AN APPEAL TO GOV. SARAH PALIN: GO FOR IT!

I received the following from Adam Brickley, founder of the Draft Palin Effort:

"Conservative web guru Patrick Ruffini (webmaster for the Bush-Cheney Campaign in 2004) has just posted a glowing column about Gov. Palin on Townhall.com. He even mentions our movement, agreeing with us in principle but saying we're "a bit early". Other than that one quip, his column is spot-on in my opinion. Click here to read the column.Adam BrickleyFounder, palinforvp.blogpsot.com."


Here's the link to Patrick's essay on Sarah ("The GOP's North Star"): http:/townhall.com/columnists/Column.aspxUrlTitle=the_gops_north_star&ns=PatrickRuffini&dt=09/29/2007&page=full&comments=true&submitted=true0188d8c6-5b38-4a6c-a329-b3e76c3cfbcb


Here's My Response to Adam:

Adam, I saw the Patrick Ruffini column saluting Sarah and agree that it's a very good one. A "bit early" doesn't strike me as too extreme in his comment about Sarah and the nation's highest offices.

Soon, perhaps, say by the election in 2008, it won't be "a bit early" for her to be on the national ticket.

Consider: when I was your age (previous century, but not telling exactly which century) freshmen in college were't allowed to play on the varsity football and basketball teams. The idea was that they (and even sophomores) were't "ready." Of course, we found out that was not true -- and, in some cases, it was absolutely absurd.

Today, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the University of Pittsburgh football team will start a freshman at QB and another one at running back. three years ago, West Virginia University started two freshmen in the backfrield and both got some mention for All-American teams. I guess they were a lot more "ready" than people might have imagined.

I even disagree with my friend Malia in Hawaii some on the question of Sarah's readiness to assume the presidency if necessary. I think she is in fact ready now (if it became necessary) to lead this country -- mainly because leadership is a question of character, willingness to listen and learn, and a desire to serve the "governed."

More and more people look at Sarah and soon begin to wonder: "Is there any space left on Mr. Rushmore?" One recent blog noted Sarah's ridiculously low 4% disapproval rating (and nearly 90% approval) and proclaimed: "She's More Popular Than Kittens." She has touched the hearts of her constituents in a way we've not seen with any other elected official.

People used to pester us with questions about Sarah's "stand" on the War on Terror. When her son Track, age 18, enlisted in the Army on 9/11-2007, I think we learned all we need to about the Palin family's views on that subject.

Sarah Palin has a connection with key issues (including the WOT) that is more direct and personal -- than any other candidate under consideration for President or V-P. She has more knowledge on critical issues -- especially energy and the environment. She rejects the view that top elected official has to be some sort of egomanic. Instead, she sees herself a "a willing servant."

This is a remarkable woman, and we don't even have the right to ask her to be more remarkable.

Adam, I'd compare Sarah in some ways to the founder of the Draft Palin movement -- which happens to be you. You're 20 years old. You're much "too young" (in the minds of some) to have accomplished what you have -- turning this effort into the largest such grass-roots undertaking now underway. I guess the fact that it's "a bit early" to achieve such things means you should have devoted your time to "normal" college activities, such as kegging, painting your face with the school colors, chasing girls, etc.

Right now, you're the same age Bill Gates was when he dropped out of Harvard to form the company that became Microsoft.

I've osaid that if Sarah were a Democrat, she'd be right up on the stage with Hillary, Obama, and the others. Even with her short tenure as Governor, she has more executive experience than Mrs. Clinton and Obama combined.

We Republicans tend to place a lot of value on "experience," which usually means that we end up running candidates who are eligible for Medicare and Social Security. Dick Cheney is a fine man, but he's too ill, too old, and too widely disliked to be an asset to George W. Bush. As for Dan Quayle, I don't know about his "experience," but he didn't have the intellect , dynamism, or candor of a person like Sarah Palin.

Someone (John Ehrlichman I think) once asked Richard Nixon why he chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate. Nixon said, "Because no one in his right mind would think of assassinating me."

As a political Party, we can do better, much better. Adam, the success of your "Sarah Project" derives from your initial perception that we as Republicans can't continue running a bunch of aging, exhausted Caucasian males. Frankly, we don't want to be a Party mainly appealing to "angry, old white guys." There's no future in that approach.

Like anyone in high office, Sarah would need good people around her. (Adam, you should be one of those people -- and Patrick Ruffini and Fred Barnes should be others. So should some of the people that received my e-mail today on this subject.)

In all candor, the kind of "experience" Sarah lacks is the type that seems to produce mainly Beltway Cynicism and the politicization of every aspect of an indvidual's being. Adam, at some point in our lifetime, we want someone on the ticket -- as V-P nominee first and later as presidential nominee -- who has the potential to be a Washington, a Lincoln, a Truman, or a Reagan.

If not Sarah, who? If not now, when?

Steve Maloney
"All Sarah (Almost) All the Time"

Note: I'll put up Patrick's entire article later today (Saturday)