McCain-Palin

[Ezliving_Jim]

Obama did have, hands down, the best speech ever given by a Democrat after accepting the nomination. I was moved by it even though it didn't move me to vote for him. McCain has a lot to work on to compete with that speech. Thank God there are 3 debates.

Read the speech with the TV turned off. It was weak and generic liberal boilerplate... all promises with no way to deliver anything. Hot air.

I'd love to know how much money the DNC spent on the stadium extravaganza. Million$$$, I'd bet. Where's the beef?

Obama is still a Post Turtle.

McCain-Palin should win 2008.

In 2012, it could be Hillary vs. Sarah.

[sunsally]

Originally Posted by movieking

She doesn't have what it takes to be a president and for that fact alone should not be vice-president.

This reminds me of a show on TV a year or two ago where a lady was the VP, something happened to the President and all of a sudden she became president. Everyone was pissed because she was only the VP due to her being a woman which is what the President needed to get the female votes to get elected.

As a woman, the selection of Gov. Palin is completely appalling.

It sets back any respect legitimate national level women politicians have gained, and reduces her gender to a bargaining chip or an ice cream flavor.

"Let's see -- I'll take the NRA vote, one scoop of Conservative Christians, hmmm.........tell you what, just throw a Sarah Palin on top and we'll call that a sundae!".

"Hey look guys -- I got me a running mate - she shoots guns and plays basketball, she's got her one of them thar handicapper kids which will play great in the heartland -- and she's durn purty too!. Why, with my rich trophy wife Cindy on my other arm, I've achieved the ultimate dirty-old-man-with-a-threesome fantasy!!"

I have lost ALL respect for John McCain - and I had plenty.

With all the QUALIFIED female candidates available (if he felt compelled to "do the woman thing" to win votes), this selection is embarrassingly ridiculous.

[solarmeter®]

I would have prefered Romney... but am willing to give her a chance over the next 2 months. She appears to be more than an ice cream sundae so far. We'll see as the goofy "polls" emerge.

For every person Romney's hair-do and religion may have turned off... there might be two that Palin's toughness and lifestyle brings into the republican camp - a net gain of three.

Come to think of it... is her "experience" really much less than the honorary mayor of Hope and $38K governor of Arkansas back in 1992?

[tuscantan]

Ann...I think bringing her youngest child with downs is a total low blow and completely disrespectful for thoughs of us that deal with people with this dissability....don't through that in her face or ours...As a woman, I think it was a great decision...

[mgj]

Ann give her a chance, you threw her overboard before you even knew her. Newt called her out on April 3 as his VP choice. Newt would have been my choice, but we do not like our VP' or P's for that matter to be that smart and actualy have commen sense. Obama is definatly smart enough, but he can argue any corner of circle three times over, another depends on your definition of "IS" guy.

I like McDaddy, I would have like romney for either P or VP, but hey give the girl a chance. Let the drilling begin, while we find other alternatives. (Another brilliant female position that I like by non other than Paris HIlton)

[Ezliving_Jim]

I'm locked on the news programs. Palin owns the news cycle, which is a distraction from Obama's socialism, income redistribution, big nanny, higher taxes, nonsense.

With 66 days until election day, the GOP needs to put the focus on the Obamanation threatening our country.

Take away Obama's teleprompter. Let him answer questions without cue-cards. Watch him drown.

[Alan @ TanToday]

Prepared speeches, he is the best. One of one, without notes or sound bites and McCain mops the floor with him.

Lets get ready to rumble folks!

[TonyG]

Originally Posted by sunsally

As a woman, the selection of Gov. Palin is completely appalling.

It sets back any respect legitimate national level women politicians have gained, and reduces her gender to a bargaining chip or an ice cream flavor.

"Let's see -- I'll take the NRA vote, one scoop of Conservative Christians, hmmm.........tell you what, just throw a Sarah Palin on top and we'll call that a sundae!".

"Hey look guys -- I got me a running mate - she shoots guns and plays basketball, she's got her one of them thar handicapper kids -- and she's durn purty too!. Why, with my rich trophy wife Cindy on my other arm, I've achieved the ultimate dirty-old-man-with-a-threesome fantasy!!"

I have lost ALL respect for John McCain - and I had plenty.

With all the QUALIFIED female candidates available (if he felt compelled to "do the woman thing" to win votes), this selection is embarrassingly ridiculous.

Gee, how patronizing. It takes guts to put yourself through the ordeal of running for ANY public office. If she had been the one term male governor of Alaska with no kids who was a pro-drilling. govt. reformer who added balance to the ticket and electrified the base, I wonder if you would have made such a comment.

I was for Condi Rice. One reason was that if Obama lost, the 'minority community' could still take some solice in the fact that they lost the presidency, but got the vice presidency. She should have been picked because in the 'long view' of history, it was a good thing to do. In a similar way, it is great that McCain went looking for a woman; it is just a good thing, historically speaking.

Using your logic (if it can be called that), Reagan would have never chosen the state judge out of Arizona to be on the Supreme Court...Sandra Day O'Conner. There were 10,000 better qualified east-coast intellectual white guys, but Reagan went out west to pick an obscure female Goldwater-republican. But that was a great pick from the view of history, and turned out to be fine in job performance as well.

[FIT]

1. Obama proposes a time-table for withdraw and McCain accuses him of putting the election ahead of the best interest of our country. His famous line, "I would rather lose an election than lose a war".

2. The Iraqi goverment and the current government agree on a time-table for withdrawal.

3. McCain chooses a far right, female, pro-life first term governor to help him shore up his own base and possibly go after the female vote (which he needs badly). 20 months ago she was the Mayor of a town of 9,000. McCain himself on numerous occasions said when choosing a VP you must choose a candidate who could take over as President now!!

So I guess we have to assume he'd rather win an election than put a qualified person in the oval office should something happen to him.

BTW, summer's over and I have a life again so I'm back Ezliving!

[FIT]

Ann give her a chance, you threw her overboard before you even knew her

Nobody knows her including John McCain. He met her one time before he offered her the 2nd highest position in the World! Already he's showing us his poor judgement.

[tuscantan]

Who cares...I didn't know that you had to be best friends to be the p and vp....

[tuscantan]

cause you know that biden and o are such best friends...

[solarmeter®]

Nothing short of pure socialism would satisfy the "FIT"... and there are plenty more like him. Enough to propel the bottom 50% to control of the upper 50% on Nov 4? Hope not - but maybe so.

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by sunsally

As a woman, the selection of Gov. Palin is completely appalling.

It sets back any respect legitimate national level women politicians have gained, and reduces her gender to a bargaining chip or an ice cream flavor.

I have lost ALL respect for John McCain - and I had plenty.

With all the QUALIFIED female candidates available (if he felt compelled to "do the woman thing" to win votes), this selection is embarrassingly ridiculous.

Thank you Ann.

(Cindy should have her break lines checked daily. It would be sad for her too end up like Johns first loving wife when the new hottie hits the scene.)

[EliteMike]

Welcome back FIT.

now that the dems drama is over, we can focus on the next president and not a bunch of petty BS. Oh wait, that's going to happen again.

I beleive McCain has the right idea here. He leveled the playing field and may have even secured his seat behind dubya Bush.

In the end, this election will come down to the same thing that caused a lot of hatred in this country. I beleive it is that simple. RACE.

[Ezliving_Jim]

Originally Posted by Tanmantans

I'm sorry, but has everyone forgotten that there is an investigation with the legistlation of Alaska on her. Far be it, that this fact is being over looked right now.

Palin's Non-Scandal: The Facts The MSM Won't Reveal

By now political junkies will be aware of a so-called "scandal" involving Governor Sarah Palin which might be ingenuously called 'Troopergate'. The Dems, the Left, and the MSM - but I repeat myself! - will all snatch little pieces of this story and attempt to brand Palin as corrupt, using her gubernatorial powers to get an intrepid Alaskan Trooper fired because he divorced his wife, who happened to be Sarah Palin's sister.

They'll run with this. But they will never reveal the truth or the facts about this. Flopping Aces has done a bang-up job pulling all the pieces together, with some excellent links, to provide reality to those who are reality-challenged. By which I mean the Dems, Leftists, and MSM - but I repeat myself, again!

