Her Inner Barracuda

Governor Sarah Palin at the Vice-Presidential debate. Photo from Foxnews.com.

Any questions about Governor Palin's ability to be in the big time spot light were put to rest last night. Gov. Palin succeeded in turning the tables on the main stream media's assault on her qualifications. Moderator Gwen Ifill, with wary eyes on her for not disclosing to the debate commission her forthcoming Obama book conflict of interest, behaved herself.

As I was watching the much heralded debate which was supposed to end the presidential election, at least according to many in the Obama camp, I wondered, is Sarah Palin's television appearance going to matter so much? After all, this would be the VP not the Presidential candidates debating. With all the hype though, I knew that the left was just waiting to pounce all over a potentially tongue twisted and uncertain, nervous looking new comer to the political arena. The Olbermans and Matthews and Couric crowd had already written their talking points. "She's unqualified" "Biden looked Presidential" "No comparison" "The Senator demonstrated his experience and she her lack of experience" "She didn't seem knowledgeable".

Thankfully, all those notes went into the shredder after the first few questions. It was obvious that after the Governor's first answer the debate was not going to resemble the scenario the Obama camp had prognosticated.

PALIN: Thank you, Gwen. And I thank the commission, also. I appreciate this privilege of being able to be here and speak with Americans.

You know, I think a good barometer here, as we try to figure out has this been a good time or a bad time in America's economy, is go to a kid's soccer game on Saturday, and turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, "How are you feeling about the economy?"

And I'll bet you, you're going to hear some fear in that parent's voice, fear regarding the few investments that some of us have in the stock market. Did we just take a major hit with those investments?

Fear about, how are we going to afford to send our kids to college? A fear, as small-business owners, perhaps, how we're going to borrow any money to increase inventory or hire more people.

The barometer there, I think, is going to be resounding that our economy is hurting and the federal government has not provided the sound oversight that we need and that we deserve, and we need reform to that end.

Now, John McCain thankfully has been one representing reform. Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) reform measures. He sounded that warning bell.

People in the Senate with him, his colleagues, didn't want to listen to him and wouldn't go towards that reform that was needed then. I think that the alarm has been heard, though, and there will be that greater oversight, again thanks to John McCain's bipartisan efforts that he was so instrumental in bringing folks together over this past week, even suspending his own campaign to make sure he was putting excessive politics aside and putting the country first.

APRPEH wrote about the Palin factor in No Second Guessing Israel - Sarah Palin and Desperate Times Call for Desperate Democrats The APRPEH posts discuss the connection Gov. Palin makes with the American heart and soul. Gov. Palin made a point to speak to America last night. Her words were directed to the folks who never will be on a stage in a national debate but who nonetheless have the common sense and decency to serve in the highest offices of the land. This common sense is what is being vied for in this election. Obama is trying to sell the American people that their common sense is what permits him to offer socialistic policies crowned with the righteousness of fairness. This is the core of the argument that Biden was trying to make. Gov. Palin was offering no none sense, traditional American values. She connected with the people at home. Gov. Palin unleashed her inner barracuda. Gov. Palin's last few weeks had been difficult ones. Her positive media and polling was reversed. People were questioning her. But like a serious athelete after a couple of bad games, innings, or quarters, Saracuda came fighting back, shaking off the negativity and rising to the occassion. As as the oft quoted Gen. George Patton supposedly said 'true Americans love a winner and hate a loser', Saracuda ignored the press and came started the debate with every intention to win. Yes, Americans do love a winner but will not tolerate fake claims winning. Gov. Palin's debate performance was the real thing, the real Sarah Palin, the real barracuda.

Despite Senator Biden's attempt to appear down home mentioning bars in Wilmington, an impossible to make case after three decades in the Senate, Palin looked straight at the camera and talked to the American people as if she were sitting at their kitchen table, neighbor to neighbor. Americans will respond favorably when they perceive that someone has been attacked unfairly. This is possibly why Frank Luntz's focus group and CNN's post debate poll both concur that Gov. Palin beat expectations. But to conclude she merely beat expectations does not do justice to the fact she stood on stage with a very seasoned US Senator, on an internationally broadcast VP debate, and not only held her own but went toe to toe with the Senator and landed a few really good jabs at him too. Gov. Palin was able to through direct contradiction and implied remarks make legitimate criticisms of Sen. Biden's career without looking angry and dis-respectful. Sen. Biden despite his efforts was not able to respond decisively or convincingly to this criticism. He is a career politician and looked the part. What Gov. Palin was able to accomplish was to represent a broad sweep of Americans who would like to say the same things to their Congressmen but never have the chance to say them. Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, did not represent the nation's governors, she represented Main Street, USA. This will resonate strongly over the next few weeks.

