We call it the United States, Governor Palin. We already do serve and defend America. It’s understood. We are citizens of the Republic and countrymen of yours. Yes, you do have a tough challenge in this election, against confident Americans, true and blue, who have no intention of letting a reckless gambler and an ethically challenged running mate anywhere near the office of the Presidency.
So, yes, this is indeed a crucial hour for our country, because the United States cannot handle a single day more of the corruption and unconcern that the Bush-McCain Republican party offers up as a valid choice for the American people, without the least bit of shame.
Yes, John McCain endured horrors – forty years ago. The true test of heroism is not what you do when you have no choice but what you do when you are free. John McCain failed that tough fight. He failed his first family and as he entered politics every test of moral courage and honor that he was presented, almost as if he were catching up for lost time.
Yes, praise his determination to survive bitter bondage. But do not dare present John McCain as a profile in any other kind of courage; it’s simply not so.
A year ago the smart money was not, as you say, against McCain but that because of his close ties to Washington lobbyists and his inheritance of the Bush Pioneer donor network, that his victory was all but assured. Sure, there was talk. But no person conversant in American politics took it any more seriously than you did. Do not presume to lecture the Republic on what McCain isn’t: an outsider, a maverick. He is no more unconnected to K street than you were while mayor of Wasilla, Governor.
As for John McCain’s views on Iraq or any topic: He has never, not once, sacrificed his ambition for principle, never once turned his back on a chance to turn his back on an erstwhile patron or ally. In this, you are kindred. Only in this are the two of you the same, Governor. You are both opportunists, and proud of this...flexibility. So, you praise McCain for his determination, resolve and sheer guts. What you mean is you like unbridled ambitious, ruthlessness and refusal to concede any point great or small to reality.
And, yes – the voters will know better come November. As you say, word for word: Maybe that's because they realize there is a time for politics and a time for leadership ... a time to campaign and a time to put our country first.
Why John McCain’s chose to make a person cannot govern her own state, town and family well to be the vice-presidential nominee is mystifying enough. That he did so without a proper vetting for such a critical office of trust and authority is unconscionable and reflects badly on his judgment and his style of rendering judgments.
John McCain, ma’am, is no profile in courage, he is a profile is recklessness.
And when you speak of breaking faith with troops in Iraq, I am sure you mean that voting against a GI Bill for the 21st Century qualifies as turning on those who continue to serve and die in the Iraq War that John McCain will not break faith with.
You speak of victory in sight. This is excellent news, Governor. We are now out of Anbar province and the Shia security forces are arresting our Sunni allies, the very ones who helped us defeat Al-Qaida in Iraq, threatening a rebirth of civil war in Iraq. Elsewhere, the Taliban are resurgent not only in Afghanistan but in increasingly restive Pakistan. Russia occupies a third of Georgia and may deny access to its airspace for use by NATO forces in Kabul. Is this the victory of which you speak, Governor?
Your son, of course, is to be thanked by a grateful nation for his service. Many of us say prayers for those who are in harm’s way, many of us have family and friends in the wars abroad, both in the war that was started against us, and those that Bush and McCain started because Afghanistan just wasn’t interesting enough. And now you wish to place not only your own son at risk under the same poor leadership, but ask us to vote with you to perpetuate the danger to all those we love. Why, Governor? Why should America share your misplaced trust in a man who has embraced George W Bush’s reckless war?
We of course congratulate the birth of your newest child; all life is precious, which is why most of the country is for appropriate education of teens on contraceptive options and their use and prefers responsible leadership in this matter. Most of the country is also interested in programs that support motehrs who raising special needs children or find themselves raising children on their own.
On a separate topic: Congratulations on your daughter’s engagement to be married to her boyfriend. Congratulations as well, Governor; you will soon be a grandmother. I think that’s very cool.
Oh, just a housekeeping question, Governor: Will the wedding take place before or after the Wasilla High School Class of 2008 graduation?
Ah, true love sprouts early and grows quickly in the bright endless days of the Alaskan summer. May your daughter continue to follow the honest, truthful and dignified example that you have provided her throughout her life.
