Going Rouge (13 page)

Mudflats blog, November 22, 2008

Analysis

Weeks after the election, Palin held a press conference in Wasilla, using an in-progress turkey slaughter as a backdrop. After much ridicule in the press, Palin claimed to have not known what was happening behind her. Much like the convention teleprompter incident, those at the scene contradicted her claims.

ON STIMULUS FUNDING

Fiction

Palin announced last week she was not accepting $288 million of the $930.7 million that the state is due in the federal stimulus.

Anchorage Daily News
, March 24, 2009

Fact

“The governor has not rejected any funds—that I think was perhaps the interpretation and I know certainly in some of the coverage of the press event last week,” Karen Rehfeld, the governor’s budget director, told the House Finance Committee on Tuesday.

Anchorage Daily News
, March 24, 2009

Analysis

Palin publicly opposed President Obama’s stimulus plan that passed Congress in February 2009. However, as Louisiana did under fellow conservative governor Bobby Jindal, Alaska ended up accepting the vast majority of its stimulus funds.

ON “DEATH PANELS”

Fiction

And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Sarah Palin’s Facebook page, August 7, 2009

Fact

Palin’s statement sounds more like a science fiction movie (Soylent Green, anyone?) than part of an actual bill before Congress. We rate her statement Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact analysis of Palin’s remarks, August 10, 2009

Analysis

This summer, Palin contributed to the health care debate by claiming the old and infirm will have to submit to “death panels,” launching a meme that spread widely in conservative circles and, eventually, was cited as a reason to oppose health care reform by prominent Republican politicians. Ironically, the end-of-life counseling provision in the health care reform bill that served as inspiration for Palin’s notion of death panels was something she supported at the state level while governor.

ON THE COST OF ETHICS INVESTIGATIONS

Fiction

We keep proving [our innocence] every time we win an ethics violation lawsuit, and we’ve won every one of them. But it has been costing our state millions of dollars. It’s cost Todd and me.

Palin in an ABC News interview, July 7, 2009

Fact

In fact, the
Anchorage Daily News
reports that the complaints cost the state $286,000, and the most costly set (there were several) had to do with Troopergate, which had exploded before Palin was tapped by…McCain. The most costly Troopergate complaint apparently involved one Palin herself made, hoping the investigation would exonerate her.

Salon, July 9, 2009

Analysis

Palin consistently inflated and exaggerated the costs and burdens associated with ethics investigations of her actions as governor of Alaska. In addition to reporting that the costs of the investigations were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as opposed to millions, the
Anchorage Daily News
also revealed that much of that money would have been spent retaining lawyers, with or without ethics complaints being filed.

ON THE “DEPARTMENT OF LAW”

Fiction

Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House the “department of law” would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

“I think on a national level your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,” she said.

ABC News report, July 7, 2009

Fact

There is no “Department of Law” at the White House.

ABC News report, July 7, 2009

Analysis

Throughout the 2008 campaign and after, Palin demonstrated some confusion as to what the vice president actually does and how the First Amendment functions. In this case, she created an entire governmental department out of thin air.

Palin’s Top 25 Tweets

Compiled by Sebastian Jones

The Hills Are Alive

Riding 2 Kenai; writing last Govs speech on way; country music streaming & countryside screaming inspiration 4 pro-developmnt + pro-enviro msg
12:52 PM Jul 21st

Inspiration

Couple of thoughts for the day on beautiful bright AK morn: “You have to sacrifice to win. That’s my philosophy in 6 words.”— George Allen.
& 8:03 AM Jul 8th

Today, try this: “Act in accordance to your conscience -risk- by pursuing larger vision in opposition to popular, powerful pressure”—unknown
8:12 AM Jul 8th

More talk of #2 “Stimulus” Pkg? Please no- for so many reasons- incl the 1st one hasn’t done what’s promised, & debt forced on AKn kids is..
10:54 PM Jul 11th

selfish & immoral bc it robs their future opportunities! “If there is trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace” Thomas Paine
11:02 PM Jul 11th

“Criticism is something easily avoided by saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing.” Aristotle Don’t fear it; it means u make a difference
12:29 AM Jul 14th

Campbell’s fiscally conserv. position on this = M. Levin’s “Conservatism is antidote to tyranny bc its principles ARE our founding principles”
8:52 AM Jul 21st

Awesome AK night sensing summer already winding down w/fireweed near full bloom; finally sitting down to pen; listening to Big & Rich “Shuttin
9:53 PM Jul 22nd

Detroit Down” & “Rollin”: “Aint gonna shut my mouth/I know there’s got to be a few hundred million more like me/just trying to keep it free”
9:58 PM Jul 22nd

