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Sarah Palin Thread

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More and more the US Election is being energized by Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin.....there's a lot of interest by myself and others as she comes across as a breath of fresh air in normally staid, boring US Politics.....

Articles found September 8, 2008

Sarah Palin to be energy independence chief in John McCain's government
John McCain wants to put Sarah Palin in charge of US oil and energy policy if he becomes president, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
By Tim Shipman in St Paul, Minnesota Last Updated: 5:21PM BST 06 Sep 2008
Article Link

The Republican presidential candidate will make his running mate the public face of the country's drive for energy independence, according to a McCain campaign official.

Mr McCain, whose selection of Mrs Palin has electrified Republican supporters, wants to capitalise on her expertise in the oil and gas sector while governor of Alaska. He believes that her record of taking on oil company chiefs will help convince the public that his government would not be in the pocket of energy fat cats, a perception that has damaged George W.Bush's poll ratings.

The move would give Mr McCain political cover to resume widespread domestic drilling for oil, even in areas of environmental fragility.

Mrs Palin backs drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which Mr McCain has previously opposed. Should he decide to reverse that position he will use Mrs Palin to make the case that it is necessary.

The campaign official said: "The Democrats say that Governor Palin is inexperienced, but she has vast experience in the energy sector. She will be at the forefront of the push for energy independence. She's popular and she's very persuasive." A Republican Party official, who has discussed Mrs Palin's role with members of Mr McCain's team, added: "She can say: 'I'm from Alaska. I know all about this and I support drilling, even in ANWR."

Mr McCain discussed the role Mrs Palin would play in government as well as the election campaign when he held a three-hour getting-to-know-you session two weeks ago.

To assuage angry green activists, the prospective vice president will also be charged with overseeing a dramatic increase in federal support for the development of clean coal and electric car technology, as well as the spread of wind and solar power.
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Sarah Palin brings the Hillary Clinton era to an end
Whether or not Sarah Palin wins, for American women, politics will never be the same again, says Anne Applebaum.
Last Updated: 1:09AM BST 07 Sep 2008
Article Link

She wasn’t going to “stay home and bake cookies”, she was going to reform the health-care system: if we elected her husband, we were thus going to get “two for the price of one”. With those words, Hillary Clinton launched herself into America’s national consciousness, and began a political career that very nearly brought her the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year. Though she lost that contest, along the way she succeeded in making herself into something more than an ordinary woman in politics. She became an archetype, the Female American Politician.

More than that: she became the archetype of the Powerful American Woman. She herself once explained the hostility she inspires as the misdirected fury of men who were angry at a “female boss” or other female authority figure. They felt bad about being subordinate to a woman at work, so they took it out on her.

This was not entirely accurate: some people disliked Hillary just because she was Hillary. But it’s true that her personal style – frequently chilly, determinedly frumpy, visibly calculating, pointedly humourless – did come to seem like a kind of norm. That’s why, when she lost the Democratic nomination, it wasn’t hard for some to see it as a defeat for all women. If Hillary couldn’t make it in national politics, her disappointed supporters declared, then no woman could.

As anybody who has been watching the news for the past week will already know, that statement turned out to be dead wrong. As it turns out, there are numerous ways for women to be politically powerful in America, and they don’t all involve wearing shapeless trouser suits and looking frosty: Sarah Palin, enter stage right.
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Sarah Palin's Alaska aides will be forced to reveal her office secrets in Troopergate inquiry
Senior aides to Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to be compelled to reveal the inner workings of her state office in an ethics probe that could be highly embarrassing for the new Republican vice-presidential candidate.
By Philip Sherwell in Wasilla, Alaska Last Updated: 10:26PM BST 06 Sep
Article Link

Alaskan legislators have raised the stakes in their investigation of John McCain's newly anointed running mate by declaring their intention to subpoena key members of her staff, obliging them to give evidence.

Mrs Palin, 44, who has electrified the race for the White House, denies claims that she abused her powers by dismissing an official who refused to fire her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, as a state trooper.

The cross-party judiciary committee also said it was bringing forward the date for its report into the woman who has electrified the by three weeks, to October 10. That is seen as a rebuff to attempts by the governor's newly-hired legal team to stall an inquiry which she had said she welcomed before her surprise nomination to the Republican ticket.

