More Palin

Why the hell not? It's not like there's anything interesting going on in the financial world.

I was watching The Daily Show last night, and Stewart nicely tore into Palin's record. Let's see if I can recall everything:

- Bridge to Nowhere support (already covered here)
- Over $400 Million in earmarks, even though she claims to be against that.
- Never went to Iraq, despite claiming she had
- Left Wasilla $20 million in debt after her run as mayor
- Made rape victims pay for the rape kits used in their investigations

Let's work backwards.

- Paying for rape kits.

See, this is a means of attack you seldom see from the Demo side. Yes, under her term as mayor, the police budget was changed to shift charges for rape kits from the police budget to the victims. Yes, this was done by the new chief of police that Palin hired after firing the old one. Yes, Palin signed off on this. Yes, she is ultimately responsible. But she didn't actually WRITE the police budget, that was the police chief. It was his call to remove that cost from their budget. It was ill-advised, short-sighted, and just plain stupid, especially from a PR standpoint. I imagine it then went through a few functionaries before landing on Palin's desk for a rubber stamp signature. Or maybe she was more involved than that (I mean, it's only a town of 7000 people, right?). But by reducing the whole thing to one sentence, it portrays her in a TERRIBLE light. Nice attack, too bad it came on a fake news cable comedy show. The Dem's need to fight a little dirty like this though to counteract the Republican crap. It's not dishonest, just lacking some details. But ultimately, she's still responsible for what is likely a single line in a budget report.

- Wasilla debt

Not sure if I can find a counterpoint to this one. She cut property and small business taxes in the town (scroll down to the part about tax cuts), but raised sales tax to fund a sports complex (which is popular, but cost the city a fair bit in a legal battle). She didn't shrink the government any, ran into legal problems with said complex, and the budget rose around $2 million over the length of her term. That $20 million is long-term debt, which puts her pretty much in line with the Bush idea of how to pay for things with money you don't have. Not exactly a die-hard fiscal conservative I suppose.

This brings up a problem I have with tax-cutters. It sounds great, but in order to cut taxes, you have to cut services and create a more efficient budget and government. Often, this second part of the equation doesn't happen. Cutting taxes in the current environment is absolute economic suicide.

But it plays well in the sticks.

- Iraq

Oh this one is kinda fun. See, she just got her passport in 2007! In her ONLY trip ever outside of North America, the campaign said she's been to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait and Iraq. Ireland turned out to be a fuelling stop. Iraq? Oh, well, she stood at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, so maybe a toe was in the country. I guess that's not technically a lie.

Once, I was stuck in O'Hare for 8 hours waiting for a flight. So I've been to Chicago. I also stopped, but didn't disembark in Pittsburgh. Ooooo.. and once I missed a connection in Hawaii, so I was in Waikiki for 24 hours. I drove through the Green Zone in Israel... well on the highway along the fence. I also did a U-Turn at the border to the West Bank because I missed the entrance to a park. Oh, and once I made a fuelling stop in Anchorage.

Yay! VP with foreign experience!

- Earmarks

Not sure about the $400 million. That probably includes the Bridge to Nowhere money. Some fairly exorbitant costs for different areas of research. Millions to study crab mating habits, or seal populations... hmm.

Then there was her ABC interview. The big point seems to be her having no clue about the Bush Doctrine. Now granted, if you'd asked me about it, I wouldn't have known a damn thing either, especially when it sounds like a very generic term. But then, I'm neither American nor a VP candidate.

What's great about Palin is that no matter how attacks on her get deflected, cleared up, or ignored, more keep coming.

Naturally, she's no longer doing any interviews due to the "attacks" by the media and the "rampant sexism" being shown to her. Except maybe with FOX News, because they're "fair and balanced" after all.

Interestingly, Stewart's guest that night was talking up a book about Cheney. I think we've forgotten something in the last 8 years - the VP is a fairly useless position. The VP is there to break ties in the Senate, and take over if the President is rendered incapable of leading. Outside of that, they do secondary political functions, gladhand with leaders, visit places the President doesn't want to go, and play around with their own pet projects. Some are advisors to the Prez, and some are relegated to dark corners where they are ignored.

And this is where Palin will end up. It doesn't matter what her policies or positions are, because if McCain wins, you won't hear a peep from her again. She'll be a pretty face that smiles and says what she's told to say. She won't have a voice, and every backroom wheeler and dealer will be terrified that McCain will croak and she'll take over.

This lipstick on a pig thing? Stupid. She called herself a pitbull with lipstick at the RNC.

She's done absolutely NOTHING to change my opinion of her as an ignorant hockey mom from a backwater state without a clue about how the world works.

And the opening to Saturday Night Live perfectly pointed out how she's nowhere NEAR a suitable choice for a Clinton vote-grabber. In fact, she's quickly become the party's biggest liability. Although she does deflect any focus on McCain's shortcomings... I can't help but think this was part of the plan.