Palin Breakdown

All sorts of interesting news about John McCain's vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been coming out lately. It is hard to sort through it all. Here are a few items about her that concern me. Some of these are her extreme views, some are items where she has misstated the truth, and some of them are areas in which her past actions do not match the current picture that the McCain campaign is trying to paint about her.

-Sarah Palin did not sell the Governor's jet on Ebay, or sell it for a profit, as McCain stated at a campaign stop.

-She is not against earmarks, and Alaska actually gets more money per person from earmarks than any other state. She also hired a lobbyist to obtain earmarks as Mayor of Wasilla.

-She supported the infamous "bridge to nowhere" project, until she found it would be politically advantageous nationally to denounce the earmark, but still accepted the $223 million in federal funds to be used on other projects.

-She is under investigation for "Troopergate". It should be noted that the Republican controlled Alaskan legislature approved the $100,000 for the investigation.

-She has opposed transparency in government.

-She believes that creationism should be taught in schools. (Would the flying spaghetti monster be included in the syllabus?)

-She said that the Iraqi war was a "task that is from God."

-She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list.

-She is a skeptic of global warming and is at odds with environmentalists.

-She believes in abstinence only sex education and does not support comprehensive sex education or birth control.

-She does not believe women who are victims of rape or incest should have a right to an abortion.

-She asked the Wasillia town librarian about removing books from the library (note that she did not actually ban any books, but did reportedly inquire about it).

-She did not fire her chef, but rather, the chef was reassigned. To be fair, Palin did not explicitly say in her convention speech that she fired her, but a news article from the time quotes a staff member saying she did it to save costs (which she didn't).

-She has been avoiding the press or the McCain campaign has been keeping her from the press. (She is finally doing an interview with Charles Gibson tonight.)

-She was not a member of the Alaska Independence party, but she has attended their conventions and wished them good luck. Her husband was a member though.

-She has little foreign experience.

-She has had a close relationship with indicted Senator Ted Stevens, including running a 527 group for him and she also received campaign contributions from VECO.

I really don't want to write about Palin much more, as I think it is a distraction. John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, stated last week that this presidential election “is not about issues,” and I for one, will not be blinded by the smokescreen and ignore the important issues of this presidential campaign. It just goes to show that the McCain campaign realizes that they cannot win on the issues, but rather must make this a popularity contest in order to win.