I strongly suggest you hit the above link and visit Flopping Aces to read the story in full. But allow me to give you a few facts. The complaint that led the Republican-controlled Legislature to start an investigation into 'Troopergate' was filed by Andrew Halcro. Who is he? Why he's the fellow who lost to Sarah Palin in the 2006 gubernatorial election, finishing a distant third with 10% of the vote. Her served as a Republican Representative in the Alaska House from 1999 - 2003, after he announced he would not run for re-election in 2002. He's the King of Sour Grapes.

The Republican-led Alaskan Legislature announced an investigation and put in charge of it a man with a long-time relationship with the supposedly aggrieved party, fired Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The investigator, Steve Branchflower, worked in numerous capacities with the Anchorage PD - where Monegan also worked - and his wife worked briefly with the Alaska State Troopers. You think he might have an axe of his own to grind in this investigation?

Governor Palin herself announced an independent investigation into the accusations of influence and corruption. She has good reason not to trust the even-handedness of the Republican Legislature's investigator or motives.

In the end I think you will wonder why the Trooper in question was not fired long before the incidents in question, why the Police Union went to the mat for him, why the Department of Public Safety Commissioner felt a 10-day suspension was adequate, why the Union demanded the suspension be reduced to five days, and why Alaska needs to spend over $100,000 on such nonsense.

What did this Trooper do? Let's start with the oddest incident, one which should have seen him fired and charged with abuse. He tasered his eleven-year-old stepson. Then he claimed it was a training exercise. This boob is a police officer?

He shot a moose - using someone else's hunting license - then claimed he didn't know that was illegal. Alaska Police officers want this jerk working with them?

He threatened the father of his wife (Palin's sister, thus her father, too) with an open phone line picking up the threat, "he’ll “eat a f*#king bullet". Does Alaska want this doofus working with a gun and a badge?

Why was Commissioner Walt Monegan fired? Well, Palin says he didn't do the job he was hired to do. She has the power to hire and fire that official. She didn't need a reason. She tried to keep him in her administration, but his feelings were hurt and he refused. And it seems he is not an honest man, anyway. His accusations are demonstrably false.

Oh, there's so much that it would take me days to write it up. But Flopping Aces has most of it, a timeline included, and links to sources and further information. Go there! It won't be long before the broadcast networks begin hinting at this 'scandal' haunting Governor Sarah Palin. They won't give you the facts, only the Democrats' talking points, to tar Palin as corrupt. Don't fall for it!

This is just the beginning. The Left will be trying anything they can to destroy Sarah Palin, and ruin John McCain's chances to win the White House. Know the truth, know the facts, and know the opposition.

Now, get to it!

Note: As a non-snarky commenter Allison has noted, the media is reporting this. Let's get it straight, shall we? They won't!

benning's Writing Pad

[Ezliving_Jim]

Originally Posted by Tanmantans

I'm sorry, but has everyone forgotten that there is an investigation with the legistlation of Alaska on her. Far be it, that this fact is being over looked right now.

Palin’s Trooper’Gate: Beating MSM distortions to the truth

Posted by: MataHarley @ 11:57 pm in Politics, Sarah Palin
Visited 4553 times, 4553 so far today


**Welcome readers from Lucianne, Ace of Spades, Gateway Pundit, Protein Wisdom, The Corner, Wizbang, The Strata-Sphere, Macsmind, and Memeorandum….thanks for the link!**
It’s been over 12 hours now since Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, has been named as GOP choice of Veep. Already, a desperate Obama camp of supporters are in search of talking points… other than the obviously poor choice of “inexperience”… or a scandal to take back what they perceive as the DNC ticket superiority.

Knowing the Palin-Monegan-Wooten investigation of abuse of power was their prime target, I’ve been spending time this AM researching the chain of events in hopes of beating the media to the political and biased distortions creating a new, and false “truth. I took into consideration that journalists… and ardent supporters like Markg8 on Curt’s thread… will be quick to post what they believe is damning evidence without reading more material on the issue.

So on that note, settle back and catch up with the reality of rural country politics. I’d like to share with you what appears to be the crux of the story, using both pro and con Palin bloggers and news media.

A timeline of events in the so-called “scandal”

4-11-05: Investigation of Mike Wooten by AST (Alaskan State Troopers) over two year allegation of misconduct involving family members commences.

5-1-05: Domestic complaint incident involving Mike and Molly Wooten, Sarah and Todd Palin. Transcript of Sarah Palin with troopers. Also, Trooper notes on the same interview.

SUMMARY: Molly calls Sarah (not yet Governor) in fear from husband. They leave an open phone line where both Sarah and Molly’s son hear Wooten threaten Molly and Sarah’s father (he’ll “eat an f*#king bullet). Palin doesn’t call police because she doesn’t want to hurt Wooten’s trooper career, nor make the situation worse…. Providing it didn’t get physical. Other incidents with Wooten noted.

8-18-05 Re’interview of both Sarah and Todd Palin. Trooper notes on Sarah interview. And Trooper notes on interview with Todd Palin, plus with bartender of Mug Shot Saloon.

SUMMARY: Sarah confirms an email on Aug 10th, 2005 to Col Julia Grimes, Director of AST (Alaska State Troopers) complaining of Wooten’s negative representation of the department. Wooten’s abuse of his authority and position in various instances. His racist attitudes towards native Alaskans (Todd Palin is a native Alaskan…), abuse of state resources (free gas/credit), illegal hunting activities, and Sarah’s daughter (Bristol) being a witness to Wooten’s tasering of his 11 year old stepson (verified)

SUMMARY: Todd also confirms Wooten’s disparaging remarks about Alaskan natives, his consistent abuse of authority and position, plus his hunting violations. Bartender confirms Wooten involving himself in bar fight, misusing his position as a trooper. Also bartender confirms Wooten with “girlfriend” at the bar, who was later arrested for DUI.

This is no means a complete picture of all that happened… but enough to give you a picture of an “out of control” trooper.

~~~

NOTE: Palin was not Governor of the State at this time… and this transpired BEFORE her primary campaign against GOP [see party affiliation correction at end of post, please]competitor, Andrew Halcro. Coincidently, the same man leading the pack screaming “scandal” over the “firing of Monegan”.
The investigations against Wooten started more than a year before she was elected governor, and about two months before launching her campaign”.

~~~

11-2005: Palin elected Governor of Alaska

3-1-06: Col. Julia Grimes findings on Wooten investigation results in suspension…. for only *five* days.

What we can derive from the timeline is that the investigations and complaints against Wooten as a State Trooper (not to mention with problems exhibiting a derelict father who tasers his step son, and is a physically and verbally abusive, unfaithful husband per the transcripts and testimony) had started prior to Palin’s term as Governor.

We can also determine that this is a man who most certainly does not need to be a trooper, armed with a badge and gun. And, if not in rural Alaska, Wooten is a law official who would have been run out of most departments as a seriously troubled man with violent tendencies.



Per Col. Julia Grimes in the Fairbanks Newsminer on July 28, 2008… and showing how long this “scandal” has dragged out…

The record clearly indicates a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable, and at times, illegal activity occurring over a lengthy period, which establishes a course of conduct totally at odds with the ethics of our profession,” Col. Julia Grimes, then head of Alaska State Troopers, wrote in March 1, 2006, letter suspending Wooten for 10 days. After the union protested it, the suspension was reduced to five days.

She warned that if he messed up again, he’d be fired.

Where’s the “abuse of power” scandal?
Now that we know who Wooten is, and the story of the Palin relationship, PLUS the documented timeline in mind, let’s look at commenter markg8’s evidence (the video below) of a local Alaskan TV station on the “scandal”, as posted johnny-on-the-spot by leftist Obama supporter, Josh Marshall’s TalkingPointsMemo.

YouTube - KTVA, Local CBS Affiliate, Reports On Palin Trooper-Gate Sca

First, the video accusation is that the Governor’s office has questionable reasons (meaning removing Wooten from the AST) for firing Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan in July 2008. As we know, documented complaints from Palin about Wooten started prior to Monegan’s appointment… which Monegan may, or may not have been aware.


Yet Monegan was appointed by Palin. She is certainly within her rights to fire him. And if complaints were already lodged about Wooten to the immediate superior, Col. Julia Grimes, why did she need to pressure him to fire Wooten? Afterall, if Palin was going to “abuse” her power to get Wooten fired, why not direct that power over Grimes as the superior of the Troopers?

