In this election, it's falling upon the people to do their own research, since Princess Palin doesn't want to talk to the press very much.
So I decided to look into her record as mayor of Wasilla, to see what kind of leader she was in the job she held the longest.
If you like Dubya, you're gonna love this gal.
First, let's take a journey back in time. Back to George W's speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
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Here's what W promised:
Thanks to our policies, home ownership in America is at an all-time high. Tonight we set a new goal: 7 million more affordable homes in the next ten years, so more American families will be able to open the door and say, "Welcome to my home."
And here's what really happened:
Homes in foreclosure top 1 million
Mortgage crisis seeps to prime loans
Greenspan: Economy in 'once-in-a-century' crisis
The U.S. credit squeeze has brought on a "once-in-a-century" financial crisis that is likely to claim more big firms before it eases, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday.
Greenspan told ABC's "This Week" that the situation "is in the process of outstripping anything I've seen, and it still is not resolved and it still has a way to go." . . .
Greenspan's critics say he helped inflate the housing bubble by keeping target short-term rates too low for too long, leading to reckless lending and borrowing in the housing market.
Back in 2004, George W also promised to be a staunch supporter of children's heath care:
America's children must also have a healthy start in life. In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention or information to stand in between these children and the health care they need.
And here's what really happened:
Bush vetoes child health insurance plan
President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.
And in 2004, President Bush described how his administration had succeeded in making the world safer:
Our strategy is succeeding. Four years ago, Afghanistan was the home base of Al Quaeda. Pakistan was a transit point for terrorist groups. Saudia Arabia was fertile ground for terrorist fundraising. Libya was secretly pursuing nuclear weapons. Iraq was a gathering threat, and Al Quaeda was largely unchallenged as it planned attacks. . . Now a free Afghanistan is fighting terror, Pakistan is capturing terrorist leaders, Saudia Arabia is making raids and arrests, Libya is dismantling its weapons programs, the army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom, and more than three-quarters of Al Quaeda's key members and associates have been detained or killed. We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer.
Except, here's what the world looks like today:
Pakistan:
Pakistan’s Military Chief Criticizes U.S. Over a Raid
Afghanistan:
2008 marks deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia:
Saudis rebuff Bush's request to pump more oil
Saudi activist seized by secret police, wife says
Al Quaeda:
U.S. Analyst Depicts Al Qaeda as Secure in Pakistan and More Potent Than Last Year
Iraq:
The US should accept that its Iraq time is up
Iraq militants target TV crew
Palin = Bush
So Bush lied about what he would do for the country . . . what does that have to do with the current campaign? First, John McCain has supported Bush's policies more than 90% of the time, and spent his convention time attacking Obama rather than laying out his own policy proposals. Second, the media has noted the McCain campaign's love of lying in his attack ads that distort the truth and make blatantly false claims, over and over. And third, Sarah Palin as VP.
Because Sarah is a wolf in W's clothing. Here's how:
Working Hard
Remember when it was 2001, and W was in his first term? Remember when he decided to take a 30-day vacation in August (how many of you get 30 day vacations)?
While Bush vacationed, 9/11 warnings went unheard.
White House to move to Texas for a while
Poll: Bush's Vacation is Too Long
When Princess Palin was mayor, she had an equally laid-back attitude towards her responsibilities. As the Anchorage Daily News reported, she wasn't so strong on the detailed work of governance:
Here at the Daily News, we repeatedly heard the complaint: The governor is missing in action; her staffers aren't working the halls the way they should be.
Palin dislikes the give-and-take that usually helps smooth the way for political decisions. She states her case and expects legislators to base their actions on the merits of the issue...
BOTTOM LINE: Palin is strong on vision and rallying public support; she's not so strong on the detailed work of governance.
So if Princess Palin gets to be our veep, you can expect that she'll keep up her moosehunting and ice fishing. Since she doesn't even know what the job of VP is, she'll probably spend most of her time in Alaska, fighting off the Russians on the Bering Strait. Not to mention breastfeeding her 4-month old son.
Taxes
We all know that W cut taxes, right? Of course, since the media has largely ignored this story, many don't know that Bush's tax cuts have actually been tax increase in "stealth" form through the Alternative Minimum Tax.
And since W is a Republican, of course he's for smaller government, right? Except that federal spending under the Bush Administration has been the largest in 50 years:
Federal spending is outstripping economic growth at a rate unseen in more than half a century, provoking some conservatives to complain that government under Republican control has gotten too big.
The federal government is currently spending 20.8 cents of every $1 the economy generates, up from 18.5 cents in 2001, White House budget documents show. That's the most rapid growth during one administration since Franklin Roosevelt.
What about Princess Palin? She's for reducing the size of government, right? And cutting taxes? We've been told over and over about how she cut property taxes in Wasilla.
But, as with W, there's more to that story than meets the eye. As mayor, Palin promoted, and passed, a raise in sales taxes by half a cent in her state in order to build the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex, which finally opened its doors in 2004. As described in on the City of Wasilla's website, "The Multi-Use Sports Complex is a 102,000 square foot building with four primary activity areas. There is an NHL-size ice arena, an indoor artificial turf court, a running/walking track, and three community meeting rooms."
And people in Alaska know that the tax cuts she did bring in didn't shrink the city government:
Palin was able to cut property taxes by three-quarters while eliminating small taxes such as the personal property tax and the business inventory tax. She wasn't doing this by shrinking government, however: The cost of running the growing city, apart from capital projects and debt, rose from $3.9 million in fiscal 1996 to $5.8 million in fiscal 2002. Excess sales tax revenues went to paying for capital improvements such as roads and government buildings, says city finance director Ted Leonard.
