How Do You Know When Sarah Palin is Lying?

Of the many endearing traits of Sarah Palin that have been revealed to us in the two months she's been in the public eye, none is less attractive than her penchant for lying. And I'm not just talking about little white lies. I'm talking about the kind of whoppers that deserve a whole bar of soap.

What's most unnerving is how good she is at it; the kind of good that says "red" is "yellow"so convincingly that people actually believe it. She's sure got a lot of Republicans fooled. They not only listen to her lies. They repeat them as though they came straight from the mouth of God.

Her biggest whopper was when she was confronted with this:

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 2952.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 2952.110(a) provides

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

to which she responded with this:

"Well, I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

Then, confronted with the evidence of her excessive expenditures on clothing and accessories to the tune of 150,000 which broke down like this:

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August."

she responds with this:

"It's kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported," said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention.

She's also been telling some whoppers about Obama. True, they come mostly from her Republican handlers. But she says them with such relish that you know she's speaking from her heart.

There's the one about Obama being a Marxist (which was convincing enough that a dim-witted local TV reporter fed it back to Biden who was so astonished that he could only say: "Are you kidding?"). And, of course, the one she's been repeating over and over and over again: "He's paling around with terrorists!" (notice the plural). Even McCain found that whopper to be over the top. "Well, you know. Sometimes things get exaggerated in a campaign."

Politicians, we're told, do this kind of thing. They lie. But this is the big leagues; humongous, hit em out of the ballpark lies; all told with such a straight face that some commentators have wondered if she isn't pathological.

The richest part of all this is to hear lying Sarah Palin say that Obama can't be trusted. Not her. Obama. He can't be trusted.

Which for some reason brings to mind that old lawyer joke:



How do you know when Sarah Palin is lying?

Her lips are moving.

Debate Wrap up: It's a Tie, but . . . .

Wrap up

So who won? If you followed my stream of consciousness real time blogs (see below) to the end you'll see that I'm calling it a tie. I call it that because I think both sides did well enough, or at least did themselves no harm. Palin exceeded expectations (didn't I tell you that the"I'm an idiot" Katie Couric interviews were just a ploy?) which wasn't too hard given how low those expectations were. But Biden did well, too. No gaffes. No condescension. If anything Palin was the condescending one. It was a tie.

But now let's get honest here. Let's admit that what we were really looking at here, at least Palin-wise, was a high school debate student who followed her debate coach's instructions to a "t." And she had some of the best debate coaches in the country working with her.

And let's not forget that she was a sports announcer which means that she knows how to talk to the camera. I've been in front of a camera myself and this may be one of the most difficult things to get used to - speaking to a camera when someone near the camera is asking the questions. The normal humanresponse to do is to speak to the questioner, as Biden did most of the time. But Palin, given her TV experience knew that when the camera is on you speak to it because that's where the audience is. So here she came across better than him.

I'm watching CNN right now and what they see coming in from around the country is affirming what I'm saying here. People felt that Palin did better than expected, but not good enough to turn the tables for them mainly because they also felt Biden did a good job. In fact, when stacked up against each other more felt Biden won. And I would agree even though I still declare it a tie because both did well enough. Well enough to convince their supporters. Not well enough to convince those who aren't already on board. Independents, I believe, will remain confused.

In terms of memorable moments, Biden's tears made the most impact on me. Mainly because they were genuine. Thinking about the tragedy in his life, the death of his wife and daughter, what it meant for him to raise his sons on his own, that was real. Palin, on the other hand, was using this "I'm a working class mom" bit gratuitously. And, I must add, disingenously, as a recent report (see below) notes that she's a millionaire. Since when did millionaires start feeling our pain??

As for the best line of the night, or in this case, lines, it happened when Palin repeated her "maverick" mantra one too many times. Biden's response was to sound off a whole list of reasons why the maverick label does not fit John McCain. And he was dead on. It was much more effective than Palin's unrelenting attacks on Obama, partly because she kept saying things that clearly weren't true, like raising taxes on the middle class, partly because these were memorized lines; Republican talking points. Been there. Done that.

But here's the most important point. It isn't going to matter. What we just saw tonight isn't going to matter to the final outcome of this election. Not one whit. Not with two more presidential debates on the docket. That's what's going to stick in peoples' minds. Because in the end this is a race between Obama and McCain. And unless McCain has a personality change between now and November he's going to lose.

Did I mention that what I heard tonight hasn't changed my opinion of Sarah Palin one whit? She still reminds me of that self-absorbed, snarky prom queen student council president that made high school such a hell. No debate can change that. That's who she is.

Debate: Part Two

Israel?

