[AAABEST]

I knew there was something to it," Palin said of learning while she was Alaska's governor that her Texas counterpart had given the go-ahead to the vaccine.

Palin was governor of Alaska from December 2006 until her resignation in July 2009. If she "knew there was something to it" it certainly didn't keep her from wholeheartedly backing Perry at a rally in February, 2010:

"In Washington, they're too often looking out for Wall Street and Rick is looking out for you"

You don't know how proud I am to support Rick Perry."

"I look forward to Texas sending a message on how things get done, because you're doing them right in Texas"

Facts about the Gardasil controversy:

- Contrary to the popular myth, not a single girl in Texas was ever "forced" to get a Gardasil vaccination.

- Perry never advocated "forcing" anyone to get a Gardasil vaccination. The executive order - RP65 -  had an opt out. The "innocent little 12 year old girls or 11 year old girls in state of Texas" who "would be forced by the government to take an injection" would have only existed in Bachmanns mind.

- RP65 not only had an opt-out, but contained language that made it easier for parents to opt their children out of ALL vaccinations.

- Merck contributed around $5,000 to Perry, which works out to be 1/40th of 1% (or 1/4,000th) of Perry's campaign chest.

The idea that Perry would harpoon himself for a measly 5 grand is prepostrous. For Palin (and Bachmann) to accuse him of doing so borders on slander.

YOU BETCHA!

[HerrBlucher]

Well said, Palin didn’t just endorse Perry, she enthusiastically endorsed him with glowing praise about his conservatism and PRINCIPLES. If she now thinks he is corrupt then she needs to explain in detail what caused her to change her mind about Perry, or admit she was being deciptful when she endorsed him.

[Donkey Odious]

While not a rabid supporter of Sarah Palin and thinking that she would make a fine President, I am getting a little tired of being strung along.....she needs to make - and announce - her decision. Like the song says...”is you is or is you ain’t...”

[Carling]

Palin is doing what her supporters accuse others of doing to her. Taking an issue and twisting the facts to fit an agenda.

I don't know what her agenda is other than pulling in $1 million/year from Fox News, but she shouldn't resort to lying and misrepresenting facts while in her role as an analyst.

[mountainfolk]

I was quite disappointed with Palin’s belaboring the Gardasil issue that Bachmann raised during the debate. It reminded me of the George Allen Macca incident which was hyped beyond ridiculous and used to bring down his campaign for reelection. The attack by Bachmann and followup by Palin IMO was coordinated and diminished my opinion of both of them. I like Bachmann but do not see her in any way getting the nomination. Sarah is my pick at present because she has the strengths and background and disposition to carry through with the massive cleanup of the US government that will lead to the recovery of our economy and stability of this Republic. Perry will reveal more of himself in further debates and public exposure and I will continue to take the measure of the man. I will not make a decision on one incident or element of his past.

[gdani]

Palin is becoming more inconsequential & easy to ignore as the days go on.

The idea she's gearing up for some big announcement & campaign is laughable.

Se wants to sell books, be on TV & make big $$$ for speeches & appearances. And she learned awhile ago she can do all that without the difficult job of being president.

[wardaddy]

Instead of taking aim, she should cowboy up and join in. Sitting it out is just not genius to me like her zealot fanbase here thinks.

She is not Ronald Reagan, she does not have the instant frontrunner status he has though she of course has a very loud and determined fan base...and is a helluva speech giver...but giving speeches ain’t debating

course winning debates isn’t winning either, would anyone here wish to debate Newt..he’s like a machine..he’s as good as Cheney with the instant recall thing

I just don’t get it...Iowa is February 6th..and some state is likely to jump up to January.

Sarah is running out of shelf life...maybe two-three more weeks.

Is this a plan to attack the candidates and then hope to announce and just steamroll in? Maybe so.

She can speak very well and it’s a siren song usually for social conservatives. It’s hard to say.

man...heads will spin here like never ever before if she sits it out...there will be excusues for a) she doesn’t run, b) she does but fails to nab nomination or c) she gets nomination but loses general

my gut feeling is we here don’t live in reality about this

[Antoninus]

It's disheartening to see Palin doing this. I have grown more and more lukewarm on her within the past year.

Is Perry's Gardasil problem troubling? Yes. I jumped on him when it happened. But he's admitted it was a mistake--which is quite rare in politics because the result is that no one EVER lets you forget it.

But to watch Bachmann especially go totally overboard with it smacks of attack by proxy. I think the theory that she is Romney's attack dog gains more credibility each day.

[junta]

Maybe she should take out after Michelle Obama for her eye rolling at the 9/11 ceremony.

[jonrick46]

A $5000 donation is a drop in the campaign war chest when you look at the numbers. Sarah is absolutely correct about the cronyism nature of the donation. It illustrates what she has been fighting against for 20 years. $5000 may be small peanuts in Texas politics, but many politicians work these small donations until they add up to big money. The donors use this money to insure that the government money keeps rolling in. And that government money (our tax money) winds up in the politician's war chest where it can earn new money through various investment schemes. Rick Perry needs to reject this system which is very disqusting to the American public. If he does not do that, then Sarah had better step in and run.

[jonrick46]

A $5000 donation is a drop in the campaign war chest when you look at the numbers. Sarah is absolutely correct about the cronyism nature of the donation. It illustrates what she has been fighting against for 20 years. $5000 may be small peanuts in Texas politics, but many politicians work these small donations until they add up to big money. The donors use this money to insure that the government money keeps rolling in. And that government money (our tax money) winds up in the politician's war chest where it can earn new money through various investment schemes. Rick Perry needs to reject this system which is very disgusting to the American public. If he does not do that, then Sarah had better step in and run.

[GoodDay]

Merck contributed around $5,000 to Perry, which works out to be 1/40th of 1% (or 1/4,000th) of Perry's campaign chest.

In other words, Merck contributed up to its legally allowed maximum under campaign finance regulations. That contribution bought them access to the target market for their vaccine. A mere $5,000 investment in a politician's future guaranteed them millions in revenue.

Sounds like cronyism to me.

[tnlibertarian]

So good ole Momma Half-Term continues her half-in half-out half-assed campaigning with half-truths, huh?

[upsdriver]

The idea that Perry would harpoon himself for a measly 5 grand is prepostrous. For Palin (and Bachmann) to accuse him of doing so borders on slander.

The idea that Crony Capitalism refers only to campaign donations is preposterous. This episode certainly needs to be aired out unless vetting of candidates only applies to some and not others.

[Christie at the beach]

I don’t blame her, I would have supported him over KAY Rino Bailey since she was ask to help him. Perry was sinking until she came in. This explains it for me/politics. Good that she has spoken out. Sometimes, things bother you. It seems funny seeing some of the guys complaining about the women taking it to the guys. Guess it’s only to win what some want. been there. done that. Even if Perry makes it, it will be a tough election with all of his stances/the border/aide to illegals. Too bad, there were not others in this game, like Rubio. So tired of Perry already like some are of Palin and Bachmann.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “The idea that Perry would harpoon himself for a measly 5 grand is prepostrous.” <<

.
True, but it wasn’t the $5,000 that he sought, it was the Mega-Billions that the Pharma poison vendors spend on political ads that Ricky was counting on.
.

[lonevoice]

The biggest beneficiaries of this dust-up are Romney, Obama and the MSM. What it has most succeeded in accomplishing, imo, is to tarnish all three of them - Perry, Bachmann, and Palin. There are things I like and admire about all three, so this sucks.

[gardencatz]

So are you suggesting if someone endorses someone for congress, senator, or governor he/she should endorse them for any office they run for? She endorsed Bachmann too. Evidently she talks about this in her emails and how she didn’t understand why he was doing this. Even Perry (to his credit) admitted it was wrong. Whether she gets in or not she may not endorse anyone at this stage in the game. However, she’ll campaign hard for whoever wins.

Cindie

[Lando Lincoln]

Palin has done significant harm to her brand. And I will say it again, she sounded like a 45 year-old valley girl as I was listening to it on Sirius Radio. It was terrible.

[newzjunkey]

Palin is misinformed.

Here's some background on how Perry came to sign the order in furtherance of the legislature's priorities, rather than crony capitalism as Bachmann and now Palin insinuate…

In 2005 as part of a larger effort against cancers, the Texas legislature set a priority to eliminate cervical cancer mortality by 2015 (HB 2475). It directed the state health agency to produce a report and deliver it to the governor by the end of 2006. It did so and that report concluded the vaccine Gardasil made the goal attainable. 47 page report (Acrobat PDF)

Perry signed the order in 2007 protecting parental rights with an opt-out clause while ensuring insurance, Medicaid and other programs would cover the expensive vaccine while an opt-in would not.

He attempted to balance protection of personal liberty with attaining the legislature's public health goals.

---

Noteworthy quotes from the above documents:

HB 2475 said, "This bill requires the Department of State Health Services to develop a strategic plan to eliminate mortality from cervical cancer by the year 2015…" "The strategic plan must be developed and delivered to the governor and legislature no later than December 31, 2006."

A 47 page report (Acrobat PDF) called "Texas Cervical Cancer Strategic Plan," December 2006, by Texas Department of State Health Services in collaboration with The Texas Cancer Council was delivered.

Page 8, "Executive summary" Armed with this new HPV vaccine, we can achieve the moment when we know our goal — eliminating cervical cancer death and suffering — is in reach.

Page 20, "Access to Care" - "Women must have access to cervical cancer screening to eliminate cervical cancer in Texas. The National Cancer Institute reports that groups of women with high cervical cancer mortality:...

• Tend not to have a usual source of health care, such as a family physician;

• Have low income and education levels;

• Are less likely to participate in regular cancer screenings and receive other preventive

… "Widespread vaccination is a key to reducing cervical cancer incidence in Texas"

[Piers-the-Ploughman]

Regarding the “It’s only $5000, or 1% of Perry’s campaign chest”

If these vaccines would cost the state $360 each, and they got say 100,000 girls then that $36,000,000 into Merck. Now Merck has some sunk costs in this but I wonder how much of this $36 mil becomes “walking around money” to buy influence in lots of other ways....that is my question. You’re right 5k is nothing, 36 mil or a large part of it that’s the real question

This seems to be how Libturds go about these things too. Get the government to make us buy carbon credits/green light bulbs to save the world, and guess what, Al Gore’s friends are selling them, what a coincidence!