Palin guilty of power abuse = President Obama?

…

I am not sure Obama needs that to win. He will win if nothing weird happens.

I think the asker is referring to this story:

I guess it just seems like a homer to me. Wondered if anyone saw different.

Oh, that stuff.
Yes, probably not necessary
(as BonusQuestion already pointed out).
Sorry I’ve had a long day. Short hand is not computing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_el_pr/palin_troopergate

What is really gonna decide this election, is the fact that the downturn on Wall Street has been officially termed a “CRASH,” and Fox News reported on 10–10-08 that the current economic crisis, in comparison to the one in 1929 (which heralded The Great Depression) IS WORSE.

Americans tend to blame such things (and rightly so) on the current White House administration, which would include President Doofus.

I sure hope so!

Still waiting for a real October surprise here…

I would have fired him, then rehired him, just so I could fire him again….

People who drank the Kool-Aid regarding how great Palin was probably will still defend her, saying the liberals have conspired against her. It may sway some undecideds, but I was never going to vote for McCain in the first place.

Lets see. It’s 5:30AM, the question was asked just a few hours ago and we have 11 answers (with jackadams multiple answers, not that I don’t enjoy most of them) and all are booing and hissing Palin. Just yesterday someone asked ”(out of conext) Does Fluther seem liberall?” Well duh!

JackAdams only gave one answer.

Good observation!

You did that without a net, right?

@cardianal I only saw one(maybe two) of those answers that could be construed as booing and hissing Palin.
To answer the question, I don’t think Obama needed this to win the election. But the fact that they found her guilty, keeps the Republicans from crying foul, that she was unfairly targeted.

I agree with Barbie, this story was out a month ago. I think it was more damaging to Senator McCain than Gov Palin. I think those, especially any Clinton women, who liked her were quickly turned off by her words. But the real damage was to McCain when people questioned his decision. There were so many moderate Republicans who would have had a greater value.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota was high on the list. He is a popular 2nd term governor and the same age as Obama. Besides MN he might have brought in Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan, now blue states, and he would have been viable in all of the tossup states.

From the beginning the response to Palin was “What was he thinking?” Now it looks like he was just going after the quick fix and novelty to energize the campaign. But he should have realized that while Gov Red Bull would bring a quick jolt, the inevitable crash would follow. If he was thinking about placating the religious right, he should have considered the much larger moderate group who were tired of all the shenanigans. The extremists had nowhere else to go, centrist Republicans did.

In reading the comments posted after the articles, it seems clear that fervent believers on both sides are using the report to support their opinions. For the right, it is a “democratic smear job” on someone who was “standing up for what is right”. On the left, it is further proof of her “over zealousness” and “stupidity”. In the end, I doubt it will have much effect on the outcome.

No time to chat, alas, but lots of info at www.adn.com about Palin’s TrooperGate problems. Lots of Alaskan based blogs have been on it for months, so it started long before her pick as veep.

@ Alaska Thanks for that.
Not only has this been an investigation for longer than her running for VP, but prior to that she said bring it on, make me accountable. It wasn’t until she was announced as running mate that she started stonewalling the investigation. Hmmmmm?

overkill!

Augustian: you didn’t get the point. While the right and left leaning voters were fixed in their opinions, they were the minority in June. The great majority in the middle were McCain’s to win…or lose. If he does lose it will be because of bad choices including Gov Palin and running a negative campaign.

Who is seeing It as a “democratic smear job”??

@cheeb
If voters believe the report’s finding and it tarnishes Palin’s reputation as a reformer and a champion for good government, that could hurt Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the final weeks of the race.

The McCain campaign quickly rejected that notion.

“I think the American people can tell the difference between the results of a politically motivated investigation and a legitimate finding of fact,” campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said.

Uh, I think the McCain campaign…this is from an msnbc article(the liberal media).

Well, at least SOMEONE is buying the McCain lies that this was an Obama biased finding despite the decision to release the report being unanimous, and the decision that she overstepped her boundaries being the majority opinion in a panel of 7 Republicans and 5 Democrats (in a state where even the Dems are pretty conservative), in an investigation which pre-dates Palin’s candidacy. Of course, if you believe that, you probably also believe that, as McCain said earlier this week that the people screaming “kill him” and “off with his head” is also somehow Obama’s fault, as is the overall negative tone of McCain’s campaign (you know, because as McCain pointed out, Obama refused his offer to do 10 town hall style debates…if he’d done that, McCain wouldn’t have launched negative attacks supposedly).

By the way Cheeb, I have a bridge for sale in Alaska…it doesn’t go anywhere, but I’ll sell it to you cheap.

TrooperGate started long before Palin was tapped to be veep and, in fact, came out of a bi-partisan, mostly Republican legislature. The report itself was released only after a vote of that same group, which I believe was 12–0 to release. Eight of those votes were from Republicans, four from Dems, with two reps (both Repubs) not in attendance to vote. I can’t emphasize enough how Republican this state is, so for these Republicans who voted for the release to put their political careers on the line speaks volumes. I still haven’t gotten to the report but did read Todd Palin’s statement a couple days ago, which should be must reading, too, if you hope to understand the TrooperGate findings.

I swear, many of us here in Alaska are feeling like we’re living in some bad soap opera between this and the Ted Stevens’ trial.

Of course, McCain put out his own report the day before which said she was innocent. If I ever get arrested for anything and go to trial, I think I’ll give that a shot. I’ll hand down my own verdict which completely exonerates me, and then if I’m convicted I’ll say the jury was biased.

Cardinal: I said that I hoped Obama wins, I didn’t boo or hiss Palin.
And I was the person who asked the question about Fluther being liberal—the point was “why?” not just “is it”

It really didn’t matter the outcome of this. Those who hate Palin would have felt the same way if the whole affair would have been the other way around. Think about it.
If Palin had not fired this person, then they would have said she abused her power by not firing a relative who was found guilty of driving under the influence and other offenses.
Am I not right? The liberals would have never given her slack on this issue.

No, you’re not right, dithibod…
“she abused her power by not firing a relative who was found guilty of driving under the influence and other offenses.”

The reason she abused her power is that she wasn’t his supervisor. Her job was completely unrelated. It’s like if I was the manager of a mattress factory, and I walked into a Sealy store, and demanded that one of the salespeople be fired.

You should really find out all the facts before you try to argue about them.

I didn’t mean firing the relative… I mean the same person that she did fire… The guys supervisor who didn’t fire the guy.
I do know ALL the facts… I guess your’re just missing my point.

@cheeb: I didn’t mean the comments here, I was talking about reader’s comments after this article. Go all the way to the bottom of the page, and you’ll see rabid supporters on both sides.

@dithibod…

I’m sorry, I’m not getting your point. Actually, I’m not even understanding what you’re trying to say. No one has said Palin didn’t have the right to fire the supervisor, albeit her explanations for it are very fuzzy and have changed at least a half dozen times, I think. The problem comes from the fact she wanted him to do something illegal. The trooper had already been disciplined. The case was closed. The supervisor objected, pointing out this fact. She fired him. Where there other reasons? Perhaps, but if you genuinely believe that, I’ve got another Bridge to Nowhere here in Alaska I’d like to sell you. Alaskans aren’t even buying that story. Ha

So, are you sure you’ve got all the facts? Did you read Todd Palin’s statement, which indicates what sounds darn close to having stalked the trooper? Did you read the entire Branchflower Report? If so, good on you, cos I’ve still barely skimmed it, but there’s nothing in there that absolves Sarah Palin of abusing ethics. What she’s done is very serious and this statement is coming from someone voted for her as governor. It also has nothing to do with her being veep. She betrayed Alaskans, bottom line, using her power to try to “get even” on a personal matter.

Let’s just say, I am not a happy camper about this and wouldn’t be were she still an unknown on the national front, either.

To me, Troopergate is not even within the top 100 reasons why I wouldn’t vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. And I think for most voters, like I said, it’s overkill.

I would not be surprised to hear any Democrat OR Republican to have used their political power for personal gain. And it is a grey area when you can hire and fire at your discretion. She abused her power, but she didn’t commit a crime, OK, I get it. That certainly is not something I’d say is out of the ordinary in politics. But it’s a small piece of the overall picture we call character. And I certainly don’t think the “it’s my opponent’s fault” argument holds water in a case like this, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Dem using the same argument were the tables turned. But I wouldn’t believe it then either.

And if Troopergate wasn’t enough, read this:
Palin