Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Vetting A Veep

It seems the elites and lefties think Sen. John McCain didn't do his homework on his vice presidential pick, Gov. Sarah Palin. Let's examine the two vice presidential candidates and see which presidential candidate did the better job vetting their vice presidential candidate:

Executive Experience:

  • Biden: Zero experience.
  • Palin: served as mayor of Wasila, Alaska for 10 years and 2 years as governor of Alaska.

Military Experience:

  • Biden: Obtained five student deferments during the Vietnam War and later received a medical disability for asthma. Service on Foreign Relations Committee for decades makes him more experienced he says. Voted for the War in Iraq before he opposed it. Supported nuclear freeze movement and opposed Reagan's successful military build up to end the Cold War.
  • Palin: Serves as Commander In Chief of the Alaska National Guard.

Conflicts of Interest/Ethics:

  • Biden: Sold his home for inflated price of $1.2 million to executive for MBNA. Later got son an executive job at MBNA and was showered with tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from MBNA. Supported legislation which aided the credit card industry at the expense of consumers. Helped another son get job working as a lobbyist for corporate interests. Claimed he graduated from college with honors when he actually graduated near the bottom of his class. Forced to abandon his 1988 presidential bid after he was caught plagiarizing speeches. Falsely claimed wife and daughter were killed by a drunk driver; wife actually accelerated into oncoming traffic while distracted by one of the Biden children in the car. Falsely claims father was a blue collar worker in Scranton, Pennsylvania; father actually worked as sales executive for Amoco Oil, an executive for a water sealant company and co-owned a crop dusting service. Father sent young Biden to private school. Biden's top political advisor for presidential campaign, Joe Cari, pleaded guilty to taking more than $750,000 in bribes as part of Operation Board Games investigation into corruption in Illinois state government. Same investigation resulted in multiple felony convictions of one of Obama's closest friends and political supporters, Tony Rezko.
  • Palin: Quit position on state oil and gas commission and blew the whistle on corrupt, self-serving insiders of her own party. Husband quit job at BP when she started negotiating pipeline agreement. Asked for investigation of herself after she was accused of firing the state's public safety commissioner because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law. Brother-in-law's personnel file shows history of serious personnel problems over many years, including drinking on the job, damaging a state vehicle, using a taser on his step-son and threatening to kill Palin's father if he hired a divorce attorney for his daughter. Once cited for fishing without a license.

Family:

  • Biden: Drunken daughter charged with obstruction of justice by Chicago Police Department for interfering with the arrest of her drunken friends while leaving a bar. Biden son and brother being sued in a $10 million fraud suit. Biden son took over hedge fund at urging of father who didn't want his son lobbying Congress while he was running for president, even though he had no financial management experience. Deutsche Bank and hedge fund owner claim Biden's son and brother defrauded them. Another Biden son, the Attorney General of Delaware, trumped up criminal charges against Larry Sinclair, the man who has accused Sen. Barack Obama of having sex and doing cocaine with him in the back of a limousine in 1999. AG Biden had Sinclair, a Minnesota resident, arrested and extradited to Delaware during the middle of a press conference he was holding in June at the National Press Club to discredit the charges Sinclair laid out against Obama in front of a media-packed room. AG Biden later dismisses the charges for lack of evidence.
  • Palin: Daughter gets pregnant when she's 17. Says she's keeping her baby and plans to get married. Husband gets DUI 22 years ago.

Any more questions?

9 comments:

truthblogger said...

LOL, Gary, man I respected you before.
Palin has military experience? That is an insult to those of us who served!
Commander of National Guard, come on, quit posting the talking points.
When units deploy, Gov's have no control once the Pentagon has them in deployment rotation and training.
Really, seriously get something better.

truthblogger said...

Well if Biden has no experience, then what does that say about McCain?

Gary R. Welsh said...

McCain was a commanding officer of a Naval training squadron. Still more experience than the two career legislators. Laugh at the Commander in Chief of her national guard, John, you still can't hide from the fact that Obama has zero executive experience like Biden.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have a question for you. Not taking into account that: (1) she was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago; (2) her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town of approximately 6,700 people outside Anchorage; (3) she is clearly anti-choice by opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest; (4) wants creationism taught in public schools; (5) doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change; (6) she is solidly in line with "Big Oil first" energy policy; and (7)who sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as a threatened species.

