Sarah Palin!

A fresh breeze blew in from the north. It came from Alaska. Is this oxygen at last? Can we now be free of the coils and calculations of Machievelli and Alinsky?

Sarah Palin is a brand new face. I immediately was taken with her can-do attitude and spirit. She's fun, funny, and down to earth. Elitism is not her style.

Her breadth of knowledge of the issues surrounding energy production is impressive. Her willingness to clean up Alaska's corrupt government, including members of her own Republican Party, is totally refreshing, even astonishing given the corruption to which we have become accustomed in the lower 48.

She is naturally enrolling and doesn't need a teleprompter to make a good impression. She is funny, charming and straight forward. She doesn't weave, dodge, hedge nor artfully straddle the fence. There is no mask. This is the source of the oxygen.

Listening to her I found myself laughing - that joyous laughter of the unexpected. My first thought? Thank God!

She actually used the word capitalism. She wants it, depends on it for the State of Alaska.

She is married to a "sloper," a person who goes to the North Slope to work for an oil company for a week at a time and then comes home for a week. She has five children, one of which has Down's Syndrome and is not in this picture.


McCain refreshed the political landscape and I find myself hungry to learn more about this candidate - the one with loads of vitality.