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Edited on Sat Aug-30-08 09:31 PM by redqueen
Some people might say: "Look, even though opening up ANWR has been a symbolic issue for Republicans, the oil there may only have a marginal effect on reducing overseas dependence. Why is ANWR so important and how do we know that there's actually enough oil there to really make a difference?
Because just that swath of land in that refuge alone is estimated to hold about 11 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. And those are just the areas that have been explored. That's about a year and a half worth of U.S. oil consumption and many months of natural gas. It's about a trillion dollars worth of energy. And that's—again—just that sliver of ANWR. So when we hear, "Well, maybe there isn't enough," or "Well, it's too late to drill now anyway, we should have done this five, 10 years ago," hey, I can't argue that. I say yeah, we should have done that years ago. But better to start that drilling today than wait and continue relying on foreign sources of energy. We are a nation at war and in many the reasons for war are fights over energy sources, which is nonsensical when you consider that domestically we have the supplies ready to go.
Ready to go? Really?
The Republican Party has been beset by scandals during the Bush Administration—from former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. And now Obama is not taking any campaign contributions from lobbyists. You came into office talking about clean government. How do Republicans match Obama on the anti-corruption issue?
Oh, he's very smart not to take any money from lobbyists. You know, what we have to do is really walk the walk and not just talk the talk. In my administration, lobbyists don't come into my office. And we even joked around about saying lobbyists need to wear a big L on their lapel so that everybody knows who they are, so if they're sitting there in the gallery as our lawmakers are taking votes, we know some of that influence may be sitting there in the background.
There needs to be awareness that lobbyists have great influence, sometimes not good influence, on votes and on policy making, and in order to walk the walk, what I have done is just make that personal choice to not engage with the lobbyists. If a firm or a community wants to talk to me about an issue, they need to figure out how to do that themselves. If a city comes to my office and they need a new high school built or they need a water plant repaired, their mayor, their city council, whomever, need to come talk to me. Convince me. Don't send a lobbyist. And again, going back to Obama, he's been smart in trying to prove that he will not be unduly influenced, but I also believe McCain, who has been such a maverick, recognizes that Americans are sick and tired of politics as usual and of the corruption and of the undue influence. And McCain is not going to put up with it, either.
Does she not READ? :rofl:
And sorry to those sick of the subject, but...
What will your role be at the upcoming convention?
I'm doing a pro-life speech. Four months ago, my fifth child was born with Down syndrome…so I value innocent life. It took many months for me to get my arms around the idea of, first, having a fifth child at my age, but also knowing that my child would have an extra chromosome. But I prayed the whole time, "God, just prepare me, prepare my heart and prepare my family." And talk about confirmation of that prayer, I mean, Trig is just—he is to me—absolutely perfect. And everybody's in love with him, and he's the sweetest little baby in the world.
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