Sunday, October 12, 2008
The scoop on Palin
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Richardson, of Juneau, Alaska, is a 1981 Virginia Tech graduate and former reporter for WDBJ TV.
When I was a TV reporter in Roanoke, my news director told me that if a story didn't make the 6 o'clock news it never happened. While my days as a reporter are long over, I still feel compelled to give you the Alaska scoop on Sarah Palin before you go to the polls.
I am appalled that John McCain, a man I once admired, made an irresponsible choice for running mate in his blind effort to be the oldest president ever elected. During her brief stint as governor, Palin has been very focused -- on herself. Her revolving door of fired or disgruntled key staff in just 21 months in office was not news to those who follow Alaska politics. But national coverage of the extent of husband Todd Palin's involvement in state government was new and quite disturbing.
Also disturbing is our governor's frequent two-sided and two-faced contradictions.
Palin served as a director of Sen. Ted Stevens' fundraising political action committee. But when he was indicted, Palin sharply criticized the man who had helped fund her pet projects in Alaska.
Palin promised a more ethical government under her watch, but she and her husband have stonewalled a state investigation into the governor's firing of Alaska's top cop because he refused requests to fire her former brother-in-law. Palin months ago encouraged, even welcomed, the investigation -- until she was nominated for vice president.
Palin supported the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Ketchikan, Alaska. But when national public sentiment scorned the effort, she flip-flopped and stopped the project. What she won't tell you is she intends to spend the tens of millions of federal dollars on other projects in Alaska. Meanwhile, there is a second billion-dollar Alaska bridge project still under way. She has not stopped that one, a fact she does not tell Americans.
Fiscal conservatives should be shocked that Republican Palin pushed a $1,200 "energy rebate" through the legislature this summer, handing out state checks to people in an election year. Rather than deal with the state's energy crisis in a thoughtful manner, she ignored Republican and Democratic pleas not to throw free money at every man, woman and child in the state. The shortsighted solution kept her approval rating up, but did not address the long-term issue of affordable, sustainable energy.
Meanwhile, Alaska ranks 41st in the nation on health care access, quality and costs. But while our state is awash in oil tax revenues, the Palin administration has refused to support adding more children to the state's Children's Health Insurance Program. A bill to ease eligibility rules for the insurance passed the state Senate but, because of her refusal to act, it died in the House. As a result, 1,200 children in Alaska's working families still do not qualify for basic health care coverage.
Alaska has the dubious distinction of having a rape rate 2.5 times higher than the national average. Every American should be appalled that under Palin's watch as a mayor, rape victims in her town had to pay for rape kits used for police investigations. Her adamant stance against abortion, even in the case of rape and incest, is unfair to women faced with that double nightmare.
Thomas Jefferson said, "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." Palin has neither the wisdom nor the honesty to be vice president of our great country. And McCain should be ashamed of himself for choosing an ill-prepared politician to be his running mate.
