Sunday, September 07, 2008

Pot Calls Kettle Black

Sen. Barack Obama wasted a trip to Terre Haute yesterday to knock Gov. Sarah Palin for being a "skillful politician" and hypocritical on earmarks. "Palin portrays herself as being against earmarks, but she has taken [earmarks] "when it's convenient," the Democratic presidential nominee said. "When you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change," Obama said of Palin. The Star's reporter who covered this story, Francesca Jarosz, was obviously an Obama supporter. Nowhere in her story does she mention the fact that Sen. John McCain has always opposed earmarks during his congressional career and has backed his position up by never asking for an earmark for his home state of Arizona. Gov. Palin hit back at Obama's hypocritical charge. "Our opponent has requested nearly $1 billion in earmarks in just three years. That’s about a million dollars, about a million dollars for every working day. Just wait until President McCain puts a stop to that." Isn't there something a little odd when the Democratic presidential nominee is spending so much time critizing the number two person on the Republican ticket? He must be a little miffed that polls taken following the Republican convention suggest Palin is more popular than him.

17 comments:

artfuggins said...

I dont understand your disrespect toward the people of Terre Haute. How could a trip to a city by any candidate be a waste of time especially in a state where the candidate is probably going to carry by a small margin. It was a smart appearance. By the way, when are the repubs let Palin out of her cage and let her talk to people and the media instead of a handful of appearance with canned speeches and no q and a.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Terre Haute may be a big Democratic town, but Vigo County tends to support the Republican candidate for president. The Reagan Democrats will choose McCain over Obama. This entire dance with Indiana has everything to do with the way election returns are reported on election night. Historically, Indiana and Kentucky are the first two states to be declared for one of the candidates and both states support the Republican candidate. Obama's people want to instill in the media's mind that Indiana is extremely close so that when the results start rolling in they hold back declaring Indiana, say it's too close to call. This was the same hat trick they played in the primary with the chicanery of reporting the Lake County returns. North Carolina got declared early for Obama while everyone had gone to bad before the returns would show Clinton the winner in Indiana. Axelrod hopes that if he can have the first election night news being reported that McCain is having a tough time in Indiana, it will encourage a higher vote in other parts of the country where the polls are still open.

Gary R. Welsh said...

It's worth noting that this is the second time this year Obama has been in Terre Haute. Just across the state line in Illinois where I grew up, Obama has been there zero times in nearly four years as a U.S. Senator. That belt of counties you follow along I-70 west into Illinois mostly voted for Alan Keyes over Obama in 2004. Ergo, those people don't exist as far as Obama is concerned. The only time Obama goes downstate is to go to Springfield where he can hold some press event for his campaign and try to give the impression he's like Lincoln. Otherwise, he never leaves the Chicago area to visit other parts of the state.

Vox Populi said...

AI,

Palin is still a blank slate. And the picture the Republicans are trying to paint of her is an idealized one, and one that simply isn't true.

McCain chose his "soul mate" because she's a reforming crusader like him. Yet the only thing that gives her "reformist" chops is that she defeated Frank Murkowski in the Republican primary.

With the high likelihood that Palin will assume office during a McCain term (either permanently or under the 25th Amendment temporarily), I think she is very fair game, as is Joe Biden.

Why didn't you report that McCain lied about Palin selling the state jet on eBay? He even lied saying "She made a profit," which was just not true.

And your conspiracy theory that Obama is spending tens of millions of dollars worth of resources in Indiana in order to delay vote returns borders on Kuchinichesque.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Vox, The state airplane in Alaska was posted for sale on e-bay just as Palin and McCain said it was. The minimum bid price wasn't received and the plane was sold to a private individual for $2 million. You can't quibble with the fact that she got rid of the state airplane, so like the other Democrat partisans who always want to obfuscate the issue, you complain that the plane wasn't sold on e-bay. If you go back and look at Palin's statement, she clearly said she put up for sale on e-bay. Are you going to quibble about whether she drove herself to work instead of having a chaufer like every other governor in the state. Are you going to quibble about her getting rid of the governor's personal chef? You make a fool of yourself trying to split hairs on these matters.

Vox Populi said...

AI,

I'm not splitting hairs. Palin made her carefully worded statement accurately.

But here's what McCain said:

"You know what i enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay — made a profit," he said, introducing Palin.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Not_selling_on_eBay.html?showall

If Obama made such a claim you would have been on him like white on rice.

artfuggins said...

Advance Indiana....your theories get more "interesting" by the day...but a lie is a lie is a lie...and among other things which will come out soon...she lied about the selling the airplan on Ebay and making a profit. She did neither. She sold it through a broker at a loss and then had to pay a $17,000 broker fee on top of it. Palin Lies!!!

Gary R. Welsh said...

Wilson, The fact is she got rid of the damn airplane and saved the taxpayers money. Can you move off of stupid, already? You can't get by with your obfuscastion on this site. The truth comes out here and it demolishes Obama's credibility. You are stuck with the biggest joke for a presidential candidate in modern American history. His story is all built on a complete lie. And now the American people are learning that.

artfuggins said...

I haven't seen Wilson post on this item.

Mann Law, P.C. said...

artfuggins:

First she did not say she sold it on ebay or sold it at a profit. Second how much did she save the tax payers in insurance, upkeep, salaries of pilots to fly it, expense of flying it, storing it? If you want to challenge her position on abortion or the like do so. But if you make a valid point you make people not listen when you make these ridiculous attacks. Maybe you should ask Mr. Biden about his defamatory attacks on an innocent man he accused of killing his wife and daughter while drunk. In fact he is lucky the man did not sue her.

Anonymous said...

Vigo is like Tippecanoe: the union town goes DEM, but the county goes REP. AH, but Gary, in the primary this year Barack took the county by 5000, even against the wishes of the local DEM Party officials from the State Reps all the way down to the city council.. only a few of those officials backed him.

mackenzie197 said...

Art,

You seem to forget the cost of operating the plane. That's why it was being sold. Regardless of how much she sold it for, she got rid of the operational costs.

I don't know what's the bid deal of whether it was sold on E-bay or not. Would it have been better to sell it on E-bay when the auction price did not go high enough. She'd been a fool to sell it on E-bay if the price wasn't sufficient.

She never claimed she sold it on E-bay. The McCain people said that and they got the facts wrong. As far as the $17,000 broke fee on the private sale, so what? The airplane was worth millions. Are you saying she should have sold it way under value on E-bay to avoid the commission and sell it privately for a much higher price?

Gary R. Welsh said...

Stop the game art. You are Wilson. You never appeared on this site until Wilson was banned. You are posting comments 24/7, 7 days a week like Wilson. Your comments never appear on any other blogs, but your comments are just like Wilson's on other blogs. That's the price you pay for drive by anonymous attacks, art.

Jon E. Easter said...

I haven't read a list of Barack Obama's earmarks or even necessarily take your word for any of this AI, but you can't argue that every earmark is a bad thing.

Jon E. Easter said...

After further research, you are correct on your earmark figure on Obama. He VOLUNTARILY released them in March during the primary season.

Jason said...

I think Art's comments are many times well thought out and he actually responds to criticisms. If Art is indeed Wilson, he's Wilson 2.0.

7th CD guy said...

Even AI thinks that Wilson46201 and artfuggins are on in the same!