Never mind all that tawdry family-related stuff (and there’s plenty of that) about Sarah Palin, or that she’s stunningly ignorant about American history, or that she never had a passport until last year, would it surprise you in the least that it turns out the pork-fighting ultra-conservative is a hypocritical phony?
As reported in the Washington Post this morning, in addition to being an enthusiastic supporter of the infamous “bridge to nowhere” before she was against it, she “employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.” Some examples include: a $500,000 for a youth shelter; $450,000 to rehabilitate an agricultural processing facility; $1.9 million for a transportation hub; $900,000 for sewer repairs; and $15 million for a rail project. All of this intended for a town of less than 7,000 people — a benefit of approx. $4,000 in federal earmarks for every single resident!
Of course, had John McCain’s campaign vetted her properly instead of caving into pressure from evangelical whackaloons, he might have found all this for himself instead of reading about it in the press just prior to his nomination.
Update: More about what the Palin pick says about McCain’s judgment, this time from Dan Larison in The American Conservative: “If you want an idea of what a McCain administration would be like, imagine the last eight years and then remove whatever common sense and competence there has been and you will be close.”
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
This whole experience thing about her being a mayor makes me laugh.
I live in a small town (now 16,000). Well, it’s not even a part time job. The mayor and council meet one night a week (Tuesdays). The council is now 7 people because the town has grown in the last few years. It has gone from 10,000 to 16,000 in a short period. The mayor does not set the budget. The members of the council that are on the finance committe do – and then it goes to a vote. They do have to attend events and their committee meetings, but most are still working regular jobs except to council members that are retired.
How they think this scenario equals CEO experience beats me.
But, but… she was on the PTA before that!
“We are going to flush the toilet,”
– Tucker Eskew
Senior Adviser to Ms. Palin
Tucker was commenting on Palin’s media dump yesterday. I would have to say, the damn toilet got jammed and shit is overflowing all over the place.
Talk about a poor choice of words.
Indeed. What a soap opera this has become.
Entertaining, but also kind of sad. American politics is such a joke sometimes. You’d really think it would be approached much more seriously than this.
Whooee! It ain’t just sad. It’s downright scary. To think that someone as patently unqualified as Palin could be next in line to a 72 YO cancer patient for the most powerful position on the planet instills genuine trepidation.
If she were a man with those sort of qualifications, she wouldn’t stand a chance at being selected. McCain demonstrated what a low opinion he has of women by choosing her with the idea that she could sway Hillary voters, i.e. women. I hope I’m not proven wrong, but I really think American voters are smarter than that, even if McCain doesn’t.
JB
There’s lots about Sarah Palin that I like, and really admire.
Attitude is more important than experience. I’m personally rooting for Obama – his attitude is one I really dig, and his experience is sufficient.
Palin’s experience – Wasilla isn’t enough, and running PEI’s population with Alberta’s oil revenue is a job that *I* could do blindfolded. Her attitude is more important to me, though, and I don’t know her well enough to say how I find hers.
But all this recent news of supporting earmarks and pork barrel projects – that is what really makes me wonder and want to see more information.
I’ll be very, very excited to see a woman in the White House, though. If nothing else, there’s always that extremely bright side if McCain is the winner.
“If it was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it’s good enough for me [on the Pledge of Allegiance]” . Classic stuff!
More like, “If it was good enough for an ad campaign written by a socialist and later made “holy” after intense lobbying by a Catholic secret society, then it’s good enough for me”.
What a ditz…
Palin: “If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance”. LOL. Classic stuff!
More like, “If it was good enough for an ad campaign written by a socialist and later made “holy” after intense lobbying by a Catholic secret society, then it’s good enough for me”.
What a ditz…
I grew up in a town of approximately 6500 outside of Ottawa. We all knew the mayor(s), for better or for worse….well, mostly for worse. There is no way – absolutely no way – I would EVER want to imagine those people running the country, even if only as the Canadian equivalent of a VP. Imaging this scenario in the US, concerning some backwoods hick from small-town *Alaska* (!), brings this issue to the level of comic-book ludicrous.
I don’t think McCain was set up well to win this election regardless, so he tried two gambits: Sarah Palin and the (non) suspension of his campaign. Neither worked. Down to a few cards left he is trying to tie Obama to terrorism. Perhaps next he’ll say Obama and Biden are gay lovers that want to take away guns, ban sex and smoke crack in their free time.
Cheers,
Tom
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