Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[clement]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but Palin is under an ethics investigation for abuse of power. Apparently her sister was married to a state trooper and after a bitter divorce, she ordered him to be fired. When the trooper's boss refused to fire him, she allegedly stepped in and fired him herself. The Republican-controlled Alaska legislature has appointed an independent prosecutor to investigate.

Wow.... if so, that's a fumble on the McCain camp's part.

Yeah, I read about this earlier. It doesn't look good for Palin that she is coming from a state where the Alaskan GOP is mired in corruption.

True, but she is seen as someone who has taken on a lot of those old-school corrupt Alaskan GOP politicians. But, whatever the story, it's not a good idea to be a target in the midst of an ethics investigation and be named the VP candidate. It'd be different if the scandal had already come and gone.

This makes me laugh

I know I said I was done with this thread, but this is just too good to pass up

Do you really think Joe Schmo you and I are reading all about this "scandal" on the newswires but that McCain and the Republican party were completely unaware of it? I'm pretty sure that they are pretty confident that nothing is going to come of this and that she's going to be found of no wrong doing

But it's funny that we're fishing for scandal

You can be done with the thread or you can continue to be condasceding if that's what you wanna be because we all know that the Republicans never fish for scandals. I'm not fishing, I'm simply pointing out something that's out there. She is under an ethics investigation by a Republican controlled legislature for abuse of power. That's just a fact. I'm not suggesting that McCain didn't know about it. I am suggesting that regardless of the eventual outcome, it will probably raise questions that will distract from the things that matter. After all, nothing came from Whitewater investigations either other than a lie about a blow-job, yet that little fishing expedition lasted for how many years and cost how much $$ (and distracted our Congress and President from accomplishing how many things?)?

[jim]

Just this week ...

It is against the law for the governor to officially advocate for or against a ballot measure; however, Palin took what she calls "personal privelege" to discuss one of this year's most contentious initiatives, which voters will decide Tuesday.

"Let me take my governor's hat off just for a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4 -- I vote no on that. I have all the confidence in the world that (the Department of Environmental Conservation) and our (Department of Natural Resources) have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place," Palin said. "We're going to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly."

Meanwhile, Alaskans for Clean Water, which supports the measure, has filed a complaint against DNR for a recently-launched state website meant to clarify the issue for voters.

The group believes the state is illegally staking its position on the proposition before Alaskans vote next Tuesday.

A spokesman for the group called Palin's comments "highly unethical."

The full article:


http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8885438

[JG1982]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but Palin is under an ethics investigation for abuse of power. Apparently her sister was married to a state trooper and after a bitter divorce, she ordered him to be fired. When the trooper's boss refused to fire him, she allegedly stepped in and fired him herself. The Republican-controlled Alaska legislature has appointed an independent prosecutor to investigate.

Wow.... if so, that's a fumble on the McCain camp's part.

Yeah, I read about this earlier. It doesn't look good for Palin that she is coming from a state where the Alaskan GOP is mired in corruption.

True, but she is seen as someone who has taken on a lot of those old-school corrupt Alaskan GOP politicians. But, whatever the story, it's not a good idea to be a target in the midst of an ethics investigation and be named the VP candidate. It'd be different if the scandal had already come and gone.

This makes me laugh

I know I said I was done with this thread, but this is just too good to pass up

Do you really think Joe Schmo you and I are reading all about this "scandal" on the newswires but that McCain and the Republican party were completely unaware of it? I'm pretty sure that they are pretty confident that nothing is going to come of this and that she's going to be found of no wrong doing

But it's funny that we're fishing for scandal

You can be done with the thread or you can continue to be condasceding if that's what you wanna be because we all know that the Republicans never fish for scandals. I'm not fishing, I'm simply pointing out something that's out there. She is under an ethics investigation by a Republican controlled legislature for abuse of power. That's just a fact. I'm not suggesting that McCain didn't know about it. I am suggesting that regardless of the eventual outcome, it will probably raise questions that will distract from the things that matter. After all, nothing came from Whitewater investigations either other than a lie about a blow-job, yet that little fishing expedition lasted for how many years and cost how much $$ (and distracted our Congress and President from accomplishing how many things?)?

See my post at the beginning of this page..

thanks

[Michael]

[PujolJunkie]

The same people [expletive] about Obama not being ready to lead are ready to vote for John McCain, who has picked the most inexperienced Vice Presidential candidate of all time who would be taking over in 4 years. Are you serious?

Obama: 8 years in Illinois state legislature, 3 1/2 years United States Senator, President Harvard Law Review, Consitutional Law Scholar, Professor Chicago Law, Author, Prescient grasp of foreign policy.

Sarah Palin: 2 years as Alaskan governor, Mayor of a town that has a population of less than 10k, Mother.

