Palin, Polar Bears, and Duct Tape

How would you like a Vice President who has the guts to stand up to hard-line liberal environmentalists, but is humble enough to take time out of a busy legislative session to appear at the grand opening of her home town's new Wal-Mart?

Sarah Palin has done both in the last week, showing again why she is arguably THE premier conservative leader in the nation.

In a remarkable display of gutsy leadership, Gov. Palin came out strongly against the listing of Alaska's perfectly healthy polar bear population as a "threatened species" based solely on global warming speculation. In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Palin said the following, "The listing of a currently healthy species based entirely on highly speculative and uncertain climate and ice modeling and equally uncertain and speculative modeling of possible impacts on a species would be unprecedented." The listing is being proposed based on climate modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) which predicts that Alaska's polar bear population will be totally wiped out by shrinking amounts of summer sea ice in the next 50 years. Palin left open the possiblility of protecting the bears in the future, but said (rightly, in my opinion) that it would be premature to make such a decision now. The state of Alaska maintains that the USGS' "middle-of-the-road" predictions are "selective". Doug Vincent-Lang, a special assistant with Fish and Game, told the Anchorage Daily News, "They predetermined their outcome in choosing the models they chose." Palin also noted that conferring "threatened" status based on climate change predictions could "open the floodgates" for petitions to protect thousands of other species.

Palin also took time this week to participate in the grand opening of the newly expanded Wal-Mart supercenter in her hometown of Wasilla. In addition to cutting a red duct tape ribbon (the Wasilla location sold more duct tape last year than any Wal-Mart in the country), the Governor made some touching observations about the townsfolk that I think could be applied to herself as well, "The (Mat-Su) Valley is a unique place, and not just because we are the duct tape capitol of the world, which we are proud of being in Wasilla. But we are hard working, very unpretentious, just good, salt of the earth people that live here and are working in this store." On a more poltical note, this shows that Gov. Palin is one of those rare polticians (especially in Alaska) who respects American capitalism but is willing to stand up against graft and corruption when businesses step over the line (as in the cas of Alaska's oil industry).

I sincerely hope that the GOP presidential nominee will realize just how badly we need "good, salt of the earth people" like Sarah Palin in the next administration....and I pray that the Governor will be willing to answer the call.

Palin scares Dems!

Before I get started, I should tell you to click here to listen to my interview on Doug Gibbs' Political Pistachio.

Anyway, I was looking at my hit-counter today, and I was rather puzzled to find that I had visitors coming from this liberal post about how massive numbers of Republican women will supposedly vote for Hillary instead of our nominee (yeah right). But I scrolled down, and I found this in the comments section:

Not to be Debbie Downer here, but if this happens we could be in for bad times. http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/
Posted by Benson October 20, 2007 2:33 PM

Now, I'm not going to put too much stock in one blog comment, but this is the first time that I have EVER seen a Democrat say something like this about ANY Republican in the 2008 election. Sarah Palin is the very antithesis of everything that Hillary Clinton stands for, and by far the strongest candidate that we could put in the VP slot. If Palin is on the ticket, I think it would send a very clear message to the opposition: "Be afraid, Senator Clinton, be VERY afraid."

Palin on Charlie Rose, Me on Political Pistachio

There are two big interviews that I need to tell you about. The first happened last Friday, when Governor Palin (along with Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona) sat down with Charlie Rose for a nice long interview. I thought that she did a great job, more than holding her own alongside the two-term Democrat Napolitano. It was also significant that the Governors were asked about national issues and the presidential race. Palin remains uncommitted to any candidate, but she did single out National Security as the biggest issue in the coming election and Energy and Ethics as the issues that Alaskans will most want to hear about. This interview shows, yet again, why Sarah Palin should be a candidate for national office in the near future.

