Posted on 07/11/2011 1:42:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As a conservative activist in an area of the country largely believed to be a remote suburb of the Twin Cities, I am increasingly encountering a general assumption — at family gatherings, on the air, and in casual conversation — that I am a big supporter of Michelle Bachmann. I fully realize, of course, that I am supposed to be. I'm just not.
The problem with Tea Party-type Bachmann supporters is that they haven't been paying attention. You'll hear it said that, "At least, she's better than Barack Obama." So was John McCain. You'll hear it said that, "At least, she doesn't have all the negatives of a Palin candidacy." That's because she doesn't have Sarah's record, or her guts, either. If she did, Bachmann would never have been proffered an apology for merely being called a "flake." The former governor of Alaska is a conservative. Her would-be political clone only plays one on TV.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that Bachmann is insincere. Her voting history and her life story all indicate that she is. What I am saying is that, if you listen to her words and not the hype, you will easily perceive that Michelle's stock in trade is playing both sides of the Republican divide. Allow me to explain.
In scams, you have the role called, "cooling out the mark." It's kind of like the "good cop — bad cop" thing, where one person's job is to make sure that the person being scammed doesn't realize it, or at least doesn't try to do anything about it. This, by default or on purpose, has become the Bachmann role on the national Republican scene.
Whenever the GOP leadership decides to stab its base in the back, to let us down, to put political expediency above principle — and one could set one's clock by this phenomenon — it is Bachman who goes all over the airwaves making excuses for them. Listen for it. It will always be Michelle who is there to "cool out the" — well, "remark." I remember Bachmann being at the forefront, for example, of the "Repeal and Replace" groundswell that helped drive the huge Republican victories of last November. Now that that uproar has died down, her silence is as deafening as anybody else's.
On Hannity a while ago, Bachmann was touting herself as a "unifying" figure. There are Democrats and independents who approach her to express their support, she contended. The obvious question arises: Why? Why, at this extremely early stage in the game, would that be the case? Are they schizophrenic, or do they also perceive that she is not who she claims to be?
The only unity it is possible to achieve is the unity of a return to our national identity, based as it is on the Declaration and the Constitution, with their ineluctable recognition of the sovereignty of our Creator, God. The quixotic attempt to bridge the gap of the American political divide in any other way has already been attempted. Just ask Newt. The famous definition of stupidity as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result, applies to conservatives as well as liberals.
As the primary season unfolds, I have diligently been trying to give Bachmann the benefit of the doubt, but in order to do that, there has to be some doubt there to work with. And as I say, I understand why people tend to assume that I back the bright, family-friendly, Palinesque-but-not-actually-Sarah-herself conservative activist from my own geographical region, who is ever ready to carry the Tea Party banner as far forward as serves her own political purposes.
I know I am supposed to like Michelle Bachmann.
I just don't.
Sarah is anything but quiet. She’s been speaking out on her own against Øbama from the day after the election in 2008. BTW she was elected and re-elected Mayor of Wasilla and also elected and re-elected to Wasilla City Council as well as elected Governor. The last two are executive, decision making positions.
Watch the video at the link posted below and tell me that the person giving that speech isn’t running for President.
http://www.therightscoop.com/live-watch-sarah-palin-at-wisconsin-tea-party/
Which is EXACTLY what you did...
you might consider reevaluating the usefulness of your irrational hatred
Point to proof of my "hatred".
for this selfless American hero.
Hero? Are you serious?
Whom does it harm more; her, ...or you?
The only harm on this thread has come from you. You have displayed hatred towards me by your words. I have been critical of a public figure, but in your smallness, you have tried to make it about me.
I think you forgot that 59,934,814 voted for Palin in 2008.
And if Bachmann was the head of a committee in congress people here would be bitching she’s part of the GOP DC establishment and not to be trusted.
Not quite. Not every R vote was for Palin. I don’t even think Palin would be that arrogant to assuem all republican votes were for her.
No, but republican voters overwhelmingly saw her as having helped the ticket.
Also, Palin becoming a good alternative in my sight didn't help Paul's cause at all. I liked her back before McCain picked her for VP, and she was actually really popular amongst Ron Paul supporters before that moment, but it became dogma to not like her. I figured out that was bogus, so I was finally like "well, I guess I support Palin now, I just hope she runs."
The list could go on. Suffice it to say, it wasn't a spur of the moment decision.
Actually that is one of her best and bold actions, and she does a great job describing it in her book, I guess that no one has gotten around yet to put together a response to an accusation that wasn’t anticipated, because of it’s ignorance.
Every one of those votes was for Palin. You couldn’t vote for one without the other. No assumption at all. Just fact.
Being able to win a Congressional district must be why Ron Paul, Sheila Jackson Lee, Duncan Hunter, and other famous Congress people could have won state wide office any time they wanted.
Yes, Palin Did Stop That Bridge, by Senator Jim DeMint, Wall Street Journal.
Thanks for your answer. You confirm some suspicions that I had. While he says much that is absolutely correct, some things are . . . odd, and there is a cultish devotion with -many- of his supporters.
You really are using old liberal talking points that have been answered here many times over the years.
I can see that we will have to go back and dig up the old stuff from 2008 and 2009, and start all over with you.
It seems boring, tedious, and will be repetitious, and it is the reason that trolls are disliked.
"But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up." -- Barack Obama, Sept. 6, 2008
JIM DEMINT:
"Mrs. Palin used her veto pen to slash more local projects than any other governor in the state's history. She cut nearly 10% of Alaska's budget this year, saving state residents $268 million. This included vetoing a $30,000 van for Campfire USA and $200,000 for a tennis court irrigation system. She succinctly justified these cuts by saying they were "not a state responsibility."
Mrs. Palin cut Alaska's federal earmark requests in half last year, one of the strongest moves against earmarks by any governor. It took real leadership to buck Alaska's decades-long earmark addiction.
Mrs. Palin also killed the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in her own state. Yes, she once supported the project: But after witnessing the problems created by earmarks for her state and for the nation's budget, she did what others like me have done: She changed her position and saved taxpayers millions. Even the Alaska Democratic Party credits her with killing the bridge.
When the Senate had its chance to stop the Bridge to Nowhere and transfer the money to Katrina rebuilding, Messrs. Obama and Biden voted for the $223 million earmark, siding with the old boys' club in the Senate. And to date, they still have not publicly renounced their support for the infamous earmark.
Mrs. Palin has proven courageous by taking on big spenders in her own party. In March of this year, the Anchorage Daily News reported that, "Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is aggravated about what he sees as Gov. Sarah Palin's antagonism toward the earmarks he uses to steer federal money to the state."
Mr. Obama is vulnerable on this issue, and he knows it. That is why he is lashing out at Mrs. Palin and trying to hide his own record.
Mrs. Palin is one of the strongest antiearmark governors in America."
It may appear uninspiring when you cherry pick what you want and leave out the rest of the story. You could do that with anyone’s record and make it look “uninspiring”. It looks a lot better without the twist.
Some substantiated facts with out the twist of lie:
Conveniently left out:
Elected to two terms of Wasilla City Council .. four years.
Appointed and named chair of the commission and ethics supervisor for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission...... one year
Palin as Mayor of Wasilla:
Motivated by concerns that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely,[42] Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, defeating INCUMBENT mayor John Stein.
Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that had been approved by Wasilla voters in October 1992,Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes. Using municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers, and increased funding to the Police Department. She also oversaw new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources. At the same time, she shrank the local museum’s budget and deterred talk of a new library and city hall.She created the position of city administrator. and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%, although by mid-1998 this was reversed by the city council.
During her second term as mayor, Palin proposed and promoted the construction of a municipal sports center to be financed by a 0.5% sales tax increase and $14.7 million bond issue. Voters approved the measure by a 20 vote margin and the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex was built on time and under budget. However, the city spent an additional $1.3 million because of an eminent domain lawsuit caused by the failure to obtain clear title to the property before beginning construction.The city’s long-term debt grew from about $1 million to $25 million due to $15 million for the sports complex, $5.5 million for street projects, and $3 million for water improvement projects. The Wall Street Journal characterized the project as a “financial mess.” A city council member defended the spending increases as being caused by the city’s growth during that time.
Palin also joined with nearby communities in hiring the Anchorage-based lobbying firm of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to lobby for federal funds. The firm secured nearly $8 million in earmarks for the Wasilla city government,including $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, and $900,000 for sewer repairs.
In 2008, Wasilla’s current mayor credited Palin’s 75 percent property tax cuts and infrastructure improvements with bringing “big-box stores” and 50,000 SHOPPERS A DAY to Wasilla.
Chair of the commission and ethics supervisor for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission...... one year.