Biden: this administration's policy has been an abject failure with Israel.

Good come back.

Good statement on Iran . . . . They have been strengthened under a Bush adminstration.

"I don't believe that this administration's policy has been an abject failure."

Now she's playing a scolding mom -- telling the Democrats that they shouldn't be finger pointing at the Bush administration.

"We're going to put excessive partisanship aside." Huh???

Biden: "Past is prologue."

Good point, Joe. "I haven't heard how McCain's policy has been different from George Bush's."

Gwen: "What should be the trigger if nuclear weapons are put into play?"

Palin is now trying to distance McCain's policy from Bush after saying that it wasn't so bad

Woa, "Obama is hurting our cause" . . . . . . I knew it. She's done it. Obama is on the side of the terrorists. No matter what Biden says this one is going to stick.

One thing is certain -- Palin's handlers have prepped her well on all the foreign policy talking points.

She's winning simply showing more energy and apparent confidence in what she says. People aren't going to parse the content. It's the confidence she exudes that will stick in their minds.

Biden is losing . . .

"I'm a Washington outsider. . . "

She's jumping on Biden's differences with Obama that he had during the primary debates. Smart move.

She has been well trained. What I feared is true -- they let the press believe she was a light weight so she could come on strong here.

Even on foreign policy she's got Biden on the defensive.

"John McCain knows how to win a war and knows what evil is."

(scary stuff - its all about winning. Never mind the body count. As long as we win!!!)

-------------

Finally -- Joe Biden is looking at the camera and speaking about his folks in Delaware. Good move.

Palin: "doggonit" Does this work??

She's snarky . . . . . .

Now her confidence is feeling more like "I know better than you. I know better than anyone." This isn't confidence. This is a cockiness based on . . . nothing.

I think this is going to work against her. It's the prom queen, cheerleader, popular girl rubbing the noses of everyone else in the fact that they aren't as popular as she is.


Accepted wisdom - what about your weaknesses?

Palin: will not admit to having any weaknesses -- I'm very experienced. I'm attached to the homeland. I'm a mom. Special needs children. I was a poor person. "We've been there."

"But even more important is that world view - America is a nation of exceptionalism, we are a beacon of hope. We represent a perfect ideal ("God bless America. Land of the free . . . John Phillips Souza is heard playing in the background)

And now Biden is speaking of his experience - brings in his experience as single parent. I know too! (so there, Sarah. )

What's that about Biden's wife? That was a low blow - your wife has got her reward in heaven?? Please.

Biden - tears. Good move. Unrehearsed. He is a man of feeling up against an autobot blustering with a confidence that has been rehearsed.

McCain - maverick, maverick, maverick . . . . If I was playing Palin Bingo and I had maverick in line I would have won.

We get it, Sarah, John McCain is a maverick.

Biden: good comeback "John McCain is not a maverick!"

Best Biden bit yet.

Biden is now coming across as much more "real" than Sarah Palin. I think in the end he will be seen as connecting better with people than her. She's performing. He's speaking from his heart.

"There's been nothing that I've had to compromise on."

"I walk the walk and don't just talk the talk." She does love those memorized phrases.

Now she's repeating political mantras . . . parrot.

FINAL STATEMENTS:

Palin: "We're going to fight for America. I've been there. I've always been proud to be an American. We've got to fight for our freedoms." Quotes Ronald Reagan. "We will fight for it."

Biden: He connected well. He's a man of the people.

Final judgment: TIE

The Main Event: Blogging the Debate

The game is on! In an hour and twenty minutes it will be Biden and Palin, face to face, mono au mono, no holds barred.

Actually there will be a lot of holds barred as Biden will attempt to avoid gaffes without at the same time appearing to be too policy-wonkish, while Palin will be attempting to avoid answering any questions that call for actual knowledge of national policy matters.

With the debate ready to start in just over an hour, here are my predictions. See if I'm not right:

• Watch for performing a kind of verbal jujitsui to bring it back to familiar ground. If the she gets a question like: "What policies need to be put in place to avoid the kind of financial crisis we are currently in?" She will respond: "Well, I would say the real issue here is what this has done to people in the kind of town I used to be mayor of. My neighbor, Marge Smith, lost her hair dressing business when the markets went south this week. That's the kind of person John McCain and I will be fighting for when we get to Washington."
• Biden will address Sarah as Governor Palin to show respect for her office. Palin will say "Joe" to show how down to earth she is. "We don't stand on titles," will be the not so subtle message.
• Both candidates will speak about the opposite's running mate rather than about each other. Sarah will go on the attack smiling as she all but accuses Obama of selling out to terrorists.
  
