McCain Names a Woman of Action

Here is the statement John McCain should put out right now and stick to for the rest of this campaign: "I believe Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are both qualified to be vice president. The Democrats just have their ticket upside down."

The choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be the Republican vice presidential nominee is energizing the GOP base like nothing John McCain has ever done. Indeed, just as Barack Obama had to prop up his weak credentials by picking someone with experience, John McCain had to bolster his long resume, filled with heroism, military skill and governmental knowledge with a fresh, solid, proven conservative who has walked the walk and not just talked the talk.

Sarah Palin is the real deal. From her days as a tenacious high school basketball player and beauty queen to her meteoric rise through the ranks of Alaska politics, she didn't get the nickname 'Sarah Barracuda' for nothing. She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and a compassionate 44-year-old mother of five, including a Down's syndrome child born in April of this year.

Unlike Barack Obama, who thought so highly of himself that he wrote two autobiographies before he accomplished anything, Mrs. Palin has raised a family, run a business, managed a city and governed a state. She took on corrupt members of her own party, toppled a sitting Republican governor and said 'no' to Alaska's infamous bridge to nowhere. She is pro-life, pro-family, pro-Second Amendment and pro-free enterprise. She is the governor of America's most natural resource-rich state and is an advocate of oil drilling in ANWR. (Perhaps she can talk some sense into McCain on that issue.)

Oh, and she has an 80 percent approval rating among Alaskans.

It will be interesting to see how many disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters will vote Republican in November because of Palin's name on the ballot. Will they abandon the worn out big government programs of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who offer the same tired ideas proposed by George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry before them? Will all those 85-year-old women who kept saying, "I just wanted to live long enough to see a woman elected," now take advantage of their opportunity? If gender is their criteria, this is their chance.

There are so many reasons liberals are going to hate running against this ticket. First, there is the fact that the big liberal lie will soon be proven false: namely that conservatives won't vote for a woman. I have contended for some time that conservatives of all stripes - social, fiscal, national security - would support a woman or a minority without hesitation if that person had the right worldview. The exciting thing for most of us is that we now have an opportunity to elect a truly conservative female to help lead our country.

Also, unlike Hillary Clinton, who has gotten where she is on the back of a philandering husband, Palin has done it on her own. In short, Sarah Palin is the ultimate feminist, and the Left can't stand the fact that she not only is not one of them, she is their antithesis: a conservative wife and mother who loves God, shoots guns, eats Moose burgers, treasures traditional marriage and values innocent human life. And she's attractive and articulate to boot! She's their worst nightmare!

Alaska is often described as the last frontier, the last vestige of wild, rugged America. This is not simple nostalgia pining for a bygone era. Alaska is a crucible (albeit a frozen one), and you don't get elected dog catcher there unless you are up to the job. Barack Obama's refined enunciations are an unacceptable substitute for action. And that is precisely what John McCain has found in Sarah Palin - a woman of action.