I watched Sarah Palin's speech last night. Did anyone else watch it? One of the 1st things she spoke about was her ds with downs and how she will be an advocate for special needs children. That just made me cry because I think it *will* take a parent of a special needs child to fully understand SN children. Regardless of whether you agree with her politics or not, it would be very nice to have someone in such a prominent position that 'gets it'.

Palin promised that, if elected, families with ``special- needs children'' like Trig would have ``a friend and advocate in the White House.''

When she said that line, I turned to my DH and said "I think that will make a lot of parents happy".

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Well it certainly hit home with me. I found that to be the part of the speech that touched me the most.

When she stated that line, my husband, who hasn't really liked her and didn't understand why they picked her, said, "This makes her the perfect candidate to go against Obama."

The funny thing is I don't know why people keep saying SHE is going against Obama. It's John McCain that's going against Obama. So it's really those two individuals who people need to look at the positions of. The VPs traditionally do very little except attend funerals or break a tie vote!!

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She shows a bit more of a human side than McCain. Where McCain has been accused of being out of touch with the real world, you cannot really say that about Palin and her family.

I don't think of it as just one candidate against another now - it seems to be the whole package with our media and whatnot.

And besides ... you cannot tell me the Dick Cheney just attended funerals or broke tie votes. Isn't he the one that works George W. Bush's strings?

Did you see the Saddleback "forum"? I think that McCain was MUCH more personable than Obama.

That's what liberals say. I've never heard any conservatives say that

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I think it can be tough for her. Yes, she will know the challenges of special needs and how little help there is, but she will be criticized for not dealing correctly with a more unfamiliar population base of different needs. For instance, so many are trying to do stuff for autism, but it's aimed at the children on the left end of the scale, the more profound, or those labeled autistic. There's so little talk of Asperger children, who are far at the end of the opposite side. And someone like my son, who is considered "mild" with no diagnosed learning disabilities and high IQ are left in the dust. Mild or not, he has many, many challenges and needs expensive therapies. Our state requires, through a new law, that insurance covers therapies now for autism. Problem is that there are very few therapists who will take insurance due to the discount rates the insurance imposes. Plus, we have deductibles and minimum 20% copays to worry about. Also, there's a huge waiting list to get an appt. with a Dev. Ped. In our case, we have to wait until Feb. Half the school year is gone by then!. So much needs to be fixed, but it's going to be hard to put all-encompassing programs in place, as each child can be so different.

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