Don’t underestimate Sarah Palin

Ted Belman

Do not think of Sarah Palin as the Governor of Alaska. That obscures what matters. Focus on the qualities that enabled her to achieve such a position. Sarah Palin has always been a competitor and social activist. Not only has she always criticized what was but she had ideas as to how things should be. Rather than contending herself with sounding off she acted to make things better. Rather than joining someone else’s bandwagon she created her own and invited others to get aboard. She gets things done. She is a natural manager and leader.

At least that’s the impression I got from watching the FOX News hour long program on her life. I also learned more about her from a Bloomberg article,


The Club for Growth, which advocates lower taxes and government spending, praised Palin as a “genuine reformer” who has cut wasteful spending in her state. “At a time when many Republicans are still clinging to pork-barrel politics, Governor Palin has quickly become a leader on this issue,” the group’s president, Pat Toomey, said in a statement.
Palin has a strong anti-abortion record. She is a member of Feminists for Life, a group that works to make health-care and child-care resources available to “pregnant or parenting students,” according to the group’s Web site.

Gary Bauer said “She’s a solid conservative. She’ll help to elevate the issue of energy independence and the need to drill, and she’ll be warmly received by the pro-family and pro-life community.”

President George W. Bush called the pick “exciting” and said Palin “is a proven reformer who is a wise steward of taxpayer dollars and champion for accountability in government.”

Considered a rising political star by state Republican leaders, she was appointed in 2003 to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a significant body in the energy-rich state.

While on the commission, Palin led an ethics investigation of another member, state Republican Chairman Randy Ruedrich, who was accused of conflicts of interest involving oil companies.


Just today, HAARETZ reports Hawaii’s 1st Jewish governor: Palin more experienced than Obama

Republican Governor Linda Lingle, the first Jewish chief executive of the Aloha State, declaring that Palin has more on-the-job experience than Barack Obama - Lingle, like the Republican vice-presidential candidate a former mayor of a small community, speaks with unique authority.
“As another woman Republican Governor, we know each other very well, and I can tell people in America and all over the world, that she is the unique combination of toughness and grace,”

“the Democrats’ presidential candidate has zero experience. He’s never led any city, never led any state. So our vice-presidential candidate has more experience than their presidential candidate has.”

Palin “is a proven leader on local level as well as the state level, she’s had a balanced budget, she’s had to deal with every issue from the environment to energy and healthcare to education and public safety, and she’s done it in a way that every governor does, which is: you make the final decision for which you’ll be accountable.

“It’s not like being in Congress, where no one might know you’re responsible,” she told Haaretz. “When you’re a governor you’re the one to make a decision. It’s a great, great preparation for a job such as vice president.”

Lingle says she has never discussed Israel-related issues with Palin. “But Senator McCain’s commitment to Israel is strong and well-known, and I assure your readers that he would not put someone on that ticket who did not have the same feelings. Certainly he has discussed those issues. Government Palin is a very religious person, and the religious Christians are the greatest supporters of Israel.”

According to Lingle, the Republican Party is likely to attract growing numbers of Jewish voters because “the Republicans have a much stronger position on Israel than the Democrats, and that’s why I think more people will be seen on the Republican side.

Lingle was interviewed on the FOX programme and she noted that Palin spoke at an energy conference in Hawaii and impressed everyone with her knowledge of the issues. While there she went into labour and flew back to Alaska to have her baby and was back on the job shortly thereafter.

In an other Bloomberg article written in March of this year titled Alaska’s Palin, Miss Congeniality, Makes Exxon, Conoco Comply

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a former beauty pageant winner, is succeeding where Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a former paratrooper and military coup leader, so far has failed.
Palin threatened to evict Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil company, and partners BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips from a state-owned gas field, winning their promise to increase Alaska’s natural-gas output 17 percent. She raised taxes on oil profits by $1.5 billion a year and rejected industry ownership of a $25 billion pipeline.

Politicians and energy companies are haggling for revenue with oil around $100 a barrel. Exxon and partners say higher taxes may lead to fewer investments in Alaska, home to the second-largest U.S. reserves behind Texas. None has quit the state. Exxon and ConocoPhillips last year left Venezuela rather than accept lower profits when Chavez seized oil fields.

“We’ve got to play hardball,” says Republican Palin, 44, in an interview. Alaska relies on the energy industry for 85 percent of tax revenue and 33 percent of jobs. “The time is right to develop these resources because of the price of fuel.”

Like I say, don’t underestimate Sarah Palin.