The second interview involves myself. I will be appearing on Doug Gibbs' internet talk show Political Pistachio this Wednesday at 10:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Pacific (6:00 PM Alaskan). Be sure to listen live, and call in if you can, but the show will be replaying on the web until Saturday if you can't. Political Pistachio is one of the bigger internet shows, and previous guest have included former presidential candidate Jim Gilmore, and big-time bloggers such as Atlas Shrugs. So, this is definitely a great opportunity for the Palin Movement.

Gov. Palin in Newsweek!

"Women & Power" is the theme for next week's issue of Newsweek, and can you guess who got a very prominent mention? That's right, it's Sarah Palin. In a long article devoted to woman governors, the two main focuses were Democrat Janet Napolitano of Arizona and, representing the Republicans, Sarah Palin! Palin is the youngest and least senior of the the three female GOP governors, but she leap-frogged Connecticut's M. Jodi Rell and Hawaii's Linda Lingle to take top billing. So, yet another media outlet has confirmed the governor's status as the fastest rising star in the Republican Party.

Check out the article here!

And is it just me, or does that building in their photograph of Gov. Palin bear an uncanny similarity to the White House? An omen, maybe?

Click here to sign the "Draft Palin for VP" petition!

Sign the "Draft Palin" petition!

If you want Sarah Palin as your next Vice-President, please show your support by signing our new online petition at iPetitions.com. It takes only a few seconds to add your signature. Let's show America just how much support there is for a Palin candidacy!

Here's the text:

"We, the undersigned, call upon the Republican Party to put forward candidates for national office who represent our party’s ideals of limited government, honesty in public service, and strong American values.

Therefore, based on her strong record of fiscal and social conservatism, the decisiveness with which she has led her state, and her relentless pursuit of ethical government; we ask that that eventual Republican nominee for President of the United States select Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as the Republican candidate for Vice President in the year 2008. "

Click here to sign!

Patrick Ruffini likes Palin

UPDATE: Patrick Ruffini has continued his praise of Gov. Palin, devoting an entire Townhall column to her exploits. (Click here to read). He has also posted about the Governor at Hugh Hewitt's blog (Click here)

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Proof continues to mount that Sarah Palin is quickly becoming a national figure. Today, conservative web guru Patrick Ruffini, who served as webmaster for the Bush-Cheney Campaign in 2004 and eCampaign Director for the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007, added himself to to the growing list of bloggers praising with the GOP's fastest rising star. The following is an excerpt from Ruffini's post today, in which he endorsed California congressional candidate Eric England:

"Erick Erickson got it absolutely right when he wrote, “If we do not clean our own house, the voters will do it for us.” The house cleaning just swept Idaho (though it looks like we’ll need to send the cleaners back in). It’s happening in Alaska, where new Governor Sarah Palin is standing up to Ted Stevens and Don Young and winning. The next big test — and perhaps the biggest one in the next few months — is California-4 and the fight to replace corrupt appropriator John Doolittle in Congress."

Tags: Sarah Palin, Vice-President , 2008 Election, President 2008, Running Mate, VPOTUS, Veep , Palin, Rudy Giuliani , VP 2008, Alaska, Mitt Romney , John McCain, Fred Thompson, Republicans, GOP, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Patrick Ruffini, Hugh Hewitt

Palin elected chair of Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission

Gov. Palin was elected today to a one-year term as chairperson of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), an interstate organization consisting of 30 member states and seven associate member states. She succeeds Gov. John Hoeven (R-ND), and past chairmen include presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Bill Richardson. While several Alaskan governors, including Palin's two immediate predecessors, have chaired the commission, none were elected so early in their tenure. In fact, only one other first-year governor has chaired the IOGCC recent memory, Bill Richardson (in 2004) , and he was a former U.S. Secretary of Energy. Before him, you have to go back to 1987 to find someone elected IOGCC chair in their first year (George Sinner of North Dakota).

This election secures Sarah Palin's place as one of the nation's top experts on energy issues and a leader among her fellow governors. It also puts her at the head of "the oldest, largest, and most effective interstate compact in the nation."

Click here to read the IOGCC press release on Gov. Palin's election.

