The Ghost of RubangB said:
McCain picked a stranger with no experience and said she was the most qualified Republican other than himself to lead the country, which was an insult to women and Republicans everywhere, particularly many other qualified female Republicans. The internet dug up all the dirt it could on her. And yeah, some of it was crazy, and yeah, I was in on it.
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You can twist this in your mind all you want but the point that the public sees is that you can't change washington with people who have a history of being part of the problem. Palin may not be the most highly qualified person available to do the business as usual in washington but he didn't pick her for that.
Like it or not she has that so-called "Maverick" background. She did buck her own party and she did so when it undenabiably was against her own interests and could have killed her political career before it ever started (which is precisely why many in her party in Alaska don't like her), you might know that if you genuinely looked into her background rather than taking it from the folks at the Kos. She may have supported the bridge to nowhere at one point but if you actually go look at the records and stop reading the liberal blogs you'll see the pork addicted congress in Alaska still wanted to press forward when she killed it, the state of Alaska had already been given the check and it was her choice courtesy of the US congress. Her own party still wanted to build it, so she could have caved, but she didn't. If you look at the info you might also find that the money for the bridge could not be returned due to the language in the bill, but it could be redirected..which is what she did. There was however some other federal money that went to building a road on Galvina Island to the beach and it could have been returned but was spent on the road instead. I'm honestly surprised nobody has made a big deal out of that yet, but then again it was substantially less money (bridges cost more than roads, go figure).
Oh and BTW both Obama and Biden voted for that bridge to nowhere...twice. The second time they voted for it was after the proposal to instead spend the funds on Katrina relief, by which time Palin was against it. She may have had it wrong to start with but Obama/Biden had it wrong the whole time. Or is Palin just a flip-flopper and Obama/Biden are great guys for holding their ground?
You'll also note that her yearly personal expenses are a lean 20% of the previous Governor's, pork requests to washington are down since she took office (she only gets partial credit for this) and they actually have a balanced budget (a surplus even). The game both parties like to play is of course the blame game. They gerrymander the blame about to suit their needs but facts are facts. And the fact is that the state representatives/senators, and especially Representative Don Young & Senator Stevens, are the ones bringing the pork into the state, the governor can't veto a US congressional pork project, but she did veto $500 million in crap in her state legislature where she does have power, there is an 18 page list of bills that she has vetoed (in 2007 alone).
Has she been perfect in stopping every wasteful bit of spending? Absolutely not. But she is a damn sight better than the business as usual crowd that we keep electing and a far cry from the bumbling incompetent you'd like to make her out to be. I know partisan politics prevents most folks from acknowleding the work of those on the "other side", but she was and is a substantial step in the right direction when you get down to the facts.
The real problem, and the reason for the attacks, dirt-digging, and e-mail hacking is that liberals can't stand her because of her views, they can coat it how they want but its irrational hatred and loathing. Another liberal leaning poster on this site said it best when he was railing against a quote of hers out of context and I pointed out the absurdity of the whole situation. He said: "I just can't help myself.".....
I know...I know.
