Sarah!

The weekend sure brought Sarah Palin to the forefront of the news again. She gave a barnburner of a speech at the Tea party convention and then she knocked it out of he park with an interview with Fox News Sunday.

I've heard something about notes on her hand that people are making fun of. I missed that story. Maybe I don't watch enough cable news and read the Washington Post too much. But, someone please tell me what is the big deal? Has anybody seen our current president's reliance on TelePrompters? The late night hosts who mocked her last night, were themselves reading from CUE CARDS and they were no doubt reading words written by other people. (As is Obama, of course).

Sarah Palin's Resignation as Alaska Governor

I am a big fan and defender of Sarah Palin's.  I was not pushing for her to be the V-P nominee last Summer, as many conservatives successfully did.  I thought a Mitt Romney would be more conventional.  But I had seen her months before on C-SPAN and she impressed me.  And as I learned her life story, I really grew to admire her.  And once she spoke to the convention, I was blown away!  Wow!

However, her decision to leave the Alaska governorship does not please me.  I like it when our elected officials fulfill the "contract" that they signed when they sought election.  I could see her stepping down when she learned she was pregnant, or after the birth of Trig, or after she learned her 17 year old daughter was pregnant.  I think most of us would respect decisions to take care of family first.  The timing of this resignation just doesn't make the same kind of sense.  Yes, I have heard her say that Alaska deserves a governor who isn't fighting phony ethics charges all the time.  Maybe that's true.  But all politics is brutal these days.  I will agree that her family has gotten hit way too hard at a time when children of politicians should be off limits.  

We are 40 months away from the next presidential election.  That's a long time, so I wish Sarah well and we will see how things develop in the next couple of years.  I will not hold this decision against her.  Maybe it is important for some people to pick their candidates this early, but for most of us, we can wait until 2012.

More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time

Gallup Poll released today.  Check it out!

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/More-Americans-Pro-Life-Than-Pro-Choice-First-Time.aspx

The details are a lot more nuanced than the headline, but it is encouraging that most Americans still are troubled by abortion.

I have looked around the internet to see how this poll has been covered.  It's hard to judge by internet reports whether it is getting prominent coverage or not.  One of the great things about newspapers is that you can see how the editors prioritize the importance of the stories they report.  Front page means something.

As usual, Rush Limbaugh had some excellent comments today.  Limbaugh said on his May 15th radio broadcast: "See, I've always known that abortion was a 50-50 issue.  I don't think it was ever an 80-20 pro-choice majority.  It never was."  Here is a link to the transcript. 

Washington Post published my letter today!

When I got a little bit angry at Ruth Marcus' column about Sarah Palin in last Monday's Washington Post, I sat down and wrote Ms. Marcus a letter.  Then I decided I should send a version of that letter to the Letters to the Editor section.  The letter was published today -- the Sunday edition.  Cool!  Usually if I get a letter published, it will be on the Saturday Free for All page which prints 15 or so letters.  Sunday's paper only has room for about five letters, so this  was great.

Here's the link to the Post-edited version of my letter:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042502495.html 

They basically deleted my whole second paragraph, but that's okay.  I liked my original letter better, but their version effectively highlights the issue of the confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius as HHS Secretary.  So, that makes it more newsworthy rather than just a rant about abortion.

Here's the letter I originally sent:

Dear Editor:

Today's Ruth Marcus column on Sarah Palin was predictable.  The "Ah-ha -- she just said that she thought about the CHOICE of abortion!" argument.  We all have choices every day,  We can choose to obey the traffic laws or not.  We can choose to be civil and polite to others or not.  People choose to do illegal drugs.  People choose to have affairs.  Some of these things are illegal.  Some are perhaps immoral.  It doesn't take away the choices we have.

The sad thing about this column and others like it that will inevitably come out is that the authors are so timid that they cannot even dare to be so bold as to "know when life begins."  That is such a biological fallacy.  Certainly elementary biology teaches us that when sperm meets egg and cell division begins that life has begun.  Whether that life has any value is the moral and legislative question.  But certainly the biological question is answered.  The pro-choice movement deceives itself when it tries to pretend that there is no life in the objects it wishes to have the right to choose to abort.

It would have been refreshing if, instead of writing another "bash Sarah" column, Ms. Marcus could have considered the work of Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller and his enthusiastic support for our next Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.  Why was he giving her so much campaign money over the last ten  years?  What does it say about her that she is so supportive of the pro-choice movement that she cannot even draw a line in the sand that says life has begun by 28 - 36 weeks after conception?

John B. Ramsey