Give Sarah Palin a Break

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We're already tired of the grumbling on some conservative websites over Sarah Palin's announcement Wednesday that she will campaign for her former GOP running mate. Anyone who thinks Sarah Palin should not campaign for John McCain now, but were excited to see her chosen by him and to campaign with him in 2008 is a hypocrite.

By their logic, if she's wrong to campaign for him now, then she was wrong to campaign for him then and shouldn't have accepted his offer to be the first woman to be nominated by the Republican Party for vice president. So give Sarah Palin a break. Had she turned McCain down, she might likely still be a mostly obscure governor of a remote state. Her approval ratings in Alaska would probably still be quite high. But the cause of conservatism here in the lower 48 would be all the poorer for the lack of her presence on the national stage.  Barack Obama and his Democrat allies, however, would be all the richer for it. The pro-life community would also be missing one of its most visible and persuasive assets. The Tea Party movement would still be on the rise, but it would be minus the most powerful voice currently speaking in the nation for the values it shares with Sarah Palin.

The Arctic Fox values loyalty above most everything else except God, family, our troops and the love of her country. Anyone who doesn't get this doesn't know a thing about Sarah Heath Palin. Are we pleased that she's campaigning for McCain? No, but that's her decision to make, and we're not going to criticize her for it. We have yet to see the politician who could please us 100 percent of the time with his or her actions.

So far, McCain has no viable announced challenger in the GOP primary in his state for reelection. Though former U.S. Congressman J.D. Hayworth's name has been tossed around as a potential opponent, Hayworth has a well-deserved reputation as a loose cannon with an even looser mouth. Despite the 60% Republican registered voter advantage in his district, Hayworth lost his bid for reelection to the House in 2006. His loss has been largely attributed to ties between himself and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted on three criminal felony counts of fraud. The same connections to Abramoff which hurt Hayworth in 2006 would still be around in 2010 should he decide to run against McCain, and that's why few analysts consider him to be a viable alternative to the senior Senator from Arizona. Don't get us wrong; we like J.D. But anyone who doesn't think that the Democrats would have a field day in the Grand Canyon State with Hayworth as the GOP candidate for Senate is in deep denial.

Does Sarah Palin's loyalty to McCain make her any less of a conservative? No, unless -- like the leftists -- you thought that she was some kind of far right winger. She is not that and never was. Just as Fred Thompson -- another political figure we have supported and for whom we continue to have respect -- is a "moderate conservative," Sarah Palin is the same populist-leaning conservative she always has been. Both Thompson and Palin are disciples of Ronald Reagan, the only conservative who has managed to get himself elected to the White House in the modern era. Yet today, some "conservatives" would not consider the great man to be positioned far enough to the right on the political x-axis to meet their standards. But much of Sarah Palin's success as a governor was grounded in her Reagan-like pragmatism, and that's just one of the qualities which bodes well for her political future.

The difference between Sarah Palin and most conservatives in the Republican Party is that she's the one with the guts to stand up to the radical leftists that are in control of the Democrat Party and all three branches of the federal government. So, from our perch here in Aggieland, we say Gig 'em, Sarah.

- JP