How the hell can anybody attack Obama on being inexperienced and use that as a reason to vote against him, but John McCain obviously doesn't think experience is that big of an issue, because he just picked a soccer mom to be his [expletive] VP.

"[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?"

-- Sarah Palin

[Fat Strat]

I also just heard that her 5th son has downs syndrome. Not that this makes any difference about anything, just sharing the information.

[ghostrunner]

The scandal is on her Wikipedia page. I read about it this morning after I heard her name mentioned. It hasn't been proven that this is why the guy was fired, and he's the one who's alleging that was the cause. According to McCain's people on the news this morning, the issue has been resolved/explained to their satisfaction. She seems to have been cooperating fully with the investigation. I don't think it sounds very serious.

Aside from that, I don't understand why this guy wouldn't fire the trooper.

Public Safety Commissioner dismissal controversy

Governor Palin is currently under investigation by the Alaska Department of Law to determine if she abused her power when firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.[43][44] On July 11, 2008, Palin dismissed Walter Monegan as Commissioner of Public Safety and instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he subsequently turned down.[45][46] The Commisioner serves at the will of the governor, so her right to fire him is not in dispute; but Monegan alleged shortly after his dismissal that it may have been partly due to his reluctance to fire an Alaska State Trooper, Mike Wooten, who had been involved in a divorce and child custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann.[47] In 2006, before Palin was governor, Wooten was briefly suspended for ten days for threatening to kill McCann's (and Palin's) father, tasering his 11-year-old stepson (at the stepson's request), and violating game laws. After a union protest, the suspension was reduced to five days.[48]

Palin replaced Monegan with Chuck Kopp, who had previously been removed from supervision of an employee he had allegedly sexually harassed.[49] Palin knew of Kopp's alleged sexual harassment before she appointed Kopp.[50]

Palin asserted that her dismissal of Monegan was unrelated to the fact that he had not fired Wooten, and asserts that Monegan was instead dismissed for not adequately filling state trooper vacancies, and because he "did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues."[51] Palin acknowledged that a member of her administration, Frank Bailey, did contact the Department of Public Safety regarding Wooten, but both Palin and Bailey say that happened without her knowledge and was unrelated to her dismissal of Monegan.[51] Bailey was put on leave for two months for acting outside the scope of his authority as the Director of Boards and Commissions. Commissioner Monegan received no severance pay, though at the same time another dismissed Commissioner, Charles Kopp (who served only 11 days) received $10,000.[52]

In response to Palin's statement that she had nothing to hide, in August 2008 the Alaska Legislature hired Steve Branchflower to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal. The investigation is being overseen by Democratic State Senator Hollis French, who says that the Palin administration has been cooperating and thus subpoenas are unnecessary.[53] The Palin administration itself was the first to release an audiotape of Bailey making inquiries about the status of the Wooten investigation.[51][54]

[GatewaySnayke]

Do you really think Joe Schmo you and I are reading all about this "scandal" on the newswires but that McCain and the Republican party were completely unaware of it? I'm pretty sure that they are pretty confident that nothing is going to come of this and that she's going to be found of no wrong doing

Well, they don't know that for a fact and Palin (to me) seems like a last resort pick. Let's go through it:

1. He probably wanted Lieberman or Ridge. The problem is that they are pro-choice and for some reason, conservatives are convinced that a pro-choice VP would fracture the party and result in Roe v. Wade sticking. Roe v. Wade is what -- 35 years old? And it still hasn't been overturned, so McCain catered to the stupid of his party (Limbaugh, Rove) by avoiding someone who gives Republicans the heebie jeebies about abortion.

2. Romney could have been big for him in Michigan. He helps cover up McCain's weakness on the economy and he is well liked by a certain part of the Republican Party. But when his 23 houses thing popped up, it became clear that he couldn't pick someone who only reinforced that they are filthy rich and have about 100 homes between them. You can't call Obama an "elitist" when he has one home and you have 100 between two guys.

3. Huckabee appeals only to the religious right and otherwise, Republican have a lot of disdain for him because of his liberal positions on economics. Huckabee genuinely cares for the less fortunate and that is a sign of weakness to the GOP base.

4. So it comes down to Palin, who can be used to invigorate the disgruntled Hillary supporters and add a different dynamic (that of a REAL social conservative, yuck) to the campaign. Plus, the GOP has a political hard-on for her. She's pro-life, pro-capital punishment and supported the Alaskan constitutional ban on gay marriage. She's George W. Bush socially and wants to cut spending (likely on social programs). It's a Republican wet dream that looks terrific in theory, but was only done to take the luster off of Obama's big night in Denver. Plus, John McCain does not really believe in the things Palin does.

[PujolJunkie]

This sums it up. From Paul Begala:

"Palin a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain's age and health become central issues in the campaign, as does his judgment."

[JL21]

Paul Begala kind of reminds me of the Keebler elves.