John McCain in the spotlight: Can he outshine Sarah Palin?

With his pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain unquestionably shored up his standing with the Republican base -- any doubt about that was removed by the unbridled enthusiasm she sparked among GOP conventioneers Wednesday night.

Now, McCain faces a new challenge: Delivering a nomination acceptance speech this evening that generates as much buzz as Palin's did.

He will benefit from low expectations; traditional oratory never has been his forte. And the set at the convention hall in St.Paul  is being redesigned to simulate the town-hall milieu in which he is more comfortable.

McCain takes center stage shortly after 10 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. PDT), following the showing of a video about him.

Here's the list of other speakers for the conclave's last night:

8 p.m. EDT: Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

9 p.m. EDT: Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (one of McCain's best buddies).

9:30 p.m. EDT: Former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, Cindy McCain.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[Cato the Elder]

God forgot to tell soon-to-be Grandma Palin that her unwed teenage daughter was out doing the nasty with no birth control. Oh wait, Grandma wasn't using birth control either! Like mother like daughter.

What's cool is that Uncle and Nephew will be in the same class at school.

[Rodney Lamprey]

With McCain standing next to Palin, and congratulating her on an illegitimate grandchild, it made McCain look very very old and decrepit. It highlights the strong possiblity that the wacko Palin might actually become President. Instead of a solid VP choice who could stand in as President, Palin is shown to be better as a Fox News commentator: long winded partisan attacks, and short on facts. Although Palin tried to make it a joke, her proclaimed disregard for the Bill of Rights should worry everyone.

[dave]

enough about the punch-and-judy show?
how about you talk about the issues now
RON PAUL will be president?!

[Sonia Kermaz]

The question should be ,"Can McCain outspend the reckless mayor of Wasilla?"

Sarah Palin inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

She should have been community organizer instead of acting like a teenage hockey player with a credit card and lipstick.

A Wasilla resident reports that : “During her (Palin’s) mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%.

During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too.

She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No.

Voters went into debt for a $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved!

The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit- generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Palin served as Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.
These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.
As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.
In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire the highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex- husband, a State Trooper.
When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.
As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance– but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.
She is solidly Republican: no political maverick.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species."

[Alison]

Hey libs,
Obama's mom was 17 when she had him. But you'll find an excuse why that was acceptable..

McCain/Palin 08!

[wilywonker]

Palin represents a new low for women. A "pitbull in lipstick." classy

[Rob]

Thank Sonia for giving some actual information about Sarah's record as Mayor and Governor. These are the things that voters should actually care about.

and you Alison. The reason that this is an issue is the fact that Sarah Palin does not support teaching of any kind of birth control in schools except for 'abstinence only' education. This is a prime example that it is not as effective as teaching standard birth control methods. Once again it has nothing to do with her daughter and everything to do with her political positions.

[Paul]

She brings in the leadership qualities from Mayor position. She served as a governor and she did great things. Now the whole world knows Palin in 5 days.

Obama has nothing to show records like her. We could know her in 5 days. I still do not know what Obama and Biden were doing.

[henry]

She really is a pitbull in lipstick. Ugly and stupid. Do we really want trash in the white house?

[Rollie]

Sonia, your comment is really interesting. Can you cite us to the sources for this information. It is extremely important that this information gets out and, of course, the source must be available. Thanks.