Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama

Let’s be honest and thorough about this, okay.

EDUCATION:

OBAMA: Graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University, one of the top 5 colleges in the country. Went to Harvard Law and was selected to be both Editor and then President of the Harvard Law Review, the first African American to be so. This was based solely on his grades, writing and accomplishments. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law in 1991, receiving his J.D. as one of the top 5 in his class.

PALIN: Graduated from the University of Idaho, ranked as the #106 school in the country (US News and World Report) finishing in the bottom half of her class. She has no graduate degree whatsoever.

POST-EDUCATION:

OBAMA:

Was offered big money at big law firms as well as Wall Street, but turned it down to become a community organizer in a troubled city in which he didn’t know a soul. As a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, he changed the lives of thousands, initiating a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain’s Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of “40 under Forty” powers to be.

Obama then taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004). In 1993 he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996.

He was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, and served on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center, helping to get over 1,100 people off welfare and into good-paying jobs. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

PALIN:

In 1988, she worked briefly as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and she also helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business.

Was a member of the Alaska Independence Party in 1994, a party whose platform is to secede from the U.S., allowing Alaska and its oil reserves to become its own country.

PUBLIC OFFICE:

OBAMA:

Elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from the 13th District, which then spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park-Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.

In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan’s payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures, and in 2003, Obama sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.

Obama spoke out against the war in Iraq, citing it as a grave mistake that would take the country’s eye of the real threat in Afghanistan.

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.

PALIN:

Began her political career in 1992 when she ran for Wasilla city council, supporting a controversial new sales tax and advocating “a safer, more progressive Wasilla”. She won and served two terms on the council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996 Palin challenged and defeated incumbent John Stein for the non-partisan office of mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes, but mainly won by dividing the town by bringing up the abortion issue.

In October 1996, she asked the police chief, librarian, public works director, and finance director to resign, and she instituted a policy requiring department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters. The librarian kept the job, despite a dispute over inquires by Palin on how to ban books including inappropriate language, but in January 1997, Palin fired the police chief, citing a failure to support her administration. Palin said in a letter that she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration. A court dismissed a suit subsequently filed by the police chief, finding that Palin had the right to fire city employees even for political reasons.

As mayor, Palin reduced the mayoral salary, reduced property taxes by 40 percent, and INCREASED THE SALES TAX to pay for a new indoor ice rink and sports complex. At this time, state Republican leaders began grooming her for higher office. She ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and was returned to office, getting over three times as many votes as he. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

The sports complex she helped build ended up costing the city more than expected. The city was outbid for the property initially and, after invoking eminent domain to take it from the new buyer, ended up having to pay over $1.7 million. During her last four-year term as mayor, Palin hired a Washington-connected lobbying firm, Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, that undertook a LOBBYING EFFORT on behalf of Wasilla. The Anchorage-based law was led by Steven Silver (a former chief of staff for Sen. Ted Stevens), and it secured nearly $27 million in earmarked funds. According to the Washington Post, the earmarks included “$500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project.” The largest earmark of $15 million was for a rail link between Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood, home town of Senator Ted Stevens.

In 2002, term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor. Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, ran for the office but lost the election to Dianne Keller. Sarah Palin supported Keller, not her mother-in-law.

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way race in the Republican primary. Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she chaired the Commission from 2003 to 2004, and also served as Ethics Supervisor. Palin resigned in January 2004 in protest over what she called the “lack of ethics” of fellow Republican members.

After resigning, Palin filed formal complaints against the state Republican Party’s chairman, Randy Ruedrich, and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. She accused Ruedrich, one of her fellow commissioners, of doing work for the party on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in Alaska.

HIGHER OFFICE:

OBAMA:

Ran for US Senator of Illinois in 2004, receiving over 52% of the vote in the March primary, emerging 29% ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

In July 2004, Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather’s experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal’s FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama spoke about changing the U.S. government’s economic and social priorities. He questioned the Bush administration’s management of the Iraq War and highlighted America’s obligations to its soldiers. Drawing examples from U.S. history, he criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity. Broadcasts of the speech by major news organizations launched Obama’s status as a national political figure and boosted his campaign for U.S. Senate.

In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Alan Keyes’s 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history. Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005, the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history, and the third to have been popularly elected. He is the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Reached across the aisle to Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), co-sponsoring the Coburn–Obama Transparency Act. Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act. Obama introduced two initiatives bearing his name: “Lugar–Obama,” which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, and the “Coburn–Obama Transparency Act,” which authorized the establishment of http://www.USAspending.gov, a web search engine.

