Sarah Palin vs THE FACTS (from her speech)

[steelincotton]

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right _ change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington _ throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

[Chris Fleming]

That last one was a "hoot". Amazing how politicians can just make shit up and convince themselves that it's truth.

[MikeC]

That last one was a "hoot". Amazing how politicians can just make shit up and convince themselves that it's truth.

So what Mitt was insinuating was that the limp-wrist left have only been in control of Congress for the better part of two years.

And when all of these Democrats were elected to Congress primarily on their promise to end the Iraq War, what have they accomplished?

[Steve James]

Hmm, "And when all of these Democrats were elected to Congress primarily on their promise to end the Iraq War, what have they accomplished?"

vs. "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse."

Do you think the Democrats have continued the war? What would you say if they have stopped funding it? That they didn't support the troops? That they had no stomach for war?

[MikeC]

Hmm, "And when all of these Democrats were elected to Congress primarily on their promise to end the Iraq War, what have they accomplished?"

vs. "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse."

Do you think the Democrats have continued the war? What would you say if they have stopped funding it? That they didn't support the troops? That they had no stomach for war?

Excuses. Did they pander the 'End the War' line because they meant it, or just to get re-elected?

[chen man]

Thanks for that post Steelincotton.
Last night she represented "hillbilly politics" at its best and didn't mention much about what she would do to "reform." Most of what we got out of her were belittling and crude comments about the dems that could only appeal to a teenage mind or locker room full of jocks. No class. It's now obvious that McCain is a full time Bush supporter while at the same time telling us he's a "Maverick."

[Steve James]

Excuses for what? I've had three sons in the war you like so much.

[MikeC]

The empty rhetoric two years ago when the Dems rushed the House with their End the War campaigns.

[chen man]

The dems tried, but eventually lost. Their majority rule is very thin anyways.

[Chris Fleming]

That last one was a "hoot". Amazing how politicians can just make shit up and convince themselves that it's truth.

And when all of these Democrats were elected to Congress primarily on their promise to end the Iraq War, what have they accomplished?

I believe I already made YOUR EXACT ARGUMENT in a previous thread. Just saying that it's funny--8 years of Bush and it's "we have to take back Washington" .

[MikeC]

That last one was a "hoot". Amazing how politicians can just make shit up and convince themselves that it's truth.

And when all of these Democrats were elected to Congress primarily on their promise to end the Iraq War, what have they accomplished?

I believe I already made YOUR EXACT ARGUMENT in a previous thread. Just saying that it's funny--8 years of Bush and it's "we have to take back Washington" .

They probably meant Congress.

[Steve James]

If they take it back, ya think they'll end the war?

[MikeC]

If the Dems will let em...

[Steve James]

"let 'em"? Are you saying that the Republicans have been doing their best to end the war? And, the Dems have been standing in the way?

Ya know, inho, Palin should have said that in her speech. Or, talk about her position on Roe v. Wade, or .... oh well, something about the war would have been good. Even better would have been stating more support for Veteran's aid.

[Buddy]

Should have? I don't know about that. Policy has never been the VPs job. It's politics at a convention, not policy. Let's see what McCain says tonight. I think he has to talk about policy.