It bears repeating that Sarah Palin really is frightening. Right after she was announced as VP, there were many diaries on her, which subsequently died down. Now that the election is close (in time anyway--but also the margin appears slimmer than I'd like), it would be good to remind everybody about the leader that Mrs. Palin is and would be.
When I posted a list a little bit ago, it was pretty long, and I thought nothing else about Mrs. Palin would come out. I was wrong.
She has continued to invigorate the tabloids and the Democratic party. Saturday Night Live has also benefited from her candidacy, in a way not complimentary to her.
Many of the scandals listed were mentioned here and/or here.
Many diarists have urged us to "Forget Palin. Focus on McCain." There are three reasons I feel we shouldn't do this:
- McCain is 72. Were McCain to die (not such an unlikely scenario), Palin would be president .
- Selecting his VP is arguably McCain's most important campaign decision. If we can convince folks that he botched that, it's a major blow to his campaign. and
- Palin may draw in many voters who otherwise wouldn't have voted for McCain. Attacking her individually may dissuade some of those voters.
This diary is a catalog of those scandals, a one-stop-shopping for those trying to convince rational people about Palin's candidacy. I have tried to be complete, so if I missed any, please mention them in the comments.
Palin's scandals are so numerous as to require categorization to keep them straight. I've enumerated several broad categories of her problems:
- She lies.
- Palin has earned the title of Earmark Queen. But that's not consistent with McCain's message, so she lies about it.
- Normally, Alaska governors get paid for nights they spend away from home (of course). However, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, detailed in the Washington Post.
- In an interview with ABC News's Charlie Gibson, Palin claimed that Alaska produces 20% of US Energy. This is very false.
- At a campaign stop in Canton, Ohio, she told attendees that her speech at the Republican National Convention was ad-libbed, because the teleprompter was broken. That was not the case: this lie is described on ABC News' political blog.
- She has failed to report a business venture she and her husband took part in while governor, described in the Washington Post.
- She maintains that Iraq was responsible for 9/11, according to the Washington Post, even though that contention has been thoroughly discredited.
- She claimed to have sold a jet belonging to the state of Alaska on EBay. While she did post it there, it didn't sell, and she ended up selling it to a friend at a loss, as documented by Swamp Politics.
- She has openly broken laws and acted unethically to further her own objectives or vendettas.
- Even as the RNC has been critically outspent by Obama, she spent $150,000 on clothes for herself and her family. It was subsequently declared that that wardrobe would be donated to charity after the election.
- She tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired, and when his boss wouldn't fire him, she fired HIM. This may be the most famous of Palin's scandals, nicknamed "Troopergate". It is described in the Washington Post, in News Bank, and on Andrew Halcro's blog, among many other places. TPM Muckraker has a good summary piece on it.
- Related to Troopergate, she has refused to provide some legally-required documents, citing "executive privelige" which she does not elaborate, as described in this article in the Anchorage Daily News, on Yahoo, and Andrew Halcro's blog.
- Since being nominated as VP, Palin has given to the McCain campaign extensive control over her publicity schedule, governing Alaska, etc., to the chagrin of Alaskans.
- Sarah Palin used a Yahoo e-mail address for public communication, in violation of state law. Several media outlets have confirmed this, including Think Progress and Common Dreams. Yahoo e-mail addresses, unlike .gov e-mail addresses, are not subject to archiving and oversight. This fact has led to controversy from several sources, including fellow Republicans, asking her to release e-mails from her Yahoo account. A recent hack into that email account revealed emails to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and to her husband, detailed here.
- Palin has politicized Alaska state government positions, hiring unqualified classmates to important positions.
- She bailed out a dairy in Wasilla which would've failed without her help, for millions of dollars, described in this article in the Anchorage Daily News, this article in the Anchorage Daily News, and this article in the Anchorage Daily News. It failed anyway, however.
- Palin openly campaigned against an Alaska ballot initiative, in violation of state law.
- She's STAUNCHLY anti-environmentalist. She supports the massacre of wolves, and even created a $150 bounty on them, as documented in the Anchorage Daily News and an ad by Defenders of Wildlife.
- She lacks sufficient knowledge to be VP.
- Her "extensive" foreign policy experience is based on a trip to visit US troops in Iraq, described at boston.com, and a trip to Ireland, described in the Washington Monthly. There is a good discussion of this controversy at MSNBC.
