Go say hi to JB and give him a salute!  (Now we need a Huckabee supporter.)  Notice:  The candidate I endorse will be the one choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.  Until then, my lips are sealed.

______________________

"When you see a train wreck about to occur, it is not an exhilarating experience." (Anon.)

Lorie Byrd's essay in Townhall.com (TH) today (Friday, June 22) is very much worth reading.  It recommends Michael Steele, a Black man, for the Republican vice-presidential ticket.  I wrote a comment (first one perhaps) on it, but TH being TH I think the server problem kept it from being printed.  Anyway, here's what I said, which reflects my deeply held views, but don't have to reflect yours since this is, they tell me, a free country.  (I'll be moving my blog from TH to another site which I'll "announce" this weekend.)

The two candidates for vice president that I've mentioned the most are conservative Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska and conservative Michael Steele of Maryland.  The problem for the Republican "base," which consists mainly of white males and women without a college education, is that they're not especially friendly to a female candidate or, heaven forfend, a Black one.  They have to get over that.

My support of Palin and, to a lesser extent, Steele is based on the fact that the Republican Party is a shrunken shell of its former self (in fact, of what it was in 2004).  As one of my readers put it, "the (tiny) base has grown while the Party has declined."  To get this point across to the base itself is a little like trying to teach trigonometry to an orangutang, but every survey reflects the fact that it is accurate.  The 2006 election illustrated the point.

But why not our usual ticket of two aging, mildly dyspeptic white males in gray suits?  Because you don't beat a dynamic ticket with a lethargic one.  And the Hillary ticket (Clinton-Obama?  Clinton-Richardson?) is going to be a dynamic one and hard to beat.  Even Rush Limbaugh has said that Mrs. Clinton has an 80% chance of getting elected.

I've been a strong proponent of Mrs. Palin because, with her attractiveness, atriculateness, and political aggressiveness (defeating both an incumbent Republican governor and a former Democratic governor), she could change the equation.  She could indicate by her presence that the Republican Party wants to reach out to groups in addition to our beloved white males -- who themselves are less inclined to vote Republican. as we found in 2006. 

The U.S. Census Bureau recently said that that one-in-three Americans (100 million people) is a member of a minority group, mainly Hispanics and Blacks.  What do we offer that group?  If our answer is two geriatric Caucasians, 9 in 10 will turn away from us.  What about another group we have trouble with, women professionals?  Lorie Byrd will vote for the Republicans, but I can't think of many more female professionals who would.  We've also had trouble recently with younger voters and and some evangelicals. 

Sarah Palin would appeal to these groups -- all of them to a greater or lesser degree.  So, I submit, would Michael Steele.   Both of them are Christians who actually act like ones.

My conservative writer friend JK in Pittsburgh told me he was for a Giuliani-Thompson ticket.  I assume he meant Fred (and not Tommy), but that still is a losing combination (even in the unlikely event Fred elected to play second banana to Rudy).  It is our classic "two old white guys" and, even as an old white guy, I think it would be a cynical offering, a rounding up of the "usual suspects," something akin to the unlamented Dole-Kemp fiasco of 1996.   

I have no preference for Republican Presidential candidate anymore, other than the man who selects Sarah (and, if not her, Michael) as a running mate. 

I tell my Republican friends, most of them in a major lather about immigration, that you don't win elections by expressing your anger and scratching your ideological itches.  You win by reaching out to people in such a way that they're inclined to vote for you.  You convince them not that your that your political philosophy is pure, but that voting for you will make their lives more secure and satisfying.  Period.

If you don't do that, you get to sit on the sidelines and complain, which appears to be too many Republicans' stock-in-trade in these latter-days.

In any case, I salute Lorie Byrd, who's terrific, for writing an essay that should cause people to think.  Without fresh faces, we're going to end up with some very sad looks on our faces on Election Eve, 2008.

Half the people on this (mailing) list have papered their blogs and columns with material endorsing and outlining the qualifications of Sarah Palin.  If you want to know more about her, please check out my new blog at http://camp2008victorya.townhall.com.   Another site with a lot of factual material on her is: http://palinforvp.blogspot.com, the "den" of one of the better young political operatives around.  

Steve Maloney

 _________________________

In regard to Sarah Palin’s candidacy for the vice-presidential slot on the Republican ticket, all of us in the Palin movement are delighted by the number of people signing up to support her.  You can find links to them on my blogroll and on Elephantman’s blogroll (at http://palinforvp.blogspot.com).  Some excellent material about Sarah is appearing on various sites, including Sanity102’s, GenerationXDad’s, Young Republican's, JB's, and others (see links). 

Please pass along (to me or to Elephantman) the link to any blog that endorses Sarah's candidacy.  We'll list them on the blogrolls.  As we get into the fall, we'd like to have 100 bloggers (or more) supporting Sarah.  The way that will happen is for each blogger who backs Sarah to find one (or two) more allies for her.  "Each one find one (more)" is the way this movement will proceed.  No one is a follower; everyone is a leader. 

So far, Sarah's backers include people who support a variety of the Republican presidential candidates. Supporters of any of them are welcome in the Palin Movement.  The emphasis is on what she could bring to the eventual Republican ticket, no matter who heads it.  By February 5, 2008 ("Super Tuesday"), we presumably will know the name of the Republican presidential nominee, and we want that gentleman to decide that his best possible running mate would be Gov. Sarah Palin. 

Of course, this effort will have its ups and downs, but there will be more of the former than of the latter.  We strongly believe that at some point Sarah will in fact hold the nation’s highest offices, including the presidency.  We’re asking everyone who blogs or participates in any way in the blogosphere to endorse Sarah.  Her staff is aware the “draft” movement is going on, but it is taking place independent of any effort on her part.  In this sense, it is one of the purest “draft” movements ever to occur.