A Few Things You'd Have to Believe to Believe What McCain Staffers Say About Sarah Palin

The Weekly Standard ^

[mathwhizz]

Let's add some context to the Carl Cameron and Newsweek airing of rumors from anonymous McCain/Palin staffers. The most controversial claims, all of which come without names attached because the purveyors are apparently determined to stick around to undermine future campaigns and candidates, are that Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent as opposed to a country, and that she didn't know who the members of NAFTA were.

Let's start with NAFTA. If folks want to believe Gov. Sarah Palin did not know even the most basic facts about NAFTA, they have to believe a couple other improbable things.

Before she became governor, Palin's husband Todd's commercial fishing business on Bristol Bay accounted a decent percentage of the family's income. The couple reported about $46,000 from the business last year on a license Todd purchased from his grandfather in the 1970s. He has been a lifelong commercial fisherman and she has often been his partner both in the business and literally on the boat.

Surely while the two were working in the commercial salmon fishing industry in post-NAFTA Alaska, they would not have missed the effect farmed-salmon imports from Canada had on the industry, causing the number of fisherman, the size of the harvest, and the value of permits to go down significantly in Alaska. According to a 2003 AP article:

"This loss of equity, which for self-employed fishermen is equivalent to retirement accounts, will continue to reverberate throughout the Alaska economy in coming years," Gilbertsen said.

The economic losses have ricocheted through coastal communities as fewer fishermen have caused a decline in both crews and shore-based services. Monthly employment in the state's seafood processing industry fell from 11,200 in 1992 to 7,400 in 2002.

Chile and Canada are the two major suppliers to the U.S. market of farm-raised salmon. The two countries accounted for 94 percent of the Atlantic pen-reared salmon, valued at $818 million.

Canada is a partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed certain trade barriers, and Chile has fewer environmental regulations and cheap labor, the analysis showed.

"The fact that Canada is a NAFTA partner, and that the U.S. has just approved a bilateral free trade agreement with Chile, would seem to indicate that these imports will continue to grow," Gilbertsen said.

So, let's say for argument's sake the couple missed that bit of information. They would also have had to miss the fact that in 2002, the federal government decided to make commercial salmon fisherman on Alaska's Bristol Bay eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance under the North American Free Trade Agreement due to the impact Canada's farmed-salmon had on the industry. From a 2002 AP brief:

The U.S. Department of Labor has certified about 200 commercial salmon fishermen in the Bristol Bay area as eligible to apply for transitional adjustment assistance under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The certifications cover Sept. 5, 2001, to Nov. 25, 2004. Workers laid off or reduced to part-time work during that time may be eligible for extra benefits and services.

The Labor Department found that major customers for Bristol Bay salmon increased their reliance on imports of salmon from Canada, adversely affecting fishermen.

NAFTA authorizes assistance to cover workers affected because of increased imports from Mexico or Canada or shifts in production to those countries.

After they are certified as eligible, workers may apply for benefits at a state employment service office. They may receive retraining services, career counseling, job placement assistance and income support.

On the flip side of the coin, Canada is within the top three of Alaska's trading partners, a position it moved into in the increased trade years after NAFTA was passed. It's a huge market for seafood and metals mined in Alaska.

Disgruntled McCain staffers not only require you to believe that the chief executive of the state of Alaska knew nothing about one of her state's most important trading partners, but that she was equally oblivious to the economic winds affecting the industry that provided her very own livelihood. Perhaps they should head to the NYT next, which has a history of employing anyone who has a penchant for writing slam books about Republicans.

This accusation didn't pass the smell test to begin with, but because McCain staffers are requiring us to defend our popular former vice presidential nominee against NYT-like attacks, there are some facts to consider.

[doc1019]

Until the anonymous sources come forward and identify themselves, I ain’t buy’n any of this BS. ;-)

[marron]

So, do you think maybe the problem with the McCain campaign might have been the caliber of the hired help? It sounds as if he hired a passel of weasels to run his campaign and hers, and this is the result. They ran against a communist with no resume, no experience, no past, no nothing, and they lost. How on earth do you manage to do that?

[Aria]

I guess this is what you get for being both wildly popular with your party’s base and being a REAL maverick enough to take on the establishment - even when It’s your own party.

