September 09, 2008

Paliin at the Bridge

Trust the local papers to get the story straight.

When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center.

"I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere," Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan's Gravina Island bridge.

But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." They're still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin's subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects -- and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines.

"I think that's when the campaign for national office began," said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Weinstein noted, the state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone -- because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.

Despite numerous accounts of her "for it before she was against it" stance on the Bridge to Nowhere, she continues to say she said "Thanks, but no thanks."

Repeat the Big Lie often enough and people will increasingly believe it.

Posted by Linkmeister at September 9, 2008 01:09 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Hardball tonight counted the number of times she has repeated the same line word for word for word and I believe it was 8 since the convention. Not only was she for it before she was against it, but she kept all the money for it. I think I heard something like 300 million.

Did you hear the latest? She billed the state for 312 days of per diem while she was AT HOME. Definitely more of the same.........she is more like Bush than McCain I think.

Posted by: cyn at September 9, 2008 03:14 PM

Yep. Takes gall to bill per diem when you're at home and cozy. Although I gather that Wasilla is several hundred miles from the state capital and she did a lot of governor-work from the nearest state building rather than flying to Anchorage or Juneau or wherever.

Posted by: Linkmeister at September 10, 2008 03:49 PM