Tag Archive - palin

stand and effect change-trusting the decision~palin

July 4, 2009 in culture, politics with Comments Off

  this is really interesting.  gov. palin is clear about her sound priorities.  she also asks her friends ad supporters to trust the decision…no more politics as usual. this is can be very good…and her understanding about serving something greater than self.  much like other great leaders she understand more clearly than many give her credit about the art of the political craft.  a reminder, it was 1964 when a nationally-televised speech by ronald reagan - a time for choosing launched him on the journey to become our nation’s 40th president.  this speech was given in support of then presidential candidate barry goldwater.  here’s clip..

you and i have a rendezvous with destiny.  we can preserve for our children this, the last best hope on earth, or we can sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness.  if we fail, at least let our children, and our children’s children, say of us we justified our brief moment here.  we did all that could be done.  from Governor Reagan by Lou Cannon

it took another 16 years to cement reagan’s true place as our 40th president. his leadership was exactly what was needed in our nations unfolding story. i think, as palin gave her announcement on the eve of our nation’s independence i heard similar echoes. there is a story yet unfolding for her place in history.  it will be interesting to watch.

Picture 6and while you’re at it…have some fun here and color your own picture of the signing of the declaration.

we are in uncharted waters…

October 13, 2008 in politics with 2 Comments

unless they pluck their brains out of the dark, the gop campaign managers have succeeded again to bring about failure. just like ’92 and ’96 the ground game being run is pathetic and stupid. i was going to post on this later, but several things tonite prompted me to do it earlier. there is much out there that supports this notion…and i wished it weren’t so. the thing that nailed it for me tonite was this piece in time on the effort in Virginia. it doesn’t take much thought to see how the campaigns are being handled differently. in an age ripe with the immediate…the net, twitter, facebook, etc. a campaign should be embracing and encouraging engagment at all levels. read this clip…and to me it becomes clear…time reporter karen tumulty writes…

The Republicans wouldn’t allow me to tag along with their volunteers, so I drove 30 minutes across the county to the Obama field office….The campaign handed me a packet of addresses and sent me out to meet…

yep…even locally i agreed to make some phone calls… i’m a reagan republican, i am a precinct committeeman…i thought its the least i should do…but the list i was given to call has many errors…as i looked over i thought…you’ve got to be kidding me…one family i know personally hasn’t lived in this area for 7 years…amazing.

finally… my old pal wm kristol nailed it on the tube this weekend and again in todays nyt...

The 2008 campaign is now about something very big — both our future prosperity and our national security. Yet the McCain campaign has become smaller.  What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over.

there is much at stake…bill goes on to say as clearly as can be said…

McCain should stop unveiling gimmicky proposals every couple of days that pretend to deal with the financial crisis. He should tell the truth — we’re in uncharted waters, no one is certain what to do, and no one knows what the situation will be on Jan. 20, 2009. But what we do know is that we could use someone as president who’s shown in his career the kind of sound judgment and strong leadership we’ll need to make it through the crisis.

i’ll be honest…mccain is not my first choice…but the election has come down to either him or the other guy. mccain needs to be the maverick he says he is. he needs to reflect on the principles he says he embraces and lead. its not over, but these waters are treacherous…and mccain needs to draw on that cowboy legacy of another great american….rwr.

p.s. don’t even get me started on why gov. palin is limited to stump speeches…she should have owned all media from last week until we get to november.

truly amazing times

August 29, 2008 in personal, politics with 1 Comment

we really do live in amazing times.  i’ve mentioned here before how i wished my first political boss, clif white was still around.  the stories he told about the smoked-filled rooms and the trailers on the floor of the past conventions were reminders of the true craft of politics.  and  one, regardless of partisan standing has to be impressed to live at this moment in history when the first african-american candidate is running for highest offiice in the land.  last night’s acceptance speech, although ostenaious was brillant stagecraft.   and now today senator mccain showing a real understanding of what’s at stake by selecting gov. sarah palin to be his running mate.  amazing stuff.  just heard on fox news a conversation with newt gingrich when back in april he offered the name of gov. palin as a “interesting prospect” for conisderation as vp.  newt is pretty smart.  i remember going through some of clif’s papers after his death and finding a letter written to him by a professor newt gingrich.  he was then a professor political science.  that document was written in the late 70′s…as i read it, in the spring of ’93, it was clearly the foundation of newt’s arguements for what came to be known as the “contract with America” which is credited with the re-writing of the federal welfare programs.    fun stuff.

it was interesting too tonite to hear sen. obama distance himself from the hairtrigger response that was sent out earlier today.  apparently the campagin in chicago fired off a quick memo that was a put down of gov. palin’s pick.  those machine reactions are just one reason why i bailed from the political process.  despite my philosphoical disagreements with sen. obama i am very impressed with his character and his quick response today to welcome gov. palin to battle. oh for more common sense debate in the public square.  to push the “king makers” out of their places so that we can have a healthy debate about the interests of the nation.  fun stuff this is. stay tuned… the next 68 days are going to be really interesting.  its about time.