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9
Disclosure: This list came from an Obama campaign statement. The quotes speak for themselves.Wall Street Journal Headline: “Record Contradicts Palin’s ‘Bridge’ Claims.” “The Bridge to Nowhere argument isn’t going much of anywhere. Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state… But Gov. Palin’s claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006. And while she did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/9/08
Chicago Tribune Blog: "The McCain-Palin Campaign Keeps Up the Misleading Line That She Was the Main Palyer in Taking Out the Bridge." "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin keeps saying she stopped the infamous 'Bridge to Nowhere' in an attempt to burnish her credentials as a pork-fighting reformer. And reporters keep pointing out that her claim is exaggerated. Still, the McCain-Palin campaign keeps up the misleading line that she was the main player in taking out the bridge. And still reporters keep shedding light on the inexactness, to put it politely, of that claim. One of the latest journalistic efforts to separate fact from fiction comes from PolitFact, a service of the St. Pete Times and CQ. Yet, the McCain campaign has cut a TV ad that pushes the line that Palin stopped the bridge. It's as if they've decided to go with that first two parts of that famous Lincoln quote: 'You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time...'" [Chicago Tribune Blog, 9/9/08]
Factcheck.org: Congress Had All But Killed Bridge to Nowhere When Palin Killed It, Was Sharp Turnaround From Position During Gubernatorial Campaign. “Palin may have said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure.” [Factcheck.org, 9/4/08]
Politifact: Palin’s Stance On “The Bridge To Nowhere” Is “A Full Flop.” Politfact, a service of CQ and the St. Petersburg Times wrote, “McCain said Palin has ’stopped government from wasting taxpayers’ money on things they don’t want or need. And when we in Congress decided to build a bridge in Alaska to nowhere for $233-million of yours, she said, we don’t want it. If we need it, we’ll build our own in Alaska. She’s the one that stood up to them.’ Nevermind that Alaska didn’t give the money back. It spent the money on other transportation projects. The context of Palin’s and McCain’s recent statements suggest Palin flagged the so-called Bridge to Nowhere project as wasteful spending. But that’s not the tune she was singing when she was running for governor, particularly not when she was standing before the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce asking for their vote. And so, we rate Palin’s position a Full Flop.” [Politifact]
AP FACT CHECK: Palin’s Broader Story on the Bridge to Nowhere is “Misleading,” Her Self-Description as a Champion of Earmark Reform “Is Harder to Square With the Facts.” “Palin did abandon plans to build the nearly $400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport. But she made her decision after the project had become an embarrassment to the state, after federal dollars for the project were pulled back and diverted to other uses in Alaska, and after she had appeared to support the bridge during her campaign for governor. McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading. She is portrayed as a crusader for the thrifty use of tax dollars who turned down an offer from Washington to build an expensive bridge of little value to the state. ‘I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere,’ she said in her convention speech last week. That’s not what she told Alaskans when she announced a year ago that she was ordering state transportation officials to ditch the project. Her explanation then was that it would be fruitless to try to persuade Congress to come up with the money… Her self-description as a leader who ‘championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress’ is harder to square with the facts.” [AP, 9/8/08]
USA Today Adwatch Headline: “A Disconnect on Palin’s Bridge Claim.” “It’s the claim that Palin ’stopped the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ that sparked the dispute. The reference is to a proposed bridge to a remote Alaskan community that would have cost the U.S. government more than $200 million. Palin has said repeatedly that she told the federal government: ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ As a candidate for governor, however, Palin supported the bridge.” [USA Today, 9/8/08]
Anchorage Daily News Headline: “Palin Touts Stance on ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ Doesn’t Note Flip Flop.” “When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate Friday, her reputation as a tough-minded budget-cutter was front and center. ‘I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere,’ Palin told the cheering McCain crowd, referring to Ketchikan’s Gravina Island bridge. But Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. The Alaska governor campaigned in 2006 on a build-the-bridge platform, telling Ketchikan residents she felt their pain when politicians called them ‘nowhere.’ They’re still feeling pain today in Ketchikan, over Palin’s subsequent decision to use the bridge funds for other projects — and over the timing of her announcement, which they say came in a pre-dawn press release that seemed aimed at national news deadlines. ‘I think that’s when the campaign for national office began,’ said Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein on Saturday.” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/31/08]
