I was listening to Sarah Palin on TV today during McCain and Palin’s visit to Ohio..oops, I mean Iowa.  In it she shared that John McCain had been talking with her about some of the responsibilities that she would have as Vice President.  I’m sure there will be more things revealed over time, but here is what she shared today (nice to hear some specifics, by the way!)

• Help lead the mission of energy security.  She shared how the cost of energy is affecting many aspects of our economy from the price of food, living (up)  and paycheck (down).   Her experience in Alaska will help in the area of providing energy within our borders.  It is now a matter of National Security, we need American resources provided by American ingenuity and produced by American workers!
• Reforming Government - making government more transparent, more accountable, more acceptable for those who want to  serve.  Will recruit the best people to run agencies, regardless of party affiliation or Washington experience. As Alaska’s governor she put Alaska’s checkbook online so people could see where money was going, will bring that kind of transparency to Washington.
• Funding for students with Special Needs - she shares that this is an issue that touches her heart, starting 13 years ago with the birth of a nephew with autism, and then of course the birth of her own precious special needs child in April, their son, Trig.  (Personally, as a sister to a special needs brother who is now in his 40’s, I am especially attuned to this need, after spending several years researching what was out there, and learning what was needed to make sure that my dear brother was placed in the best group home setting available where we live…and he was this past June.)  She is going to make sure that government is working on behalf of special needs families.

These are just a few things she shared, I look forward to more of this, actual things that are going to be done, from all of the candidates.

No, I noticed, have been taking a break from blogging over the weekend.  But I didn’t miss the fact that McCain had more viewers of his comparatively humble but powerful acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.  Yes, it was a great night for Obama when he spoke, a great show, I really enjoyed it and as I have shared, commend him on his accomplishment as far as being the first black American to run for President, but the winds have shifted a bit as far as who is in the lead in the race to the White House.

Obama is a wonderful man, but he is out-experienced by McCain, and it is going to show in the days to come. More on that another time, here is John McCain’s acceptance speech in 5 parts. No, he is not the power speaker Obama is, or Sarah Palin is, but he has a LOT of content:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

According to the Nielsen ratings, approximately 37 million viewers watched Sarah Palin’s speech last night, not quite as many as Obama’s speech, but very close for someone who is running for Vice President, not President.  Wow!

I’m curious to see how this is going to affect the polls, aren’t you?

Waiting on McCain’s speech tonight…

Here’s the woman that everyone was waiting to hear from telling it like it is in her own words. I am going to find the speeches by Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee and will add them later.

Wow, what a speech!  I am speechless!  I am in awe.  Literally, I don’t know what to say.  I will be back to add Sarah’s speech in case you missed it, and to give credit to the person who gets speeches up on YouTube faster than anyone I know.

Sarah spoke clearly, with poise, never cowering under all the attacks she has received in the press, and clearly showed her experience and that she is the right person to stand beside John McCain when THEY BECOME President and Vice President of the United States.

History has been made again this week as Sarah Palin is the first female Republican Vice President to ever be nominated.

Wonderful, brilliant evening…and Fox News, I did watch it on your station, your still my favorite in spite of my earlier post.

The attacks are out of control, and I hope an embarrassment to the Democratic party, as I can’t imagine they are coming from Obama’s campaign, at least I hope not.  If it is true that when you’re on the right side of things you can expect attacks, Sarah Palin must be on target!  But I am disgusted, how childish have people become?

I understand that John McCain and his campaign are very upset by all of this and have the following plans:

• A memo addressing the outrageous questions and false reports
• Ad coming out in her defense at around noon today.
• Press conference with female supporters of Sarah Palin.
• Press conference with Joe Leiberman and Eric Cantor, I believe, who will call on Barack Obama to condemn comments by Obama’s Florida spokesman that say Sarah Palin was a Nazi sympathizer.
• There is also a website that has been put up in her defense…I didn’t catch the URL but will post it when I have it….and there’s more to come in the days ahead.

Despite all of this, I think we have a Nation that is looking forward to hearing what she has to share tonight at the Republican National Convention.

This is new in the news, at least to me.  Sarah has an unmarried daughter who is pregnant, she will be marrying the father of the child. This is all that I know, but I’m sure more will come out in the days to come.

As a mother who raised a daughter, though she didn’t get pregnant before marriage, it is something all mothers think about, so I can understand how this must be affecting the family.  This is something that can happen to anyone, a private issue brought public by the fact that Palin is a Vice Presidential candidate.  I hope we can watch and see the positive way this is handled, and not destroy the life of this precious daughter through media bashing.  The challenges in life refine a person… this is another event in the life of Sarah Palin and her family that will bring understanding toward others who have experienced the same thing.

God bless this precious new life that is going to come into this world, and the family.

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Update later today…I have to admit I’m a little embarrassed that I even put a post like this on my site, adding to the many who are mentioning this issue…I do want to add in the Palin Family statement that was made later in the day, and then say no more:

“We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents…she knows she has our unconditional love and support.  Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child…we ask the media to respect our daughter and levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”