Gov. Palin...An example for WV

She's on the cover of Time magazine. Biden didn't get on the cover. The article summarizes her political career and gives a strong strategy for how she brought change to Alaska and how we can bring change to WV. In the campaign for mayor of her small town, she drew on the state party and invoked major issues into small town politics. The message, don't just re-elect the mayor cause he's a nice guy, elect the person who represents you and your beliefs. When she left her mayoral position due to term limits in 2002 she refused to support her mother-in-law and backed the opposing candidate. The article points to her stance as a pro-life politician and her mother-in-laws position as pro-choice. As we have learned that is a major disagreement in the Palin house.

What impresses me about that decision is that she didn't back her mother-in-law because she was a nice person (she may not be, but let's assume she is), nor because she was related to her. She chose to support the candidate whose beliefs mirrored her own. I think there is a strong lesson for West Virginians in there. Too often we elect County Commissioners, City officials, mayors, legislators and senators based on their being nice guys. Often we are related to a person running, but that shouldn't force us to vote for that person. Maybe you went to high school with the candidate, maybe you see them monthly or weekly for lunch, but do their political beliefs match your own better than the other candidate's? After all, these shouldn't be popularity contests that always go to the good old boys, it is a political office where decisions are made that will impact your life and family. How many times do we hear about what Senator Byrd did for WV and that we owe it to him to keep voting him into office each go-around? Or the threat of lost jobs if he isn't around to dump a bunch of money into the state? Questioning that line of thought is border-line heresy in WV.

I hope the WV Republican party will run with her strategy. Introduce major issues into local races. Discuss abortion, gun-rights, taxation and other pro-family, conservative issues during school board elections, local, county and state elections. Too many people, including myself, forget that our political system doesn't filter down from Washington, it is built from the local level up. Supporting local candidates whom you disagree with politically allows them to support, both politically and financially, the next candidate up the totem pole. This support continues all the way up the line to our DC representatives. If we want to turn this state away from Democrat domination, it will start with local elections and impacting the lives of our neighbors for the better, not in a massive dog fight against Gov. Manchin, Senator Byrd, or Congressman Mollohan.

I hope we take this lesson to heart and bring real change to WV.

What It Takes to Lead

Imagine a candidate with small town roots, a hard worker that loves honesty and hates corruption. This candidate specialized in defeating incumbents that drank heavily from the wells of of big money and corruption. Now consider a candidate who is humble in demeanor but rich in life experience, a veteran of war. This candidate's experiences give him a dignity and perspective that make him a true leader.

You may think I am writing about the McCain/Palin ticket. Not this time. All of these attributes come in a candidate ready to lead our state, Russ Weeks.

If you have not read up on Russ Weeks, you owe yourself a few minutes to learn about him. Sarah Palin made headlines for putting the former governor's jet on Ebay. Weeks aims relentless criticism at the governor for gallivanting around on the state's dime in a helicopter. Palin defeated an entrenched incumbent thought to be unbeatable because the big business that preferred the status quo supported him. Like Palin, Russ Weeks believes that people, not dollars, vote in this state. He meets the people and listens to what they have to say.

Like John McCain, Weeks has a demeanor that shows the voters he will put the job ahead of himself. Weeks wants something better for West Virginia. He is passionate about changing not just the name on the Welcome to West Virginia signs, but also in changing our political culture. For Weeks it is about the state, not about himself.

Almost everyone agrees that the State of West Virginia needs a direction that takes us away from the failures of the past twenty years. How many people are willing to put their money where their mouth is and vote for a man that promises something different?

If you like West Virginia as it is run now, vote for the same people who have been ruining our state forever. If you think we can do better, put Russ Weeks in the governor's mansion. Alaska did it and 80% of them are thrilled with the results. We can too.

Republican Feminism

For the past few years in West Virginia, the Republican Party has witnessed the efforts of Secretary of State Betty Ireland and others to mobilize women and promote their influence within the party. West Virginia certainly has demonstrated little prejudice at the ballot box, selecting Ireland and Shelley Moore Capito to two of the most important positions possible. Both remain extremely popular with voters in general, not simply their own parties.

At the national level, Governor Sarah Palin has captivated the electorate. Liberal Democrats who never would have supported any Republican now pledge to vote for McCain. Palin is not just a woman to fill a place on a ticket. She understands family, hard work, and the challenges we all face at some time or another.