- She claimed in an interview recorded on YouTube that it qualifies as her having foreign policy experience, that Russia can be seen from parts of Alaska. She later intended to bolster her foreign policy experience by visiting the United Nations in New York City.
- In an interview, she asked "What does the VP do all day?" That alone should disqualify her for the job. That quote happens at 2:58 in this YouTube video. She later claimed that the VP is "In Charge Of The U.S. Senate" (which, for those who don't know, is flatly contradicted by the US Constitution).
- A quote from David Brooks, a reporter for the New York Times writes here: "My worry about Palin is that she shares McCain’s primary weakness — that she has a tendency to substitute a moral philosophy for a political philosophy."
- Her priorities don't match McCain's (stated) objectives.
- The McCain campaign is concerned that Palin might disclose unfavorable facts or views, so they are preventing any media access to her, as discussed on DailyKos.
- Alaska has consistently been the largest per capita beneficiary of federal earmarks. McCain says he opposes earmarks, so she lies about it. Repeatedly; there are many cites I could've used.
- While Palin was mayor, Wasilla built a hockey rink for $27 Million, described here and on DailyKos.
- As governor, Palin approved a $500 million gas pipeline that befitted Canadian oil companies and her cronies in Alaska, while not benefitting Alaska's workers. More detail is found Andrew Halco's blog.
- She supports Alaska's interests above the US's.
- Palin has participated actively in the secessionist and arch-conservative Alaskan Independence Party. Another story detailing her involvement with them is a New York Times blog.
- McCain opposes lobbyists. However, Palin hired Steven Silver, a lobbyist who has donated to Ted Stevens's political committees and to Young's reelection committee in the past decade. Silver's firm also employed Stevens's son, Ben Stevens. The firm became ensnared in the wide-ranging federal investigation of corruption by Alaska Republican officials, as described in the Washington Post.
- When discussing the VP position, she wondered aloud whether it would be good for Alaskans. (This is the same video where she wonders what the VP does.) Hint: the VP represents the WHOLE COUNTRY. That quote happens at about 2:30 and 3:10 in this YouTube video.
- She's whole-heartedly a religious conservative (or at least talks a good line).
- Sarah Palin has on several occassions praised a Kenyan Minister named Thomas Muthee, who also hunts down witches, described here.
- Palin tried to remove objectionable books from the Wasilla library, eventually driving the librarian out. YouTube has a newscast about this.
- Religious conservatives often blame the victims for the rape: while she was mayor of Wasilla, rape victims had to pay for their own Rape Kits, as described in the Frontiersman and on USNews.
- As governor, she slashed funds for a Teen Pregnancy Shelter: Compassionate Conservatives At Work, described in the Washington Post.
- She believes creationism should be taught in public school science classes, as discussed in the science blog Afarensis.
- Religious conservatives often decry women working. Alaska voters voted a woman into power, but her husband seems unduly influential in her administration. This relationship is discussed on Andrew Halco's blog.
- In her acceptance speech, Palin quoted a hateful former-columnist named Westbrook Pegler.
- Her own life is not characterized by the family values she claims. There are many rumors about her having an extra-marital affair with her husband's business partner Brad Hanson, about her eldest son having been born out of wedlock, about her pregnant teenage daughter and the girl's shotgun wedding and being kicked out of the house, about her eldest son's having joined the army to evade criminal charges, about Palin's youngest baby not being hers (theres a great diary on this one in DailyKos), and many others. I do agree that her trumpeting her family as paragons of ethics and morality makes these allegations somewhat relevant, but they are mostly too speculative and too salacious for me to want to get into them, but I do have to to say that these rumors are VERY numerous.
Most readers will undoubtedly know some of these, and astute readers may know all of them. However, each could be useful in convincing SOME voters. Palin may blow off these criticisms as "liberal media bias" and surely would write off ME, but these obstacles are so numerous that even if some are false, it should give her supporters pause.
Please mention to me in the comments if I've missed any.
PS. The original title of this diary was "The Terracotta Army of Skeletons in Palin's closet", referencing an archeological site in China, which to date has more sculpted figures than scandals of Palin's (it has over 8000), but Palin is closing fast. Go Sarah! I decided that this reference was too obscure, though.