Since MoveOn.org (and pretty much everyone else) didn't properly vet their choices of attack lines, let's look at the anti-Palin claims one by one:
1. Palin recently said that the war in Iraq is "God's task."
Here's what she really said,
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."Pray that our leaders are sending our soldiers out on a task that is from God. Pray that our nation acts in accordance with God's plan. I've said that prayer myself. Sorry MoveOn, you'll have to do better than that.
2. Palin has actively sought the support of the fringe Alaska Independence Party.
If by actively sought you mean "never been a member of", then sure.
3. Palin wants to teach creationism in public schools.
Flat out, unconditional lie. In an article titled, "Palin has not pushed creation science as governor" Palin is quoted as saying in 2006,
"I don't think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn't have to be part of the curriculum,"
4. Palin doesn't believe that humans contribute to global warming.
Here's the quote they're using,
Q:What is your take on global warming and how is it affecting our country?Here's what she did as governor,
A: A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.
"A few months into her term, Palin directed a group of state commissioners to develop a strategy for addressing climate change. State lawmakers had already formed a climate commission, but the administration up until then had nothing.
"'I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity,' Palin said Monday, 'but I'm not going to put my head in the sand and pretend there aren't changes.'"
5. Palin has close ties to Big Oil.
The source for this? ThinkProgress. TP's source? An Anchorage Daily News story during Palin's run for governor in 2006. The problem? TP didn't actually read the story. It's about an oil company called Veco. A company that has long played a heavy role in Alaska politics. A company that supported Gov. Palin's opponent in the primary and produced a newspaper editorial space that constantly criticized her. A company that gave her exactly zero dollars during her campaign.
And this is found in a story which says, "Palin often draws heat from the oil industry".
Huh. It's so weird that MoveOn/ThinkProgress would take that as having close ties to Big Oil.
5. Palin is extremely anti-choice.
For the uninitiated, "anti-choice" is code for "I think 100% genetically human beings should have more human rights than a Chimpanzee."
6. Palin opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools.
I wonder what they mean by "comprehensive". Anyway, again the source is ThinkProgress, which links to a Politico story containing this quote,
"explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."But they neglected to report the LA Times story which shows Gov. Palin saying the following,
"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues,"
7. As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the library.
In a factcheck.org article titled, "Sliming Palin" we find,
One accusation claims then-Mayor Palin threatened to fire Wasilla’s librarian for refusing to ban books from the town library. Some versions of the rumor come complete with a list of the books that Palin allegedly attempted to ban. Actually, Palin never asked that books be banned; no books were actually banned; and many of the books on the list that Palin supposedly wanted to censor weren't even in print at the time, proving that the list is a fabrication.
8. She DID support the Bridge to Nowhere
Yep.
And then changed her mind. Which, if we decide that's an immediate disqualification for a presidential ticket, I think it safe to say we can just call the whole election off this year. Along with every election in the history of the United States. As with the experience angle, I don't know that it makes for good strategy for Democrats to attack on the grounds of "changing one's mind".
So there you go. That's the list that makes Governor Sarah Palin so scary. Incidentally, I haven't received any new lists since this one was emailed to me, so I can only assume this is the best they've got. And it's all pretty much a bunch of ill-researched garbage.
Which reminds me. When I first posted this list, I was told that it was completely true, and that
"the bullet points here certainly are not "rumor-mongering". All of them can be easily researched and proven accurate in a few moments, from established mainstream sources."Well, that "easily researched" thing turned out to be correct. But the whole "proven accurate" thing, not so much.
7 comments:
If they want to hammer mind-changing, where are the angry letters about Obama voting for FISA?
That's what I thought.
I've been disappointed by many of these attacks. While I still think her views on the war are extreme, we should all be held to a higher standard of accuracy in these campaigns. Truth is a strange notion in politics, apparently.
Your research sucks.
I agree with you that Moveon is stretching the truth, but any half-educated blogger would spot your own stretches easily.
Make an honest argument, or make none at all. This makes Palin supporters (of which I'm one) look stupid.
John. John, the "Palin Supporter".
Please let me know where I've erred in my research.
She "un-supported" the bridge when it became politically incorrect to support it. She still kept the money, just spent it else were. As Mayor and Gov she accepted some of the largest per-capta earmarks in the country. So her claim as a "maverick" or "reformer" is a smoke screen.
Brad,
She un-supported the bridge when it became apparent that it was going to cost more than originally projected. She then directed the state to devise a less costly alternative.
Her fault, as near as I can tell, is that she used the "thanks, but no thanks" line, which makes it seem like she didn't support the federal money for the bridges when in fact she did.
Of course, if the federal government didn't own huge portions of Alaskan land, they might not have needed the earmarks to get the project done.
The rest of her record does in fact support her maverick reputation. She consistently went against her own party and the special interests embedded within her party.
But again, I don't think Obama supporters should harp too much on the "changing your mind" aspect here. It could very easily come back to bite him too.
2. Palin has actively sought the support of the fringe Alaska Independence Party.
This is one of the ones that got to me.... Minnesota's "Independent" Party is also the "Independence" Party. Does that mean that Jesse Ventura (Governor and Independence Party member) was advocating Minnesota breaking away from the Union? I think not.....
LL
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