The Problems with Palin

When it comes to the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, I'm with David Frum...I think it's an irresponsible choice that could (will?) come back to haunt McCain.

Of course, there are scurrilous charges that have no merit. Of course, there is media bias. But here are some details that are coming out that are issue-based, and much more troubling to me:

She favored many earmarks as Mayor that John McCain specifically criticized (reformer? or opportunist?)
She favored the "Bridge to Nowhere" before she opposed it
She said in an address to her church that the Natural Gas Pipeline was a "task from God" and that people should "pray for it" (yes, it's the Huffington Post...but they have video)

My take:

I think it's clear she was a rash choice. I'm not at all comfortable with her as VP. I would strongly have preferred someone like Romney, Pawlenty, Cantor, even Mike Huckabee to her. I think (and I get no pleasure from saying this) that this choice will hand the election to Obama.

Comments

U.S. Tax Rates Compared to the rest of the world–a.k.a “U.S. Corporations are not the evil empire”

Below is a graph showing our tax rates compared to the rest of the industrialized world (taken from Wikipedia): Two things to note: Our personal income taxes are not as bad as some anti-tax zealots would have you believe…they are lower than most. Our corporate rates, however, are horrific. They are higher than any other industrialized country save Japan. Lesson to be learned: it’s easy for politicians to sell lower taxes for individuals. Much harder to sell lower rates for corporations. And very easy for liberals to paint corporations as getting off easy (the “big, bad conglomerate” schtick). However, it’s just not true. “Facts are stubborn things.” - John Adams

John McCain and George H.W. Bush...Separated at Birth?

...have you noticed the similarities (I know they're not identical) between the candidacies of John McCain and George H.W. Bush? Both men: were decorated military veterans had lost nomination fights in the past had extensiive foreign policy resumes criticized for being less interested in domestic politics criticized for being a moderate, not being conservative enough. True enough...McCain and George HW...seperated at birth.

Gov. Kulongoski wants to make a "green school" in Vernonia...hopefully the kids will get taught, also

Governor Ted is assembling a team to ask the feds for stimulus money to rebuild a school in Vernonia, damaged by the flooding in 2007. I think this is great - schools are a good thing to spend stimulus money on. But...then his train goes off the tracks... He wants to make the main thrust of the request that we will build a "green school"...now, I'm not opposed to doing responsible things to care for the environment, but I'm guessing doing extra stuff out of the ordinary, would make it much more expensive. With our economy the way it is, I just think that the people in charge of giving the money out are going to look at what can be done in a state, and how cost-effectively it can be done. If Oregon wants $5 million (I'm just making these numbers up) for a school to teach 1000 students, and Arizona will build a school, with the same facilities, same everything else, except they can do it for $3 million becuase it isn't a "green" school, and that m...

Oregon Elephant

Search This Blog