Free Republic

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government "thanks but no thanks" to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state. The McCain campaign released a television advertisement1 Monday morning titled "Original Mavericks." The narrator of the 30-second spot boasts about the pair: "He fights pork-barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." Gov. Palin, who John McCain named as his running mate less than two weeks ago, quickly adopted a stump line bragging about her opposition to the pork-barrel project Sen. McCain routinely decries....

The Alaska Democratic Party pulled this page from their site, but luckily Google has it cached - it states "the State of Alaska officially abandoned" the "Bridge to Nowhere, basically crediting Sarah Palin with killing it! Funny how the page just happened to disappear! http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:szpJxaSZwiMJ:www.retireted.com/real-estate/gravina-bridge/ted-earmarked-funds-for-bridge-that-goes-nowhere/+http://www.retireted.com/real-estate/gravina-bridge/ted-earmarked-funds-for-bridge-that-goes-nowhere/&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us the actual news was originally reported here, http://senateconservatives.com/2008/09/04/alaska-democrats-credit-palin-with-killing-bridge-to-nowhere/

Fighting a Different Alaska Republican, Alaska Dems Credit Palin with Killing Bridge to Nowhere September 08, 2008 4:38 PM Conservative bloggers point out that in their campaign against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Alaska Democrats gave credit to Gov. Palin for helping to kill the Bridge to Nowhere. “Gov. Sarah Palin said the $398 million bridge was $329 million short of full funding, and only $36 million in federal funds were set aside for it," the Democrats say. "She said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities."...

Airing now... 6:30PM Eastern Her debate with Gov & third candidate

Sarah Palin's first year as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, could easily have been her last as she became embroiled in personnel challenges, a thwarted attempt to pack the City Council and a bitter standoff with her local newspaper.

ANCHORAGE -- A Republican state representative says the Democrat overseeing a legislative investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner seems intent on damaging her vice presidential candidacy. The Republican wants the Democrat removed from the post. Democratic state Sen. Hollis French "appears to be steering the direction of the investigation, its conclusion and its timing in a manner that will have maximum partisan political impact on the national and state elections," state Rep. John Coghill said in a letter dated Friday.

An Apostle of Alaska We know the outlines—the moose-hunting mom who juggles BlackBerrys and kids. But what does she believe? The real Sarah Palin. John McCain was not her dream pick. Only a year ago, when the Republican primaries were just beginning, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told NEWSWEEK that she wasn't enthusiastic about anyone in the GOP field. McCain was languishing at 7 percent in the polls. Mike Huckabee was reduced to playing his electric bass to get attention. Palin, driving with a NEWSWEEK reporter along the highway from Anchorage to Wasilla, said she could understand why the country...

WASILLA, Alaska -- One Friday in June, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joined the chief of the state prison system on a tour of the Point MacKenzie Correctional Farm, a 90-minute drive north of Anchorage. It was a routine visit but for the presence of the governor's infant son, Trig. Palin held her baby in her arms as the warden drove a short distance around the facility, said corrections director Joe Schmidt, who sat next to Palin. A few days later, the governor got a warning from her public safety commissioner that someone had complained that she did not strap Trig...

Bay Buchanan was interviewed by Campbell Brown and debunked smears associated with the jet Palin put up on Ebay. video

Here is a great pre-VP video of Palin discussing energy. Hope it hasn't been posted before.

Our friends in the media just do not understand the popular following Sarah Palin has attracted. In an effort to help, I thought I should explain her popular appeal to them in terms even an Ivy League graduate could understand. If you consider yourself a member of the intelligentsia, think of Sarah's unexpectedly numerous admirers as a kind of tribe. We are going to examine a few of the the folkways of strange and foreign people. Think of them as exotic and it may help you stifle any revulsion you may feel at their differences from your own familiar accepted ways....

Greta Van Susteren interviews Major General Craig E. Campbell, a longtime commander of the Alaska National Guard. Major General Campbell provides a description of what is required of a governor as head of a statewide national guard unit, and talks about Sarah Palin’s intense interest and commitment to the unit that she commanded, which made her an excellent Commander in Chief.

Yesterday the McCain camp hit back hard on this front-page NYT story by Elisabeth Bumiller reporting that Sarah Palin had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party in the 1990s. Today, the paper ( New York Times ) writes: " The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the state’s secession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group. A front-page story in The New York Times on Tuesday ... The information in the Times article was based on a statement...

An attorney and former federal judge in Alaska who knows Governor Sarah Palin well says she's a politician who is truly after the interest of the people, not special interests. According to Miller, Palin's "outsider approach" to politics resonated well with most Alaskans, but not the "politics as usual" crowd. Miller says Palin "broke-open" the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System project by inviting a competitive process, not one that was on the oil companies' terms. He notes, more importantly, Palin worked to reform her own political party by holding it accountable for its ties to an oil contracting company that has been...

WASILLA, Alaska- Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so. According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and...

1 - Yes, she is Governor of Alaska. No, she’s not the Lieutenant Governor. No, she’s not currently Mayor of Wasilla. Yes, she was Mayor of Wasilla, some years ago. 2 - Yes, there are people in Alaska who think she’s too liberal. 3 - Yes, she did push for and approve the Wasilla Sports Center. Yes, it did cost a lot of money. (People keep saying $20 million, that article says $14.5 million, but then they also added a $1.2 million dollar food service/kitchen piece. This year, since Palin was out of office as Mayor.) Yes, the city went...

WASILLA, Alaska -- The biggest project that Sarah Palin undertook as mayor of this small town was an indoor sports complex, where locals played hockey, soccer, and basketball, especially during the long, dark Alaskan winters. The only catch was that the city began building roads and installing utilities for the project before it had unchallenged title to the land. The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla....

Thank you, FOX News!

An insider's view: Gov. Sarah Palin's attack on corruption is no cliché. Last night, the nation had its first opportunity to really size-up the hockey mom from Wasilla. Does she have what it takes to be vice-president? And how about those claims that she's a reformer, fighting against entrenched corruption in Alaska? As a former federal judge in Alaska and a lawyer involved in litigation with Alaska's oil companies, I've got a pretty good perspective on this. Whether you embrace her political positions or not, no one can reasonably deny that she's the real deal when it comes to placing...

Below is a video from Greta Van Susteren on Fox News on the leadership experience of Sarah Palin. Greta spoke with several people from Alaska, starting with the current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne Keller. Palin was mayor of Wasilla before she became governor. Keller said that Palin works well with different factions and interests, and would do well in uniting the people of the United States. She said Palin is driven and will accomplish whatever goals she sets for herself. Keller said she met Palin when Palin knocked on her door to ask her opinion about some land use issues...