Month: September 2008

The Washington Post reports today that Sarah Palin "accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state." On a somewhat related note, Mark Kleiman asks:

When are we going to see Sarah Palin’s tax returns?

Those per diems for lodging at home "meals and incidental expenses" while at her home in Wasilla were taxable income. Did she report them, or cheat?

McCain has released his tax returns (though not Cindy’s). Obama and Biden have both released their tax returns. I hounded Clinton during the primaries until she released hers. Why should Palin get a pass?

Pethokoukis gets an e-mail from a money manager.

I don’t understand how Rich Lowry can write this while keeping a straight face:

Does Palin know enough to be a national candidate right now? No, but she can be mostly walled off from the press. Will attacking Obama on Fannie and Freddie open McCain to attack because one of his top aides lobbied for the organizations? Yes, but he can bulldog through it. Is going to Washington going to help much of anything? Probably not, but the symbolism matters.

Does nothing matter but this absurd and reckless partisan game?

Lowry:

One side effect of McCain’s debate gambit is, I’m told, that everyone at Ole Miss now hates him. It will make for a very hostile audience tonight among those students and faculty attending. He might have to apologize for creating the uncertainty or make some explanation up front, which is never ideal.

Maybe McCain will get federal marshalls.

When even the mother of all kool-aid drinkers can’t watch another Palin interview, you know it’s bad:

I’m not where my friend Kathleen Parker is — wanting her to step aside to spend more time with her family and Alaska — but that’s not a crazy suggestion.

That’s the ad they have already placed. They really do believe they "create their own reality," don’t they?

Halperin:

General atmosphere is utter confusion.

Kathleen Parker changes her mind on Palin:

“It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted. Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there.”

You know it’s bad when no one on the Corner will even mention the interview; and when GOP blogger Glenn Reynolds can only link to Althouse. Does Reynolds think Palin is qualified to be governor of Alaska, let alone vice-president of the United States?

Hilzoy isn’t impressed by our dealings with Iran or North Korea:

As far as I can tell, besides invading two countries on their borders and making noises about how they might be next, our Iran strategy has involved trying to keep them developing nuclear weapons by scrunching up our faces and sending really bad thoughts in their general direction. Possibly we also have people from Other Government Agencies sticking pins into Ahmedinejad dolls in some Top Secret bunker somewhere.

The Washington Post yesterday asked the McCain campaign on the record whether Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s biological son. Howard Kurtz, one of the most prominent media journalists in the world, asked that question. By answering the Kurtz question on the record, McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb is indeed saying that this is a legitimate factual question, as it is. Here is the answer, the first on-the-record confirmation of Sarah Palin being the biological mother of Trig, courtesy of the Washington Post:

"These rumors are false. It is her baby. The whole thing is absurd. All of this rests on the fact that she wore her pregnancy extremely well. A couple of months later, there are a ton of pictures showing she is obviously pregnant. It’s ridiculous. There’s just nothing to it. We’re not going to release her gynecological records to prove it. It’s just madness."

I am delighted to publish this statement from the McCain campaign. I have always been delighted to publish factual statements by any campaign. I have been waiting to publish such a clear confirmation for almost a month. The only trouble with this statement from the McCain campaign is that it is untrue in one respect.

In fact, Kurtz had to add an update to correct the quote he did not fact-check before publishing:

Update: In the interest of being precise, it is not true that there are "a ton" of pictures of a pregnant-looking Sarah Palin out there from earlier this year. I can recall seeing only two, and a Google search didn’t turn up any others. So I went back to Michael Goldfarb and asked whether he had an estimate of the number of such photos.    "I’ve seen a couple of pictures of her looking extremely pregnant," he said. "I don’t remember how many I saw." Could he guide me to what the campaign had? "We never took this seriously enough to assemble it," Goldfarb said.

So the McCain campaign called two photographs a "ton" and Kurtz printed their untruth without even checking Google. That tells you a lot about the ethics of Michael Goldfarb and a lot about the journalism of Howard Kurtz. Kurtz is happy to publish statements from the McCain campaign without even checking their veracity in Google.

My goal is now and has always been simply getting at the truth about public officials, so far as I can. It is worth noting, however, how Goldfarb first answered this question – posed by Tim Cavanaugh of Reason magazine – a few weeks’ back:

In an unguarded moment last night, McCain Report blogger Michael Goldfarb replied to my question of whether there’s any truth to the rumor that Sarah Palin’s Down Syndrome child is actually her daughter’s with the following less-than-confidence-inspiring comment: "Well, I don’t… think so."

My view is that every candidate for president and vice-president should put their entire tax records and medical records on the table. I’ve been haranguing Biden about this for weeks. It’s not great to be a public person, but at the same time, it’s not compulsory and you have a choice. When individuals decide to run for office, they agree, as Palin has herself said, that "your life is an open book." There are legitimate questions about her pregnancy and labor that she should be eager to dispel with facts and evidence. At least, they are legitimate enough to warrant an exchange about them in the Washington Post.

So: open the books. Let the sunlight in. Let us see what is in front of us. No exceptions. Both parties. All four candidates who could be president in the next four years. Why not?