Michael Reagan on Sarah Palin

Interesting column by Michael Reagan or Sarah Palin. Well worth the reading.

Republican National Convention, Part 2

Here I am again with my thoughts on last night's Republican national Convention.

What can I say about Sarah Palin but WOW. When I was originally thinking about this post I was going to sturcture it like I did for Day 1. I was going to talk about Mitt, Mike and Rudy and what they said. Believe me they had some excellent things to say. Romney's comment, "It is time to stop dependence on government and fight it like the poison that it is" was striking. Mike Huckabee's thanking of the MSM for unifying the Republican Party around McCain/Palin was hilarious. Calling BO's tour of Europe "Obama's Excellent European Adventure" was wonderful. And then we came to Rudy Guliani who is like no other when he is on the attack. Those teeth, that laugh!

As usual Rudy hits it on the head:

to those who still feel torn about who to vote for in this election. I have something that might help you. Imagine you are hiring someone to do a job, a job that relates to the safety of you and your family. Imagine you have two job applicants, both honorable men. On the one hand you have a man who has devoted his life to the service of his country. He has passed every test. Even his adversaries acknowledge that John McCain is a true American hero. He has sacrificed for this country as few do. America comes first with John McCain. He has proved his commitment with his blood.

On the other hand you have a resume for a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a "community organizer". He immersed himself in Chicago machine politics. then he ran for the state legislature and got elected, and 130 times he couldn't make a decision. He couldn't decide whether to vote yes or no....it was too tough! He voted "present". For the President of the United States it isn't good enough to be "present", you have to make a decision. A few years later he ran for Senate. He spent his time as a "celebrity" senator, sponsoring no legislation. He has never run a city, he has never run a state, he has never run a military unit, he has never had to lead people in a crisis. Barak Obama has never led anything, nothing, NADA. The choice in this election calls for substance over celebrity. This is no time for on the job training. No one can look at John McCain and say he isn't ready to be Commander in Chief.

I was already pumped and then came Sarah Palin. She is what the Liberals and those on the Left fear the most and understand the least; a self made woman who holds her office totally due to her own merits and not because of who her husband is (not to take anything away from Hillary's many accomplishments or for that matter Elizabeth Dole). Articulate, well informed, competent, in a job that she has earned on her own merits, in a successful 20 year marriage with a man who obviously adores her and is proud of her, with a family that is reflective of the majority of us and who is a Conservative Republican. Who couldn't have been moved by seeing her 6 year old daughter Piper holding her little brother Trig and as the world watched, kissing his face and then licking her whole hand and smoothing down his hair. Or Gov Palin's 17 y.o. daughter who sat there, very composed, with her fiance by her side, quietly holding his hand. Yes we all know that Bristol Palin is pregnant and isn't yet married but the Liberal Left would expect us to throw them under the bus for this rather than praising the Palin family for again choosing life and showing unconditional love for their child. Sarah Palin is a strong woman who is living the dream and doing the things that for the last 30 years the Feminists have been telling us we can do. We are supposed to be able to hold a job, have kids, have a successful marriage and be good at all of them. Hmmmmmm. Perhaps that was only if we were voting Democratic. I guess Sarah Palin and I must have missed the memo on that one.

Getting back to the matter at hand, The Speech. Gov. Palin had to give the speech of her life and she did so. I have heard it bandied about that she didn't write the speech, that she was only "parroting" someone else's words. Well of course she had someone's help in writing that speech you moron, all politicians do. Do you thin that BO spoke his won words last week at Barakopolis? My guess is that what we heard last night was written with the help of someone but was totally reflective of who Sarah Palin is. Another little tidbit is that there were teleprompter problems and that she did a great portion fo the speech from memory, ad lib and notes. I couldn't tell that, could you?

Let's think about what a VP nominee is supposed to do, at least in my opinon. They are supposed to reflect the Presidential nominee. Their job is to reflext what the Presidentila nominee is telling us that he or she (someday) will do once they are in the White House. The VP nominee is the Moon to the Presidential nominee's Sun to use a really stupid analogy. To use another phrase, the VP candidate is the "attack dog" for the President. Hmmmmmm. What was it that Sarah Palin said about being a Hockey Mom? Oh yes I remember, "Do you know what the differnece is between a Hockey Mom and a pit bull......lipstick." Sarah Palin did just what the VP nominee is supposed to do, she reflected who John McCain is, how much he has sacrificed for this country and what they paln to do WHEN they are elected in November. She know her stuff on energy policy and isn't afraid to say that we need to drill now. To quote Rudy, "Drill baby drill!"