Obama sponsored legislation requiring nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks. In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the “Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act,” marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor. In January 2007, Obama co-sponsored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007. He introduced S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections. Obama also introduced the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007. Obama and Richard Lugar visit a Russian mobile launch missile dismantling facility
Obama and Richard Lugar visit a Russian mobile launch missile dismantling facility.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. He sponsored the “Iran Sanctions Enabling Act” supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran’s oil and gas industry, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations (chaired by running mate Joe Biden), Environment and Public Works and Veterans’ Affairs through December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He also became Chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

PALIN:

In 2006, Palin defeated then-Governor Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Her running mate was State Senator Sean Parnell. Senator Ted Stevens made a last-moment endorsement and filmed a TV commercial together with Palin for the gubernatorial campaign.

In November, she defeated former Governor Tony Knowles 48.3 percent to 40.9 percent. Palin became Alaska’s first woman governor and, at 42, the youngest in Alaskan history.

Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news conference with Stevens, described by The Washington Post as being held “to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.”

Palin has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), where such development has been the subject of a national debate. (Incidentally, McCain is vehemently AGAINST drilling in ANWR.) She also helped pass a tax increase on oil company profits.

When asked about climate change after becoming Senator McCain’s presumptive running mate, she stated that it would “affect Alaska more than any other state”, but she added, “I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.”

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded 35 appointments made by Murkowski in the last hours of his administration, including that of his former chief of staff James “Jim” Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. Clark later pleaded guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski’s re-election campaign.

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state’s North Slope. This negated a deal by the previous governor to grant the contract to a coalition including BP (her husband’s former employer). Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure, and in June, Palin signed it into law. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

In response to high oil and gas prices, and the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers’ rates. She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans $1,200 directly, paid for from the windfall surplus the state is getting because of the high oil prices.

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. In August 2007, the jet was sold on eBay for $2.1 million.

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska’s history. 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 nearly $1.6 billion.

In 2007, the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business. Palin objected, citing concern for dairy farmers and a recent infusion of $600,000 in state money. Palin subsequently replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation. The new board reversed the decision to close the dairy. Later in 2007, the unprofitable business was put up for sale. No offers met the minimum bid of $3.35 million, and the dairy was closed. In August 2008, the Anchorage plant was purchased for $1.5 million, the new minimum bid. The purchaser plans to convert it into heated storage units.

In 2006, Ketchikan’s Gravina Island Bridge, known outside the state as the “Bridge to Nowhere”, became an issue in the gubernatorial campaign. Palin initially expressed support for the bridge and ran on a “build-the-bridge” platform but later, when it became obvious most Alaskans did not support the plan, she decided to use the bridge funds for other projects because of rising cost estimates. Despite the bridge currently being on hold, the Palin administration allocated tens of millions of dollars of federal funds to begin construction of the Gravina island road meant to link to the bridge.

In 2008, when introduced as McCain’s running mate, Palin told the crowd, “I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere” — a line that garnered big applause but upset political leaders in Ketchikan. Palin’s campaign coordinator in the city, Republican Mike Elerding, remarked, “She said ‘thanks but no thanks,’ but they kept the money.” Democratic Mayor Bob Weinstein also criticized Palin for “using the very term [Bridge to nowhere] that she said was insulting.”

On July 11, 2008 Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, citing performance-related issues. She instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down. Monegan alleged that his dismissal was retaliation for his failure to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, an Alaska State Trooper whom the Palin family claimed to have made a death threat against Palin’s father, among other alleged misconduct and family disagreements. A dispute arose over whether contacts made by Palin’s staff and family constituted inappropriate pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten.

Initially, Palin denied that there had been any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, either from her or from anyone else in her administration. Then, after she had her Attorney General’s office conduct an internal investigation, Palin stated that her staff had contacted Monegan or his staff about two dozen times regarding Wooten, including many contacts from her chief of staff, and Palin also stated that most of those calls were made without her knowledge. Palin’s power to fire him is not in dispute, but Monegan has alleged that his dismissal was connected to his failure to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten had been officially reprimanded and disciplined in 2006 for misconduct including making a death threat against Palin’s father and being drunk while operating both private and official vehicles, as well as using a Taser on his then 10-year old stepson “in a training capacity” after the child had asked to be tased in order to show his cousin, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, that he “wasn’t a mama’s boy”, which occured during a divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann.

Palin’s choice to replace Monegan, Charles M. Kopp, chief of the Kenai police department, took the position on July 11, 2008. He resigned on July 25 after it was revealed that he had received a letter of reprimand for sexual harrassment in his previous position.