Appointed and named chair of the commission and ethics supervisor for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission...... one year
Governor Murkowski offered a number of jobs to Palin, and in February 2003, she accepted an appointment to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees Alaska’s oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency. Although she had little background in the area, she said she wanted to learn more about the oil industry, and was named chair of the commission and ethics supervisor. By November 2003 she was filing non-public ethics complaints with the state attorney general and the governor against a fellow commission member, Randy Ruedrich, a former petroleum engineer and the current chair of the state Republican Party. He was forced to resign in November 2003. Palin resigned in January 2004 and put her protests against Ruedrich’s “lack of ethics” into the public arena by filing a public complaint against Ruedrich, who was then fined $12,000. She also joined with Democratic legislator Eric Croft in complaining that Gregg Renkes, a former Alaskan Attorney General, had a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement.Renkes also resigned his post.
From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group designed to provide political training for Republican women in Alaska.In 2004, Palin told the Anchorage Daily News that she had decided not to run for the U.S. Senate that year against the Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski because her teenage son opposed it. Palin said, “How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. Senator?”
Palin as governor of Alaska...2 yrs, seven months.
In 2006, running on a clean-government platform, Palin defeated INCUMBENT Governor Frank Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary.In the November election, Palin was outspent but victorious, defeating Democratic FORMER governor Tony Knowles by a margin of 48.3% to 40.9%.She took office on December 4, 2006, and for most of her term was very popular with Alaska voters. Polls taken in 2007 showed her with 93% and 89% popularity among all voters, which led some media outlets to call her “the most popular governor in America.”
Her first legislative action after taking office was to push for a bipartisan ethics reform bill. She signed the resulting legislation in July 2007, calling it a “first step,” and declaring that she remained determined to clean up Alaska politics.
Palin promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Proposals to drill for oil in ANWR have been the subject of a national debate
In June 2007, Palin signed a record $6.6 billion operating budget into law. At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to $1.6 billion.
In 2008, Palin vetoed $286 million, cutting or reducing funding for 350 projects from the FY09 capital budget.
Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet, a purchase made by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005 against the wishes of the legislature. In August 2007, the jet was listed on eBay, but the sale fell through, and the plane was later sold for $2.1 million through a private brokerage firm.She also chose not to use the former governor’s private chef.
While there is no sales tax or income tax in Alaska, state revenues doubled to $10 billion in 2008. For the 2009 budget, Palin gave a list of 31 proposed federal earmarks or requests for funding, totaling $197 million, to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.Palin has stated that her decreasing support for federal funding was a source of friction between her and the state’s congressional delegation; Palin requested less in federal funding each year than her predecessor Frank Murkowski requested in his last year.
In August 2008, Palin signed a bill authorizing the State of Alaska to award TransCanada Pipelines — the sole bidder to meet the state’s requirements — a license to build and operate a pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Continental United States through Canada. The governor also pledged $500 million in seed money to support the project. It is estimated that the project will cost $26 billion.Newsweek described the project as “the principal achievement of Sarah Palin’s term as Alaska’s governor.” The pipeline faces legal challenges from Canadian First Nations
Governor Palin created a new oil profit sharing plan called “Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share” (ACES) — which improves incentives for developing new resources. It ensures the state does well in boom times — as it is doing now — when oil prices are high. But it also hedges against low prices in the future by ensuring that oil companies exposed to commodity price swings don’t face a crushing tax burden when commodity prices fall.
Her plan includes an escalator clause that gives the state a larger share of revenues when oil prices rise. This is common to production-sharing agreements all over the world.
We all know why she resigned.
You see when you cherry pick the things you want that will paint the picture you want, you can create any kind of image you want, and even though some of the things you say may be true, without the proper context they are misleading.
After you fill in the blanks though, it’s damn inspiring.
Governor Palin isn’t perfect ,nor is her record , but it’s far better than any of the pretenders running for the Republican nomination and a million times better than the moron currently in the White House and one to be proud of and every conservative should strive to equal.
BTW, here is the truth about the “Bridge To Nowhere”.
http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/releases/2008/ccagw-bridging-the-knowledge.html
The Law Of The Sea Treaty is a moot point as you are quoting her from 2007 and nothing has been done in the years that came after.
Bottom line is she makes things happen and gets things done.
You were the one supporting the crazy idea that winning a congressional seat was harder and more meaningful in electoral politics than winning state wide office or being elected Governor of a state.
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