I’ve been thinking a lot about my Mom today, and not just because I was at a reunion where her name, recipes and demeanor seeped out of conversations that I overheard or was part of today.

I just read an article that talked about how much of America has a hard time thinking Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President of these United States when they accept that Barack Obama is.  Is it a guy thing?

Each day I understand more why my CD2 Candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks is so very excited about Sarah Palin’s nomination.  It’s even becoming clearer why Geraldine Ferraro is being so generous in her comments about Palin’s candidacy, or that Hillary is watching her step in discussions about Palin.

In 1964 my mother helped me write a nominating speech for Barry Goldwater for my 6th grade class (probably would not surprise you to note that Barry won – in my class).  It was my Mom who wrote letters to the editor when the price of sugar rose for no real reason; it was my Mother who was told she could no longer be engaged at the level she was in Church Sunday education activities because she only had a high school education.  It was my Mother who was so much smarter and capable of leading.

Sarah Palin is a pioneer woman who respects the land, who is not afraid of hard work or to work with her hands. [I love this] She can “field dress a moose”; she is a woman who can take care of herself and was raised to do just that.  Palin has a mind of her own and has forged a solid family with shared responsibility with her husband – something that shows balance and maturity – a quality of spirit.

What are people afraid of?  That she doesn’t know the potholes of DC?  That she’s not smart enough for the job?  Are they saying that only someone from a big city or with an Ivy League education can lead America?

I respectfully disagree.

Some people on the side that likes her, are comparing her to Ronald Reagan.  There was only one “Ronald Maximus” and that comparison is not fair.  In the 90′s and even more so after RWR died a few years ago – I started reading the papers he wrote during his “wilderness years” – when he was out of public service.  It was ridiculous how much smarter he was and how he “GOT IT” so much better than many of his age.  Ronald Reagan was a born politician.

Sarah Palin’s world is not complicated; she is not a politician; nor did she strive for public service.  She just knows what’s right, what’s wrong – how to mow over someone to get what she believes is right for her constituents and has lived in their world.  Many of today’s politicians have not.

As I’m thinking of these qualities some of the words of Teddy Kennedy’s eulogy for his Brother Bobby come to mind.  He wanted Bobby to be remembered…

… as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
“Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.”

Watch Sarah’s spirit soar over the next weeks. Why not? She has what it takes; and may God continue to bless people like my Mother who helped push us all in the right direction.

Country First

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