Going Rouge (12 page)

I think that’s simply wrong. We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place. The mortgage crisis that led to the collapse of the financial market, it was rooted in a good-natured, but wrongheaded, desire to increase home ownership among those who couldn’t yet afford to own a home. In so many cases, politicians on the right and the left, they wanted to take credit for an increase in home ownership among those with lower incomes. But the rules of the marketplace are not adaptable to the mere whims of politicians.

... Lack of government wasn’t the problem. Government policies were the problem. The marketplace didn’t fail. It became exactly as common sense [as one] would expect it to. The government ordered the loosening of lending standards. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates low. The government forced lending institutions to give loans to people who, as I say, couldn’t afford them. Speculators spotted new investment vehicles, jumped on board, and rating agencies underestimated risks.

Palin’s Prevarications

Compiled by Sebastian Jones

Note: Throughout the 2008 campaign, blogger Andrew Sullivan (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com) ran an extremely useful recurring segment called “The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin,” chronicling the former governor’s various inconsistencies, exaggerations, and outright lies. Many of those assembled here come from Sullivan’s blog, though we’ve added a few of our own.

ON HER AND TODD’S ACTIONS IN THE TROOPERGATE SCANDAL

Fiction

To allege that I, or any member of my family, requested, received or released confidential personnel information on an Alaska State Trooper, or directed disciplinary action be taken against any employee of the Department of Public Safety, is, quite simply, outrageous.

Palin press release, July 17, 2008

Fact

Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired…[and] permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office …to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired.

Branchflower report to the Alaska legislature, October 10, 2008

Analysis

See John Nichols’s “Why Troopergate Matters” for more on the scandal involving efforts by Sarah and Todd Palin to fire former brother-in-law Michael Wooten from his job as an Alaska state trooper and the dismissal of Alaska public safety commissioner Walter Monegan.

ON EARMARKS, GENERALLY

Fiction

We…championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.

Palin speech at the Republican convention, September 3, 2008

Fact

Representative Don Young, especially, God bless him, with transportation—Alaska did so well under the very basic provisions of the transportation act that he wrote just a couple of years ago. We had a nice bump there. We’re very, very fortunate to receive the largesse that Don Young was able to put together for Alaska.

Palin at a gubernatorial forum, October, 2006

Analysis

During the 2008 campaign, Palin broadly condemned Congressional earmarking. However, back in 2006,

she praised the work of one of Congress’s most notorious earmarkers, Don Young, and the “largesse” he brought to Alaska.

ON THE GRAVINA ISLAND CROSSING PROJECT (AKA THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE)

Fiction

I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.

Palin convention speech, September 3, 2008

Fact

She cited the widespread negative attention focused on the Gravina Island crossing project.

“We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.”

Interview with the
Ketchikan Daily News,
October 2, 2006

Analysis

During the 2008 campaign, Palin repeatedly claimed to have been against the Gravina Island Bridge, more commonly known as the Bridge to Nowhere, but during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Palin supported the project.

ON POLAR BEARS GAINING ENDANGERED SPECIES STATUS

Fiction

I strongly believe that adding [polar bears] to the list is the wrong move at this time. My decision is based on a comprehensive review by state wildlife officials of scientific information from a broad range of climate, ice and polar bear experts. In fact, there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future—the trigger for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Sarah Palin op-ed in the
New York Times
, January 5, 2008

Fact

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears.... An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages—through a federal records request—he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

New York Times
report, September 14, 2009

Analysis

For more on Palin and the polar bears, see Mark Hertsgaard’s

“Our Polar Bears, Ourselves.”

ON WHETHER HUMANS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR GLOBAL WARMING

Fiction

I think you are a cynic because show me where I have ever said that there’s absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect, or no effect, on climate change.

Palin in an interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson,

September 11, 2008

Fact

I’m not a doom and gloom environmentalist like Al Gore blaming the changes in our climate on human activity.