Separately, Mr Wooten's police union has filed an ethics complaint against Mrs Palin and her administration, claiming that his personnel files were viewed unlawfully.

"Troopergate" has its roots in a long-standing and bitter feud between the Palin family and Mr Wooten, who underwent a messy divorce and custody battle with Mrs Palin's sister. In his first public comments on Friday night, Mr Wooten denied allegations that he threatened to shoot his then father-in-law during the acrimonious split.

The controversy is among many elements of Mrs Palin's life in Wasilla that is now under the political and media microscope after her stunning debut on the national stage.
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Sarah Palin: Nemesis of Barack Obama
By Amando Doronila Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 06:44:00 09/08/2008
Article Link

MANILA, Philippines—Less than a week after the Republican Party nominated Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as its vice presidential candidate for the November elections, the rejuvenated Republicans have found a new star who has stolen the thunder from their presidential standard-bearer, Sen. John McCain, as well as from the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama.

New polls taken on Friday showed that the presidential race had tightened since Palin delivered her vice presidential acceptance speech on Wednesday. Gallup and Rasmussen daily tracking polls reported at the weekend that McCain was narrowly trailing Obama.

Gallup reported that the surveys conducted before the Palin speech showed Obama with a 49 to 42 percent advantage over McCain. Friday’s survey showed that lead reduced 48 to 44 percent. On Tuesday, the poll reported Obama ahead, 50 to 42 percent. According to Yahoo News, while the Gallup shift from Friday was not statistically significant, other surveys also reported public opinion was moving toward the Republicans following their party convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ramussen reported that when “leaners” were included, Obama was ahead of McCain, 48 to 46 percent. The day before, Obama was ahead by 5 percentage points.

These results show that McCain, who was neck-and-neck with Obama for a week, has been chipping away on the advantage gained by Obama after the Democratic Party’s nominating convention in Denver, Colorado, more than two weeks ago.
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Confessions of a Secret Sarah AdmirerMaybe I'm a sucker for a frontier myth, the narrative of a person who rises up in a frozen, faraway place by making her own rules.
Published Sep 6, 2008
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I have a dirty little secret.

I really like Sarah Palin. It's kind of embarrassing, because I was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and because I live in a liberal bubble in Brooklyn, N.Y. I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but the more my friends and media colleagues attack Palin for being a lightweight or a hick or a lunatic, the more I like her.

I liked her the first time I saw a picture of her, nearly a year ago in this magazine. It illustrated a story about how women leaders like Palin and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano were gaining power at the state level. Palin, BlackBerry in one hand, Red Bull in the other, checked her messages as she crossed the street, seemingly oblivious to her youngest daughter, Piper, who trailed along behind her, jumping rope in the crosswalk. Now that's my kind of working mom, I thought.

I liked her even more after her speech at the Republican convention, and not just because she gave a masterful performance. I am riveted by her family and struck by what appears to be her complete confidence in the choices she's made. Women both liberal and conservative may be locked in combat about whether she went back to work too soon after Trig's birth or whether she should be making a run for national office when her teenage daughter is pregnant. But if Palin is agonizing about her decisions, it doesn't show.

Which does not mean that I would do what she did—or that I will vote for the McCain-Palin ticket, because like many former Hillary supporters, I would not step over Roe v. Wade to vote for anyone. I took a six-month maternity leave and I doubt I would run for national office if my daughter were pregnant. But as I watched Palin and her family on that stage, the way she embraced daughter Bristol and called Trig a perfectly beautiful boy, I liked what I saw. I found her lack of defensiveness admirable. And if I were nominated for the vice presidency, I would probably let my kids stay up way past their bedtimes, too.
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Rumors of Sarah Palin-Scott Richter Affair Denied
Posted on September 6th, 2008 12:07 PM by Free Britney
Article Link

The ex-wife of a man said to have had an affair with Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells it's "absolutely, completely false."

"I can tell you this with 1,000 percent certainty, Sarah Palin never had an affair," said Debbie Richter when reached on Friday afternoon.

The rumor that her now ex-husband, Scott Richter, had an affair with Sarah Palin gained momentum after the National Enquirer reported she had been romantically involved with one of Todd Palin's former business associates.

The John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign threatened to sue over the story.
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Sarah Palin is extraordinarily ordinary
By Bruce Anderson Last Updated: 12:01am BST 07/09/2008
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It was the most important Convention in American political history.

At the beginning, the Republicans looked weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. Their candidate was old, tainted by an unpopular war, a stricken economy, and an eight-year presidency that the voters were booing off the stage. Barack Obama was young, eloquent and renewing. He had the future and the big momentum.

Now, everything is in flux. Last weekend, I phoned around my Republican friends. Who is Sarah Palin and what do you know about her?

If cliche can be forgiven, there is an easy summary of their answers: gobsmacked.

I was told that she is focused, energetic, able and determined. But in British politics, it would be like meeting a bright girl at a Tory conference, who was fighting a safe Labour seat with ferocious energy and whom it would be easy to imagine as a junior minister, in 10 years' time.

America is different. Despite an increasingly urbanised society, the founding myths still overshadow the political system: virgin soil, the open frontier, log cabin to White House. Even though most recent candidates have been multi-millionaires with a campaign budget the size of a second-world country's GDP, Americans insist on believing that anyone can aspire to the presidency.
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Bringing Up Baby
September 7, 2008
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Young Bristol Palin threatened to take the spotlight off her mother, Sarah Palin, this past week with the announcement that the teenage daughter of the GOP's vice presidential choice was pregnant but unwed. We asked feminist scholar Gina Barreca and conservative pundit Laurence D. Cohen for their thoughts.

GINA: Can you imagine what the right-wing, ultra-conservative, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou types would be saying if it had been one of the Democratic nominees' daughters who got pregnant by a self-proclaimed redneck who declared in his MySpace page that he never wanted to have children?

Can you just imagine?

Can you imagine the knee-slappin', whoopin' and hollerin' jubilation had, for example, Chelsea Clinton's hockey-playing boyfriend been the one to say, "Oops, sorry, I meant to take it offside"?
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So far the media's effort to destroy Palin have resulted in the McCain-Palin ticket jumping ahead of Obama by as much as 10 points.
 
I really think that because of Palin, the Republicans will stay in the White House. I guess a lot more people believe that too, but hey, I wanted McCain to win in the first place ;)


-Deadpan
 
Most of the American conservatives I talk to, cordially detest McCain. They didn't so much want him to win as they really didn't want to see Obama get in power.
I have a lot of Republican friends down there and for the last several months they've been moping around all disgruntled and resigned to their fate -basically acting like we do most election years. :)
Now most of them are so pumped up, you could use one of them to jump-start a C-17.  It's nice to see.

I think it's quite a stretch comparing her to Ronald Reagan (which a lot of them are doing) but you can't blame them for being excited.
I agree that she has given the Republicans a real shot at staying in the White House. 
 
Sarah Palin's style: the issue at hand
Until time reveals more of the Alaska governor's substance, we can't help but study the Republican VP nominee's style.
By Booth Moore, Times Fashion Critic September 7, 2008
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WHAT TO do about the war, what to do about the economy, what to do about those rimless glasses and that saucy updo? Style has never been more important than it is in this election. That's not just because this high-stakes political contest is being watched by a tabloid and celebrity-obsessed culture. It's also because this election now has so many powerful women on the national stage who are putting their message across with vastly different style strategies.

For months, we've seen how polarizing style can be, dissecting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's gender-neutral pantsuits, Cindy McCain's $300,000 Oscar de la Renta-and-diamonds convention outfit and Michelle Obama's throwback Jackie O. shift dresses. But in a little more than a week, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, has stolen the campaign's style spotlight, causing a run on Kawasaki 704 eyeglass frames and upswept hairstyles.



Photos: Sarah Palin: Style NotebookFashion can be a potent tool for packaging a candidate (or "co-candidate," as political spouses take on more substantial roles). And though men can speak volumes just by washing the gray out of their hair, or choosing to wear makeup on TV, women have bigger challenges. Keeping the focus on the issues, not the clothes or their looks. Projecting authority while seeming approachable, not elitist. If you're a woman in the spotlight of a high-profile race, the issue quickly becomes: What changes are you willing to make to your appearance to get people to take you seriously? And in a savvy, YouTube-aware way, how will you use style to telegraph your essence?

A beauty queen turned politician by way of the PTA, Palin has a style strategy that's quite clever. In an interview in Vogue magazine in February, when rumors of her as a possible VP candidate were only whispers, the Alaska governor said she was trying to be "as frumpy as I could by wearing my hair on top of my head and these schoolmarm glasses." (Never mind that she was appearing in Vogue, bastion of the fashion obsessed, which Clinton famously refused to do when she was campaigning for president.)