For the Children

I join Auto Dealers today for kids’ safety seat law/promo. NOTHING more important than safety of our babies: Life’s most precious ingredient
9:51 AM Jun 17th

Kids: be more concerned w/your character vs reputation bc character is what you are, reputation is merely what others think you are. J Wooden
10:44 PM Jul 13th

No time to waste: teach US youth to avoid idleness; they can lead new American Industrial Revolution w/WORK & embrace “Buy American” mission
12:08 PM Jul 19th

Mama Bear

Great day w/bear management wildlife biologists; much to see in wild territory incl amazing creatures w/mama bears’ gutteral raw instinct to
10:34 PM Jul 15th

protect & provide for her young; She sees danger? She brazenly rises up on strong hind legs, growls Don’t Touch My Cubs & the species survives
10:38 PM Jul 15th

& mama bear doesn’t look 2 anyone else 2 hand her anything; biologists say she works harder than males, is provider/protector for the future
10:40 PM Jul 15th

High Stakes

AK Aces vs SC Stingrays tonight. 1st Family & I will be on hand for win—anticipate winning friendly bet w/SC Gov.Sanford, too. Go, Aces!
12:55 PM May 22nd

Keepin’ the dream alive! Thank you AK Aces! OT win last night brings Kelly Cup game 6 home Thurs. Bet w/SC Gov is alive too. Save Our Salmon
9:26 AM May 31st

The Hacking Paradox

Unfortunately fake “Gov Sarah Palin” twitter sites r doing their thing today: unscrupulous, untrue- so sorry if u recv false info @ fake site
3:12 PM Jul 4th

Funny! In the words of my sis: Aren’t the same ones w/fake twitter sites & blogs crying “she’s ‘abandoning’ us” the same ones wishing u gone?
3:49 PM Jul 4th

Best Broken Promise

elected is replaceable; Ak WILL progress! + side benefit=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site
12:39 AM Jul 17th

The Palin Doctrine

Learn how Wild AK Seafood can help combat world hunger. Pure, healthy, abundant protein; exciting initiative rolled out in NY this week.
9:57 AM May 3rd

More N Korea nuke tests: why consider US missile program cuts now? AK military program helps secure US. Now is NOT time to cut our defense.
9:48 AM May 25th

W/deadly Iranian protests let us be thankful for, & supportive of, U.S. Military defending OUR democracy & freedom. God protect the innocent
12:46 PM Jun 20th

Why U.S. peace missions for freedom? “America is still the abiding alternative to tyranny. That is our purpose in the world.” Ronald R...
6:23 AM Jun 26th

Seeking a Solution

Announced the “stay of execution”, orphaned moose calves to be protected @ this time by Dept of Fish & Game. Long-term solution still needed
6:28 PM Jun 4th

Buyer’s Remorse

Compiled by Sebastian Jones

Some of the sharpest barbs tossed at Palin have come not from liberals but from conservatives. While a few die-hards, like William Kristol, have steadfastly defended her, many other establishment conservatives either found themselves quickly disenchanted or never warmed to her in the first place. Statements like the following indicate where the party’s fault lines lie as Palin surveys the 2012 landscape:

Rod Dreher, conservative columnist, September 25, 2008, on his Beliefnet blog, responding to the Couric interview:

Couric’s questions are straightforward and responsible. Palin is mediocre, again, regurgitating talking points mechanically, not thinking. Palin’s just babbling. She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero.

Kathleen Parker, September 26, 2008, writing in
National Review
:

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

David Frum, September 29, 2008, in an interview with the
New York Times
:

I think [Palin] has pretty thoroughly—and probably irretrievably—proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States.

Anonymous McCain Adviser, October 26, 2008, in an interview with CNN:

She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.... She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.

Steve Schmidt, October 2, 2009, speaking at the
Atlantic
’s “First Draft of History” event; Schmidt would, only days later, reassert that Palin was the correct choice in 2008:

I think she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012.... Were she to be the nominee, we could have a catastrophic election result.

David Brooks, October 8, 2009, at the
Atlantic
’s “First Draft of History” event:

[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican Party.... There has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I’m afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices.

Peggy Noonan, July 10, 2009, in the
Wall Street Journal
:

Mrs. Palin’s supporters have been ordering her to spend the next two years reflecting and pondering. But she is a ponder-free zone. She can memorize the names of the presidents of Pakistan, but she is not going to be able to know how to think about Pakistan. Why do her supporters not see this? Maybe they think “not thoughtful” is a working-class trope!