by Deb Cupples | It amazes me that anyone who's been publicly called out for stretching the truth or lying would blatantly continue to truth-stretch or lie. I shouldn't be amazed, because I've seen John McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, do it several times just during the few short weeks since her candidacy was announced.
The most recent stretching (or lying) involved Gov. Palin's alleged trip to Iraq. The Boston Globe reports:
"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."
Apparently, Gov. Palin wanted to market herself as a world traveler, to boost her foreign-relations creds.
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported -- according to Alaska National Guard officials and campaign aides with a flare for revising statements -- that Gov. Palin didn't actually cross the Iraq border, instead preferring to remain on the Kuwait side.
I don't fault Gov. Palin for staying out of Iraq. In her shoes, I too would have stuck like super-glue to the Kuwaiti side of the line. But when I got home, I wouldn't have allowed my spokespeople or campaign aides to run around claiming that I'd visited Iraq.
It's not just Iraq: Gov. Palin's spokespeople also stretched the truth about her alleged visit to Ireland. It turns out that her plane had stopped in Ireland for re-fueling. If she didn't get off the plane, I suspect that Irish officials didn't even stamp her passport.
Foreign travel is not the only issue about which Gov. Palin has stretched facts beyond recognition like a participant at a taffy pull.
After becoming McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin said that she'd been against the infamous, $230 million proposal to build a bridge (aka, the Bridge to Nowhere) to connect the Alaskan mainland to a small island with less than 1000 residents who'd been relying on ferry service.
In 2005, the hyper-conservative Heritage Foundation found that the proposed bridge was "an object of national ridicule and a symbol of the fiscal irresponsibility of many in Congress."
In August 2006, when Palin was running for governor, she publicly voiced support for the Bridge to Nowhere. It was only later that Palin changed her tune -- though, according to Pro Publica, Palin's administration is still trying to get federal earmarks to connect the island to the mainland.
Truth-stretching isn't the long and short of it. Gov. Palin actually got caught in an outright lie during the Republican National Convention, when she blasted earmarks as part of a corrupt practice.
According to NPR, when Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she spent more than $100,000 of the tiny town's budget on lobbying services -- in order to secure about $27 million in federal earmarks.
That does not even vaguely resemble evidence of someone who fought earmarks.
Incidentally, Think Progress has documented 23 instances of Gov. Palin's truth-stretching (or lying).
The big question: why did John McCain choose a running mate with a penchant for truth-stretching (or lying)?
Perhaps it's a case of like attracting like. Sen. McCain has been doing some truth-stretching and lying of his own lately. For example, according to McClatchy, McCain stretched the truth when putting out an ad claiming that Barack Obama favored teaching kindergarteners "comprehensive sex education" (as though they haven't already gotten it from cable TV).
Fact: Obama had actually supported age-appropriate sex-ed, including warnings to young children about inappropriate touching -- so they'd know when in the presence of a sexual predator.
Another example: McCain recently said that Gov. Palin had never (as governor) sought federal earmarks.
Fact: in February 2008, alone, Gov. Palin sent a 70-page memo to U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, outlining about $200 million in federal earmark requests. Yes, that's the same Ted Stevens (aka, the Earmark King) who is now under indictment.
Is the McCain campaign reserving its truth-stretching efforts to matters of importance? Sadly, no. According to information from Bloomberg, McCain's camp might even have been lying about the size of the crowds that campaign events have drawn (i.e., claiming they were bigger than they were).
Eight years of truth-stretching (and outright lying) by the Bush-Cheney Adminsitration has tried my tolerance.
Does this nation really need another four years of that nonsense?
Memeorandum has commentary.
Other Buck Naked Politics Posts:
* Aide Indicted, Two Congressmen Implicated in Abramoff Scandal
* Interior Dept. Corruption Probe: Are Some Folks Being Protected?
* An Intense Skeptic's Reasons for Supporting Obama
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