And if getting Wooten fired was her quest, why did she not take steps to do that in 2005 during the complaint period, instead of specifically stating under deposition she was staying silent in order not to put his job at risk? Not to mention the gap in time… why would it take her two and a half years to fire Monegan because of Wooten?

Monegan’s “truth” problem
According to Monegan, he insists he was pressured by Todd Palin,“numerous times to talk about Wooten as well as Frank Bailey from the governor’s office and Commissioner of Administration Annete Krietzer who also pressured him to fire Wooten”.

If trooper recruitment and poor morale was one of Palin’s concern about Monegan’s performance, why would her husband Todd be doing the talking for Palin? And why would Palin send her husband… sans gubenatorial power… to convince Monegan to fire Wooten?



But the problem with Monegan’s charge is.… Todd Palin was *ordered* to talk to Monegan since Wooten was a potential threat against Alaska’s first family.

2. Todd Palin was ORDERED by the head of the Governor’s security detail, Special Agent Bob Cockrell, to discuss Trooper Wooten with Walt Monegan, as Wooten presented a credible threat to the Governor’s safety. Here’s a direct quote from Special Agent Cockrell, who is now providing security for his sixth consecutive governor:

“When made aware of the security concerns regarding a state trooper, I instructed the First Gentleman to contact the commissioner of Public Safety. It is standard protocol to ask every governor about any threats they perceive or have realized. “I will not hesitate to set the record straight in answering these false allegations by former Commissioner Monegan.” (emphasis added)

Monegan also states others “around Palin” also applied pressure… but not Palin herself.

But Monegan says pressure came from those around Palin, including former Palin chief-of-staff Mike Tibbles, Department of Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer, and director of boards and commissions Frank Bailey.

Tibbles, who is now the campaign manager for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, said Friday he couldn’t comment on whether he spoke to Monegan about Wooten.

Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Bailey never had such a conversation with Monegan.

Kreitzer could not recall, Leighow said.

Problem is, Palin directed none of these people to intercede her her behalf… either personally, or professionally. In fact, until someone presented her with the phone transcript of Bailey’s call, she had no idea these events had occurred… putting her in a more embarrassing position.

Frank Bailey, the boards and commissions director, told The Associated Press he acted on his own — and not on behalf of Palin or her husband, Todd — when he called Ketchikan-based Lt. Rodney Dial, pushing for the firing of Trooper Mike Wooten.

“There was never any direction by the governor, never any direction by Todd to make the call or to make any call to DPS on this stuff,” Bailey said.

In the recorded conversation, Bailey is heard telling Dial: “Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, why on earth hasn’t, why is this guy still representing the department? He’s a horrible recruiting tool. … You know, I mean from their perspective, everyone’s protecting him.”

Palin said she heard the conversation for the first time on Tuesday when she returned to Anchorage from state business in Fairbanks. She said it was unclear why the recorded conversation only recently surfaced.

“It’s embarrassing for me to disclose at this time a conversation has occurred, again unbeknownst to me,” she said at a hastily arranged news conference at her Anchorage office.

In another instance that questions Monegan’s honesty, he and Gov. Palin had met over two dozen times—yet he says they only met four times. Since he has only alluded to, but not directly accused Palin of, pressuring him to fire Wooten, is he suggesting Wooten was the subject of the meetings (of which there should be some sort of official records… which there are none)? Or were these meetings about his performance?

Clearly Monegan is not being truthful about the amount of times he met with Gov. Sarah Palin, when confirmed with Government office records. What can we believe about the subject of his meetings?

Monegan fired for budget, recruiting and enforcement performance
Disagreements between Monegan and Palin over a budget cut in the troopers, department morale and recruiting, and bootlegging enforcement are documented by Andrew Halcro. (As I mentioned earlier, but it bears repeating…. Halcro also happens to be the losing primary GOP candidate in the 2006 gubenatorial candidate, and is the source of the complaints against Palin.)

The political plot thickens…

Palin, giving more specifics later in the process than she should have, confirms her reasons for firing Monegan in that position, but offering him another in the department which she felt he was better suited for.



