This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: August 30, 2008 - Like Lucinda, I could not be happier with John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for vice president. When McCain won the nomination, I reviewed all the potential Republican vice presidential nominees. Of all the possibilities, my favorite was Sarah Palin. And as I re-examined the field in the following months, Gov. Palin always was No. 1 on my list.
Palin has a wonderful story to tell the American people, one that I believe will connect with families, conservatives and women.
Families should be impressed by this amazing mother. This is a mother who lived her pro-life values by delivering a son with Down syndrome this year, and who will watch her son leave to serve his country in Iraq next month. She runs a state while maintaining her family of five children, a husband and herself, returning to the job just three days after the birth of her last child. I come from a family of seven, and I feel like I can connect. She has experienced struggles like any other normal American family.
Conservatives will love her credentials. After all of the rumors about Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman, my conservative friends were very worried that McCain would abandon the base by nominating a liberal. My circles were not the biggest McCain fans when this year began. Slowly but surely, these conservatives came around.
When Gov. Palin was announced today, they were just as excited as I was. One friend sent me an e-mail that contained more than 550 exclamation points. Gov. Palin is strongly pro-life, a hunter who exercises her Second Amendment rights and an executive who has a solid record of cleaning up corruption.
Conservatives like me have not been happy by the massive increases in pork barrel projects and government spending. Gov. Palin killed the "Bridge to Nowhere." She is cleaning up the Republican Party and state government in Alaska. I want to send her to clean up Washington.
Women should be inspired by a fellow woman. As Palin said in her speech today, Hillary Clinton put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, and now women have the chance to shatter it. I am so proud that John McCain took the bold step to nominate a woman for the second highest office in the land. The Republican Party is often viewed as a party of old white men. Now we can start changing that image. I am looking forward to putting a "Men for Palin" bumpersticker on my car.
This is a great choice that will not only stop the momentum that Sen. Obama had from his convention, but it will also put John McCain in an even better position to win in November. Lucinda covered the political calculations, so I will just revel in the excitement of the pick. What a great day to be a Republican!