Banquet displayed Palin hold on conservatives

Overflow crowd saw Sarah, not candidate

By Thomas B. Langhorne (Contact)
courierpress
Sunday, April 19, 2009

It wasn’t supposed to be a political event, but try telling that to a man who has seen 2,200 people react when he walks into a banquet hall.

Sgt. Robert Goedde, a sheriff’s officer who was at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s side throughout her 17-hour stay in Evansville, says Palin was besieged at Thursday’s Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet by people urging her to run for president in 2012.

The exhortations, which Goedde called a constant refrain, began as soon as he and Palin and other officers began making their way to the banquet’s head table through surging crowds in The Centre’s assembly hall. The journey, during which Palin was mobbed by people seeking autographs and pictures, took 20 minutes.

“Some people would shout it out, and you’d see others just asking her,” Goedde said. “I heard it two or three times a minute, the entire time. She’d just smile and wave. She was very gracious.”

Palin’s appearance at the sold-out Right to Life banquet was her first major public event outside of Alaska since the 2008 presidential campaign, when she and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were defeated.

Campaign opener?

Dr. W.R. Mack, a political scientist at the University of Southern Indiana, called it the first major event of the 2012 presidential campaign. Mack cited Palin’s criticism of Democratic President Barack Obama in Evansville on the abortion issue.

Mack said the key to understanding Palin’s appeal to social conservatives — a potent constituency in Republican presidential primaries — is her perceived sincerity and strength of conviction about their issues.

“In the past, maybe they felt like they were being used (by national Republicans),” Mack said. “John McCain was kind of a fake conservative to them. But with Palin, they think, ‘Here’s somebody who is really going to follow through.’”

Nick Hermann, chairman of the Vanderburgh County Republican Party, said Palin’s personal magnetism, which Mack likened to Obama’s, is also a key to her appeal.

The Right to Life banquet marked the fourth time Hermann has seen Palin in person, including the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and two 2008 campaign speeches in Indiana.

“She has great stage presence, but she also works the crowd well,” Hermann said. “It’s unusual to have both. (Former GOP presidential candidate) Mike Huckabee, for instance, works the crowd well but doesn’t have the stage presence.”

As GOP national Chairman Michael Steele did at the Right to Life event, Hermann said it would be premature to label any prospective presidential candidate the early front-runner for the 2012 nomination.

Appeal an asset

But he said Palin has an “Every Woman” appeal and a personal authenticity that could prove to be considerable political assets on the road to 2012.

“The Right to Life banquet (at which Palin teared up over her baby son who was born with Down syndrome and spoke openly of her teenage daughter’s pregnancy) was the first time I’ve seen her really open up and talk about her story, her feelings,” he said. “Sometimes, politicians seem too perfect. She really connected with people.”

It was a sentiment expressed over and over again by people who met Palin while she was in Evansville, including several young servers at Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano who waited on the Alaska governor at Friday’s private breakfast event hosted by S.M.I.L.E. on Down syndrome.

“It didn’t even feel like you were in front of somebody that was famous,” said server Chrissy Heffernan. “It felt like you were in front of somebody that you’ve known forever. She was just very nice, very personable, very personable.”

Goedde, who headed up a detail of about 20 city and county law enforcement officers who volunteered or were compensated by Right to Life to guard Palin, said he made a point of watching the Alaska governor’s interactions with people.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to watch and see if there’s ever a sign that this is all a put-on,’” he said. “I never saw it. Never once did I see her say or do anything that made her look less than sincere, like rolling her eyes when no one was looking.

‘Hometown girl’

“She was just like a hometown girl from Evansville, Ind., coming home after making good.”

Goedde, a Right to Life board member, knows a little something about how to project oneself effectively as a candidate for office.

In 2006, he ran an insurgent campaign for the GOP nomination for Vanderburgh County sheriff, bucking the local party central committee’s endorsement of his opponent to win 70 percent of the vote in a primary.

Though he lost to Democrat Eric Williams in a general election year that saw few Republican victories, the 45-year-old Goedde is often asked by GOP leaders to seek office again.

Goedde marveled at Palin’s ability to remember the first names of people she met and to connect with each of the law enforcement officers who protected her.

“People looked up to her almost in a rock star way, but it was also with respect, not just ‘Oh, Sarah, Sarah,’” he said. “I don’t know any other way to say it, but this lady is the real deal.”

Palin made a similar impression on Nina Fuller, who shared a private breakfast with her and about a half-dozen other people Friday morning before the larger event at Biaggi’s.

“There was not a political word in the conversation,” said Fuller, executive director of S.M.I.L.E.

“Gov. Palin is now a good friend of mine, and her name is Sarah.”

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/apr/19/banquet-displayed-palin-hold-on-right/

Palin and the Wolves

As a VP candidate, Alaska’s governor was attacked for the state’s aerial hunting program. But the partisan bickering belies a complex and longstanding debate.

Steven Kazlowski / Science Faction-Corbis

Howl of the wild: Depending on your point of view, gray wolves like this one are emblems of unspoiled wilderness or dangerous pests.    

By Amanda Coyne | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Apr 10, 2009

Deep in Alaska‘s interior, Fortymile Country is what you visualize when you think of the nation’s 49th state: rugged, cold and heartbreakingly lonely, a feeling heightened by the occasional howl of a wolf. But there was another sound in the area last weekend: the whir of a helicopter, carrying a steady-handed state employee looking to target those wolves in the sights of his 12-gauge shotgun. This time the hunters came back empty-handed, but last month they killed 84 wolves in the area.

