News -01-04-08 Transcript of Couric Interview With Palin and McCain (CBS News) "CBS News anchor Katie Couric spent much of Sept. 29 behind the scenes of the McCain-Palin campaign speaking with Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. This is an unedited transcript of the interview portions broadcast on Sept. 30." 10-08 -01-04-08 Transcript of Couric Interview With Palin on Foreign Policy (CBS News) "This week, CBS News anchor Katie Couric met with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin at the United Nations. Much of the discussion focused on foreign policy, which some say could be Palin's weakness." 10-08 -01-04-08 Transcript of Couric Interview With Palin on the Economy (CBS News) "When CBS News anchor Katie Couric sat down for an exclusive interview with vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, she focused on the economy - but also addressed reports that the lobbying firm of Sen. John McCain's campaign manager received payments from the controversial mortgage giant Freddie Mac until last month. Couric asked for the Alaska governor's reaction to that." 10-08 -10-10-08 Investigators: Sarah Palin Abused Her Power (USA Today) "In a report just released by the Alaska state legislature after a unanimous, bi-partisan, 12-0 vote of its Legislative Council, an investigator concludes that Gov. Sarah Palin 'abused her power' in the events that led to the firing of the state's public safety commissioner." 10-08 -10-11-08 Editorial: The Real Palin vs. the Fey Satire of Palin (Time.com) "It's hard to tell where Tina Fey ends and Sarah Palin begins. Even before Fey lampooned Palin on Saturday Night Live--the updo, the wink, the syntax--people noted the resemblance. And for a politician new to the national stage, being likened to the intelligent, witty, popular Fey was not exactly a bad thing." "Until now, anyway. The governor's comedian doppelgänger has essentially taken control of Public Sarah Palin: the composite of images, biography and attitudes that stands in for the actual person in voters' minds." "Public selves are moving targets, and as the comedians and media redefine them, a candidate can fight the definition, embrace it or use it as a shield. How Real Palin deals with her Fey-controlled image over the next few weeks will determine if Public Palin is her new best friend or her own worst enemy." 10-08 -10-11-08 Editorial: What Does Palin's Abuse of Power Mean? (Time.com) "In the [investigative] report [regarding Gov. Sarah Palin's possible abuse of power], the head of Gov. Palin's security detail says that Todd [Palin] spent about half of his time in the governor's office — not at a desk (he didn't have one), but at a long conference table on one side of the office, with his own phone to make and receive calls. It became a shadow office, the informal Department of Getting Mike Wooten Fired." Mike Wooten was Gov. Palin's brother-in-law. "But even though she won't likely face any legal repercussions, the amateurism and cronyism of her brief administration hardly leaves Palin sitting pretty. Troopergate's final verdict may be even more damaging than a rebuke: her administration was, at least this regard, just as self-motivated as the Washington fat cats and lobbyists she hopes to unseat." 10-08 -10-11-08 Palin's Record on Church-State Separation (CBS News) "The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God's will from the governor's office." "What she didn't tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees." 10-08 -10-11-08 Report Finds Palin Guilty, Palin Denies It (CBS News) "Despite the finding of a legislative report that she had broken the state's ethics law in the scandal dubbed Troopergate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Saturday that the report actually cleared her of any 'legal wrongdoing or unethical activity.' " 10-08 -10-11-08 Report to the Alaska Legislative Council on Palin's Abuse of Power (MSNBC News) Provides Stephen Branchflower's report to the Alaska Legislative Council regarding whether Governor Sarah Palin abused her power when she fired the Public Safety Commissioner. Finding Number One is that "Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides 'The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.' " Finding Number Two is that "I find that, although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioiner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statuatory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads." 10-08 Editorial: Palin Becomes the New Star of the Republican Party (U.S. News) "Any question that Sarah Palin has become the most unexpected new star of the Republican Party in decades evaporated in the deafening cheers that greeted the Alaska governor who last week was largely unknown, and tonight became just the second woman ever nominated to a national party ticket as vice president." 09-08 Editorial: Palin's Breakout Night (Time.com) "You practically expected Sarah Palin to wear a cape when she landed center stage Wednesday night. She was like a one woman Fantastic Four, her faults invisible to the faithful, her strength deployed to close a 20 point white voter gender gap in key swing states, her blazing novelty enough to ignite the hall, and her biography so elastic that everyone from the gun owners to the PTA moms to the Pentecostals to the first timers felt warm in the embrace." "A campaign is partly a battle over images, and all candidates are greedy — they want to define not only their own image but also their opponents'. The acceptance speech is the only time anyone gets a clear shot at both. Palin hit her targets like a sharpshooter." 09-08 Palin Billed the State for Staying in Her Own Home (CBS News - Washington Post) "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a 'per diem' allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. " "Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first family could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so." 09-08 Palin on the Bailout (ThinkProgress.org) Katie Couric interviews Governor Sarah Palin on the bailout of the economy. 09-08 Papers Editorial: Fact Check on Palin's Speech (The San Diego Union-Tribune) "Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin discussed her record as governor of Alaska and the positions of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama last night. In some instances, she was off the mark." "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 said: “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.” However, the Tax Policy Center analyzed the Obama plan and concluded that middle-income taxpayers would have $2,200 less taxes to pay per year by 2012 in Obama's plan. 09-08 Editorial: Pros and Cons of Palin (MSNBC News) "For McCain, the biggest thing Sarah Palin brings is buzz. It's something the campaign has been seeking for some time. In fact, it has bothered Team McCain that it doesn’t get the same 'gee whiz' kind of coverage that Obama gets. Palin changes that discrepancy -- for now. She also helps McCain re-introduce himself as a change-reform candidate." "The biggest negative about the pick is that on its face, it looks like a political gimmick, a political calculation. And McCain's supposed to be anything but a calculating or gimmicky pol." 08-08 Editorial: Sarah Palin's "Tax and Spend" Alaskonomics (Time.com) "Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it." "As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington." 09-08 Editorial: Why McCain Picked Palin (Time.com) "John McCain needs to persuade swing voters that he's willing to take on the Republican establishment. He needs to persuade conservatives that he isn't squishy about social issues. And he needs to close the gender gap. When you think about it, the real surprise about Sarah Palin's selection as his running mate is that it's such a surprise." "Politically, in a year where the Republican brand is so tarnished, Palin will help McCain make the case that he's a different kind of Republican. It might be his best shot to be America's First Dude." 09-08 Fact Checking Palin's Claim That Obama Is "Palling Around With Terrorists" (CNN News) "There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are." 10-08 McCain Picks Sarah Palin for Vice President (USA Today) "John McCain plans to tap Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, selecting the first female vice presidential candidate in Republican Party history." 08-08 Palin Not Vetted? (MSNBC News) "A Republican with ties to John McCain's campaign says the team assigned to vet McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, had not arrived there until the day before McCain announced his vice-presidential choice." 09-08 Palin on Foreign Policy (CBS News) Katie Couric interviews Governor Sarah Palin on foreign policy. 09-08 Palin, Sarah (Wikipedia.org) "Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the current Governor of Alaska, and the presumptive 2008 Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States.[1] She is expected to be the second female Vice Presidential nominee representing a major American political party; the first was Geraldine Ferraro) who was the Democratic nominee in 1984. After being selected as the runner up in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska City Council from 1992 to 1996, was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996, and ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in 2002." 08-08 Sarah Palin Fought Polar Bear Protections (ABC News) "McCain's vice-presidential pick, Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, sued the Bush Administration in federal court recently, charging it was too accepting of climate change studies which overstated the phenomenon's impact on polar bears. The result, she argued, would be a negative impact on her state's businesses, including oil and gas extraction." "Three of Palin's own state scientists reviewed the USGS studies and found them sound, according to internal documents released to an Alaska professor earlier this year under the state's open records law. But she has argued, in a New York Times editorial and elsewhere, that 'there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct in the foreseeable future.' " 09-08 Sarah Palin Timeline (MSNBC News) "John McCain plans to tap Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, selecting the first female vice presidential candidate in Republican Party history." 08-08 Sarah Palin's Record as Mayor of Wasilla (Time.com) "One thing all sides agree on is that the valley was in flux. The old libertarian pioneer ethos was giving way to a rising Christian conservatism. By shrewdly invoking issues that mattered to the ascendant majority, Palin won the mayor's race. But while she may have been a new face, says Naegele, she was no maverick — not yet. 'The state party gave her the mechanism to get into that office,' says Naegele. 'As soon as she was confident enough to brush them off, she did. But she wasn't an outsider to start with. She very much had to kowtow to them.' " "Governing was no less contentious than campaigning, at least to begin with. Palin ended up dismissing almost all the city department heads who had been loyal to Stein, including a few who had been instrumental in getting her into politics to begin with." 09-08 Study: Palin Hired Friends and Punished Foes (New York Times) "Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials." "So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency." "Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records." "Ms. Palin discovered that the state Republican leader, Randy Ruedrich, a commission member, was conducting party business on state time and favoring regulated companies. When Mr. Murkowski failed to act on her complaints, she quit and went public." "In the middle of the primary, a conservative columnist in the state, Paul Jenkins, unearthed e-mail messages showing that Ms. Palin had conducted campaign business from the mayor’s office. Ms. Palin handled the crisis with a street fighter’s guile." 09-08

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