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"And we need a President who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade. The man who will be that President is John McCain."
     Former Sen.Fred Thompson, speaking last night at the Republican National Convention.

"Sarah Palin is the ultimate All-American Girl, beautiful but not glamorous, powerful but unpretentious, high-powered but down-to-earth, a reformer who speaks up while others cower in fear of rocking the boat. Like Ronald Reagan, she can reach right through the television camera into people's minds and hearts. We recognize one of us."
     Thomas Lifson, realclearpolitics.com

"[I]t's always, though, safer in politics to avoid risk, to just kind of go along with the status quo. But I didn't get into government to do the safe and easy things. A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not why the ship is built."
     Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

"And the press rampage has only just begun."
     Jack Shafer, Slate.com

Talk about "rallying the base." The first response to my Tuesday blog came in literally moments after it was posted. (See http://nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Sept08/nv090208.html).

The deluge continued throughout the day and into the morning, as one deliriously happy reader after another wrote me about pro-life Gov. Sarah Palin. It made for great reading!

At first I thought they were less angry than I was at the ghastly race-to-the-bottom treatment of Palin.

Then after reading dozens and dozens of correspondences, it occurred to me that they had placed their fury at the media assault on Palin on hold. It was far more important to express their admiration at her guts, conviction, and grace under fire.

As we prepare to hear Palin speak tonight, let me touch on five points in anticipation of what I expect to be a glorious introduction to the American people.

#1. The contrast between Palin's response to a real-life unplanned pregnancy--that of her 17-year-old daughter--and that of pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama makes crystal-clear the core difference on abortion.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned," they wrote. "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents." Palin and her husband, Todd, acknowledged the difficulties that await Bristol and the young man she will marry but understand that the right choice is life.

Contrast that with Sen. Obama's remarks at a town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, March 29. As I wrote at the time, I saw it as a turning point. "Up until that day, Obama, a down-the-line pro-abortionist, had been able to keep the larger public from focusing on his out-of-the mainstream abortion views."

So what are those views? "Look, I've got two daughters--9 years old and 6 years old. I'm going to teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

Can you imagine anyone else matter of factly [and publicly] favorably contemplating the abortion of their own grandchild? What a guy.

#2. The high-powered, low-road attack on Palin guarantees that abortion will be a prominent issue in the 2008 campaign. Pro-abortionists tell themselves and their colleagues in the "mainstream media" that the staunch pro-life views of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Palin will hurt the Republican ticket.

Well, we'll see, won't we? I predict with utter confidence that their stance on abortion will redound big time to the advantage of McCain and Palin.

#3. The "enthusiasm" gap, talked about joyously by Obama's gaggle of admirers in the media, clearly existed prior to McCain's selection of Palin, according to all the surveys. Most of that gap vanished overnight, as did the "bounce" that Obama enjoyed following the Democratic National Convention.

Politics is about a lot of things, but it begins with passion. Gov. Palin's nomination has energized the coalition that Sen. McCain needs.

#4. Why, oh why, has the media--and particularly many female correspondents--gone bonkers over the selection of Palin? What tripwire did she step through that triggered vindictiveness and hostility they made little attempt to hide?

There is a saying in Washington, D.C., that administrations come and go but the bureaucracy endures forever. Such is also the self-image of the Media Establishment. Mere politicians come to the nation's capital for four or eight years, but the real keepers of the flame are the big newspapers and the electronic media.

Sarah Palin is not only not one of them, she and her family are as far from the Media Elite as the East is from the West. As many have pointed out, Palin offers an alternative paradigm for women in the modern world--pro-life, pro-family, rock-solid. This alone would be reason enough for MSNBC and CNN to stone her.

#5. Compounding their determination to exile Palin into political oblivion is the Media Establishment's utter contempt for Middle America. Not a new or novel insight, to be sure, but a fact that has come to the surface in a way never seen before.

Put all these components together and the picture that emerges is of a media that is obsessed with trying to destroy Palin but with two unanticipated consequences.

First, pro-lifers universally recognize that the Palins' beliefs on life are synonymous with ours and that they have lived out those beliefs. None will ever forget that Sarah and Todd Palin are standing foursquare with Bristol or that when Gov. Palin learned that her unborn baby would have Down syndrome, the family closed ranks behind their seventh member.

Second, the rampant elitism and sexism that is driving the vicious assault on Gov. Palin and her entire family will come back to haunt not only the media itself but also their must-win-at-all-costs candidate, Barack Obama.

Americans believe in fairness above all else and there has nothing fair about the treatment of Gov. Sarah Palin.