Palin embraced earmarks as small-town mayor, Alaska governor (Seattle Times hit piece on Palin)

The Seattle Times ^ | September 3, 2008 | Hal Bernton & David Heath

[Junior_G]

ANCHORAGE — As she introduced herself to the nation Friday as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin touted her record as a reformer who worked to end the "abuses of earmark spending in Congress."

But earmarks have never been a dirty word in Alaska, a huge state dotted with small communities that have enormous dollar needs for sewers, roads and other projects.

Instead, earmarks — pet projects that members of Congress fund but that no federal agency has requested — have become a mainstay of political life here, and one that Palin embraced from early on in her career as a mayor of Wasilla to the governor's mansion in Juneau.

[Junior_G]

Seriously, folks...I have not seen this kind of concerted effort by the media to take down a candidate in quite some time. I am hopeful that most Americans have the sense to see through it.

[John Valentine]

Why is it that the very same folks that discount Palin’s service as a small city mayor, want to critique her performance in the very job they say doesn’t count?

Can anyone say hypocrisy?

[Junior_G]

There are so many kinds of hypocrisy coming out in the anti-Palin pieces that it makes my head spin.

[singfreedom]

At least she, unlike most local/state politicians, has cut the amount of “earmarks” she's requested. That has to be unusual.

The fact that this is a Seattle paper explains a great deal about the “hit piece” nature of the article. I tend not to pay any attention to such biased “drivel”. The dim Dems must be really worried.

[Junior_G]

The dim Dems must be really worried.

I don't think there's any other explanation for it.

[goawaylibs]

Ahhh, now the neophyte Palin apparently has some sort of political experience. The hypocrisy of the MSM is just dumbfounding.

They have to be scared of Palin if they are continuing with this line of attacks.

I can point them in a different direction. The “fair and balanced” left wing press should take a look at Obama’s earmark for the Chicago Hospital System and his wife’s subsequent raise after the funds were secured (aka legalized bribery).

I am soooo sure they’d be willing to crawl into that gutter. /sarcasm

[LibertyRocks]

Same here... and I think they are. The Democrats in the media literally SOUND desperate. I think the public is going to start feeling that they are being too harsh, and it's going to backfire on them - especially in comparison to how they treat the "Obamessiah". If they keep printing ridiculous stuff - like Trig was Bristol's baby, etc... etc... the public are going to start seeing through it completely. At least that's my optimistic hope at this point! I think after tomorrow night and Sarah's "Coming Out" Party you'll start hearing her hit back. I'm sure she'll do a great job. The Democrats has underestimated her and when she starts hitting it all out of the park the public will KNOW something is wrong with what they've been hearing...

ALL:
Just FYI: I've put together a Palin Ping List - it is a daily post/ping that will include links to must-read articles, videos, official campaign news & more... Just send me a FReepmail if anyone wants on the list! Or, see this thread: The Unofficial "Official" Sarah Palin Newswire (aka Palin Ping List) (Also see post #58 for the "Inaugural Ping" with extra info!)

[Aria]

Obviously they want a Marxist of no experience to run the country.

Still, this is shocking, they ignore Ayres, Wrignt, the birth certificate, Annenberg, Rezko, etc. etc. They could shred BO if they wanted but they don’t want to.

Is this part of what BO meant when he said “McCain doesn’t know what he’s up against”?

[LibertyRocks]

Exactly... She was the one who killed that “Bridge to Nowhere” Boondoggle. ALL taxpayers have her to thank for that. She told Washington to keep the money and “if we want a bridge we’ll build it ourselves”. Doesn’t sound like someone who RELIES on Federal money for much...

[Deetes]

A big big big chunk of this state is Federal lands . Just saying :-))

[LibertyRocks]

Quick answer, YES. The media is totally in the tank for Obama. They are overwhelmingly liberally biased. I’ve come to understand that it’s not like they don’t KNOW how to be good journalists, they CHOOSE not to be good journalists preferring to bask in their own egos, and further their own chosen agendas.

[Deetes]

They are sh**ing their pants ...

[Junior_G]

Is this part of what BO meant when he said “McCain doesn’t know what he’s up against”?

We know from Drudge today that Obama met with Fox News to discuss their coverage of him. That quote from Obama makes sense if he paid similar visits to the other major news channels and knew how totally in the bag for him they were.

[21twelve]

Federal lands in Alaska account for 62% - about 220,000 acres - almost the size of Texas.

Private ownership is 1%! The state and natives own the rest. (At least as far as I can tell from my internet searches!).

[TigersEye]

Did she use cocaine? Associate with terrorists? Did she plagiarize her college papers? Does she go to a racist church? Has she funneled millions of dollars to slumlords? Is she going to have forged identification documents passed out by her campaign? Does she have friends in Hamas?

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

A big big big chunk of this state is Federal lands .

What does that have to do with anything, Palin is the Governor and Alaska counts.

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

They are scared of Gov. Palin, trying so hard to discredit her.

On the other hand, I can only imagine how many "stories" (and paid research hours) had already been prepared to attack Romney.

[scooby321]

BOR had threaten to do a 29 day series on Obama since he wouldn’t come on.

[chainsaw]

The media is just admitting that Palin does know how the system works in Washington.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Any town that wasted as many tens of millions of dollars on a go-nowhere, absurd project like the Monorail (Seattle) has zero room to complain about the “earmarks” of another town.

Eff Seattle and its commies in the press.