Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are joining forces and telling President Barack Obama to do his job and secure our borders. Check out their new ad. See also the statement on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page. Money quote: “We’re all Arizonans now and we say with clear unity: ‘Mr. President, do your job. Secure our border.’”
Jan Brewer succeeded Janet Napolitano to become the 22nd governor of Arizona when Napolitano was appointed Secretary of Homeland Security in 2009. Prior to her service as governor, Brewer served a term and a half as Arizona Secretary of State. She served for thirteen years in the Arizona State Legislature, three years as a state representative and ten years as a state senator. She served as chairwoman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for six years, steering Maricopa County through a serious fiscal crisis and earning the county the reputation of being “one of the two best managed large counties in the nation,” according to Governing Magazine.
Gov. Brewer already has more experience in government than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Sarah Palin had in 2008. She has more executive experience than any of the candidates on either of the 2008 presidential tickets. Gov. Brewer will have recently turned 68 years old on November 6, 2012. I think you know where I’m going with this.
But why Gov. Jan Brewer for President in 2012, you ask? Two reasons. She is one of the most conservative governors in the nation, lining up with conservative principles across the board. She can unite fiscal/economic, social, and foreign policy/national security conservatives along with common sense independents in the grand Reagan coalition and she can energize the entire Republican base. That’s point number one. Point number two is that she has already demonstrated that she can take on the Obama political machine — and she can win.
Consider it. The Obama administration and leftist forces nationwide have mobilized to oppose Arizona’s immigration law, boycott Arizona, and ultimately, you can be sure, try to defeat Gov. Brewer’s reelection efforts this November. That’s what the left is trying to do, but the American people don’t seem to be down for that. According to a recent Pew poll, just 25%, 1/4 of Americans approve of President Obama’s handling of illegal immigration. Contrast that with the 59%, nearly 2/3 of Americans who approve of Arizona’s new illegal immigration legislation.
President Obama and the united left lost this battle before it even really got off the ground. Gov. Brewer has won. Why wouldn’t we want that kind of passion, that kind of winning strength of conviction at the top of our ticket in 2012? Do you really think milquetoast candidates like Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty can go after Obama so aggressively? If so, why aren’t they?
It’s not just that Gov. Brewer has demonstrated she can win political battles against the national left, though. Turns out she is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. She’s cut over $1 billion from the Arizona state budget and set Arizona back on the path to fiscal solid ground after Napolitano’s big spending. There are 10% fewer public employees in Arizona than when Brewer took office.
She’s even shown the courage to take on popular entitlements, ending Arizona’s version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), KidsCare, because the state simply couldn’t afford it. Jan Brewer has the intestinal fortitude to take on desperately needed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reform, and to sign a repeal of ObamaCare. In fact, she has already committed Arizona to joining the legal fight against ObamaCare when the Arizona Attorney General, Democrat Terry Goddard, refused to do so.
Across the board, Jan Brewer is the kind of common sense conservative we need to present a clear and unequivocal contrast to Barack Obama in 2012.
Barack Obama wants to sign card check into law. Jan Brewer signed a right to work executive order.
Barack Obama has quadrupled the national deficit. Jan Brewer cut more than $1 billion from the Arizona budget.
Barack Obama wants amnesty. Jan Brewer wants secure borders, and has acted in her capacity as chief executive of her border state to crack down on illegal immigration as the federal government, led by Barack Obama, continually refuses to do so.
Barack Obama was too politically correct to celebrate the National Day of Prayer. Jan Brewer blocked state employees from censoring Christmas and Hanukkah. She scrapped the “Holiday Tree” and reinstated the Christmas Tree. She threw out those “candlesticks” and brought back the menorah.
Barack Obama hates the Second Amendment. Jan Brewer has expanded the right to carry in Arizona.
Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion president in history and has, for the first time, achieved the liberal dream of federal funding for abortion through ObamaCare. Jan Brewer has signed legislation to prohibit partial birth abortion, require parental consent for minors seeking abortions, mandate that women seeking abortions are well informed and must wait 24 hours before making a decision, and require doctors to perform surgical abortions.
Barack Obama loves taxes and may even be willing to institute a new, value-added tax (VAT) that would cripple the economy and perpetuate big government spending. Jan Brewer proposed a budget plan that would have cut the state property tax as well as corporate and personal income taxes.
The differences are abundantly clear, and that’s the kind of contrast we’re going to desperately need if we’re going to beat Barack Obama in 2012. We need a candidate like Jan Brewer who doesn’t just talk the conservative talk, but actually walks the conservative walk. We need a candidate that Americans can trust to clean up the mess created by the left. We need a candidate who can criticize and promise to repeal ObamaCare without, for example, the media pointing out that he signed legislation almost identical to ObamaCare into law when he was a state governor.