If the fully vetted her. Why did John McCain not stop her from lying in her opening speech with him in Ohio? Specifically, she burnished her purported reformer image by repudiating wasteful spending which she has engaged in, and said she was against the so-called "bridge to nowhere" when she was for it. We subsequently learn that everything she said was a farce. Palin helped secure over $8 million in earmarks for projects in Wasilla, Alaska when she was Mayor. Then in the lest than 2 years she has been governor, requested another 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next year's federal budget. Of course, I would be remiss not to point out also that Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), was the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption. Stevens sponsored a total of 1,452 pork barrel projects worth $3.4 billion between 1995 and 2008, making Alaska the No. 1 state in pork per capita every year since 1999.

Palin's name is also apparently listed on the 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group. Palin and Stevens, joined at the hip everywhere. This stinks worse than the Rezko-Obama story you keep trying to pump. Think about it, at least Obama did not champion and run a corporation to sponsor the corrupt Rezko, like Palin did for the indicted Stevens. I don't know, but this could get pretty interesting come October - The indicted Ted Stevens is set for trial on September 24.

I just don't get how this was not foreseen and how she is supposed to be some form of a reformer. I think you are trying to do damage control on a last minute knee jerk reaction and poor decision by your preferred Presidential nominee.

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted your view on how this was addressed during the great vetting process that you purport she went through.

Gary R. Welsh said...

You cannot deny the fact that federal money did not get spent on the Bridge To Nowhere because she turned down the federal appropriation. Slice it and dice it all you want, you cannot deny that. The connection between the NFP you raise and Stevens is quite laughable. Nobody has suggested Palin did anything wrong and that work had nothing to do with Stevens corruption charges. People are trying to find out about Obama's relationship with terrorist bomber Bill Ayers and the foundation he helped run with Ayers, helping him hand out over $100 million before the organization mysteriously shuttered its doors. Despite Obama's hinchmen's efforts to block access to those files, reporters are no reviewing them. We'll see what we learn. People have also suggested there was something untoward between Obama assisting Rezko in obtaining $100 million in federal housing money, only to run the housing projects in Obama's district as only a slumlord could. In consideration, Obama received $250,000 in campaign contributions and a gift of $300,000 on the purchase of his million dollar South Side home courtesy of Rezko. Yes, Rezko has been convicted. Yes, he's scheduled for sentencing before this November's election. And yes, he is reportedly cooperating with federal investigator. Got anything better, Josh?

Jon E. Easter said...

"Well if Biden has no experience, then what does that say about McCain?"

AMEN!

That means that John McCain and Barack Obama have the exact same amount of executive experience under your original definition.

I just can't believe you McCainiacs. McCain chose the Mayor of a town of 7,000 people. 25,000 people live in Decatur Township! Indianapolis is bigger population-wise than Alaska! GREG BALLARD FOR VEEP! Ballard had REAL military experience.

Quit this bull and call it like it is. Palin was a MISERABLE pick. My grandmother had an old saying, "You can't shine s*#%." That's exactly what this pick was. Even your talking points can't hide it.

Anonymous said...

"Nobody has suggested Palin did anything wrong and that work had nothing to do with Stevens corruption charges" - Ah, but I just have - just as you have repeatedly with Rezko/Obama. You try to play guilt by association, but as you will see two can now play that game.

I guess Palin's experience in attempting to champion $196 million in earmarks for Alaska this year must be the so-called "maverick" the purported fiscally "conservative" base needs. Fiscal conservative my butt. She lied to the American people on the first day she took the stage the McCain's Vice Presidential nominee. The fact remains she said she will take on pork-barrel spending while she is heading the state who requests and receives the most of it.

While I have no doubt that she is a very smart women. A Maverick? A fiscal conservative? I think not. Its just more of the same line of crap McCain has been trying to sell to the American public since he began to change his positions from Senator the Presidential nominee. I used to like Senator McCain, before he ran for President this year. Anyone can see how completely right he has went this year, and, having just heard his speech, Joe Lieberman is not going to help that image any.

Gary R. Welsh said...

"Ah, but I just have - just as you have repeatedly with Rezko/Obama. You try to play guilt by association, but as you will see two can now play that game."

Not guilt by association. Guilt by fact. Obama took Rezko to look at the house he couldn't afford. Rezko lined up the bank financing and purchased the adjoining lot, improved it and deeded part of it over to Obama for a cool savings of at least $300,000. Obama used his state job to lobby for hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for a private business, which in turn paid Obama $120,000 for a "no show/no work" corporate counsel job, which he failed to disclose on his statement of economic interest. Obama steered millions of housing grants to Rezko. Rezko helped Obama get a job at a law firm and hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions.

Anonymous said...

Come on AI, with all that history, Biden obviously equals Change! If this doesn't prove the media is biased towards Obama, I don't know what does.