Palin's "Bridge" fib

[Fin]

Fact Check: Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere

3 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new ad from John McCain's presidential campaign contends his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." In fact, Palin was for the infamous bridge before she was against it

THE SPIN: Called "Original Mavericks," the ad asserts the Republican senator has fought pork-barrel spending, the drug industry and fellow Republicans, reforming Washington in the process, and credits Palin with similarly changing Alaska by taking on the oil industry, challenging her own party and ditching the bridge project that became a national symbol of wasteful spending.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton came back with fighting words. "Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere," he said.

Burton said McCain would merely carry on supporting President Bush's economic, health, education, energy and foreign policies, and that means "anything but change."

THE FACTS: Palin did abandon plans to build the nearly $400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport. But she made her decision after the project had become an embarrassment to the state, after federal dollars for the project were pulled back and diverted to other uses in Alaska, and after she had appeared to support the bridge during her campaign for governor.

McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading. She is portrayed as a crusader for the thrifty use of tax dollars who turned down an offer from Washington to build an expensive bridge of little value to the state.

"I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere," she said in her convention speech last week.

That's not what she told Alaskans when she announced a year ago that she was ordering state transportation officials to ditch the project. Her explanation then was that it would be fruitless to try to persuade Congress to come up with the money.

"It's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island," Palin said then.

Palin indicated during her 2006 campaign for governor that she supported the bridge, but was wishy-washy about it. She told local officials that money appropriated for the bridge "should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done."

She vowed to defend Southeast Alaska "when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative" — something that McCain was busy doing at the time, as a fierce critic of the bridge.

Even so, she called the bridge design "grandiose" during her campaign and said something more modest might be appropriate.

Palin's reputation for standing up to entrenched interests in Alaska is genuine. Her self-description as a leader who "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress" is harder to square with the facts.

The governor has cut back on pork-barrel project requests, but in her two years in office, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. And as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

By Calvin Woodward.

[Rev.Reverence]

$400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport

NOW I GET IT!

Because it is only 50 rich bastards... (you know they are loaded!)

[phee]

I have heard this as well....

[Rev.Reverence]

I have heard this as well....

Heard what... that there was NOT a bridge... or that the peoples were Richies?

[phee]

Heard what... that there was NOT a bridge... or that the peoples were Richies?

I heard that she didn't "stop" it... that the facts were being distorted by the campaign... Its OK both parties do the same thing over and over again...

[Guest GodfallenPromos]

heh....more evidance about Sarah "Flapjack" Palin...

[Rev.Reverence]

I heard that she didn't "stop" it... that the facts were being distorted by the campaign... Its OK both parties do the same thing over and over again...

OH!!!

I think she probably argeed to stop it befor it was inevitable... ie. She (her people told her to) "jumped the bandwagon"...

Hey... didn't the cure have a song about that?

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Her position is being blown up by both sides.

The Republicans are saying she "stopped it". She did, but only after the perception that her state was getting more than it deserved had spread.

The Democrats are saying she was for it and then against it but took the money anyway. And they are right to some extent... The money was taken to build something to ease the 17min ferry ride it takes now to get to or from the air port.

The record show she was for some way to get the island, but nothing so grand as the bridge, and she was going to use what ever funds she could get her hands on to make it happen.

So, 50 people live there? Why? Most of the island is an airport.

Rich? If you take everyone in Ketchikan, which the island is part of, are average thier incomes... it's only about $22k. The median housfold income is only about $50k. There are no rich people there.

[phee]

Her position is being blown up by both sides.

Truth

[Guest GodfallenPromos]

Truth

blown-up or not....as I have told people before....it's not the major things: cutting cost, US energy, government maverickism...it's all this little stuff about her that worry me...cuz their piling up...and a foundation with a bunch of little cracks over and over, that people disregard...leads to large troubles later....and no-one is bothering to putty up her cracks.

[Fin]

Her position is being blown up by both sides.

The Republicans are saying she "stopped it". She did, but only after the perception that her state was getting more than it deserved had spread.

The Democrats are saying she was for it and then against it but took the money anyway. And they are right to some extent... The money was taken to build something to ease the 17min ferry ride it takes now to get to or from the air port.

The record show she was for some way to get the island, but nothing so grand as the bridge, and she was going to use what ever funds she could get her hands on to make it happen.

