Draft Palin Effort Intensifying: "New Faces, New Places"

Tomorrow's (Tuesday's) column? I'm on a roll with Sarah, so I'll stick with her and why presidential candidates, including Mike, should look at her as a political goldmine. I always wondered who the "wee hours" visitors were. Leave me your blog address (or your e-mail) and you'll hear from me soon. Note the following: Juneau, Alaska story Aug. 27: "New stores and the expansion of others are consuming the capital city’s available labor, shrinking the city’s unemployment rate and making it rough for smaller businesses to find workers."

I read the above, and I thought, "Gee, Sarah even solved the universal problem of unemployment!"

"God so loved the world," but I'm only at the point where I like it.

Note to supporters of MIKE HUCKABEE and other candidates, the best way to learn about Sarah Palin is to read some of the national articles praising her, all of them listed on my blogroll (Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard, Whie House Correspondent Les Kinsolving in WorldNetDaily, Dimitri Vassilaros in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), SJ Reidhead on BlogCritics, and Tom Koenniger in The Columbian). The Wikipedia article on Sarah (type in her name) is short but accurate. If you're interested in blog sites backing Sarah, look at: http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/, http://palintology.com/ (an Alaska site), http://outsideofthebox.townhall.com/, as well as pro-Huckabee sites such as http://onemom.wordpress.com/, http://opinionatedcatholic.blogspot.com/ and http://themaritimesentry.blogspot.com/. Please join us in our efforts to get the most electable woman on the GOP ticket.

A big welcome to the newest Palin Fan (and a strong supporter of Mike Huckabee), a guy named "Nuke" who does Nuke's News & Views at: http://conservablogs.com/nuke/

NOTE: WE'RE ASKING EVERYONE WHO VISITS THIS SITE OR THE MANY OTHER PRO-PALIN BLOGS TO JOIN IN THE EFFORT TO GET SARAH PALIN ON THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL TICKET. YOU CAN DO SO THROUGH THE COMMENTS SECTIONS OR BY E-MAILING ME AT TALKTOP65@AOL.COM. ANY CONTACTS FROM THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES WILL BE HELD IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE.

I'm asking Adam Brickley (http:palinforvp.blogspot.com), founder of the Draft Palin Movement, to put on the mailing list two individuals: Larry Perrault and Douglas Gibbs. In the case of the latter, Doug hosts the popular Political Pistachio radio program (http://politicalpistachio.com, and he and his wife ("Mrs. Pistachio") were kind enough to have me on with them a few weeks ago. Doug can't endorse specific candidates right now, as he is seeking to have various individuals (including Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin) on his show. So, at this point he clearly should remain neutral.

Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, when this column is brought to your attention, please seriously consider appearing on Doug's outstanding radio show.

As for Larry Perrault, he and I have exchanged many blog comments and e-mails. At times, we exasperate one another, but Larry clearly is a splendid guy (a Houstonian) who thinks the world of Mike Huckabee.

As regards Sarah Palin, he sent me the following comment: "If Huckabee were nominated and saw fit to select Sarah Palin to fill out the ticket, I'd be delighted." That's good enough for me. I urge you to visit Larry's site at: http://larryperrault.blogspot.com.

By the way, Larry has MS. His body may have failed him, but his heart, soul, and love for his family and his country remain very much intact.

As many of you know, I have a high regard for Mike Huckabee (as I do for some other candidates), and would be proud to support him if he wins the nomination. I believe strongly that Mike should meet soon with Sarah Palin, privately at first if that approach suits both of them.

Sarah has said she doesn't know a great deal about Mike, and his campaign should rectify that situation quickly. At this point, Sarah probably can do more for ANY of the candidates than they can do for her. As the most popular state official in our country, she can be very helpful in advising how candidates can generate wide public support.

At the least, Mike's building a strong personal and political relationship with Sarah and her supporters would help his campaign greatly if he named her as "exactly the kind of person" he would seriously consider for the nation's second-highest office. Our goal is for the Republican nominee to name his prospective running mate no later than Febuary 6, 2008, the day after the "Super Tuesday" primaries.

Late last week, Bill McAllister of KTUU-TV asked me if the Draft Palin Movement had established initial contacts with Republican presidential candidates (plural), and I said honestly that we had initiated such outreach. We want to know exactly where the candidates, including Mike Huckabee, stand on having a qualified woman on the ticket. The candidates increasingly are aware of the strong support Sarah has from people of the stature of Fred Barnes, Les Kinsolving, Tom Koennniger, and SJ Reidhead, among others, as well as from many of the most dedicated and influential members of the blogosphere.

National figures associated with the presidential campaigns have expressed an interest in meeting with Sarah Palin. The next moves are up to the candidates.

Frankly, the election of 2008 is so important to our nation that presidential candidates should avoid the usual coyness when it comes to a vice-presidential selection. We urge them not to fall back into considering mainly aging male Caucasians. It's time to select someone whose political future is unlimited and whose appeal to voters is obvious.

Whatever candidate selects Sarah as a running mate should be aware that she would refuse to be some sort of gender token or "attack dog." She's an individual of nont only of high intelligence but also of basic decency. She's a healer, not a divider.

The presidential nominee will make the final decisions on policy issues, but Sarah should be a respected advisor, especially on issues related to the family, energy, education, the environment, Second Amendment rights, and the overall value of life. She has translated her stands on such issues into approval ratings that show almost universal support, not just from Republicans, but also from Democrats and Independents.

It's clearly time for new faces from new places. In our view, the best new face is that of Sarah Palin, and the new place should be the geographically distant -- but critically important -- state of Alaska.

Stephen R. Maloney, Ambridge, PA
National Coordinating Team Palin 4 VP
TalkTop65@aol.com
724-266-2953

WHO IS ADAM BRICKLEY? AND WHY SHOULD SARAH PALIN CARE?

NOTE: In the next month, we in the Sarah Palin Crusade will be working hard to add to our growing list of people supporting Sarah for V-P. To sign up, either leave a comment or send an e-mail to TalkTop65@aol.com. She is fresh, and everyone else is tired. When we get 20 new Palin backers, we will hold a lottery and the winner gets to buy Adam dinner!


When Alexander the Great lay dying while still in his 20s, he had conquered all the known world. As his key lieutenants gathered around him, they asked whom he wanted his kingdom to go to. In his last words, Alexander said, "To the . . . strongest."


Adam Brickley is a 20-year-old college student who lives in Colorado Springs and goes to the University of Colorado campus there ity. Of great significance, he started the Draft Sarah Palin movement. He's a living exemplar of another famous statement by Alexander about the main rule of life: "The weak give what they must, the strong take what they wish." Generally mild in manner, Adam is one of the strong.

Some people, even a journalist as good as Bill McAllister of KTUU-TV in Anchorage, look askance at a 20-year-old. How can anyone at such a “tender” age launch a Movement that’s taking on national implications? Surely, they think, he must be a minor figure in the effort. Not so.

I’ve run into some extremely smart political operatives who were very young, such as Dale Perry of the University of Georgia, as well as Lynette Steine, Earle Johnson, and Knott Rice, all young Georgians who played critical roles in the early Gingrich campaign. Adam is the best of the best. (See his blog at: http://palinforvp.blogspot.com

I’ve called him “the young Karl Rove,” which frankly is a compliment to Karl Rove. In a sense, however, it may be better to look at Adam as a political version of Tony Conigliaro. Those with long memories will remember “Tony C” as an outfielder on the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

Because of a terrible eye injury, Tony didn’t break Babe Ruth’s record. But he accomplished something neither Barry Bonds, nor Hank Aaron ever did. Before he reached his 21st birthday, Conigliaro hit 100 home runs. No other baseball player has ever come close to that achievement.

As an 18-year-old, Conigliaro was already a home-run-hitting-machine. He was what we now call a super-star at an age when most young men are wondering what kind of corsage to buy their date for the prom.

But didn’t some baseball types of the age ask what an 18-year-old was doing in the major leagues? Wouldn’t he have benefited from spending several years in the minors, as baseball players – even very good ones – usually do? Wouldn’t he gain some valuable experience with the minor-league Red Sox in Pawtucket rather than the major-league team in Boston? Might he not inspire jealousy among some of his teammates who had paid their dues in the minor leagues? What about sitting him firmly on the bench, where he would be less of job threat to aging veterans?

Of course, the questions are ridiculous. Tony Conigliaro earned his spot with the “Big Boys” of baseball by hitting an incredible number of home runs. He might have been very young, but he was already a great athlete. He didn't need any seasoning. He learned on the job, and he obviously was a very quick learner.

The same is true of Adam Brickley. His remarkable accomplishments with the Draft Palin effort make him a budding mega-star in politics. He knows how to organize coalitions, which is the political analogue to a baseball player who knows how to hit home runs and win games.

When Bill Gates was Adam’s age, he was dropping out of Harvard (and NOBODY drops out of Harvard) and beginning to develop what soon became Microsoft. When Tiger Woods was Adam’s age, he was preparing to become the youngest player ever to win a major tournament.
When Alexander the Great was Adam's age, well, you know about "The Great."