Some of Gov. Palin's best lines include:

• And the American workforce is the greatest in this world, with the ingenuity and the work ethic that is just entrenched in our workforce. That's a positive. That's encouragement. And that's what John McCain meant.


• Now, Barack Obama, of course, he's pretty much only voted along his party lines. In fact, 96 percent of his votes have been solely along party line, not having that proof for the American people to know that his commitment, too, is, you know, put the partisanship, put the special interests aside, and get down to getting business done for the people of America.


• Darn right it was the predator lenders, who tried to talk Americans into thinking that it was smart to buy a $300,000 house if we could only afford a $100,000 house. There was deception there, and there was greed and there is corruption on Wall Street. And we need to stop that.
  


• One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars.


• We do need the private sector to be able to keep more of what we earn and produce. Government is going to have to learn to be more efficient and live with less if that's what it takes to reign in the government growth that we've seen today.


• And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also. As mayor, every year I was in office I did reduce taxes. I eliminated personal property taxes and eliminated small business inventory taxes and as governor we suspended our state fuel tax. We did all of those things knowing that that is how our economy would be heated up.


• Now you said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that's not patriotic. Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you're not always the solution. In fact, too often you're the problem so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper. An increased tax formula that Barack Obama is proposing in addition to nearly a trillion dollars in new spending that he's proposing is the backwards way of trying to grow our economy.


• He's proposing a $5,000 tax credit for families so that they can get out there and they can purchase their own health care coverage. That's a smart thing to do. That's budget neutral. That doesn't cost the government anything as opposed to Barack Obama's plan to mandate health care coverage and have universal government run program and unless you're pleased with the way the federal government has been running anything lately, I don't think that it's going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the feds.


• And that's why Tillerson at Exxon and Mulva at ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) , bless their hearts, they're doing what they need to do, as corporate CEOs, but they're not my biggest fans, because what I had to do up there in Alaska was to break up a monopoly up there and say, you know, the people are going to come first and we're going to make sure that we have value given to the people of Alaska with those resources.


• There is not. And how long have I been at this, like five weeks? So there hasn't been a whole lot that I've promised, except to do what is right for the American people, put government back on the side of the American people, stop the greed and corruption on Wall Street. {turning a potential liability into an asset


• It's a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don't allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, and instead we're relying on foreign countries to produce for us.


• Barack Obama and Senator Biden, you've said no to everything in trying to find a domestic solution to the energy crisis that we're in. You even called drilling -- safe, environmentally-friendly drilling offshore as raping the outer continental shelf.


• Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today, that's for sure. And it's not what our nation needs to be able to count on. You guys opposed the surge. The surge worked. Barack Obama still can't admit the surge works.


• Now, you said regarding Senator McCain's military policies there, Senator Biden, that you supported a lot of these things. In fact, you said in fact that you wanted to run, you'd be honored to run with him on the ticket. That's an indication I think of some of the support that you had at least until you became the VP pick here.
  
  You also said that Barack Obama was not ready to be commander in chief. And I know again that you opposed the move he made to try to cut off funding for the troops and I respect you for that. I don't know how you can defend that position now but I know that you know especially with your son in the National Guard and I have great respect for your family also and the honor that you show our military. Barack Obama though, another story there. Anyone I think who can cut off funding for the troops after promising not to is another story. {talk of cutting off troop funding is homerun rhetoric


• Israel is in jeopardy of course when we're dealing with Ahmadinejad as a leader of Iran. Iran claiming that Israel as he termed it, a stinking corpse, a country that should be wiped off the face of the earth. Now a leader like Ahmadinejad who is not sane or stable when he says things like that is not one whom we can allow to acquire nuclear energy, nuclear weapons.


• No and Dr. Henry Kissinger especially. I had a good conversation with him recently. And he shared with me his passion for diplomacy. And that's what John McCain and I would engage in also. But again, with some of these dictators who hate America and hate what we stand for, with our freedoms, our democracy, our tolerance, our respect for women's rights, those who would try to destroy what we stand for cannot be met with just sitting down on a presidential level as Barack Obama had said he would be willing to do. That is beyond bad judgment. That is dangerous.


• That's not what we're doing there. We're fighting terrorists, and we're securing democracy, and we're building schools for children there so that there is opportunity in that country, also. There will be a big difference there, and we will win in -- in Afghanistan, also.


• Oh, yeah, it's so obvious I'm a Washington outsider. And someone just not used to the way you guys operate. Because here you voted for the war and now you oppose the war. You're one who says, as so many politicians do, I was for it before I was against it or vice- versa. Americans are craving that straight talk and just want to know, hey, if you voted for it, tell us why you voted for it and it was a war resolution.
  
  And you had supported John McCain's military strategies pretty adamantly until this race and you had opposed very adamantly Barack Obama's military strategy, including cutting off funding for the troops that attempt all through the primary.


• Just everyday working class Americans saying, you know, government, just get out of my way. If you're going to do any harm and mandate more things on me and take more of my money and income tax and business taxes, you're going to have a choice in just a few weeks here on either supporting a ticket that wants to create jobs and bolster our economy and win the war or you're going to be supporting a ticket that wants to increase taxes, which ultimately kills jobs, and is going to hurt our economy.


• Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.
  
  Education credit in American has been in some sense in some of our states just accepted to be a little bit lax and we have got to increase the standards. No Child Left Behind was implemented. It's not doing the job though. We need flexibility in No Child Left Behind. We need to put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching. We need to make sure that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line. My kids as public school participants right now, it's near and dear to my heart. I'm very, very concerned about where we're going with education and we have got to ramp it up and put more attention in that arena.


• But it wasn't just that experience tapped into, it was my connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills? About times and Todd and our marriage in our past where we didn't have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care? We've been there also so that connection was important.


• And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights. Those things that we stand for that can be put to good use as a force for good in this world.


• We have got to win the wars. We have got to get our economy back on track. We have got to not allow the greed and corruption on Wall Street anymore.
  
  And we have not got to allow the partisanship that has really been entrenched in Washington, D.C., no matter who's been in charge. When the Republicans were in charge, I didn't see a lot of progress there, either. When the Democrats, either, though, this last go- around for the last two years.
  
  Change is coming. And John McCain is the leader of that reform.


• You do what I did as governor, and you appoint people regardless of party affiliation, Democrats, independents, Republicans. You -- you walk the walk; you don't just talk the talk.
  
  And even in my own family, it's a very diverse family. And we have folks of all political persuasion in there, also, so I've grown up just knowing that, you know, at the end of the day, as long as we're all working together for the greater good, it's going to be OK.
  
  But the policies and the proposals have got to speak for themselves, also. And, again, voters on November 4th are going to have that choice to either support a ticket that supports policies that create jobs.
  
  You do that by lowering taxes on American workers and on our businesses. And you build up infrastructure, and you rein in government spending, and you make our -- our nation energy independent.
  
  Or you support a ticket that supports policies that will kill jobs by increasing taxes. And that's what the track record shows, is a desire to increase taxes, increase spending, a trillion-dollar spending proposal that's on the table. That's going to hurt our country, and saying no to energy independence. Clear choices on November 4th.


• I want to assure you that John McCain and I, we're going to fight for America. We're going to fight for the middle-class, average, everyday American family like mine.
  
  I've been there. I know what the hurts are. I know what the challenges are. And, thank God, I know what the joys are, too, of living in America. We are so blessed. And I've always been proud to be an American. And so has John McCain.
  
  We have to fight for our freedoms, also, economic and our national security freedoms.
  
  It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.
  
  We will fight for it, and there is only one man in this race who has really ever fought for you, and that's Senator John McCain.

Now, I do have some concerns, ones which pale in comparison to Obama-Biden, but concerns still.

A two-state solution is the solution. And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there, also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace, and that needs to be done, and that will be top of an agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration.

Israel is our strongest and best ally in the Middle East. We have got to assure them that we will never allow a second Holocaust, despite, again, warnings from Iran and any other country that would seek to destroy Israel, that that is what they would like to see.

We will support Israel. A two-state solution, building our embassy, also, in Jerusalem, those things that we look forward to being able to accomplish, with this peace-seeking nation, and they have a track record of being able to forge these peace agreements.

They succeeded with Jordan. They succeeded with Egypt. I'm sure that we're going to see more success there, also.

It's got to be a commitment of the United States of America, though. And I can promise you, in a McCain-Palin administration, that commitment is there to work with our friends in Israel.

Our "friends in Israel" are those that know that negotiating with a terrorist in a suit is no different than negotiating with a terrorist in a keifiah. This 'two state solution' talk and wink and nod to Condi Rice does not make me happy. And while this is a debate and Sen. McCain is officially on record supporting a 'two state solution', this talk must be measured against the remarks Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have previously made concerning the so-called 'peace process'. And this logic goes back to the APRPEH post which examined the two Presidential candidates and their opinions of why they believe Israel is important and why McCain discussing 'two states' and Obama discussing 'two states' is a very different thing. The short version is that Sen. McCain and President Bush justify their support for Israel because it is the morally right thing to do, and religiously correct thing to do. For Obama its about expediency McCain Redeemed, Rubin Exposed, Obama Still the Favorite of Terrorists Two Campaigns, Two Candidates, One Israel

More debate coverage links below:

Palin’s Triumph editors-NRO

THE VEEP DEBATE: SHE'S BACK! Rich Lowry-NY Post
transcript and video here