• Palin will make sure we know just what down-home cooking, Walmart shoppin', five kid raisin', "aw shucks" kind of person she is; an every-woman that represents the little people that are ignored by the high muckety-mucks in Washington. Populism will be poppin' out all over.
• Biden will also play the populist card. It will be blue collar union factory worker populism versus small town middle America populism. Palin will be suggesting elitism, but it will be a difficult card to play with Biden on the opposite podium. He's about as un-elitist as a Democrat can be.
  
• Palin is going to do her best to get Biden riled to push him into making one of his infamous gaffes. Don't think she'll suceed. But she'll try, all the time putting on that plastic almost smile she wields so effectively.
  

Countdown: Another Palinism

More Days till the Palin-Biden Debate



Here's more proof that Bush has got nothing on Palin when it comes to near incomprehensibility. "The new energy?"

Palin on Biden

From the latest Katie Couric interview:

"He's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many, many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years."

Countdown: Is it a Ploy??

More Days till the Palin-Biden Debate



I'm not usually given to paranoia, but the thought just struck me that Palin's apparently empty-headed cluelessness in recent public appearances could be a ploy. The previous post seems to suggest this. Her nom de plume, Baracudda, also hints as such. This is a capable, savvy politician who has clawed her way to the top of Alaska politics. Can she be so clueless as to not understand how idiotic she appeared in the Couric interviews? Perhaps. But not likely.

Here's what might be the case. From the outset the RNC has been claiming victim status for Palin. The establishment press is out to get her. She is being vilified by rabid liberals.

When she came across as wooden and defensive in the Gibson interview (he of the establishment press) her Rovian handlers realized that this was their trump card. Let her come across as vapid and out of touch with international affairs in the Couric interview, which is McCain's strong suit anyway. Let the press continue their assault. Then at the debate, when expectations are lowered to a Loch Ness level have the assertive, self confident Sarah Palin we met at the Republican National Convention, suitably prepped , re-assert herself. Have her go on the offensive against Obama's liberalism with a self confident (yet charming) bluster. Prod Biden into blowing his top. Put on her best "I'm a pit bull hockey mom maverick who feels the pain of middle America" act and watch the disaffected independent voters line up behind her.

It would be a brilliant tactical move as in one fell swoop she would: A) confirm the essential meanness of the hated liberal press B) gain the sympathies of the swelling numbers of Americans who are angry and fed up with politics as usual. "Here's someone we can relate to," they will say. "She hates the establishment press and politicians just as much as we do. Let's get em back by putting this woman in office!"

And the ghost of Karl Rove will continue to haunt us.

It's just a thought. . . . An awful thought.

Countdown: What It's Like to Debate Sarah Palin (from a man who did it!)

More Days till the Palin-Biden Debate

Want to know what to expect from Sarah Palin on Thursday night? Here's what someone who debated Palin in Alaska has to say.

* * *

From the Christian Science Monitor:

An Article by Alaska state representative and gubenatorial candidate Andrew Halcro

Anchorage, Alaska - When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full.

I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.

On paper, of course, the debate appears to be a mismatch.

In 2000, Palin was the mayor of an Alaskan town of 5,500 people, while Biden was serving his 28th year as a United States senator. Her major public policy concern was building a local ice rink and sports center. His major public policy concern was the State Department's decision to grant an export license to allow sales of heavy-lift helicopters to Turkey, during tense UN-sponsored Cyprus peace talks.

On paper, the difference in experience on both domestic and foreign policy is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing a bullet. Unfortunately for Biden, if recent history is an indicator, experience or a grasp of the issues won't matter when it comes to debating Palin.

FULL ARTICLE

Sarah Says: Bring it on!

More Days Till the Palin-Biden Debate



from the Christian Science Monitor

Countdown: She's Really a Good Girl

More days till the Palin-Biden Debate



Palin's Parents Say She's a Good Girl!

Here's a surprise: Sarah Palin's parents think she's a swell gal and they don't like the media questioning that.

That's what they told CBS news yesterday. And CBS news thought that was actually news-worthy. But isn't that what parents are supposed to say? Wouldn't Biden's mom say the same thing about the dirt the Republicans have been digging up about him, or Obama's parents, if they were still alive, about him? And would CBS news have a special report on that, as well?

Here's what Palin's parents need to understand. When a person runs for the second highest office in the land they open themselves up to an intense scrutiny that is sometimes fair, sometimes not. Too much is at stake for a candidate simply to be allowed to let their parents or their bowling buddies tell us who they are. We need to hear from everyone who knows them and examine everything they have ever done. And because this is politics and not the PTA there will be many who will be out to discredit this candidate because the party whose candidate they oppose will be doing the exact same thing to their candidate.

