The Palin Update

I know. She is odd. Not worth the time. A gimick. The New Dan Qualye. But she is like a trainwreck. I cannot keep my eyes off her. Here is today's scuttlebutt:

She had a tanning bed installed in the Governor's mansion. At her own expense according to the Alaskan government official unlucky enough to field this press call.

Yesterday in Ohio, she repeated her big story about the teleprompter going out on her at the Republican convention. RNC staffers and journalists present said it never happened. Credit WSJ Online for this tidbit. (This seems to fit with my impression that she is a bit of a self glorifier.)

As mayor of Wassilla, she lowered property taxes (a gift to homeowners) and raised the sales tax (a regressive tax).

As the WSJ reported yesterday, her earmarks were out of control as both mayor and governor. This, combined with her record on the Bridge to Nowhere, needs to exploited. Not so much for its substance, but to show she will say anything to be elected.

UPDATE: Robert F. Kennedy uncovered the source for Palin's paen to small town values in her acceptance spech -- Westbrook Pegler. No more need be said here. (Note to speechwriter -- it is called Google.)

The McCain campaign has hired Edward O'Callaghan, a former DOJ Prosecutor, to help shutdown Alaska's investigation into Palin's firing of Alaska's Director of Public Safety. O'Callaghan's first move was to file a lawsuit to stop the probe approved by the Alaska legislature.