Pic of the Day
D
I won’t say that this book was a “can’t put down” affair. I am a bit of a political junkee but you can take what I know about Alaska, put it up the behind of a flea, and it would still rattle around like a BB in a box car. Well now I know a bit more about Alaska. The bigger point is that an Alaskan would be more absorbed in at least the first half of this book than I was.
Which is not to say this is a boring book either, although I’d suggest it’s the sort of thing that would appeal mostly to someone involved with politics, even if only on a passing level.
My daughter is, well she’s my daughter, which means she gets some exposure to politics of a sort, although my jibber-jabbering might be but background noise to her. But she’s hardly a junkee on the matter and this book IS her book. She lent it to me. She did read it, almost to the end so she tells me. Daughter is a huge Palin fan and the book was a gift to her from her husband.
The last half of the book was the part that held me spellbound. For this is the part in which Palin tells of her experiences on the campaign trail with John McCain. It is the part that held my interest, as I scanned for names and brickbats.
As is her wont, Palin did NOT write one bad thing about John McCain. McCain was, ahem, not the most favored candidate by the GOP base out here in la-la land, his carefully crafted image as a “maverick” not appreciated except perhaps by the Democrats and the Blue Blood GOP Ruling Class. In fact, it was only the presence of Palin that the GOP base had any enthusiasm at all for the presidential election of 2008.
“I appreciated Reagan’s passion and conviction, and the way he so plainly articulated his love for our country. Like millions of others, I related to him personally-he was one of us. I liked him, and I liked the fact that he was never afraid to call it as he saw it.”
While I definitely consider myself a conservative of the highest order, I was never a big fan of Ronald Reagan. This was because during the term of Reagan’s presidency I was just coming down off of that silly high young people go through when they attend college, think they become super smart, and become dumb liberals.
Jimmy Carter, God Bless this worst president ever, so far worse than Obamer as I see it, changed a lot of that for me as such as long gas lines and 18% interest rates brought me back to reality. I still thought I was cool and hip, however, and while I voted for Reagan, I distrusted him in that manner of the young of my generation who mistrusted those over 30.
I wasn’t a big political junkee in that day although I did, insert smile here, attend Reagan’s inauguration. Now I chance to hear speech tidbits of Reagan and marvel at a Republican with enough courage and confidence to say the things he said. I understand why Reagan is so beloved by today’s conservatives, who feel as if they wander in the desert, lost and leaderless save for the likes of McCain and Karl Rove.
Palin makes a good case of her allegiance to Reagan throughout the book and by reading of the trials of her life, how she governed the city of Wasilla and the state of Alaska, the reader can tell that Palin believes in the principles of both fiscal and social conservatism and practices that belief.
“But lessons learned on the micro level still apply to the macro. Just as my family couldn’t fund every item on our wish list, and had to live within our means as well as save for the future, I felt we needed to do that for the state.”
Palin really did govern Alaska in a fiscally conservative manner. The quote above is really in the book, and if some day Palin should run, and win, for President, well we can sure use those very simple, and true, words to keep her in line right? I daresay you’ll not find anything like that in “Dreams of My Father”, just throwing it out there. Obama’s wife got a job making $300,000 a year at a Chicago hospital for doing nothing while Todd Palin had to work the North Slope in Alaska to feed his family.
It was Palin’s story of her campaign for Vice-President that was most interesting. She tells of the Couric interview, the treatment she and her family received by the McCain campaign staff. Whoever this fellow called Schmidt is, he’s a nasty dude.
We learn of wardrobes that she did NOT buy, library books she did NOT ban, ethics violations she did NOT make.
Finally Palin had to resign her governorship because the Obama administration’s pack of jackals filed ethics complaints against her with no merit. And while the Alaskan AG could use state funds to follow the puppet masters in the Democratic party, the Palins had to pay for Sarah’s defense out of their own funds.
It was the right thing to do.
Palin is not exactly coy about her future plans. Everyone, of course, wants to know if she intends to run for the Big Job. Palin never leaves out that possibility.
I think she is a classy lady who didn’t bite the McCain hand that fed her, who followed her own beliefs, who was beloved by Alaskan citizens at an 80% approval rating.
Read this book before the kick up to the 2012 campaign season folks. She’s not a rich Romney, a Gingrich has-been, a Jeb Bush not time yet if ever, a Huckabee aw shucks talk show host. She’s an up and comer and they’re going to throw everything at her.
==========
To the Main Blog…Over a Million Page Views
No comments:
Post a Comment