Information that reporters have dug up on their daughter suggest, in fact, that this is how Sarah Palin has gotten to where she is today - by dissing anyone who gets in her way. She, in other words, is just as good at digging in the dirt as anyone else. While I would rather see no one engage in this kind of politics, its much harder to feel sympathy for someone who does it themselves.

But here's what Palin's parents really need to understand. What the press is doing for the most part is helping us understand whether or not their daughter is qualified for the second most important political position in the most powerful country in the world. This has nothing to do with how nice she is. This has to do with her qualifications for national office. We are willing to believe that she is a good mother and a hard worker. We understand that she is extremely talented and a natural leader. All of these things that her parents wish us to understand about her, we do understand. What we don't understand is why Senator McCain thought she was qualifed for this position.

In the few times she's been allowed to respond to questions with her own thoughts she has evidenced a pitiable lack of knowledge about the very things a vice president needs to know. I don't care how quick a read she is, there is simply no way that she can get up to speed within two or three months. This is not an SAT exam. This is holding responsibility for the administration of the world's most powerful country. No major corporation would even begin to consider someone with insufficient experience or knowledge to be a vice president in their company. Why should we consider putting in office someone with as thin a resume as their daughter?

Mr. and Mrs. Palin: we think you have a fine daughter. She is charming and charismatic and has gone far with grit and determination. She is a gifted leader on the local and state level. She has a wonderful family; a model for working mothers everywhere. But she is not qualified to be vice president of the United States. That more than anything else is what the investigative reporting you are so critical of has determined. She is not suitable for this position. I hope you understand that this is not personal. It's the truth.

Countdown: Predicting the Palin Strategy

More days to the Palin-Biden Debate


As the time for Sarah Palin's political trial by fire looms closer I thought I would whip out my crystal ball and make some predictions about how she (actually her handlers) might play this.

The key factor in making these predictions is noting what the Telegraph (UK) article cited: that Palin is being prepped for this debate by the same neo-con crowd that developed the Bush strategy in the 2000 and 2004 elections (so much for saying that she and McCain are mavericks. This is business as usual.).

This neo-con crowd is desperate to keep their discredited ideology on the front burners. And now they think they've found a way to do it - by imprinting it on the blank slate which is Sarah Palin. Here's a woman who is clueless about foreign policy, yet desperate to prove she isn't. What better foil to keep the neo-con message alive.

Based on this I think we can expect several things:

• Palin will play the fear card that the neo-con's have played so effectively in past Bush campaigns. Get ready for something subtle that will attempt to stoke the paranoia surrounding Obama's African/Muslim roots. If not that, then something else which will make people question his patriotism.
• Related to this will be Palin's constant reminders that she, with her small town roots and "aw shucks" demeanor, is much more in tune with authentically patriotic American values than urban organizer, Barak Obama. She'll probably be wearing something that will remind people of the flag to underscore this point.
• The ill-advised statement Obama made about guns and religion will be repeated as many times as she can get it in for the same reason listed above. "He's not one of us," will be the underlying theme.
  
• There will be constant references to what the McCain team is claiming to be Obama's extreme liberalism. And somewhere along the line there will be a mention of Obama's neighborly friendship with unrepentant 60's radical , Bill Ayers. Another attempt to say "he's not one of us."
• Although her neo-con handlers may want her to do so, I have a feeling Palin will be hesitant to drop in a reference to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright mainly because she would prefer that her ties to another kind of radical Christianity stay out of the spotlight. But somehow she'll try to leave the impression that Obama is not a good Christian like her.
  

In reference to this last observation, check out this video filmed in Palin's former church when Palin was not only present, but came up to have hands laid upon her:

New Palin-Biden Poll: Alaskans Don't Trust Her Either

First of all, be sure you change the address for our favorite blogger in Alaska - AKMuckraker - who has a new site at a new address. When you go to the old site this is what you'll see:
Same good stuff. New address.

Second, on this new site is another brilliant post about an interesting new poll that has been done in Palin's Alaska and Biden's Delaware. Those who continue to support Palin's ill-begotten candidacy will speak about her off the chart poll numbers in Alaska. Someone that popular has to be good, right? Well, compare her numbers in Alaska to Biden's numbers in Delaware related to confidence in their ability to handle an international crisis (which is a fairly important ability for a VP to have these days) and a different picture emerges. Turns out Alaskans aren't sure about her qualifications either.

Below is a pie-graph showing the numbers. The story about the chart on the Mud Flats site.