http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/
If you haven't seen Gerard Baker's great column contrasting Barack Obama's experience with that of Sarah Palin, you really should read all of it. Here is a sample:
Political experience
Obama: Worked his way to the top by cultivating, pandering to and stroking the most powerful interest groups in the all-pervasive Chicago political machine, ensuring his views were aligned with the power brokers there.
Palin: Worked her way to the top by challenging, attacking and actively undermining the Republican party establishment in her native Alaska. She ran against incumbent Republicans as a candidate willing and able to clean the Augean Stables of her state's government....
Executive experience
Obama: Makes executive decisions every day that affect the lives of his campaign staff and a vast crowd of traveling journalists
Palin:Makes executive decisions every day that affect the lives of 500,000 people in her state, and that impact crucial issues of national economic interest such as the supply and cost of energy to the United States.
Meanwhile, Beldar, whose blog is fast becoming the one-stop location for the defense of Sarah Palin, looks at Palin's experience on the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and argues that this experience is illustrative of Palin's character.
Second, although she'd been a reformer and opponent of government corruption/favoritism since her time as a Wasilla city councilman and then mayor, she significantly expanded those credentials — at enormous potential political risk — in her capacity as the Commisson's ethics officer.
In particular, she focused on ethical lapses by fellow Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, who was also (and unfortunately still is) the statewide GOP chairman. Ruedrich was refusing to complete and file disclosure reports that would have detailed his personal dealings with energy-related companies. When Reudrich ignored her complaints, she went to the state attorney-general, Gregg Renkes. When Renkes ignored her (and threatened her with prosecution if she became a public whistle-blower), she went to the GOP governor who'd appointed her, Frank Murkowski. Murkowski was then, of course, one of the troika of Grand Poobahs of Alaskan GOP politics, along with Congressman Don Young and Senator Ted Stevens.
When Murkowski ignored her too, however, Palin resigned. And she had every reason to believe at that point that her political career, on a statewide or larger stage, was dead.
Nevertheless, despite the threats of prosecution, she went public as a whisle-blower. She wrote a famous op-ed for the state's largest newspaper which contained the memorable statement that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick. And she proceeded to prove that point by continuing to direct public attention to the scandal.
She was helped along by criminal investigations that have since ended up with indictments and convictions of several public officials. Renkes was forced to resign as attorney-general. Reudrich ended up agreeing to pay a substantial fine for his ethics violations — not just the noncompliance with the disclosure forms, but substantive violations based on too-close ties with and favors from VECO, the drilling contractor that's been at the center of most of the Alaskan ethics scandals — and to quit the Commission.
She went from this background to defeating that old bull, Murkowski in the primary for the Republican nomination for governor and then defeated a popular Democrat to win the election.
Contrast her upstanding behavior speaking out against corruption within her own party with Obama's supposed claims to being a force for change against the old ways in Washington.
Barack Obama mouths platitudes about how "he passed" ethics reform legislation in the U.S. Senate. In fact, that was done on a bipartisan basis in which he was only one of many senate sponsors, and it was at no risk to himself or his party. Palin, by contrast to Obama, actually put her entire political future on the line to take on political forces far better known and more powerful than she was, relying on nothing but her own integrity and, ultimately, the public's. (bold in the original)
If what is important is character rather than national experience as Obama has been arguing, she definitely has shown to advantage in the character column.
"...When Murkowski ignored her too, however, Palin resigned. .."
I can see why the Obama fanatics have got to get this woman. She is dangerous. When Billy Jeff beat the impeachment, one of his cabinet should have resigned. I didn't expect all would because somebody has to run the gov. But one of them should have gone. None did. Now to get somebody into gov that has the guts to put their career on the line and resign in protest, well, we ain't gonna have anybody like that around here, makes the rest of us look bad.
If you haven't seen Gerard Baker's great column contrasting Barack Obama's experience with that of Sarah Palin, you really should read all of it. Here is a sample:
Political experience
Obama: Worked his way to the top by cultivating, pandering to and stroking the most powerful interest groups in the all-pervasive Chicago political machine, ensuring his views were aligned with the power brokers there.
Palin: Worked her way to the top by challenging, attacking and actively undermining the Republican party establishment in her native Alaska. She ran against incumbent Republicans as a candidate willing and able to clean the Augean Stables of her state's government....
Executive experience
Obama: Makes executive decisions every day that affect the lives of his campaign staff and a vast crowd of traveling journalists
Palin:Makes executive decisions every day that affect the lives of 500,000 people in her state, and that impact crucial issues of national economic interest such as the supply and cost of energy to the United States.
Meanwhile, Beldar, whose blog is fast becoming the one-stop location for the defense of Sarah Palin, looks at Palin's experience on the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and argues that this experience is illustrative of Palin's character.
Second, although she'd been a reformer and opponent of government corruption/favoritism since her time as a Wasilla city councilman and then mayor, she significantly expanded those credentials — at enormous potential political risk — in her capacity as the Commisson's ethics officer.
In particular, she focused on ethical lapses by fellow Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, who was also (and unfortunately still is) the statewide GOP chairman. Ruedrich was refusing to complete and file disclosure reports that would have detailed his personal dealings with energy-related companies. When Reudrich ignored her complaints, she went to the state attorney-general, Gregg Renkes. When Renkes ignored her (and threatened her with prosecution if she became a public whistle-blower), she went to the GOP governor who'd appointed her, Frank Murkowski. Murkowski was then, of course, one of the troika of Grand Poobahs of Alaskan GOP politics, along with Congressman Don Young and Senator Ted Stevens.
When Murkowski ignored her too, however, Palin resigned. And she had every reason to believe at that point that her political career, on a statewide or larger stage, was dead.
Nevertheless, despite the threats of prosecution, she went public as a whisle-blower. She wrote a famous op-ed for the state's largest newspaper which contained the memorable statement that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick. And she proceeded to prove that point by continuing to direct public attention to the scandal.
She was helped along by criminal investigations that have since ended up with indictments and convictions of several public officials. Renkes was forced to resign as attorney-general. Reudrich ended up agreeing to pay a substantial fine for his ethics violations — not just the noncompliance with the disclosure forms, but substantive violations based on too-close ties with and favors from VECO, the drilling contractor that's been at the center of most of the Alaskan ethics scandals — and to quit the Commission.
She went from this background to defeating that old bull, Murkowski in the primary for the Republican nomination for governor and then defeated a popular Democrat to win the election.
Contrast her upstanding behavior speaking out against corruption within her own party with Obama's supposed claims to being a force for change against the old ways in Washington.
Barack Obama mouths platitudes about how "he passed" ethics reform legislation in the U.S. Senate. In fact, that was done on a bipartisan basis in which he was only one of many senate sponsors, and it was at no risk to himself or his party. Palin, by contrast to Obama, actually put her entire political future on the line to take on political forces far better known and more powerful than she was, relying on nothing but her own integrity and, ultimately, the public's. (bold in the original)
If what is important is character rather than national experience as Obama has been arguing, she definitely has shown to advantage in the character column.
"...When Murkowski ignored her too, however, Palin resigned. .."
I can see why the Obama fanatics have got to get this woman. She is dangerous. When Billy Jeff beat the impeachment, one of his cabinet should have resigned. I didn't expect all would because somebody has to run the gov. But one of them should have gone. None did. Now to get somebody into gov that has the guts to put their career on the line and resign in protest, well, we ain't gonna have anybody like that around here, makes the rest of us look bad.