Alaska’s controversial program, designed to cull the state’s wolf population, captured America’s attention last year when detractors gleefully hung it around vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin‘s neck as an example of, well, something. Unsportsmanlike conduct? Unladylike behavior? A taste for blood? No matter—the criticism gave Palin supporters another reason to shout “attagirl” to “give ‘em hell” Sarah. What do urban and suburban folks in the lower 48 states know about life in the wilderness, anyway? Michael Goldfarb, Sen. John McCain’s former campaign spokesperson, went so far as to call the program “political gold” for the plucky VP candidate. 

As the punditocracy chatters about a possible 2012 Palin presidential bid, the annual aerial hunt is likely to keep its wings. But behind the political whirligig is a complex conservation debate that has split Alaskans, hunters, scientists and the state and federal governments—since long before Palin came onto the scene.

At the top of the food chain, humans and wolves have a historical adversarial relationship. In Alaska, both compete for caribou and moose, which the state says gray wolves are depleting. The state says it is home to roughly 800,000 caribou, 200,000 moose and between 7,000 and 11,000 wolves—more than the entire continental U.S., which has a total of about 6,000 wolves. For the past five years, Alaska has had a fairly intensive predator-control program in six areas that make up about 9 percent of the state, mostly involving private hunters and small planes. The program has killed fewer than 300 wolves a year, and though the target this year was 460, state officials expect to again get only about 300. Private trappers and hunters take another 1,100 or so wolves annually.

When Alaska first joined the union, the federal government paid bounties in a failed effort to essentially wipe the animals out, and shooting from aircraft by private individuals goes back for decades. Today the state says it uses more scientific methods to manage all its wildlife. Under a state law enacted in 1994, the Alaska Board of Game (appointed by the governor) is required to “identify … important [wild] food sources for Alaskans, and to insure that these populations remain large enough to allow for adequate and sustained harvest.” To protect wild game, the board can restrict hunting seasons, improve habitat and control predators (including wolves and bears).

A hunter who loves her moose-meat chili, Palin recently issued a statement in response to critics: “Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can’t be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations.” Patrick Valkenburg, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, says, “Sarah Palin is a realhero to the hunters.” Alaska sells about 98,000 hunting licenses a year to its roughly 700,000 residents, but even some of those hunters believe the aerial wolf program is at best unsportsmanlike. (Another 14,000 out-of-state licenses are issued annually.) Some say it’s a system designed to create overhunting. “The role of the hunter is grounded in conservation and stewardship and respect for the land and animals, not in extreme plans to ‘grow more caribou’ at any and all costs,” says Mark Richards, from the Alaska chapter of a group called Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

Some critics say the state is being far more aggressive under Palin, who took office in 2006. Vic Van Ballenberghe, a wildlife biologist and a former Board of Game member appointed by Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, says Palin has “turned loose an army” against predators. The board also recently approved the killing of more than 900 bears in order to boost moose and caribou, and the gassing of orphaned wolf pups in their densafter the adults have been killed, claiming that it’s more humane than leaving them to fend for themselves.

While sparing orphaned animals the pain and suffering of starvation might be the humane thing to do, it also hands the animal-rights crowd a gift on a silver platter. The activist group Defenders of Wildlife highlighted the gassing of “defenseless wolf pups and their families” on a Web site soliciting donations. The organization recently released a gruesome video of a wolf being chased and killed by a low-flying propeller plane in the Alaska hinterland, in which actress Ashley Judd says, “It is time to stop Sarah Palin.”

Wade Willis, a wildlife biologist who works for the Defenders, claims that the state really wants “unlimited commercial consumption” of game. “They want to artificially turn Alaska into a game farm, into one big hunting ground,” he says. “It’s a gamble based on a far-right political agenda, not on science.”

“Absolute baloney,” says Valkenburg, the Fish and Game deputy commissioner, who was appointed by the governor last year.”It seems that people who don’t like Palin are using this as a way to attack her, and raise money. And the people who don’t like the predator-control program are using Palin as a way to attack it.” Valkenburg says that groups like Defenders of Wildlife “shop around for people who are philosophically opposed to the program and with Ph.D.s next to their names. These are people who have never even been to Alaska. It’s absolutely absurd.”Pointing out that the predator-control program is required by a law enacted before the current governor was elected, Valkenburg says it protects a way of life important to many Alaskans, including Native American populations. “Further,” he says, “why not produce food locally instead of importing food? We have a naturally functioning ecosystem that you can manage to produce food locally. Why not do that? Why not think globally and act locally?”

Valkenburg adds that if state biologists do it right, if they use all the means at their disposal to kill lots of wolves now, they’ll be able to act less aggressively later. But other biologists fear the result will be a never-ending predator-control program that will ultimately alter the delicate balance that holds predator and prey in check. Wildlife biologists around the country have sent letters and petitions to the Board of Game, disputing the state’s claims about the reasons for declining moose populations, pointing to overhunting and other natural factors like weather conditions. And some think the state has overstated the numbers of wolves in any given area.

Through hunting and trapping, the state says its goal is to kill about 300of the 400 wolves it believes were in the Fortymile area at the beginning of the fall season, leaving one to two wolves per 1,000 square kilometers. But Greg Dudgeon, superintendent of the federal Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, which borders Fortymile, says no one has a good count of the wolf population, or an ideal wolf-to-prey number. Federal biologists have been collaring, monitoring and studying wolf packs in the preserve, which has been run by the National Park Service since 1993, and have conducted extensive surveys on wolf populations in the area—leading them to believe that there are closer to 300 wolves in Fortymile.

But Dudgeon’s main concern is that wolves from his preserve are moving into Fortymile, where they could be shot by state employees. As the culling program continues, wolves from the national preserve may migrate to Fortymile because there’s less competition and more food. “Nature abhors a vacuum,” Dudgeon says, “and wolves are great at filling that vacuum.”

This season’s program will wrap up in a few days. The hunters will stop their aerial assault, and the wolves will get a break. But come next year the state is likely to be in the air again, looking for wolves. And guess who will be back on the airwaves, bashing Palin?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/193370/page/1

 

 

Sarah Palin: I Had to ‘Walk the Walk’

At Anti-Abortion Rights Event, Gov. Palin Gets Personal About her Last Pregnancy

BY KATE SNOW
abc NEWS
April 17, 2009

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin doesn’t get out much. Out of Alaska that is.

Last night, on her second trip outside the state this year, Palin reflected a bit on the experience of last year’s campaign, repeated her call for energy independence and called on states to reject federal stimulus money.

But it was her emotional and personal talk about the birth of her son Trig that was most revealing.

In front of an audience of nearly 3,000 anti-abortion rights advocates in Evansville, Ind., Palin described in detail how she struggled with her fifth pregnancy last year and choked up when she spoke about Trig’s birth.

“It was a time when I had to ask myself was I gonna walk the walk or I was gonna talk the talk,” Palin said.

She said she learned she was pregnant with Trig while she was out of the state at an oil and gas conference.

“There, just for a fleeting moment, I thought, I knew, nobody knows me here. Nobody would ever know. I thought, wow, it is easy. It could be easy to think maybe of trying to change the circumstances. No one would know. No one would ever know.

Ultimately, Palin said she realized she had to stay true to what she’d been saying for years — that “life is valuable because it is ordained.”

“I had just enough faith to know that trying to change the circumstances wasn’t any answer,” Palin said.

But the governor said the experience gave her an appreciation for what women and girls facing unwanted pregnancies go through.

“I do understand what these women, what these girls go through in that thought process.”

The Vanderburgh County “Freedom for Life” banquet bills itself as the largest anti-abortion rights event in the nation

Palin for President?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin greets supports before giving a speech at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life fundraising dinner in Evansville, Ind., Thursday, April 16, 2009.

Superlatives aside, the county had to work hard to convince the former vice presidential nominee to attend a dinner three days before the end of Alaska’s 90-day legislative session.

When Palin was first invited to speak last November, the request was added to a large pile. But this group persisted. They started sending her the” top 10 reasons” why she just had to come to Vanderburgh County. The reasons included things like: local chocolate, local doughnuts, Ski soda, barbecue, ice cream and an orchid. Palin came around.

“You know you had me at the chocolates,” Palin told the crowd.

Palin had not been in Indiana since last October. In the weeks leading up to the election, she was tasked with making a final push to keep this red state red. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Indiana turned blue and helped Barack Obama win the presidency. Vanderburgh County — home to Evansville — was one of the counties that helped the state tip. It went for Obama. who got 51 percent of the vote.

It’s unclear what Palin’s political ambitions are now. She has not yet said if she plans to run for re-election to the governor’s office next year. She has not shut the door on a presidential run in 2012 either.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was asked earlier by a reporter if he saw Palin as a “standard bearer” for the GOP in 2012.

“I think she’s a standard bearer right now,” Steele replied. But he said that the party had many women and men in leadership roles, including former Gov. Mitt Romney, Govs. Tim Pawlenty and Mark Sanford, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Reps. Eric Cantor and Mike Pence.

Steele also joked that it was way too early to be discussing prospects for 2012. “We’re a long way from that? Eighty-six days [into the new administration] and we’re already talking about 2012? Can I just get a cup of coffee and relax for just a few more months before we have that conversation?” he laughed.

Palin’s Trip Spurs Debate in Alaska

Alaska Governor and U.S. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin speaks to reporters at the Republican Governor's Association gathering at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 4, 2008.

It was the first time Palin has been to the lower 48 since attending Washington’s Alfalfa Club dinner — featuring Obama — in late January

It drives Washington insiders crazy because they cannot predict what she’s gonna do next,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization that supports women against abortion rights in politics.

“The message that ought to be pretty clear is that she’s not planning her political future right now,” Dannenfelser said.

The timing of Palin’s trip has been criticized by some in her home state. Alaska’s state legislature is just wrapping up its 90-day legislative session Sunday.

Lawmakers have been sparring with the governor over whether to accept federal stimulus money and how it would be spent in the state.

“This isn’t free money folks. This is borrowed money,” Palin said Thursday night in Evansville.

“It looks to us that once again she is putting her national political ambitions ahead of the needs of Alaskans and the responsibilities of her job as our governor,” Alaska Democratic Party chairwoman Patti Higgins told reporters Monday in Anchorage.

And even some Republicans took issue with her travels.

“We’re a small state. When you get down to the last days of the legislative session it’s a little bit like the last two minutes of a basketball game,” said Alaska Rep. Jay Ramras, a Republican lawmaker who has clashed with Palin. “You want to have your best players there.”

Last week, Palin responded to that criticism by saying it was a quick trip.

“I told lawmakers, you know what, ‘Please, don’t make me feel that I have to ask your permission, lawmakers, to leave the capital city,’” Palin told reporters.

ABC News’ Teddy Davis contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=7356306&page=3

Alaska’s conservative young gun reloads in Indiana

 Sarah Sharpshooter is back.

REDSTATE

Posted by Josh Painter (Profile)

Friday, April 17th at 3:36PM EDT

56 Comments

It’s been tough in Alaska for Gov. Sarah Palin the past few days. She’s been embroiled in a tug of war with the legislature over a replacement to fill the unexpired term of a state Senator who resigned to go to work for the Obama administration. The lawmakers appear certain to restore millions of dollars of the federal porkulus funds she had turned down, and they rejected her nominee for Alaska attorney general just yesterday. The legislature even voted down her selection for a seat on the state’s Board of Fisheries by a vote of 42 to 16.

That’s just some of the fallout the governor has had to deal with from her unforgivable sin of accepting her party’s nomination for the vice presidency and campaigning on behalf of Obama’s Republican opponent in the presidential race. Old bipartisan alliances between Sarah Palin and the Democrats in her legislature have been dissolved. Longstanding tensions between her and some elements in her own party in Alaska remain.

Meanwhile, the media and her other political opponents have tried to make much hay over her family and would-be family matters, playing up the recent television appearances by her daughter’s former fiance, his mother’s arrest on drug charges and her sister-in-law’s arrest for breaking into a house that wasn’t hers. The rats have been quiet as a mouse, however, about the president’s brother-in-law and his troubles with British authorities stemming from his arrest for sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl there. Some crimes are more heinous than others. Better for your media image to be a sexual predator named Obama than a cat burglar named Palin.

 

But last night, all of that dissonant noise faded away as Sarah Palin stepped up to a podium in Indiana to speak at a right to life banquet. Tickets for the event quickly sold out, and its organizers had to arrange a closed-circuit narrowcast at a nearby auditorium and rush to print more tickets. The result was a crowd of 3,000 (for an event which typically draws much smaller audiences) and a need for local authorities to block off nearby streets with barricades.

Palin was greeted by fans seeking her autograph and photograph as she tried to make her way into the event, and inside there were people actually standing on tables to get a better chance to see her. She was introduced by RNC chairman Michael Steele, who himself delivered a passionate life-affirming address. In his words of introduction, Steele reminisced about an appearance he made on Fox News just before John McCain announced his running mate. There was much speculation at the time about who the Senator would name the next day. When asked whom he believed McCain would choose, Steele said that it would be Pawlenty or Palin. Then the chairman raised more than few eyebrows in the room when he added, “I think it’s going to be Palin. Now I wasn’t sure, but I sure was hoping.”

The governor took a poke at Alaska’s legislature early on in her speech (video here), as she quipped:

“They condemn anything that I do, but especially traveling outside the state to speak in another state at a function like this. Which is ironic, because these are the same critics who would love to see me outside the state forever, permanently, you know, outside the governor’s office anyway. But they had heartburn about me leaving.”

From there, Gov. Palin launched into a sales pitch for Alaska, and she rattled off a list of facts about her state, which she used to setup a punchline:

“Now if I’m wrong on any of that trivia, I don’t want Katie Couric calling me and telling me I did something wrong. You call Mr. Heath in Wasilla, AK. I’ll give you the phone number, and you can correct my dad.”

In her far-ranging address, she touched on several issues which she used to criticize the Obama administration. She seized on the issue of energy security, a familiar one for her, and touted Alaska’s abundant oil and gas deposits as a big part of a domestic solution to U.S. dependence on foreign oil. That petroleum, she said, comes from countries which don’t have America’s best interests in mind. She mentioned North Korea as a threat and named Alaska’s missile defense system as a way to counter it, voicing her hope that “the feds” do not cut the program. Then she had harsh words for the Democrat’s federal stimulus, which, she explained, forces local government to grow bigger:

“This isn’t free money folks. Our nation is $11 trillion in debt. This is borrowed money. We’re borrowing money from China, and we may someday find ourselves enslaved to countries that hold our notes.”

But the governor’s strongest slap at the president was saved for the issue which drew her to the event. She said that those who support abortion had turned their backs on the very principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that the founders cited as unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence:

“So whether it’s a child not yet born, or a newborn in a single parent’s arms, or an elder with Alzheimer’s, or a brave or a scared young soldier willing to offer the supreme sacrifice to protect all of our lives, innocent life is to be cherished and protected. And may our culture embrace that. The culture of life affects every aspect of our lives and society. And we must stand on the life-honoring foundation of our republic, and we must speak out against actions that erode that foundation. Don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t be afraid to voice your opinion when you see our president, through policy changes, want to erode part of that foundation. And by the way, I’m just a governor, but I don’t believe that it’s above my pay grade to rally you to speak up.”

Near the end of her speech, Gov. Palin became emotional when she talked about her son Trig and the apprehension she felt before his birth, knowing that he had Down’s Syndrome. It was faith, she said, that gave her the strength to carry her youngest son to term.

As is to be expect from a crowd of pro-life activists, Sarah Palin’s speech was warmly and enthusiastically received. But a media which has been very critical of her was forced to admit that it was a powerful one and well-delivered. Politico headlined its report “Out of Alaska, Palin’s star shines” and said that the governor “reminded Republicans why she remains a party heavyweight and a top prospective presidential candidate in 2012.” Even AP’s coverage, with the headline “Palin Takes Obama to Task for Stance on Abortion,” seemed to frame the story in terms of a potential future match between the governor and the president:

“Some in the crowd wore white ‘Palin 2012′ T-shirts, hoping she will be the Republican presidential candidate in 2012.”

