Recently in Palin Category

I know Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher is a friend of mine. And as a matter of fact, Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin have a great deal in common.

And?

[T]he mark of a star, dear boy. They rise to the big occasions.

Mrs. Palin had four big occasions in the late, doomed Republican campaign: her introduction by John McCain in Ohio, her speech at the GOP convention, her vice-presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden, and her appearance on Saturday Night Live.

With minimal preparation, she rose to all four of them. That's the mark of a star.

If conservative intellectuals, Republican operatives and McCain "handlers" can't see it, then so much the worse for them.

Saxby Chambliss won the run-off in Georgia to preserve a vital seat for U.S. Senate Republicans, holding Democrats short of a filibuster-proof 60 votes. He achieved a smashing victory, capturing 57% of the vote.

This morning Senator Chambliss was interviewed on Fox's morning program. He thanked all those Republican heavyweights who had come into the state to campaign for him -- Giuliani, Romney, McCain, Huckabee among others. Sarah Palin came at his invitation the day before of and the day of the election. Chamblis said this:

“You want to peak on the last day, and we had John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Governor [Mitt] Romney and Rudy Giuliani. But Sarah Palin came in on the last day and man, she was dynamite. We packed the houses everywhere we went.”

Kilmeade asked, “You saw all the heavyweights in the Republican Party show up . . . tell me about Sarah Palin. Will her popularity last?”

“I cannot see it diminishing," the senator answered. “I can’t overstate the impact she had down here. All these folks did a great job, they all allowed us to add momentum, but when she walks in a room, folks just explode. She’s a dynamic lady, a great administrator, and I think she’s got a great future in the Republican Party.”

It has just been announced that some 85 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lies buried in Alaska's North Slope. That's almost three times our proven reserves of natural gas.

Governor Palin led Alaska into approving a $40 billion pipeline last summer, which is the ready vehicle to move that gas to the lower 48.

Obama is all for energy solutions that avoid use of carbon-based fuels, but natural gas is the cleanest of them all and alternative energy sources won't be up and running n sufficient quantities for at least a decade.

Investor's Business Daily calls on Obama to seize this opportunity to help America's drive to energy independence and to show some bipartisanship in the process.

Sarah Palin came out of Alaska as an unknown and immediately capitvated and energized much of the Republican Party. Seeing her as a threat to Obama/Biden, the media and Obama supporters went into a frenzy of trashing her and her family.

She's now back in Alaska and giving some interviews to disprove the many wild claims made, including some by anonymous McCain so-called "insiders." McCain last night on Jay Leno dismissed all those claims, saying he was gratified she agreed to run with him and called her an asset to the campaign and someone who has an important future in the Repblican Party. It is already clear that she is in great demand to appear at fundraisers across the country.

Camille Paglia is a university professor, atheist, feminist and Obama voter. Yet she is a fan of Sarah Palin and deplores the savage attacks by Obama supporters and the sycophantic Obama media. She also, belatedly, is disturbed by all the information that Obama kept to himself or lied about. She is doing some investigation on her own and is uncomfortable with what she's finding out, such as the close collaboration of Obama and unrepentant terrorist William (Bill) Ayers in funding radical projects for school children. Here's what she has posted about Sarah Palin.

Given that Obama had served on a Chicago board with Ayers and approved funding of a leftist educational project sponsored by Ayers, one might think that the unrepentant Ayers-Dohrn couple might be of some interest to the national media. But no, reporters have been too busy playing mini-badminton with every random spitball about Sarah Palin, who has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamation merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the State University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don't know their asses from their elbows.

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee -- what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama's pick and who was on everyone's short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin's. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.

The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan -- nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching. No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit, as Richard Nixon did in his long haul back from political limbo following his California gubernatorial defeat in 1962. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is.

If you aren't moved and impressed with this video clip of Sarah Palin after casting her vote in Wasilla, there's something wrong with either you or me. I am doing fine.

Vote for our fine Republican candidates.
God Bless America.
We are pround to be Americans.

McCain/Palin for President/Vice President
Jeff Beatty for U.S. Senate
Be sure to blank the vote for Congress or write in an opponent to the Democrat incumbent Delahunt, the self-described "close friend" of the Venezuela enemy of America Hugo Chavez. Delahunt is in our Hall of Shame for expressing delight at a congressional hearing that an intelligence professional had been forced to testify so al Qaeda could see what he looked like.
Don Howell for State Representative in the Fourth Barnstable District
Anastasia Walsh Perrino for Barnstable Registrar of Probate, running against a retiring Democratic legislator looking for a political job closer to home.
For Barnstable County Commission, vote Barros and Crowell into the two open slots.