What I’m asking individuals is to evaluate Adam on merit, not on age and on any supposed lack of experience. In fact, that’s also what we’re asking people to do with Sarah Palin, who is more than twice Adam’s age.

A person Adam and I both respect almost to the point of idolatry is Fred Barnes of FOX News and The Weekly Standard. Fred says that, for a variety of reasons, Sarah is not ready – YET – for the vice presidency. He notes that she needs to spend more time meeting the movers and shakers in the Washington Beltway.

Frankly,Adam and I believe that some of the experience Sarah would get in the Beltway is precisely the kind she doesn’t need. She can avoid meeting all the big-time lobbyists in the $2,000 suits who reside on K Street and hand out cash to their political servants. She can pass on kissing up to the blowhards who rule the roosts in the House and Senate. Yes, there are a few good men (and women) in DC, but one key reason for sending Sarah there is to clear out the riff-raff, which is just what she's doing in her home state.

Sarah became governor of Alaska with roughly zero support from the state's Republican establishment, including the state chairman, whom she accused (rightly) of ethics violations. In what probably was a first for politicians in her state, she went into office beholden to none of the Kingmakers or influence-buyers.

Gee, could she do the same kind of thing in Washington, DC – go in as a reformist-outsider free of the Beltway tentacles? Could she and the President go directly to the American people with sound, common sense proposals to resolve issues like Iraq and immigration? That's exactly what she's doing as governor.

If she follows Fred Barnes’s advice and cuddles up with the political potentates and media egomaniacs in DC, then she would be just as tarnished as everybody else. Playing the Washington game is a case of the fly seeking to dominate the fly paper.

Adam and I and others have tried hard, but it’s so difficult to get this across to people like Fred Barnes this point: The reason our elected officials can’t “clean up the mess in DC” is that they ARE the mess. They accept the unacceptable – such as taking long vacations in times of national crisis and building Bridges to Nowhere. Washington is the place that’s earned its reputation for turning idealists into cynics. Trust us: Washington needs her more than she needs it.

Sarah has said that her life in Alaska is “reality” – with her making the beds, preparing peanut butter sandwiches for her daughter Piper, and then rushing off to be governor. "In Alaska, it's easy to keep it real," as she says.

Yes, Alaska is different. It lacks the pomposity and rigid ideologies that have a paralyzing effect at times in the "lower-48." It's a place where residents don't stand on ceremony -- and where most people genuinely like one another. The rest of the nation could benefit from some "northern exposure."

Six months ago, Adam Brickley saw Sarah Palin as a woman embedded in reality. He viewed her as a special kind of elected official. He observed that she had become the most popular elected official in the country FOR SEVERAL GOOD REASONS.

For one thing, she was honest while many others were at least mildly corrupt. Another was that she wasn’t under the thumb of the traditional movers and shakers in Alaska politics – particularly the oil companies and their suppliers. What’s more, she was a conservative with a heart, one who had a real respect for the people she governed. She also talked constantly about her need to abide by Alaska's state constitution.

Adam also saw that Alaska’s relatively small population was a non-issue. Look at it this way: Dick Cheney, a relatively unpopular politician is from a state, Wyoming, with three electoral votes. Sarah Palin, a wildly popular elected official, is also from a state with three electoral votes.

As a 20-year-old, Adam Brickley has a long time to live in America. I have no doubt he will have a tremendous political career. He’s proving that people of any age, if they have intelligence and drive, can change the world. He’s demonstrating that the kind of country we live in depends on getting people with the seeds of greatness into high office.

Adam, take a bow! You and I expect a lot from Sarah Palin, but we both know she expects even more of herself. For both of you I'd say this: when the going gets tough, think of Tony Conigliaro -- and keep in mind Alexander's axioms.

Stephen R. Maloney

On Anchorage's KTUU-TV Tonight Advocating Sarah Palin

Note: Bill McAllister of KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, was kind enough to interview me today regarding Sarah's candidacy for V-P. It will be part of tonight's news show. He asked me the Big Question, related to the President-elect not being able to finish his term: "Do you think there could be a(n effective) President Palin?" I said, "Absolutely." I emphasized that being a good President -- or a great one -- is mainly a matter of character and decency, as well as a willingness to learn. I said that Sarah got an "A" in all those characteristics. I do believe at some point in the future Sarah Heath Palin will be President of the United States, and she has the qualities to be an outstanding one. "Now, she belongs to America."
Stephen R. Maloney
Ambridge, PA