Barely a blip on the political radar before now, Palin has to go the extra mile to hone her VP style. But far from uglifying herself, she plays up her sexuality. And this early on, Palin is already playing the image game like a pro. When Sen. John McCain accepted the nomination Thursday night, she wore a black satin jacket that dipped just low enough in front so you could see some cleavage. In this political marriage, Palin clearly knows she's the trophy.


Her hair is a study in contrasts, carefree and "done" at the same time. The untidiness of her updo has a can-do spirit that says, "I have more important things to do than worry about my hair, so I just twirled it into this clip so I could get to the real business of governing and shooting caribou and having babies and taking them to hockey practice."

The bouffant in the front, which appears to be teased from underneath, is more traditional, to appeal to the GOP base and those big donors from Houston who've been known to fly with their hairstylists on their private planes. And yet, you get the feeling that at the end of the day, she could shake out that lustrous mane (longer than any other major female U.S. political figure's) and get it on with her man.

She wears skirts that are quite form-fitting and often goes without stockings. As ZZ Top might say, she's got legs, and she knows how to use 'em. When Sen. John McCain introduced her at an Aug. 29 campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, she was wearing open-toed red patent leather shoes. The only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick, she said in her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday. She could have added to that joke the black pencil skirt and shiny, oyster-colored jacket she wore that night, a more modern take on Clinton's power pantsuit. It looked darn good.

Which is not to say that style is a substitute for substance. But because she's a relative unknown, style is a lot of what we know about Palin right now. No doubt, in coming days her positions on the issues will eclipse our fascination with the brand of eyeglasses she wears. If they didn't, that would be the worst double standard of all.
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For VP candidate, the puck stops here
Article Link

I liked the part at the convention where she said she was a hockey mom. I was so surprised. I pumped my fist and shouted 'Awright.' Hockey moms rule."

-- Gwen Davis, 63, hockey grandmother, at Walter Baker Arena

When Sarah Palin boasted she's a hockey mom, I thought how cool, how Canadian, this will resonate hugely and positively in the land that worships the puck and do wonders for our ingrained national inferiority complex. C'mon, the possible next vice-president of the United States of America a proud and rabid hockey mom?

It's enough for Canada to bestow citizenship on her. It's enough for Canada to annex Alaska.

When's the last time an American running for the second highest office in the land, or even the highest, was a hockey anything?

Maybe football something, baseball something, basketball something, golf something -- but hockey? Our game? Never.

HUNTIN' AND FISHIN'

Should we be surprised, Sarah Palin, hockey mom? Probably not. When you think of Alaska, you do kind of think of Canada. Big, cold, and empty, lots of huntin' and fishin' and snowmobilin' and, yeah, HOCKEY, lots of hockey going on way up there, the place nuts about hockey, one of those nuts about hockey being the governor's 19-year-old son, Track.

Track Palin was so good a player growing up in Wasilla, population 7,900, that a couple of years ago when he was playing with the Alaska All-Stars, his mom and dad got him into competitive Bantam AAA in Portage, Michigan for the greater exposure of his talents, hoping for a possible college hockey scholarship. Such was the love of Sarah Palin, hockey mom, for her son and the sport he played, that, when she could, she'd fly down from Alaska to watch him in tournaments, one a four-day affair in Dallas.

Sadly for Track Palin, he blew his shoulder out requiring major surgery, and that was the end of his hockey. He left the family he was billeted with, returned to Wasilla, joined the army, and is about to be shipped to Iraq.

With hockey moms never getting recognition they deserve, and Sarah Palin now the world's most famous hockey mom -- signs everywhere she goes saying Hockey Moms For Palin and Hockey Moms United For Sarah -- I decide, for the nourishment it will give our national psyche, to find out more about the hockey momming of Sarah Palin.

I thought it'd be rather easy. Wrong.
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Strange that you say that, I keep getting anti-Obama e-mails from my cousin in Wisconson.  I guess maybe the american political picture is broken down into geographical areas as opposed to individual mindsets and personal political beleifs.
Me, I'd actually like to see someone in the oval office who can be a stronge leader and not mess up his words.  I find GWB to appear to be an idiot when he opens his mouth.
my $0.02
 
BYT Driver said:
I find GWB to appear to be an idiot when he opens his mouth.
my $0.02

As do I....if you are going to put someone into the whitehouse, at least have them be able to do a basic speech....

