despite having written two biographies before actually doing anything.

That’s an unfair characterization of President Obama (Allah bless him). He had already acheived his only real qualifications for the presidency long before either book.

After all, he was BORN African-American and telegenic, and he learned to read aloud in the first grade.

Thank you,

- JP

…

McCain won because he had the best strategy (relatively) in a weak field. Romney and Huckabee were not ready for prime time. Fred never got going. And even then, McCain was only able to win the smallest of pluralities in New Hampshire and Florida.

I also hope we do better next time, but it’s ours to make or break, not the drive-bys.

you didn’t save any of the salmon for me.

here is what you do…walk away from the computer take a couple of deep breaths and think about something nice like how good that Salmon was until you read this post

While it is true that Palin has a lot on her plate as full-time governor and also as someone genuinely involved with her family, the bottom line is that she has to put the effort in to upgrading her understanding of a variety of issues if she is to win the next time around. All do-able. She just needs to assemble the coterie of advisors and spend the time. Having listened to a lot of the debates – and particularly listened when the topics were ones I knew a lot about – the reality is that all the candidates were fairly superficial on most issues. Not really all that hard a target to beat.

Of course I am a bit biased….;^)

Jaded

11 of 11, Governor Palin is the 11th Governor of the State of Alaska out of 11 sense the state gained statehood, you really should try to read a bit so you seem a little less clueless.

Rod

The problem I think Art, SteveAK myself and others have is the question of is Governor Palin a full service conservative?

There is no question on the pro-life issue, but there are many unanswered questions on the economy, the military, foreign policy and a host of other issues. Governor Palin has not spoken or written on these issues, and I would not expect a Governor from Alaska to have a long record on these topics, but these other conservative issues are also important.

I’d argue that we had Tom Delay and a bunch of R’s in Congress this decade who might have been fine on the social issues, but were terrible on spending, the economy and all the rest. To win elections at the national level I beleive that any politician has to be a full service conservative with a record to back up the talk with the walk. For Governor Palin, the record is not there right now, but as I have said before she has plenty of time to establish herself as a full service conservative. It’s up to the Governor to establish conservative credentials in the “other” areas.

but she has to be a leader, not a manipulator or a consensus builder. A leader has to know how to manipulate and build a consensus, but neither can be his/her hallmark. I can think of several women here in the AK Republican Party who have been superb leaders and organizers but to date have either decided not to go beyond working in the Party or who decided they’d had enough at some point below Governor.

Nancy Usera was Gov. Hickel’s Commissioner of Administration and later his COS – and my boss. She came to government with the usual Republican cluelessness and paranoia, but worked at learning how it works and at getting the trust and respect of the career bureaucrats. A huge proportion of the seminal case law in public employee relations was established during her tenure and in the face of vehement opposition from the unions, opposition that was personal and often threatening. In an Administration that often was very, very “drifty,” she was a rock and people did what Nancy said they should do. After Hickel, though, she went back to the private sector and has never really ventured into government again. Senator Lyda Green was a great senator and an effective Senate President in very, very troubled times. She knew her business and didn’t lack for courage. Her battles with Gov. Palin caused her to not seek re-election and she has essentially dropped out of public life. Sen. Drew Pierce, former Sen. Finance Chair and also my boss for a session was Pres. Bush’s Alaska issues liason and a very effective effective Legislator in dealing with a Democrat Governor. Drew knew her business and could call BS on Executive Branch “experts” who specialize in blowing smoke up Legislators. With the change of administration, I don’t know what she’s doingbut she’s pretty much invisible here. Paulette Simpson is the Republican chair for Juneau’s Capital City Republican Women, The Ladies in Red. Paulette won’t run for office because her husband is a very successful attorney and Alaska’s ethics laws would require her to disclose all sorts of things about his practice. She is a formidable organizer and strategeryist. Paulette doesn’t run for office but she’s real good at making it possible for other people to win office. Juneau’s District 4 was the only Republican pick up in the last election.

What distinguishes all of them is simple competence; they worked hard to know the business well enough to be the best at it. Alll of them were secure enough to surround themselves with people who knew the business and they weren’t afraid to have people around them that knew more than they did. I was a very wonkish technician and Nancy Usera was a politician and my boss and we used to fight like an old married couple. There were plenty of meetings that went to the yelling stage and some that even went to the yelling down the hall stage, but she was fine with it, respected my opinion and I respected her; she might sometimes not do the “right thing” for political reasons, but she never didn’t do the right thing because she was a chicken or didn’t know better.

Those are just some that come quickly to mind in Alaska politics and I chose them because I know them and they’ve “made it.” There is a whole cohort in the wings that certainly have the potential to join them or supplant them. I’m sure there is a similar cohort in every Red state and even in some of the Blue states where there remains a viable Republican Party. None of them are perfect and all have their moments that you wish they’d done something else, but these are some I can point to that got to and were able to be successful in very high places by dint of hard work and unquestioned competence. To my mind that competence stuff is the key to leadership. If you’re not competent, you can still get to high places by guile and deal-making but you won’t be a leader. People will tolerate and more or less obey you, but they won’t follow you unless ordered. And when they get a chance to follow any viable alternative leader, you quickly become a memory.

Governor Palin still has some time to demonstrate that fundamental competence. She hasn’t done so yet.

to teenage mothers were horrible. Teenage mothers are more vulnerable than anyone else. It’s almost impossible to find a job in a big city as a teen. The dems were right to criticize him over that, unfortunately they have crazy solutions too. . I don’t understand why we don’t have good republican leadership when it comes to these kinds of family and poverty issues.

McCain (Megan) for President, Jeanine Garafolo for VP, sh eis at least as stuoid as Biden. Running Megan will save a ton on printing costs.

“Not One Red Dime for the NRSC or NRCC till they stop trying to elect liberals”

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