You never probably figured you would hear the words Republican and feminist in the same phrase. After all, Rush Limbaugh popularized the term "feminazi." The feminism shown by Republican female leaders is different. Women ought to have the cultural freedom to make choices. The women's liberation movement exerted pressure on women to decide to leave the home and go into the workplace in the same fashion as they were pressured to stay home and take care of the family in previous generations. Today's feminism shown by Republican leaders emphasizes an honest appraisal of life and making decisions to help yourself and your family.

Republican feminism preaches self-reliance. A woman should have the opportunity to run a business without over regulation and taxation. A woman has every right to protect herself whether inside or outside her home. That means that we should encourage women to educate themselves on firearms and buy them. Miranda Lambert would probably be one of the first to say that a well armed woman is a safe woman. If more would be sexual assailants got shot, we would see fewer kidnappings and rapes overall. No one wants to get shot.


Republican feminism means allowing women to choose their priorities without pressure and then respecting those decisions. Betty Ireland would have dominated in a re-election run for Secretary of State but she made the right choice to put family first. Other women in different situations will make different decisions and not bow to outside pressure to do what others think they ought. This is real world feminism, brought to you courtesy of the Republican Party.

Giuliani's Minor Flub

Last night, Rudy Giuliani gave a tremendous and effective speech that underscored the necessity of electing John McCain while aiming some well-placed barbs at his opponent. One of the barbs that liberals will surely respond to was the claim that Obama is the least prepared candidate in a hundred years.

We know what the former mayor meant, but liberals will seize upon the fact that one hundred years ago the GOP nominated and elected William Howard Taft. Taft actually was one of the most experienced men ever nominated to the presidency. He served as the personal troubleshooter of President Theodore Roosevelt, succeeding in such tasks as bringing peace, happiness, and prosperity to the Philippines. Unfortunately Taft's big heart was not into the job. He never wanted to be president and suffered from the taunts aimed at his ever expanding waistline. Although he enjoyed some successes, he suffered the worst loss of any GOP incumbent seeking reelection.

Giuliani likely referred to a less heralded Republican president, Warren G. Harding. We learned our lesson after Harding. This man was likable, attractive, and a good speaker. He garnered votes by vague promises of "normalcy" after World War I. However, Harding came from the Ohio political machine. He spent a short and unremarkable amount of time in the US Senate. After election, his friends took advantage of his congeniality and engineered massive scandals. Meanwhile he played a lot of golf, attended many parties, and befriended a lot of young women around the country. Luckily for Harding, he died before his friends could embarrass him too much.

The GOP figured out after 1920 that inexperienced senators with impressive speaking abilities do not make good presidents.

No News Is Good News in the Sunday Gazette Mail

Last Sunday I was near Charleston, so I got to read that wonderful old piece of objective, just the facts ma'am journalism, the Sunday Gazette Mail. After all, the selection of Governor Palin made a huge splash in the cable news media and elsewhere. I was fascinated with their take on her selection.

Their take was . . . nothing. No mention of her whatsoever. It was as if a journalistic black hole opened up, she fell in, and news of her was replaced by the Cheshire cat grin on the face of Barack Obama's destiny. Instead of commentary on the latest news, the Gazette served up the same old tripe.

Sometimes a paper says quite a bit when it chooses to say nothing at all. Multiple columns commented on Obama's destiny and place in history. Phil Kabler took a pause from his lifelong pursuit of Vic Sprouse to wistfully wonder what might have been if Gore had spent more time in West Virginia in 2000, his theory being that more exposure to the anti-gun, anti-coal, pro-abortion Gore might have somehow convinced West Virginians to vote for him.

Yup, cover those ears, close those eyes, ignore the obvious. Barack Obama is about to fall into the dustbin of history.

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I hate to see the daughter of Governor Palin going through this crap. I am speaking as a father right now. Many Democrats think they have some kind of gotcha issue against the Governor and her family. Like they did with Vice President Cheney's daughter in 2004, they are willing to smear the families of candidates to score a point. A seventeen year old ought to remain out of bounds. Many Democrats see a pregnant teenage girl as the antithesis of family values ideals. Family values does not mean you have a perfect family that never encounters challenges. It means that families stick together and help each other out, just like Governor Palin and millions of others. Americans can understand that, even if the liberal media and Democratic strategists cannot.