Friday posts on the GOP VP here and here. In no particular order…

Palin, as a Governor, has (by definition) executive experience. Not a lot, to be sure, but anyone who’s ever run a business (or a family, for that matter) appreciates that the learning curve is very steep indeed. It doesn’t take a lot of time to figure it out and to succeed or fail. By all accounts, she has succeeded. The office and role of the executive involves, 1) juggling multiple competing priorities and, more importantly, 2) making judgment calls and living by them. It’s a very different thing from the experience of the other three (Obama, Biden and McCain) who, as Senators, basically talk for a living.

Alaska. it’s a big state. It’s the biggest state. It’s bigger than Arizona, Illinois and Delaware combined. Just the challenge of juggling the logistics of multi-hour plane flights, time zones and climates to get around, meet people and do one’s job is a major undertaking. Not a big deal, but, all other things being equal, a Governor of say, Rhode Island would have a ’smaller’ job than Ms. Palin does.

Down’s Syndrome. I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me earlier, but somewhere in the past year, presumably, Palin and her husband probably knew that the son she was carrying had it. And they chose to keep him and love him anyway. She is thus a walking, talking, living, breathing, and most importantly, loving response to something Obama has already said is “above his pay grade”, namely, deciding how precious life is and when, exactly, it begins.

Gun ownership. Outside of downtown Anchorage and its immediate suburbs perhaps, it is patently absurd, bordering on foolish, to not own a gun and know how to use it responsibly in the state of Alaska and, by all accounts, Palin owns one… possibly several. This is the root of the argument against federalizing more and more firearms regulations. The five boroughs of New York should have different standards for gun ownership than ought to apply in say, Nome or Juneau. Palin is, once again, a living, breathing example of a larger policy and why it ought to remain as it has.

Russia. They are becoming (if they ever stopped being) one of our most formidable adversaries. Georgia (the country, not the U.S. state) is just the beginning. They also support Iran. There will be a showdown. And Palin’s state is the only one that directly borders them. Back in the ’80s, in the waning days of the Cold War, a woman whose name escapes me at the moment, swam from Big Diomede to Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait (or maybe it was the other way ’round). From the U.S. to Russia. From Alaska to Russia. They’re that close. One can see Russia from Palin’s home state. Fishing grounds overlap and she’s had to deal with negotiating and maintaining good relations there. OK, it’s fishing, not nukes, but it’s nonetheless deadly serious… a far cry from managing the trash on Bethany Beach, Delaware or the boundary between Chicago and Gary, Indiana.

Eighty-percent approval ratings. Apparently, Palin has them. That’s no easy feat. For all Obama’s talk about unity, here it is in action. Palin stood up to corruption among state officials of her own party. That’s the kind of unity that’s easy to support. it’s fundamentally different from the kind that says “if only you’d drop what you stand for an come unify with our positions, we’d all be happy”. That’s fake unity. Real unity stands on principles that everyone already agrees on.

Energy + environment. Too often the debate about energy and environment has been an either-or, black-and-white discussion, e.g., “no CO2 but no nuclear either”. By contrast, Alaska has it all: hydro, wind, all varieties of hydrocarbon fuels, tides, geothermal, you name it… plus vast, beautiful spaces that ought to be preserved. It’s the world in miniature and she’s had time to think about all those factors up-close and personal, not just in briefing papers handled by aides.

Dark horse = long burn. OK, that’s cryptic. What I mean is that the MSM is probably falling all over themselves right now hopping flights to Alaska, scouring the state for stories… and dirt. Unlike Romney, Ridge or others however, where the stories were already written a year ago, it will take the MSM awhile to get a bead on her… to get organized and do what they do best: act like sheep, bleating for the liberal candidate.

Ironically, since she has only been in office a few years, they won’t have a lot to sort through. Stories will dribble out but, with 80% approval ratings, many of them will be positive. They’ll have to be. Oh sure, there will be snarky stories and comments… about a beauty queen being president, about mooseburgers and snowmobile racing and the like, but mark my words: they will backfire with ordinary folks. Hers is a story we will eat up. We in America like stories about folks who rocket to the top on talent and hard work and resilience. The benefits of having her on the ticket will show an immediate bounce, but those factors… those personal elements will also still be goosing the polls two months from now when it really counts.

This final point is a ‘meta’ one and I’ve alluded to it already above:

Question: what’s your best response when your opponent is a silver-tongued orator who, in the public’s eyes can do no wrong whenever he opens his mouth?

Answer: don’t try to beat him at his own game. Instead, just present a living, breathing example-in-action of everything he’s against and let her just be who she is.

UPDATE: More from the Anchoress here, including a great video of Palin talking rational energy policy and specifically spiking Joe Biden based on things he did in the 1970s. All of the above thoughts about meeting rhetoric with person-hood aside, she’s going to be an absolutely formidable debater.

And reading this piece, I find that I am more and more pleased that she is not another Ivy League lawyer who planned and plotted a political career, but rather a concerned and active, intelligent woman who simply followed her own interests and concerns, and walked through the doors and opportunities as they were placed before her. That’s refreshing – it is also so very “can-do American.”