Tags: Sarah Palin, Vice-President , 2008 Election, President 2008, Running Mate, VPOTUS, Veep , Palin, Rudy Giuliani , VP 2008, Alaska, Mitt Romney , John McCain, Fred Thompson, Republicans, GOP, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee

Club for Growth loves Palin

The Club for Growth PAC has lauded Governor Palin for canceling the "bridge to nowhere" project, and they seem to be as infatuated with taking her national as anybody on our blogroll. In addition to their praise, the CFG also released a poll which indicates that the Governor would clobber U.S. Senator Ted Stevens were she to challenge him in next year's primary. Of course, the CFG has major issues with Ted Stevens and hence would love to see Sarah Palin rip his seat out from under him. However, something tells me that they would also be absolutely ecstatic if the GOP presidential nominee decided that Alaska's pork-buster extraordinaire was better suited for a slightly higher office.

Tags: Sarah Palin, Vice-President , 2008 Election, President 2008, Running Mate, VPOTUS, Veep , Palin, Rudy Giuliani , VP 2008, Alaska, Mitt Romney , John McCain, Fred Thompson, Republicans, GOP, Duncan Hunter, Club For Growth, Bridge to Nowhere, Mike Huckabee

This is called an "Insta-lanche"

This is what happens to your blog's hit count when you get linked by Instapundit.com. If you're not familiar with Instapundit, it is arguably the most widely read conservative political blog on the planet. Thank you very much to Instapundit for the link. (I can't link directly to individual posts on Instapundit; but if you want to know how to find the link, it was posted at 5:13 PM on Saturday).
P.S. Why does this stuff always happen when I can't blog? But what can I say? Yom Kippur is Yom Kippur and I've got to do what I've got to do.

Palin sacks "bridge to nowhere" project

UPDATE: This story has now been mentioned by Instapundit, The Club for Growth, and the ABC News Political Radar Blog

While long an object of national attention, Alaska's $398 million "bridge to nowhere" is actually a state project...or rather, it WAS a state project. Today, Governor Palin trashed the plan and directed the state transportation department to find a more "fiscally responsible" alternative.

Way to go, Governor!

Palin calls out Ben Stevens

According to KTUU, Gov. Palin has made it known that she wants former State Senate President Ben Stevens out of his position as Alaska's representative to the Republican National Committee. Stevens, the son of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, has been named by former VECO corporation executives as one of the legislators who had received bribes from that company, although he is not currently facing any charges.

Palin has stated "When I'm looking at the political party in which I'm registered and I see the national committee man is Ben Stevens, I'm free there to state my opinion and that's; he shouldn't be our national committeeman."

The Governor is also asking the State Senate to review whether Senator John Cowdery (R-Anchorage), also named as a VECO bribe recipient, should remain in his position as Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Cowdery has announced that he will not attend the upcoming special session of the legislature.

Governor Palin is becoming arguably the greatest crusader for ethical government in this country. With the GOP trying to cement its image as a party that does not tolerate wrongdoing (see: Larry Craig), and with the the Dems reeling from the Norman Hsu scandal, Sarah Palin's reputation as one of the nation's most ethical politicians is exactly what the party needs to carry it to victory in 2008.

ACES and the Army

There are two recent stories out of Alaska that I feel are worth mentioning:

First, the news broke today that Gov. Palin's son Track enlisted in the U.S. Army on September 11th. I have always believed that it is inappropriate for the children of political figures to be drug into political conversations, so I will simply salute the young Mr. Palin for his patriotism and leave it at that. I will not be discussing this story further unless it somehow becomes a major political issue at some point in the future.

Secondly, and more importantly for the purposes of this blog, Gov. Palin has called another special session of the Alaska Legislature to debate how oil production should be taxed. The current system, known as the Petroleum Production Tax (PPT), was voted in last year and called for oil companies to be taxed on their net profits. However, the legitimacy of that system was called into question when it was revealed that several state legislators had taken bribes from the Veco oil pipeline company in exchange for their votes in favor of the PPT.

