ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Boisterous Belmont County supporters on Sunday told Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin their plan for U.S. energy independence.
They called for the use of East Ohio and West Virginia coal to fuel the nation, and she assured them their ideas would be included in the plans of a McCain-Palin administration.
Palin, the current governor of Alaska, addressed a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd at Brush Run Park just outside of St. Clairsville.
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Photos by Scott McCloskey
Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska addresses a rally at Brush Run Park near St. Clairsville on Sunday.
"Mine, baby, mine," the crowd chanted repeatedly - a variation on the "drill, baby, drill" call by Republicans who support off-shore drilling for oil.
"I've never heard that before," said an amused Palin of the coal chant. "Do you mind if I plagiarize that? I'm taking it across the U.S."
Palin had started by telling those present of how Republican presidential candidate John McCain and she will work to bring energy independence to the nation. She referenced wind, solar and nuclear technologies, but the crowd spoke over her.
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"Coal ... coal ... coal ... ," they chanted.
"We'll get there, I promise," Palin assured them.
Then she got to the clean coal part of her speech.
"Coal will create jobs where they are needed most - in parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania," she said. "We have more coal in this country than there is oil in Saudi Arabia.
"The question is why aren't we using it?"
She pointed to recent comments by Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, whom she said believes "there is no such thing as clean coal."
"Whether Joe Biden approves or not, John McCain and I are going to develop clean coal technologies here at home," Palin said. "Our plans for coal would create 30,000 new jobs. And trust me, those resource development jobs are good jobs."
She spoke of her husband Todd Palin, who works as an oil field production operator on Alaska's north slope.
"Those blue-collar, work-with-your-hands jobs are more what Americans should be tapping into - instead of exporting them to other countries," Palin said. "My family is the recipient of the benefits of those jobs. I want to provide them to you."
She called it "nonsense" that the U.S. president and other officials have traveled to other countries - "some countries who don't necessarily like us" - asking leaders there to increase oil production."
"We need American resources brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers," Palin said.
Palin, often accused of being "folksy," spoke at what was once the site of the country music festival Jamboree In The Hills. There were many hay bales on stage and in the space allotted for the crowd.
And Palin appeared to like the Belmont County area.
"It's absolutely breathtaking," she said. "The smell of hay ... of freshly cut grass. It's beautiful.
"St. Clairsville - where America's in bloom."
Palin noted St. Clairsville was about the size of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, where she served as mayor.
As of the 2000 census, the population of Wasilla was 5,469; in St. Clairsville, 5,057.
"I love Smalltown, USA," she said. "You guys just get it, and I do appreciate that."
She commented that she and McCain "know who the bad guys are."
"They are terrorists - those who seek to harm us," Palin noted.
She also added that among the bad guys are "those greedy, corrupt and arrogant" individuals responsible for the nation's current economic crisis.
"The good guys are you, and we will fight for you," she said. "We will put government on your side."