How about that Palin?  Though you won’t see it on CNN’s website, she drew a crowd of 60,000 to a small retirement community north of Orlando this weekend.  That’s a six with four zeros behind it.  Didn’t Obama draw 85,000 when he accepted the nomination in front of a pseudo-Greek temple?  Read the article here.

We have a close friend who is an Obama supporter.  He has met Obama a few times and supports him mainly because he is different.  He is most definitely not “more of the same” we have seen in Washington over the last fifty years or so.  I just personally don’t agree with him on many subjects.  But I do appreciate that he is a new player in the ballpark.

Anyway, our friend doesn’t like Biden because he’s “old guard.”  But he doesn’t like  Palin, either.  She’s “wacked-out,” according to our friend.  I fear that he has that view of her because of how fiendishly the media has tried to discredit her at every turn.

(did I mention how sick I am of lies in politics?)

In particular, this friend had read somewhere out there in the never-wrong cyberspace that Palin is against the use of contraceptives.  This is a false rumor, just like the internet rumor that Obama is a Muslim-in-Christian-clothing.  In fact, Palin said in a gubernatorial debate that she does support educating kids about condoms alongside abstinence-only education.   An article in the Anchorage Daily News outlined her views and those of her opponents on social issues from abortion to marijuana to gay marriage.  She is clearly pro-life but is also pro-contraceptive; she doesn’t think marijuana should be legalized, and she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.

One of the biggest plus signs for me about Palin is her willingness to confront corruption and her record of service.  She has a servant heart — it is evident in her speeches and in her interviews.  It is clear who she works for — you and me — not special interests.  I recently read her biography and came away from it doubly impressed at what change one person can make simply by taking a stand.

Sarah Palin was chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission in 2003 and was in charge of ethics.  When it came to her attention that the Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner, Randy Ruedrich, who was also chairman of the Republican Party in Alaska, worked on party business during his work time for the state, she called him on it.  It also came to her attention that he was using powerpoint promotional slides to try to convince locals to go along with a gas firm’s plan to drill gas wells — the slides he was using came directly from the firm that he was supposed to be regulating.  As a state employee charged with regulating the gas industry, he instead was using their own propaganda in an effort to get them more business.

Palin tried to report him, but because of the party politics, her complaints went ignored.  Palin placed such a high value on being accountable to the public that she could not let this corruption stand under her watch. So she did the unthinkable: she resigned her paid position, and then she filed a formal complaint against Ruedrich for his questionable activities on state time.  As a result of her formal public complaint, Reudrich resigned and paid a $12,000 fine.

This did not bode well for Palin as far as party politics go.  Because she went against party leadership, Palin’s name was MUD to the good-old-boys in the Republican Party network.  When she launched her campaign for governor, the talk radio hosts went wild, and so did the people.  The Republican Party establishment was so furious with Palin that when she won the Republican nomination for governor, they did not provide Palin campaign signs.  Palin’s signs were hand-made.

These petty tactics did not put this bulldog in lipstick off, however.  And she did not pander to voters.  She did not tell voters on one side of the state one thing and then say something else in a different venue (as Obama did earlier in the campaign when speaking about the bitter middle class that clings to guns and religion).  When she met with a fisherman’s trade group and heard their viewpoint, she flat out told them that she disagreed with them.  She said she knew that telling them so might make them vote for the other guy, but she had to be honest.  She said she disagreed with them, but she promised she would listen to them.  The next day, this trade group called up the campaign office and asked for a huge Palin sign to display because they believed her promise — at least she would be the one who would listen.

I admire Palin’s tenacity in going after the corrupt people who were in power.  There is so much corruption in Washington at the moment…lawmakers are in kahoots not with the voters who put them in power, but with special interest groups who wine them and dine them and give them off the record gifts.  Taxpayer money is being misused and misapplied and thrown away right and left.

Although Obama seeks to change Washington, I’m not sure he has what it takes to really clean that house.  I haven’t seen him challenge corruption head-on.  I’ve not seen him — as I’ve seen Palin and McCain — buck the party line and the party leadership in order to stand up for honesty, integrity, and for their beliefs.

For those of you who are sick of Bush, I submit to you that McCain and Palin are not cookie cutter Republicans.  The Republican party itself is changing and is embracing issues that it has strayed from in recent years but which it held fast to when it was originally started to nominate Abraham Lincoln: freedom, concern for the less fortunate, ethics, and truth.

With all the news stories about failed celebrity marriages, CEOs running away will millions and millions while stockholders are left holding an empty bag, people defaulting on home loans to such a huge extent that our entire economy is teetering on the brink of another depression, world leaders resigning  amid charges of corruption…it is nice to fall back into the Word of God, away from the blaring headlines, back to the throne of grace:

Psalm 94
1 O LORD, the God who avenges,
O God who avenges, shine forth.

2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.

3 How long will the wicked, O LORD,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?

4 They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.

5 They crush your people, O LORD;
they oppress your inheritance.

6 They slay the widow and the alien;
they murder the fatherless.

7 They say, “The LORD does not see;
the God of Jacob pays no heed.”

8 Take heed, you senseless ones among the people;
you fools, when will you become wise?

9 Does he who implanted the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?

10 Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
Does he who teaches man lack knowledge?

11 The LORD knows the thoughts of man;
he knows that they are futile.

12 Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD,
the man you teach from your law;

13 you grant him relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.

14 For the LORD will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.

15 Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.

16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?

17 Unless the LORD had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
your love, O LORD, supported me.

19 When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul.

20 Can a corrupt throne be allied with you—
one that brings on misery by its decrees?

21 They band together against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.

22 But the LORD has become my fortress,
and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.

23 He will repay them for their sins
and destroy them for their wickedness;
the LORD our God will destroy them.

Sixty thousand supporters braving 95 degree sweltering heat to hear a 25 minute speech by Palin is nothing.  As more and more people hear the true message of her leadership and her stand for truthful, ethical government, I hope they’ll be storming the polls in her support.