America needs more energy. Our opponent is against producing it.
And yet, just 30 days before on August 4th, her office issued this statement which is still on the official Alaskan Governor’s website (above):
Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois Senator Barack Obama. “I am pleased to see Senator Obama acknowledge the huge potential Alaska’s natural gas reserves represent in terms of clean energy and sound jobs,” Governor Palin said…
I haven’t seen any comments about it, but BarackObama has been developing an interesting technique. Traditionally, stump speeches have been, more or less, delivered at a podium and, more or less, the same speech is repeating over and over again.
But from several videos I have seen, Obama is perfecting an engaging technique of wondering around on a stage amongst spectators, tieless, jacketless, with sleeves rolled up, walking back and forwards without a script. He develops his theme in conversational style and introduces a series of punchlines, some of which are quite funny – the way he presents them.
You can see this style demonstrated below in a video of Obama’s speech in TerreHaute, Indiana yesterday.
In it, he attacks Sarah Palin over “earmarks”. AP reports:
BarackObama made his first direct criticism of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Saturday, saying she pretends to oppose spending earmarks when she actually has embraced them. Speaking to 800 people at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds in TerreHaute, Ind., the Democratic presidential nominee ridiculed John McCain and his running mate, the Alaska governor, for describing themselves as agents of change at this week’s GOP convention. “Don’t be fooled,” Obama told the crowd surrounding him in a large barn. “John McCain’s party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge” for nearly eight years. “I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she’s change, and that’s great,” Obama said. “She’s a skillful politician. But, you know, when you’ve been taking all these earmarks when it’s convenient, and then suddenly you’re the champion anti-earmark person, that’s not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can’t just make stuff up.” McCain has vowed to wipe out earmarks, which are targeted funding for specific projects that lawmakers put into spending bills. As governor, Palin originally supported earmarks for a controversial project dubbed the “bridge to nowhere.” But she dropped her support after the state’s likely share of the cost rose. She hung onto $27 million to build the approach road to the bridge.
Palin, who has adopted McCain’s passionate anti-earmark rhetoric since being selected as the VP, has also received some heat for her evolving position on the $200 million+ dollar earmark for the infamous “bridge to nowhere.” While she now tells voters that she told the feds “thanks but no thanks” for the appropriation, Palin actually advocated for a bridge during her 2006 gubernatorial bid. She eventually rejected the specific earmark but the state still received an equivalent amount of federal money for use on other transportation projects.
…The state of Alaska has also requested hundreds of millions of dollars during Palin’s first year as Governor but she noted today that she “cut back earmarks in our state” this past year.
In his TerreHaute speech, Obama also has a go at McCain for saying “Change is coming”:
Obama delivered some of his most withering criticisms yet of McCain, although he did so with chuckles and an air of mock disbelief. McCain has acknowledged voting with President Bush 90 percent of the time in Congress, Obama said. “And suddenly he’s the change agent? Ha. He says, ‘I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.’ Who is he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?” “I mean, come on, they must think you’re stupid,” Obama said as the crowd laughed and cheered.
The Liberal Democrats are facing an embarrassing High Court battle with a lawyer who says that the party wrongly accepted £632,000 of his money as part of a donation. Robert Mann, 60, claims that the party failed to carry out adequate checks on the money which was received as part of a £2.4m gift from the financier Michael Brown.
…A Liberal Democrat official confirmed that the party had received notification from Mann’s solicitors that the money will be pursued this week through the High Court. A party spokesman said: ‘All our donations from 5th Avenue Partners were received in good faith and were properly spent on the general election campaign. Our auditors have seen our legal advice on this matter and confirmed that we do not need to make provision in relation to this matter.’
This is a most unsavoury affair. There appears to perhaps be a bit of grandstanding going on. If the party gave the money back would that not be tantamount to an admission of guilt which doesn’t apply?
It is worth remembering this previous statement from the Electoral Commission (as well as this and this from their press release archive):
The Electoral Commission has previously made clear its view that it was reasonable for the Liberal Democrats – based on the information available to them at the time – to regard the donations they received from 5th Avenue Partners Ltd in 2005, totalling just over £2.4m, as permissible. It remains the Commissions view that the Liberal Democrats acted in good faith at that time, and the Commission is not re-opening the question of whether the party or its officers failed to carry out sufficient checks into the permissibility of the donations. Nevertheless, we have always said that if any additional information that has a bearing on the permissibility of the donations comes to light, for example as a result of the ongoing police investigation or legal proceedings relating to the affairs of 5th Avenue, we would consider the matter further.
Liberal Burblings 