Whatever political plans she may have,  Gov. Palin tried to stay close to home and keep a low profile outside of Alaska during the legislative session to head off criticism from her local political opponents. She now seems to realize that despite the effort, they were going to criticize her, in the strongest possible terms, regardless. Now, the gloves have come off, and she’s going to weigh in on national issues, just as other leading GOP governors have been doing. She’s also very likely to be making more trips to the lower 48 for appearances which will be carefully selected to enhance her stature as a national political figure.

Many on the left end of the spectrum that is the internet have pronounced Sarah Palin politically dead or dying because of a contemptuous Alaska legislature, exploitation of her family by snarky celebrity tabloids and biased media reporting. But the governor’s opponents may soon be reminded that this mama bear still has sharp teeth and claws, and her nature is not to back down from a fight. She told the crowd early on in her speech last night that she was going to restart her engine. The 36-hour vacation and friendly crowds she’s enjoying in Indiana seem to be providing it with plenty of fuel.
- JP

 http://www.redstate.com/josh_painter/2009/04/17/alaskas-conservative-young-gun-reloads-in-indiana/

 

Palin: We Won’t ‘Sell Our Birthright’ for Federal $

David A. Patten
NEWSMAX
Monday, March 30, 2009 1:15 PM 

Warning that anyone accepting federal stimulus funds from Washington should “read the fine print,” Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is urging her fellow Alaskans not to “sell our birthright for short-term gain.”

Palin’s comments came in an opinion column defending her decision to reject close to a third of the $930 million in stimulus funds allocated for her state in the $787 billion bill signed into law by President Obama.

Critics charge she is turning down the money to reinforce her conservative credentials and bolster a presumed 2012 presidential run – an accusation Palin’s representatives staunchly deny. In addition to Palin, GOP governors rejecting at least some federal stimulus funds include: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindahl.

“Shovel ready or digging a hole?” is the title of the Palin opinion piece published this weekend’s Anchorage Daily News.

Palin acknowledges federal stimulus dollars are “tempting,” but also says she “must consider whether they create sustainability, help develop our resources, reduce dependency on Washington, and all without mortgaging our kids’ futures.”

Accepting the federal largesse, Palin says, would hurt Alaska’s long-term future. She adds that as governor she is required to certify that the federal dollars would boost the economy.

“Unfortunately,” she writes, “a disproportionate percentage of the federal package available to Alaska would increase government operations. It’s a stretch to certify that more spending on more bureaucracy actually grows an economy.”

Palin says accepting temporary federal dollars would just make the state’s finances worse in the long run.

“When stimulus money runs out in two years, who will pay for the expanded government programs, when Alaska currently has a budget shortfall of over a billion dollars? My administration will not willingly and knowingly dig a hole for Alaskans to fill under this enormous, debt-ridden, Washington spending plan,” she writes.

With the national debt already over $11 trillion, Palin says it’s a mistake to view the federal funds as “free money.”

Palin also provided several examples of what she called “federal intrusion” associated with the stimulus plan:  

Alaska communities, she says, would have to adopt international energy codes. “These standards should be locally determined, not federally mandated,” she writes.   

If Alaska were to accept additional money for unemployment benefits, it would have to extend the eligibility period. “This federal involvement locks us into government dependency for longer periods,” she states.   

Matching funds are required for some federal programs, she states. “Alaskans must read the fine print on these federal mandates, because certain allocations also require state-matching funds.”  Palin concludes, “When Alaska was granted statehood, it was with the expectation that our independent, innovative spirit and rich resources would largely sustain us, rather than depending on federal government. Creating more dependence on Washington steers us away from Alaska’s magnificent potential and destiny, and that, to me, is a problem. “My job is to help Alaskans count the cost for the long term, not sell our birthright for short-term gain. Alaskans must acknowledge that if we dig a fiscal hole, it will be filled by our families and businesses. Reliance on Washington is not our only option. We could exercise fiscal responsibility and prudent planning, develop our resources, energize Alaskans, and revitalize our spirit. We are up to the challenge. This is the best lesson we can teach our children.” Palin added, however, that she won’t block attempts to obtain federal dollars by circumventing her office. “I’m approaching federal funds and mandates with caution, but won’t stand in the way of organizations or communities applying to the feds for funding their own expansions,” she wrote.     

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/palin_stimulus_alaska/2009/03/30/197528.html

Alaska’s Left Trying to Stop the Palinator, That’s Like Trying to Stop a Bullet Train with Your VW Bug

Alaska’s Left Trying to Stop the Palinator, That’s Like Trying to Stop a Bullet Train with Your VW Bug

Posted by ClarkKent
REDSTATE
Monday, March 30th at 10:05AM EDT

The best the left has to offer in Alaska has filed numerous ethics violations against Alaska governor Sarah “The Palinator” Palin. It’s gotten to the point where her legal fees are millions of dollars, and she has to set up a fund to pay them off. Well, well, well, isn’t fear grand? You know, I’ve never seen a level of terror and hatred like this before. Republicans weren’t even this hateful toward Bubba, and they hated him for a long time, until now where many show a new found respect because of his wife and how she ran her presidential campaign against Karl Marx. But that aside, this is just insane and it really shows you how low the left is willing to sink just to stop this woman from doing damage, as in ending the progressive movement for good.

