O’Fallon crowd cheers McCain, Palin
O’FALLON — John McCain presented his new vice-presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to thousands of cheering Missouri supporters at a sun-drenched Sunday afternoon rally at the home of St. Charles County’s minor league baseball team.
“I have found the right partner,” the Arizona senator said at T.R. Hughes Ballpark. “She’s exactly who I need. She’s exactly what the country needs to fight the same old Washington politics.
Many in the crowd, which the campaign estimated at 23,000, seemed to agree, breaking out at one point in a chant of “Sar-uh, Sar-uh.”
McCain recounted Palin’s election as governor in 2006 and how she took on a “corrupt” political culture in her home state that had become a national disgrace. He also pointed out that Palin had vetoed “one big pork-barrel bill after another.”
“If you’re sick and tired of the way Washington operates, you need to be patient,” McCain said. “Change is coming, change is coming, change is coming.”
Palin also spoke about her record and said she had fought special interests, lobbyists, oil companies and “the good-old boy network.”
She also said she had opposed the often-criticized “bridge to nowhere” that an Alaskan in Congress had pushed for in an appropriations bill.Ron Bauwens, 58, a retired teacher from Weldon Spring, said he was impressed with McCain’s new running mate.
“The biggest thing I got out of that was Sarah. I think she can really pull it in for him.”"She’s going to be a bulldog.”
Some Democrats have attacked Palin’s experience. But Kathy Pfeffer, 56, of Fenton, said was impressed with her record of ethics reform and reducing government spending.
“She’s proven she can do it just as good as a man, if not better,” she said.
—- Michele Munz of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.
Troopergate!
This, at least, qualifies as a legitimate concern, at least legitimate enough that the state legislature has decided to investigate it. Supposedly Palin fired the commissioner of public safety because he wouldn’t fire her brother-in-law, a state trooper who had becomed estranged from Palin’s sister. Mike Wooten only got a suspension, and last month, she allegedly dismissed Walt Monegan over his handling of the case. Palin says that wasn’t the reason, the legislature noted that Monegan’s was a political appointment and he served at the pleasure of the governor, and they have also stated on the record that Palin has been so cooperative that they will not need to issue subpoenas — which hardly sounds like a cover-up.
So what did Wooten do, anyway?
Troopers eventually investigated 13 issues and found four in which Wooten violated policy or broke the law or both:
• Wooten used a Taser on his stepson.
• He illegally shot a moose.
• He drank beer in his patrol car on one occasion.
• He told others his father-in-law would “eat a f’ing lead bullet” if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce.
Excuse me, but any of these four should have been a firing offense, let alone having done all four. He Tased his stepson? He threatened to shoot Palin’s father? No wonder the Palins hired their own investigator and pressed the issue so hard. But if this was the reason Palin cashiered Monegan, why did she bother to wait eighteen months after taking office to get rid of him?