Palin Dodges Question About Indicted Alaskan Senator

At a campaign stop this weekend in an Albuquerque, N.M., restaurant, John McCain and Sarah Palin had the misfortune of running into a pesky voter, as AmericaBlog relates:

McCain worked his way up to me and Cat and as I shook his hand, I asked, "Sir, I respect your service but, why were you against the GI bill?" Senator McCain, paused, he looked a bit surprised at the question and then he said, "Nice to meet you." I repeated the question and he repeated his non-answer. He quickly worked his way down the line. So much for straight-talk! ...

Sarah Palin was next! I couldn't resist trying for a better photo. It is still blurry, but talk about a close encounter.

Sarah first looked at Caterina said hello, and I shook her hand. I asked, "Are [you] supporting Ted Stevens this year?" She replied, "He's under indictment you know ... his trial is in September." I replied, "But are you voting for him?" She walked away without answering.

The Ted Stevens question is a really good one. Palin claims to have stood up to Republican corruption in her state, and Stevens is the worst of the bunch. He's running for the Senate while under federal indictment for failing to report $250,000 in home repairs and gifts from an oil pipeline construction company.

Contrary to her image, Palin's closely affiliated with Stevens, the first sitting U.S. senator to face criminal charges in 15 years. She served as directory of his 527 group Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service from its founding in 2003 through 2005, appeared with him in a campaign commercial during her gubernatorial run, and was a supporter of his Bridge to Nowhere project -- which she repeatedly lies about today in speeches and ads.

It's interesting that she won't tell people whether she's voting for him this November, even though he's in the race of his life against Democratic challenger Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage.

So Palin's choice is to back her fellow Republican, as she's done for years, or throw him under the bus and help Democrats get closer to that 60-seat majority in the Senate.

Politics · 2008/09/08 · 7 COMMENTS · Link

Give 'Em Hell, Joe

Joe Biden was in rare form yesterday at a campaign appearance in Langhorne, Pa., responding to the Republican National Convention with a list of things that John McCain and Sarah Palin left out of their speeches.

Biden lacks the celebrity status of Palin, but he's perfect for the job required of a vice presidential candidate -- taking the fight directly to the opposition. Palin got some nice sarcastic shots in during her acceptance speech, but she's so green the McCain campaign is hiding her from the press, according to Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic.

A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won't submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she's ready -- and until she's comfortable -- which might not be for a long while -- the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media's complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: "Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters."

Advantage Obama.

Politics · 2008/09/06 · 8 COMMENTS · Link

Presidents Without Executive Experience

Jonathan Bourne, my unindicted coconspiritor on the Drudge Retort, answered an interesting question on his blog: Which presidents ran for the job with no prior government experience as an executive?

Below is a list of Presidents were never a U.S. Vice President, a major Cabinet Secretary, governor or mayor.

• John F. Kennedy
• Dwight Eisenhower
• (Herbert Hoover prior to becoming President had served as Secretary of Commerce)
• (William Howard Taft prior to becoming President was Provisional Governor of Cuba)
• Benjamin Harrison
• James A. Garfield
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Abraham Lincoln
• Franklin Pierce
• Zachary Taylor
• (Andrew Jackson prior to becoming President was the first Military Governor of Florida -- I'm not sure if that's more a military position or an Executive position)
• George Washington prior to becoming President was our nation's first Commander In Chief, but this was at the time a military position. Washington had Legislative experience -- he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was elected president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Unlike Sara Palin, I think America benefited from the service of Executive branch novices like Lincoln, Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Whomever our next President is, one thing's for certain -- he'll be the first President in over 40 years to have had no Executive Branch experience.

I'm glad the next president is going to come from the Senate, where they'll have working knowledge of how Washington functions. Governors are overrated.

Politics · 2008/09/05 · 42 COMMENTS · Link

Rogers Has Four Alma Maters

Sarah Palin switched colleges six times in six years: the University of Hawaii-Hilo (a few weeks), Hawaii Pacific University (one semester), North Idaho College (two semesters), University of Idaho (two semesters), Matanuska-Susitna College (one semester) and then back to the University of Idaho (three semesters), where she graduated in spring 1987 with a degree in journalism.

I thought I was insane for attending four colleges: Stephen F. Austin State University (one semester), Richland Junior College (one semester), University of Texas-Arlington (two semesters), and finally the University of North Texas (nine semesters), where I also graduated with a degree in journalism four years after she did.

Taking a path that circuituous through college had serious drawbacks, but I met my future wife at University of Texas-Arlington and we ended up at a great school by transferring to UNT. You have no idea how many credits you lose by switching schools so often. I earned 24 credits my first semester at Stephen F. Austin and it still took me six years to earn another 104 credits and graduate.

Education · Politics · 2008/09/05 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Deployment Details Put Sarah Palin's Son in Jeopardy

Back in February, the British press ripped Matt Drudge for revealing a secret they'd been keeping: Prince Harry was stationed in Afghanistan, deployed with the British Army in Helmand Province. The secret had gotten out in an obscure Australian magazine and German's Bild newspaper, and Drudge passed the news along to his audience of millions. Brits were so outraged that they mistakenly started sending me a flood of hate mail.

Given this, it's worth noting that the British press is now putting another high-profile soldier in danger by reporting details of his service in a war zone. Two major British newspapers have reported where Track Palin, the son of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, will be serving when he's deployed to Iraq.

The Times:

Track Palin, son of the potential US vice-president, will be heading for the Middle East next week to prepare for military service in one of the most dangerous corners of Iraq.

A year after enlisting in the US Army on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Private First Class Palin will fly to Kuwait next Thursday for acclimatisation, and will be deployed a few weeks later to an area of Diyala province teeming with al-Qaeda insurgents.

It will not be an easy tour for the 19-year old, who is assigned to 1-1 Bravo Company, 52nd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

The Daily Mail also told its readers that Palin will train in Kuwait and serve in Diyala.

I'd omit these details if the stories weren't already widely reprinted all over the web and in news syndication, showing up on places like Yahoo News and Lucianne.Com. Jon Soltz, an Army captain previously stationed in Iraq, writes that revealing specific details of a soldier's deployment, such as dates and locations, is a violation of operational security:

It is simply impossible that any reporter could figure this out on their own. Just by knowing Track's name and the date he is heading to Kuwait, one could not figure out specifically where Track and his company would be going in Iraq. There's a reason it's impossible to figure that out -- because the military doesn't want that information out there. It only serves to aid the enemy to know where are troops are moving. ...

If the McCain-Palin campaign has disclosed details about Track's company's movements to gain stories in the press about it, they will have put many American lives in danger -- not the least of which would be Track's.

The amount of detail in the Daily Mail suggests that someone close to the Palins revealed the information about Track's deployment, but it's filed by reporter Tim Albone from Combat Outpost Zaganiyah in Diyala Province, so it's possible that a military source in Iraq revealed these details. In any case, it seems to me that whoever did it painted a target on his back, and the military should adjust its plans accordingly.

Journalism · Politics · 2008/09/04 · 46 COMMENTS · Link

I'm Starting to Feel Inadequate

I spent some time last night putting the genie back in the bottle, lest more bloggers make the mistake I did and believe in a world in which fathers talk on cell phones from the future and express "private fisherman thoughts" with their young and unnaturally gifted cinematographer daughters. I went around some of the blogs that mentioned the Todd Palin hoax video and indicated that Alaskan politician Andrew Halcro told me that it was "not only fake but insulting." I also entered into the record that I am a gullible dork.

I posted the same correction as a comment for the YouTube video itself, but Fake Todd Palin deleted it. He is now my new official nemesis, replacing the middle-aged woman at Target who called me a bad parent.

On the right-wing blog Ace of Spades HQ, a commenter named Stace writes:

Rogers, you shouldn't have had to email around about that. Any adult with critical thinking skills is nailing that even without any knowledge of who the Palins are.

