A List Starts to Form
McCain met Palin once, and spoke to her over the phone once.
Palin is involved in a scandal in her office and is under investigation. Apparently she wanted a state trooper who messily divorced her sister fired; when the official in charge would respond to pressure from her and other family members, she fired him. Results of the investigation are due to be released just before the November elections. Video report. Update: she replaced the guy she fired with one who had just been sacked for sexual harassment, and the guy she put in lasted only two weeks. Palin gave him a $10,000 severance package. Way to save taxpayer money.
Palin wants creationism taught in public science classes.
As mayor of Wasilla, she shocked a librarian: “Palin asked her outright if she could live with censorship of library books.”
A few weeks ago, Palin voiced support for Obama’s energy plan, with the only variations being “more oil” and “don’t tax oil companies.” Hmm.
Just what we need: another VP in the pocket of big oil.
Palin one month ago: VP position “doesn’t seem productive,” she had no idea of what a VP does. (video)
Palin doesn’t know “what the plan is to ever end the war that we’re engaged in.”
Palin was a Buchanan supporter when he ran for president. (Irony: Buchanan was gushing so much about how great Obama’s speech was, they had to cut him off for time. Video.)
Palin doesn’t believe that global warming is man-made.
“Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla — that amounts to $3,000 per resident. She argues that the debt was needed to fund improvements.” Spiffy.
Her executive experience isn’t much to talk about. She signed into law Alaska’s biggest budget ever, while cutting construction jobs. So she’s a budget exploder and job cutter. Of course, Alaska’s $6.6 billion budget is about on par with some big American cities. It’s less the executive experience of a governor and more the executive experience of the Mayor of Chicago. For one and a half years.
Karl Rove agrees: picking someone who was mayor of a small town and then governor for only 3 years is a bad choice. Rove was talking about Tim Kaine, but everything he says applies much more to Sarah Palin.
She was for it before she was against it: Palin’s getting props for opposing the “bridge to nowhere,” but only took that stand after it was obvious it would never happen. Before then, she approved of the bridge, and even went as far as to say that porkbarrel money was coming to Alaska too slowly. Also in the false props department: she vetoed a ban on gay benefits–but only because it was unconstitutional.
McCain married a former rodeo beauty queen (whom he later suggested would make a great “Miss Buffalo Chip”), and now has nominated another former beauty queen as his VP pick. What’s with McCain and beauty queens?
Resentful-Also-Rans Update: Palin to Hillary supporters: Hillary’s a whiner. Suggestions of female Hillary supporters laughing at McCain for his choice. Some are even scared. Cafferty (one of CNN’s few remaining watchable commentators) suggests that opinion is weighted heavily against Palin. In fact, the choice of Palin may have backlash as supporters of Romney and Pawlenty “feel manipulated.”
Women may also not be impressed that she’s leaving her four-month-old Down’s baby for more than two months so she can campaign. Or that she is alternately dragging him across the country. But maybe not as turned off by that as they would be that Palin is not just pro-life, but opposes exceptions rape, incest, or for the life of the mother. So she thinks that if a 12-year-old girl is raped and impregnated by her father, and then her fetus turns out to be non-viable and will die upon delivery, the girl cannot get an abortion even if she could die in delivery as well. Nice!
Palin’s web site is scrubbed as a Ted Stevens ad is removed–and then her whole site (http://www.palinforgovernor.com/) is quickly changed to redirect to John McCain’s.
“As governor, Palin vetoed wind power and clean coal projects, including a 50-megawatt wind farm on Fire Island and a clean coal facility in Healy that had been mired in a dispute between local and state governments.”
Opposed McCain on drilling in ANWR, and that may be why she didn’t support him in the primaries.
And finally, Republicans are scrambling to find out positive things to say about her. One of them is that Obama won’t be able to make fun of her because she’s a dedicated mom, and won’t be able to criticize her inexperience because of his own. Here’s what they don’t get: Obama doesn’t have to do any of that. Comedians will. And they already are.
This is just after a few hours of oppo research. Yikes.
Man, I wish I was back in the United States for the next few months – just to watch Saturday Night Live. McCain’s given them alot to work with. I can imagine some parodies on my own: McCain walking up to a podium, with the aid of a walker, and Palin in a cheerleaders outfit. Howabout Cheney showing Palin around the V.P. mansion where she will be in charge of controlling the CIA and the Pentagon. And that’s just me.
Now, I actually think that one reason McCain picked her was to mock Obama’s youth and inexperience – because Republican’s want to put the two on the same plain: In their 40s, short on experience, etc….
But Obama did go to Columbia and Harvard. Obama did teach at the University of Chicago – three institutions that would never allow a light weight near them. Obama did exercise some executive experience as a community developer, and most significantly he engineered the overthrow of the Clinton machine in the Democratic party, via something like 15 debates, without hurting unity. Also Obama has a strong track record of good judgment.
Really, for me, this is a frightening choice on McCain’s part.
We’re going to absolutely kill her. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the Republicans backtrack and wind up with someone else as the VP nominee. They’ll make something up, of course, but are they seriously going to try to pull this off?
Of course, they made it work with Quayle.
Thanks for the list!
Tim: see if you can get a torrent of SNL when it comes on; it should be popular. I’m just worried that they’re going to go on as if the “media loves Obama” myth is true and portray him that way. True parodies on true weaknesses would be great, of course.
Also, let’s remember that Obama got into those institutions of his own accord, despite his upbringing instead of it, all on his own through actual achievement. Bush Jr. did get into Harvard and Yale through family connections, after all–in other words, under an “rich man’s quota.”
Paul: Yeah, but remember that Quayle didn’t help Bush, and actually hurt him. Bush didn’t get elected because of Quayle, but because of Dukakis and his “Snoopy” photo op. That, and he was the VP coming off of Reagan’s coattails. And the Rovian-style racist smears, of course. There’s a very different dynamic at play here; McCain can’t afford a Quayle. One debate with a “You’re No Jack Kennedy,” and McCain will get hurt big-time.