By GottaLaff
Round 2:
Sarah Palin, talking about domestic policy with ABC's Charles Gibson in his second day of exclusive access on Friday, seem confused about entitlement programs--and unaware that Congress has little say in significantly reducing the costs of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. When she seemed to equate these entitlement programs to agencies "where we can find efficiencies in every department" Gibson lectured her that agencies are not involved in entitlements.
Didn't Andrea Mitchell play mommy and chide her as she would a child, too? Why yes she did.
She referred to the Arizona senator as "McCain" several times in the interview.
Didn't Grandpa J Sid teach you to address him as "Mr. Grandpa"? You are so grounded.
Of note:
*For someone running against Washington--an act of Congress helped define Palin's life. Palin, 44, a high school basketball player, said, "I am a product of Title 9," a reference for the section of the 1972 act of Congress to force female sports equity.
* On earmarks--McCain is on a crusade to ban them--Palin did not make full use of an opportunity by Gibson to persuasively explain why she was for the infamous Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it--after it was dead in Congress.
She said she just read the "writing on the wall....that project is going nowhere... circumstances have so drastically changed," she said. [...]
*She justified an earmark for an Alaskan study on the "mating habits of crabs" because it was done, she said, in the open.
So as long as you screw over Americans out in the open, it's okay? BushCo will be relieved to hear that.
*Palin differs with McCain on abortion. John and Cindy McCain would allow abortions for victims of rape and incest. Palin would only allow an exception if the life of the mother was in danger. "This is my personal opinion," she pleaded.
*On stem cell research, the McCain campaign released a radio ad Friday touting his support for stem cell research the Bush White House--and Palin opposes. [...]
*She's not a gay basher. Gibson asked Palin if homosexuality was genetic or learned and she said it's not for her to "judge" people.
*Palin said Barack Obama may regret not tapping Hillary Clinton to be his running mate. "I think he's regretting not picking her now, I do. ..."
It's good to see she's not trying to use Hillary to stir things up. And it's swell that she's refusing to judge genetics, especially when that wasn't the question.
Now, about those earmarks:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in a new installment of her interview with ABC News's Charlie Gibson, backed earmarks and her right, both as a governor and a mayor, to request and secure them -- just don't call them earmarks. Call it "infrastructure."
"I was for infrastructure being built in the state," she said, "and it's not inappropriate for a mayor or for a governor to request and to work with their Congress, their congressmen, their congresswomen, to plug in to the federal budget along with every other state a share of the federal budget for infrastructure."
Oh-h-h, so that's what the kids are calling it these days.
In common Washington parlance, that is called an infrastructure earmark, a piece of the transportation and public works budget secured for specific state projects. [...] Palin decried the abuse of the earmark process at first, pledging to join McCain in his campaign against earmarks. But Gibson pressed her hard to get her to concede that she backed the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," linking tiny Ketchikan to tiny Gravina Island.
She finally gave in.
"What I supported was a link between a community and it's airport," she said.
She'd make the bestest vice president
ever! She's readier than anyone could be to take the reins of the U.S. government if Pappy McCain were to kick the bucket. The readiest nominee in town... if she were running for vice president of the 5th grade.
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