Comments on: Sarah…Decent Speech, But A Big Strategic Mistake

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » Did Palin Actually Drive White Men And Women Away?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:19:16 +0000

[...] fact, directly after Palin’s much ballyhooed speech, I said the following… Why give a speech that was really designed to rally the Republican [...]

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » Revisit: Sarahâ€¦Decent Speech, But A Big Strategic Mistake

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:39:14 +0000

[...] day after her speech I wrote a post called “Sarahâ€¦Decent Speech, But A Big Strategic Mistake” where I laid out the reasons why her speech would ultimately fall flat. The biggest one, [...]

By: Jim S

Jim S — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:00:32 +0000

No, Exiled, it happened the year before she took office. I think they were trying to duck and cover before the 2006 elections. In Alaska it seems to have worked. Heck, the Republicans just nominated the recently indicted Ted Stevens for the Senate.

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » Independents and Palin.

Donklephant » Blog Archive » Independents and Palin. — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:58:24 +0000

[...] Justin’s post this morning, it seemed clear that independents were singularly unmoved by Sarah Palin’s [...]

By: ExiledIndependent

ExiledIndependent — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:13:15 +0000

Hey Mark, do your stats mean that per capita pork was cut nearly in half when Palin took office?

By: gerryf

gerryf — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:22:25 +0000

I agree with the entire post, but if you are pointing to those folks as proof, as a Michigan resident, I can tell you that every single one of those communities–despite being in conservative Oakland County–are what one might call “democratic” strongholds.

The only one resembling conservative is West Bloomfield, but even that one has veered left the past couple years, much to the surprise of many.

By: markg8

markg8 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:12:32 +0000

Sarah Palin took a town with $0 debt in 1996 and left it $22 million in the hole in 2002, mostly from the hockey rink/sports complex she shoved down their throats which never became the money generator she promised it would. Another white elephant from another white elephant.

Even with the stable Clinton economy during most of her mayoral tenure and Jack Abramoff’s crony she hired to lobby Washington to help her now indicted buddy Ted Stevens ring up $27 million in federal pork for tiny Wasilla (pop. 5000 when she entered office) she still managed to leave the town swimming in debt. Three of her pork projects even made McCain’s own wasteful spending list.

The following organization is the offshoot of President Reagan’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control started in 1984, also known as the Grace Commission. Definitely not a Dem friendly group but even these guys apparently think Alaska is America’s welfare queen state.

Citizens Against Government Waste
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage

Rank State Pork Population Pork/Capita

2000 1 Alaska $394,514,000 619,500 636.83
2001 1 Alaska $480,297,000 626,932 766.11
2002 1 Alaska $451,334,278 634,892 710.88
2003 1 Alaska $393,346,750 643,786 610.99
2004 1 Alaska $524,329,000 648,818 808.13
2005 1 Alaska $645,502,000 655,435 984.85
2006 1 Alaska $325,106,000 663,661 489.87
2007 not listed
2008 1 Alaska $379,699,715 683,478 555.54

As governor she is borrowing from Alaska’s future while she wants to blow today’s Alaskan windfall oil tax bonanza and the huge surpluses they’ve generated on bread and circuses tax giveaways.

Alaska gets 89% of it’s operating budget from taxing oil coming out of the ground just like Arab kingdoms and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. They have no state income or sales tax up there. Instead of using that windfall to pay for all the profligate spending her Republican legislature keeps sending her she’s issuing bonds to pay for it which Alaskans and US taxpayers will have to pay off in future years while she takes credit for tax “rebates” while she’s governor.

Her fiscal policy is a disaster in the making which won’t hit til she’s left the governor’s office. She’d be a disaster as Vice President especially to a President who despite his grievous wounds and type A personality is already past the age his father and grandfather died of sudden heart attacks.

She can put on all the lipstick she wants but her political record is for the dogs.

By: Jimmy the Dhimmi

Jimmy the Dhimmi — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:51:39 +0000

And remember, Obama is actually offering â€œhope.â€

Wow. He’s got my vote then. Why should Palin be so vague and non-specific when she could offer “hope” and be done with it. Wait a second, I take that back, she mentioned the word change several times last night. I guess that means she outlined a clear vision for America, just like Obama did.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:58:22 +0000

Not her fault; she just read it, she didn’t write it.

By: Stuperb

Stuperb — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:51:12 +0000

Justin, I agree with you on most of this, and I’ll add one more:

It’s downright insulting to mock someone for being “just” a community activist. It’s also quite surprising; I’d think the GOP would embrace a the who helps to effect change and make people’s lives better via a non-government, local, grass-roots effort. Isn’t that what the bootstraps party is supposed to be about?