Palin's Speech & The Truth

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention

By JIM KUHNHENN,
Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

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-HECK!

Loved reading this. Watching CNN this morning, even the commentators - who are usually fairly neutral on a lot of things - were picking up on a heap of bullshit that came out during her recent speech.


Has anyone noticed when they're voting, they say "all those in favor say AIY" (and there's a long AIIIYYYY) and then they go on to say in a single breath "allthoseopposedsaynay-theaiyshaveit."? That's messed up, I want to hear how many people are against it.

OH man this shit is killin me.

Here's something I don't understand. Why the hell is Palin comparring herself to Obama anyway? I know McCain is old and all but do they not think he's gonna live through his term. I know if something happens to him she's next in line so yeah you should look at it like she could possibly hold that office, but should she be focusing on how she would be a better VP than Biden and not always comparing herself to Obama?

Side note: I also get the whole experience comparission thing, people have been saying how they talk about Obama not having experience but then she has less and they pick her for VP. BUt even still, I think they are putting too much focus on the over all comparassion. They constantly attack Obama but say virturally nothing about Biden.

That's a good point, they should talk about how she fares against Biden rather than Obama. Obama is running for the presidency, not the Vice Presidency, right? But in all honesty, though, Obama is an easier comparison as if you look at Palin next to Biden and she definitely doesn't fare well. McCain will stand up well to Biden, but they'd probably stick to showing him up against Obama.

yep.

They are touting Palin as the republicans version of Obama + Hillary.

Biden is sitting back because you can't attack his record.

-HECK!

Palin didn't say anything about Joe Biden because she has a debate with him coming up. Joe doesn't take the crap she is throwing from anyone. Reporters say that Joe can't hit her hard in the debate because it will look like he is picking on a woman. I watched her speech this week, and IMO she came off as a bitch.

I'm sorry, but she still believes in abstinence only education, yet her 17 year old daughter is pregnant. How's that working for you Sarah? She's wrong on that, and as a mom, what the hell type of mom would expose her pregnant 17 year old to all this pressure? Hell, it's sad that her own ambition is more important that helping her daughter through a difficult time.

Very well said, Sherry. It's pathetic.

I just feel badly for her daughter. Here she is pregnant, and you know that the kids at her school will be talking about her. Any dreams she had for life after high school now have to be altered, and her mom, instead of being a good mom, decides that it's time to go for it and try to be the Vice-President. Who is going to guide that poor girl through her first pregnancy? Hell, it's not easy, and yet mom is putting her out there for the press to gobble up. That poor girl.

I know... she's using her child for her own political gain. But, ALL of the politicians do things like this. They step on loved ones, friends, etc... to get moved into a place that they are after. It's the story of life... power and greed.