Lloyd Marcus is a black conservative touring the country with a pro-McCain/Paln organization called Our Country Deserves Better. His words are worth reading.

I’m Lloyd Marcus, a black conservative who is determined to fight for a bright future for America. I’m urging you to stand with me in rejecting the candidacy of Barack Obama. It saddens me to listen to Obama speak about America – he seems to always be speaking about all that he sees wrong with America.

Barack Obama doesn’t appreciate the value of hard work and self-determination. He shamefully urges Americans to view themselves as “victims” instead of celebrating the fact that in our great nation you can achieve great things – if you have the passion to dream, and the commitment and determination to strive for excellence.

Obama doesn’t understand the selfless service and sacrifice that our military men and women make on a daily basis to keep our nation safe and free. When our troops achieved great success with “The Surge” in Iraq, Obama refused to acknowledge the success, and then begrudgingly conceded things might have improved, but gave the credit to Sunni clerics.

Why would Barack Obama stand there at a campaign event and look down with his hands at his side while the national anthem was played and his Democratic challengers had their hands on their heart? Why would Obama make a point of not wearing an American flag lapel pin after 9/11? Why would his wife say she spent most of her adult life not proud of her country? Friends, how can we put America’s future in the hands of a man who doesn’t seem to understand the greatness of America? We don’t need a “citizen of the world” to lead us at a time of economic challenges and threats from foreign foes - we need a great leader who will champion the goodness of America, the greatest nation in the history of all mankind.

Lloyd is a singer/songwriter and he redid the lyrics of Sarah Smiles.

Joe Biden incredibly -- except the Senate's number one dunce keeps doing this, so how can it be incredible? -- predicts with 100% certainty that President Barack Obama will be tested within his first six months in a "manufactured crisis" to see how he responds and seems to suggest that Obama will flunk that test. If that what VP nominee Biden thinks, that's a firm recommendation of why McCain should be president.

Sarah Palin felt she should discuss this strange statement.

The text:

Two weeks from today, Americans will be asked to cast their vote for the next president of the United States. There’s no time to wait. Let’s get right to it.

Did you hear what Senator Biden said at a fundraiser on Sunday? He guaranteed that if Barack Obama is elected, we’ll face an international crisis within the first six months of their administration. He told Democrat donors to mark his words – that there were “at least four or five scenarios” that would place our country at risk in an Obama administration. Thanks for the warning, Joe!

He didn’t specify what all those four or five scenarios will be, but for clues, let’s review the Obama foreign policy agenda.

Our opponent wants to sit down with the world’s worst dictators. With no preconditions, he proposes to meet with a regime in Teheran that vows to “wipe Israel off the map.” Let’s call that crisis scenario number one.

Senator Obama has also advocated sending our U.S. military into Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government. Invading the sovereign territory of a troubled partner in the war against terrorism. We’ll call that scenario number two.

He opposed the surge strategy that has finally brought victory in Iraq within sight. He’s voted to cut off funding for our troops, leaving our young men and women at grave risk. He wants to pull out, leaving some 25 million Iraqis at the mercy of Iranian-supported Shiite extremists and al Qaeda in Iraq. By his own admission, this could mean our troops would have to go back to Iraq. Crisis scenario number three.

After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine next. That would be crisis scenario number four.

But I guess the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden’s next speaking engagement. Let’s call that crisis scenario number five.

The real problem is that these warnings from Joe Biden are similar to his earlier assessment of Barack Obama. It wasn’t so long ago that he said Barack Obama wasn’t up to the job, and that, quote, “the presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

The same Joe Biden said he would be honored to run on the ticket with John McCain because, quote, “the country would be better off.” And here we have some common ground. I want a president who spent 22 years in uniform defending our country. I want a president who isn’t afraid to use the word “victory” when he talks about the wars we are fighting. I want a president who’s ready on Day One. I want a president with the experience and the judgment and the wisdom to meet the next international crisis – or better yet to avoid it. I want John McCain as our commander-in-chief.