At least now it's a true race....not necessarily on issues, then when has that ever been the case (rather than personalities)
 
After watching both the DNC and RNC on TV (my wife is American and is anxiously awaiting November - she claims if the Republicans win again she may as well renounce her US citizenship), I have to say that I was stunned by the Republicans.  All of their speeches were just trite cliches and it sounds like they really have no ideas to offer.  It seems like when the Dems say that all McCain represents is "four more years of the last eight years" they're right.  Astoundingly most of the Republican talking points on Democratic policy seem to be in direct contrast to what the Dems actually say.  The fact that there are still anti-Obama emails floating around based on falsehoods suggests to me that the Republican Party really is scared.

At the end of the day though I think that VP candidates will be a lot more significant in this race - because McCain's not exactly young and doesn't have the best health record.  Is Sarah Palin really ready should she get to step up?  I don't really think being Mayor of a town of 7,000 and governor of one of the least populated states is that great preparation.

The thing of it all is that I don't know that Obama will be much better.  His plans for healthcare will improve the quality of life of a lot of Americans.  My grandmother-in-law looks with great envy north now that her health is failing and she's stuck with medicare and social security only.  It's not going to be Canadian-style universal health care but his proposals will be more palatable to Americans.  I think that the Dems will do well to play on how out of touch the GOP is with average Americans.  Listening to Rudy Giuliani go on about how "the Democrats never once mentioned 9/11 during their convention" (or however he worded it) was a prime example.  While 9/11 certainly shouldn't be forgotten, looking back at it constantly is not helping the US - it's time to get moving on again and that seems to be what Obama and Biden are more interested in.  They know they have to get out of Iraq because that's not selling anymore.  They know that they have to focus on Afghanistan.  They know that they have a lot of work to do to fix the American economy too.  I don't think the Republicans have any more answers at least.

It'll be interesting to see how this race shapes up - far more interesing than the Canadian election at least.
 
Anyone who thinks socialism is the answer all they have to do is look at Europe.Healthcare and social security is bleeding their budgets dry. Fewer and fewer euros are available to be spent on defense,infrastructure ect. This is what we in the US would have to look foreward to under Obama - another $1 trillion in new spending,tax increases,higher fuel costs,price increases in everything.Higher uneployment from businesses that cut payroll because of higher taxes.Obama is a socialist as is many in his party.This election is a referendum on Obama and whether America is ready to lurch to the left.
 
tomahawk6 said:
Anyone who thinks socialism is the answer all they have to do is look at Europe.Healthcare and social security is bleeding their budgets dry. Fewer and fewer euros are available to be spent on defense,infrastructure ect. This is what we in the US would have to look foreward to under Obama - another $1 trillion in new spending,tax increases,higher fuel costs,price increases in everything.Higher uneployment from businesses that cut payroll because of higher taxes.Obama is a socialist as is many in his party.This election is a referendum on Obama and whether America is ready to lurch to the left.
That is the the best post I've read all day!


-Deadpan
 
Obama is hardly a socialist.  Americans seem to be totally unable to conceive of what socialism even means.   And with the Republicans blowing trillions of dollars on their pointless war in Iraq I find it rich when the Republicans talk about taxes and government spending.  From what I've read the sort of healthcare system Obama wants to see is still a user-pay system, but one where there's access to at least a basic minimum level of care for all.  He's not advocating anything like Europe - the only people who seem to think that are those who've bought into the nonsense the Republicans are pushing while they continue to screw the middle class.

The only people the Dems seem to have an interest in hitting with a tax burden is companies that offshore American jobs.  I don't really see how that's bad for the middle class/working class who are going to get screwed by outsourcing.

tomahawk6 said:
Anyone who thinks socialism is the answer all they have to do is look at Europe.Healthcare and social security is bleeding their budgets dry. Fewer and fewer euros are available to be spent on defense,infrastructure ect. This is what we in the US would have to look foreward to under Obama - another $1 trillion in new spending,tax increases,higher fuel costs,price increases in everything.Higher uneployment from businesses that cut payroll because of higher taxes.Obama is a socialist as is many in his party.This election is a referendum on Obama and whether America is ready to lurch to the left.
 