The Alaska Legislature subsequently hired an independent investigator to review “the circumstances and events surrounding the termination of former Public Safety Commissioner Monegan, and potential abuses of power and/or improper actions by members of the executive branch.” The investigation is scheduled to be completed in October 2008.

2008 CAMPAIGN:

OBAMA:

Ran an incredibly tight, organized campaign against Hillary Clinton, focusing on a broad ground movement. Participated in 24 televised debates with the likes of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden,. John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. Has traveled the country non-stop for 18+ months, and has been vetted publicly. Gave several incredible speeches, including the most eloquent and honest account of the history of race and racism in America, told from various perspectives as only few can do. Received over 18 million votes in the Democratic primary, winning the race. Traveled to Iraq, met with world leaders in Berlin, France, and Eastern Europe. Pulled off incredible convention, unifying th eparty with the exception of a few crazies who can’t accept that their candidate lost by running a poor campaign, including going excessively negative. Has been called Muslim, arrogant, not black enough, and had to defend his right to practice his faith at Trinity Church because of Jeremiah Wright’s comments.

PALIN:

Was chosen by one man, 72 year old John McCain, to be his running mate after two meetings and a single phone call. Praised Hillary Clinton just weeks after calling her a whiner in order to manipulate women into voting for identity politics instead of the issues. Does not believe in evolution, global warming, or that women have a right to choose. Has left the country ONCE in her life, getting her first passport in 2007 at the age of 43. Claimed she did not know what the VP does on a day-to-day basis. Has said she has no idea what’s going on Iraq even though her son Track is about to go there in weeks.

Those are the facts. You make the choice. The most important thing is not Sarah Palin’s personal life, but John McCain’s utter lack of jusgement.

Let’s be honest and thorough about this, okay.

EDUCATION:

OBAMA: Graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University, one of the top 5 colleges in the country. Went to Harvard Law and was selected to be both Editor and then President of the Harvard Law Review, the first African American to be so. This was based solely on his grades, writing and accomplishments. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law in 1991, receiving his J.D. as one of the top 5 in his class.

PALIN: Graduated from the University of Idaho, ranked as the #106 school in the country (US News and World Report) finishing in the bottom half of her class. She has no graduate degree whatsoever.

POST-EDUCATION:

OBAMA:

Was offered big money at big law firms as well as Wall Street, but turned it down to become a community organizer in a troubled city in which he didn’t know a soul. As a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, he changed the lives of thousands, initiating a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain’s Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of “40 under Forty” powers to be.

Obama then taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004). In 1993 he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996.

He was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, and served on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center, helping to get over 1,100 people off welfare and into good-paying jobs. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

PALIN:

In 1988, she worked briefly as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, and she also helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business.

Was a member of the Alaska Independence Party in 1994, a party whose platform is to secede from the U.S., allowing Alaska and its oil reserves to become its own country.

PUBLIC OFFICE:

OBAMA:

Elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from the 13th District, which then spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park-Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.

In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan’s payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures, and in 2003, Obama sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.

Obama spoke out against the war in Iraq, citing it as a grave mistake that would take the country’s eye of the real threat in Afghanistan.

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.

PALIN:

Began her political career in 1992 when she ran for Wasilla city council, supporting a controversial new sales tax and advocating “a safer, more progressive Wasilla”. She won and served two terms on the council from 1992 to 1996. In 1996 Palin challenged and defeated incumbent John Stein for the non-partisan office of mayor, criticizing wasteful spending and high taxes, but mainly won by dividing the town by bringing up the abortion issue.

In October 1996, she asked the police chief, librarian, public works director, and finance director to resign, and she instituted a policy requiring department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters. The librarian kept the job, despite a dispute over inquires by Palin on how to ban books including inappropriate language, but in January 1997, Palin fired the police chief, citing a failure to support her administration. Palin said in a letter that she wanted a change because she believed the two did not fully support her administration. A court dismissed a suit subsequently filed by the police chief, finding that Palin had the right to fire city employees even for political reasons.

As mayor, Palin reduced the mayoral salary, reduced property taxes by 40 percent, and INCREASED THE SALES TAX to pay for a new indoor ice rink and sports complex. At this time, state Republican leaders began grooming her for higher office. She ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and was returned to office, getting over three times as many votes as he. Palin was also elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.

The sports complex she helped build ended up costing the city more than expected. The city was outbid for the property initially and, after invoking eminent domain to take it from the new buyer, ended up having to pay over $1.7 million. During her last four-year term as mayor, Palin hired a Washington-connected lobbying firm, Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, that undertook a LOBBYING EFFORT on behalf of Wasilla. The Anchorage-based law was led by Steven Silver (a former chief of staff for Sen. Ted Stevens), and it secured nearly $27 million in earmarked funds. According to the Washington Post, the earmarks included “$500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project.” The largest earmark of $15 million was for a rail link between Wasilla and the ski resort community of Girdwood, home town of Senator Ted Stevens.