But what about when she became governor? Surely, this reforming, moose-hunting, maverick gal we've heard so much about -- she must have slashed every piece of pork barrel spending in order to get such a reputation, right?Well . . .
When the smoke cleared after Gov. Sarah Palin's big cuts to the capital budget in June, one survivor that stood out was a $630,000 appropriation to the Wasilla Sports Complex...
Critics were quick to recall the former Wasilla mayor's campaign pledge to the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce last year that she would be "biased toward the Valley" as governor.
The comment was brushed off at the time as a lighthearted defense of her hometown. But it was recalled again this summer when Palin overhauled the state's agricultural bureaucracy in an attempt to save the state-owned Matanuska Maid, the only market for a handful of Mat-Su area dairy farmers.
Coupled with Palin's decision to leave the Juneau governor's residence once the Legislature adjourned -- wags dubbed her lakeside Wasilla home "the summer palace" -- and enroll her kids in Valley schools this fall, the former Miss Wasilla's actions have some critics asking whether her down-home style includes a sentimental streak capable of clouding her judgment.
So Dubya's got his Crawford ranch, and Palin's got her summer palace. That doesn't prove they're the same kind of leaders in government. Princess Palin has a proven record of reform! She'll run the country just like she ran Alaska! Uh oh . . .
Cronyism
Ahh, small town America. So quaint, so corrupt. Remember when W ran as the "Washington outsider" (even though his dad had been president), and proved it by spending so much time in Crawford? In fact, by the middle of his second term, Bush was noted for being well on his way to becoming the "vacation president."
But there's another side to being such a Washington outsider. It's called cronyism, and Bush made it a centerpiece of his administration, leading to headlines such as:
‘Loyalty’ to Bush and Gonzales Was Factor in Prosecutors’ Firings, E-Mail Shows
Bush-backers-only policy riles voters at RNC rallies
All hail the king
Small-town gal Sarah Palin has been possibly even more devoted to loyalty than W. Ten days into office as mayor, Palin asked all six of the city's department heads for letters of resignation. The reason? They'd supported the former mayor Stein during the election. Palin wanted to make sure that the department heads would show "loyalty" to her:
The day Palin took office, she told Stambaugh she wanted him to stay on provided he would support her as mayor, his notes say. He agreed. She also asked him to drop the issue of bar hours. He agreed to that. On this day, Palin fired the city's museum director, one of the department heads.
Ten days later, Palin wrote to all the department heads, including Stambaugh, asking for letters of resignation. She said she would then decide which to accept. When Stambaugh declined to provide one -- pointing to his contract -- Palin replied in a letter: "I will expect your loyalty."
She later fired him because he stared at her with a "stern" look:
A Palin assistant gave Stambaugh a letter from the mayor on Jan. 30 telling him he was fired.
"I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the City of Wasilla," she wrote.
Palin told Stambaugh's lawyer that the police chief, when meeting with her in private, "instead of engaging in interactive conversation with me, you gave me short, uncommunicative answers and then you would sit there and stare at me in silence with a very stern look, like you were trying to intimidate me."
And it wasn't just the police chief. Princess Palin was particularly suspect of the city librarian, not only because the librarian hadn't supported her in the election, but because the librarian wasn't so keen about the idea of banning books:
In December 1996, Emmons told her hometown newspaper, the Frontiersman, that Palin three times asked her -- starting before she was sworn in -- about possibly removing objectionable books from the library if the need arose.
Emmons told the Frontiersman she flatly refused to consider any kind of censorship. ..
Four days before the exchange at the City Council, Emmons got a letter from Palin asking for her resignation. . .
Emmons survived the loyalty test and a second one a few months later. She resigned in August 1999, two months before Palin was voted in for a second mayoral term.
George W is known for telling the world, following the attacks on 9/11, that "you are either with us or against us." This was a warning to all countries that if they even appeared to be disagreeing with America, they faced sanctions or war.
Turns out, Princess Palin took the same attitude
when she was mayor:
The Frontiersman condemned Palin's philosophy "that either we are with her or against her." The newspaper accused Palin of mistaking the 616 votes she received as a "coronation."
Some residents met and talked recall.
But all of this probably was just her learning curve as a new mayor, right? She wouldn't do something so petty and personal after she had several years of experience in the executive -- or when she became governor. Surely not our Sarah.
Uh oh . . . here comes TROOPER-GATE!
Palin is under investigation to determine whether she pressured and then fired the state police chief in July because he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law. At the time, the governor's younger sister was involved in a bitter divorce and child custody dispute with the man, a state trooper. A bipartisan committee of the state legislature voted unanimously to hire a retired prosecutor to investigate. His report is due in October.
So W and Palin are both Washington outsiders who engage in cronyism and like to spend time at their summer homes. Not convinced that Princess Palin is like King George in sheep's clothing? Read on, my friends . . .
Stupidity
George W was able to do one thing to help small businesses. He gave clever entrepreneurs a chance to make a living off of marketing his misspeaks and general acts of stupidity. As MSNBC reported earlier this year, many made millions off of ridiculing our president.
In Sarah Palin's recent interview with Charles Gibbon, she threatened war with Russia and proved she doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is, so there's reason to beleive that there may be a whole new market for merchandise ridiculing Palin. In any case, her answer on this survey during her 2006 run for governor shows what happens when a small-town girl tries to wear big-state shoes:
- Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
PALIN: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
Relax, Princess. The pledge of allegiance wasn't written by the founding fathers. It was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. And the phrase "under God" wasn't added until Eisenhower signed it into law in 1954.
But I guess, like with George W, the facts don't matter to Princess Palin. What matters is loyalty, vacations, and that old small-town value of American ignorance.