It would not be politically irrelevant. She would find an excuse to withdraw.
I don’t know about that. Clinton copped to an affair when he was first running for Prez (I forget her name, she was a blonde looker. Somebody found tapes of a phone conversation). he went on 60 Minutes with Hillary and said something about how he’d made mistakes in his marriage and Hillary had forgiven him and it worked. He started coming back in the Primaries and eventually got elected POTUS. Everyone knew from the beginning hat he was kind of a hound, but they sort of let it go because of his talent and ability and because Hillary seemed ok with it.
Palin could do the same thing. I doubt she’d even have to do as much as Clinton did. The McCain campaign is using the strategy of raising its voice in hystercal indignation every time anyone in the press asks a question they don’t. He’s scared to go on Larry King, for fuck’s sake. The hardest question Larry King asks is “How was your flight?”
It would be very easy to demonize the media and either accuse them of lying or, if some kind of indisputable proof came up, immediately start screaming that marital affairs are (all of a sudden) private and nobody’s business.
I don’t think an affair would hurt her much at all. Those social conservatives who love her would see it all as a Satanic media ploy.
Entirely true, except for John Edwards. If you recall the Lost Weekend, there was the mention of the Enquirer sending its best up to Alaska to examine Palin. This, it seems, is what they found.
Edit: Frankly, I could give a rat’s ass about affairs… but there’s one good way to handle it. See the new New York Governor for an example. Half blind and all the ladies love him. There’s also a bunch of bad ways to handle it. Kind of curious, if this story pans out, to see how they react.
That said, I’m not really caring about Palin and having an affair. I’m more interested in, ‘Okay, the Enquirer found gold with Edwards, are they right this time, will they dig something else up’, etcetera. I’ve long maintained that the Enquirer has really good investigative journalists, I just want to see what happens next.
It’s kind of like watching the SCO trial. Sure, it’s important, but it’s also a good amount of ‘Okay… what’s going to happen next?’
I kind of agree and kind of disagree.
In general I am not interested in anyone’s affairs. To me it is like a homosexual politician…couldn’t care less.
But if that politician makes a point of waving around their superior “morals” and berates or actively trashes others who have affairs (or are homosexual to continue the example) then I think catching them breaking those very values becomes very relevant.
If part of Palin’s bona fides for VPOTUS is standing on her “superior” social conservative credentials then crap like this becomes relevant I think.
I am making no comment whether she has or has not had an affair and again, barring what I wrote above, I really could not care less. I would much rather the focus lie with her policies and other obviously appropriate lines of concern. If this is news it is because Palin made it that way.
Although honestly since when has an affair not been a favorite target of the media? Justifiably or not historically they chase that story to the ends of the earth. Always have no matter who the politician is.
ETA: I suppose way back the media did not do this (ignored Roosevelt’s activities here as well as others). Perhaps just since the 80’s on but certainly a favorite today.
In case you want the whole story, here is what those wild and crazy Lefties at the Chicago Tribune have to say.
Not much to see here. The plane was more a symbol of over the top by her predecessor than it really was but as a PR bit it worked well for her. It still does.
You really feel that discussing whether Alaska should build more prisons or continue to contract out or give shorter sentences is pertinent? I don’t.
I wanted to comment on this blog. I watched the video about Don Young, the corrupt rep from Alaska. In one section he’s talking about earmark’s and mentions the Governor. “I respect her beliefs” I’d like to see more. He says every town in Alaska has asked him for earmarks. It’s edited but it appears as if the Governor had said something negative about earmarks.
It appears the government in Alaska was so corrupt you could get elected and defeat members of your own party by campaigning to be less corrupt. It’s almost like the Dems against the GOP.
Vote for us, we’re slightly less corrupt.
Still, with all the trashing we’ve been doing about Palin, I’d like to know more details about her fight against corruption in Alaska.
Thanks for the link. I had been reading tons of stuff from lefty blogs and couldn’t be sure what kind of source the story came from in the end.
I don’t really feel like we need to discuss AK’s prison situation. It was more a sarcastic remark about the way this campaign (or any) can take a superficial detail of an issue, and make THAT the issue while never actually reaching the point of substantive debate about the real problem. (Which in this case was probably corruption more than the problems with prisons/sentencing.)
On the “experience” argument, it is critical to keep in mind that Alaska is The Training Wheels State – a state government funded by oil/gas royalties and federal subsidies simply doesn’t require the sort of tough decisions that are necessary in any of the other forty-nine. The only real question is how much free money to mail out to the voters: all the benefits of bread-and-circuses politics without any of the downside.
Since other negative blogs have been posted here’s another view. http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/how_sarah_palin_handled_corrup.html
I do find it pretty believable that the ex brother in law was a total jack ass and should have been fired, but that doesn’t necessarily excuse her using her office to pursue that goal. Any Governor might be pissed if they had a bad apple in the troopers and those in charge wouldn’t get rid of him. The connection to her family doesn’t make it a completely unwarranted vendetta by her.
Her choice for a replacement seemed pretty poor. Do we have any cites on why he eventually stepped down. I read in another blog, supposedly from an Alaskan citizen, that the replacement received 10,000 dollars in severance after just a few weeks. Just a rumor at this point. Any cites on that.
One thing that scared me in the comments on that blog.
Yikes!
Me too although from what I have read so far it looks more to me like Palin fought corruption because it wasn’t her corruption. More akin to a new drug lord trying to take over the territory of a previous drug lord (just an illustrative example). She wanted her people in and her piece of the pie and a convenient way to clear the road for her was to bust the incumbents for corruption. Nevermind what party affiliation they had.
I dunno.
Let’s assume Trooper Wooten is a Grade-A prick as suggested. Is it usual for a Governor to be bothered with the internal affairs of the state troopers such that they push for a given trooper’s dismissal? I would think a Governor generally would never even look at such things.
While technically under the Governor’s purview this is why the Governor has a head of troopers and other staff. Seems to me an internal affair thing for the troopers. I could only see a Governor getting involved if it became a media storm over an asshole trooper whose bosses refused to fire him. Then it would get the Governor’s attention and the Governor would look to see if his/her people are doing their jobs as they should be.
The only reason I see that Palin got involved is because of the familial connection. Even if Trooper Wooten deserves to be fired it is very suspect when the Governor sticks her nose in there to see it done by virtue of family. Looks a lot like an abuse of power even if it isn’t. Something to be assiduously steered clear of in politics. Perception can be reality in the political realm.
I don’t really think that the possible affair is politically relevant. The Bristol situation is only marginally so, because shotgun weddings are not good in the opinion of many and if she’s forcing her daughter into one, I think it reflects on her judgement. Either scandal has no real effect on how I feel about her as a person, as her political experience is negative enough to turn me against her. If I agreed with her political views, neither scandal would keep me from voting for her.
BUT…I REALLY do not want her in the White House, and even though this is not a voting issue for me, I know it would be for a lot of people who would otherwise vote for her, so I’m hoping that some real dirt is dug up on her, so that she’d either lose McCain the race, or at least get dropped from the ticket and replaced with someone more reasonable (though I don’t think McCain would be a very good president, I would be more OK with his winning if he had a more moderate running mate).
Which is why she was chosen, to energize the base. If McCain had picked a more “moderate” candidate, the base vote would have stayed home in droves…and all the middle-of-the-road folks who would have voted for him wouldn’t have mattered. It is a political gamble - will she energize the base enough to bring voters out who normally wouldn’t? We won’t know until November.
After reading everything I can find on the woman over the last week, this is my distinct impression as well.
Her “Reform” “Anti-Corruption” credentials fit just as well in the context of “Opportunist Backstabbing”. Apparently Murkowski liked her enough that he almost appointed her to his Senate seat before deciding on his daughter (really can’t make this shit up), then gave Palin the oil commission instead. Murkowski had already hooked up the Good Ole Boys (GOB) with a contract for a pipeline. She comes in and [/wild speculation] expects her slice of the GOB pie, but they just tell her to go fetch some tea for them (this IS the GOB after all…). So she steps into a phonebooth and turns into Maverick Reformergirl, rats a couple of them out, and then runs for Gov., beating Murkowski cuz she’s so virtuous and all. Then undoes Murkowski’s pipeline deal to put it out for bidding (a good thing for AK IMO). This time she WILL get her slice of pie on the deal. There’s always pie. Plus she looks like a squeaky clean hero, and has her own brand new staff to appoint. The rest of her R colleagues hate her for rocking the boat. They probably at least got to lick up crumbs from the original pie, but now have nothing. Palin even threw the crumbs of her pie to the people (also cool IMO, if a bit communist-ish for a ‘conservative’…). That really stuck it to the old crew too.
[/wild speculation]
That was fun.
[WARNING: PARTISAN REFERENCE AHEAD!]
On the Mudflats blog that Whack-a-Mole linked, there’s a vetting document from 2006 produced by the Alaska Democratic party while Sarah Palin was running for Governor. I’m not going to link directly to the 63 page pdf, but here’s the blog post which links to it.