Gov. Palin has proposed an alternative plan which she has labeled "Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share (ACES)". ACES is a hybrid system which taxes oil companies partially based on gross profits and partially based on net profits. Gov. Palin had originally supported a gross profits tax, but concluded that such a tax would not be a good deal for the oil industry. Hence, she has put forth the ACES plan in an effort to ensure that "the golden goose is fed and not killed". In the legislature, the plan has drawn the ire of both Democrats, who wanted a system based on gross profits only, and some Republicans, who want to stick with the PPT system of taxing only net profits.

Here's my take: The PPT system was bought and paid for, that is beyond dispute at this point. If the vote on any proposal is tainted by corruption, then that legislation should be reconsidered. Hence, I support the calling of the special session. As for ACES, it seems to be a solid plan to me. It eliminates the pitfalls presented by the tainted PPT, while also trying to avoid the economic ramifications of the harsher gross profits-based plans advocated by the Democrats. The legislature will have more than enough time to hash out details, and I expect the finished plan to put in place a tax that is low enough to stimulate the economy, but also fair to the people of Alaska (who do happen to own all of that oil).

While I am no economist, I think that ACES is good proposal for the legislature to start with. It is not a liberal plan, but nor is it a tainted one. The fact that Gov. Palin chose such a proposal also shows that she is willing to objectively evaluate her own positions, as she says that she was "dragged kicking and screaming, with a little bit of gnashing of teeth, even, away from the pure simple gross system." This shows me that, while Palin is a strong, decisive leader, she is also willing to listen to good advisers. I will continue watch this story with keen interest.

Tags: Sarah Palin, Vice-President , 2008 Election, President 2008, Running Mate, VPOTUS, Veep , Palin, Rudy Giuliani , VP 2008, Alaska, Mitt Romney , John McCain, Fred Thompson , Republicans, GOP, Duncan Hunter, ACES, PPT, Mike Huckabee

We Will Never Forget

"September 11, 2001, was a day that changed America forever. The magnitude of that attack was terrible, its motivation inexplicable, and its result shocking. Those whom we lost on that fateful day will forever hold a place in our hearts and in the history of our great country."

- Governor Sarah Palin
(September 10th, 2007)

Steve Maloney

Today, Steve Maloney at Campaign 2008 Victory, our biggest booster in recent months, indicated that he would be taking a slightly less active role in the Draft Palin effort in order to pursue other blogging ventures. Mr. Maloney has been a tremendous help to our budding movement, and for that he deserves our thanks.

Column on Palin

I apologize for not blogging in recent days, but I have been working on a column about the Palin Movement for the newspaper at my university. This column outlines how and why I started this venture, and I think you should read it if you want to know the basic reasoning and thought process behind this blog. (Click here to read)

A testimonial

My last post contained a lot of photos taken by Tricia Ward of Dillingham, AK (www.triciaward.com). I also asked Tricia for her permission to post a portion of her email discussion with me, as I think that her experiences with the Governor illustrate the type of person and leader that Governor Palin is. So, without further ado, here is the story behind the photos in my last entry (comments inside brackets are added by me as explanations).

"What happened was the Palins came in for Dillingham's first wild fish festival, and while meeting with the locals at the boat harbor, I asked her if I could give her a tour of the UAF Bristol Bay campus with the director, Debbie Mclean-Nelson. The Palins didn't have any real set schedule and she was more than happy to have me (along with Debbie and a few other local students) show her our new facilities. I had promised Apayo [local mural creator Apayo Moore] that I'd try to get her to paint a tile [for the mural], so i asked her if she wanted to take part in a community art project happening at the high school. Of course she was stoked, so we continued our walk up to the high school. Piper really had a good time painting, she didn't want to leave! But yeah, sarah is a very nice woman, i was impressed with her willingness to listen to everyone ask her questions. I was also impressed that she was willing to let some random student/wannabe photojournalist drag her around for a couple hours...Sarah said the time she spent at the campus and the school painting is what she appreciated the most about her trip to Dillingham because she usually doesn't get to see that side of the local life."

