Epilogue

Vote

VOTE!

Troopergate 2

From the New York Times:

Breaking News 7:31 PM ET: Gov. Sarah Palin Cleared by Alaskan State Independent Counsel

Maybe this is how they do things in Alaska. But when a state board that reports to the Governor abruptly releases a report exonerating the Governor on the eve of the election, it seems pretty suspicious. Welcome to Alaskan politics, you betcha!

1. There is no probable cause to believe that Governor Palin violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act by making the decision to dismiss Department of Public Safety Commissioner Monegan and offering him instead the position of Director of the Alaska Beverage Control Board.

etc...

Troopergate

According to AP, it has just been announced that the second report into Palin's ethical misconduct is due to be released today. The timing of this seems bizarre, coming on the eve of the election.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOTk11gvqDAgD0cY3i4WjI_2YOxwD947OCK80

http://www.pubrecord.org/sarah-palin/451-alaska-personnel-board-to-release-second-troopergate-report-today.html

Still Waiting

From ABC News:

In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

Now if Palin actually gave a press conference, someone could ask her exactly how she feels that her First Amendment rights are violated by this. I've copied the text of the first below, I can't even begin to figure out how she'd back this one up.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

In other news, its been 12 days since Palin's staff said they would be releasing her medical records "shortly", but nothing has been released yet. I doubt the conspiracy theories about her fifth baby are true, but the fact that the records were promised and then not released does seem like there is something they'd prefer to hide.

Four Days

Nobody can deny that John McCain has looked confused, or dare I say erratic, a lot of times recently. Last week, in Pennsylvania he told the crowd: "You know, I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately, and you know, I couldn't agree with them more."

This week he got confused while trying to name the five secretaries of state who support him. And I'm sure everyone has seen the clips of him referring to a crowd as "My fellow prisoners". Earlier, during an interview he seemed to think Spain was in South America.

This all might be nothing, but when you're a 72 year old candidate who increasingly seems confused, people have a right to be concerned. McCain seemed to understand this when he talked about the importance of having a VP nominee who was qualified in both domestic and international affairs. Then, in what might be his most erratic moment of all, he picked Sarah Palin to run alongside him.

In a poll released yesterday, 59% of those surveyed didn't believe Palin was qualified to be VP. Even Larry Eagleburger, one of McCain's top supporters admitted yesterday that "Of Course she isn't ready... Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be, she will be [long pause] adequate."

The McCain camp has started claiming that coverage of Palin is biased and sexist. But it doesn't take bias or sexism to watch the Palin/Couric interview and see an unqualified candidate. It isn't biased or sexist to point out that a huge number of Palin's claims in her convention speech were flat out lies. Pointing out that the McCain camp said that she would do a press conference, and two months later we're still waiting is reasonable. It is a fact that she was found to have violated a state ethics law during this campaign. It is a fact that there is another investigation underway into her ethics violations. It is a fact that tax experts have stated that she improperly failed to pay taxes on money that she received from the state of Alaska.

Given her record of lies, her ethics violations, and her failure to live up to promises that she has made, it is easy to understand why the negative stories about Palin outnumber the positive stories. It would be a mistake to automatically assume that this indicates a media bias.

Whack Job

Politico's Mike Allen reports that in a conversation today, a top McCain adviser has improved on last week's "diva" description of Sarah Palin, by calling her “a whack job.”

I've been suspecting for a while that McCain is basing his election chances on a strong showing in the whack-job demographic.