Although the document reviews Palin’s record on the issues, her actions in various government positions, and her personal information, it doesn’t do a deep dive on any specific investigation, and doesn’t go beyond the executive summary statements of the Dem position on Sarah Palin on the first page. However, it’s pretty thorough and broad, and doesn’t in fact show any record or effort at corruption busting prior to the date of the vetting.
I’m sure there’s some relevant stories in Alaska papers that could be dug up which review any anticorruption activity she’s directed as Gov.
The problem is McCain needs both those groups to vote for him, his “base” has shrunk considerably the last eight years. Any strategy that secures one at the expense of the other is a losing one.
This cite is to Wikipedia but it reflects what I’ve read in other sources that appear reliable.
Well, I can’t be arsed to go find the original post about how the US Weekly story on Palin was a terribly pointed example of librul media bias (this was Starving Artist’s claim, no?) but I find it quite amusing that the author of the piece is a McCain supporter who’s getting all kinds of hate mail for having dared to write it. Liberal media bias? Yeah, how’s that workin’ out for ya? Appears that even a McCain supporter can report the truth even if it stings a bit…
And yeah, the overwhelming impression I’m getting of Alaska politics is that it’s all just a continuum of corruption and one’s impression of the crookedness of a politician is in direct proportion to how much that politician enhances one’s pocketbook.
I also find it amazing how much federal money Alaska gets considering there are fewer than a million residents–it’s rather staggering, actually. I suppose with all the huckstering and porkchasing and the sheer volume of cash flowing through the government with what appears to be little or no oversight it’s inevitable that those placed in charge of the cookie jar are more liable than most to get their hands in there.
I mean, really, how normal is it for a dinky little town of 6700 people to hire a friggin’ lobbying firm to snag 27 million bucks in fed money? That’s our tax dollars we’re talking here! I’ve lived in small towns before where they have to have bake sales just to keep the schools running–nobody ever thought it might be possible to wangle that much money out of the federal government, but apparently in Alaska it’s just business as usual. A couple highlights from the article:
So wait a minute–the federal government gave her half a million bucks to buy land–from the federal government? WTF? My head hurts now…
And before anybody pipes up with “Democrats do it too!” I want to make it crystal clear that I’m aware of that–what I’m boggling at is the sheer magnitude of Palin’s pork grabs. That’s a lot of fucking money to go into a dinky little town that to this day still doesn’t have a sewage treatment system. Has a badass hockey rink, though. And a shitload o’debt in spite of all that pork passing through.
It also appears that the avenue the 'pubs chose for Palin, that snarky downmouthing, is not helping them too much with the white female vote. I’m really hoping that people are starting to wake up and look past this retarded social issues claptrap the McCain campaign is spouting to see just how weak and impoverished their actual plans for the country really are. Palin’s no real help–she can grab pork money for a small town, but where in the world does America go for more money? All she knows is how to beg and wheedle, without a care for all the other people who have to go without so an obscure Alaskan town can have a new railroad line to the next town.
Palin has no vision outside her tiny sphere–and in spite of its geographical vastness Alaska remains a very isolated and insular place. She has no grasp of the real diversity of the US, the broadness of vision, the vast scope of the needs of all the people in this country. She’s a tiny mind in a gigantic arena, stubbornly insisting that her backwards social values somehow fit into the lives of people in say, Los Angeles or Chicago or New York or Miami or heck, Portland for that matter–and it just ain’t the case. I think the more they put her out there, the more obvious it will be that she is dramatically out of touch with what it means to be the VP of a country as diverse as the US–you can’t run this place the way you run a tiny little state government, and the social values that play well in Wasilla don’t fly so good in the vast majority of the rest of the country. I think the McCain campaign is well aware of that, and it’s why they’re keeping her away from the press and the spotlight until they can get her redd up enough to fake knowing what she’s talking about.
You know, I think that’s the part that galls me the most. They’re asking me to consider electing this woman to be the vice president of the United States of America – a heartbeat away from being President, but we’re not allowed to ask her any questions unless or until we’re deferential to her.
What? The? Hell?
This is MY country, too. I have a right – and DESERVE the opportunity – to demand answers about this person’s stance on issues that will affect me if she manages to get into office.
And you’re intentionally keeping me ignorant?
Oh, and then whining and complaining when I go out and try to get information through other sources!
This should be offensive, on its face, to every single solitary American, regardless of party. I’d like to see the infamous Republican Base, who’re so damn excited about her, insist that she be shown off to the rest of us, so we can actually get to know her. What are they so afraid of???
It’s truly outrageous.
And they would say (and with truth) that you’re allowed to express your (and my) outrage with your vote. Now, the important thing is to make sure that others are outraged as well.