So, 50 people live there? Why? Most of the island is an airport.

Rich? If you take everyone in Ketchikan, which the island is part of, are average thier incomes... it's only about $22k. The median housfold income is only about $50k. There are no rich people there.

I frankly don't care if she did solicit money for her state & that particular project. That's what a good governor does.

What bothers me is that she includes this phrase in all her campaign stops & is misrepresenting the truth. If you're going to flaunt your own successes, make sure they are real ones, not fabrications. She has plenty of other characteristics she could be mentioning yet this continues to be part of her speeches right through today.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

need to stop having more than one thread open in different windows.

[Fin]

need to stop having more than one thread open in different windows.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

blown-up or not....as I have told people before....it's not the major things: cutting cost, US energy, government maverickism...it's all this little stuff about her that worry me...cuz their piling up...and a foundation with a bunch of little cracks over and over, that people disregard...leads to large troubles later....and no-one is bothering to putty up her cracks.

Those cracks add up if they are real. So far, they all seem to be mearly drawn on, with crayons.

At most, in this case, she is guilty of over stating herself.

[phee]

Those cracks add up if they are real. So far, they all seem to be mearly drawn on, with crayons.

At most, in this case, she is guilty of over stating herself.

She is the first politician to ever be guilty of that.... ever....

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Exactly, this is a non-issue like so many of the other things she has been attacked on.

[Rev.Reverence]

So, 50 people live there? Why? Most of the island is an airport.

Rich? If you take everyone in Ketchikan, which the island is part of, are average thier incomes... it's only about $22k. The median housfold income is only about $50k. There are no rich people there.

I am surprised...

...but ok... that takes them out of the equation...

...the 'interested' party would be the owners of the airport... they stand to gain from it.

...That leads my mind to thoughts of how much did they pay into her fav charity...

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

The interested party would be everyone that benefits from the airport. If they could cut the time to get to and from the mainland, if they could cut the fuels costs of the ancient ferry's they have to use now... the cost of living in the area would go down.

It's not an unreasonable project in a general sense... the bridge was just far to elaborate. A less costly bridge or upgrades/improvements to the ferry system would most likely suffice.

Which is what Sarah kept the money for and what was approved in Congress.

[Fin]

Exactly, this is a non-issue like so many of the other things she has been attacked on.

Others haven't made this an issue--Gov. Palin has made it an issue by purporting this "just said no" to the bridge as evidence of her "maverick" style & low-spending ways. It's a misrepresentation, & she refuses to drop it from her rally-speeches. Like I said, I don't care if she did solicit the funds--just don't make it part of your platform if you're clearly warping the truth.

[Rev.Reverence]

Others haven't made this an issue--Gov. Palin has made it an issue by purporting this "just said no" to the bridge as evidence of her "maverick" style & low-spending ways. It's a misrepresentation, & she refuses to drop it from her rally-speeches. Like I said, I don't care if she did solicit the funds--just don't make it part of your platform if you're clearly warping the truth.

+1

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

just don't make it part of your platform if you're clearly warping the truth.

Brother, politicians would not be able to talk if they all did that.

[Guest GodfallenPromos]

Those cracks add up if they are real. So far, they all seem to be mearly drawn on, with crayons.

At most, in this case, she is guilty of over stating herself.

Crayons?...I think that it's a little worse then crayons...she has made all these claims and a good part of them are coming up false. Every other day there are more corrections on her "amazing record".

Like the Plane...she made claims, or worded her sentances to make it sound like, she sold that plane on ebay....when in fact it was never sold on ebay, it was sold privately. IT was listed on Ebay..but never sold from there.

now the bridge

and I have heard a couple other things that she was "corrected" on....thats not crayon...thats white-out and ink.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

She never claimed to have sold it on Ebay... just that she listed it.

Crayons.

[Guest GodfallenPromos]

She never claimed to have sold it on Ebay... just that she listed it.

Crayons.

really?...cuz the video bite I have seen of her, off "The Daily Show"...she claims to have sold it through ebay...she never mentions the private sale....

thanks for the misleading statement, Sarah "Flapjack" Palin.

[phee]

While she clearly did bend the truth....

I think that THIS on the grand scheme of things is a small one.

Don't get me wrong... it is an issue, it shows her dishonesty in the quest for power (like we said... she is a politician). But I am not sure what larger issues this illustrates....