I think many would agree that the wrong Palin has been nominated for office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf1y9s73Nos

 
Articles found September 9, 2008

McCain banks over $4 million at fund-raiser
September 9, 2008
Article Link

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimescom
Used to dismissing polls that showed him trailing in the presidential race, Republican nominee John McCain had to switch gears Monday night, now that a USA Today/Gallup Poll shows him leading Democrat Barack Obama by four points among registered voters and 10 points among likely voters.

"We don't pay any attention to polls," when they show him behind, McCain said. "Now we're up in the polls, 5 points up in Gallup. So those polls are always exactly right ... right on the mark, totally accurate. It's funny how life is with polls."

That drew laughs and cheers from donors at Chicago's Hilton & Towers Hotel. The fund-raiser was expected to bring in $4.5 million for Republicans to spend primarily in the swing states of Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

McCain gave much of the credit for his surge to his vice-presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"She's a remarkable person ... I'm very pleased Sarah is on the ticket," McCain said. "The America people want change in Washington, and they want the right kind of change. They are glad that someone like Gov. Sarah Palin has taken on her party and the special interests in Alaska. I have stood up against my party when I had to. And Sen. Obama has never once stood up to his party. You know that very well in the state of Illinois."
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Sarah Palin's Secret Emails
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The Palin administration won't release hundreds of emails from her office, claiming they cover confidential policy matters. Then why do the subject lines refer to a political foe, a journalist, and non-policy topics?

In June, Andrée McLeod, a self-described independent government watchdog in Alaska, sent an open records act request to the office of Governor Sarah Palin. She requested copies of all the emails that had been sent and received by Ivy Frye and Frank Bailey, two top aides to Palin, from February through April of this year. McLeod, a 53-year-old registered Republican who has held various jobs in state government, suspected that Frye and Bailey had engaged in political activity during official business hours in that period by participating in a Palin-backed effort to oust the state chairman of the Alaska Republican party, Randy Ruedrich. (Bailey has been in the national news of late for refusing to cooperate with investigators probing whether Palin fired Alaska's public safety commission because he did not dismiss a state trooper who had gone through an ugly divorce with Palin's sister.)

In response to her request, McLeod received four large boxes of emails. This batch of documents did not contain any proof that Frye and Bailey had worked on government time to boot out Ruedrich. But there was other information she found troubling. Several of the emails suggested to her that Palin's office had used its influence to reward a Fairbanks surveyor who was a Palin fundraiser with a state job. In early August, McLeod filed a complaint with the state attorney general against Palin, Bailey, and other Palin aides, claiming they had violated ethics and hiring laws. Palin, now the Republican vice-presidential candidate, told the Alaska Daily News that "there were no favors done for anybody."

But more intriguing than any email correspondence contained in the four boxes was what was not released: about 1100 emails. Palin's office provided McLeod with a 78-page list (PDF) cataloging the emails it was withholding. Many of them had been written by Palin or sent to her. Palin's office claimed most of the undisclosed emails were exempt from release because they were covered by the "executive" or "deliberative process" privileges that protect communications between Palin and her aides about policy matters. But the subject lines of some of the withheld emails suggest they were not related to policy matters. Several refer to one of Palin's political foes, others to a well-known Alaskan journalist. Moreover, some of the withhold emails were CC'ed to Todd Palin, the governor's husband. Todd Palin—a.k.a. the First Dude—holds no official state position (though he has been a close and influential adviser for Governor Palin). The fact that Palin and her aides shared these emails with a citizen outside the government undercuts the claim that they must be protected under executive privilege. McLeod asks, "What is Sarah Palin hiding?"
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Media ferocity toward Palin reveals double standard
Patrick J. Buchanan, Creators Syndicate, Inc. Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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One wonders: What did Sarah Palin ever do to inspire the rage and bile that exploded on her selection by John McCain as his running mate? What is there either in this woman's record or resume to elicit such ferocity?

What did we know of her when she was introduced?

That she was a mother of five who had brought into this world a baby boy with Down syndrome, thus living her Christian beliefs. That she was a small-town conservative who had risen from mayor of Wasilla (population 9,700) to be governor of a state twice the size of Texas.

