Pun Salad

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.

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")

• 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.