Best reason to like Sarah Palin

[MikeWaters]

She campaigned against her mother-in-law, Todd's step-mom.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/ar...837918,00.html

[Jeff Lebowski]

Did you read the entire article? Some interesting quotes:

But in the first major race of her career — the 1996 campaign for mayor of her hometown, Wasilla — Palin was a far more conventional politician. In fact, according to some who were involved in that fight, Palin was a highly polarizing political figure who brought partisan politics and hot-button social issues like abortion and gun control into a mayoral race that had traditionally been contested like a friendly intramural contest among neighbors.

In Stein's view, Palin's main transgression was injecting big-time politics into a small-town local race. "It was always a nonpartisan job," he says. "But with her, the state GOP came in and started affecting the race."

If you like that flavor of local politics, you would love it in Utah.

SU would like this:

One thing all sides agree on is that the valley was in flux. The old libertarian pioneer ethos was giving way to a rising Christian conservatism.

Here is our self-made woman, working her way up on the outside:

By shrewdly invoking issues that mattered to the ascendant majority, Palin won the mayor's race. But while she may have been a new face, says Naegele, she was no maverick — not yet. "The state party gave her the mechanism to get into that office," says Naegele. "As soon as she was confident enough to brush them off, she did. But she wasn't an outsider to start with. She very much had to kowtow to them."

She's a book-burner?

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Maverick or opportunist?

By the time Sarah Palin was entering state politics, the hottest issue in Alaska wasn't gay marriage or even abortion. It was corruption and cronyism. Andrew Halcro, a noted Palin critic who ran against her as an independent in the governor's race, says she knew instinctively that the issues were changing. Plus, he says, her opponents, such as incumbent governor Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the primary, were just as hard-right on abortion and guns as she was.

She needed a new political identity to make it to the next level, so ethics reform became her calling card. "She's a very savvy politician," says Halcro. "So wedge issues were not part of the portfolio."

[exUte]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

Did you read the entire article? Some interesting quotes:

If you like that flavor of local politics, you would love it in Utah.

SU would like this:

Here is our self-made woman, working her way up on the outside:



She's a book-burner?

Maverick or opportunist?

to me. Whether you agree or disagree with her views, she appears to get things done and she is better educated on oil/energy and exploration in Alaska than anyone on the Dem side (especially those who live furthest from Alaska - Kennedy, Kerry, Markey, et al).

[SeattleUte]

Here's what I'm going to do. Wait and see. McCain just happens to be the most socially liberal Republican nominee in eons. That's a good thing. It doesn't surprise me he had to pick a running mate that pleased the CR nitwits. I do think that as a woman her positions on social issues are less of a concern than were she a frumpy white guy. I'm not being sexist, I just think that as a woman she will inevitably have a more complex view of social issues because she's experienced oppression.

She's already proved to be kind of a mind-blast to the sexists who think women should stay at home, as the NY Times said in a cover story yesterday. Her first big test as a politician is tonight. Will she be an asset or liability to McCain? We'll see. It will be intersting.

[FMCoug]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Here's what I'm going to do. Wait and see. McCain just happens to be the most socially liberal Republican nominee in eons. That's a good thing. It doesn't surprise me he had to pick a running mate that pleased the CR nitwits. I do think that as a woman her positions on social issues are less of a concern than were she a frumpy white guy. I'm not being sexist, I just think that as a woman she will inevitably have a more complex view of social issues because she's experienced oppression.

She's already proved to be kind of a mind-blast to the sexists who think women should stay at home, as the NY Times said in a cover story yesterday. Her first big test as a politician is tonight. Will she be an asset or liability to McCain? We'll see. It will be intersting.

This was my point in the other thread. The one thing she is NOT is a boring, ho hum running mate. I have no idea which way it will go but I think she will either make or break the ticket.

[TripletDaddy]

Why would abortion be part of a mayoral race?

Why not also discuss nuclear proliferation, relations with China or the embargo against Cuba?

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

Why would abortion be part of a mayoral race?

Why not also discuss nuclear proliferation, relations with China or the embargo against Cuba?

They might even discuss men on mars in Wassilla, AK. WGAF.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

Why would abortion be part of a mayoral race?

Why not also discuss nuclear proliferation, relations with China or the embargo against Cuba?

Nuclear prolif is frequently a hot topic in mayoral ecelctions in the Bay Area.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by creekster

Nuclear prolif is frequently a hot topic in mayoral ecelctions in the Bay Area.

LOL. Amen brother monkey. It would take someone from Orange County to be as out of touch with local election nonsense in strange places as 3D is.

[SeattleUte]

I forgot to add that I'm rooting for her. Unlike some here, I want her to succeed.