Sarah_Palin_Is

KATIE COURIC to interview SARAH PALIN on September 29 and 30

On this page: Why Sarah Palin is a good choice for John McCain and the GOP. Palin adds energy and small-town values to the ticket

Did you really think old fox John McCain was going to play it safe and go with and old white dude, a Washington insider, a businessman like Romney, or a pastor like Mike Huckabee? McCain needed an evangelical woman on the ticket

Why Palin is Electrifying the Republican Base

by Erik Hanson

Go on, admit it. You thought there was a Republican play book that involved John McCain picking a middle-aged white dude, either a millionaire businessman or an evangelical ultra-conservative. Romney fitted the bill except he's a Mormon and, unfortunately, there's still prejudice in America against non-Christian denominations. OK, Mormons are kind of Christians, but they're a bit cultish and weird aren't they?

Who else was there? Pawlenty of Minnesota wasn't charismatic enough. Turncoat Joe Lieberman was too liberal on social issues. Tom Ridge is about as exciting as a night out in Enid, Oklahoma. Mike Huckabee, well, dear old Mike is not really a serious politician. Ron Paul was never in contention. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana? Thanks but no thanks. McCain's veep couldn't be a general or an admiral because he didn't want his number two to outrank him. Which narrowed the field to Sarah Palin and a few others.

Contrary to what many pundits and so-called experts are saying, McCain did not need an experienced running mate. He has more than enough of that on his own. The man's 72 years old for goodness sake. He didn't want to to run the risk of Obama pointing out that the combined age of the Republican ticket was 130 years or more. That takes us almost back to the Civil War.

McCain needed someone and something that he wasn't, and it had to be someone and something that Obama-Biden didn't have. Da-dah, we present a youngish woman, preferably with uncompromising views on social issues. We all know that McCain is a bit of an agnostic. Religion is not terribly important to him, which conservative Christians know. They don't really trust him. His vice president needed to be someone who's passionate about all the hellfire and brimstone stuff; the Ten Commandments as absolute truth, abortion can never be justified, creationism is serious stuff, the Bible is the greatest self-help manual, Jesus was the ultimate CEO ... You get my drift.

Sarah Palin offers all of that, and yet she twists it a bit. She's not perfect, is safely, acceptably trashy. Without wishing to be rude, in different circumstances you can see her running the local department store or coffee shop. Again, she's one of us. Her teenage daughter is pregnant; the father of the baby is being told to marry her or face the unpleasant consequences. The family sticks together. That's admirable. It's what Americans want family to be.

Palin is hot but not too hot in her librarian eyeglasses and red, open-toed heels. Her suits make her look like Pam Ewing. They're not quite wrong, and they're not quite right. She lacks Cindy McCain's class and style. All of which the nation's small town hockey moms love. She's one of them. They don't want haute-couture, they can't afford that. They want clothes you can buy off the rack.

Small town Republican moms don't care two hoots that Palin can't pinpoint France on a map or that her academic resume features a lot of mediocre performances in mediocre colleges. They adore that she's not Ivy League. And they don't even notice she can't quite explain the workings of the housing market, is ignorant of Wall Street, and wouldn't understand a bilateral trade agreement if it bit her on the nose. This all adds to her popular appeal as a regular working woman who's doing well for herself. In the platitude of the day, Sarah Palin is a breath of fresh air.

Remember, too, we have had an endless line of useless, hopeless men allowed into the corridors of power. Their only qualification was being a man. At the very least, McCain-Palin shows us that those days are coming to an end.

There really is a belief out there that anyone can kick butt in Washington. Come on, how difficult can it be? You sit in meetings, experts do all the thinking and analyzing, then wait for you to say "Yes" or "No". All you need is small town, hokey wisdom, hard work, and an unwillingness to compromise, oh, and you have to be willing to make lots of enemies. That's Sarah Palin in a nutshell.

I don't love her, I'm not one of the Palin nuts, but I respect her. There's also the American Idol factor, the buzz and excitement of her candidacy. It's like watching your mom's best friend being rocketed to overnight stardom. No one quite understands how or why it happened, but it's fun to witness and we wish her well. Go, Sarah, go!

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Do you agree? Let us know.

Vice Presidential Debate: October 2 in St Louis. Read our preview

Erin Brockovich likes Palin. "The fact is that Sarah Palin positively emanates strength. She gives off the aura of being a strong woman who doesn't back down, and she does it sporting heels and wearing her family like a badge of honor. I am sure there are a million other women out there who are doing the same thing, " said Brockovich.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate. Will he win the debate against Palin? He has the experience, she has the cutting one-liners and jibes

Sarah Palin's red Naughty Monkey shoes, bought in Juneau, Alaska

Close-up of Palin's Naughty Monkey shoe

FACES FOR CHANGE

This is what a feminist looks like: Amy Brenneman, Harvard grad, actress, producer, and activist in the union Unite For Strength.