2008 Republican National Convention/Linda Lingle's Republican National Convention speech
From Wikisource
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| Delivered at the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MN on 3 September 2008. |
Good evening, and aloha.
It’s my honor to speak with you tonight about Senator McCain’s outstanding choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as our party’s Vice Presidential nominee.
As a fellow Republican governor, I have had the chance to get to know Governor Sarah Palin. She is a terrific individual, and an outstanding governor. Sarah is a person with proven leadership skills, and strong moral character. Because most Americans are just being introduced to Sarah Palin, I think it’s important to share with you a little bit about her great personal story.
Her family moved to Alaska, the last frontier, when Sarah was an infant. In high school, as captain, she led her basketball team to victory in the state championship. Two years later, she was crowned Miss Wasilla, and finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant. After college, she married her high school sweetheart, Todd, and as early evidence of Sarah’s commitment to fiscal discipline, they eloped.
Todd is a commercial fisherman, an oil-field worker, a union member, and a world-champion snowmobile racer. After twenty years of marriage, Sarah and Todd have five beautiful children and a grandchild on the way. They face the same issues that moms and dads do every single day in our country. Challenging things happen to families, and just likes yours, families pull together and get through it.
More than just having a great personal story, Sarah is a great person. She is genuine, she’s comfortable in her own skin, truly authentic. Sarah Palin will not try to reinvent herself during this campaign. Sarah has integrity and strong values; she is smart, and she is a unique combination of toughness and grace. I was at a conference with Sarah and a few other governors this past April in Dallas when, on short notice, she delivered an outstanding, comprehensive speech on energy issues, a subject she knows very well.
The same day she delivered that speech, Sarah went into labor, made the trip back to Alaska, and delivered her son Trig the next day. Did I mention that Sarah was tough?
All of these qualities contribute to making Sarah Palin a great leader. It comes naturally to her, and people naturally gravitate toward her. She engenders trust in people, and she lives up to that trust. She cut excessive spending from the multibillion-dollar state budget she oversees; she took on the establishment, challenged a corrupt political system, and enacted a strong ethics reform law.
She took on the sitting Republican governor, with whom she disagreed, and she won. In the general election, she took on a former two-term Democratic governor, and she won. Put simply, Sarah is a leader and a winner.
Like all governors, she is dealing with issues that members of Congress talk about: like health care, education, economic development, energy, and the environment. But mere words, no matter how eloquently delivered, will never replace the decisive actions of a governor that produces real results.
Before serving as governor, Sarah was the mayor of Wasilla for two terms, again defeating the incumbent. Some have tried to diminish this experience by saying that Wasilla only has ten-thousand people. This is the size of many cities all across our country. The size where everyone knows everyone, and where as mayor, you are held personally accountable for your decisions.
I find it reminiscent when I hear Democratic Party leaders and their surrogates question Sarah’s experience. They used that same tactic against me when I ran for governor. They said that being the mayor of Maui was insufficient experience to be the governor. Being a mayor, whether in Hawaii or Alaska, or anywhere else, is outstanding preparation for higher office, and the people of Alaska or Hawaii will tell you: Sarah and I are doing just fine.
I find it especially amusing that the other party says Governor Palin lacks experience when their own candidates for President and Vice President have no executive experience. Zero. Zero. Neither Senator Obama, nor Senator Biden, have ever managed a multibillion-dollar budget, or been a chief executive of any city, or state, of any size, or of anything for that matter.
As President Lyndon Johnson said: “when the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worst. I could be a mayor.” Mayors, like Sarah Palin, are CEOs. Governors, like Sarah Palin, are CEOs. That’s why I think it is so beneficial to have a governor on the ticket, and Sarah is a great choice.
Senator McCain decided to look north to the future – which is Alaska’s motto – to find a truly transformative leader. The other side has made the point that Alaska is a small state, but the last time I checked, it had the same number of electoral votes as Delaware. And not only – and not only does it have the same number of electoral votes, but you can fit more than 250 states the size of Delaware within the borders of Alaska.
Sarah has broad appeal within our party because she is a strong, social conservative, and adherent to free-market principles and a fiscal hawk. And because she has the ability to expand our numbers by reaching out to Independents, young people, and women. His decision to choose Sarah tells us a lot about Senator John McCain. It is a clear reminder that he truly is a maverick, and that he will always do the right thing for the people of America.
It underscores that Senator McCain understands what the American people have known for quite some time: Washington is broken. And Senator McCain showed his commitment to ending politics-as-usual in Washington by picking an outsider, a proven reformer, an experienced woman governor. This choice – this choice is bold, historic, and courageous. I’m glad to know Sarah Palin, and I know that when the rest of America gets to know her, they will agree with me as you agree with me: that Sarah Palin is going to be a great Vice President.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
