rodney Glassman Having a Sarah Palin Moment? « reappropriate
- Hype Means Nothing Muhammad Ali T-Shirt | Highsnobiety.com
- Teen alcohol rehab Starting Point Inc, Wasilla (AK) | Alcoholism Treatment Centers
- Music Biz Wants Google To Stop Linking To The Pirate Bay | TorrentFreak
- Muhammad Ali Sports Memorabilia Auctions | Quality Art Auctions Blog
- Delta adds international flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul | Online Travel Tips
- KMT Taichung CC nominations « Frozen Garlic
- Delta adds international flights at Minneapolis-St. Paul : The Airline Zone
- Hockey Accidents 2008 | Hockey Resources NHL
- Pres. Barack Obama Pkwy and a Certain AC/DC Song. | RedState
- The “Absent” Barack Obama | RedState
- WORLD CUP 2010: ALGERIA COACH SURPRISED BY POOR ENGLAND | NBF NEWS, FREE HOT NIGERIAN NEWS ONLINE FROM NEWSPAPERS, NIGERIA BEST FORUM BLOG
- Montreal mom who beat kids with hockey sticks gets 4 years | Montrealing
- Ali: The World’s Greatest
- White House Responds to Sarah Palin’s ‘Rahm Emanuel You Lie!’ Tweet | Mediaite
- Yahoo + Bing ≠ Google
- Mark Knopfler TV-HD – Shangri-La Tour 2005 – Part.1 | jellofart’s blog
- Charles ?sonny? Liston, an Undeserved Tragic Ending | Jaw Sore
- God That Was Boring! — Inverness Reds Online
How to Vote on Super Tuesday in Alaska