Per “Alaskan Activist” on the Alaskan Pride blog:

Palin has been under heavy criticism since firing former Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. However, she also disclosed three reasons why she fired Monegan (I listened to the press conference in part on KFQD and specifically took down this information).

- He was not making headway on achieving key goals such as resolving the trooper shortfall.

- He was not making satisfactory progress on resolving alcohol issues.

- He was not a team player in regards to budget issues.

But recognizing his previous experience in dealing with alcohol issues, particularly in Bush Alaska, Governor Palin did not want to remove Monegan from the administration altogether, but to place him in charge of the Alcoholic Beverage Control board, where he could combine his rural expertise with a full-time focus on alcohol issues. Nevertheless, Monegan elected not to accept the post, and left the administration instead. Monegan continues to maintain he was pressured by Palin’s family and the administration to fire Trooper Wooten.

Alaskan Pride is no Palin fan for the Veep job, BTW. Also, there are links to “white nationalists” website links there. Frankly, just the sound of that gives me the creeps… But I figured hey… anti-Palin. Oddly enough, even he doesn’t deem Palin as corrupt, but naïve:

Sarah Palin could have saved herself a lot of grief if she had simply told us why she canned Walt Monegan last month instead of serving up some New Age Oprah-style drivel about “new energy” and “new direction”. There seems to be a disturbing aura of New Age influence within the Palin Administration.

So if Monegan and Palin disagreed on the budget, recruiting and enforcement (most over budget), and she was within her gubenatorial rights to replace him, just where does the scandal come into play?
It doesn’t… not that facts ever stop rumors or investigations in the political world. What we have here is the playing out of complaints instigated by a disgruntled loser’s political witch hunt. Fact is, if Palin wanted to do a gubenatorial power play, she could apply that to Grimes. However she had other grievances with Monegan.


Palin welcomes an investigation into the firing of Walt Monegan. Yet even that has some nepotism involved. The appointed prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, apparently has a very close relationship with Monegan.

Branchflower, who served as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage from 1974-1998, held numerous positions which required him to work extremely closely with the Anchorage Police Department, where Walt Monegan would become chief in 2001. He provided legal advice to APD officers, trained APD officers, and was even a co-founder of the APD’s Homicide Response Team. His wife also worked as a detective for the APD, not retiring until 2002, meaning that she worked under Walt Monegan. In short, it seems impossible to believe that Branchflower, whose entire career was wrapped up in his relationships with the APD, and his detective wife did not have at least some professional relationship with Walt Monegan, who was obviously one of the city’s top cops. Mrs. Branchflower also briefly came out of retirement to work as a cold case detective for the Alaska State Troopers.

So when you read of Palin also launching an independent investigation, you might consider having another investigator’s input is not such a bad idea in light of the personal ties between Branchflower and Monegan.

Palin replaced Monegan with Charles Kopp…who ended up resigning after two weeks under intense political scrutiny for an old (and removed from the books the previous year) sexual harassment charge. No doubt, that that will be the next attempted scandal… Either that, or it’s one jinxed position.

Now John Glass in is the Public Safety Commissioner seat…. Will the Alaskan local powers and the Obama camp make an issue of that? Only time will tell.

~~~

[Correction: Halcro was a GOP legislator in the Alaska House of Representatives. He ran against Palin on the Independent ticket. So sorry for the error... late, lots of data... zzzzz]Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » Palin’s Trooper’Gate: Beating MSM distortions to the truth

[FIT]

Originally Posted by tuscantan

Who cares...I didn't know that you had to be best friends to be the p and vp....

I wasn't suggesting that they needed to be friends. I'm merely questioning how he could have made an informed decision.

[mgj]

Funny thing is all big cities are in the process of preparing for the Obama riots. If he loses all he11 will break loose, and if he wins all he11 will break loose. Did you ever notice its only the left side of the isle that protests, riots, and burns things sometimes in effigy some times for real. WHat a cultured, nuanced, understanding, and truly tolereant bunch.

Oh well we all beter get ready to help New Orleans again,

[tuscantan]

How do we know that he didn't....They could have been talking for months, years, we don't know...So, we can't question his choice when we don't know what happened behind the scenes.