Palin in the
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
, December 4, 2007

Analysis

Despite her claims otherwise during the 2008 campaign, Palin had expressed doubt about the causes of global warming on several previous occasions. For more on her environmental record as governor, see Sheila Kaplan and Marilyn Berlin Snell’s “Northern Exposure.”

ON ALASKA’S SHARE OF U.S. DOMESTIC ENERGY SUPPLY

Fiction

Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.

Palin in an interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, September 11, 2008

Fact

According to EIA [the Energy Information Administration], Alaska actually produced 2,417.1 trillion BTUs [British Thermal Units] of energy in 2005, the last year for which full state numbers are available. That‘s equal to just 3.5 percent of the country‘s domestic energy production.

And according to EIA analyst Paul Hess, that would calculate to only “2.4 percent of the 100,368.6 trillion BTUs the U.S. consumes.”

Factcheck.org analysis, September 12, 2008

Analysis

During an interview with Charles Gibson, Palin wildly exaggerated the share of the domestic energy supply Alaska provides. During the campaign, John McCain said Palin “knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.”

For more on Alaska’s energy politics see Michael T. Klare’s “Palin’s Petropolitics.”

ON WHETHER SHE HAD TO “WING” HER CONVENTION SPEECH WITHOUT A TELEPROMPTER

Fiction

“There Ohio was right out in front, right in front of me,” Palin said. “The teleprompter got messed up, I couldn’t follow it, and I just decided I’d just talk to the people in front of me. It was Ohio.”

Palin remarks at a Canton, Ohio fundraiser, September 15, 2008

Fact

Sarah Palin delivered a powerful speech last night, but she did not “wing it.”…I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.

Politico
report, September 4, 2008

Analysis

Palin helped promote a post-convention myth widely discussed on conservative blogs: namely that her teleprompter had broken mid-speech, forcing her to improvise her remarks. Reporters at the convention claimed otherwise.

ON “LIVING BY EXAMPLE” VIA TAKING A PAY CUT WHILE MAYOR

Fiction

As mayor I took a voluntary pay cut, which didn’t thrill my husband…

Palin in Bloomberg News, September 15, 2008

Fact

“As a Council member she voted against hiking the mayor’s salary from $64,000 to $68,000, but it passed anyway. When she came in as mayor, she passed the ordinance which brought her salary down to $61,200. But that may not actually have taken effect, and Council-mandated raises brought her actual salary up to $68,000.”

TalkingPointsMemo.com, September 18, 2008

Analysis

Palin often presented herself as living a “frugal” life, despite reports of frequent and expensive in-state travel as Governor and the $150,000 spent by the Republican National Committee on her campaign wardrobe revealed by
Politico
.

ON DIVESTMENT FROM SUDAN

Fiction

When I and others in the legislature found out that we had some millions of dollars [of Permanent Fund investments] in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars.

Palin in the vice presidential debate, October 2, 2009

Fact

“The legislation is well intended, and the desire to make a difference is noble, but mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens’ financial security is not a good combination,” testified Brian Andrews, Palin’s deputy treasury commissioner.

ABC News report, October 3, 2009

Analysis

While claiming during a debate with Joe Biden to have supported Alaskan divestment from Sudan, supporters of divestment informed ABC News that the Palin administration had publicly opposed their efforts.

ON “TURKEYGATE”

Fiction

“The [Alaska] governor did not know it was going on behind her,” Palin’s spokesperson tells
ET
of the reportedly grisly scene at Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside Wasilla.

Entertainment Tonight
, November 21, 2008

Fact

Scott Jensen is the one who filmed the scene. He’s local station KTUU’s award-winning chief photographer. He told…KUDO radio yesterday that Sarah Palin, who was standing next to her personal assistant throughout the entire interview, chose the spot on which she stood for the “turkey slaughter interview.”... The turkey slaughter was already underway when the governor chose the spot. The photographer pointed out what was going on and asked her if she wanted to move. She said, “No worries.”