McCain - Palin: Sarah Palin is the Republican Vice Presidential candidate

Well now we have a race. Senator McCain has just announced his Vice President and it has caught everyone off guard. His choice – Sarah Palin the Governor of Alaska.

You may not be familiar with this Governor, I wasn’t either. So I watched her speak and looked up some information on her.



She is 44, married for 20 years. She has 5 children, with her oldest son in the Army and going to Iraq in September. Her youngest son was born this year in April and has Down’s Syndrome – which was known before he was born. She has been Governor of Alaska for 2 years, and previously has been on the Wasilla City Council for 2 terms. She is a lifetime member of the NRA, a hunter, commercial fisher, a former Miss Alaska, and graduated from University of Idaho with a degree in Journalism.

She is also a bit of a maverick. Politically she took on the Republican Party in Alaska for ethics violations, refused to fund the Gravina Island Bridge – also known as the bridge to nowhere. She also opposed Senator Ted Stevens, known for being independent of oil companies, and opposed 35 last-minute appointments of former-Governor Murkowski including Jim Clark who later plead guilty for illegal campaign finance funding of Murkowski. She opposes same sex marriage, but has enabled laws that support same-sex couples benefits.

So overall this is an interesting choice by McCain.

As I have stated before I had thought he would go with Secretary of State Condolezza Rice. I was half right in that he took on a woman for VP. This effectively will pry many women away from the Democratic base, and add many from the independent voters. I cannot see how the supporters of Hillary Clinton cannot vote for McCain now, especially since many were obsessed with a woman being in the Oval Office.

Comparing the Vice Presidential picks we can see that only Gov. Palin has executive office experience. In fact she holds an 80% approval rating. That severely beats the approval rating of Congress which is below the rating of President Bush.

She is pro-life from what I can tell, Biden is pro-choice. Palin is pro-guns, Biden is anti-guns. Palin is younger than Obama, Biden is older. She is pro-drilling, Biden (and McCain) is against drilling in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). Palin has created a sub-committee to investigate ‘global warming’ and greenhouse gas emmissions in Alaska – so I’m not sure if she believe in global warming or not, Biden is down the Democratic Party-line on global warming. Palin has cut taxes and stimulated the economy in Alaska, Biden has voted to increase taxes but claims to be for tax cuts for the middle class.

It is unclear where Sarah Palin stands on unions, free trade, homeland security, immigration, education and foreign policy (though she has visited Iraq before). Biden is for unions, voted for NAFTA, voted for the Patriot Act (with limits on wiretaps), voted for a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and voted to give illegal aliens social security benefits [though SS is failing], is pro-teachers unions and voted against school vouchers, and his views on Iraq are famopusly opposed to his Party’s Presidential candidate.

And I know this is purely superficial but Sarah Palin looks far better than Joe Biden, especially for a mom of 5.

The Obama-Biden ticket is decidedly D.C. based and focused. The McCain-Palin ticket is not. Obama-Biden is defined as far-left liberal (first and third most liberal Senators currently), McCain-Palin would best be described as centrist/right.

Obama – Biden has a Black man, thus making history. McCain – Palin has a woman, thus making history (though honestly a bit less because Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman picked as a VP).

It is an interesting comparison. Obviously more must be learned about Sarah Palin to be sure where she stands. And her abilities in the debates will be quite interesting.