In 2002, term limits prevented Palin from running for a third term as mayor. Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, ran for the office but lost the election to Dianne Keller. Sarah Palin supported Keller, not her mother-in-law.

In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second to Loren Leman in a five-way race in the Republican primary. Governor Murkowski appointed Palin to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she chaired the Commission from 2003 to 2004, and also served as Ethics Supervisor. Palin resigned in January 2004 in protest over what she called the “lack of ethics” of fellow Republican members.

After resigning, Palin filed formal complaints against the state Republican Party’s chairman, Randy Ruedrich, and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes. She accused Ruedrich, one of her fellow commissioners, of doing work for the party on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.

From 2003 to June 2005, Palin served as one of three directors of “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in Alaska.

HIGHER OFFICE:

OBAMA:

Ran for US Senator of Illinois in 2004, receiving over 52% of the vote in the March primary, emerging 29% ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

In July 2004, Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather’s experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal’s FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama spoke about changing the U.S. government’s economic and social priorities. He questioned the Bush administration’s management of the Iraq War and highlighted America’s obligations to its soldiers. Drawing examples from U.S. history, he criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity. Broadcasts of the speech by major news organizations launched Obama’s status as a national political figure and boosted his campaign for U.S. Senate.

In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Alan Keyes’s 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history. Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005, the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history, and the third to have been popularly elected. He is the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Reached across the aisle to Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), co-sponsoring the Coburn–Obama Transparency Act. Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act. Obama introduced two initiatives bearing his name: “Lugar–Obama,” which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, and the “Coburn–Obama Transparency Act,” which authorized the establishment of http://www.USAspending.gov, a web search engine.

Obama sponsored legislation requiring nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks. In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the “Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act,” marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor. In January 2007, Obama co-sponsored the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007. He introduced S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections. Obama also introduced the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007. Obama and Richard Lugar visit a Russian mobile launch missile dismantling facility
Obama and Richard Lugar visit a Russian mobile launch missile dismantling facility.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. He sponsored the “Iran Sanctions Enabling Act” supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran’s oil and gas industry, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations (chaired by running mate Joe Biden), Environment and Public Works and Veterans’ Affairs through December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He also became Chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

PALIN:

In 2006, Palin defeated then-Governor Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Her running mate was State Senator Sean Parnell. Senator Ted Stevens made a last-moment endorsement and filmed a TV commercial together with Palin for the gubernatorial campaign.

In November, she defeated former Governor Tony Knowles 48.3 percent to 40.9 percent. Palin became Alaska’s first woman governor and, at 42, the youngest in Alaskan history.

Shortly before his July 2008 indictment, she held a joint news conference with Stevens, described by The Washington Post as being held “to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.”

Palin has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), where such development has been the subject of a national debate. (Incidentally, McCain is vehemently AGAINST drilling in ANWR.) She also helped pass a tax increase on oil company profits.

When asked about climate change after becoming Senator McCain’s presumptive running mate, she stated that it would “affect Alaska more than any other state”, but she added, “I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.”

Shortly after taking office, Palin rescinded 35 appointments made by Murkowski in the last hours of his administration, including that of his former chief of staff James “Jim” Clark to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority. Clark later pleaded guilty to conspiring with a defunct oil-field-services company to channel money into Frank Murkowski’s re-election campaign.

In March 2007, Palin presented the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) as the new legal vehicle for building a natural gas pipeline from the state’s North Slope. This negated a deal by the previous governor to grant the contract to a coalition including BP (her husband’s former employer). Only one legislator, Representative Ralph Samuels, voted against the measure, and in June, Palin signed it into law. On January 5, 2008, Palin announced that a Canadian company, TransCanada Corp., was the sole AGIA-compliant applicant. In August 2008, Palin signed a bill into law giving the state of Alaska authority to award TransCanada Pipelines $500 million in seed money and a license to build and operate the $26-billion pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the Lower 48 through Canada.

In response to high oil and gas prices, and the resulting state government budget surplus, Palin proposed giving Alaskans $100-a-month energy debit cards. She also proposed providing grants to electrical utilities so that they would reduce customers’ rates. She subsequently dropped the debit card proposal, and in its place she proposed to send Alaskans $1,200 directly, paid for from the windfall surplus the state is getting because of the high oil prices.

