McCain's VP pick: Sarah Palin - energy governor!

Energy is one of the two industries in Alaska. Your ordinary Alaskan walking around on the street knows more about oil companies, oil production and environmental issues (remember Valdez) than just about anyone in Washington who does not specialize in the subject. A big chunk of income for all Alaskans comes from oil revenue.

Palin has specialized in energy, first heading the state board in charge of oil concerns and then as Governor - a governor that got a $30 billion with a pipeline to carry natural gas to Canada through, one that Alaska has been trying to build for 30 or so years.


More on energy from Sarah Palin:

What, on a real practical level here, the GOP has got to do, though, between now and the election, is to convince Americans that it is our energy policy that is best for our nation and the nation's future, that if we are to become energy independent and if we are to become a more secure nation then we had better start supplying our very, very hungry markets across the nation with American supplies of energy. And up here in Alaska we're sitting on billions of barrels of oil. We're sitting on hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas onshore and offshore. And it seems to be only the Republicans who understand that companies should be competing for the right to tap those resources, and get that energy source flowing into these hungry markets so that we will be less reliant on foreign sources of energy. In a volatile world, relying on foreign regimes that are not friendly to Americans, asking them to ramp up resource production for our benefit, that's nonsensical.

The GOP agenda to ramp up domestic supplies of energy is the only way that we are going to become energy independent, the only way that we are going to become a more secure nation. And I say this, of course, knowing the situation we are in right now — at war, not knowing what the plan is to ever end the war we are engaged in, understanding that Americans are seeking solutions and are seeking resolution in this war effort. So energy supplies and being able to produce and supply domestically is going to be a big part of that. And the GOP agenda is the right agenda in that respect, but the GOP is going to have to prove to Americans in following weeks that we can safely, responsibly and ethically develop these resources. That, of course, has been a problem for the GOP. And a problem up here in Alaska. We have state lawmakers serving time in prison right now... other lawmakers whom the FBI is probing right now... because they have been found, some, to be corrupt in oil and gas issues, having taken bribes. That does not bode well for the GOP. And that's gotta change.

With her selection she reminds us that the American political system was set up by our founders to be run by ordinary citizens who aren't necessarily professional politicians.