by Nate Nelson

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.

Sarah Palin’s 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.

Editor's Note - Nate Nelson is an Ohio Libertarian Republican activist. His blog is From the Rust Belt. Cross-posted to RedState.