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The last thing we needed… ‘Uppity’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just a couple of weeks ago we had the Georgia Bigfoot hunters in the national news. Now we’ve got a Georgia congressman complaining that Barack and Michelle Obama are “uppity.”
Uppity.
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The Palin record on earmarks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s a pretty comprehensive rundown of Palin’s documented record on requesting earmarks. In her second term as Wasilla mayor, she got a total of $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of fewer than 9,000 people.
As governor, she requested $254 million in earmarks last year, and $197 million in earmarks this year. As the Seattle Times story notes, that’s more per capita than requested by any other state in the union:
“Palin’s requests to Congress came at a time of huge federal deficits, while Alaska state revenue was soaring due to rising oil prices and a major tax increase on oil production that Palin signed into law in late 2007.
As a result, Alaska this year was in such a money-flushed condition — with no state income tax or sales tax and total state revenues of $10 billion, double the previous year’s — that Palin gained legislative approval for $1,200 cash payments to every Alaskan.”
This, from the candidate who said Wednesday night that she “championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.”
My friends, that is not reform we can believe in.
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A great Night 3 for Sarah Palin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, she did great, coming through for the GOP under what must have been an awful lot of pressure.
In her speech last night, Sarah Palin came across as both personable and tough. She showed a nice flair for the attack line, and seemed quite comfortable slipping a dagger between the ribs of her opponents. This was her first major hurdle, and she cleared it easily. There will be more to come — debates, press conferences, interviews, etc., — but this one she handled. It was impressive.
In fact, the scene had to be a little frightening for Republicans such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, who have ambitions to lead their party someday. They were no doubt watching Palin, and watching the crowd’s reaction, and wondering whether their moment had come and gone, because here was its future. Until last night, the Grand Old Party has looked awful old but not so grand in this convention.
However, go take a look at this Washington Post story. Things are getting pretty sticky for Palin in the Troopergate scandal.
Palin first denied that she, her staff or family had put pressure on anyone to have her ex-brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. Then a tape emerged of a top staff member demanding that the man be fired. Palin quickly altered her story to account for that new evidence, stating just last month that “pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it.”
The Post story blows that second claim out of the water. Former Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan showed Post reporters two e-mails from Palin, e-mails that can be read only as heavy pressure exerted by the governor personally to have her ex-brother-in-law fired. And of course, when Monegan refused to buckle to that pressure, he himself was fired by Palin without public explanation.
Palin staff members who had promised to testify in an investigation of that case are now refusing. Palin herself had promised full cooperation, but now is refusing to be deposed and claims the investigation is illegal.
So … a great performance. But storm clouds are gathering.
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Is Palin victim of media conspiracy?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The McCain campaign and much of the Republican Party are outraged at media coverage of Sarah Palin. McCain strategist Steve Schmidt set the tone perfectly Wednesday, whining about a “faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee.”
Well cry me a river. Let’s take that claim apart, and let’s start with this:
A relative handful of columnists and commentators and a larger number of bloggers have indeed wondered in public about Palin’s decision to accept the nomination so soon after giving birth to a son with Down syndrome, a condition that requires a lot of attention, and when she has a 17-year-old unmarried pregnant daughter. How, they have asked, could Palin do right both by her family and her country?
To the McCain camp, such questions constitute a “vicious and scurrilous” media campaign to ruin a promising conservative candidate, using sexism to do it. Is that true?
Fortunately, we have a similar set of circumstances to compare against the Palin case. In March of 2007, John Edwards decided to continue his presidential campaigning even after his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The reaction will sound familiar.
Rush Limbaugh said the Edwards were turning their eyes to the campaign when they instead should turn their eyes to God. Katie Couric, in a “60 Minutes” interview, accused Edwards of mining his wife’s condition for sympathy votes.
“Even those who may be very empathetic to what you all are facing might question your ability to run the country at the same time you’re dealing with a major health crisis in your family,” Couric told Edwards.
And in Time magazine, columnist Jay Carney wrote that “surely many average Americans have to be wondering at what point the candidate will decide that his duties as husband and father to three children, including a 6- and 8-year-old, trump his duty to his country and the cause of winning the White House.”
