Newsweek Yarn About Sarah Palin in NH Considered Dubious

At the Weekly Standard blog, John McCormack fact-checks a Newsweek story story about Governor Palin. The allegation in question:

The day of the third debate, Palin refused to go onstage with New Hampshire GOP Sen. John Sununu and Jeb Bradley, a New Hampshire congressman running for the Senate, because they were pro-choice and because Bradley opposed drilling in Alaska. The McCain campaign ordered her onstage at the next campaign stop, but she refused to acknowledge the two Republican candidates standing behind her.
Hey, that was… October 15! I was there.

John points out some problems:

  • Bradley was not running for the Senate; he was running for his old House seat.

  • It's doubtful that Sarah Palin would be reluctant to appear with Bradley because of his ANWR position, since McCain—her running-mate, remember?—had pretty much the same position.

  • John Sununu has (in fact) a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Committee, matching up with his 0% rating from NARAL (used to be: "National Abortion Rights Action League")

I will add a couple of my own observations:
  • While I think it's correct that Sarah didn't share the stage with anyone, the stage in the Dover High School gym was pretty dinky, and in the middle of the gym, audience on all sides. Having anyone up there during the speech would have been distracting and tricky to choreograph.

  • Both John Sununu and Jeb Bradley gave pre-speeches, and Bradley actually introduced Palin for her speech. If there was a snub here, it was lost on your humble blogger, and I'm pretty sure everyone else in the gym missed it too.

  • Also: while Bradley opposed ANWR drilling (and a lot of other energy-development stuff) while he was in Congress, during his 2008 campaign he adopted a pro-ANWR drilling stance (as ably recorded by Granite Grok.) In other words, at the time of the rally, he was actually closer to Palin's position than McCain's.

  • Bradley is also considered pro-life, getting a measly 30% from NARAL for his votes in Congress.

That's a lot of dubiousness contained in two measly Newsweek sentences. I don't buy it; it has the smell of fourth-hand unchecked storytelling.

Involuntary Servitude: Not Focus-Grouping Well

Since Pun Salad made a big deal out of this yesterday, it's worth pointing out that the "America Serves" page on President-elect Obama's "change.gov" website was drastically revised yesterday to remove the "require" verb.

Interesting! I wonder what happened? I suppose a full-fledged Congressional investigation into the Constitutional threat is not in the cards. Until then, the following folks have observations and links galore, check 'em out: Instapundit; Betsy Newmark; Sweetness & Light; the Volokh head conspirator; AllahPundit.

Libertarians who supported Obama are still bleepin' idiots, though.


Last Modified 2008-11-08 2:14 PM EDT

Notes on a Scandal

[3.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

A sordid little drama about what happens when you make poor decisions.

There's Cate Blanchett playing Sheba, a new art teacher at an English school where the students are (in the words of the narration) "future plumbers, shop assistants, and doubtless the odd terrorist too."

Yes, the narrator is kind of a lunatic. She's Barbara, a poisonous old repressed lesbian, played by M herself, Dame Judi Densch. She's attracted to Sheba, and clueless Sheba is initially accepting, inviting Barbara to lunch with her family.

But Sheba has her own problems, in addition to being a poor judge of character; she's depressed over her dead-end career, antsy in her saintly existence as wife to her much older husband, and mother to a daughter (surly) and son (Downs syndrome). She finds herself attracted to a 15-year-old boy, and…

Well, what do you think happens? Hint: it's not everybody living happily ever after.

Dame Judi and Cate act up a storm (both got Oscar nominations), but unless you're into watching acting for its own sake—although there's nothing wrong with that—this is pretty melodramatic and predictable, once the plot pieces have been set up. Decent dialogue, especially the Barb-narration, which reveals more to us about Barb than she herself realizes.


Last Modified 2024-02-02 6:20 AM EDT