First off, congratulations to me: As subscribers to my blog (http://www.currentevents1.today.com) know, I selected Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s running mate on Tuesday, 3 days before the announcement. While the other pundits weretouting Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge and Joe Lieberman (?)—Drudge didn’t even include her name in his on-line poll–some of us were thinking more strategically. I imagine I will soon be rolling in consulting and advising offers.

Secondly, congratulations to Senator McCain for his wise and bold choice. Sarah Palin is a potent compliment to McCain: She has experience, personality, and youth. Palin has the Chief Executive experience that Senator Obama does not; she is a Washington outsider, which Joe Biden is not; and she has never plagiarized, which Biden has (twice, actually) (“Biden Withdraws Bid for President In Wake of Furor”). What does it say about someone who picks a known intellectual thief to be his second in command? Weren’t there any other qualified Democrats who didn’t try to crib their life story from a British Labor Leader? (Biden’s Debate Finale: An Echo From Abroad)

Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton—which is a good thing. In a Newsweek interview, Palin said that Hillary’s ‘whining’ about the treatment she (Clinton) received during the Democratic Primaries does not help women in politics. Palin also does not carry any of the Clinton baggage—specifically, the old steamer trunk named Bill; neither does she share Clinton’s love for larger and invasive government. Since becoming Governor, Palin has cut pork barrel spending by her fellow Alaskan Republicans, including the funding for the “Bridge to Nowhere”– a $398 million bridge to connect one of Alaska’s outer islands. “”We will continue to look for options (…) to allow better access to the island,”…”The concentration is not going to be on a $400 million bridge.”” (‘Bridge to nowhere’ abandoned ).

Palin also supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge as a solution to our current dependency on foreign oil. She told Weekly Standard writer Stephen F. Hayes (To Drill, or Not to Drill) ““One of the pieces of a solution is allowing exploration on that little 2,000 acre plot of land out of the 20 million acres up there in the coastal plain.” The 2,000 acres that Palin refers to is the area that a drilling site would require–”smaller than the size of LAX,” as she puts it. “With new technology and directional drilling and other measures that can be taken today to minimize even that footprint. We know that this can be done safely and this can be managed well.””

However, Sarah Palin is hardly in the pockets of Big Oil. Less than a year after taking office, Palin told the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission that the petroleum profits tax wasn’t ‘working as promised’ (Palin oil tax gets cold shoulder), and levied higher taxes on the industry. The result? This year every resident of Alaska will receive a $1200 check from the oil industry.

How did Team Obama welcome Palin into the race? The first Obama campaign statement: “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” Pot meet kettle. As far as I can tell, Obama lacks any foreign policy unless we count his recent rock-star like world tour (t-shirts soon to be available). Hillary Clinton said Obama’s foreign policy experience was a little more than a speech he gave. Joe Biden said, in reference to Obama’s experience “I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” (Biden on Obama)

Palin is Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard. Obama is an absentee senator. Palin led an ethics committee and forced members of her own party to resign. Obama sat on a board with his friend and known terrorist William Ayers. When Palin was mayor, she reduced her salary and cut resident property taxes by 60 percent. Obama was never a mayor, but he did buy a house next to major campaign donor and indicted slum lord Tony Rezko (8 things you need to know about Obama and Rezko.)

The ironic thing about that statement is that neither Obama or Biden have any Chief Executive experience at any level of government. I know some Obama fans will say, that the statement came from Obama’s campaign, not the Senator. Obama and Biden did make a very gracious statement to Palin a couple of hours later. Of course, the implication then is that either Obama cannot control his team or Obama does not know what his team is doing. Either way, it brings Obama’s leadership skills into question.

As I said in my prophetic blog post: “Conservatives [will] love her because she attends church regularly, is pro-life, and is a lifetime member of the NRA. Centrist Republicans and Democrats will appreciate that, while she doesn’t support same-sex marriage, she is concerned with gay and lesbian discrimination and signed a same-sex benefits act into law (something the previous administration refused to do). Women who feel jilted by the Democrat party, and Obama’s [business as usual] VP choice, should see her as the Republican answer to Hillary: a tough-minded woman ready to lead.” (McCain-Palin, A Winning Ticket)

I am still not sold on McCain as president; his selection of Palin for veep makes this election not only historic, but the most exciting elections in my lifetime.