Word: alaskas
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...four years later, Schmidt and the McCain campaign have returned to outrage, and there is little doubt that the tactic is again having the desired effect. Two weeks ago, the McCain campaign crowed about the alleged mistreatment that the press and the Barack Obama campaign were heaping on Alaska governor Sarah Palin (at roughly the same time that the campaign sent out e-mail blasts featuring enthusiastic media blurbs of Palin's convention speech). After the convention, the indignation only intensified; in the course of 24 hours, McCain accused Obama of supporting "sex education" for kindergarten students and referring...
Gotcha! It turns out that John McCain, while crusading against wasteful spending, specifically objected to three earmarks that Sarah Palin requested as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, including a dubious agricultural-processing facility designed to promote local produce. In fact, Palin has a consistent record of chasing the bacon that McCain has fought for years. She pulled in $27 million in earmarks as mayor, requested $450 million in earmarks as governor and even supported the state's notorious Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it. There isn't enough lipstick in Alaska to cover all that pork. (See photos of Sarah...
...although some legislators argue that earmarking is a useful check on executive power, and that earmarks are just a tiny sliver of the federal budget. As a moral matter, McCain's heresy on pork has made him all the right enemies, including shameless Republican porkers like Ted Stevens of Alaska; I was especially sympathetic to McCain's unpopular stand blaming the Minnesota bridge collapse on highway pork, because I took the same position. But as a political matter, McCain is on the wrong side of tens of thousands of popular goodies...
...which she seemed to belittle Obama's history of community service. ("A small-town mayor is sort of like community organizer, except you have actual responsibilities," she said to cheering delegates in St. Paul, Minn.) McCain said Palin was responding to criticism of her experience before becoming governor of Alaska and that "mayors have the toughest job, I think, in America." He also added, "Of course, I respect people who serve their community. And Senator Obama's record there is outstanding." When Obama was asked to react to Palin's comment, he said, "I was surprised by several remarks around...
...there's one thing they have in Alaska, it's frost. And blizzards of words...