Has Sarah Palin donated her $150,000+ of RNC and Republican donor paid campaign clothes to charity yet?

Maybe it’s not a worthwhile comparison, but for a few months after 9/11 Rudy Giuliani was a national celebrity. Those few months gave birth to a presidential campaign.

Sarah Palin was a national celebrity for a few weeks following being picked as McCain’s running mate (and has since been defined by series of train wrecks outside the Republican base). Those few weeks when she was a star, though, may bring about a presidential run.

Does anyone think that Palin could fair better than Giuliani? Her natural base is much wider than his would be, but his celebrity didn’t arise from a partisan moment. Moreover, Giuliani’s quasi-fascistic tenure as Mayor of New York City never received the same level of scrutiny concurrent with his celebration as America’s Mayor.

My guess? Palin will start off a less viable presidential candidate than Rudy Giuliani did, but would have more staying power. She’d be in competition with Mike Huckabee for support of the religious right, but there are a lot of men who will continue to support her because she winks at them.

I envision a Palin presidential campaign to be something like the offspring of  the Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Bill Richardson presidential campaigns. Like Rudy, it would be driven by an overwhelming sense of entitlement based on short-term celebrity, yet met with the odd reality that the more people get to know the candidate, the less they like her. Like Thompson, it will carry itself by on high theater, but be as substantive as wet cardboard. And like Bill Richardson, it will be so filled with gaffes and misstatements that even her opponents will hang their head in sorrow for the poor gal.

Palin 2012? You betcha!

Ilan Goldberg has an important post on Sarah Palin’s lack of understanding of a basic foreign policy term, “precondition.”  In short, Goldberg makes a convincing case that Palin doesn’t know what the word “precondition” means, as evidenced by her interview with Brian Williams this week.

Josh Schrei takes the Things Palin Doesn’t Know game a step further and writes a post about the perspective he’s gaining by being in Florence, Italy now  while watching the election. Schrei starts his post with a note*:

authors note: for the purposes of this blog post, I have marked with an asterisk any fact or reference that I believe — out of pure conjecture — that Sarah Palin does not know or would not get.

He then begins:

Im sitting in Florence, Italy as I write this. I came over to Zurich to visit my Mom for her 60th birthday, and as Ive never been to Italy and with everything being so close here in Europe, I decided to take a couple of days to visit this beautiful country that Ive wanted to see for so many years.

Florence is an amazing place. According to UNESCO*, this one city contains roughly a third of the important art in the entire world* including Michelangelos David*, Botticellis Venus*, and countless other masterpieces.  Florence, for many years was the center of Western civilization*. The birthplace of the Renaissance,* it is where — literally and figuratively, human beings gained… perspective*.

Literally because this is where Brunelleschi* — in addition to constructing what must be the most beautiful building in the world* — with the help of his mathmetician pals* built on the work of his predecessors and completed the transormation of human figures from flat two dimensional objects whose only purpose in art — and life — was to serve God in submission into living, breathing, three dimensional beings. Figuratively because after centuries of living in fear and darkness and illiteracy, this is where we entered an era in which thoughts, intellect, individuality, artistic expression, and the human being as a whole became paramount.

Its interesting to be here in the cradle of human enlightenment in the midst of our current debacle of a Presidential race, because, to be frank,  it really puts things in… perspective.

As for my perspective, this is an effective way of bringing out the underlying anti-intellectualism in Sarah Palin’s life. We’ve repeatedly seen a lack of intellectual curiousity and outright dismissiveness of those who do show interest in the wide world from Palin. From Iraq, to foreign policy, to reading the news, Palin just won’t be bothered to know what’s going on in the world around her. Schrei’s speculation about how deep Palin’s ignorance goes provides real insight into what her world might be like.

Andrew Sullivan says Palin is “burying [conservatism] as an intellectual tradition.” He notes:

Here’s one way to look at the question [of How Anti-Intellectual Is Palin?]: how has Palin brought up her own kids? Her eldest son is a high-school drop-out. Her eldest daughter has had, so far as one can tell from press reports, very uneven attendance in high school, and no plans for college. Her other daughters seem to spend a lot of time traveling the country with their mom at tax-payers’ expense. I’ve seen them at several rallies with the Palins this fall. Are they not in school?

The least one can say is that none of her children seems to have been brought up thinking that college is something to aspire to. And her new son-in-law just dropped out of high school as well.

Am I piling on in this post? Sure, because Palin’s brand of willful ignorance as is dangerous a force as any other that exists in the United States today. Willful ignorance, anti-intellectualism, and the tribalization of these forces against those who seek betterment through education are the shortest paths to the decline of the US as a great nation. If we want a strong economy, we need education. If we want to be a respect player in the global community, we need to understand foreign cultures. If we want to be safe from terrorist threats, we need to understand the root causes that drive people to hate us and discover new ways to stop them from being successful.

