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Know Sarah Palin |
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Know Sarah Palin |
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| Palin on GLOBAL WARMING | Newsmax: What is your take on global
warming and how is it affecting our country?
PALIN: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more
than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though
who would attribute it to being man-made." |
| Palin on EARMARKS | "I have championed reform to
end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress." Sarah Palin,
August 29, 2008 Associated Press During Palin's second term as mayor of Wasilla, the city hired a Washington, D.C., lobbyist, a former aide to Ted Stevens, then the ultimate rainmaker as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Before Palin left office, Wasilla got $27 million in earmarks, according to the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. Click to see Mayor Palin's handwritten note to the Wasilla City Council.
Under Palin's leadership as governor of Alaska, in
2008 the
state asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet
projects from one of McCain's top adversaries: indicted Sen. Ted Stevens.
That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress for
the current budget year. Other states got just $34 worth of local projects
per person this year, on average, according to Citizens Against Government
Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group. Alaska's earmark requests to Congress in Palin's first
year in office exceeded $550 million, more than $800 per resident.
Palin's current request to Stevens, "would still put Alaska No. 1," said
Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that tracks
earmarks closely. |
| Palin on BRIDGE to NOWHERE | "I told Congress
'thanks but no thanks' on that Bridge to Nowhere." Associated Press, August 31, 2008
This $398-million proposed bridge connecting Ketchikan (population
about 7,800) to an island that has 50 residents and an airport,
became a poster child for wasteful earmarks. Palin
consistently endorsed the bridge in 2006 when she was running for
governor. After taking office, she did formally end the project.
By then, Congress had already removed the earmark specifying that
money already allocated for the bridge be used that way. In
ending the project, Palin wrote, "We are about $329 million short of
full funding … and it's clear that Congress has little interest in
spending any more money. Much of the public's attitude toward
Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects
here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than
fight over what has happened." So, when most of the money for the bridge was from a federal earmark, Palin was for the bridge. Only after the federal money was gone and Alaska would have had to foot the whole bill, Palin was against it. |
| Palin's FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE |
Republicans have cited two foreign policy credentials for Sarah Palin: 1. Alaska is the closest state to Russia.
Asked about Palin's national security experience, Cindy McCain could not
come up with anything beyond the fact that, after all, her state is right
next to Russia. "You know, the experience that she comes from is, what she
has done in government -- and remember that Alaska is the closest part of
our continent to Russia." GIBSON: But as you know, the questions revolve really
around foreign policy experience. Can you honestly say you feel confident
having someone who hasn't traveled outside the United States until last
year, dealing with an insurgent Russia, with an Iran with nuclear
ambitions, with an unstable Pakistan, not to mention the war on terror? Yes, during Sarah Palin's tenure as governor of Alaska, not only has Alaska not been invaded by Russia, Alaska has not been invaded by Canada which actually shares a long land border with Alaska. 2. Governor Palin is the Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard. Fox News' Chris Wallace noted that McCain has criticized Obama for
lacking foreign policy experience and Palin, as a governor, has even less.
McCain insisted there was a difference. "She has got the right judgment.
She doesn't think, like Sen. Obama does, that Iran is a minor irritant. .
. She has been commander-in-chief of the Alaska Guard. . . In fact, as
you know, she has got a son who is getting ready to go" to Iraq." GIBSON: Senator, since I've been following politics,
every single presidential nominee has said that the first quality they
look for in a vice presidential pick is the capability and the readiness
to take over as president. Can you look the country straight in the eye and say Sarah Palin has
the qualities and has enough experience to be commander in chief? Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell,
adjutant general of
the Alaska National Guard,
said he and Palin play no role in
national defense activities,
even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is
under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations. Closer to home, the bread-and-butter duties of most state National
Guards are natural disasters. During Palin's 21 months in office, there
has been one declared disaster: widespread flooding in June and July this
year. Palin quickly signed a disaster declaration, officials said. The
Guard's role was limited to providing two water tanks and 30,000 sandbags
to local authorities. |
| A note about the Eagle Forum 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire... |
The Eagle Forum describes itself as a forum for conservative and pro-family men and women. Until Monday, September 1, 2008, the questionnaire was available on the Eagle Forum's web site. Web searchers who tried to access the questionnaire Tuesday afternoon got this message: "Page not found. Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog Eagle Forum Alaska does not exist." Fortunately, it is available in the Google Internet cache and is widely available on the Internet. |
| Palin on ABORTION |
This is from the Eagle Forum 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire:
1. Complete the sentence by
checking the applicable phrases (you can check more than one).