Not that I had any doubts before but I think that Sarah Palin has no problem getting into a fight if she has to. She most likely will do it with a smile and with lipstick and high heels but make no mistake, she will take it to you if need be. A woman who took on her own party to win the Governorship and who took on the corrupt Republican machine once there is a woman without fear. A woman who continued with her fifth pregnancy despite knowing that her baby would have Down's Syndrome is a courageous woman. This is a woman that I will be voting for without hesitation and with pride.

There were so many good quotes from her speech that I don't think I can pick out my favorite. Well, maybe I can:

I guess a small town mayor is sort of like "community organizer", except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talke about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. We also tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored tow memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his won campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled bact to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? The answer is to make government bigger...take more of your money...give you more orders from Washington...and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.

Since the announcement last week of Sarah Palin as the VP nominee the MSM has subjected her to the most vitriolic, misogynistic, over the top witch hunt that I have ever seen. With this speech she proved that she can take it and give it right back. Rather than doing an "Eagleberger" on her, they strengthened her commitment to this fight and the commitment of those of us out in "fly over country" who see in Sarah Palin our own lives and the every day issues that we deal with.

I am reminded of the quote by Isoroku Yamamoto, the author and executor of the attack on Pearl Harbor:

I fear that all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.

Amen to that

Wait for it

My take on last night's RNC will be arriving later. I have to digest the notes that I took and do some journaling to get the old thoughts together. Until I can do that, here are several other things for you to read. Thanks to the incomparable Michelle Malkin for these. I don't always agree with her but she makes me think.

The Beltway Boys
I Will Vote For Sarah Palin

Republican National Convention, Part 1

Well, I watched the second night of the Republican National Convention and now you will be subjected to my thoughts. You will most likely get one of these for each night of viewing so be prepared. This may be rather long so bear with me.

First off let me suggest that if you want to get the pure flavor of the Convention, without all the talking heads and endless commentary then you need to watch the Convention on CSPAN There are no commercials, there are no talking heads giving you pithy little comment and talking over the people on the floor. This is the only way to go. If you watch on CSPAN you will have to make your way through the less than polished speeches but you will also be able to see some gems. It was very moving to hear the speech given by the man (whose name I didn't catch) who adopted one of the little girls that Cindy McCain brought back from Bangledesh when the McCain's adopted their daughter. If you watched CNN, MSNBC or FOX you didn't see it. You also didn't see the acknowledgement of the 23 former POWs who had been in the Hanoi Hilton with John McCain or the 5 Medal of Honor recipients who were in attendance. You also did not see the moving tribute to MOH recipient Michael A. Mosoor who, in September of 2006, gave the last ful measure of devotion so that other Marines could live.

Another general observation: John McCain has a wealth of ordinary men and women who are willing and eager to stand up and tell the American public what kind of man John McCain is. The men who served with him, the people that he has interacted with in his long career in the military and in Washington. Ordinary people like you and I who know him and can tell you that he is exactly as you see him. Who has Barak Obama had to do that job? Who has stepped up to tell us what BO is really like? Dick Durbin? Give me a break. Anyone from his "Community Organizer" days? Nope. By the way, what the heck is a community organizer anyway?

Now, on to what I thought about the speeches themselves.
1. President Bush
He was good as usual. Humorous, serious, to the point. He communicated what he needed to, that John McCain is his own man and not another George Bush. That McCain has often gone against the establishment and President Bush and that he does what is right.

This was the "money quote"

If the Hanoi Hilton couldn't break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for America, the Angry Left NEVER will

2. Fred Thompson
He hit it OUT OF THE PARK!!!! I have always like Fred Thompson and I think if he had shown this same sort of enthusiasm on the campaign trail then he might have done better. Rather than flounder around with my own words I think that John Hinderaker of Powerline said it best, "Fred Thompson told John McCain's story the way McCain won't tell it himself: His early days as a rebel; his almost unimaginable heroism as a POW, and his principled career in Washington."
Senator Thompson was humorous, eloquent, and hard hitting. I think that the McCain camp should designate him their "Official Attack Dog" forthe last 60 days of the campaign. Release the hounds!!!!!

Just a smattering of my favorite lines from his speech. It is well worth going over to YouTube and looking at the speech in total. I won't post the videos here because you do have to do some of the work on your own!

Speaking about Sarah Palin:

A courageous, successful reformer who is not afreaid to take on the establishment and win. She has run a municipality and she has runa a state and I think I can say without fear of contradiciton that she is the only nominee of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose. When she and John McCain get to Washington, they aren't going to care how much the alligatore get irritated, they're going to drain the swamp.

