Personal Perks Palin

I’ve lost track of how many ridiculous things Palin did in her first 20 or so months as governor.  It’s like a new game, “vet the unvetted!”  Maybe the McCain strategy was along the lines of “don’t ask, don’t tell, and they’ll never find out.”

The AP reported yesterday that Palin charged the State of Alaska large sums of money multiple times for personal travel for her daughters.  Plane tickets were over $1,000 each, and luxury hotels ran upwards of $500 per night.  The Palins traveled together to Todd’s snow mobile races, leadership conferences, and political events.  Personal Perks Palin:  she thinks like Joe the plumber and talks about lowering your taxes, but really she wants to grab as much government money as possible to spend like Joe the movie star.

Her behavior is incredulous.  First she pretends to advocate lower taxes while supporting massive government outlays.  Someone’s got to pay for it, and as Tom Friedman eloquently points out, “Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.”

Today we learn that Palin spent upwards of $150,000 for clothing and accessories for her family at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.  Fortunately, these were not State funds.  But, the Republican National Committee funded the entire splurge–so for those of you out there faithfully sending in your checks to the GOP, now you know exactly where it’s going.  Clothing for the family from expensive department stores, or “campaign accessories” as the campaign staff billed it.

My mom wasn’t a hockey mom–I definitely wasn’t cut out for the sport.  But she was a band mom, and a swimming mom, and just a mom, and she didn’t drop that kind of money on luxury clothing and accessories.  I can’t even fathom the number of moms I know it would take to spend that much in total over their lifetimes.

In this case, the specifics and excuses don’t change much.  The New York Times suggests the campaign tried to defend the purchases as necessary last minute items for campaigning in different climates.  And they made sure to mention that Governor Palin herself didn’t spend the time shopping, her team made the decisions for her.  Palin’s extravagant spending on clothing and her hands off approach to shopping are no surprise.  In fact, they seem to fit our general expectations of her governing style in Alaska and her plans for the Vice Presidency (when she’s not busy presiding over the Senate…).

Goodbye hockey mom and hello country club mother. Nothing wrong with country club mothers, but let’s not turn this into a theater production where Palin dances around as “common-folk” then heads backstage to the VIP lounge and her life of luxury.  Let’s not let Palin pretend to be someone she’s not.  Maybe she held a connection earlier in her life, but it clearly exists no more.

Finally, the McCain-Palin economic plan is clear:  they’ll all grab their families and head to luxury department stores on private aircraft, all in an effort to stimulate the economy.

Best Barack Statement

Breaking news:  Republicans are now cute.  Yesterday, they launched the site “BarackBook” in an effort to portray “Obama’s poor judgment.”  For some reason, the Republican National Committee (led by this guy trying to elect this guy) thought it would best to play to the youth vote.  You know, the inspired and progressive generation of college students and young professionals.

Well, I don’t think it worked too well.  The only recent website launch with similar backlash was the new search engine “Cuil,” which irked new users by returning random pages of results, even during a search for “Cuil.”  Likewise, the discussion on BarackBook and the accompanying Facebook application turned quite negative on McCain and the site quite quickly.

The Obama campaign wasted little time with the silly site.  Campaign spokesperson Tommy Vieter:

“For comment on the new RNC site, I’d refer you to their own discussion board, specifically the topic ‘The site is lame.'”

Facebook count

Barack Obama:  1,231,398

John McCain:  184,216

Aaron Robinson:  477

Right way, wrong time

I do not think Senator Obama should have said he would pursue a publicly funded general election campaign. I do not know if he ever specifically “promised” to use the public funds, but either way, it makes his recent decision all to easy to criticize. In the end, the positives outweigh the negatives. While campaign finance reform is certainly necessary to break from the rigid two-party pandering mold, the current system seems worthless. The intentions are great, but how can a Democrat compete with the complicated structure of the Republican National Committee and the “independent” 527 organizations? We can’t.

Directly on McCain’s contribution page, you’ll find this statement:

“Contributions to John McCain 2008 and the John McCain 2008 General Election Compliance Fund are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income-tax purposes. In accordance with federal limits, a contribution is designated first for John McCain 2008, with the contribution’s balance designated for the Compliance Fund. For contributions to John McCain 2008 (primary-election account), an individual may give up to $2,300, a couple may give up to $4,600, and a federal multi-candidate PAC may give up to $5,000. For contributions to the Compliance Fund, an individual may give up to $2,300, a couple may give up to $4,600, and a federal multi-candidate PAC may give up to $5,000. Contributions to the Compliance Fund will be used solely for legal and accounting services to ensure compliance with federal law, including a portion of the cost of broadcast advertising, campaign offices, and computer/website expenses. Federal law prohibits Compliance Fund contributions from being used for a candidate’s election. Contributions from corporations, unions, government contractors, national banks, and foreign nationals without permanent residency status are prohibited. *Federal law requires us to report the name, address, occupation, and employer of any contributor who gives more than $200 in an election cycle.”

This “compliance fund” is a perfect example of what must be intentionally confusing systems to avoid scrutiny and investigation by the typical donor, the typical America. The compliance fund cannot be “used for a candidate’s election,” but it can be used to ensure compliance with federal law, and even computer and website expenses? The difference lies only in the legal language; too complicated for me and millions of others.

On top of the convoluted compliance fund, the RNC collects donations for general advertising (technically not authorized by a candidate, but clearly they’re not promoting Barack Obama), and the independent groups spread the “Muslim” and “unpatriotic” rumors like E! with the newest Brittany Spears fiasco. I’m no political lawyer, but it seems like the richest of the richest and the largest corporations can contribute huge sums to these efforts without limits.

Now here’s Senator Obama sharing his decision to forgo the public funds:

His explanation is clear, simple, and logical. Public financing for presidential elections is broken, and the Republicans are “masters at gaming this broken system.” Senator Obama supports the idea, but not the current implementation. Hopefully, the next president will push for fair and functional public funds for the future.

Obama changed his mind, and the pundits will start with the flip-flip talk. But below the surface, beyond the attacks, we can see the evolution of this decision. The Senator offered his verbal support and promised to pursue public funds with the cooperation of the Republican nominee. Alas, Obama and his team correctly realized the danger of accepting public funds and limiting the campaign while McCain and the Republicans essentially roam free.

This country seems to disapprove of changing positions, and rightfully so: it’s not attractive to see McCain pander to voters with complete reversals on tax-cuts and drilling for oil. Hopefully in the case of Senator Obama and public financing, we’ll see the profound thought and deliberate progression leading to the final choice (and no, it’s not the same as McCain and drilling; the claim of seeing $4/gal and switching to help the American people is utter lies when help is at least half a decade away). This is the exactly the kind of leadership we need.