Sarah Palin is Ready for the Whitehouse

Sarah Palin, John McCain's campaign running mate is magnetic. Palin has impressed a lot of people, both Democrats and Republicans. I have to admit that even I, a committed democrat, was impressed when I heard her speak. It wasn't her rhetoric; I wasn't in to that, but she sounded cute when I first heard her voice over the radio. She really seemed like the real deal. She is a "hockey mom" a "Washington outsider." Or is she?

One Of Palin's most powerful attributes is her "outsider" status. The public likes that because we're tired of big politics and the "good ol' boy" network, but an article in the New Yorker sheds some doubt on the reality of Palin's outsider status.

In an article entitled "How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin" Jane Mayer describes how Palin may have had her eye on Washington long before she was picked for the ticket. Mayer writes of two Alaskan cruises sponsored by two conservative magazines which docked in Juno in 2007. Several conservative writers and Washington insiders disembarked and were invited, by Palin, to have lunch at the governor's mansion. Many of them were impressed by Palin's good looks and demeanor, and wrote of her in their columns and spoke of her on their TV And radio shows.

Of all the insiders Palin met during these luncheons, none was more influential than Dick Morris, a writer and political advisor. It was reported by many attendees that Morris advised Palin "If you want to be successful, you have to stay an outsider."

This image of the outsider has served Palin well. People like her down to earth way of speaking. But how many of those who like her could afford her recent 150 K shopping spree at Sachs and Neiman Marcus? That's more than most Americans make in an entire year!

Though Sarah Palin has lived in Alaska and been the mayor of a very small town, she has created powerful political and media connections for herself in Washington. She is young, but we're already getting a look at both of her faces, the fresh outsider, and the shrude political actress.

Sarah Palin has been ready for the white house for a long time, creating her connections with big oil, making nice with well known conservative writers, TV commentators, and political advisors, and, most importantly, cultivating and protecting that hometown girl next door, hockey mom, Washington outsider character.