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account) by the Murkowski administration. In August 2007, the jet was sold on eBay for $2.1 million.

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska’s history. 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 nearly $1.6 billion.

In 2007, the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business. Palin objected, citing concern for dairy farmers and a recent infusion of $600,000 in state money. Palin subsequently replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation. The new board reversed the decision to close the dairy. Later in 2007, the unprofitable business was put up for sale. No offers met the minimum bid of $3.35 million, and the dairy was closed. In August 2008, the Anchorage plant was purchased for $1.5 million, the new minimum bid. The purchaser plans to convert it into heated storage units.

In 2006, Ketchikan’s Gravina Island Bridge, known outside the state as the “Bridge to Nowhere”, became an issue in the gubernatorial campaign. Palin initially expressed support for the bridge and ran on a “build-the-bridge” platform but later, when it became obvious most Alaskans did not support the plan, she decided to use the bridge funds for other projects because of rising cost estimates. Despite the bridge currently being on hold, the Palin administration allocated tens of millions of dollars of federal funds to begin construction of the Gravina island road meant to link to the bridge.

In 2008, when introduced as McCain’s running mate, Palin told the crowd, “I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere” — a line that garnered big applause but upset political leaders in Ketchikan. Palin’s campaign coordinator in the city, Republican Mike Elerding, remarked, “She said ‘thanks but no thanks,’ but they kept the money.” Democratic Mayor Bob Weinstein also criticized Palin for “using the very term [Bridge to nowhere] that she said was insulting.”

On July 11, 2008 Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, citing performance-related issues. She instead offered him a position as executive director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down. Monegan alleged that his dismissal was retaliation for his failure to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, an Alaska State Trooper whom the Palin family claimed to have made a death threat against Palin’s father, among other alleged misconduct and family disagreements. A dispute arose over whether contacts made by Palin’s staff and family constituted inappropriate pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten.

Initially, Palin denied that there had been any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, either from her or from anyone else in her administration. Then, after she had her Attorney General’s office conduct an internal investigation, Palin stated that her staff had contacted Monegan or his staff about two dozen times regarding Wooten, including many contacts from her chief of staff, and Palin also stated that most of those calls were made without her knowledge. Palin’s power to fire him is not in dispute, but Monegan has alleged that his dismissal was connected to his failure to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten had been officially reprimanded and disciplined in 2006 for misconduct including making a death threat against Palin’s father and being drunk while operating both private and official vehicles, as well as using a Taser on his then 10-year old stepson “in a training capacity” after the child had asked to be tased in order to show his cousin, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, that he “wasn’t a mama’s boy”, which occured during a divorce and child custody battle with Palin’s sister, Molly McCann.

Palin’s choice to replace Monegan, Charles M. Kopp, chief of the Kenai police department, took the position on July 11, 2008. He resigned on July 25 after it was revealed that he had received a letter of reprimand for sexual harrassment in his previous position.

The Alaska Legislature subsequently hired an independent investigator to review “the circumstances and events surrounding the termination of former Public Safety Commissioner Monegan, and potential abuses of power and/or improper actions by members of the executive branch.” The investigation is scheduled to be completed in October 2008.

2008 CAMPAIGN:

OBAMA:

Ran an incredibly tight, organized campaign against Hillary Clinton, focusing on a broad ground movement. Participated in 24 televised debates with the likes of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden,. John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. Has traveled the country non-stop for 18+ months, and has been vetted publicly. Gave several incredible speeches, including the most eloquent and honest account of the history of race and racism in America, told from various perspectives as only few can do. Received over 18 million votes in the Democratic primary, winning the race. Traveled to Iraq, met with world leaders in Berlin, France, and Eastern Europe. Pulled off incredible convention, unifying th eparty with the exception of a few crazies who can’t accept that their candidate lost by running a poor campaign, including going excessively negative. Has been called Muslim, arrogant, not black enough, and had to defend his right to practice his faith at Trinity Church because of Jeremiah Wright’s comments.

PALIN:

Was chosen by one man, 72 year old John McCain, to be his running mate after two meetings and a single phone call. Praised Hillary Clinton just weeks after calling her a whiner in order to manipulate women into voting for identity politics instead of the issues. Does not believe in evolution, global warming, or that women have a right to choose. Has left the country ONCE in her life, getting her first passport in 2007 at the age of 43. Claimed she did not know what the VP does on a day-to-day basis. Has said she has no idea what’s going on Iraq even though her son Track is about to go there in weeks.

Those are the facts. You make the choice. The most important thing is not Sarah Palin’s personal life, but John McCain’s utter lack of judgement.

Blow me again.