Some of those non-campaign organizations feel the same sense of frustration that the ordinary people do about the trashing and mischaracterization of Sarah Palin, so this organizaion has rolled out this Palin ad.

Sarah Palin campaigning in Colorado says Joe the Plumber got it right.

And, you know, I’ve really got to hand it to Joe over there in Toledo. Somehow, he got our opponent to finally state his intentions in plain language. And if you ask me, that makes Joe the winner of last week’s debate. Senator Obama said he wants to “spread the wealth.” He wants the government to take your money and dole it out however politicians see fit.

Barack Obama calls it “spreading the wealth.” Joe Biden calls it “patriotic.” But Joe the Plumber said it sounded to him like “socialism” … and now is no time to experiment with that!

Whatever the shortcomings of John McCain and Sarah Palin, they are people whose values are the values of this nation, whose loyalty and dedication to this country’s fundamental institutions are beyond question because they have not spent decades working with people who hate America. Nor are they people whose judgments have been proved wrong consistently during decades of Beltway “experience.”

The person who has spent decades working with people who hate America is Barack Obama.

The person whose judgment has been proved wrong consistently during decades of Beltway "experience" is Biden.

Read all of Professor Sowell's analysis.

October 20, 2008.

Record Vs. Rhetoric
Obama vs. Palin.

By Thomas Sowell
National Review Online

Apparently there is something about Sarah Palin that causes some people to think of her as either the best of candidates or the worst of candidates. She draws enthusiastic crowds and provokes visceral hostility in the media.

The issue that is raised most often is her relative lack of experience and the fact that she would be “a heartbeat away from the presidency” if Sen. John McCain were elected. But Barack Obama has even less experience — none in an executive capacity — and his would itself be the heartbeat of the presidency if he were elected.

Sarah Palin’s record is on the record, while whole years of Barack Obama’s life are engulfed in fog, and he has had to explain away one after another of the astounding and vile people he has not merely “associated” with but has had political alliances with, and to whom he has directed the taxpayers’ money and other money.

Sarah is inspiring a lot of Americans who are excited that they now have a voice in Sarah Palin.

This first video done by an amatuer volunteer takes off from the revised lyrics of Sarah Smile sung by black conservative Lloyd Marcus (the original is the second video below).

An independent group Our Country Deserves Better is producing video ads and touring the country in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Lloyd Marcus sings "Sarah Smile" with his own lyrics at a rally stop somewhere in America.

See their ads (we've posted some and will run them all) and make a contribution, however small, go to their website by clicking here.

To see our collection of videos, please go to right column on this website for the listing of Categories and click on Videos.

Bill Kristol as the token conservative on the New York Times op-ed page today reported on his interview with Sarah Palin. She was candid when asked about her comment about the terrorist bomber William Ayers being a buddy of Obama's and whether she thought Reverend Wright was a campaign issue:

“To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”

Kristol asked if she had any advice for John McCain after her weekend campaigning during which she had wild reaction to her demand that the media tell the people who the real Obama is.

She did: "Take the gloves off."

The Lower Cape Republican headquarters is open and already booming with activity, thanks to the Orleans Republican Town Committee's leadership under Jim Trainor. Chatham is already on board helping to staff the headquarters. All volunteers (teenagers to seniors) are welcome. McCain/Palin campaign signs and stickers are in great demand from those stopping by and calling. All Republican candidates are being supported.

Here's the information:

The HQ is near the Hearth & Kettle in Skaket Mall, Orleans.
Initial hours 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Hours will be expanded as volunteers sign up.
HQ PHONE 508 240 0115
Call to volunteer to post signs, deliver signs, make phone calls at HQ or from home and to mail material out.

Sarah Palin's sensational debate win over Senator Joe Biden has provided even more energy for the campaign. Let's all pitch in to push our candidates over the top. Even Massachusetts can be in the McCain/Palin victory column.

Republican Jeff Beatty can unseat Senator John Kerry with our help. Kerry fatigue is deep and wide and Jeff is an outstanding candidate. Click on the link in the right column to visit his campaign site.

Don Howell of Harwich has an excellent chance to unseat first time state rep Ms. Sarah Peake from Provincetown. He has a great record in serving Harwich and voters of the Lower Cape. He's raised a family on Cape Cod and been a small businessman for years. He knows what ordinary families are going through. He has earned the trust of people. Visit his website by clicking his link in the right column.

Anastasia Walsh Perrino is a strong candidate for Barnstable Register of Probate running against a retiring Democratic state representative with no experience whatsoever in the intricacies of probate. Perrino, on the other hand, has spent years as a private attorney and on the staff of the probate registry learning what it takes to serve the people of Barnstable. Check out her website.

Ric Barros and Brad Crowell are outstanding candidates for the Barnstable County Commission. There are two openings and both can be elected and deserve your vote.

In Chatham bumper stickers, yard signs and display signs are now available.
They can be had by contacting these two folks who are coordinating distribution for the Chatham Republican Town Committee:

Phil DuPont phil@dupont-associates.com 508 945 0687

Sandra Curtiss sandracape@comcast.net 508 432 7741

Those in Chatham who want to to volunteer time in Chatham or at the Lower Cape HQ in Orleans should call Republican Town Committee chairman Walter Bilowz 508 776 5694 or email him at waldad@aol.com.

For those who would like "bumper stickers" without sticky stuff to put in the back window of your car in your window, you can download them from our website for McCain/Palin and Jeff Beatty by clicking here and following the directions.

For more information, email Republican@chathamrepublicans.com or use the link in the right column.

A blogger decided to some homework on Governor Palin's accomplishments. He was impressed by how she routed an incumbent governor of her own party in the gubernatorial primary, charging him (correctly) with corruption, and then went on to handily defeat a popular former Democratic governor in the final.

But governors, unlike legislators, can compile a record of what they've done, not just sponsor a piece of legislation or get a chairmanship based on seniority. So in her two years as governor, here's what he found:

If you only know three things that Sarah Palin has accomplished as Governor of Alaska, it should be these three:

Gov. Palin is a proven fiscal conservative who used her line-item veto to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in spending from the state budget. In considering this accomplishment, keep in mind that the Alaska Legislature is controlled by the GOP, meaning that the funding she cut had already been approved by legislators of her own party. Nevertheless, she made her vetoes stick. Consider, too, that because of the current high price of crude oil, Alaska is enjoying record budget surpluses. It's harder to practice restraint in times of plenty. And look at her entire record over time (more than as revealed by her position on a single bridge): Although Alaska has traditionally been more dependent than other states on federal funding (since the federal government owns such a large portion of the state's property and resources), even the often-critical Anchorage Daily News admits that Gov. Palin has "increasingly distanced herself from earmarking" since 2000, and that her having done so over the past year has been "the leading source of tension between Palin and the state's three-member congressional delegation." Actually exercising fiscal discipline in a time of plenty, at both state and federal levels and against the will of the members of her own party, is a better predictor for how she would actually govern on a national level than ten thousand campaign promises.

Gov. Palin kept her campaign promise to revamp the state's pre-existing severance tax on oil & gas production, replacing a structure negotiated behind closed doors by ethically challenged predecessors and the big energy companies with one negotiated in full public view — and then rebated part of the resulting surplus directly to tax-payers. Severance taxes are a kind of property tax charged on a one-time basis, at the time of production, on subsurface assets (like oil, gas & minerals) which can't be quantified and taxed through regular property taxes. There was widespread resentment and distrust over the version negotiated by Gov. Palin's predecessor with the three big energy companies who've traditionally ruled the roost in Alaska (ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and BP). The new version negotiated and passed with Gov. Palin's support was thoroughly disinfected by the sunshine of public scrutiny. Although it's not a "windfall profits tax" — indeed, the base rate only went from 22.5% to 25% — it did permit the Alaskan people to share in a larger portion of the current high prices for oil by raising the additional, progressive portion of the tax from 0.25% to 0.40% on revenues between $32.50 and $90/bbl. Above that, however, the new law actually cut taxes by dropping the rate on revenues above $90/bbl to 0.1%. With the resulting budget surplus, after contributing to the state's fund for that future day when its oil & gas wealth is exhausted, she pressed for and got legislation to rebate a healthy chunk directly to tax-payers on a per capita basis, trusting them to spend the proceeds from this sale of the state's commonly-owned resources rather than trusting government to spend it for them.

