Saturday, October 11, 2008

Sarah Palin "bumped the edge of the law" - Eh?

A new euphemism (or at least new to me) entered the political lexicon yesterday, as a Republican party spokesman said that their VIce-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, had "bumped the edge of the law" in the Troopergate affair. Ms Palin was found guilty, by an independent investigator, of abusing her power when she sacked a state official who refused to fire her former brother-in-law, an Alaskan state trooper involved in a messy divorce from Ms Palin's sister.

As aways happens in politics, it's the cover-up that seems to be doing the damage, not the original offence. Republican officials, for obvious reasons, tried to block the enquiry from reporting before November 4th. They failed. It's all getting very messy. They are now accusing the enquiry of being run by Obama supporters, in an effort to limit the damage.

Whether it will really have much of an impact on the outcome in November is debatable. The McCain-Palin camp are losing ground, and are looking for ammunition. The attempt to link Obama with sixties radical Bill Ayres (saying "Obama is close to terrorists") is also looking pretty feeble. These days, Bill Ayres is a respected education official, and everyone knows him.

McCain, to his credit, answered a question at a rally this week by praising Obama. A questioner asked hi, "Should I be afraid if Obama wins?" McCain reassured him that though he would rather be in the White House himself, there is no need to fear his opponent, who is a "nice guy". Maybe McCain has had enough of his party's tactics.

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