1981

In an interview, a local Maine reporter repeatedly asked Sen. McCain on Gov. Palin’s qualifications as VP. The questions seem tougher than most asked by the mainstream media.

1982

1983

Words fail me.

1984

My wife mentioned that since Palin is, and will be for the forseeable future, the story for the election-- a good Rovian strategy for the Dems would be to depict Palin as really running things now, that McCain is kind of tied to her apron strings. Just put it out there-- Is McCain afraid to campaign on his own now, since he won’t get the crowds Palin’s getting? If Palin is setting energy policy, will McCain still be able to face down to oil company lobbyists? This is of course an outrageously sexist and cynical strategy, but fight fire with fire. Turn their strength into a weakness.

1985

Why is she supposed to be an expert on energy at all?

The pipeline they keep bringing up is just a plan. They outsourced the legal paperwork to a Canadian company – that’s the entirety of the progress on the project. No company has yet committed to any of the 40 billion dollars. As the governor of Alaska, she basically sets the tax rate for the oil companies, and that makes her an energy expert?

1986

The latest thing to come out of Alaska is that when Gov. Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, the police chief charged rape victims for the cost of rape kits. The then-governor at the time, Gov. Tony Knowles had signed legislation, specifically created because of Wasilla did not want to burden taxpayers, to not charge rape victims the $300 to $1200 for the rape tests.

It looks like it wasn’t just Gov. Palin against laws funding rape kits. In 1994, Sen. McCain voted against the Sen. Biden lead legislation that put an end to the practice of charging rape victims for sexual assault exams. In October 2007, Sen. McCain voted to stop the funding of the law.

The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur has an editorial on this.

1987

That guy repeats himself a lot, getting more incredulous every time.

1988

I followed your link on the 1994 law.

Senator Biden is not the sponsor or a cosponsor of that bill. It’s a huge bill, approving a House amendment of an omnibus bill. It’s possible that the provisions to which McCain objected were not the rape kit ones.

Weak.

1989

The rape thing sounds a little fishy. Not that the policy existed, but that it was unusual for a small town in Alaska.

1990

According to Wikipedia, that Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is also known as the Biden Crime Law.

And from Sen. Biden’s own government website (under Meet Joe > Biography), it states:

His Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 - also known as the Biden Crime Bill - put more than 100,000 cops on America’s streets and increased dramatically federal support for innovative criminal justice prevention and rehabilitation. The 2007 Biden Crime Bill goes further by addressing the 21st century crime problems such as computer hacking, on-line child exploitation and teenage prescription drug abuse.

OnTheIssues has noted that Sen. McCain’s views on rape as “no testing for rape”, as according to his statement from the New York Times’ Jan. 25, 2000 issue. In the article, Sen. McCain was asked on the issue of rape:

Then a young woman asked how he would determine whether someone had in fact been raped. Mr. McCain said, ‘‘I think that I would give the benefit of the doubt to the person who alleges that.’’

1991

It was VERY unusual for Alaska. The Alaska State Legislature passed a law with the express purpose to force Wasilla to reverse this policy.

Oh, and guess who voted against’ Biden’s national bill to make rape kits free? McCain.

Talk about “drill drill drill!”

1992

Gibson Palin interview in two parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD3Yk9RZRF0#

The takeaway this morning, on Morning Joe, is a debate about whether she should have known what the “Bush Doctrine” is. I’m going to guess about 80% of us geeks do know. Does this make me more qualified than Sarah Palin to run the country?

Photoshop me up some buttons, boys, I’m going to Washington!

1993

Cue Alaska tourism ads…

It’ll be interesting to see what the presidential/vice-presidential debates does for the polls.

Respectfully

krise madsen

1994

Oh my gosh.

Watched clips of Palin being questioned by Gibson this morning.

I’ve felt like a lot of the attacks on Palin here have been Hannity like personal attacks, looking for every little thing from her religion to accusing her of being too old to have a baby, etc.

But - she sounded just like a beauty pageant contestant in her answers to Gibson. No exaggeration. I would have said that even if I hadn’t known that she actually was one at one time.

I kept waiting for her to say “All I really want is world peace. Affordable Prada bags for everyone, and world peace.”

1995

Oddly enough, you’re not the only one. This is Joan Walsh’s reaction on Salon:

Republicans have tried to make 9/11 their own personal day of mourning and political commemoration. But 9/11/2008 could well be remembered as a low point in GOP history. It’s the day we learned beyond any doubt that John McCain put his manhood in a blind trust to win the presidency. By most reports he wanted to pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate, but Karl Rove and James Dobson told him he couldn’t. So he chose someone who is unprepared to be president, who could well put the country at risk were she ever called to assume the presidency.

The fact that Sarah Palin sat for her humiliating interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson on 9/11 is one of those strange serendipitous events that makes one believe there’s order in the universe. Remember how 9/11 changed everything, especially our new seriousness about the larger world and foreign policy? Never again would we risk a president, maybe not even a senate candidate, without global experience and sophistication.

What a mockery Palin made of all that. I’ll get criticized as sexist for saying this, but I would say the same thing about a man who sounded this ignorant: Talking to Charles Gibson tonight, Palin sometimes reminded me of poor Miss South Carolina, who, asked why many Americans can’t find the U.S. on a map, famously said: “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps. And I believe that our education, like, such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere, like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children.”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/09/12/palin_mccain/

1996

Nice AP story about how truth has been twisted over recent campaigns:

1997

Her tap-dancing and stalling was hilariously painful to watch. She really tried to seem like she knew what Gibson was talking about, but there’s that moment right after he asks the Bush Doctrine question when she’s visibly taken aback.

Republican pundits are saying that it’s not obvious from the video that she didn’t know, and that most people wouldn’t know about the Bush Doctrine anyway so why get up in arms about it? I agree that most laypeople wouldn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, but those people aren’t campaigning to be VP of the US. As for it not being obvious that Palin didn’t know, it’s right there in the video. She literally recoils and grimaces from the question.

1998

It reminded me more of a cold read psychic routine.

“Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?”

“In what respect?”

Classic scheme, getting the person to answer the question for you. I have lots of respect for Gibson for not falling for it.

Also, I saw the moon and stars last night. Today I am sending in my résumé to be head of NASA.

1999

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska!

GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they’re doing in Georgia?

PALIN: Well, I’m giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it’s in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

2000

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.”

YOUTUBE VIDEO OF PALIN IN JUNE: Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God.

GIBSON: Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: The reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said – first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side. That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie.

Today is the day that I send my first-born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker Brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.

GIBSON: But you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”

PALIN: I believe that there is a plan for this world and that plan for this world is for good. I believe that there is great hope and great potential for every country to be able to live and be protected with inalienable rights that I believe are God-given, Charlie, and I believe that those are the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, in my world view, is a grand – the grand plan.

GIBSON: But then are you sending your son on a task that is from God?

PALIN: I don’t know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do in serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than self and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer.