What About Palin?

So what about Palin? What happens now that the drive for the White House is over? There will be a strong desire among some Republicans to dismiss her, to toss her out and leave her to the backwoods of Alaska, and to forget about the the girl that reminded everyone of their next door neighbor. That would be a tragic mistake by the party.

We need people like Gov. Palin to bring the image of the Republican party back into alignment with that of the American people. If you remember Reagan, then you know that one of the main things he was able to do was to identify with the American people. He looked like everyone's grandfather, he acted like everyone's best friend, and when he set his jaw in stone telling the USSR that we would not back down, he looked like everyone's image of a tough American. The fact is, Reagan was all of that. But we're not here to praise Reagan other than to say that he represented the party to the people as one of the people. That is what Gov. Palin does.

First, she is a family woman and a leader. This goes back to some of the issues that we pushed for in the early days of the party. Remember, it was the Republican party that gave women the right to vote. The Republican party pushes for family values and we push a dominant anti-abortion stance. She is a family woman and she is against abortion to the point that she would not abort a child with disabilities even though she knew her child would be born disabled. Sarah Palin is a Republican woman 100% and she represents a younger generation that will come to vote in the near future.

Second, Sarah is real. How many previous people running for VP of the United States can you remember ever winking at you from the television during a debate? I don't remember a single one. As I watched her motions and answers during that debate, I felt connected, I felt like she was someone I knew. She was able to reach out from the confines of stoic Washington types and appear to be my neighbor. This is powerful and important. Powerful because it makes a connection to people. Important because, to be frank, we have lost that ability as a party to make contact with people.

Finally, Sarah Palin can reach across the lines of the political front in ways that other have not been able to do in the past. She has taken on corrupt members of the Republican party (no, the party is not perfect) and she did not back down just because they were fellow Republicans. That move alone could have put her outside all the major circles she needed to be involved in to be a represenative of the party.

So don't count Gov. Sarah Palin out. Whether she runs for the Senate, Congress, or even the office of President again, we need to pledge our support and follow her example. Only by reaching out to the American people once again will we ever regain their support and their votes needed to push the outstanding party forward. Yes, we need to thank Gov. Sarah Palin for being Sarah, a real person in an often too fabricated world.