That she was a reformer who had dethroned an old boys' network by dumping a sitting Republican governor. That she had taken on Big Oil, taxed the companies and returned the money in $1,200 checks to every citizen of Alaska. And that she had cut a deal with Canada to build a pipeline to bring natural gas to her fellow Americans.

And, oh, yes. She was "Sarah Barracuda" - a fierce high school athlete, a runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, a Feminist for Life and lifetime member of the NRA. Introduced by McCain, she praised Hillary Rodham Clinton and pledged to finish her work by smashing through the glass ceiling in which Clinton had made 18 million cracks.

What, in any or all of this, is there to justify the feral attacks within minutes of her introduction? What had she done to cause this outburst? Answer: absolutely nothing.

No. Palin is not resented for what she has done, but for who she is: a Christian conservative who believes unborn children are gifts of God, even those with birth defects, and have a God-given right to life.

Normally, the press is reluctant to rummage into the private lives of public servants, unless their conduct affects their duties or they preach virtues they hypocritically do not practice.

Yet, no sooner was Palin introduced, than the media went berserk over the news that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. As 1 in 3 births in America is out-of-wedlock and Hollywood celebrates this lifestyle, why did the New York Times and the Washington Post splash this "news" on page one above the fold?

How does Bristol Palin's pregnancy disqualify Sarah Palin to be vice president? Why is it even relevant?

They did it because they thought it would damage Sarah Palin in the eyes of a Christian community they do not comprehend.
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Sarah Palin wins over Bush and Cheney
September 9, 2008
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The president calls the Alaska governor 'a very dynamic, capable, smart woman.' The vice president says he loved her convention speech.

President Bush hailed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's executive experience, saying it would serve her well if she becomes the next vice president.

"She's had executive experience and that's what it takes to be a capable person here in Washington, D.C., in the executive branch," Bush said in an interview to be aired this morning on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends."


He added that Palin seemed "a very dynamic, capable, smart woman."

Interviewed on the White House lawn after the last T-ball game of his administration, Bush said he did not feel left out of the race. Then he added, "You know, sometimes I long to be out there campaigning, but everything comes to an end."

Earlier, Vice President Dick Cheney told reporters in Rome that he "loved" Palin's speech to the Republican National Convention, especially the line about the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is the lipstick.


Asked if Palin could handle the vice presidency, Cheney -- possibly the most powerful vice president in history -- said: "Everybody brings a different set of experiences to the office, and also has a different kind of understanding with whoever the president is. Each administration is different. And there's no reason why Sarah Palin can't be a successful vice president in a McCain administration."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was more circumspect. In an interview with CNN over the weekend, Rice ducked questions about the Alaska governor's experience in foreign affairs.
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Palin's Star Power Can Outshine McCain
By LAURA MECKLER September 9, 2008; Page A6
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LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- Sarah Palin has become the new phenomenon on the campaign trail, at times overshadowing her workmanlike running mate, John McCain, with a pugnacious, sarcastic speaking style that whips up crowds and wins over voters who had never heard of her two weeks ago.

The Alaska governor's stump persona has been on display in the four days since the ticket took their show on the road after the Republican convention in St. Paul.

While social conservatives have rallied behind Gov. Palin because of her views on abortion and gay marriage, she never mentions those issues, or invokes religion in her speeches.

Gov. Palin's style is easy and comfortable, unlike the man who put her on the ticket, who shines at town-hall meetings but often appears awkward and stiff in formal speeches. She had less than a week to prepare and practice for her convention speech, but it came off like she had been rehearsing for weeks. Sen. McCain practiced his speech many times before delivering it and still didn't match her performance.
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Palin's daughter's hurry-up marriage
Merlene Davis, Lexington Herald-Leader Published: Tuesday, September 09, 2008
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LEXINGTON, Ky. - I have a problem with some news organizations that have used fiancé when referring to Levi Johnston, the young man being introduced as the father of Bristol Palin's unborn child.

In a statement released by Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate for the Republican party, and her husband, Todd, announcing their daughter's pregnancy, they said, "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family."

Johnston's mother, Sherry Johnston, told the Associated Press that Levi and Bristol had talked of marriage before they knew about the pregnancy. "This is just a bonus," she said.
I respect that and don't doubt it.
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Hiding Sarah Palin behind 'deference'
Media access to the Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee will be tightly controlled. Charles Gibson of ABC gets the first shot. There's a long list of questions he could start with.
By JAMES RAINEY, ON THE MEDIA September 9, 2008
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John McCain's campaign essentially confirmed over the weekend what some had suspected: Media access to Sarah Palin, would-be vice president of the United States, will be tightly controlled.

