Sarah Palin’s commanding speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday evening vividly showed why John McCain put her on the ticket – Palin is a fighter with a set to her jaw. She will be the perfect spear carrier to take on the business-as-usual time servers in DC and take them down.

But let no one be mistaken — the environmental policies of John McCain’s administration will be set by John McCain, not by Palin. If McCain had wanted a wonky vice president as a top policy adviser, he likely would have chosen someone else, perhaps his pal Joe Lieberman. McCain knows his mind on the big environmental issues he will have to deal with as president, including those where he and his new understudy have different views.

On climate change, McCain has spent the better part of seven years developing expertise, holding hearings, cajoling his colleagues, and dragging them to the ends of the earth to build support for a cap-and-trade bill, which will be one of his administration’s top priorities.

On the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, McCain wants America’s largest wildlife preserve left undisturbed. He kept the usual call for immediate drilling in the refuge out of the GOP platform.

No, McCain has far better uses for the talents of the extraordinary woman who rocked the RNC. If McCain wins in November, he will bring a reforming whirlwind with him to DC, where the go-along, get-along crew will rue the day that they underestimated the hockey mom from Wasilla.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 9:36 am and is filed under Politics, Energy/Environment, Campaign, Presidential Campaign .