Edwards is a man; he is also a liberal. Yet, he faced the same questioning and second-guessing that Palin is now undergoing. Why? Because human beings are drawn to human stories, and the media have an economic incentive to tell those stories, regardless of political bent.
The McCain’s camp complaint about a media “feeding frenzy” focused on Palin is even more precious. John McCain chose to introduce a totally unknown player to the national scene at a critical point in the campaign, and he did so by portraying her as a gun-toting John Wayne mother of five, riding out of the wilds of Alaska to clean up Washington.
And they claim to be shocked at the “feeding frenzy” they set off? In the first hours after the announcement, TV reporters had so little information about Palin that they were reduced to reading off Wikipedia for information. Of course, the media descended on Alaska to try to fill in the gaps as quickly as possible.
The story the McCain camp peddled was so appealing that Palin even drew coverage from US magazine, People and National Enquirer, outlets that would never have wasted ink on a Kay Bailey Hutchison or Tim Pawlenty. Their interest was human, not political.
The real reason Schmidt is angry is because the reporting has shown that so much of the original McCain narrative was untrue.
Palin was cast as a reformer who fought the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” But in fact, she ran for governor in 2006 as a champion of the pork-barrel bridge and “opposed” it only after it was clear the project was dead. We were told that Palin abhors earmarks, the special congressional appropriations that Alaska politicians have used to bleed billions from the American taxpayer. But it turns out Palin fought to get earmarks both as mayor and as governor, hiring lobbyists and going to Washington herself to bring them home.
It’s not the media’s fault that the cinematic story envisioned by McCain and his staff has fallen apart on closer inspection. They just didn’t do their homework, and they got caught.
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GOP convention, Night Two
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apparently, John McCain was a POW.
I’ve always had deep respect for that part of his history, but like anything it can be overplayed to the point of parody. McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt told the Washington Post Tuesday that this election will be decided on the basis of the candidates’ personalities, not their policy positions, and tonight was the embodiment of that approach.
As Fred Thompson said in his speech, “There has never been a time in our nation’s history, since we first pledged allegiance to the American flag, when the character, judgment, and leadership of our president was more important.” That was the message of the night.
I’d have to say, Night Two was probably effective in that driving that home. The segment on Medal of Honor winner Mike Monsoor, who jumped on a grenade in Iraq to save his comrades, was deeply touching, and convention planners clearly hoped to take the emotions built in that segment and transfer them to another legitimate hero in McCain when Thompson got up to speak.
George W. Bush was good in his endorsement of McCain, right down to doing McCain a favor by mentioning the times they’ve disagreed with each other. Pre-convention polling of GOP delegates produced high ratings for Bush as a president, but I think that was largely the stubborn pride of people who don’t want to admit a mistake. The more telling number came when delegates were asked whether Bush had harmed or helped the GOP. Only 15 percent said he had strengthened the party, while 47 percent said he had harmed it.
And Lieberman? Don’t get me started.
As always, keep it respectful out there.
Latest comments
Ben Stein: “Listen, I know people who talk bad about the United States,” my driver said. “I tell them, if you work you can accomplish anything in this country. If you don’t, there’s something wrong with you, not... read the full comment by AJC/DNC Management | Comment on The last thing we needed... 'Uppity' Read The last thing we needed... 'Uppity'
“Obama jumped in to defend him on another occasion when he was asked if he had a problem with minorities. The question was rooted in Biden’s occasional gaffes. He had apologized earlier for describing Obama as “articulate” and “clean”... read the full comment by Mike | Comment on The last thing we needed... 'Uppity' Read The last thing we needed... 'Uppity'
Bush go away: No, you don’t need to apologize for what the Congressmen said. Just acknowledge that in referring to Obama as “uppity” and “boy” the Republican leadership, in true hypocritical fashion, is race-baiting Why the heck... read the full comment by @@ | Comment on The last thing we needed... 'Uppity' Read The last thing we needed... 'Uppity'
Jay might be happy to know that Charles Krauthammer agrees with him that McCain threw a Hail Mary pass in his pick of Palin. Where they differ is that CK acknowledges that she caught it for a touchdown. Of course where I differ from them... read the full comment by RW-(the original) | Comment on The last thing we needed... 'Uppity' Read The last thing we needed... 'Uppity'