The Fact Checkers are hard at work.

[icarus]

The Republicans have admitted to lying about Sarah Palin's history on earmarks and her so-called trip to Iraq.

And whoops, she's told a whopper about Alaska providing 20% of America's energy needs.

- Sarah Palin's visit to Iraq in 2007 consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait, the vice presidential candidate's campaign said yesterday, in the second official revision ofher only trip outside North America. Her trip to Mexico turned out to be a personal vacation. The trip to Ireland was really just a refueling stop.

- By day's end, the McCain campaign backed down from the claim the GOP presidential candidate made on the ABC television show "The View." ... Palin, in fact, requested $198 million in federal earmarks in February. The funny part? McCain has actually stood on the floor of the Senate and pointed out Palin's earmarks as a sign of wasteful spending.

- Palin claims Alaska "produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy." That's not true. Alaska's share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.


That email from Anne Kilkenny has largely checked out.

- Turns out that Palin's spend-a-riffic habits are confirmed. Sports complex. Check. Road bonds. Check. Massive debt. Check. The current mayor of Wasilla defends Palin's history (unsurprisingly, since Palin is governor and might be VP) as part of Wasilla's growth. But a tiny town of 9,000 was left $23 million in debt.

- The Wasilla librarian isn't talking, but the Palin asked if the librarian would ban books at her request. The librarian was told that she and the police chief were being fired. After a community outcry, Palin changed her mind about firing the librarian. The question remains if this was a "test of loyalty" from Palin as Palin claims, or if Palin really intended to ban books. But she did tell the librarian she was fired and had to change her mind. There was an outcry in Wasilla over a book called Pastor, I Am Gay at the time.

I'm so pleased to have groups like www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.com. Remember the old days when you'd find out a claim was bullshit... after the election?


Why does Palin matter?

Because John McCain has had stage two cancer (and high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and he takes kidney medications, the list is long).

McCain is old and he's not in good health.

Comments

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

The trip to Ireland was really just a refueling stop.

Considering the fact that the present Irish government consists of a coalition government with a Fianna Fail Prime Minister (slightly left of center) and a Green Party 'Vice Prime Minster' (AKA Tanaiste!) I can understand why she did that - it would not be a meeting of the minds!

As for our 'President' (more a constitutional head of state, but hey....) Mary Mac Aleese (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Macaleese) is our second woman president, who is also slightly left of center, but nothing compared to her predecessor, Mary Robinson, who would probably have someone like Sarah Palin for breakfast! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Maybe they'd boot her back to Alaska.

[squishtoy.livejournal.com]

With all the news links you and a few other lj friends post nearly daily, I keep thinking about Sarah Palin, and the more I think of her, the less I think of her.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Heh. Clever. *g*

[gwendolen.livejournal.com]

McCain is old and he's not in good health.

You know, something like that should be reason enough for him to not run for presidency. Not so much the fact that he's old, but his health. President of the USA is a highly demanding and very stressful position and should only be filled by someone in good health.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Agreed. He's been keeping it under wraps but he's in much worse shape than I knew.

[illicit-grace.livejournal.com]

Can I ask you something? Do you think Obama will win in november? I...I'm going to vote for him. I really, really, REALLY want him to be president. but...I don't hold out hope anymore. I really don't.

Am I being too pessimistic?

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

You live in a conservative area too? ;_; The only thing around here that gives me hope is that the local obama committee meets in the coffee shop I do some shifts in.

*is also voting for Obama*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Well, Obama lost momentum this summer right after democratic primary so didn't have the kind of convention bounce we could have expected. Part of that was his travels overseas, part of it was his flip-flopping over offshore drilling. Part of that is disappointment that he didn't pick Clinton as his VP. And part of that is that we still don't know what exactly he means by "change."

McCain had the expected post-convention bounce and he has invigorated the ultra-right wing on his behalf with Palin.

He won't pick up the Clinton supporters he hoped for, the pro-choice crowd, but he will pick up the pro-life women who would have voted for Clinton. I spoke with some strongly Republican women last year who were excited that we might have a woman president. Mostly what Palin has done is consolidate the states that voted for Bush behind McCain.

Palin comes at a high price, I think. She won a lot of sympathy over the plight of her teenage daughter - mom's who've gone through similar stuff and been blamed really felt for her. A lot of her positive vibe comes from that sympathy. But she's also nearly the end of her honeymoon phase in the national spotlight, as the questions over her international experience now indicate.

In October the results of the investigation of her firing the safety commissioner in Alaska when he refused to fire a state trooper will be completed. The Republicans have fought long and hard to have that investigation postponed until after the election, but Republicans in Alaska have said, "Let's get everything out on the table." She is not popular in her party for turning in a long-term Republican party wonk for corruption when they were all at the feeding trough -- and most don't think she did it out of nobility since she fed from that trough, too.

What's leaked out of that investigation is that she not only pushed to have the Alaska trooper fired, her husband also tried to get his workman's comp claim turned down.

It's vicious stuff. I don't know how the Republicans will be able to spin it without either suppressing it outright or lying and hoping no one will check. The Palin love I think will wane.

There's a huge mass of people who don't pay attention to politics until the last month before the elections. The independent voters are the ones who'll decide this election, and a lot of those are young evangelicals disenchanted with the Republican party because they're for the environment, for helping the poor, and only the thin line of being pro-life keeps them on board.

The cooling off in Iraq has made this a much closer race than it would have been.

There's no doubt in my mind: Obama will make a better president than McCain.

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

Because John McCain has had stage two cancer

Um. This may come over as an incredibly naive question, but... he's old. He's sick. Why is he even allowed to run for president? Aren't there any, dunno, regulations that say a candidate must be likely to survive the next four years?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The rules go the other way. There's a minimum age for the president.

But people ask the question. Ronald Reagan was in much better health than McCain is now, and there are questions of Alzheimers in his later years in office.

In this case, McCain has been secretive about his health. People don't know about the melanoma. He released his medical records to a limited number of reporters for three hours only. There were thousands of pages. There's a petition being circulated by doctors now to require him to release this information to the press. With someone as inexperienced as Palin (all she seems to have on her side is unbridled ambition) next in line, it becomes an overwhelmingly important question.

[ncp.livejournal.com]

You've seen this article in the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?pagewanted=all), right? It's frightening.

[winterthunder.livejournal.com]

As an animal science student, you know what the best line is in that?

"A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency."

I'm sorry, but until you've had your arm up a cow's rear, you are in no way qualified to be commissioner of agriculture. Somehow I doubt she got that out of a "childhood love of cows!"

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The pettiness of that woman. She's vicious, small-minded, and petty. She has no vision of any future except for one for herself and her family and friends. She doesn't belong on the national stage. She belongs in a banana republic, or some African nation with thugs running the streets and Executive Outcomes hired as a mercenary force.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :)