The Sarah Appeal and Palinomics: A Closer Look at the Alaskan Governor

McCain surprised many when he announced that Sarah Palin was his vice presidential pick. September has been one hell of a month for Palin. From reigniting the culture wars, rumors about her family and capturing support from would-be Hillary Clinton voters, her introduction into the campaign has been anything but dull. Palin has also been credited for breathing life into McCain's stiff campaign.

In a Time magazine article it was said that soon after she joined the ticket, Palin boosted the GOP's position by raising excitement, pulling in more crowds, giving McCain's numbers a jolt in the polls and increasing financial campaigning support. She did what 10 male candidates, two years and $300 million could not get done.

But that was then. What about now?

With the vice presidential debate coming up on Thursday, a growing economic crisis and her latest interview with CBS's Katie Couric it appears that her appeal has faded.

Sarah Palin has done few interviews. And that's no accident either. McCain's campaign has only granted the media three interviews with Palin. During her appearance on ABC News, she was interviewed by Charles Gibson and an unedited transcript has been made available which reveals Palin as less than stellar in her responses. She was also interviewed by Sean Hannity (Fox News) and most recently Katie Couric (CBS). With critical issues about America's foreign policy, the war in Iraq and urgency in getting our alarming economic crisis under control - American's want to know if the next Commander In Chief's right hand is knowledgeable and prepared to deal with these most pressing issues.

During Palin's third televised interview she met with Katie Couric. Palin struggled to provide examples as to why McCain is better equipped to handle the financial crisis that America is faced with. In answering Couric, Palin initially offered McCain's call to reign in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with tighter regulations. But, that was two years ago. So, Couric pressed her for more examples noting that McCain has served in Congress for 26 years.

Palin replied, "I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you."

An unacceptable answer that shocked and infuriated people from her own party and it didn't end there. Palin added more fire to her hot seat as she continued to falter on questions about world policy. When asked by Couric how being in Alaska improved her world knowledge, the Republican running mate said, "Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of."

Kathleen Parker, a Pro-Republican columnist for the National Review found Palin's performance embarrassing to the party and suggested that she should forfeit her position as the vice presidential nominee. "As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem," she said.

The Boston Globe remarked: "The honeymoon is over for Sarah Palin. After a third major TV interview during which her performance was uneven at best, even fellow Republicans are having trouble enthusiastically backing their vice presidential nominee."

Palin's nakedness as a portrait hanging in some bar in Chicago isn't interesting. It's the revelation of her naked truth when it comes to how much she knows about crucial issues facing the nation - that's the real attention grabber.

PALINOMICS REVISITED

The Veep debate will be moderated by Jim Lehrer's PBS colleague, Gwen Ifill this Thursday. After watching Palin's responses during media appearances, America is ready to either confirm their reservations or remain devoted supporters to the only woman on the ticket. But whatever preparations are taking place to get Palin ready for the debate it surely can't make up for the gaps in her knowledge when it comes to foreign and economic policy. To gain insight into her ability to lead this country, should something befall McCain, we only have her executive leadership as governor of Alaska to turn to and Michael Kingsley, a columnist for Time magazine offers some information as he challenges her fiscal conservatism and preparedness.

The Bridge That Never Was
In 2006, Ketchikan residents listened to Palin pledge her support for the Gravina Island bridge, better known as the bridge to nowhere, during her campaign for governor. The $398-million bridge expected to be as long as San Francisco's Golden Gate and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge, would connect the island of Ketchikan to the smaller populated island of Gravina.

Once in office Palin stopped plans for the bridge after Congress criticized the project which is one of McCain's favorite examples of wasteful federal spending. However, during her acceptance speech Palin says, "In fact, I told Congress - I told Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves."

Her statement clearly is a contradiction to her actions. Not only was she an original supporter of the project, she accepted over $200 million in federally earmarked funds that was intended for the bridge project and instead shuttled the money toward other plans, like building the $26 million road that was supposed to connect to the bridge. When Rudy Giuliani spoke at the Republican National Convention he had this to say about Obama, "he couldn't make a decision. He couldn't figure out whether to vote "yes" or "no." It was too tough." Well, it seems that the same could be said of Palin's approach to this fiscal fiasco bridge project. This is more like the road to nowhere.

Small Town, Big Spending
Based on the latest numbers from the Tax Foundation, Alaska takes first place in the amount of money it gets from Washington. The state receives $13,950 for each resident and only pays $5,434 in federal taxes per person. Alaska may pay the most in federal taxes across America; but it also spends the most. And while their tax burden is 2.5 times that of the national average, the 49^th state is spending more than double. So what gives? A lot - Alaska's government spends money on its citizens while the rest of us are taxed to pay for it.

Alaska also relies on the revenue from oil companies. The state has four different oil taxes which contribute to over 89% of its unrestricted revenue. Not too mention that Alaska secures 75% of the value of each barrel of oil for itself before the oil even leaves the state.

"As Governor, I have a record of being a strong fiscal conservative and have vetoed millions in special projects pushed by legislators," she says. But Palin's expenditures as governor say something else. Each resident receives an annual bonus for about $2,000 from oil revenues and if that weren't enough she passed a big tax increase on oil companies which created billions of dollars in new revenue resulting in an additional $1200 check for Alaskan residents.

As Kingsley noted: "Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget. That's how much this warrior for you (the people) against it (the government) could find in wasteful spending under her control."

Is she a tough fiscal conservative? Her decisions have led to wasteful spending in Gravina and oil company taxation to provide surplus income checks for Alaskan residents, as if the rest of America isn't experiencing the crunch of rising gas prices. I'm not sold on her claim of fiscal conservatism or readinesses to manage the second highest post of leadership in the nation, not too mention the first. And about half of American's aren't sold either. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey found that 49 percent of voters did not have confidence in Palin's leadership qualities required in a president should she be required to step in for McCain.

Sources: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7lJ7uGNOkOTK964WwjybvKVDouA, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1839724,00.html?imw=Y, http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-bridge19-2008sep19,0,5316609.story?page=1, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1840565,00.html