Live Blogging Sarah Palin Announcement
August 29, 2008 / 11:17 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierA little Van Halen blasting while John and Cindy McCain comes out. One thing about the smaller venue. The crowd sounds blaringly loud. Everyone is fired up There is more energy here than there was at the DNC all week. Crowd singing Happy Birthday to John McCain who is 77. Now, they’re shouting, “John McCain!”
11:21 CST McCain is looking for someone to shake up Washington. He says he had many good people to choose from. Crowd is absolutely rockin’. Loved hearing about the “good people of Dayton”.
He has found the “right partner”. “Someone who has fought corruption. Someone with executive experience. Someone who reached across the aisle. Someone with strong principles, a fighting spirit and deep compassion.”
Now he’s talking Sarah Palin’s parents. Principal and secretary at elementary school. She was a union member and is married to a union member. A stand-out high school point guard. I like her more already. A mayor. And now a governor. She knows how much things cost.
He is proud, that the week that we celebrate women’s suffrage, a devoted wife and mother of five (huge cheers), she’s not from these parts and she’s not from Washington, but when you get to know her, you’re going to like her. She’s got the grit and good sense that’s exactly what we need in Washington today. She knows where she comes from and who she works for.
She stands up for what is right and doesn’t let anyone tell her to sit down.
11: 28 The next Vice President of the United States…Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska. Here she is with the kids. Wow, she’s a hottie! Her husband is nice looking too. She’s wearing dark suit. Hugs McCain and Cindy. Daughter holding the baby. Other daughter in red. Little one in cute dress.
People going nuts. Nice looking family. She’s got her hair up. Glasses on. Here she is. Crowd is wild. Absolutely wild.
11:31 Hugs McCain. “I know it will demand the best that I have to give and I promise nothing less.” Now, she is introducing her family. Husband Todd. Celebrating their 20th anniversary today. Lifelong commercial fisherman. Production operator in the oil fields. Steel worker and union member. World champion snow machine racer. He’s a manly man. Awesomeness.
Son Track (didn’t get his name) is in the United States Army. HUGE cheers. Serves in an infantry brigade and leaves September 11 for Iraq. Chants of USA!! USA!!
Bristol, Willow, Piper and son Trig. Trig born in April. Wow, she looks good only a few months from childbirth.
Her agenda as mayor: stop wasteful spending, cut property taxes and put people first. On some Alaskan ethics commission, she is a reformer. Stands up to special interest, big lobbyists, big oil and the “good old boy network.” Sent oil revenue back to the people of Alaska.
Working on a 40 billion dollar gas line through Alaska to lead America to energy independence. She champions reform. Ends earmarks.
11:36 A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not why a ship is built.
She is a good speaker. Doing very well. Her timing is good. She’s comfortable up there. Now she is supporting John McCain. “This is a man who has served his country not just his party. This is a moment that requires resolve and strength of heart. My runningmate is a man who has shown these qualities in the darkest of places in the service of his country.”
Wow, she is knocking it out of the park. “There is only one candidate who has truly fought for America and that man is John McCain.”
11:41 CST It was John McCain who refused to hedge his support for our troops regardless of the political costs. As the mother of one of our troops, and as the commander of Alaska’s National Guard “that’s the kind of man I want as Commander-in-Chief”.
Oh NO! She did not just name Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. “The women of America aren’t finished yet and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all!”
11:45 CST Wow. She just nailed it. Awesome oratory. Awesome rhetorically.
As a side note, I’m glad she didn’t go all mommy-ish like Nancy Pelosi. She struck the right tone–aggressive and upbeat and supportive and exciting, but made it about America.
Wrap up: Interesting, I got an IM from a Texas blog friend who said that this must really bother Clinton, because if McCain is a one-term president, Hillary would be facing another woman in the 2012 election. Hmmm….
