I am not judging Palin in any way shape or form for this. I do not think a DWI discredits a politician, and I know plenty of people who have had a DWI who are upstanding citizens. This was 24 years ago too, so its even less of an issue to me.
But, for better or worse, these kinds of things are fair game in politics, especially to voters on the religious right who feel pretty strongly about a candidate's moral fiber. Many said they would have reconsidered their vote for George W. Bush in 2000 if they knew about his prior DWI (or dismissial of cocaine charges for that matter in Houston...)
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/01/palins-husband-has-dwi-arrest/
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) — A senior adviser to the McCain campaign confirmed Monday that Todd Palin, husband to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 1984.
"Yes, 24 years ago he had a DWI," senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told reporters in St. Paul.
Schmidt was asked if he was worried about the news, and replied, “I was not.”
The story was first reported by David Brody, a CNN contributor and Christian Broadcasting Network News Senior National Correspondent.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson










