Set Sarah free!

I mostly listened to the Vice Presidential debate on radio, though I did get to see some of it on TV. Palin held her own and well exceeded the low expectations that the media had set for her. She was confident, poised and articulate -- even as she faced off against the verbosity machine that is Joe Biden. Biden was...Biden. He spoke quickly with an authority that is designed to make his statements seem like fact -- even when they aren't. Palin took him on effectively, and wasn't afraid to confront Biden's frequent exaggerations. I thought that had John McCain done that well last week against Obama the Republicans would be in better shape today.

Palin missed some chances tonight, specifically to refute the Obama-Biden claim that McCain was responsible for deregulation which got us into this mess. That's clearly only part of the story; Congress has been a big part of the problem by forcing too much regulation on Fannie and Freddie. If Fannie and Freddie had been forced to react to market risks on loans, they would never have made the vast number of sub-prime loans that they did.

Palin also missed a big chance to wack Biden on the War in Iraq -- specifically on his claim that Obama supports the same withdrawal plan that Maliki and Bush are negotiating about. Hello? The only reason anyone is talking about a withdrawal now is because of the surge that John McCain supported and Biden and Obama opposed. I wish that Palin had hit him over the head with that.

One thing that I didn't like about Palin's performance tonight: her consistent use of "corruption" and "greed" to describe Wall Street.  Certainly, some corruption always exists at the nexus of money and public policy -- but to make blanket statements that tar and feather an entire sector of our economy is populism worthy of John Edwards, not the Republican Veep candidate.  The mess we are in is more about the corruption of Capitol Hill and the lax interest rate policies of the Fed than it is any systemic disease on Wall Street.  Banks took advantage of the rules and pushed the limits to make money.  With risk comes reward -- and often failure. 

Also, I would have liked to hear Palin say also that the behavior of  borrowers played a role in this mess, too -- and that it wasn't just the responsibility of "predatory lenders".  People have to take personal responsibility for their decisions, and if this is not a theme promoted by McCain-Palin then they become nothing more than the victim-baiters that Obama-Biden are. 

In any event, my suggestion to John McCain is this: Set Sarah Free!

Let her go. Let her be spontaneous. Let her be the maverick, fun woman that she is. She's the only candidate who can relate to the American people as a real person. It is something that helps to differentiate the McCain-Palin ticket from Obama (effete, Chicago intellectual) and Biden (career Senator). It's what turned on the Republican base and got independents excited about McCain after the Convention. He needs to let her work her magic.

McCain's campaign -- and thus his chances to be president -- are in bad shape at this point. All polls in the battleground states are now leaning for Obama. He needs to do something dramatic to turn this around.

Palin is our future

The only really interesting topic of discussion for conservatives right now is Sarah Palin. McCain will be the same mediocrity in the White House that he has been in the Senate – he is a stop-gap, purely anti-Obama vote who, despite his great military service, won’t ever be interesting on his own as a political figure and who seems blissfully unaware that the greatest move of his political career, selecting Palin, is the only reason this is even a race. Palin appears to be the kind of entity conservatives have been hunting for since Reagan, that was totally absent from the national GOP stage prior to her selection, and who now will likely be GOP front-runner for president in 2012 if Obama wins this year and front-runner to follow up McCain if McCain wins. Aside from her, the national GOP picture remains depressingly bleak, and if McCain wins, all the influences that have made the party so will be doing all they can to keep Palin from becoming the Margaret Thatcher kind of character she has the potential to become.

If Obama wins, the party purges and soul-searches at all levels and possibly re-orients again to the heartland kind of conservatism that Palin represents, with Palin the de facto leader in preparation for 2012. I’m voting for McCain, but to be honest, it’s tough to say which outcome is really better for the party and country in the long run.

And just think: all these political tectonics have occurred because one woman had the courage and character to stand up to GOP mediocrities in Alaska. We should all learn from her.

Say it ain't so, Sarah

I cringed when I heard Sarah Palin suggest that human activity might be to blame for so-called global warming in her ABC News interview with Charlie Gibson last week. The Republican VP nominee's claim instantly conjured up images of French President Nicolas Sarkozy breaking many of the pledges he boldly made during the presidential election campaign here in France in early 2007. As I watched Sarah Palin’s cut-and-thrust with the MSM (via the Internet here in France), I seriously wondered for one moment whether her remark was not yet another example of a politician saying one thing and doing another, once in office or on his or her way there.

Forgive my sensitivity. After all, we, American-inspired French conservatives, who have been gullible enough to believe that France might ever become anything other than a stronghold of socialism, have had our fair share of rude awakenings since the days of Turgot, Tocqueville, Jean-Baptiste Say, and Frederic Bastiat.

Consider the latest wakeup call. As candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy straight-facedly promised to reform France along clear-cut free-market principles. Granted, since then, he has cut some taxes in an effort to boost investment and stimulate growth and made moves to dispel the notion that the work ethic is a dirty word.

However, where are the cuts in welfare spending that should have gone hand in hand with the tax changes? Instead, the entitlement mentality is still the cultural norm, and President Sarkozy has been busy implementing his very own brand of Robin Hood economics, robbing hard-working, hard-saving, law-abiding citizens not only to pay for his Al Gore-certified green revolution but also to bribe loafers and welfare queens to get back to work:

** He has approved green taxes on anything from cars, home appliances, and flat-screen TVs to computers, number crunchers for school children and even plastic cutlery used in barbecues and other outdoor meals;

** He has “asked” Total, France’s biggest oil company, to make a $312-million contribution to the French Treasury to help those who can’t afford it pay for nest winter’s heating bills following last summer’s rise in oil prices;

** Worst of all, he has just slapped a new 1.1% new tax on capital gains and other investment to fund a back-to-work program, all in the name of solidarity, a code word for socialistic wealth transfers here in France.

The list goes on. Bottom line? While Sarkozy's approval ratings have been edging up, France’s GDP growth in this year’s second quarter plummeted to –0.3%. Another batch of taxes and France will technically be in a recession by next quarter.

So please, Mrs. Palin, however morale-boosting your selection as John McCain’s running mate might justifiably be, forget about man-made global what-do-you-call-it and let us hear you talk consistently about free enterprise, traditional values and strong national defense.

Let us see you walk the wholeheartedly conservative walk all the way to victory on Nov. 4 -- and from there to the Oval Office in 2012.

Dem ticket voted for infamous bridge

Now this one is just delicious. The Obama campaign has accused Sarah Palin of “first being for the Bridge to Nowhere – before being against it.” At first I was concerned that this could represent a chink in Palin’s heretofore shining reformist armor – but the plot thickens. According to the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) – and verified via the track of votes cast, per the Congressional Register, here’s a bit of information that sheds more light on the whole story:

The Bridge to Nowhere was first funded in August 2005 through the 2005 SAFETEA-LU Act through a $223 million earmark inserted by then-House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska). In October, 2005, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered an amendment to the fiscal 2006 Transportation Appropriations Act to transfer $75 million in funding for the Bridge to Nowhere, along with money for the Knik Arm Bridge in Alaska, to support the rebuilding of the Twin Spans Bridge in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. His amendment was defeated by a vote of 15-82. Senators Biden (D-Del.) and Obama (D-Ill.) voted against the amendment; Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) was not present for the vote.

In November, 2005, Congress included language in the final version of the fiscal 2006 Transportation Appropriations Act that allowed the state of Alaska to either spend money on the two bridges or on other surface transportation projects. In October, 2006, Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski included $91 million for the Gravina Island Bridge in his budget submission for fiscal year 2007. As a candidate for governor, Sarah Palin expressed a mixture of support and doubt about the bridge, particularly about how the project would be funded. As governor, she submitted her budget on January 17, 2007 without any money for the bridge. On July 17, 2007, the Associated Press reported that "The state of Alaska on Friday officially abandoned the 'bridge to nowhere' project that became a nationwide symbol of federal pork-barrel spending." Governor Palin said in a statement that "Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer."

"Media reports that Congress killed the Bridge to Nowhere are not accurate," said Schatz. "The 2006 transportation appropriations bill allowed Alaska to decide whether or not to move forward. Governor Murkowski said yes; Governor Palin said no. Any discussion about the project should begin with facts."

SO: both Barack Obama and Joe Biden actually cast votes preserving the earmark for the “Bridge to Nowhere” against an effort by another rock-solid anti-government waste conservative Republican (Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK), while Governor Palin, irrespective of whatever remarks she may have made during her campaign, actually DID kill the project once assuming office as governor.

In short: both Barack Obama and Joe Biden were “against being against… the Bridge to Nowhere” before Sarah Palin was just plain against it.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Fact check on Sarah vs. Charlie

Charlie Gibson's dishonest effort to trap, embarrass, and belittle Gov. Sarah Palin in his lengthy ABC interview with the Republican VP nominee is unmasked by the network's own transcripts and, in one case, by actual video of Palin addressing her church. If you like your news unfiltered, a few clicks will illustrate what I mean.

On Sarah's allegedly clueless answer to the Bush Doctrine question, here's Charles Krauthammer in National Review.

On the caricature of her as a scary theocrat and holy warrior against Iraq, here's James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal.

Finally, with a reprise of these topics plus the canard of Palin the warmonger spoiling for a fight with Russia, here's PJ Gladnick on Newsbusters.

Once again, we Republicans owe a vote of thanks to the ham-handed Obama partisans in the MSM for elevating and martyring McCain's everywoman running mate while eroding -- still further -- their own credibility. Keep it up guys, there are barely 50 days until this thing wraps up.