REPLIES TO THE CURRENT QUESTION

Our question last week was:

How should Sarah Palin be used for the remainder of the campaign?

Here are your answers.  The name of a writer is included only if he or she actually placed a name at the end of the message.  Otherwise, we assume the writer wished anonymity and "name withheld" is inserted.

The fact that this question needs to be asked raises a whole lot of questions!  The answer is simple.  Get the hell out of her way.  By trying to turn her into a knowledgeable beltway maven before throwing her to the wolves, Senator McCain's handlers have fallen right into the Democrat's playbook.  She isn't and shouldn't be.  The only reason she was an asset in the first place was because she isn't one of "them".  If people are going to take a hard look at the Vice Presidential candidates before casting their votes for President then what they should see is the clear contrast between Governor Palin and Senator Biden.  The only way to demonstrate the difference is to be different, not try to look just like one of the guys.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with going on national television and say, "I don't know."  This election will be decided on character not knowledge.  We, the people of the United States, are straining at the chocks, ready to get behind any politician who places principle ahead of politics.  It appears to me that Governor Palin has both character and a set of sound fundamental principles that drive her.  Only the cynical beltway denizens in charge of the campaign would try to hide something like that and attempt to create "just another politician."

So, back to my opening salvo, Get the hell out of her way.  Unleash the hockey mom.  She'll make mistakes.  Correct them.  Her opponent, whose name is Biden not Obama as the media seems to believe, makes more mistakes an hour than she would make in a month.  The McCain camp should point this out whenever it occurs.  It will give all Governor Palin's handlers something to do instead of trying to make her into something she's not.

Don Newell

Stop over-coaching her. Let her be the Sarah Palin that is as
charming as she is ferocious. Let her make mistakes and recover from
those mistakes.

She should largely ignore Biden. He simply isn't a factor in this
campaign. Go after Obama instead. Give the press a reason to measure
her against Obama. They will do so and it works in her favor.

Tease Obama about being a community organizer. Keep that background
in the news.

Tease Obama about the role of his party and his advisors in the
current mortgage meltdown.

Talk about energy and the need to develop new sources. State that
Americans need a sound energy policy. State how developing our own
energy resources here at home are so important to get our economy
moving again and to stop funding "countries that don't like us very much."

Point out that conservation, in addition to new sources, is key to
energy independence, a healthy environment and a healthy economy.

That should do it.

Francis Drouillard
Novato, CA

For the rest of the campaign, a few battleground states where she
polls well should be selected. She should be coached and kept in
those states. She should have some of her own campaign spots
especially hitting on energy. She should take the opportunity to meet
with T. Boone Pickens and try to figure out how to increase PRIVATE
investment in energy independence.
The government cannot do it.

Scott Robinson

It's too late for the McCain campaign to employ all that Mrs. Palin might have had to offer.  Not using her wisely is mirroring the mysterious tactics McCain and his people have chosen.  Perhaps McCain's membership in that "special club" the Senate and his limited intellectual understandings (Teddy Roosevelt as a role model?) were obvious clues of his narrowness of vision and foresight.  Calling people "my friends" and not giving that line up after so many told him and his people how uncomfortable that made them feel, here too he shows a "rigidity" beyond common sense.

My take is that he has been re-living those years as a POW via energies he chooses to expend, perspectives he insists on embracing, limits he imposes on his self, and views he can't seem to shake off.

Palin needs to work for Palin, to go in directions she wants to go, to state what she wants to state, to convince others on those issues she finds important.

After this election we will have all the articles and books on how George Bush, through his "compassionate conservatism" destroyed his party along with the stupid and greedy help of other Republicians.

Sarah Palin needs to steer her own course, grateful for McCain offering her a national spotlight, but her visions are what brings the crowds, not McCain's.

Frontier Mom is the real deal.  

R. Philips
Corrales, New Mexico