North Shore pols size up Palin '

Salem News

By Alan Burke
Staff writer

Barbara Anderson was walking on air yesterday after Republican Sen. John McCain made the surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the November election for president.

"I cannot stop smiling," Anderson said. "I cannot stop laughing. I've been smiling for the last three hours. It doesn't get any better than this."

As the anti-tax activist who brought the state Proposition 2 1/2, Anderson has maintained political independence, working with Republicans and Democrats. This year, however, she supported the GOP's Mitt Romney for president.

Even so, she expressed no regrets over McCain's decision to bypass Romney.

"Today, I am a Republican," Anderson said. "I'm so proud of (McCain) for taking a chance and doing something exciting."

She referenced the Hillary Clinton supporters who watched their candidate, potentially the first woman president, squeezed out by Democratic nominee Barack Obama and then rejected as his running mate.

"This is right in the Democrats' face," she said. "My next-door neighbor — a Hillary supporter — brought me over some tomatoes, and she's excited, too."

Anderson said, "(Hillary) has got to be laughing her tail off."

"I think it's a gamble," Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry said. "But very shrewd."

Conservatives will be cheered by the pick. Palin, a mother of five, recently carried a baby with Down syndrome to term.

"She really does believe in pro-life," Berry said.

Yet, that very commitment could be a double-edged sword. Disaffected Clinton voters face the likelihood that if Palin were ever to become president, she would appoint judges opposed to a pro-choice interpretation of the Constitution. Thus, Berry believes, they will vote for Obama in the end.

"If you're a woman," Berry said, "and you're pro-choice, you'd rather have anything than more judges that would vote against it."

Pointing to Palin's other pluses — her union-member husband and a son due to serve in Iraq — Berry also pinpointed her apparent major weakness. "She doesn't have oodles of experience." Palin is serving her second year as governor.

Peabody City Councilor Anne Manning is precisely the sort of voter the Palin pick might have been aimed at.

Manning supported Hillary Clinton and still believes "she was certainly mistreated by the press."

On the other hand, Manning rejects the notion that voting should be determined by gender.

"I will have to research this candidate," she said.

Nevertheless, she sees one sure benefit to McCain's choice. "It's certainly going to be an exciting and interesting campaign. ... This certainly stirs things up a little bit."

Gordon College professor Nate Baxter, currently teaching a course in civic discourse, compares Palin's introduction to the arrival of Dan Quayle, the relatively unknown senator chosen as vice presidential candidate by the first President George Bush in 1988.

Quayle was quickly discredited, "framed" as a bumbler, he said. With Palin, Baxter asked, "What's the frame going to be?" Her first impression could be crucial.

Appearance could be a factor in this for the former beauty contest competitor. But will her look be acceptable to voters?

"You don't think of world leaders as sexy," Baxter said.

Similarly, she is a product of a unique Alaskan culture, an athlete and fisherman, familiar with toughing it out in an unforgiving region.

"I'm just curious to see how this unfolds," Baxter said.

Palin's fishing background heartens Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester. He expects to find a kindred spirit to our region's fishermen.

"I don't know a lot about the governor," he said. "But so far I'm pleased with the choice."

Tarr also turns questions about Palin's experience against Obama. "She has 100 percent more executive experience than the Democratic nominee for president." (Obama's government experience has been as a legislator.)

"She seems to have a strong record of fiscal conservatism," Tarr said.

Marblehead Republican John Blaisdell will be on the ticket with Palin in November as a candidate for state representative, challenging incumbent Lori Ehrlich.

"My initial reaction is very positive," he said. "She strikes me as a great person and a great candidate to run with John McCain."

Attracted by Palin's commitment to conservative principles, Blaisdell said, "The fact that she's a mum with five children and has made all these accomplishments besides is a definite plus for the Republican Party."

 

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