I’m thinking they want her to stay in Alaska less she disrupts their cushy little apple carts.

[nmh]

Without NAMES of these “anonymous sources”,

I say they are Obama PLANTS and have no credibility.

[muawiyah]

Remember the story that had Karl Rove lining up a phonebank to spread false stories about McCain having a black "love child"?

I suppose everyone thinks that's true, but the evidence is that the Democrats did that.

Now we have "McCain aides" telling BS stories to the leftwingtards in the press.

How about Democrats telling those stories.

They even did this stuff to each other in the primaries.

Difficult to believe a guy into the down-low lifestyle would deal in salicious rumors about possible opponents but there you have it.

[ABQHispConservative]

I say fire all of the McCain staff. They can go work for the rats.

[usaproud]

I think the source is coming from the Democratic side which means this is nothing more than rubbish.

[Skooz]

bump

[Republic of Texas]

Losers begat losers.

[tbpiper]

Carl Cameron

He's so far of my Christmas card list, Jesus will be back in person before Carl (ready for TMZ)Cameron gets a card.

[cowdog77]

IT’S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT PALIN IS BEING NEGATED BY THE MODERATE REPUBLICAN FACTION TO ABORT A 2012 PRESIDENTIAL BID.

[ozark hilljilly]

http://www.redstate.com/diaries/erick/2008/nov/05/operation-leper/
Red State.com is going on a weasel hunt and naming names!

[sierrahome]

I am an old man...I raised my kids and a couple more. I know good people. Sarah is good people and I would stand with her hubby to protect that family.

[doc1019]

Seems they would rather have Romney or some such rather than Palin. ;-)

[tuckrdout]

Well, I thought that the bit of information, that a person on the campaign use to work for Katie Couric, brought much clarity into the problems of the campaign-—and what happened to the Couric interview.

The “aide” sniped that Palin refused to be coached by this woman who had worked for Couric, and that is why the interview went so poorly...

I would say that the interview went so poorly, because these aides, are uppity, arrogant bigots; who can not stand regular, moral, down to earth folks. And since Sarah dared to refuse their prep help, they sought revenge. Their need to prove their own personal superiority outweighed their desire to help their candidate.

[AmericanGirlRising]

The McCain campaign “Victory” team was full of losers. The perfect McCain types where they try to suck up to the enemy, then repeatedly get their butts burned.

Rick Davis
Nicole Wallace
Steve Schmidt
Kevin Madden

Until the Republican electorate understands these people are not interested in the ideals of any conservative faction of the party and only interested in their careers, we will continue to get waxed.

It’s time to out them and show them the door.

[GBA]

I believe in God, Divine justice and the Golden Rule, sometimes referred to as "karma" and thus, I have to believe that none of this will escape consequences.

Say what you will about Sarah Palin and her family, but I see very few people who walk the talk and I believe she is one of those rare few, all of it, from what she say on the podium to what she hears in Church or reads in the Bible. All of it. She has taken abuse that quite honestly, I would not have handled half as well as she has and she did it with a smile. Todd Palin married well and we almost were lucky enough to have her as our V.P.

I sent money to the campaign and despite my pledge to never vote for McCain again, I cast my vote for her and her running mate. She has my support, my admiration and my respect. The people who trash her are another story all together. Sometimes you have to be other people's karma and boy howdy, these folks have some coming!

[RichInOC]

You’d have to believe that in the course of the nastiest, most intrusive campaign coverage I’ve seen on a member of a presidential ticket, the press found out about the pregnant unwed daughter within a day or two, but they didn’t find out the candidate was, pardon the expression, a miserable high-maintenance bitch with no close friends (even counting her family—I especially liked that part) until the source told them six weeks into the campaign, two weeks before the election, and they didn’t find out she was a complete airhead until, again, the source told them the day after the election.

Riiiiight.

[tuckrdout]

What I found beyond the pale of believability, was that Sarah, a college graduate, who grew up in the school teacher's home, would not have the slightest grasp of geography! LOL! Who would believe that a Christian, who gives money to missions and probably gets monthly updates, wouldn't know that Africa was a continent?! That is so ridiculous, that it definitely sullies everything else these losers had to say. They are lying...flat out lying.