The heart of the matter on abortion

We need a president who doesn't think the protection of the unborn or a newborn is above his pay grade!

His jab on Obama's proposal to only tax the wealthies and businesses was excellent

We need a President who understands that you don't make citizens prosperous by making Washington richer, and you don'tlift an economic downturn by imposing one of the largest tax increases in American history.

Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they are not going to tax your family.

No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! SO unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline....or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small businees, don't worry...it's not going to affect you.

They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket!

And in the end it really comes down to this:

Two questions we won't ever have to ask ourselves about this man. 1. Who is this man? and 2. Can we trust this man with the presidency?

3. Joe Lieberman
I have liked Joe Lieberman for a long time. I admire his stance on the war in Iraq, on national security and on Israel. He is a man you is courageous and that was shown last night when he spoke in front of the Republican National Convention. The political impact that this will have on him will be enormous I am sure. The Democrats will make him pay. However, he is a man who acts with the courage of his convictions and that showed through in this speech. When you remember that just eight years ago HE was the Democratic nominee for VP then the speech is all that more remarkable.

I think this summed his speech up fairly accurately

I'm here tonight for a simple reason: John McCain is the best choice to bring the country together and lead America forward. And I'm here because John McCain's full life testifies to a great truth: Being a Democrat or a Republican is important. But it is not more important than being an American

Way to go Joe.

So, tonight it is on to Sarah Palin. I can hardly wait.

Cartoon of the Day

The Funniest Cat Video You Will Ever See

This is just the best way to start your day, with a little laughter.

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Oh I am so sad. I came across this article this morning telling us that PBS has cancelled "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood". What do they think they are doing?!?

We never missed watching Mr. Rogers when the girls were growing up. It was one of the few shows that they were allowed to watch on the TV. We were big on watching videos (they had seen A LOT of MGM musicals by the time they were ready to start going to school) but not big on regular TV programs. However, Mr. Rogers was the exception.

We would wait eagerly for that familiar piano music and that not particularly strong voice telling us that it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and asking if we wouldn't like to be his neighbor. Oh! I would, I would! What color sweater would he have on that day? Would it be a button up sweater that told you that this was an older episode or would the sweater have a zipper. If it was a button up sweater would he get all the buttons "buttoned" correctly. We loved the episode where he didn't get them all correctly buttoned but didn't realize it at first. It just made him all the more human and down to earth. What would we be doing today? Who would we be meeting? We never knew what would be happening but we could be assured that it would be interesting, educational and gentle in the way that only Mr. Rogers could make it.

I have been using the royal "we" because my daughters weren't the only ones looking forward to Mr. Rogers every day. I watched as well. Who couldn't love all the characters that we would meet on a regular basis. There was the genial mailman, Mr.McFeeley, who had the worst wig in the world and was always bringing Mr. Rogers a video tape to watch or some other unusual item. We loved those video tapes because that meant that we would be learning about how something was made. Over the years we learned about crayons, graham crackers, dolls, toy hobby horses, pencils and so many other things.

Then there was the Chef Brokett, with his raspy voice and chef toque, who taught us how to prepare healthy (and often rather unappealing) snacks for us "kids" to eat. He seemed to be very taken with recipes that had peanut butter in them or so I remember. Also, there were lots of things with raisins.

Or perhaps we would go over to the shop of Handy Man Negri where, contrary to what his name suggested, we would learn about different musical instruments not how to fix a leaky toilet (although who knows, we might have learned how to do that as well).

There was always a visit to the "Land of Make-believe" where we would see King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday, Prince Tuesday, Daniel Striped Tiger (who lived in a clock), Lady Aberlin (one of the few real people), X the Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, and my personal favorite Lady Elaine Fairchild who didn't take any guff from anyone. You just sort of got caught up in the lives of these make believe characters, most of whom were voiced by Mr. Rogers himself. We loved when there would be an "opera" performed by the people in The Land of Make-believe. There would be a multiple show buildup to the actual "performance" and then the big day would arrive and the entire show would be taken up with the "opera" often involving this fellow named John Reardon who I think was actually a professional singer. Our favorite opera was "Spoon Mountain".

Oh the memories. I will even admit that I would occasionally watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood on my own, long after all the girls had gone off to school. He was my neighbor after all and don't you like to spend time with genial neighbors?

I am so sad to think of all the children who will miss his gentle smile and voice and will not know the magic that was Mr. Fred Rogers. If it is possible to get the episodes on DVD (and I have to think that it is) then my grandchildren, whenever they arrive, will be getting these that is for darn sure. And I will be watching with them.