Yes, that’s right, Sarah Palin is the only Republican who can end the progressive movement in America forever. If she were to run in 2012 and defeat Barack Obama left wing ideology will go the way of the dinosaur and the woolly mammoth. Here’s a woman who’s far beyond the beltway elite and the establishment in both parties. She’s not a Romney republican from the corporate boardroom. She’s Mike Huckabee in a skirt and quirky glasses. Her husband Todd is a union member, she’s not of that Wall Street world that has long plagued the Republican Party since the era of Reaganomics. I think there are many conservatives our there who hate her and fear her as much as the leftists in the Democrat Party. You see the Palinator won’t play ball with the suits and the yuppies as say a Mitt Romney would, because Romney is a corporate guy. That’s why I believe if Romney is the GOP candidate he will lose and lose big, even if Obama’s first term is a complete disaster. You see people don’t want Marxism but they sure as hell don’t want corporate staples either, and Mitt looks like the guy who fired your dad last week.

But Sarah puts an end to all the established influences in Washington. She is change, she’s much more than a governor or a potential candidate for the presidency, she’s America’s forgotten self. Sarah Palin represents people who eat in diners, work the night shift and have trouble paying bills. Sarah Palin is the only one who truly understands the silent majority because she is the silent governor. So the left can play their little parlor tricks but they won’t work because this pit bull in a skirt is destined for greatness, she’s destined for the presidency. Sure I sound like I’m in the tank for Palin and I am as a matter fo fact, but I’m not a journalist so it’s okay. But do you fault my praise of this woman? She’s everything you would want in a gal and she’s possesses a Teddy Roosevelt like spunk and toughness that would make the old wrangler proud. I mean beauty and brains, she reminds me of the girl in high school who would walk down the hall way with her wavy hair, every time you saw her the world would slow down; okay enough drooling, back to the argument.

Bottom line Sarah Palin scares a lot of people on both sides and that’s good. It’s about time the establishment knows real fear. The only thing bipartisan in DC is the level of corruption and disconnect. By the way I have “Pit Bull in a Skirt” and “The Palinator” tees on my radio show website. What can I say, I’m a capitalist.

http://www.redstate.com/clarkkent/2009/03/30/alaskas-left-trying-to-stop-the-palinator-thats-like-trying-to-stop-a-bullet-train-with-your-vw-bug/

VP pick: ‘high risk, high reward’

A.B. Culvahouse said Palin would have 'made a great vice president.'

April 17, 2009

Palin as VP pick: ‘high risk, high reward’

Posted: 08:23 PM ET

CNN politicalticker

From CNN’s Lauren Kornreich

A.B. Culvahouse said Palin would have ‘made a great vice president.’
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A.B. Culvahouse, the attorney tasked with leading the vetting process for Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate, said Friday that he thoroughly scrutinized Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and said that he “came away impressed.”

McCain’s vetting process came under scrutiny after numerous surprises about Palin popped up in the weeks after she was tapped as his vice presidential pick. Culvahouse said he and his team of 30 lawyers knew everything, including the fact that her teenage daughter was pregnant. He suggested that the campaign staff that talked to the media may not have been fully informed, which “led to the impression that those issues had been withheld.”

“Gov. Palin told us everything. Everything except the pregnancy of her daughter was on a response to the written questionnaire,” Culvahouse said Friday at a Republican National Lawyers Association National Policy Conference. “She told me there was one issue she wanted to talk about when we went in for the interview. We knew everything going in.”

Culvahouse said they started with 26 candidates who didn’t know they were under consideration. Once the list was narrowed down to six, each person was given a survey with 74 questions, which he said included specific questions, like “have you ever been unfaithful,” but not “what the meaning of is, is.”

“Me and two of my most cynical partners interviewed her and we came away impressed,” Culvahouse said of his interview with Palin. “I think she would’ve made a great vice president.”

He said he gave her three “leading” questions, asking if she was prepared to use nuclear weapons, why she wanted to be vice president, and if the CIA located Osama bin Laden, but shooting him would result in civilian casualties, what would she do. Culvahouse said she “knocked those three questions out of the park.”

Culvahouse said McCain was the “decider,” but that he was not allowed to pick anyone that had not been vetted. But when McCain asked him for the “bottom line” on Palin, Culvahouse said the Republican nominee liked the “risk” involved.

“I said, John, high risk, high reward,” Culvahouse said. “His response, you shouldn’t have told me that. I’ve been a risk-taker all my life.”

Filed under: John McCain • Popular Posts • Sarah Palin

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/17/palin-as-vp-pick-high-risk-high-reward/

Iron Todd Palin

Wed, Apr 1, 2009

Men’s Journal

Features, Sports

Todd Palin Photo credit: photograph by Kevin Zacher

Last time you saw Todd Palin he was standing quietly, uncomfortably by his woman on the campaign trail, as she got alternately pilloried and praised. Now meet him on his own terms, as a blue-collar outdoorsman who competes in one of the toughest races on Earth.

By Daniel Duane

 

Todd Palin is trying to scare me. That’s what I’m thinking, alone on a borrowed snowmobile in the fading Alaskan light, cold as hell by a frozen lake. I can barely see Palin and his racing buddy Scott Davis a quarter mile off, near a few stumpy trees. But I can hear them loud and clear, revving their two-stroke engines, circling in their Arctic Cat F6 snowmobiles, punishing the winter sky with an ear-splitting whine familiar to nature lovers everywhere. “Ride over to that point of land!” Palin had screamed at me over the engine roar a moment earlier, struggling to be heard. “Then turn around! We’ll do a speed run past you, let you feel how fast we go!”

Little more than black specks now, obscured by their powerful headlights, the men turn toward me and charge. The wail gets louder and the headlights grow. Fifty mph, 60, 70, now less than a hundred yards away. Eighty mph, 90, on a bullet path right to where I’m sitting. He’s going to mess up and kill me. 

