IS THE LIAR Costing McCain the election?

Photo Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

By l.t. Dravis

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – Monday, October 13, 2008 – What’s the real reason behind McCain’s drop off in the polls?

Are voters turned off by the content of his message?

Are they bummed about his tax policies?

Perhaps they don’t like his $5,000.00 dollar taxable health care credit?

Are they concerned because Senator McCain doesn’t seem to have any plan to ever get us out of Iraq?

Are voters turned off by the negative McCain ads and rhetoric?

Are voters turning away from McCain because they can’t bring themselves to vote for a guy who would 75 years old in the last year of his first term?

But wait a minute . . . maybe it’s not McCain; maybe it’s Sarah Palin.

Could it be that millions of McCain supporters and undecided voters finally got tired of the big insult?

You know . . . the insult foisted on us by John McCain when he nominated a pathological liar to be his running mate.

Huh?

What am I talking about?

I’m talking about the fact that the person John McCain selected to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States is a proven liar.

Don’t agree?

Okay, then, let’s talk about the fact that Governor Sarah Palin was found to have abused her power by ‘violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act' in a report issued by a bi-partisan panel of eight Republicans and four Democrats.

Clear enough . . . right?

Maybe not . . . if you listen to Sarah Palin.

Palin, supposedly everyone’s ‘hockey mom’, cheerfully lied through her teeth when she said, “There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.”

“In fact,” Palin said, “remember, Officer Wooten is still an Alaska state trooper, which is up to the commissioner and the personnel top brass in the Department of Public Safety that decides who is worthy of a badge and carrying a gun in the state of Alaska.”

Whew!

“If they think that Trooper Wooten is worthy of that” (a badge and carrying a gun), “that’s their decision. I don’t micromanage my commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone.

“And, thankfully” Palin lied, “the truth was revealed there in that report that showed there was no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.”

Though Governor Palin obviously believes the American people are too stupid to know that she’s lying . . . in light of an official report that has been pasted all over the internet, printed in every newspaper and magazine, and talked about on every imaginable radio and television program . . . the truth is simple: Voters are too smart to buy that load of baloney.

Could it be that millions of prospective McCain voters agree with a piece on today’s Anchorage Daily News that said,

“Sarah Palin’s reaction to the Legislature’s ‘Troopergate’ report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation. She claims the report ‘vindicates’ her.

“She said that the investigation found ‘no unlawful or unethical activity on my part.’ Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

“You asked us to hold you accountable, Governor Palin. Did you mean it?

“Perhaps Governor Palin has been too busy to actually read the Troopergate report. Perhaps she is relying on briefings from McCain campaign spinmeisters.

“That’s the charitable interpretation.

“Because if she had actually read it, she couldn’t claim “vindication” with a straight face.

“Palin asserted that the report found “there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.”

“In fact, the report concluded that impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.

“Palin’s response is the kind of political ‘big lie’ that George Orwell warned against. War is peace. Black is white. Up is down.

“Governor Palin and her husband were obsessed with Wooten the way Captain Ahab was obsessed with the Great White Whale. No Wooten, no peace.

“Has Governor Palin committed an impeachable offense?

“Hardly.

“Is what she did indictable?

“No.

“But it wasn’t appropriate, especially for someone elected as an ethical reformer.

“And her Orwellian claims of “vindication” make this blemish on her record look even worse.”

Yeah, Governor Palin . . . we got tired of the big insult and understand this: We’re too smart to believe you - anymore - about anything.

Copyright © 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights reserved.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at LTDAssociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

HEY, Sarah . . . what are you afraid of?

By l.t. Dravis

NEW YORK – Wednesday, September 17, 2008 – Is Sarah Palin the real deal or just another mealy-mouthed, hypocritical, self-serving politician who will say or do anything to get elected?

The experts say that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so let’s look at Palin’s past behavior.

On July 11 of this year, she fired Walter Monegan, the Public Safety Commissioner of Alaska.

According to Commissioner Monegan and others in Alaska’s Public Safety Department, the Governor, the Governor’s husband, and some of the Governor’s staff had been pressuring him for months to fire Michael Wooten, an Alaska state trooper who’d been involved in a nasty divorce and custody battle with Palin’s sister.

Monegan believes he was fired because he refused to fire Wooten, saying, “It was a significant factor if not the factor.”

So, the Alaska State Legislature decided to investigate the Governor, her husband, and some of the Governor’s staff members.

If the investigation determines that the Governor is guilty of pressuring Monegan or causing others to pressure Monegan to fire trooper Wooten, she could be charged with abuse of power. If true, beyond the legal ramifications, this past behavior gives us a scary insight into Sarah Palin’s character . . . that the Governor of Alaska would misuse the power of her office to ‘get even’ with a former brother-in-law is reminiscent of another republican politician, Dick Cheney, and his petty peeve against Ambassador Joe Wilson which resulted in Cheney getting ‘even’ with Wilson by outing Wilson’s wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Palin has contradicted herself more than once on the Monegan firing. For example, just after she fired Monegan, Palin said she never pressured him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. Within a month, however, she backtracked on that statement and admitted that some of the people who worked for her and her husband had contacted Monegan twenty-five times or more, to ‘talk about’ Wooten. Since Palin denied knowing anything about any of those contacts, we would have to believe that Palin’s husband would never have talked to his wife about telling Monegan to get rid of Wooten.

In August, Governor Palin publicly committed to fully cooperate with the Alaska legislature in its investigation. “Hold me accountable,” she was quoted as telling the people of Alaska and she agreed to testify.

But then, after having been picked by John McCain to be his running mate, Palin has suddenly reversed course and decided not to cooperate with the investigation.

The Anchorage Daily News, evidently more honorable than the Governor, doesn’t like hypocrisy or deception and said in an Op-Ed piece that since Governor Palin takes every opportunity to tell the public how she honest she is and how she stands for transparency in government, she should honor her original commitment to fully cooperate with the investigation.

But political observers from both sides of the aisle agree that the Governor and the McCain campaign have decided to stonewall the investigation in an effort to prevent the voting public from learning the truth about Palin’s behavior until after they go to the polls on November 4.

Though the investigation is nowhere near being concluded, the McCain campaign has already determined that Governor Palin is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. “The Governor did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide,” the campaign said in an August 29 statement.

Moreover, the McCain campaign, without citing any supporting evidence, claims that the investigation was not initiated by the Alaska State Legislature but was initiated by the Obama campaign. To support its position, the campaign issued the following unsubstantiated accusation: “It’s outrageous that the Obama campaign is trying to attack her over a family issue. As a reformer and a leader on ethics reform, she has been happy to help out in the investigation of this matter, because she was never directly involved.”

So what would she do if she was ‘directly involved’?

Hmmm.

Okay . . . let’s ask a couple of salient questions.

Does Sarah Palin seriously believe that we can’t see that she’s trying to block the investigation because she in fact does have something to hide?

Does the McCain campaign seriously believe that we’ll actually buy the “Obama campaign is trying to attack her over a family issue” line?

Do we really want another double-speaking, innuendo-dropping, hypocritical, self-serving politician to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

And how about John “I approve this message” McCain? He picked Palin and he allows his campaign to come up with lies that insult the intelligence of every voter . . . is this kind of character we want to assume the power of the Presidency?

We’ve already seen this act . . . it’s been running night after night for seven and a half years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Shouldn’t we put up the closing notice on the Palin/McCain act before opening night?

Huh?

Copyright © 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights reserved.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at LTDAssociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.