America is a diverse country and people here believe many different things, some of which are demonstrably wrong. I don’t have a problem with that. But there’s a big difference between teach people to open their eyes and learn about the world, whether they like what they see or not, and teaching ignorance and anti-intellectualism.  Sarah Palin represents a dangerous trend in American life. I’m glad to see the voting public is on the verge of rejecting it in an unprecedented scale.

*One thing to note, as Josh is writing on an Italian keyboard, punctuation isn’t perfect. I think it’s a technical hurdle, not an intimation of Palin’s typing accumen.

Sarah Palin’s vice presidential candidacy has not been kind to her in Alaska. While her pick assured John McCain of Alaska’s three electoral college votes (which Republicans haven’t lost since 1968), Palin’s time in the spotlight has not been kind in-state. She’s dropped about 20 points in the polls and while approval ratings in the 60s would be the envy of most governors, they represent a precipitous drop for Palin. Moreover, in the two-odd months that Palin has been McCain’s VP pick, Palin has experienced a much higher degree of vetting than she received both as a gubernatorial candidate and as governor. The focus of the national vetting has included Troopergate, Palin’s quasi-dictatorial tenure as Wasilla mayor, her misuse of government funds to pay for travel for her children and husband, her charging state taxpayers for time she spends in her own home, and the extra-legal role Todd Palin has played as his wife’s advisor.

Today we can add to this list an even greater understanding of how Sarah Palin billed Alaska taxpayers for non-state related travel by her daughters. The AP reports:

Governor Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and she later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old daughter Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls. …

Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters – Bristol, 14-year-old Willow, and 7-year-old Piper – by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor’s schedule. After she was picked by John McCain as his running mate and reporters asked for the records, Palin ordered changes to previously filed expense reports. In the amended reports, Palin added phrases such as “First Family attending” and “First Family invited” to explain the girls’ attendance. …

But some organizers of the events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend. Several other organizers said the children accompanied their mother and did not participate. [Emphasis added]

Vacations, luxury hotels, long flights, and uninvited children. Sarah Palin treated the Alaska treasury like a blank check for vacationing with her children. Worse, she initially hid disclosure of these expenses related to her children and only disclosed this outrageous expenditures when the national spotlight of the vice presidency was focused on Alaska following her pick.

Sarah Palin has not made many friends in Alaska politics since joining the McCain ticket. Stories like this one by the AP is certain to ensure that she continues to hemorrage support in Alaska. While the $150,000 in RNC-paid clothes will surely get more attention in the Lower 48, I don’t think many Alaskans will care too much. However $21,012 of AK money going straight to the vacation funds of Bristol, Willow, & Piper Palin…that will piss people off.

Palin will likely return to Alaska next month as a defeated vice presidential candidate. She will continue to face the aftermath of the Branchflower report, which showed multiple ethics and legal violations by her and her administration in the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The multiple stories of the Palin’s misusing public funds to live a lavish lifestyle, like the one out today by the AP, ensure that Palin will not be coming home to a friendly environment. Frankly, when you’re facing the consequences of a major ethics violation, everything else that comes out only increases your political vulnerability. As I said before, Palin isn’t making friends in Alaska as a vice presidential candidate. As a result she can expect that her enemies, both Republican and Democrat, will come calling when the next legislative session convenes.

I would be surprised if there is the political will to impeach Sarah Palin for Troopergate alone. As long as the various travel and reimbursement scandals continue to emerge, I won’t rule out impeachment on whole. Regardless of impeachment, Palin will have a very difficult time getting her agenda through the Alaska legislature. Her VP run has given a far greater statewide platform to her political opponents. I wouldn’t be shocked if Palin’s approval numbers continue to drop and she fails to win reelection in 2010.

Is your opinion of Sarah Palin favorable, not favorable, undecided, or haven’t you heard enough about Sarah Palin yet to have an opinion?
Opinion	Favorable	Not Fav	Undecided
10/3-5/08* CBS	40	32	12
10/10-13/08* (PDF)	32	41	16

Apparently while Sarah Palin has been running around the country, Russian energy giant Gazprom has, um, reared its head in Alaska.

MOSCOW, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom  said on Tuesday its top executives had visited U.S. state Alaska, where the gas company is seeking a share in a project to pipe gas via Canada to the United States market.

The world’s largest gas producer discussed gas production, transport and supply to Alaska — which shares a border to its east with Canada and a sea border with Russia to its west — with the region’s officials and the CEO of ConocoPhillips, Jim Mulva, Gazprom said in a statement.

On a substantive level, the TransCanada pipeline is Palin’s pet project. Her not being around to add the other Alaskan neighbor to the taxpayer funded pipeline construction is meaningful. I’ll be curious to see if Palin has authorized her subordinates in the executive branch of the State of Alaska to negotiate a place for Gazprom in the gas line deal. If she did, I can’t imagine Alaskans being too pleased about it. Nor can I see it helping with her whole head-rearing theories of foreign policy.