More Great Pics

These pictures of Gov. Palin were referred to me by a supporter in Dillingham, Alaska. They were all taken by Tricia Ward during the Governor's recent visit to Dillingham.

Many thanks to Mrs. Ward for granting us permission to post her photos, you can find more of her work online at www.triciaward.com.

Gov. Palin meets Alaska's 2007 Teacher of the Year, Ina Bouker

More of the Palins with Ina Bouker

The Governor paints a tile for Dillingham's new mural with daughter Piper (right). The woman at left is Apayo Moore, the creator of the mural.

The Governor with State Troopers.

The Governor with local kids.

Again, Thanks to Tricia Ward for allowing me to put up these wonderful photos, which I think help illustrate the "down to earth" qualities that endear Gov. Palin to those of us who want her in national office.

Tomorrow will be a big day, as Gov. Palin will be holding a press conference regarding the state-owned Matanuska Maid Dairy and it's impending sale.

The Dreaded Post About Gov. Palin's Looks

As I said yesterday, I generally avoid the subject of Sarah Palin's looks like the proverbial plague. However, while I was watching KTUU's excellent news report about the Palin Movement on Friday, I realized that I was going to have to talk about the issue.

Many bloggers who support Sarah Palin (and a number that don't) often refer to her using words such as "hot" or "gorgeous". Now, I have no intention of telling others how to run their blogs, and if they think that mentioning the subject will benefit Gov. Palin, then more power to them. However, I will not do so and I feel a need to make that fact clear along with the reason behind it.

I do not dispute that the governor is photogenic and that good looks are always helpful to a candidate for office (which is as true for men like Mitt Romney and John Edwards as it is for Gov. Palin). One of our supporters, Sanity102, has rightly asserted that Palin's photo-friendly face, combined with her spunky personality and her equally camera-ready husband and family, would make her a dream candidate from a pure marketing standpoint. That said, I think that support for a candidate should be based primarily on the substance of that person's views and their leadership abilities. Anything beyond those two points is, to me, icing on the cake and not worth devoting a lot of attention to.

I strive very hard to maintain the credibility of the Palin Movement, because our idea is so outside-the-box that it could be easily dismissed if the main bloggers promoting it were anything less than professional at all times. Gov. Palin's appearance is irrelevant to me, and I think that mentioning it too often can cheapen the tone of the discussion about her political future.

This is a serious blog, and I intend to keep it serious. Hence, my policy is to talk about Sarah Palin's photogenic qualities only to the point where they are politically relevant, which means little or never. The rest of the blogosphere can stand where it wants and I won't hold it against them. But just for the record, that is where I stand.

Media frenzy continues: Take a bow, Palin fans!

The Palin for VP movement was on KTUU's evening newscast for the second time on Friday. This go-round featured the Palin Movement's National Coordinator, Steve Maloney, in addition to WorldNetDaily White House Correspondent Les Kinsolving and Weekly Standard Editor Fred Barnes. Palintology.com has the video posted as it's top story (I'm not in the mood to dink around with YouTube at the moment.)

While we're talking about Steve Maloney, I think now would be a good time to thank him for his contribution to our budding movement. Steve has heaped a lot of praise on me, but the fact is that most of the gains we have made would not have been possible without him. He says that he has put a thousand hours of work into the Palin Movment, and I believe him. He has sent hundreds of emails, commented on more blogs than I can count, and written extensively on Sarah Palin on his own blog. Steve is one of the rare people in politics who has been around long enough to know how the game works (starting with Newt Gingirch's congressional campaign in 1974) but is still idealistic enough to think he can change the way it is played, and he's done his darndest to learn new technologies in order to make his voice heard. I can only hope that I'm still going that strong when I'm 67 years old!


