conormulligan.com / blog

At a McCain rally today, Governor Sarah Palin made what many are already considering her first gaffe.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers."

Huffington Post

This is a terrible mistake to make, given all the press focusing on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac takeovers, but I think some may be making hay where none exists. I don’t buy that she does not know the relationship between the Federal Government and these institutions (anyone paying even loose attention to the credit crunch for the last few months would be more than informed), and I suspect this was simply a verbal misstep.

Frankly, I’m much more interested in her record (or lack thereof).

Anne Kilkenny, A resident of Wasilla and Sarah Palin acquaintance, has written up an extensive debrief over at The Huffington Post on the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. The result is not particularly pretty, with a number of her positions and actions seemingly well-placed to undercut the McCain campaign’s message of reform, tested stewardship and fiscal responsibility. Here are some of the highlights:

• Experienced: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than city council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

• Political maverick: not at all. Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

• A greenie: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

• Pro-infrastructure: no. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards. Pro-small government: no. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.

Anne Kilkenny, The Huffington Post

It should be noted that Ms. Kilkenny is a self-described opponent of Governor Palin’s, but such a scathing critique from an Alaskan is noteworthy. Read the rest of the article at HuffingtonPost.com.

When  asked to respond to the escalating conflict in Georgia, John McCain took a much harder line on Russia than Obama, the Bush Administration, Europe and The UN:

While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably — and uniquely — more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia.

Ben Smith, The Politico

This is not the first time John McCain has taken a curiously confrontational stance on Russia; his calls for The Federation to be expelled from the G8 is particularly alarming (especially considering that no other G8 nation has any intention of complying with McCain’s proposal, and as such must be construed as an example of personal animosity rather than a well-reasoned political maneuver or posture). Someone needs to let McCain know The Cold War is over.