I don't know how old you are, but the phone, the phony way the dude is talking to his daughter, the gray hair on the guy -- you folks are really gullible.

Get over your hate and your fear, Rogers, and get used to saying this: Madame Vice-President.

We middle-aged women are gonna kick. your. ignorant. ass. You lefty guys are incredibly stupid, and you do NOT know what you are messing with.

You only WISH that video were real, because you don't want a woman who could gut you, skin you, and make Slim Jims out of you to win this election.

If I wasn't already married ...

Politics · 2008/09/02 · 15 COMMENTS · Link

Alleged Palin Family Video Turns Up on YouTube

Sarah Palin's either going to turn out to be the boldest vice presidential choice in American history or the worst. So little is known about the charismatic and unseasoned Alaska governor that the next 70 days will be a massive public version of This is Your Life, much of which will be a total surprise to the McCain campaign. There are numerous media reports that Palin and her family were not comprehensively vetted prior to her selection as running mate.

Sam Stein alleges on Huffington Post that the first person to pore through the archives of Palin's hometown newspaper, the Valley Frontiersman in Wasilla, Alaska, was a researcher for Barack Obama's campaign this weekend.

The paper's (massive) archives are not online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the first to inquire.

"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."

Andrew Halcro, an Alaskan politician who ran for governor against Palin as an independent in 2006, wrote yesterday on his blog that the McCain campaign is just now sending staffers to Wasilla:

The campaign of John McCain has sent a staff of eight people into Alaska to conduct background checks and vetting on Governor Sarah Palin.

Word is they have have eight rooms reserved at a Wasilla hotel.

Gail Collins, a Republican and former speaker of the Alaska House, told an Anchorage Daily News reporter that she didn't hear from any party leaders in the state who had spoken to McCain vetters about Palin prior to her selection:

"I said to [my husband] Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.

Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.

"We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something."

As I said Saturday, I expect a flood of colorful stuff to come out about the Palins, who've never been subjected to scrutiny one-thousandth as intense as what they'll be facing now. This morning, an Alaskan named Steven Oaks posted a 1996 family video on YouTube that's purported to be Todd Palin talking to his daughter Bristol on the day he learned Sarah was elected mayor of Wasilla. Oaks claims the video was in a camera donated to Iditarod Elementary School by the Palins when Bristol was a student in his mother Mary Oaks' class.

The video allegedly shows Todd Palin awakened from bed to hear that his wife has won the election, news he either doesn't take well or jokes with his daughter about. I don't know that it's really Palin, but there's a decent resemblance to a 2007 photo from an Alaskan TV station story and another photo on Flickr.

In the six-minute video, Todd Palin gets a call from his wife where he learns she won. "I know I said you'd never be mayor," he tells his wife. "Of course I'm thrilled. Yes, I'm thrilled. I'm glad. Congratulations." After the call, he tells his daughter Bristol as she operates the camera, "Your momma is the mayor and I didn't think she was gonna win. How can your momma be the mayor and I'm a fisherman?"

He continues, in a sleepy stream-of-consciousness ramble, "How can daddy be the boss if your momma's the mayor? Miss Whale Blubber 1996 is now the mayor. That kinda makes me feel uncomfortable, honey."

Expressing what he characterizes as "private fisherman thoughts," Palin occasionally pleads with his daughter to shut off the camera. "Your momma is a moose hunter. ... Daddy's starting to feel like a fisherman and that's all."

After asking his daughter whether being a fisherman is better than being a mayor and getting the wrong answer, Palin concludes, "Does daddy like that mommy's the mayor? No. Daddy don't like that. ... Daddy's startin' to feel inadequate."

Update: After it became clear that I was in the distinct minority in believing the video might not be a hoax, I started emailing around Alaska to see if I could find someone who knew what Todd Palin looked like in the mid-'90s. The aforementioned Andrew Halcro watched it and sent this response: "Not only fake but insulting."

Politics · 2008/09/01 · 30 COMMENTS · Link

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