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| Palin on SEX EDUCATION |
This is from the Eagle Forum 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire:
3. Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage
education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based
clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
Sarah Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support. |
| Palin on PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE |
This is from the Eagle Forum 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire: 11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not? PALIN: "Not on your life. 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." The Pledge of Allegiance wasn't written until 1892 and the words "under God" weren't added until 1954. Ike was not one of the founding fathers. Sarah, look it up! [Wikipedia] |
| Palin on CREATIONISM | The volatile issue of teaching creation
science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race in 2006 when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be
taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms. Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006 |
| Palin on CENSORSHIP | "Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah
Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with
censoring library books should she be asked to do so.
According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would
definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the
librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her
she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not
mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the
new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully support her and had to go.
Emmons had been city librarian for seven years and was well liked.
After a wave of public support for her, Palin relented and let
Emmons keep her job." Boston Herald, August 29, 2008 |
| Palin on AERIAL HUNTING |
Sarah Palin is an enthusiastic hunter who has proposed legislation and
cash incentives to encourage aerial wolf gunning, the controversial
practice of shooting wolves from an aircraft. Do people in Alaska really
shoot wolves from planes? Yes, but only with the government's
permission. Aerial shooting yields better results than traditional
hunting, since it allows the hunter to cover a lot of ground quickly and
track target animals from a clear vantage point. Historically, hunters
also used planes to drive animals—polar bears in Alaska and elk in
Montana, among others—toward gunmen waiting on the ground. But
many hunters found the practice unsportsmanlike, since it violates the
"fair chase" ethic, and animal rights activists call it inhumane, since
airborne gunmen rarely get a clean (i.e., relatively painless) kill.
In response to concerns like these, Congress passed the Federal Airborne
Hunting Act of 1972, which made it illegal for hunters to shoot animals
from a plane or helicopter. Slate, September 2, 2008 |
| Palin on HUNTING POLAR BEARS |
"The State of Alaska will sue to challenge the
recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin
said Wednesday. She and other Alaska elected officials fear
a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear
habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts. Palin
argued there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears
are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30
years as a result of conservation, she said. Climate models that
predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears,
during summers are unreliable, Palin said." Anchorage Daily News, May 22,2008 |
| Palin's MAYORAL RECORD |
"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities," Palin said in her acceptance speech at the Republican convention. What did the "elite liberal media" write about Palin's record as mayor? Oops! It was actually Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal on September 6, 2008: "The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters. The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla." Sarah, take responsibility for this! |
| HAGEL on PALIN |
Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, in an interview with the Omaha
World-Herald, became the nation's most prominent Republican
officeholder to publicly question whether Sarah Palin has the experience
to serve as president. "She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything." McCain has cited the proximity of Alaska to Russia as evidence of Palin’s international experience. Hagel scoffed at that notion. "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia. That kind of thing is insulting to the American people." |
| CONSERVATIVES on PALIN |
"McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign – his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition – has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man." - Elizabeth Drew "Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness." - David Brooks "The word "experience" appears 91 times in the Federalist Papers, those distillations of conservative sense and sensibility... America's Founders were empiricists and students of history who trusted "that best oracle of wisdom, experience," which is humanity's "least fallible guide."... So, Sarah Palin. The man who would be the oldest to embark on a first presidential term has chosen as his possible successor a person of negligible experience." - George Will "In a stroke, McCain gratuitously forfeited his most powerful argument against Obama. And this was even before Palin's inevitable liabilities began to pile up -- inevitable because any previously unvetted neophyte has "issues." The kid. The state trooper investigation. And worst, the paucity of any Palin record or expressed conviction on the major issues of our time." - Charles Krauthammer "[Palin is] under-informed and over-confident. But there was no "macaca" moment, so she survives. Those who wish to believe in her will continue to believe in her. As for the rest - well it's a 6 in 7 chance that McCain makes it to the end of his first term. That's pretty good!" - David Frum "[W]e've seen the entirety of the Palin-Gibson tete-a-tete...The most that can be said in her defense is that she kept her cool and avoided any brutal gaffes; other than that, she seemed about an inch deep on every issue outside her comfort zone... And there's no way to look at her performance as anything save supporting evidence for the non-hysterical critique of her candidacy - that it's just too much, too soon - and a splash of cold water for those of us with high hopes for her future on the national stage." - Ross Douthat "What if she were to become president of the United States? The idea, to me, is quite disturbing, if not appalling." - Former Republican Michigan Gov. William Milliken "There's no question she's totally unqualified." - Former Republican Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself." - Kathleen Parker "And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he [McCain] have been thinking?" - Christopher Buckley McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate--but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served. Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin's exposure to the public. But it's clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment's notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country. - Chicago Tribune I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She's a very distinguished woman and she is to be admired. But at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be President of the United States, which is the job of the Vice President. And so, uh, that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made. - Colin Powell [W]e have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office.... She doesn’t think aloud. She just . . . says things.... In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn’t, really, understand. This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base... She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn’t seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.... In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It’s no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism. - Peggy Noonan |
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"The thought of his [McCain] being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
Republican Senator Thad Cochran
Boston.com, January 27, 2008