Yes, you grew up with people like Harry S. Truman, people who actually are honest, truthful and dignified. Yes, they are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America ... who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars. Yes, they love their country, in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America. They are even proud of it knowing that their friend and neighbor (and now Governor) is a closet secessionist.
You had the privilege of living most of your life in a small town. You had the privilege of being their mayor. You knew your community, not as voters but as friends and family. Then you ran some out of town, replaced them with cronies, and hired yourself a Washington lobbyist.
Yes, you had actual responsibilities...and you turned your back on them. Your idea of improving education was to ban books. Your idea of fiscal responsibility was to borrow tens of millions, skip town for Juneau and leave your friends and neighbors holding the bag.
Yes, we too prefer candidates who don’t talk about Washington lobbyists and earmarks one way when they are in Wasilla and another way when they are in Minneapolis on national television.
And your claim that both you and John McCain are not part of the permanent political establishment is 100% accurate; the Republican Party is not permanent. It is in danger of dissolution, and most of America things that fate is long overdue.
As for your lack of qualifications: Governor, not even your inside ties to K Street and the GOP power brokers are sufficient to overcome them.
No, Governor, you are not going to Washington to seek the good opinion of the media.
In fact, you are not going to Washington at all, because Americans expect its elected leaders to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the likes of Ted Stevens and Don Young before their ability to send you hundreds of millions in earmarks failed them.
You are correct: Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests, which is why Barack Obama is offering solutions and extending an honest and sincere welcome to new voters to rejoin the great American experiment in democracy after eight years of cynicism and unconcern, and welcoming independents and moderates to look past the sarcasm and scorn of a newcomer to national politics who has a great deal to learn about her shortcomings. Because someone who wears the mantle of faith so proudly should know that publicly picking splinters out of other people’s eyes is a not just a no-no; it’s embarrassing.
We agree: The right reason to go to Washington is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.
The fresh plan and vision offered by Democrats in this election year cannot possibly fail on any of these criteria.
A repackaged replication of the Bush-Cheney years under McCain-Palin cannot possibly succeed.
No, Governor Palin, we don’t expect accord when we hold conversations with you and yours.
What we expect from you, and from our elected officials is sound governance with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and ... a servant's heart.
A president with servants, who is lucky to have escaped a corruption conviction long ago, with a running mate who just hired a lawyer to fight a corruption investigation, both of whom have lied repeatedly about their records and associations is not what you yourself have said the country needs in its leaders.
You say you stood up to the special interests, but you hired Washington lobbyists. You say you stood up to big oil companies, but you took their counsel and their money, as wel. You say you stood up to the good-ol' boys network, but were happy to profit from it and drop a dime on your erstwhile friends Ted Stevens and Don Young. And now you have new good-ol’ boys, named George W Bush, Dick Cheney and John Sidney McCain.
We agree; sudden and relentless reform never sits well with entrenched interests and power brokers. That's why true reform is so hard to achieve. That is why with the support of the citizens of Alaska, we are shaking things up and intend on turning the congressional delegation blue by sending both your former patrons into retirement and putting the government of your state back on the side of its people.
Yes, you promised when you came to office to promote major ethics reform, to end the culture of self-dealing. You only reformed ethics for the worse in Wasilla and later on in Juneau. And you have never stopped dealing yourself and your friends in with the benefits of your offices and public funds. While that might be fine in oil-rich Alaska, your idea of reform is not going to sail in the Lower 48.
You say that you came to office promising to control spending - by request if possible and by veto if necessary. Again, the $22 million bill you left your own home town to pay after your stint as mayor.
You assure us that the state budget of Alaska is under control, that you have a surplus. What you never mention is that your state profits when oil costs over $100 a barrel. That’s not very honest, Governor, to take credit for something over which you have no control.
You claim that you championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. That you told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere. But did champion the Bridge to Nowhere. You are on the record doing so. And you took the money, anyway.
You fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history, a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. The stakes for our nation could not be higher, in these trying economic times. Which makes me ask, Governor Palin – Why did you give $40 billion in contracts to Canada for a new pipeline when the Alaskan Pipeline needs upgrading?
Oh, and when a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico next time, it might be a good idea for you to not to distract local leaders and emergency workers from their tasks so you can look good on television. That’s called grandstanding, and people don’t like it when you take advantage of their misfortunes like that.
