Sarah Palin's Education, Financial Record Point Up Her Shortcomings for National Office

In a previous article, I debated the "bridge to nowhere" issue---which I debated, at home, with my spouse, a staunch Republican. As most of us now know, Sarah Palin made a big splash during the RNC by declaring that she had said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to that bridge to nowhere. The implication was that the $232 million was rejected and the taxpayers had been spared such a nonsensical expense.

Then, it came out that the money allocated for the bridge to nowhere was not returned, and that's leaving aside, for the moment, the fact that Palin was actually in favor of the bridge to nowhere before she came out against it because of the public outcry.

The Republican spouse (we'll call him Arnold, in honor of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Schriver's unlikely union) maintained that it was perfectly fine for Alaska to have kept the $232 million and used it for other infrastsructure improvements, which they did. I maintained that the misleading impression given taxpayers was that our tax dollars had been saved when Palin supposedly told the government "thanks, but no thanks."

Now, courtesy of the Chicago Tribune's Sunday edition (September 28) comes the additional financial information, just prior to the VP debates on Thursday in St. Louis, that Ms. Palin has always ruled from a position of strength. Her much-vaunted management experience has always been solidly grounded on full coffers at the local and state levels.

She took over in 1996, after serving 4 years as a City Council member, and unseated the incumbent Mayor, John Stein, a gentleman who had a degree in public administration. Stein had pushed through a 2% increase in the sales tax and the city had garnered federal earmarks, which means that the city's piggy bank was full. Palin promptly set about spending the money.