WHO?

I keep hearing about some lady who is not afraid to take on the “old boys” of Alaska. I struggle to picture any old boys other than Eskimos and Polar Bears, but at least she’s a looker. This is obviously Senator John McCain’s answer to “Change you can Believe in,” I can’t believe it.

Sarah Palin has been Governor of Alaska for a year and a half and selected by the same guy who claims Obama doesn’t have the experience to lead the country. Palin is a former Mayor of towering, sprawling Wasilla (pop. 9000) and was reportedly chosen on one phone call and one visit. So much for the vice presidential search team, if you recall republicans made a huge stink about the man Obama picked just to lead his strategists in a search to find and approve a running mate. McCain just uses a quarter and a plane ticket and it’s a done deal. Obama inferred Friday that McCain’s choice was another blow against the glass ceiling. I find it interesting that since Hillary and Obama, old white male is no longer the end-all-and-be-all in national politics.

Yet the question still lingers, who is Sarah Palin and what has she done? I don’t know and not enough to win on such short notice. Unless you’re a political insider (or an Alaskan insider) you don’t know her. What church does she go to, does she have a controversial race-baiting Minister like Obama and McCain? What does this mother of 5 have that Mitt Romney, Joe Lieberman etc., don’t have? Many republicans are about to throw in the towel. The commonality with old boy politics and Palin is said to stop at pro-life, conservative and hunter. Like Obama she is a young basketball-playing intellectual, she worked her way up the ranks of local Wasilla politics to becoming the first and youngest (42) woman elected governor of Alaska.

This is great for the state known as the “last frontier,” to the rest of the country she is just a stranger with small-town values. History has proven a woman VP candidate doesn’t equate to victory. I remember back in ’84 how surprised I was that women simply did not gravitate to the polls for Walter Mondale’s running mate Geraldine Ferraro. Women are funny, they could have just turned jealous of her on Election Day, I don’t know. Mondale/Ferraro lost the women’s vote by 12 points. Mrs. Palin may not be where she is, if she were a man.

She can also be republican-petty; AP is investigating a rumor as to why she dismissed an Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner. The suspicion is because he refused to fire trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten is said to have gone through an ugly divorce from Palin’s sister. Sarah, on Earth people get divorced OK? Time will tell if she can rock the house and bring the crowds as no-doubt McCain hopes she can. According to CNN’s Ed Rollins: “The democrats now have their own version of an RR (Ronald Reagan) orator and like Reagan, Obama’s speeches are his own words.” McCain found a soft face to balance his bad temper, but this could be her springboard for 2012.