You mention Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus, and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon. No, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers. Which makes me ask: Why did your running mate encourage the president of Georgia to start a loser of a war with the Russian Federation? Why is his view of foreign policy so much like that of George W Bush and Dick Cheney? I thought you were joining a platform of change, Governor Palin.
You seem very worried that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies, but overlook that in thirty years of enmity they’ve never done such a thing and the only risk that this might happen is from your friend John McCain’s "bomb bomb Iran" warmongering and making jokes about killing Iranians with tobacco products. You seem concerned about disruptions in supply in Saudi Arabia that only help the prosperity of Alaska when those events occur. You worry about losing access to very low quality Venezuelan oil that most American refineries not only will not process; they cannot process it. I feel silly even telling you this, Governor Palin. Being from an energy producing state, naturally know all this.
Also, being from in the know about the North Slope of Alaska, you are aware that it takes many years to bring an oilfield to full production from scratch, that oilfields do not last forever, that it is always uncertain how much oil can be drawn from them. Being from Alaska, you are fully aware of just how much of Alaska’s North Slope is open for exploration already and being developed in timely fashion already.
You are of course aware that the few percent in gas price savings that we will enjoy from drilling starting in 5-10 years for land wells and enjoyed for perhaps another 5-10 years after that do not compare to the immediate and perpetual savings of improved consumption efficiencies and conservation.
Drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems - as if you all didn't know that already. Again, I feel silly telling an experienced leader from an energy producing state her business. And it will not solve any of America’s energy problems for another five to ten years.
No, the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. That is why conservation, right now, with its immediate and lasting effects is 10 times more cost-effective on a project financing basis.
So yes, I hear your plans for January, Governor Palin. More pipelines ... build more nuclear plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. Yes, we need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers. It is refreshing that you are took notes from the Democratic convention in Denver. That you followed the speech seen by one-quarter of the American population, and admired my most of them.
You speak of rhetoric and stage props, Governor, but what have you accomplished? You speak of global warming as a joke, when it threatens potentially hundreds of millions of lives. Might I also point out that if the oceans rise ten feet, Cook Inlet rises, too. That if the temperature goes up ten degrees, yes it will be warmer in Alaska and you can kiss the salmon and king crab fisheries good-bye. Oh, now global warming’s not so much fun, is it? Or were you planning on starting a banana plantation on Kodiak Island? Perhaps reopen the Mat Maid Dairy with the help of your cronies? That’d be cool.
You mock Barack Obama as someone who plans on making government bigger.
Remind me once again how much bigger the Wasilla debt was after your tenure as mayor.
You accuse your opponent – and by extension all Democrats – with seeking to reduce the strength of America.
If it is okay with you, Governor Palin, we are not about to be lectured in patriotism by a closet secessionist.
You speak again of victory in Iraq. What part of spending trillions to install a pro-Iranian regime in Baghdad do you call "victory"?
By the way, aren’t we supposed to be seeking victory against the people who attacked us on 9/11? You know, the ones in Afghanistan?
Quite right. Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions. If by "he" you mean John McCain’s comments on Hamas, or George W. Bush’s comments on North Korea, you are 100% correct.
Yes, al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America... because your party is too busy taking out its inability to capture the 9/11 ringleaders on the slow-footed foot soldiers in keeps in Cuba. Because Bush and McCain are too
You say that Congress spends too much. It certainly has under Bush-Cheney. It certainly did under Reagan-Bush. The message is clear. America cannot afford having fiscally irresponsible Republicans in the White House.
Taxes are too high for what we get from them under Republican mismanagement. It’s a bad deal, and Americans deserve better. By the way, why do you not mention your own ticket’s proposed tax increases? Oh, that’s right, you are giving your acceptance speech at the GOP convention. Perhaps you will set the record straight next week.
Americans know that the plan is to stop giving the super-rich hundreds of billions of dollars a year in Bush-Cheney tax breaks. And McCain is not standing in the way of the American people on this. If you wanted a militant anti-tax ticket, Governor, you should have run as the Alaska Independence Party candidate for President. It’s not too late, you know. That’d be really cool.
