Area leaders: Palin brings ‘new energy’
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By Ray Reed
Published: September 3, 2008
The mood was totally positive about Sarah Palin’s vice presidential candidacy at a Republican National Convention watch party in Lynchburg on Wednesday night.
“She means new energy for the Republican Party,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th District, sponsor of the gathering.
Roughly 100 party volunteers and supporters filtered through the watch party in downtown Lynchburg, but only 30 stayed to watch Palin’s first speech since presidential candidate John McCain surprised most of the nation Friday by choosing the Alaska governor as his running mate.
The hard-core group had its own cheering section: Lynchburg council members Jeff Helgeson and Scott Garrett applauded loudly at several of Palin’s comments, including one about serving on the City Council of Wasilla, Alaska.
“Since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves,” Palin said, drawing shouts of “yeah” and handclaps from Helgeson and Garrett.
Others in the Lynchburg crowd praised the strategy behind Palin’s nomination.
“I’m very energized by Sen. McCain’s choice,” said Don Sloan of Lynchburg. “I was very concerned he was going to pick someone that would abandon the religious base” of the party, Sloan said.
Palin, however, has proven as governor that she is “against the good-old-boy club that too many in Washington” have joined, Sloan said. Palin represents a new direction, he said.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama “talks about change but he’s one of the most consistent insiders in Washington. He’s not talking about change at all,” Sloan said.
Lynchburg Sheriff Ron Gillispie said he wanted to hear what Palin had to say.
“I think there’s a lot of support here for her,” Gillispie said. “I just want to hear from her lips what she’s all about.”
Lance Ridpath of Concord said he, too, was excited about having Palin on the party’s ticket.
“I have yet to meet anyone who calls himself a conservative who isn’t fired up about having Palin be the pick,” Ridpath said.
News coverage about Palin’s family, including her teenage daughter’s pregnancy, didn’t sway Ridpath. The Palin family confirmed their daughter, Bristol, 17, is five months pregnant and plans to marry.
“If that’s the worst thing they can say about her, she is in really good shape,” Ridpath said.
Dave Thurman, of Lynchburg, said he hoped the media would leave Palin’s family out of the news.
“That’s over the edge,” Thurman said. “I don’t think it benefits Republicans or Democrats to criticize teenagers.”
Bill Worley, also of Lynchburg, said teenagers face enough pressure without the eyes of the nation focused on them.
“But with the whole media on her shoulders wanting to rip her up, that borders on being wicked,” Worley said.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 05, 2008 at 8:40 am
LUV2BAMORON!!OBAMA;;outstanding ivy league graduate,,CONSTUTIONAL LAW proffessor and author,,sorry but you dont do all that if you are lacking in LEADERSHIP,,and you dont rise to the top if you dont already have the ability to manage your environment ,,and those around you,,lets see mcbush rode the ADMIRIAL SHIP ,,pullin rids the gas guzzling super-size tanker to work..and if you had any military experience about your self,,you would know that our MILITARY command center,,waits for no president,,when it comes to the self defence of the CONSITUTION,,it acks then it notifies the W/H,,LIBYA??have you heard of KADAFE,,i,m more worried that pullin will be SERVICING MACHORE who just loves his “"beauty queen BIMBO”“ at 3 am !!and we all know to FORGET about that 3pm call,,MAC,VAN,WINKLE will be A,SLLIPPIN..PLEASE get your head out of your BUTT !!
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Posted by ( luv2bliberal ) on September 05, 2008 at 7:37 am
Marie,
Please. Paper thin resume?
As a mayor she got more votes for her than Biden did in Iowa running for president.
A mayor is like a community organizer except you have responsibilities.
Obama voted “present” 106 times while in the IL senate. I may be wrong, but I don’t think he will be able to do that when he gets the 3 a.m. phone call. He will have to make a decision. Is he capable?
Alaska is about the same size in population as Delaware.
Palin drives to work, Biden rides the taxpayer subsidized train, McCain rides the short bus, Obama rides in a chauffered limo.
Palin is the only one of the 4 candidates that has executive experience.
Other than having a dual citizenship in America and Kenya, what “foreign policy” experience does Obama have? His one trip to Iraq?
Biden may very well tear up Palin in the debates. The “agent of change” chose a VP that has been in DC since Palin was 8. 35 years in DC. Change. Yeah.
Please. Put the kool-aid down.
