Sunday, August 31, 2008

Palin lies about the bridge to nowhere

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars shows that McCain's VP nominee, Sarah Palin, didn't take long to utter her first falsehood as candidate. Near the beginning of her acceptance speech, she said:
And I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress -- I told Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that bridge to nowhere.

(APPLAUSE)

If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves.

But in fact, she actually did the opposite. During her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, here's how she answered a question about the bridge when addressing an audience of Alaskans:

5. Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?

Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.

She went on to seek other projects not out of a desire for self-reliance and avoiding wasteful federal spending, but because she couldn't get enough federal funding:
"Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island," Governor Palin added. "Much of the public's attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened."
See the full story and references at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan's blog reposts this photo that shows Palin's support for the "bridge to nowhere."

UPDATE (September 14, 2008): Some Alaskans are not happy with Palin's claiming that she doesn't support what she told them she supported.

11 comments:

Theo Bromine said...

This is off topic, but I have to ask if it is your intention that going to lippard.blogspot.com is supposed to automagically launch a news report about the "Imagine no religion" billboard campaign?

Lippard said...

Theo: No, that's not my intent, that's a side-effect of the Dayport video player used by ABC News for embedded video content. It's annoying, but hasn't affected me because I use Firefox with NoScript, and don't automatically trust Dayport's domain for scripting. I *highly* recommend the use of Firefox with NoScript, as web scripts are a very common malware delivery mechanism.

The annoying automatic launch will cease as soon as that blog post moves off the front page of the blog... probably only a few more posts before that happens. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Lippard said...

BTW, I like the new pseudonym.

Theo Bromine said...

Thanks for the tip - I have now added NoScript to my Firefox. It looks like it will be very useful.

In any case, congrats on a good interview and I hope that the billboards generate just the right amount of controversy.

BTW, I'm glad you like it, but Theo Bromine isn't a new pseudonym, it's an old pseudonym for the other human blogger at Thinking for Free (aka Eamon Knight's spouse).

Lippard said...

My apologies, Theo!

Ktisophilos said...

At least this isn't like the vile smear against Palin's daughter on the loony left Daily Kos site.

Ktisophilos said...

And a smear from Alan Colmes.

Lippard said...

Ktisophilos: When I first heard the claim that Palin was raising her teenager's daughter as her own, my thought was--so? How is that a damaging allegation even if true?

I know someone who just a month or so ago was introduced to his teenage daughter, who had been raised by her grandmother and thought her mother was her sister until the truth was revealed. There are a lot worse things that could happen.

Now, it's arguably a bit different with a public figure in a leadership position, to the extent that falsehoods are stated to the public, as this reader's comment at Andrew Sullivan's blog argues. And the fact that Palin flew back from Texas to give birth (most airlines won't let you fly 30 days or 7 days before your due date, depending on airline) and her daughter has been absent from school for 5-8 months at the same time is certainly weird.

Sullivan has posted about some of the oddities, and has also posted evidence that Palin was indeed pregnant and gave birth.

Lippard said...

Further debunking of the claim that Palin wasn't pregnant here.

One of the photos allegedly showing her daughter pregnant was published in 2006!

Lippard said...

Turns out Palin's daughter Bristol is currently five months pregnant. If there's no rounding up on that "five months," then she got pregnant in late March or early April, while Trig Palin was born on April 18.

Ktisophilos said...

"When I first heard the claim that Palin was raising her teenager's daughter as her own, my thought was--so? How is that a damaging allegation even if true?"

You'll have to ask Daily Kos and other sufferers of Palin Derangement Syndrome who evidently thought so.

To teh topic of the thread, let's see:

McCain opposed pork, including this one.

Palin was for this pork before she was against it.

Obama and Biden voted for this pork.

Somehow this makes them a better team. go figure.