From his mountain hideout somewhere deep in the Tetons, Foster Friess was still smarting from his incorrect prediction that Senator John McCain would select Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota as his running mate. "He only picked Sarah Palin because she was a girl," he complained bitterly.
Foster’s son, Stephen, has been trying to talk some sense into his father. “Dad, Dad, hold on...she's the perfect choice,” he was overheard saying. “You couldn't have ordered a better pick from Central Casting. I mean our country’s president is like our CEO. As a mayor and a governor she's had more executive experience than Senators Obama, McCain & Biden combined!”
“Maybe,” Foster grumped as he tossed the “McCain/Pawlenty” needlepoint he had been working on in the fireplace.
“She's married her high school sweetheart who just happens to be a union member and works in the oil fields,” Stephen pleaded. “That will appeal to blue collar workers. Their oldest son is headed for Iraq so the military types will like her and she gave birth to her fifth child knowing he had Down’s Syndrome. This is a true Christian who values all life.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Foster said. “But is she tough enough for the job?”
“Tough!” Stephen laughed. “Her senior year of high school she lead her team to the state basketball championship. Her nickname was Barracuda!”
“That doesn't tell me anything.”
“How about this,” Stephen said with a knowing grin. “She made the winning free throw and played the game with a stress fracture in her ankle! Is that tough enough for you?”
“Really?” Foster said as he sat up a bit straighter in his chair
“Yes, really,” Stephen answered. “Plus, she runs marathons, loves to hunt and fish and, as governor, she took on the corruption in the “old boy’s” network in Alaska and cleaned house. She has gone toe to toe with big oil and won. All of this while cutting taxes. Her current approval rating is at 80% in the state.
“No kidding?” Foster said as he rubbed his chin.
“She even told the federal government she wasn't going to put up $300 million dollars of her state's money for that “bridge to nowhere” that made everyone so mad. She is a wonderful pick. Since the announcement, Dr. James Dobson at Focus on the Family has gone from saying he would never vote for McCain to saying “I could pull that lever” for a McCain/Palin ticket.”
“But I had dinner with Governor Pawlenty and his wife,” Foster said with a sigh. “I really liked them.”
“I know, I know,” Stephen said as he patted his father on the back. “Maybe she’ll invite you to dinner sometime. She might even make you some venison she shot herself.”
“That would be nice,” The senior Friess responded. "I don't like being wrong but I see what you're saying and I'm ecstatic.”
“Finally,” Stephen said as he turned his eyes to heaven and mumbled a silent “Thank you.”
Looking at Palin’s picture on his computer screen, Foster said, “You have to admit she's really good looking.”
Stephen’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. "Dad, you can't talk about a woman's beauty these days because it might offend someone.”
“I give up,” Foster Friess said as he stood up and headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Stephen asked.
“I’m going to go play a round of golf. That seems to be the only thing I can do right lately.”
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I think Governor Sarah Palin is an incredible pick and will make an outstanding Vice President. With all of the talk about Hillary, who would have thought the Republicans might be the ones to nominate and elect America’s first female Vice President?
If you want to help this Dream Team get elected, be sure to visit, McCain/Palin 2008.
Other takes on the Palin pick:
Dick Morris Lady is a Champ. (New York Post)
Mark Steyn The Hostess With the Moostest. (National Review)
Newt Gingrich, The Power of Authenticity. (Weekly Standard)
6 comments:
Palin "bridge to nowhere" line angers many Alaskans
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - It garnered big applause in her first speech as Republican John McCain's vice presidential pick, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's assertion that she rejected Congressional funds for the so-called "bridge to nowhere" has upset many Alaskans.
During her first speech after being named as McCain's surprise pick as a running mate, Palin said she had told Congress "'thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere."
In the city Ketchikan, the planned site of the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," political leaders of both parties said the claim was false and a betrayal of their community, because she had supported the bridge and the earmark for it secured by Alaska's Congressional delegation during her run for governor.
The bridge, a span from the city to Gravina Island, home to only a few dozen people, secured a $223 million earmark in 2005. The pricey designation raised a furor and critics, including McCain, used the bridge as an example of wasteful federal spending on politicians' pet projects.
“She even told the federal government she wasn't going to put up $300 million dollars of her state's money for that “bridge to nowhere” that made everyone so mad. She is a wonderful pick. Since the announcement, Dr. James Dobson at Focus on the Family has gone from saying he would never vote for McCain to saying “I could pull that lever” for a McCain/Palin ticket.”
Foster, this is good for my personality too. I appreciate your bit of tongue-in-cheek. John McCain has revved up the ticket and added a bit of spice. I think it will succeed. I feel just a little sorry for the liberals. They haven't had to think on their feet for a long time with all the locked-arm journalism going on. Please note Maria Bartiromo's (CNBC) interviews and favorable assessment of Gov. Palin. In our home we are smiling along with Dr. James Dobson and will conitnue to do so as we pull the lever for McCain-Palin. Best to you, Ed B
Thanks, I enjoyed the self-deprecating parody. I got it in the e-blast and I was hoping you would post it.