Daily News Miner: Palin Supported Bridge to Nowhere, Later Kept the Money – “That Was Hardly ‘Thanks, But No Thanks.’ “ “In her introductory speech Friday as McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin picked up on the Ketchikan bridge that was never built as a symbol of bad federal policy… That is not how Palin described her position on the Gravina Island bridge when she ran for governor in 2006. On Oct. 22, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News asked Palin and the other candidates, ‘Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?’ Her response: ‘Yes. I would like to see Alaska’s infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now — while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist.’ Palin’s support of the earmark for the bridge was applauded by the late Lew Williams Jr., the retired Ketchikan Daily News publisher who wrote columns on the topic… The money was not sent back to the federal government, but spent on other projects. That was hardly ‘Thanks but no thanks.’” [Daily News Miner, 8/31/08]
TIME: “Palin Has Continued to Repeat the Already Exposed Lie” About Her Opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere. “Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said, ‘No, thanks,’ to the famous ‘bridge to nowhere’ (McCain’s favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said, ‘Yes, please,’ until this project became a symbol and political albatross.” [Time Magazine, 9/9/08AP: Palin Supported Bridge, Later Abandoned Project But Used the Federal Money for Other Alaska Projects. "Palin voiced support for the bridge during her campaign to become Alaska's governor, although she was critical of the size, and later abandoned plans for the project. She used the federal dollars for other projects in Alaska." [AP, 9/9/08]
Washington Post’s Kurtz: Palin’s Assertion on Bridge to Nowhere a “Whopper.” “The senator from Arizona has made a crusade of battling pork-barrel ‘earmarks,’ but the whopper here is the assertion that Palin opposed her state’s notorious Bridge to Nowhere. She endorsed the remote project while running for governor in 2006, claimed to be an opponent only after Congress killed its funding the next year, and has used the $223 million provided for it for other state ventures.” [Washington Post, Kurtz Column, 9/9/08]
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:33 pm September 9th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Politics, Sarah Palin, Vice President, WH2008
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3 Responses to “List of sources saying Palin’s “thanks, but no thanks” beyond misleading”
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Congress Had All But Killed Bridge to Nowhere When Palin Killed It,
????
How could have the congress killed the project if they already transferred the funds? The funds where transferred weren’t they?
The Alaska department of transportation still has the money, they can build the bridge if they want, they I believe they have an open study ongoing. http://dot.alaska.gov/stwdplng/projectinfo/ser/Gravina/index1.shtml
I also am aware that it was factcheck .org that instigated or coined the name “bridge to Nowhere” and they are now again doing what instigating.
This page has a picture of Palin endorsing the project, she is holding up a tee-shirt with Nowhere 99901 on it Ketchikan’s zip code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge
She was and is abreast of the project, it’s everybody else that has there preverbal heads up there asses.
The entire nation received federal transportation project funding, is it an earmark? That in itself is distorted isn’t it?
The McCain campaign is following along on an going distortion. The poster child for earmarks is not even an earmarks is it?
Do we even know how the federal highway system is funded? Virtually 100 percent of the construction and maintenance costs are funded through fuel taxes
If it was an earmark and “killed” then why did the state get the funds?
Who checking factcheck.org ? me today, I guess, anybody anyone?
I think you’re agreeing that the repetition of Thanks no Thanks doesn’t exactly say it all?
Yes, I already had all the information when she said it, so I could see her at a half truth. I knew it was and also read her as she committed it. I have few others, she is getting easy to read.
What I really am interested in is that this is not even an earmark, so calling it that gets things going in wrong direction. That began with Factcheck.org calling it an earmark and then everyone else running with that.
So to me they collectively are not thinking, they jumped on the issue “poster child for earmarks” Palin was there she inherited it, I do not think she dropped it only because of that, but it got so much negative publicity she may have.
The reality is that it was and is part of larger allocation of funds from the fed to the state and she has control of that in part as Governor. Why would she be for building the bridge…because the people of Ketchikan were?
I can see her role in the actual project and how she is handling it and approve, but the statement I cannot it was misleading, she is guilty of chiming in at the end of a long series of distortions and over simplifications related to the project.
I could compare her stance with Nancy Pelosi’s with respects to ANWR and then we can really get into misleading and distortions. I watch and listen, Palin quoted some numbers in her CNN interview and I checked them and they are valid according to the CIA fact book and the federal department of energy. I said it before that is were she really begins and ends…she knows her state and energy related resources.
The problem I have is that people are not really drilling down, the media is flash bites and misleading talking point, they all fuel each other.
Palin has access to 19B she could build the bridge if she wants and we can all see that there would be a confederation of fools against that, none of which seriously looked at the project.
Do you think the largest longest highest bridge in the US would be a tourist attraction? Is the Gravina Island developable? Would it have had economic impact on the area? It all got lost because “the bridge to nowhere” became the poster child for earmarks and it isn’t even and earmark.
Palin is an outsider and she is learning the tricks of the trade from who…a master…the masters, hey they all do it, that also is why I say the higher the monkey climbs the more you see of it ass.