| Palin revs up Republicans for McCain |
By Associated Press |
Published
09/4/2008
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National
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Palin revs up Republicans for McCain
by Glen Johnson
Associated Press Writer
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Republican presidential nomination his at last, John McCain makes his case for the presidency to the GOP convention and the nation after his surprise choice for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, energized delegates with a rousing speech.
Searing, at times sarcastic, but always smiling, Palin used her speech Wednesday night to cast the White House as the logical place for a man of McCain's character. The 72-year-old began his national service as a 17-year-old Navy midshipman, before spending 5½ years as a Vietnam prisoner of war and the past 26 years as a member of Congress.
 | READY TO RUN — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, left, is joined by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, right, and daughter Piper at the end of her speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change." said Palin, toying with the central theme in Obama's campaign.
Palin's 19-year-old son, Track, ships out for Iraq next week with his Army unit. The governor was unflinching as she contrasted McCain's military record with a lack of armed service by Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.
"There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you in places where winning means survival and defeat means death — and that man is John McCain," said Palin.
With his own acceptance speech Thursday night, McCain kicks off the general election and begins his final push to win a White House term that eluded the Arizona senator during a previous campaign in 2000.
"I think we've got to make the case that I'm ready, that I put my country first and it's time to put aside our partisan rancor and differences and work together for the country, and that I can create jobs and restore our economy and keep our country safe," McCain told ABC News in an interview Wednesday.
McCain secured his nomination early Thursday, Eastern time, following a state-by-state roll call vote by nearly 2,400 delegates gathered at the Xcel Energy Center on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Delegates witnessing Palin's political coming-out party had high hopes for her candidacy, especially after the 44-year-old faced the challenge of matching the star power of Obama. The 47-year-old Illinois senator accepted his nomination last week before a stadium crowd of 84,000 people in Denver.
"For too many times, we've brought knives to gun fights," said Chuck Gast, a delegate from Maryland.
When asked if Palin, a hunter, brought a gun to the fight, Gast said, "Yes, I think she brings a big gun — like a moose gun."
Alaska delegate Ralph Seekins, who knows Palin personally, said she relished her prime-time audience.
"She's an attractive lady and that's disarming to a lot of people," he said. "At the same time, she's a very capable lady. We respect her in Alaska and we think as the rest of the country and the rest of the world gets to know her, they'll be the same."
In a nod toward party unity, McCain also gave speaking roles to three of his former political rivals.
The highest honor was accorded former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who used a taunting, rollicking address to accuse Obama and the Democrats of not learning the lessons of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Giuliani said McCain "will keep us on offense against terrorism at home and abroad."
Alluding to last week's Democratic National Convention, he added: "Of great concern to me, during those same four days in Denver, they rarely mentioned the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They are in a state of denial about the biggest threat that faces this country. And if you deny it and you don't deal with it, you can't face it."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Obama "ducked and dodged" when asked recently about the threat of Islamic terrorism. "John McCain hit the nail on the head," said Romney. "Radical violent Islam is evil, and he will defeat it."
Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, known for his wit and humor on the trail, rebuffed those who questioned Palin's experience.
"I want to tell you folks something," said Huckabee. "She got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
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Comments
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Comment #1
(Posted by J. Miller)
Rating
Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.
This is what she had to say about Palin.
Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.
Now people if Americans elect these people the Bush years will seem like a honey moon. Don't be tricked by fluff the woman will hunt down the middle class like she did those animals.
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