Gov. Palin broke a multi-year stalemate over the financing and construction of a $40 billion cross-state gas pipeline that will deliver cleaner, cheaper natural gas to Alaska's own population centers (Alaskans themselves pay some of the nation's highest energy prices), while also delivering gas to the energy-hungry Lower 48. To do this, she had to break the monopoly power of the big energy companies by opening the project to competitive international bidding. Not only has a development contract with a Canadian company now been signed on better terms than had previously been discussed, but the former monopolists — finally spurred by competition — are cranking up their own plan that would not require any taxpayer investment. How precisely this will shake out remains to be seen, but Gov. Palin's vigorous action — calling special sessions of the state legislature and injecting herself directly and vigorously into the process — has ended the deadlock in ways that seem certain to benefit consumers. By this accomplishment, Gov. Palin has done more to advance the cause of American energy independence than any other politician — of any party, and at any level of state or federal government — in this century. But the national media have generally ignored this accomplishment.

It's understandable with that strong performance that Governor Palin's popularity rating in Alaska is in the 80s. (The Democratic Congress approval rating is 9%.)

Will Sarah Palin be provided the opportunity to talk about what she's done as governor by the moderator (who has just sent off to her publisher the final proof of her book about the Age of Obama, to be released on Inauguration Day in January) or will it be more of the "gotcha" journalism that we've seen in the Couric and Gibson interviews with some Obama bias thrown in?

In his 36 years in the Senate Joe Biden can't point to a record of accomplishment like Governor Palin's. Talk and do are different things.

Sarah Palin did real things besides being a mayor and a governor. She and her husband ran a small business for years.

In a radio interview September 30th, Sarah Palin was asked this question:

HH: Governor, let’s close with some foreign affairs. It is reported that you had an Israeli flag in your governor’s office. You wore an Israeli flag pin occasionally. One, is that true? And two, why your support for Israel?

SP: Well, it is true, and I ran into Shimon Peres recently at a meeting, and he even pointed that out. He said I saw a picture of you on the internet, and you had an Israeli flag in your state government office, and I said I sure do. You know, my heart is with you. And all of those trials and tribulations throughout history that Israel has gone through, not only does that allow me to want to support that country, but Israel is our strongest and most important ally in the Middle East. And they are a democratic country who I believe deserves our support, and I know that John McCain believes as I do that Israel is our friend, and we need to be there to support them. They are there for us, and I do love that country.

McCain/Palin bumper stickers are in such demand the printers are backlogged. While Jeff Beatty stickers are available, not everyone has access to them, but we have them here, too.

For those who would like something now, we have three offerings for McCain Palin and one for Jeff Beatty. These aren't "stickers" obviously, but they can go on the back ledge of a car or in a window or wherever.

What to do: There are three choices for the two big McCain Palin ones. They are actual size about eight inches or less long. It would be best to use photo paper, but regular paper can be used, too, but won't look as good.

Right cliick on either of them.

You will see a number of choices:

1. Print picture. Left click on that one and the print option comes up and just print as usual. (Hint: For "Country First," if you choose landscape when printing, the bumper sticker is longer.)
2. "Save target as" allows you to download the "sticker" to your desktop or to whatever folder you select. You can then print it out as many times as you want and you have it for future use.
3. Email. Left click on that option and you can email the picture to yourself and friends. The attachment can be printed when it arrives and saved to a folder for future use.

For the third McCain Palin "sticker" and the one Beatty, both shown small, there is one extra step to take first: Left click on it and a full-size bumper sticker will appear. Follow the steps as for the others.

On to victory.

Sunday's Republican Roundup at Chatham's Wayside Inn was a resounding success. It drew the largest gathering in years. The enthusiastic crowd cheered repeatedly as McCain Palin spokeman Plymouth County Sherrif Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. spoke of John McCain's courage and service to his country and the electrifying effect of Sarah Palin's address to the Republican National Convention. He concluded by movingly detailing the injuries suffered by McCain during his five plus years in a Vietnam prison, noting that today not only can't McCain use a computer keyboard but he cannot lift his arm to salute the country and flag that he loves. "I'd rather have as president someone who wants to but can't salute his country's flag than somebody who can't be bothered to do so."

A dedicated volunteer from Truro spoke for Jeff Beatty, who sent his regrets because he was campaigning in Western Massachusetts. His report was of excellent crowds and repeated expressions from Democrats as well as independents that Kerry is just out of touch and doesn't relate to them. Beatty, who cannot match Kerry's huge advertising budget, is seeking multiple debates with Kerry, but Kerry so far has only agreed to one, clearly fearing head-on encounters with Beatty. People are mobilizing and alerady 4,000 are working to help Jeff Beatty defeat John Kerry.