I take some comfort in reminding myself that we are talking about the husband of a certain prominent Alaska governor. A 44-year-old father of five. Would he really risk vehicular manslaughter? But then again, he’s also a motorhead country boy whose favorite recreational activity — the big dream of each calendar year — is the Tesoro Iron Dog, the longest snowmobile race on Earth. It’s a mind-numbing six-day run across nearly 2,000 miles of extreme arctic wilderness. Palin has won it four times and might have won it again in 2008, partnered with Davis, if he hadn’t smacked into a half-buried oil drum on the frozen Yukon River while doing 60, shattering an arm. He doesn’t mind playing rough. Do I chicken out and dive onto the ice?

Whooom! 

Palin bombs on by, and the air cushion pushes my face. 

Whooom!

Davis now — a black lightning bolt. 

My brain takes a few seconds to process what my eyes barely caught: two Alaskan buddies in black racing duds and black helmets, leaning way back on their padded seats, gloved hands gripping heated handlebars, as they blow by me at 100 mph.

It’s the day before Barack Obama’s inauguration, and Palin may well wish he were somewhere else — like, just for example, at the United States Naval Observatory in DC, taking the keys to the vice-president’s mansion from Dick Cheney — but you’d never guess that from seeing him out here on his Arctic Cat, a black plastic mask and goggles hiding that familiar mug and a ridiculous amount of horsepower under his ass.

 

——

 

Rat-a-tat-tat.

We’re at Davis’s workshop, where the guys are tinkering with their machines three weeks before the 2009 Iron Dog. The wall-mounted flatscreen, tuned to Fox News, is showing the pre-inauguration festivities, while Palin works the trigger on a cordless DeWalt impact-driver.

Rat-a-tat-tat.

Hell of a noise, like an assault rifle. Like the one carried by Palin’s 19-year-old son Track, who is home on leave.

“All I have to say about the campaign,” Palin says, eyes flickering to and from the TV, “is it was awesome, okay?”

Rat-a-tat-tat.

A once-in-a-lifetime deal, see — being catapulted onto the national stage and traveling the country and seeing cities he never dreamed of seeing, watching his wife speak at the Republican National Convention and in front of adoring crowds at rallies, befriending John McCain, a bona fide war hero. These are the takeaway experiences Todd Palin would prefer to focus on, even as McCain insiders portrayed his wife as uncontrollable and blamed her for the campaign’s collapse.

“I’m not going to get wrapped around the axles on a few people’s comments — ‘She’s a diva,’ or whatever,” Palin says. “There was no name attached to that, so who knows if it’s really true. I mean, all the little negative stuff out there that’s been exploited? To me? I have nothing but respect for the McCains, because they’re a class act. And some people, the detractors, they get bent out of shape.” He shakes his head, as if disbelieving that even some of his own Alaskans would turn on his wife. “They’re so full of anger, you know? I mean, why wouldn’t anybody be proud of one of their citizens being nominated to the VP? Unless you’re just a real hater?” 

Rat-a-tat-tat.

A BlackBerry beeps on the workshop counter. The device’s wallpaper shows Palin’s baby boy Trigg — the one with Down’s — lying next to newborn grandson Tripp. It’s Sarah calling from Anchorage. So Todd answers and walks off across the shop, hunting for privacy.

“He’s busy. He’s way busy,” Davis tells me, watching his friend. “All the stuff that comes along with Sarah’s position…” 

While his wife is out still doing relentless TV, shopping a book proposal, and forming a political committee that may be a precursor to a 2012 presidential run, Palin couldn’t have found a better spot to hide out than here at Davis’s place near Soldotna, 200 miles from the Palins’ home in Wasilla. Davis owns a major construction company with lucrative state contracts, and this building — a kind of gearhead paradise, Alaska Rich Guy Version — is the reward, with a 40-foot mobile home parked along one wall, a shiny four-wheel ATV, and room for Davis’s dozen snowmobiles, or, as the locals call them, “snowmachines.” Four new ones — identical Arctic Cat F6s — take up the main work area, two for Davis, a seven-time Iron Dog winner himself, and two for Palin. A huge part of the run-up to every year’s Iron Dog is the time these two buddies spend in the surrounding woods, hammering over bumpy terrain and then hanging out in this shop, making tweaks and changing out parts on their F6s. 

“I’ve had days,” Davis tells me, “where I’ll wake up in the house at 6 am and walk over here in the dark and find shithead already sitting in his truck, waiting for me. That means he got at least a 2 am start out of Wasilla.” 

Palin comes walking back toward us, still talking to Sarah on the BlackBerry. “I must have just missed it,” he says to her.

Grabbing the remote, he turns up the volume. Fox News personality Glenn Beck has apparently just told Sarah Palin she’s “one hot grandma” and then asked her if Obama will be her president too. (“Absolutely,” she responded. “We are all Americans.”)

But by the time Todd gets to the TV, the show has ended, and Fox has returned to footage of the emotional crowds in the capital.

“Lot of excitement in DC, huh?” Palin, now off the BlackBerry, says to me, sounding a bit wistful.

Yes, lots of excitement in DC.

He nods, then returns to work on the Arctic Cat.

Rat-a-tat-tat.