And let’s not forget the most delicious point: If Brewer were to win the Republican nomination and beat Barack Obama in 2012, Obama will have engineered his own defeat. It was Obama who appointed Janet Napolitano to Homeland Security, where she has done an abysmal job of keeping Americans safe. He got a Homeland Security Secretary who can’t do her job and who only drags the administration down. But we should thank Barry. He gave Arizona a new, tough, brilliant Republican governor, and he may have given us the candidate who will give him a pink slip on behalf of the American people in 2012. Barack Obama is responsible for the rise of Jan Brewer.
In 2012, we need a common sense conservative candidate who can present a clear contrast to Obama and his big government, socialist agenda. We need a common sense conservative who can take on the Obama machine and win. We need Jan Brewer.
Cross-posted to From the Rust Belt.
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
UPDATE
Nate Nelson (Diary) Sunday, May 16th at 10:15PM EST (link)Video of the Brewer-Palin press conference, via Conservatives4Palin, is here and here.
What we really need is for Jan Brewer to
mbecker908 (Diary) Sunday, May 16th at 11:36PM EST (link)retire and play with her grand children. Or her dogs. Or do anything but be Governor of Arizona.
She signed two bills, one dealing with immigration and one dealing with ethnic studies, neither of which she a thing to do with drafting and she’s become your hero.
You need to do some basic research Sparky because you’re making a complete fool of yourself.
Jan Brewer was Secty of State when Janet moved to DC. We don’t have a LtGov in AZ, the SoS moves up. As with every other SoS who’s taken the job Jan Brewer is totally unqualified for the Governor’s job. She is in so far over her empty head it’s pathetic. The SoS job is a fairly simple administrative manager’s function, there is no requirement for political acumen or leadership. There is no requirement to be able to deal with legislature. It’s a paper shuffler’s paradise. She was OK at it.
Since moving up, she has been the image of Arnie at the head of our state. Arizona has the second worst budget problem in the US, just behind CA. All Brewer has done, with the REAL problems facing the state, is push – with help from the Republican Leadership in the Legislature – for tax increases. The education budget is a total disaster and she “fixed” that with a one shot of TARP money. She hasn’t “proposed” anything like a tax cut, those were all fronted by freshman members of the Legislature and she was appalled.
Brewer couldn’t lead a tweaker to ten pounds of crystal meth.
Frankly, the biggest problem we’ve got in the Governor’s race is that she’s got three opponents. If she had one it would be a slam dunk in the primary, she’d get tossed out on her a$$. As it is, she may squeak by in the primary. She might well get beaten by Terry Goddard, our current Dem AG, in the general.
Hmm...
Nate Nelson (Diary) Sunday, May 16th at 11:59PM EST (link)The Wall Street Journal disagrees with you on the tax matter.
Given that you were so blatantly wrong on Brewer’s record on taxes, I see no reason to trust the rest of your assessment of her job performance either — especially since it flies in the face of the research I did before writing this post.
And don’t call me Sparky.
Oh, Boy. Sparky, I'm Not Gonna Feel Sorry For You For What's About To Come... (nt)
IJB Monday, May 17th at 12:32AM EST (link)You're just too
mbecker908 (Diary) Monday, May 17th at 8:23AM EST (link)freaking dumb to bother with.
Prior to SB 1070 / Brewer a Nobody
kuksool (Diary) Monday, May 17th at 3:41PM EST (link)Jan Brewer was vulnerable to being primaried by Dean Martin. However, since signing the anti-illegal immigrant bill, Brewer look like the favorite in the GOp primary. Brewer has an even chance with Terry Goodard. Even if Brewer loses the general election, she’ll be a hero to conservatives.
The post is factually inaccurate and comments are correct
positiveenerg (Diary) Tuesday, June 1st at 8:28AM EST (link)Brewer refused to significantly cut spending. The Legislature repeatedly passed spending cuts that the Governor even agreed to accept. She repeatedly (and dishonorably) refused to accept them.
The Governor had never advocated for the immigration bill or ever wanted it on her desk. She was forced into that position by the Legislature. She was left with sign it or lose your reelection. So she signed it. Hardly makes her a hero. And she has failed to give credit to people like Russell Pearce and Ron Gould and Pamela Gorman who sponsored the bill and have pushed for this bill (and other tough bills addressing illegal immigration) for years.
Brewer’s ONLY issue has been insisting on the largest tax increase in Arizona history. The only issue upon which she has advocated has been support of the $3 billion tax increase on working families, rejection of meaningful spending cuts and rejection any tax cuts. She vetoed the property tax cut. She refused to accept the Speaker’s business tax cuts.