My sister Heather and her husband have just built a service station that's now opened for business - like millions of others who run small businesses. And since you as governor ended the fuel tax, their business already enjoys a significant benefit of your patronage.
You make out as if you are very concerned about the taxes of people trying to keep their jobs in Michigan or Ohio ... or create jobs with clean coal from Pennsylvania or West Virginia ... or keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota.
But the only ones among them who will be inconvenienced – not hurt, inconvenienced – by the lapsing of the Bush-Cheney tax breaks for the rich are millionaires.
Maybe your various friends could sell an extra house or two, and they will be okay after that.
You ask how are you going to be better off if a massive tax break to the rich is removed? Why there will fair taxation; the rich will pay their proportional share, too. How can that possibly be bad for the American economy?
Yes, Governor, I see the choice Americans face in this election the same way.
In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like Barack Obama, who use their careers to promote change.
John McCain’s name might appear on laws and landmark reforms, but he also holds the distinction of being the first presidential candidate to be under investigation for breaking his own campaign finance law.
Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speechmaking, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things.
And then there is the cynicism of politicians like John McCain, who excuse every mistaken judgment, from the most pitiful to the most astonishing, as being a consequence of being a POW in a war almost half a century ago. They're the ones who are good only for talk ... the ones who only serve and defend America when they have no choice, and sell out American when they think nobody is looking. Your kind of people.
Senator McCain's record of actual achievement and reform helps explain why so many special interests, lobbyists, and comfortable committee chairmen in Congress drool at the prospect of a McCain presidency - from the primary election of 2000 to this very day.
Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd. He holds 750,000 pages of evidence against them as chips in the big game. He doesn’t have to run with the herd; they run to do his bidding.
John McCain poses as a man who's there to serve his country, not just his party. But Governor: That does not explain why he nominated you, who are as far off the mainstream as a major party candidate has ever been. You, who are there to remind the extreme right wing that has enslaved the party that ended slavery: It’s still your party. You still own us.
Well, Governor Palin, your party does not own this country. As for looking for a fight: You started this long ago, all of you, when you began to call us traitors. We, the other 70% of the country that does not like your zealotry, your ignorance, your corruption, your lies, nor your wars. This is, last we looked, our country, too, and there are more of us than of you. You don’t have to look for a fight; you have one, and you are losing it badly.
You mention Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current Senate, who not long ago summed up his feelings about your nominee.
He said, quote, "I can't stand John McCain." Perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we've chosen the right man to be the next President of the United States of America: Someone who is as far away from being a vicious, reckless ill-tempered troll as John McCain as it is possible to be.
No, Governor, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of "personal discovery." It is unfortunate that we have had to accompany first John McCain and now you, Sarah Palin, on your own discoveries: that neither of you have either the temperament or the talent to be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office.
Because the highest offices of the land are not credit cards, and this country cannot afford a third straight term of Republicans treating them as such.
Indeed, Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they are always fighting for the people.
You would think that a man like John McCain, who endured unspeakable fear and pain and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi, would find fighting for the people to be an easy thing.
Instead, he finds it an easy thing to oppose, and his running mate finds it an easy thing to mock.
You speak of a veteran of the Keating Five as if he were an upright and honorable man – it’s just not so.
You speak of a veteran of hundreds of public tantrums as a bringer of compassion, which is laughable.
You speak of a man who has achieved the wisdom and special confidence of those who have seen evil, and seen how evil is overcome. Yet John McCain has indulged himself in villainies, both petty and grand, and bragged openly of doing so.
Yes, John McCain survived a horrible ordeal. That John McCain is a hero.
The one who has invited you to join him on the stage at the Republican National Convention is another John McCain entirely.
And the next four years cannot endure another four years of what he now represents.
John McCain could have inspired millions with his deeds. Instead, he coasted for going on forty years.
And sorry to say, Governor, but the power of inspiring words is eternal. Especially when they are credible.
Character is the measure in this election ... and hope is the theme ... and change is the goal we share. You ask us to join your cause and help America elect a great man as the next president of the United States.
But we are already helping America elect a great man as the next president of the United States.
Regrets, but his name is not John McCain.
Thank you all, and may God bless America.