Sarah Palin and Carolyn Kilpatrick

I dabbled a little with the Democratic Party this summer. As many know, I was a Democratic candidate for Scio Township Treasurer.

I really think of myself as a "Democratic-Republican," which is the label that all the history books use for classic Jeffersonians. Would that we had such a party today! There would be frugality in government: only as big as it needs to be, to take care of the needs of the people that only government can address. It would champion the cause of the average, lower to middle class American (and not special interests). And, there would also be a high standard of moral excellence for our communities.

Both major parties today have a little of this on their edges, but neither has all of it.

But every now and then, we get a candidate that comes close to it. Occasionally you see a regular American make it big. A person like Harry Truman, or Abraham Lincoln, gets thrust on the national stage, and proves that regular folks like you and me run circles around the Ted Kennedys and Dick Cheneys of the world, those that act like they were born to be in center stage of American government.

So it is with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Already she is being underestimated. But when you underestimate her, you are underestimating your own neighbor, and people in your own family. History has proven over and over again, that the real heroes in America, are real people doing heroic things. When I saw Governor Palin being introduced by Senator McCain last Friday, I felt like I would if he were introducing my friends Brian Koval, John Agno, Mary Pierce, or Leigh Hook to the American people.

And this has nothing to do with pro-life, NRA, or any of that peripheral stuff. Sarah Palin is the real deal, and people know that. In the end, we want real people governing us, not these career politicians from both parties that are only out for themselves.

And we all know that this is what John McCain has been about, his entire professional life. He has taken on people in his own party. He does not play games. And regardless of how much you agree with him on individual issues, isn't this what people keep wishing for in our government? Shouldn't the character of the man, or woman, trump their views on silly little side issues that will never get resolved in our time?

And now the McCain-Palin ticket has changed priorities to put the people of New Orleans ahead of themselves. Michael Moore may have been more correct than he thought, in his foolish quip that there "must be a God in Heaven," to bring a disastrous hurricane down in the middle of the Republican convention! Yes, Mr. Moore, this disaster will provide an opportunity for McCain-Palin to show what they're all about, in the worst of times. Shame on you for your foolish humor.

And shame on Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick, who just this past week, has provided an example of the partisan nonsense that has got to stop. She, more than anyone, is the contrast, of the political partisan versus the people-first ethics of McCain-Palin.

In a church memorial last week, for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died tragically and suddenly a few weeks ago, Congresswoman Kilpatrick used the event (attended by Republicans as well as Democrats) as a campaign stump for the Obama campaign. She said that, if you want to honor "my sister," then you must work even harder to put Senator Obama in the White House.

Your "sister" is dead, Congresswoman! Even in death, can you find nothing more important than advancing your own career and those of your partisan friends? Shame on you! Death, and disasters, and hurricanes, are times for us to come together, drop the labels, work on common goals, and make progress.

Compare that to the non-partisan response of McCain-Palin, to Hurricane Gustav.

Meanwhile, the Congresswoman might clean up the mess in her own house, and family, before pontificating about building the "Kingdom of God" by electing democrats. I'm pretty sure that the Kingdom of God does not have leaders lying, cheating on spouses, and misusing public resources for selfish ends. Shame on you, Congresswoman! Shame!

The two major parties in the US are actually not the Republicans and the Democrats. They are actually the Politicians and the Non-Politicians. Congresswoman Kilpatrick is from the "Politician Class," that really does not want the rules changed. She knows that, the more Democrats there are in power, the more power (and money, and prestige) she will have. And the Republicans are mostly the same.

But this time we have the good fortune of being able to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket. Real people, like you and me, that are not consumed with some Clintonian life-goal of becoming President.