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 04, 2008 at 8:15 pm
lets see where to start,,i guess with the stock market,,after palin speech,,it fell 344 points ,,one of the sharpest drops in awhile!!her speech came across to me like the past horrfic 8 years of record defecit of 10 trillion, wages down,outsourcing,,another 12 million illegals,,tons more drugs comming in,more in poverty,,higher unemployment,,133 bank failures,fannie/freddie failures,,bears stern failure,,all charged to the next president and us the taxpayers,,and of course less money for our schools roads and 2 wars,,and of course this bulldog with lipstick ,,never mention any of this or how to fix it or even what her platform would be,,except of course blame it all on the DEMOCRATS,,where she got that from i have no clue,,cause the only power the demo had in these past 8 yrs is 2 years in the congress,,and all they got out of republican bush was a new presidential VETO record!!i guess the republics are still in the land of OZ !!,,AND ALL YOU HERE IS DRILL BABY DRILL,heck bush just lifted the exec.order his father put on the books TO NOT DRILL was just lifted before recess,,and whats the rush,,all the experts have said all there is ,,,is but 3 % of the nations need,,and yrs before hitting the markets,,again they r in the land of OZ,,oh they did have to keep panning the family members,,to show how horrfic that poor newborn must have been going through with the sounds of a rock concert,,yes family first,,well we got to at least see the boyfriend,,and his nerviousness as i,m sure any guy would feel with that shotgun in your back,,and the SS tellin you all the stories of cuba,,and did you see MISS BUDWISER,,my girl went to VANITY FAIR,,to see what they had to say,,and this is what they said about cindy,,a 3,000.00$$ dress,,sorry the name of it is way to long to write,,a 4,500.00$ watch,,3 carat diamond ear rings,,4 strand pearl neckless 25,000$$,,600$ shoes..for a grand total of 300,000.00$$,,thats what being in the 1% tax bracket will get you,,while the middle/lower bracket pay an average of 23 %,,at least in ENGLAND the QUEEN,S jewels belong to the state..well lets see what mccain has to say,,,if the news and advance has a piece on him,,i swear i,ll be fair and do a report on that one too.good-nite
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 04, 2008 at 5:30 pm
THANKS A LOT MBATTEN !!,,she cant answer the phone at 3 am,,and we all know that MAC-VANWINKLE cant answer it at 3 pm,,(his nap time),,now i cant sleep !!
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Posted by ( Marie Batten ) on September 04, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Biden will make fishbait out of Palin in the debate(s) as well he should after her scripted mean spirited comments last night…As to her paper thin resume, her support for the bridge to no where until she found out the money wasnt coming; then her flipflop. What is this about her having foreign policy experience because she lives next door to Russia? The entire state of Alaska has the population of a medium size city but her executive experience there is supposed to outweigh Obama’s experience in the Senate. For sure she doesnt have a confidence problem…I wish she and her lovely family tons of best wishes but under no set of circumstances does she need to be responsible for picking up a phone in the White House at 3 AM….
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 04, 2008 at 3:30 pm
,,ok everybody,,i,ve got the stake,,the hammer,,and the HOLY WATER,,were is her coffin !!
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Posted by ( looksee ) on September 04, 2008 at 12:54 pm
McCain is a coward, he had to choose a woman to do his dirty work, and she did it quite well! The problem now is that Joe Biden will have to carefully construct his words for HER, he has to be delicate because SHE is a WOMAN, ooooooo don’t hurt the little beauty queen, well i say stick it to her, no holds barred!
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Posted by ( LifeLongLburger ) on September 04, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I find it particularly hypocritical that our local Republicans contend that there should be no mention of Gov. Palin’s pregnant, unmarried daughter, claiming that the daughter should be off-limits – even though her mother continually puts her and the father of her baby in the spotlight. If Obama had a 17 year old pregnant daughter these same local Republicans would be blaming it on the lack of God in the public schools, the presence of sex education in the schools, the lack of family values, and poor home training. They would be screaming that the Democrats are destroying the moral fabric of our society, and that Obama can’t be trusted be the moral leader of our country if he can’t even control his family. At our local Republican college, LU, if two students have sex out of wedlock they are kicked out of school. But with Gov. Palin’s daughter it is merely a mistake!? The mistake was the kids didn’t use birth control; they were WRONG to have premarital sex and I am still waiting for a Republican to say it: they were wrong. How many unwed mothers are at LU or LCA? These are the people who always lay claim to the moral high ground, to want to control our moral compass, where is their moral outrage now? What pathetic hypocrites they are. Until this week, I was a McCain supporter. Now I am looking at Bob Barr, or worse, for the first time in my life, not voting. The party that I thought stood for morality and honor is actually nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites and windbags who will do whatever it takes to win an election, including turning their back on everything they have been fighting for the past 30 years.
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 04, 2008 at 11:44 am
luv2bliberal,,they cant put hillary in jail,,her next stop is the SUPREME COURT,,man where have u been !!magazines,,again,,hun,,what martha stuwart your new hottie ??lol
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 04, 2008 at 11:41 am
littlejim,,inexperience,,lol,,if you can run your household,,balance a check book ,,thats all you need,,heck bush got us oweing 10 trillion dollars,,and he just wrote a check to georgia for a billion $$$ to pay for russia bombing,,and macbush co-sign it,,,,so thats the worse kind of experience you can have ,,right ??just keep the same old same o,,
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