I also want to give a shout out to Trish Houser of Palintology.com. Trish has done a spectacular job providing news about Gov. Palin to the outside world, and I will admit to getting a lot of my news from her. She has also been a great friend to this website (that lovely new banner at the top of the page was a gift from her), even though she has told me that she would prefer to see her Governor fix up Alaska before thinking about national office. Since I'm not offering Palin for Veep t-shirts yet, I would highly suggest that you have a look at her CafePress store and "Palintologist" and "Sarah-bot" apparel that you can order there. I'm personally partial to the hilarious "Sarah-bot" graphic.

Well, I think that's enough for one night. Tomorrow I will be writing my first column about a subject that I have avoided like the plague up to this point....Gov. Palin's looks and whether or not they are relevant.

The Smear Campaigns Begin....

This post is primarily about Gov. Palin's "First Dude" going back to his job with a major oil company in Prudhoe Bay and her opponents' kvetching about how that might create a conflict of interest. However, before i get into that, I want to adress another smear campaign that is slightly more personal to me:

I consider Trish over at Palintology to be one of my better friends in the blogosphere. She is a stand-up individual, and she runs a great website. She recently had a run-in with the Anchorage Daily News' Sheila Toomey, who wrote a article which essentially asserted that Trish was being paid by someone to run her Palin fan site. Here's the problem: Trish had been contacted by Toomey via email before the article was written, and had made it known that she had not recieved one red cent in for her efforts. Please take the time to read about this situation further at Palintology.com, then (if you subscribe to adn.com) please take a few minutes to tell Ms. Toomey to learn some ethics by commenting on her article.

Okay, now we can talk about Governor Palin.

The big news out of Alaska this week is that "First Dude" Todd Palin is returning to his job as a North Slope oil worker for BP after taking a leave of absence. (Please check out this video news report for details). As BP is a major oil and gas producer, some are arguing that Todd Palin's job could create a conflict of interest for Sarah Palin's administration. I personally think that such arguments are ill-informed.

First off, it is worth noting that Mr. Palin is a "production operator" not a manager or an executive. As a blue-collar worker on an hourly wage, there is little chance that his job will be affected by any of the interactions that his wife could have with the BP company.

In fact, Gov. Palin specifically requested a report from Alaska's attorney general regarding whether her husband's return to work would cause any conflicts of interest under the state's ethics laws. You can click here to view that report, and I think you will find that it repeatedly states that no conflicts of interest would exist unless the Governor had
to deal with an issue that directly impacted her husband's performance of his job.

My question is why this story has only now materialized. No one complained about potential conflicts when Sarah Palin chaired Alaska's oil and gas commission, but now it's suddenly a BIG deal. Personally, I think it has to do with the fact that Palin has become far more popular an prominent than anyone could have ever expected. She's pushing through her agenda like gangbusters, polls show that she could beat Sen. Ted Stevens if she challenged him, and a bunch of crazy bloggers are enjoying a good deal of success in their efforts to make her Vice President. If you are a Palin opponent or a partisan Democrat, your worst nightmares are coming true, and you are probably feeling the need to try to take care of your "problem" before it becomes even more dangerous. Hence, Palin's detractors have now decided to conjure up a way of associating Palin with the sort of corrupt politics that she fights so hard against.

Of course, the problem with such a smear campaign is that it is not based on fact, but rather on an emotional desire to see the Gov. Palin fail. For instance, consider that the main Palin detractor in the video that I linked is Ethan Berkowitz. Mr. Berkowitz was the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor in 2006, when he and his running mate (Tony Knowles) were squashed by the GOP ticket of Sarah Palin and Sean Parnell, now THAT'S a conflict of interest. . While I respect the fact that he helped author an ethics white paper for the Governor, I think that asking Ethan Berkowitz for an objective view of the Palin administration is like asking a salmon for an unbiased assessment of the grizzly bear that's about to eat it.

A word of caution to the purveyors of this nonsense: Taking shots at Sarah Palin is somewhat akin to playing Russian Roulette. Remember what happened to the Voice of the Times and the State Ag Board? Please don't make fools of yourselves, you may regret it.