Colorado blogger saw Palin's star quality first

By Ed Sealover, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 29, 2008 at 11:45 p.m.

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Photo by Carol Lawrence / The Gazette

Coloradan Adam Brickley, with his mother on the family farm in Peyton, may have kicked off Gov. Sarah Palin's shot at VP.

If Sarah Palin makes it into the history books, look for Coloradan Adam Brickley's name in the footnotes.

Wanting to find the Republican answer to Barack Obama's star quality, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs student began researching GOP officials nationwide on the Internet in early 2007.

After reading about Palin's fights against government corruption, the Peyton resident knew his search was over and registered www.palinforvp.blog spot.com.

Interest grew steadily, and by the time it was clear that John McCain would capture the Republican nomination and need a second-in-charge, the site was getting 2,000 hits a day. By this week, that number rose to 5,000.

After McCain tapped Palin as his running mate on Friday, the hits exceeded 350,000.

Palin was only three months into her term as governor of Alaska when Brickley launched the Web site - a step he said started a movement among party insiders to nominate her.

After McCain stunned the political world Friday by picking Palin, Brickley, who graduated in May from UCCS, was contacted by national media and scheduled for interviews on four television shows.

The one person that Brickley has not heard from, however, is Palin.

Brickley said they have never met nor has he ever set foot in Alaska. Yet, he may have contributed significantly to her political future.

"I started the blog. But I think the movement my site touched off probably got her the coverage she needed to make (McCain's) short list," Brickley said.

The political junkie said he's also gotten an increasing number of e-mails from former Hillary Clinton backers looking for an alternative to Obama. Despite statements from party leaders that Democratic women won't flock to the pro-life Palin, Brickley said he's seen enough evidence to disagree.

After his star-making weekend finishes, the 21-year-old will go back to his internship with Washington, D.C., conservative Web site townhall.com. Brickley said he has no long-term plans but would like to stay in the nation's capital.

If Palin becomes America's first female vice president, she might need a staffer with an eye for talent.

sealovere@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438

Views of Sarah Palin from Colorado politicians

* "There's one thing we ladies admire, and that is a strong woman . . . Conservatives love her. There's just a buzz in the air today."

- U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan

* "Certainly she draws (suburban women) in more than another old white guy would."

- Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs

* "I admire people who are in real life who they say they are when you put them under the spotlight . . . I was going to vote for John McCain because he wasn't Barack Obama. Now I'm going to vote for John McCain because I'm excited about his vice presidential pick."

- U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, lauding Palin's pro-life credentials

* "I think it's an outstanding and gutsy choice. She's a young governor of Alaska who has already demonstrated she's not afraid to take tough stands on fiscal responsibility and developing Alaska's energy resources, and I think she will stand in stark contrast to the Washington insider Joe Biden."

- Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams

* "She adds so much to the ticket in real-life, real-world experience. She's a mother, she's an executive, she's been on commissions, she's given to her community in the PTA."

- House Minority Caucus Chairwoman Amy Stephens, R-Monument

* "I think it shows that McCain is as feisty as he ever was and he's going to do the right thing . . . It's bold and it's exciting and it bodes well for a McCain presidency."

- State Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Golden

* "The Republicans have made what may have been the single biggest piece of bad judgment in the history of presidential politics. McCain had said this campaign was about experience and Obama had said it was about judgment. John McCain abandoned the experience argument and showed that he has no judgment."

- Colorado Democratic Party Vice Chairman Dan Slater

* "I think in many ways this selection may backfire on the McCain campaign. It'll make women mad that the McCain campaign would be so cynical as to think that by picking somebody who is so obviously unqualified, that women would vote for her simply because of her gender."

- U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver

• August 31, 2008

  8:26 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  HopiMedicineMan writes:

  Colorado had some frontier mavericks, Ken Chlouber and Mike Strang. We need to nourish men like these and women like Sarah Palin and dump the Andover and Harvard guys. Another tough independent-minded character who smoked four packs a day, survived eight heart attacks, whose parents couldn't afford college, so he enrolled in West Point, was bare knuckle boxer Dwight Eisenhower.

• September 1, 2008

  11:25 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  50something writes:

  Without revealing your hypocracy, DeGette, can you tell us just how you made it to where you are?

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