Don Howell reported that he is getting an excellent reception in his contest for state representative as he has toured the Fourth Barnstable District. The most compelling issue on Cape Cod is homeowners' insurance, something his Democratic opponent has not lifted a finger about during her two years on Beacon Hill, preferring instead to focus on her favorite special interest rather than the major concern of her constituents.

Anastasia Walsh Perrino, a lawyer with experience in private practice as well as service in the Barnstable Registry of Probate, thanked those assembled for their support in her primary victory, then asked all to continue to work with her as she now faces a long-time Democratic state representative who many believe is seeking to "retire" to the Registry of Probate for more pension benefits and and a shorter commute to work. His "speciality" in the legislature was tourism, certainly not something to equip him to deal with the sensitive problems of families that come before the Registry.

Rounding out the program were the two excellent Republican candidates for County Commissioner, Since there are two open seats, both can be elected. Ric Barros of Barnstable has covered the country from one end to the other, just recently being in Falmouth where he grew up on his family's cranberry bogs. His dynamic presentation brought out frequent applause.

Brad Crowell's familiy has been on Cape Cod for generations. He therefore is confident that his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be living on Cape Cod long after his public service is over. He wants them to have the same wonderful Cape Cod that we enjoy. As chairman of the Cape Cod Commission he compiled a sensitive environmental record that earned praise from all parties. He closed by noting that some folks say he's "cheap." Well, he says, I am and I will take that attitude into the office serving the people of Barnstable County.

A special tribute was given to Mary LeClair, retiring after 30 years of service to Barnstable County, most recently as vice-chair of the Barnstable County Commission. Notable guests were chairmen of the several Repubican town committees of the Lower Cape and former state representative Shirley Gomes.

The event was sponsored by the Lower Cape Republican Council under the able leadership of Don Howell, now the Republican candidate for state representative for the Fourth Barnstable District.

It was announced that an area campaign office will be opening shortly at Skaket Corner in Orleans in the closed bank building by the Hearth & Kettle.

McCain Palin signs are in great demand and shipment from printers has been delayed, but quantities are expected to arrive this week in Chatham and other towns.

Thiose attending left with a reinforced determination to help elect these capable, dedicated Republicans to office.

We always thought that Charlie Gibson was a bit different from the NBC elite, but, alas, this interview didn't show that. It was a "gotcha" interview supposedly quoting Palin's "exact" quote, as he asserted, but it wasn't. Sad.

Why do the elites of media and academia think so highly of themselves that they can look down sneeringly over their glasses and get away with misquoting to make their point?

In invoking God's blessing Sarah Palin aligned herself with Abraham Lincoln. As for Charlie Gibson, apparently God was looking the other way.

What a mess.

Oil and gasoline prices are sky high because world oil supply growth is stagnating. The U.S., once the largest producer in the world, is seeing its mature fields fade and its oil reserves decline.

Suddenly, the U.S. financial markets are in free fall. Retirement savings in 401(k)s are vanishing. House values are collapsing. The world worries that the entire financial system will freeze up.

How did this all happen?

Democratic policies are responsible for both crises we face.

Oil blackmail. For decades Democratic Members of Congress, beholden to their extremist environmental backers, have prevented drilling for oil and gas offshore and in the most promising areas of Alaska. Since only recently has technology been developed to extract oil economically from Rocky Mountains shale, that was not included in the annual renewal of the drilling ban, so Colorado Democratic senator Salazar had a separate moratorium slapped on that.

The U.S. has within its land mass and its territorial waters enough untapped oil to make the U.S. totally independent of hostile and unstable oil producers overseas. Yet Democratic policies have made us vulnerable to supply imbalances that drive up oil and gasoline prices to levels the public cannot afford.

When it's finally obvious to all that it's imperative for national energy security as well as fair treatment of the public to drill now, the Democrats still say no, then say, well, maybe as part of a comprehensive plan and then produce sham bills that can't pass and are sure to be vetoed if somehow they get through Congress.

McCain/Palin are for doing all that is possible to increase our energy supplies starting with drilling for oil and gas in an environmentally responsible manner and developing all of the alternative energy sources that make economic sense. But make no mistake about it: Oil will be vital for a long time. Its use will not end in ten years, as Obama predicts. It will still power the world's ships and aircraft for many years to come.

The time to end the Democratic policy against developing our own resources is now.

Unaffordable housing. Democratic pressure to make home ownership available to those who really couldn't afford it built through the years, reaching a crescendo during the Clinton years. The two secondary mortgage market corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were universally considered as having 'implicit' federal guarantees and the debt they issued was rated high accordingly. Their job was to buy mortgage from originators, thus supplying them with fresh money to make new mortgages. More and more Fan and Freddie were pressured to buy loans that originated in subprime, often minority neighborhoods, when in the ordinary course local banks would shun such loans as too risky.

A study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 1992 suggested that banks were doing "redlining," refusing to make loans in tough, usually minority, neighborhoods. The usual charges of racism and discrimination followed and Fannie and Freddie said they would take such loans on their books. As standards loosened, more and more people bought houses that just a few years earlier they could not buy. Private mortgage buyers competing with Fannie and Freddie had to loosen standards even more to keep the quasi-federal Fannie and Freddie from "creeping" into their business.

President Bush expressed concern several times during his first and second terms and proposed new sweeping regulatory authority over the two agencies, backed by Senator McCain, but Democrats fought the proposals, armies of Fannie and Freddie lobbyists worked over Congress and the President's reform efforts went nowhere. The present chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank brushed off the proposed reforms as totally unnecessary as did the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee Chris Dodd and after 2004 so did Barack Obama. Senator McCain was especially prescient in warning in 2005 of the dangers to housing and the economy Fannie and Freddie represented because of their huge size.

It is no surprise that the Dodd and Obama are among the top four recipients of Fannie/Freddie campaign contributions. The top four (John Kerry and Hillary Clinton are the other two) all received more than $100,000. Obama's money total was the most remarkable because he was number two after just a few months in the Senate, while the others had been collecting their loot over years. (Some have suggested that the least Obama can do is give back the $100,000 plus he received from Fannie/Freddie.)

Years of Democratic pressure to make loans easier to get resulted in the greatest homeownership in American history. But in 2006 the new building boom was not finding as many buyers and prices had run up so high for existing homes since everyone could now get a mortgage almost regardless of credit that existing home sales started to slow as well. Furthermore, the looser standards encouraged buyers "to reach," to buy a more expensive house than cash flow would support on a regular mortgage by getting an adjustable or interest only mortgage. As those mortgages started to reset, buyers found themselves unable to make the payments. Since house value increases were slowing, it was no longer possible to refinance with a bigger mortgage using the new money borrowed to pay the bigger mortgage payments.

So when housing slowed, then entered a serious dive it was only a matter of time before the ripples caught up with the secondary market mortgage buyers, from Countrywide Credit up to the biggest of all, Fannie and Freddie. Ironically and sadly, Richard Syron, who was CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston when it issued the "redlining" report that triggered the call for more "realistic, "affordable" and racially blind mortgage lending standards, was at the helm of Freddie when it collapsed and was taken over by the federal government.

The housing values domino was the first to fall, then mortgage defaults escalated and some tranches of mortgage-backed securities sold to buyers around the world fell to zero and world financial panic resulted. No one knew how big the bust was going to be or how long it would last. It's said by some it won't be over until housing values stabilize, which could be in 2009 or later.

This all started with well-meaning but financially disastrous Democratic policies to make it possible for more Americans to own homes. Money flowed into housing like never before from Fannie and Freddie and private mortgage lenders. But the music stopped and there aren't enough chairs to go around.

These crises are still unfolding. The U.S. has gone through difficult times before and has, with strong leadership, come out of them stronger than ever. Senator McCain has correctly said the fundamentals of the economy are strong and expressed optimism that this challenge will be met successfully. Obama, in contrast, said he sees a future America as poorer and meaner than today.

Democratic opposition to drilling and Democratic opposition to tighter lending standards for home mortgages and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have created these disasters. Yet Obama opposes comprehensive drilling and Obama's campaign advisors include former top officials of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who walked away with tens of millions of dollars of Fannie and Freddie money in severance payments even though they were authors of the failure that taxpayers will now have to pay for.

Reform is desperately needed in Washington, but will be difficult to achieve. McCain and Palin are two tough reformers who have bucked the system. Obama has reformed nothing. McCain and Palin can shake up Washington and will serve the taxpayers, not special interests.

The nation cannot afford a continuation of the disastrous Democratic policies that have already cost Americans billions and will in the end cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps even more.