John McCain’s running mate got her opportunity to show the Republican Party who she was on Wednesday night, since virtually no one had heard of her before she became their 2nd in charge just a few days ago.  Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wrapped up a night full of direct and completely false attacks on Barack Obama, Joe Biden and the entire Democratic Party. 

Former Governors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, along with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani warmed up the crowd with comebacks to discredit the validity of the Obama/Biden ticket.  They spoke of their lack of experience, record of doing nothing, and sole plan to destroy the country while handing it over to Al Qaeda.  Wednesday night seemed like the one set aside by Republicans to answer all the one-liners and reputation destroyers that Democrats threw at them last week. 

The two conventions have begun to mirror a schoolyard argument between 3rd graders.  When the Democrats spoke of John McCain’s lack of judgment, support for a misguided war, and near 100% agreement with the failed policies of the Bush Administration, their insults were based in facts.  Like a child with no comeback in the middle of a playground full of kids laughing at him, the Republicans only response Wednesday night was, “Well…uh, you want Americans to die!” 

So on a night where Sarah Palin was given the chance to introduce herself to the country for the first time, she told her story from a teleprompter full of lies previously prepared by speechwriters in charge of pushing the same failed Republican agenda.  Sure, they masked it in the phrase; we’ll provide change in Washington! 

The AP couldn’t ignore the blatant lack of facts throughout the night of attacks, so they conducted some fact checking in a story following the speeches.  Some examples from the story destroying their claims include:

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: "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 Institutionand the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

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.

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.

When these kinds of lies get told at the Republicans’ National Convention, it begs the question, “Why would they lie like this, when it’s so easy to find the truth??”  Since they’re wrong on every issue, they’re points are no longer being supported, and scandals are non-existent, their only option left is to lie, falsify, just Pinocchio it!  Take the opponents strengths and call them your own, take your weaknesses and call them theirs. 

While standing directly in the middle of her brand new adoring fans, I knew that Governor Palin actually did make a positive impression Wednesday night; she impressed her fanatical Republican base that waited with baited breath for her to prove to them that she can scare them with falsehoods and empty attacks about her opponents.  The truth has no place in today’s Republican Party. 


--JJJ