The World According to Oatney

The Convention of Small-Town America

People wondered if she would deliver-and boy did she ever!

It was to be expected that Governor Palin would deliver a good speech, but she didn't just do that-she brought down the house and won over a whole lot of people who had previously been skeptical of her. Barack Obama's surrogates in his campaign and in the press (which is almost universally friendly to him) have ridiculed Sarah Palin as a small-town Mayor who has no business anywhere near high office. As someone who is running for office in a small town and who hopes to serve in municipal government, I became deeply offended when I saw that these were the tactics that the Obama camp and their media friends were going to use. This line of attack has offended even Democrats in small-town America-what few Democrats that I've spoken with in our area who were open to supporting Obama seem incredibly turned off by the ridicule Palin has suffered at the hands of Obama surrogates for coming from a small town.

Sarah Palin was right when she pointed out that they said the same kinds of things about another famous Democrat who was ridiculed for serving as a County Judge and then coming to the Senate with no experience, and being named the Democratic nominee for Vice-President when members of his party said he simply had no experience at all. Harry Truman came from what was then a small town, and in the light of history is now seen as one of the great Presidents ever to hold the office.

Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Harry Truman did when he was nominated for Vice President. He had spent several years in the Senate by that time in his life, but his Senate career was unremarkable and he was barely noticed even by Franklin Roosevelt, who was extremely reluctant about the prospect of Truman as Vice President.

Palin is correct: Being Mayor of a town the size of Wasilla has a whole lot more responsibility than being a "community organizer." While the party opposite belittles small-town officials, we know that people who have held elected office in small towns are the most prepared people in this nation for higher office because they know-more than anyone else-how their policies impact the people they serve, asthey must live with the consequences of those policies.

One of the great speeches of the night-one not covered at all by the mainstream press-was the address by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. I strongly believe that Huckabee will be our president one day, and this speech was Reaganesque on a 1976 scale-spoken as though Huckabee will be a future Republican nominee:

Huckabee is right-our friends in the press have managed to unite the Republican Party in ways that none of us could have ever imagined. After the November election when Senator Obama returns to the Senate with his political tail between his legs after being taken to the woodshed, he can thank his allies in the press for making it all possible.

I never thought I'd say this, but Rudy Giuliani gave an unbelievable address in which he pointed out that Barack Obama shirked responsibility at every turn.


His best lines: "More than 130 times Barack Obama couldn't figure out whether to vote yes or no, it was too tough-he voted present. I didn't know about this vote 'present' when I was Mayor of New York City. Sarah Palin didn't have this vote 'present' when she was Mayor or Governor...for President of the United States, it's not good enough to be 'present.'

"I'm sorry that Barack Obama feels that [Sarah Palin's] hometown isn't cosmopolitan enough. I'm sorry Barack, that's it's not flashy enough. Maybe they cling to religion there."

The more the Democrats open their mouths about Sarah Palin, the deeper the hole becomes that they are digging for themselves...so they can keep right on digging.

Labels: Presidential Election, Republican Party

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 11:48 AM