Sarah Palin appears to be a brilliant pick and our newly energized base seems to back that up.
The libs are trying to make a big deal about Sarah Palin’s pregnant seventeen-year-old daughter, the “daughter” made a mistake and after five months the baby is still in the womb. At least she didn’t compound her mistake with an abortion.
Contrast that with Obama’s statement where he says, “a woman shouldn't be "penalized" with a baby.” The libs would serve themselves well by keeping their mouth shut.
About the bridge to nowhere, having lived in Alaska from 1975 to1979 I thought there might be good reason for the bridge so I phoned senator Murkowski’s office for a few details. I was told it was actually two bridges one across Cook Inlet from Anchorage to Knik; a bridge I wished was there when I lived there. The bridge would expand the commuter belt for Alaska's largest city by cutting an hour or more from journeys from the southern part of the Matanuska/Susitna Valley. The proposed bridge would allow access in a more direct northward route from Anchorage to Houston and Willow and would provide a secondary north/south roadway in case of emergency. The other bridge was to the only place the city of Ketchikan could expand to, as Ketchikan can’t climb any farther up the cliff it now clings to, so this island that also is home to Ketchikan’s airport is Ketchikan’s future.
McCain’s rhetorical hand grenade “the bridge to nowhere” was an unfair assessment of something that Alaska needs. Both bridges need to be built but Alaska has enough oil revenue to pay for the two projects themselves and should have already done so.
You asked good questions.
They remain good questions.
As Emily Dickinson wrote, "For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy."
Best to think of each party's ticket is as a political mirror image of the other party's ticket. At the bottom and top of Obama's and McCain's tickets respectively are known and (because of this) not universally loved commodities; at the top and bottom of Obama's and McCain's tickets are unknown commodities liked, if at all, precisely because they are a rejection of the known. Yes, doing nothing in Washington qualifies a politician today as an outsider; as much as living in Ketchikan.
Foster, if you think back far enough, you'll remember the candy machines of our childhood which made the uncertain sale by allowing us to pull -- along the slots that contained known flavors of Snickers, KitKat or OhHenry's -- the "Guess What" slot. After we spent our nickel, what it generally meant in the end is that we paid for the uncertainty twice. Guess what that clever marketer is doing now?
I sit with the pre-ecstatic Foster that the resume for President should include more than playing a game with a hairline fracture, being the mayor of a small town; or spending a couple years in the Senate or working on a law review. But then I can always use time to perfect my golf.
Here's hoping for the best.
Dan R. Mastromarco
Foster may still be right about Gov Pawlenty, although for the Palin's sake, I hope not. I have the utmost respect for the family decision to support their daughter and truly walk their talk. That puts her up into Foster's league, in my opinion, and the more I read about her, the more I find I like. It could be an excellent opportunity for us all to develop more compassion for the real human complexities of people, families and relationships.
A big red flag is that she would earmark somewhere between $223-$398 million for a bridge and airport that would benefit only 50 residents. It would appear that there is still more to learn about what actually transpired.
Hi Foster,
I, too, am a principled, Christian conservative. And I admire Gov. Palin, but I do think that many of my brethren have been hypocritical here. If the Democrats had nominated a woman whose teen daughter had had premarital sex and was now pregnant or who 5 minutes ago had given birth to a special-needs child, you know that the Pat Robertsons and Phyllis Schlaflys of the world would be attacking her lousy, unChristian parenting and immorality. Now we're shouting that it's sexist to even suggest such things, but we are the ones who believe in motherhood before feminism, remember? Or did we forget in the heat of an election?
I also think it's a bit unrealistic for anyone of either party to parade your children around for political gain -- look, I have a Downs baby, look I have a son going to war -- and expect the public and the press not to take a look at those children. Blame the media all you want, but I've done missionary work all over the world and the only thing that separates our society from many of those is our free press. We know how the press operates, and their interest in Palin's family was fair game because she paraded that family in full view and offered her accomplishments as a mother as one of her credentials.
Gov. Palin is an impressive woman and I do hope that she and McCain win. But I am astonished that the Christian right has been so comfortable embracing a woman who clearly puts herself ahead of her family. Her children seems to have failed, probably because she's been so busy working, to be properly educated on how to behave morally.
The price of our embracing Sarah Palin and not critiquing her family situations will be that the Christian right will never again be able to criticize people like Jamie Lynn Spears or other Hollywood types who do the same. We're legitimizing unwed teenage sex so long as there's no abortion involved and we're doing it in the name of supporting Republicans. God -- remember Him? -- knows that these kids will be divorced before the end of the first McCain term. They're just children!
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