Politics and Culture

She might be a good candidate for ambassador to Ireland in the Obama administration...I mean...since she's "visited" there and all, after she got her first passport in 2006...after she'd used her own political office to fire a state trooper who made her sister cry....after she'd run up a huge debt in her tiny little hamlet....after she'd worked for federal earmark dollars that McCain himself called her on....after she tried to ban books in her town's library....

And she's just flat out lying about Obama's platform. But that's to be expected, as she and McCain can't really run on the failed policies of eight years.

But enjoy your dream for a while. I guarantee it will end in November.

WOW ... Governor Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican convention was nothing short of amazing. During the next 60 days, she is going to hold Obama's and Biden's feet to the fire. I can't wait to see the debate between Governor Palin and Senator Joe Biden, who I expect her to splice n' dice.

I am pretty sure that Obama said she was mayor of a small town. But both you and Palin are happy to lie and pretend he attacked small towns.

I like your "reservations" regarding her lie about the Bridge To Nowhere. She said in the speech that not only was she against it, but somehow she said she was willing to just use Alaskan money. In reality, she was not for it as "one point", she pushed for it until Congress refused to supply all of the money. When Congress finally refused to fully fund it she took the money anyway and spent it on other things.

It is so funny to see the left wing blogs try to find a loophole in the speech. They keep saying, "She's lying about Obama" but never say how, or where. You can't dispute the facts, tonight was amazing for her. She definitely delivered.

Nice blog by the way. Very common sense for sure...

Wow what some of you dont even know is my friend does not want to marry Mrs. Palin's daughter. It's really being forced upon him and he is going along with it. He called me a little while ago and told me how out of place he felt there.

The bar was certainly lowered for Palin's speech tonight, which was lite on vision and specifics, while heavy on snarky, ad-hominem attacks on Obama. Wolf Blitzer gushed about the home run she hit; AP writers Tom Raum and Liz Sidoti observed that her speech "rocked the GOP convention with a star-turning performance. Wielding a stiletto and a smile, Palin belittled Democrat Barack Obama and praised her new boss, John McCain.."

While the speech was competently read off the teleprompter and Palin's small town girl delivery played to the crowd's appetite for clever one-liners belittling Sen. Obama, in the final analysis, the address did little to convince the nation that either she or "her boss" have a real vision for a new direction for the country. This does not bode well for McCain as polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that we are headed down the wrong road...

You're right that Obama didn't attack small towns per se. He did belittle the mayors of them.

Great speech!! Every women in my office was a Hillary supporter and we were all changed to a Palin supporter now. Obama deserves to loose for what he did to Hillary. "Women against Obama"

I wanted to hear about Sarah Palin's background and I thought she did an excellent job there. I also liked the way she answered the MSM criticisms. However, all she did otherwise was attack Obama (some of it fair, some of it not) in a very snide manner. I also didn't think a lot of the one-liners she delivered were very funny and she certainly didn't have the best timing delivering them.

I realize that Ms. Palin just came on board and may not be able to push specific policies. However, she should have at least laid out some of her specific beliefs. What I saw was a very angry individual sarcastically attacking Obama (playing on the fear angle multiple times which REALLY annoyed me) without much of a message of her own. I saw nothing in Ms. Palin's speech that leads me to believe that she is ready to work with anyone who has beliefs different from hers. Her speech definitely did not have the "I'm a uniter not a divider" tone that Bush used effectively in 2000.

While the speech itself was very well-crafted, she didn't appear to me to deliver it with much emotion and really seemed to be reading the text without feeling the words or believing in the message. Anyone who says her speech compares in any way to the one Obama delivered in 2004 is just not being objective.

I may not like Obama/Biden much but their DNC speeches were far better not just regarding delivery but more importantly regarding content. They both laid out both their plans and beliefs and gave quite a few specifics. Although I (and the Tax Policy Center) have doubts they'll be able to pay for everything without greatly increasing the deficit, they at least laid out some concrete plans and ideas. While Obama and Biden also attacked McCain, they did it in a much more respectful way (other than one or two cheap shots) and primarily took issue with specific policies. Both of their speeches also had a positive tone and were generally about what they think they can do to make the country better. Obama also did an excellent job of at least appearing to want to try to work with both sides and compromise on key issues.

I hope I hear some substance from John McCain tomorrow as I got nothing from Ms. Palin tonight. If McCain doesn't present some concrete policies/ideas on how to make this country better I may not have to wait until the debates to make my decision.

When you ahve been feed radishes for 18 months a over ripe tomato tastes pretty sweet. Republicans are happy they have something better to root for than McCain.
Republicans say that No experience as VP is less important than no experience as President but at the same time they say they are NOW energized because of the VP pick and not the Republican Presidential pick. This is a joke.

Let me tell you something---as a woman who has worked all her life and raised a family and has had to buck the system at times, Sarah Palin has my vote. Yes the speech was a prepared one and maybe not as polished as Obama and Biden. But- how long did they have to prepare theirs and she had two days!!!!
This is a very competent, self assured woman who has met challenges in her life and can use that experience as she goes forward.
My daughter, a teacher, has told me she "is inspired" and see's Palin as "an example for all young women of today". This is a very fresh knowledgeable person who will bring a clear head to Washington

Somebody call Mike Vick because this is one pitbull that absolutely needs to be put down. The hateful rhetoric spouted from Palin is about what I expected from a right wing fundamentalist. She just tryed to downplay Obama by mocking him. It is obvious that she will play the attack dog and probably doesn't expect to be attacked herself because no one wants to attack a woman on the political trail. Her speech was all rhetoric and no substance, although I don't agree with her substance so it wouldn't have really moved me. Here are my main issues with her:
1) Republicans say it all they want, but it is not reflective of the reality: She has no executive experience. Many Republicans say because she is from Alaska that she has foreign policy experience because of its geographic proximity to Russia. That is preposterous. Has she even been to the White House previously?
2) She is a religious fundamentalist while I am a fanatical moderate. My belief in abortion is that a person has a choice. It is her party that precipitated the Iraq War, so how can you be for war and against abortion. Both these methods kill, only that war is on a much larger scale. I also feel her belief in teaching creationism is an insult to my and all other educated people. Religion is nice as a basis for living, but keep it in your house and your church/synagogue/mosque. I shouldn't have to live with someone else's belief system.
3) The pandering of her as a candidate is an insult to the American voter. The Republicans are parading a young, hard-nosed female from the 'middle class' with family values as their symbol of the new Republican Party. She kept mentioning change that is for the good of the country, yet I heard no new ideas from the Republican Party. The only change I see from her is the furthering of the religious take-over of our country. Separation of church and state was the smartest thing our founding fathers could have done. Currently the Republican Party is eroding this wall, and religious values are beginning to be thrust in America's face. If America doesn't stop this soon we are all in for a lot of trouble.

First time visitor here. Nice to meet you. I have to agree with everything that you wrote. I was very impressed with Sarah Palin last night. I am not much of a political person and it takes a LOT to get me excited about politics. Sarah did it. I can hardly wait until the vice presidential debates.

You thought the Democrats had more content? I will take money from rich people and give it to you is "substance?"

Governor Palin's speech was one of the best I've ever heard. She said it like it is, unlike the mindless sheep who adore Obama, even though he's just an empty suit. Most of the negative blogs on this site appear to have been written before the speech was even given. Comments by brain washed Obamabots, who infect the blog sites with the same sarcastic partisan posts, no matter what the story is about. Keep America strong, elect McCain / Palin in November. No Wright, no Farrakahn, no Ayers, no Rezko, no mean Michelle, NOBAMA

The media kept harping for a specific thing Palin had done. She sure gave it to them last night with both barrels. I loved her speech and the delivery was great. She has my vote and the vote of all I have talked to here in West Virginia. As a mom, grandma and business woman I know she can handle the job.

I don’t buy it, the Repubs bring the far right on board with a “hottie” designed to attract “maverick” womanizing McCain types, doesn’t matter if she has a brain. The proof is in all of Palin’s problems that are and will come to light. At the forefront is the blaring issue with her daughter. Not that she’s pregnant in and of itself, but the fact that it points to another failed, among many, Republican policies. We all knew, just saying no doesn’t work, now Palin gets to live with it. Then again is the problem, Palin just wasn’t there to educate her daughter (as she tells us all to do), she was spending her time into God knows what, when it comes to politics.

Did saying "no" work for your mom or grandmother?

Most US citizens learned over the last eight years that "competence matters." Too many of you here thought a "regular guy" and his paranoid, shoot-them-in-the-face-first sidekick were the answer for two terms of pure hell for this country. I want the smartest, most diplomatic, least sarcastic, least bitter, least self-righteous, most self-controlled, most charismatic, toughest-without-being-combative, most caring, least religiously fanatic, and best advised people sitting in chairs #1 and #2. Their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden. They will win because the majority of Americans are fed-up with the ruination of this country's economy and standing in the world as a beacon of honor and hope over the past eight years. I never cared for Bill Clinton, but I long for those days again after this unbelievable mess. And, by the way, the surge is working for many reasons, but one of them that ought to scare all of us are the regular (monthly? $300? -- not sure on the timing or amounts, but I believe this is close to correct) payments the taxpayers of this country are making to Iraqis to behave and refrain from drilling holes in their neighbors' kneecaps and skulls. So, shall we just pay everyone in the world to behave? Who's going to pay us to behave?

Finally, Sarah Palin (whose choice for a national ticket is a huge, disrespectful insult to competent, intelligent, accomplished, thoughtful women) will live to see the day when parts of Alaska are under melting polar ice cap water if she doesn't wake up and smell the coffee. I might have voted for John McCain in 2000, but that photo of him hugging George Bush, when I know he doesn't respect the man or his policies, and now this horrendously snide choice of a running mate, have made me loss all respect for him. Do you know about how he treated his first wife and what he called Cindy in front of reporters when she was trying to comb his hair? The man has absolutely no respect for women. His mother would be a better candidate than he or Sarah.

Letter by Anne Likenny-Washilla

Subject: FW: re Sarah Palin

This is from a friend of a friend who lives in the town Palin was a mayor of. The writer has given permission to circulate the letter with her/his name on the letter, but requests that it not be posted on to any web sites. Since it seems highly unlikely that it would be possible to protect the writer from that, I've taken the person's name off it. If you would like to know who the writer is and can guarrantee that you will not post it with name attached on a web site and that the chain of people you pass it on to will not then I would, of course, tell you the original source and how it came to me.

Dear friends,

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

Thanks,
Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
•"Hockey mom": true for a few years
•"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
•"NRA supporter": absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
•"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
•"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny