The Palin Problem

I guess Palin is a lot like McCain when it comes to lobbyists and Big Oil.

Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.

And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.

In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:

Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group ??? the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.
Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.
The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.
Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.

So much for her being a fiscal Conservative....Go OBAMA!

Mr. McCain sir,
The Wailin' -Palin-Sarah of Wasilla will lose the electioan for yah.... (CLACK-WINK-JIBE)

Ditch her before its too late.
Dean (Batemans Row)

Is Palin the new Nixon? We all wrote him off after the Checker's Speech - he wrote us all off after losing his gubernatorial campaign and . . . .well, we all know what happened after that.

Next stop for Sarah Palin-ALASKA & DO NOT LOOK BACK!
Sarah Palin believes her own press. SIT.DOWN.
DON'T YOU HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE BELIEVE THEY'RE THE NEXT BIG THING! This is Politics, NOT showbiz. You give someone an opportunity & they think their crap don't stink. Guess what? It does.

Let's face it - Palin is the most unpopular politician in the United States right now. She has no talent. There's absolutely no way she could re-emerge. If she leads the GOP, the GOP will become the party of radicals and the Democrats will enjoy super-majority for decades until the GOP fixes itself or a third party emerges.

Palin has no future in national politics. I give the American public enough credit to not support someone who's intellectual rigor in understanding and commenting on national and international issues falls below that of a well-informed high schooler. And let's not even get started on her "skills" in understanding the U.S. Constitution. As a Republican, I've had enough of candidates with limited intelligence. Let's find somebody smart to move the party forward with!

(CNN) -- Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin likes to portray herself as an average American working mother.
But how many typical moms get $150,000 worth of merchandise from stylish stores and have strangers pay for it?

This week's revelation about the purchases was just one more surprise in the fast rise and apparent fall of the Republican Party's sudden superstar.

Remember, it was only two months ago that Palin was just the popular governor of Alaska, still an obscure figure in American politics. That changed in late August when John McCain chose her as his running mate.

Within days, she was generating the biggest excitement the McCain campaign had ever enjoyed, captivating the Republican Party, swelling the crowds at its rallies and drawing media coverage that overshadowed the Democrats.

One McCain advisor told me then that one of the practical problems she discovered as she criss-crossed the country was that she didn't bring enough clothes.

It seems her family didn't have enough clothes either, because suddenly there was some serious shopping.

A single visit to the fashionable department store Neiman Marcus cost more than $75,000, but that was only half of the total. The bills ultimately went to the Republican Party, which means that although they probably didn't know it, party donors paid for them.

Palin's problems go beyond clothes, though, to her very candidacy. In recent days, prominent Republicans, from former Secretary of State Colin Powell to Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, have publicly criticized her lack of experience.

Ordinary Americans agree. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that in early September, when Palin was just starting out as a candidate, 47 percent of voters had a positive opinion of her, compared to 27 percent who felt negatively.

Now 47 percent have negative feelings, compared with 38 percent who feel positively.

And the new poll found that concern about Palin's qualifications is voters' top concern about McCain, ahead of every other issue in the election.

Voting day is less than two weeks away and most polls suggest that Barack Obama is headed for victory. The surprise is that Palin went from being McCain's best asset to his biggest problem. And the Republicans don't have much time, or an obvious way, to fix it.

McCain was quoted in 2000 saying he wasn't sure he would be able to run this time. He's having a sunset experience. Palin's a new face. Unfortunately, she has proven endlessly that she's no team player unless she's team captain and everybody falls in line. So she's certain to divide every venue she turns her attention on. She doesn't play well with others and she's got patterns of pragmatic denials / untruthfulness / stonewalling already and she's almost nobody. Now McCain's had a long and distinguised career and he can rest in that after. He's got his sense of humor. She's not at all humorous. She's righteous but hypocritical and what we may see is that ONLY McCain still likes her after all is said and done. He expects to mentor and foster her future. He wants to be there to do it but he might not mind watching as we do. If she blames him she's just make herself layers more laughable. She's become comedy to everyone but herself and Alaska. It's almost unthinkable that the Republicans can have the White House again after the crazy unstewardship of Cheney and Co,. So chances are, all these autopsies on the McCain campaign are not wrong, just early. Palin's utter lack of personal conscience and credibility is of no concern to her. She's not daunted by such concerns. She competes and this is competition, not statesmanship, statecraft, or even government. It is just competition. After her performance this year, she'll be newsworthy but no credible. Where can that go?

She's not likely to make it through the primaries to get a nomination. Once the Republicans are in the midst of choosing her own, the rest of the pack will turn, and with her light resume, she won't survive.

taking an anti-immigration stand. CAN WE SAY "Taking an anti ILLEGAL-immigration stand"? That has been the singular greatest lie made against the Republicans in recent years - we are NOT against immigration - we are against ILLEGAL immigration.

taking an anti-immigration stand. CAN WE SAY "Taking an anti ILLEGAL-immigration stand"? That has been the singular greatest lie made against the Republicans in recent years - we are NOT against immigration - we are against ILLEGAL immigration.

Some questions for Sarah Palin:

1. How do you justify running for Vice President when you previously supported the Alaska Independence Party, which promotes Alaska's secession from the United States?

2. Do you believe in Biblical prophesy of "End of Days," and how would this and your other religious beliefs influence your duties as Vice President? Would you work to overturn Roe v. Wade?

3. You stated one of your best friends "chose" to be gay. Did you choose to be heterosexual? What would you do if one of your children told you he or she were gay?

4. You have spoken of the value of education and your pride in coming from a family of teachers. Do you approve of your future son-in-law dropping out of school?

Sarah Palin needs to stay in Alaska where she has been her entire life. She would show women back to the dark ages in ways of equal rights. Only SHE has the privilege of being in power. I think she has some serious power issues. I mean she really wears the pants in the family in the sense of philisophy, but you won't ever find her wearing a pantsuit. She likes to bring home the bacon literally, but prefers the stay at home dad to cook it up. She had a way of manipulatiing her stands to appeal to the crowd she was seeking....that is true. As for REAL substance, I think her diminished approval rating nationwide has spoken for itself.

Hello all,

I have heard it said, "never underestimate the intelligence of the American people" Brian's corollary: "never overestimate it, either."

-Brian Leslie Engler