What surely would not be meaningful is any further Palin analysis of Russian foreign policy and how she keeps a watchful eye on her neighbors to the West…except when, you know, she’s not.

It’s pretty much a British version of Matt Damon ripping Palin, though Cleese isn’t nearly as outraged as Damon, probably because he won’t have to suffer under a Palin vice presidency (or worse) as an American.

Thanks to Sam for the tip.

Yesterday investigator Steve Branchflower delivered his 263 page report on Troopergate to the Alaska Legislative Council, which voted unanimously to release it to the public. You can download it here (PDF link). Here are key findings:

“For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

“The Attorney General’s office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of emails.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

“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 commissioner of Public Safety.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, Page 8]

“The terms of my contract with the Legislative Council establish the framework within which I have been required to conduct my investigation and make my findings….Todd Palin is not an employee of the executive branch, so his conduct is not a violation of AS 39.52.010 – 39.52.965. Given the terms of the contract, I make no findings as to Mr. Palin’s conduct.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, pg. 67-8]

“Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 65]

“The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in ‘official action’ by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation. She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 65-6]

“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 66]

“In this case, Governor Palin has declined to provide an interview. An interview would have assisted everyone to better understand her motives and perhaps help explain why she was so apparently intent upon Trooper Wooten fired in spite of the fact she knew he had been disciplined following the Administrative Investigation.” [Branchflower Report to the Alaska Legislative Council, p 66]

Alaska Democratic Party chair Patti Higgins response frames the pushback the McCain-Palin campaign should receive for politicizing the investigation, obstructing the investigation, and smearing the public servants who took their job seriously enough to conduct themselves professionally:

“The finding of the Legislative Council’s investigator that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska’s ethics act is deeply troubling. Governor Palin has violated Alaskans’ trust. I hope that in light of this finding Governor Palin will stop playing partisan politics to the detriment of Alaska’s future.

“I believe there are three key points that Alaskans will appreciate. First, this investigation began with a unanimous vote of a bi-partisan committee. Second, the investigation was conducted in a professional and confidential manner. Third, the unanimous vote of Democrats and Republicans to release this report after it was read demonstrates that this is not a partisan process as alleged by Senator McCain and Governor Palin,” Higgins said.

Higgins statement doesn’t suggest a legislative response. At minimum, I hope the Alaska legislature brings up the report before the full body and considers what consequences should be handed out to Gov. Palin and those individuals who avoided subpoenas. A lot of people in Alaska, from both sides of aisle, are furious about how the McCain-Palin campaign has treated the state since she was picked as his VP. If she loses the election, she will not be returning to a friendly legislature. I don’t know if they will pursue impeachment (at this point I’d be surprised), but she is going to have a difficult time getting her agenda done. My guess is a coalition of Democrats and anti-Palin Republicans will be able to render the Republican majority moot on many of Palin’s pet issues.

Hopefully the Obama campaign can take the Branchflower findings and remind American voters that Palin is a vindictive power abuser who is completely unprepared to be anywhere near the Oval Office.

Independent investigator Steve Branchflower is due to turn in his report on Sarah Palin’s suspected abuse of powers in Troopergate today. After he delivers the report to the Alaska state legislature, the body will vote on whether or not to release it to the public. Progressive bloggers in Alaska have been campaigning for weeks to get the legislature to release the report. The whole affair, particularly post-Palin’s pick as McCain’s running mate, has rankled legislators on both sides of the aisle in Juneau. The McCain-Palin campaign has sent lawyers up to Alaska to stonewall, trying for most of September to kill the investigation and simultaneously paint it as a partisan witchhunt. Which of course it’s not; the bipartisan Legislative Council voted unanimously to start the investigation early this summer.

This is probably the single funniest headline and lede I’ve read this year. From Matt Apuzzo of the AP:

Palin pre-empts state report, clears self in probe

By MATT APUZZO – 8 hours ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.

It’s good to see that the writers at The Onion now have opportunities to ply their work in McCain’s campaign.

Marcy Wheeler points out that the McCain campaign’s preemptive “report” magically proclaiming Sarah Palin totally innocent of all charges (I was surprised that the report didn’t demand Branchflower and Hollis French pay $1,000,000,000 in restitution) also goes so far as to argue that John McCain actually isn’t qualified to be President:

But did you know they rationalized their concern by describing Mike Wooten’s–Sarah’s former bro-in-law–“long history of unstable and erratic behavior”?

Although the report describes Wooten as a separate issue, the McCain campaign goes into great detail about the “rogue” trooper and his “long history of unstable and erratic behavior.”

So in case you’re wondering, the McCain camp agrees that the guy with the long history of unstable and erratic behavior is a menace to society.

In the pursuit of the presidency and vice presidency, John McCain and Sarah Palin have demonstrated a willingness to say and do whatever it takes, regardless of principles or facts. Evidently their ambition goes so far as to not be internally logical, but I don’t think this surprises anyone.