07:45 am
Palin: Who Lied?
So the progosphere is all agog over allegations that Sarah Palin lied about opposing the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.” In particular, my colleagues have been highlighting the contrast between this:
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.
and this (from her speech in Dayton after John McCain named her VP):
I signed major ethics reforms and I appointed both Democrats and Independents to serve in my administration. And I’ve championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said, we’d build it ourselves.
The argument is that Sarah Palin lied in Dayton.
That’s not true.
If she is like every other politician in this country (with the notable exception of Barack Obama), Sarah Palin did not write that speech. She probably didn’t even help draft it. In fact, chances are that key staff on the McCain campaign prepared it for her and she merely read it.
Sarah Palin did not lie — she repeated a lie that others wrote for her.
That does not make her less culpable, but it does highlight the role she’s playing here, one largely created for her by McCain campaign operatives. These are the same folks who did not vet her properly. And who probably convinced McCain to take her instead of Joe Lieberman.
The question is, why is McCain listening to them?
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