Lies And Half Truths Part II

McCain wrong on Palin earmarks
By Tom Hamburger and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
9:47 PM PDT, September 12, 2008

NEW YORK -- John McCain got it wrong Friday when he asserted that his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, had not requested any earmarks, the spending directives lawmakers insert in spending bills that McCain has vowed to eliminate.

Palin, in fact, requested $198 million in federal earmarks in February, including such expenses as $487,000 to fight obesity in Alaska and $4 million to develop recreational trails.

By day's end, the McCain campaign backed down from the claim the GOP presidential candidate made on the ABC television show "The View."

"Sen. McCain was in the throes of a discussion about her record of reforming government, which includes drastic cuts in wasteful spending in the Alaska state budget," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. "If he gave viewers a mistaken impression, it certainly wasn't intentional or without some basis in fact." (LA Times)

It seems to me that he has been doing that a lot lately, coming out with statements on national television and then quietly correcting them. Another case in point…

When asked again by the interviewer for a specific example of Palin's foreign policy experience, McCain flubbed Palin's talking point on energy.

McCain: She knows more about energy than probably anybody else in the Unites States. She is governor of a state [pause] that 20 percent of America's energy supply comes from there.

Leave aside the wildly overstated assertion that Palin is America's top expert on energy. McCain also claimed that the state produces "20 percent of America's energy supply," which is just wrong.

In 2005, Alaska produced 3.5 percent of America's energy supply. Presumably McCain meant to say that Alaska is responsible for 20 percent of America's domestic oil production (which is true).(Huffington Post)

Or...

Another unforced error occurred last month when McCain tried to present an image of being tough on lobbyists by banning active lobbyists from working on his campaign.

The rule forced several top strategists to quit the McCain campaign and instead focused attention on all the lobbyists who were working for McCain.(ABC News)

Or that...

Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.

But in reality…

Asked to clarify where she traveled in Iraq, Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, confirmed that "She visited a military outpost on the other side of the Kuwait-Iraq border."

It was the second such clarification in as many weeks of the itinerary of what Palin has called "the trip of a lifetime." Earlier, the campaign acknowledged that Palin made only a refueling stop in Ireland.
…
Palin also told ABC that she had traveled to Mexico and Canada. Her campaign had previously mentioned a Canada visit, but not a trip to Mexico. Comella said yesterday that Palin had visited Mexico on vacation, and Canada once last year. (The Boston Globe)

Did she visit an “Outpost” in Iraq, yes; but I do not think it gave her much foreign policy experience or visiting Mexico on vacation did either.

Also…

New Evidence: Palin Had Direct Role In Charging Rape Victims For Exams
Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.

Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online.

Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice. (Huffington Post)

This all seems to me that this is part of their campaign strategy, makes all these grandiose statements and then they quietly retract them. The public remembers the first statement but never hears about or forgets the retraction. In addition, this is from a candidate who says he will change and reform Washington and from a candidate who voted 90% in favor of Bush’s policies.