An award for Sarah Palin ... a strong, independent leader

As Virginians who thrive on the words of Commonwealth native Patrick Henry to "give me liberty or give me death," Sarah Palin embodies the individuality and spiritedness that we have coarsing through our veins.

Bob at The Journey has come up with "The Dr. June McCarroll Award" to celebrate brilliance and persistance ... and he has decided who the first recipient should be.

Who is Dr. June McCarroll? As Bob writes:

After she was run off the road by a truck, [Dr. June McCarroll] came up with the idea for a dividing line to be painted down the center of roads. When she took the idea to the government, they politely ignored her. She made her point, however, by painting a center line on one mile of US 99 in Indio, California. Her invention was then impossible to ignore and became part of highway history.

So who does Bob think deserves the first-ever "Dr. June McCarroll" award?

This year's award goes to a young mother who sought to make her own community better.

In 1992 she ran for city council of Wasilla, AK, and served there until 1996 when she became mayor.

She was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and served as Ethics Commissioner from 2003 to 2004. She resigned and exposed corruption in the commission, fingering prominent members of her own party. Her credentials as a reformer clearly established, she ran for Governor in 2006 and defeated incumbent Republican Governor Murkowski in the primary. She went on to win the general election and became, at 42, Alaska's youngest Governor in history.
...
People are unnerved by her appeal to the common man and she is now routinely villified by media and entertainment 'elites.'

Bob goes on to cite Gov. Palin's current favorable opinion of 76% in a Rasmussen poll. He concludes:

Sarah Palin represents a rebirth of that Jeffersonian ideal where people from ordinary life go up to Washington to represent us and then come home! She's no Washington insider in a grey suit. She got involved in the first place because she cares.

It is with great pleasure that I nominate her to receive the first ever Dr. June McCarroll Award, given here this day, July 9, 2009.

Hear, hear!

Go to The Journey to read the entire post.