 

To read more of Iron Todd, pick up the May issue of Men’s Journal, on newsstands April 10.

http://www.mensjournal.com/iron-todd

What They Feared In Reagan, They Now Fear In Palin

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

What They Feared In Reagan, They Now Fear In Palin

Conservatives4PALIN

(h/t Carlos)

Yesterday, we posted on the Democrat strategy of targeting a conservative boogie man to deflect attention from their own failures (they’re the party in charge of everything right now, you know).

First they went after Rush Limbaugh. Now they’re gunning for Sarah Palin. James Carville was the key architect of the “Limbaugh strategy,” and he’s now licking his chops in anticipation of a tasty dish of seared barracuda served Cajun-style.

Mark Whittington has an excellent editorial about the new DNC “Enemy of the People.” He compares Palin to the other famous western governor tarred by the Democrats as “polarizing” and “too fringe” to attract moderates:

The problem with attacking Sarah Palin is the same as attacks launched thirty years ago against Ronald Reagan in advance of the 1980 election. The portrayal of Sarah Palin as some kind of mad right winger (and stupid to boot) is likely to be at variance with reality. Liberals, when they attack conservatives, tend to stick to their personal stereotypes. Sexist, racist, homophobe, heartless, and stupid. Sarah Palin is smart and personable, which is the real reason she has become a target.

Only in this case, it is the attackers who run the risk of seeming sexist. Chris Matthews, the MSNBC screamer, who apparently has a school girl crush on Barack Obama (remember the “thrill up my leg” remark), has already crossed that line. Chris Matthews has already called Sarah Palin “McCain’s mail order bride.”

All that serves is to rally women, even liberal women, to Sarah Palin’s defense. A lot of women, especially professional women, have stories of put downs by insecure men who are jealous of their accomplishments. If Carville et al go after Sarah Palin with too much enthusiasm, women will see themselves in Sarah Palin and will react accordingly.

The stupid Democrats underestimate her. Not the smart ones. They’re afraid. And James Carville is no dummy.

One of our readers yesterday pointed out this quote from “Sarah Takes On Big Oil”:

Dan Seamount, one of two commissioners who served with Sarah Palin in 2003 and early 2004 on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, had the following to say about Palin:

“She’s pro-development, not pro-industry. She’ll tell you, ‘My boss is the people of Alaska.’

“She’s smart, a quick study. Her adversaries’ biggest mistake is underestimating her intelligence, her understanding of issues. And she uses their arrogance against them.”

There was another politician who was at first dismissed by his opponents as an amiable dunce, a b-rate movie actor, an intellectual lightweight, a dangerous ideologue, a “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man,” a nuclear cowboy, grandpa barbie, Ronnie Ray-gun, etc., etc.

In the end, it wasn’t really Reagan that the Democrats feared. They feared the blue collar voters from my native Michigan who voted for Reagan.

Michigan loved Reagan because, unlike certain other presidents, Reagan respected the industry that once defined American excellence and ingenuity. It was no accident that the location of Reagan’s 1980 Republican Convention was Detroit. And in the years to come, I think it will be remembered that the only person in the McCain campaign who refused to give up on Michigan was Sarah Palin.

No, it wasn’t really Reagan that the Democrats feared back then. And it’s not really Sarah Palin that they fear now. It’s an unrealized potential that now frightens them.

They’re afraid of a diverse and still slumbering group of people who have the potential to change the history of American electoral politics for years to come. Their numbers are small now, but given the opportunity, they will multiply into an unstoppable force. I’m speaking of the Palin Democrats.

Palin knows these people. They’re ordinary Americans who feel disenfranchised from their party and their government. She understands ordinary people because, as she said in her Lincoln Day speech, “I think I’m the epitome of ordinary people.” She is.

The fighting will continue to get ugly, folks, because the stakes are high. We’re fighting for the very future of our nation.

http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/03/what-they-feared-in-reagan-they-now.html

Because Palin Sells

POLIGAZETTE

April 2nd, 2009 | By: Michael van der Galien | Tags: alaska, Hot Air, Republican Party, Sarah Palin, SarahPAC

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Note to non-regulars: this post is sarcastic. Don’t take it serious. It was seemingly a badly executed joke, but a joke nonetheless.I apologize for causing confusion in some quarters.

As most regular readers know, I’m a regular reader Hot Air, the blog founded by nationally syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin. Visiting it today, I could not help but notice something (and I’m sure other regular readers noticed this weeks ago): every single post is accompanied by a photo of Governor Sarah Palin. Even posts that have nothing and I do mean nothing to do with her.

Why is this? Well, easy. Palin sells. Publish photos of the governor, and you’ll see your hits increase significantly. Aside from that, she’s rather obviously a beautiful lady.

Palin sells.

Why is this noteworthy? Because for all the criticism she received, she’s the only Republican able to attract a significant online audience. Her SarahPAC is the number one fundraising machine of the Republican Party. As of this moment, Sarah Palin has the most loyal and passionate following of every (former) Republican governor out there. And yes, that list includes my favorite Governor Mitt Romney.

People connected with her last year, and they continue to sympathize with her and her career. They follow her online, and defend her when they believe she’s unfairly attacked. Not only do they defend her, etc., they also donate millions of dollars to her PAC and to whatever cause she decides to support. This while the Republican Party as a whole has fundraising troubles and was destroyed during last year’s presidential election campaign (without Palin, it would have been even worse).

What does this mean? It means that Republican politicians (and conservative pundits) are wise to treat her with respect. And mere bloggers such as myself have to take her serious, understanding that for all her flaws, Palin is and will remain one of the most influential and popular national politicians.

http://www.poligazette.com/2009/04/02/because-palin-sells/comment-page-1/