Troublemakers need not apply.

And how will we know those troublemakers? They will be the ones unwilling to treat the governor of Alaska with what campaign manager Rick Davis called "some level of respect and deference."

Deference?

The dictionary definitions I find begin with "respectful submission" and "yielding."


That might be the right approach for a reporter lucky enough to interview McCain's 96-year-old mother, Roberta. (If only our politicians were so plain-spoken.)

But it would be wrong -- and, dare I say it, even sexist -- to suggest that Sarah Barracuda is too meek for a little back-and-forth with the denizens of the Fourth Estate.

Early this year, voters (and a certain "Saturday Night Live" skit) rightly smacked news outlets for falling captive to the Barack Obama "rock star" narrative. They demanded to know more about the Democrat than that he had a knack for drawing big crowds and delivering inspiring speeches.

Those complaints and a time-honored primary season tradition -- reporters boring in on candidates after they become front-runners -- helped spur a tougher look at Obama. Stories examined his fundraising, picking over his ties to shady fundraiser Antoin Rezko; detailed his apparent comfort in the bare-knuckle world of Chicago politics; and described his awkward attempts to downplay his opposition to the military "surge" in Iraq, even as it appeared to be having some success.
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tomahawk6 said:
Anyone who thinks socialism is the answer all they have to do is look at Europe.Healthcare and social security is bleeding their budgets dry. Fewer and fewer euros are available to be spent on defense,infrastructure ect. This is what we in the US would have to look foreward to under Obama - another $1 trillion in new spending,tax increases,higher fuel costs,price increases in everything.Higher uneployment from businesses that cut payroll because of higher taxes.Obama is a socialist as is many in his party.This election is a referendum on Obama and whether America is ready to lurch to the left.

You already have severly increasing unemployment and severly increased spending (with completely illogical tax cuts) leading to massive deficit.  And an incumbant party who wants to maintain the status quo. 

The one thing I will give the Dems is some of their increased spending will be on healthcare.  And I'll be honest, before I joined when I got sick I never worried about going bankrupt or losing my house.  Say what you want about public health care, but theres something to be said about the fact that the US is one of the(if not the) only industrialized countries without public health care.
 
Adamant said:
The one thing I will give the Dems is some of their increased spending will be on healthcare.  And I'll be honest, before I joined when I got sick I never worried about going bankrupt or losing my house.  Say what you want about public health care, but theres something to be said about the fact that the US is one of the(if not the) only industrialized countries without public health care.

Actually the US has quite a range of healthcare initiatives, but the main sticking point is that it mainly covers the lower incomes and leaves the lower middle class suffering financial hardship, even when they have some limited health care coverage.

This situation is not the result of people not wanting the coverage, it is more so the result of powerful lobbyists over the years working to maintain the profitable healthcare status quo.


 
GAP said:
Actually the US has quite a range of healthcare initiatives, but the main sticking point is that it mainly covers the lower incomes and leaves the lower middle class suffering financial hardship, even when they have some limited health care coverage.

This situation is not the result of people not wanting the coverage, it is more so the result of powerful lobbyists over the years working to maintain the profitable healthcare status quo.

That's my point, is that there is all kinds of Americans in the lower - lower middle Tax bracket, and those who work for small businesses who just cannot afford to have health insurance as much as they would love to.  But even in listening to the rhetoric it's almost as if the concept of Universal health care is alien to them.  As I had heard all through the Democratic primary about their Universal health insurance plans. 
 
Adamant said:
That's my point, is that there is all kinds of Americans in the lower - lower middle Tax bracket, and those who work for small businesses who just cannot afford to have health insurance as much as they would love to.  But even in listening to the rhetoric it's almost as if the concept of Universal health care is alien to them.  As I had heard all through the Democratic primary about their Universal health insurance plans. 

The Health Care lobby has created and maintained a Universal Health Care BoggyMan and they keep shoving it into the legislator's and voter's faces everytime it comes up....look back at the Clinton approach to expanding heathcare....by the time the lobbyists were finished, nothing had changed.
 
How is that universal healthcare working out for Canadians ? The rationing of healthcare is something we dont want here in the US.
 
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