Tag: Sarah Palin (page 14)

Jews for Jesus leader David Brinker in One Day in Wasilia, responds to attacks on the speech he gave at Sarah Palin's church in Wasila. The Palins were in attendance.

The groups mission statement says:

We exist to make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide.

Here are their core values. Here's what it takes to "get saved."

If you know any Jewish voters, please forward this to them. Particularly if they live in Florida. They can assess for themselves the danger of giving any voice in government to these extremist radical right groups. Update below:

Received by e-mail from the Catholic Democrats Communnications PAC:

An independent nationwide survey run the week of September 1, 2008, by the Catholic Democrats Communications Political Action Committee shows that nearly all the Catholic voters who voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton will now cast the vote for Sen. Barack Obama. Nearly 500 Catholics responded to the survey.

It is clear that the alleged defection of Clinton voters to McCain is not happening, " said Bill Roth, President of the PAC. "Nearly 95% of the Clinton voters now intend to vote for Sen. Obama. This repudiates the idea that Gov. Palin should somehow appeal to the Clinton voter." [More...]

More information showing Ethics Reformer and Cost Cutter may be misnomers when applied to Gov. Sarah Palin -- The Washington Post reports:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife.

It's all seems legal, although there are some questionable items, but it doesn't fit too well with the image of her as one who is focused on cost cutting and savings to Alaskans: [More...]

The LA Times reports on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's leadership style and follow-through, based on interviews of individuals involved in Alaskan politics and Government. While she's praised for some things, she's raked up criticism in many areas. Key points those interviewed made:

She often failed to follow through on her initiatives, including ethics reform.

Yet a strange thing happened on the ethics issue once Palin became governor: She appeared to lose interest in completing the task of legislating comprehensive reform, some who supported the cleanup say.

The ethics bill she offered was so incomplete that its supporters had to undertake a significant rewrite. Moreover, when it came to building support for the bill, politicians in both parties say the new governor was often unaccountably absent from the fray.

A similar criticism was levied against her on the oil rebate checks: [More...]

The New York Times reports that news organizations applied pressure and the McCain campaign has agreed to make Gov. Sarah Palin available to ABC for an interview.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Via Mahablog, the Wall St. Journal reports on one of Gov. Sarah Palin's projects as Mayor of Wasilia, Alaska.

The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters.

The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin’s legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla. (my emphasis.)

On a lighter note, check out the Facebook groups against Sarah Palin. The group called "I Have More Foreign Policy Experience Than Sarah Palin" has over 41,000 members. (You have to be a Facebook member to view it.)

Also check out Alaska Blogger Mudflats who is writing a lot on Palin.

Newsweek has a five page online article examining Sarah Palin's life and career. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but this paragraph on the front page caught my attention and gets it quite right in my view:

A reformer, she faces allegations of exerting improper influence in city and state government. A self-styled regular Red State gal, she is relentlessly driven, a politician of epic ambition who is running against a Washington establishment that, if elected, she will inevitably join, and even rule over.

The election is six weeks away. For those of you who are tired of discussion of Sarah Palin, while we will continue to write about other matters during this period, the election will be the focus. It's that important to our country. Keep in mind there are more than 20 posts a day on TalkLeft. You can either use an rss feeder to spot the non-election coverage and not have to scroll through the election posts or return after the election.

The LA Times reports today that McCain's blatant attempt to target working class women voters with his choice of Sarah Palin to be vice president isn't convincing many of them.

For many of these critical swing voters, economic interests trump any admiration of the Alaska governor's maternal grit, and some are repelled by her sarcastic jabs at Obama.

As one woman put it:

"I wanted Hillary to win so bad, but I saw Sarah, and it just didn't work for me," said Heckman, taking a break in the empty courtyard of J. Paul's restaurant in a downtown struggling to revive. "I have no retirement. Obama understands it's the economy. He knows how we live."

[More...]

As I've mentioned, I covered the McCain/Palin rally in Colorado Springs yesterday for Salon.com. My report is now up on their site, McCain and Palin Go to Dobsonville. The gist:

Fresh from the GOP convention, John McCain brings his Christian fundamentalist running mate to Christian fundamentalist headquarters –- but doesn't mention abortion or gay marriage.

Not surprisingly, it focuses on aspects much of the mainstream media coverage missed or ignored. Until I saw this CBS report, I was beginning to wonder whether I had attended a different event.

ABC has an article about rock stars telling McCain/Palin to stop using their music at campaign events. Jackson Browne and Heart are among them.

I heard another group yesterday blaring from the speakers at one point during the Colorado Springs event, held in a jet aviation hangar and on the tarmac: The B-52's.

From today's Chicago Tribune:

Just as McCain's politics are largely shaped by his experience as a prisoner of war and Obama's by his embrace of his racial identity, Palin's approach has been shaped by her relationship with God. Palin sees her government work as paling in comparison to a greater mission.

Her pastor thinks her religion would shape her views on foreign policy: [more...]

Update: Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is on the right track on how to go after Palin.

*****

Greg Sergeant at TPM outlines two possible plans of the Obama campaign for dealing with the Sarah Palin issue. One seems to be do nothing, see how it plays out and continue to fight against McCain. The other is to point out that Palin is upstaging McCain which shows...I'm not sure what.

The problem with not fighting back against Palin is that the Republicans are using as their central argument that Obama is inexperienced, ignoring that their VP candidate has no relevant national experience that qualifies her for Vice President. Palin doesn't hestitate to make that argument against him, and I shake my head every time I hear it, wondering how she of all people can make that claim with a straight face. [More...]