Correction! Palin Simply Welcomes Alaska Secessionists, Never Joined

Correction! Alaskan Independence Party chairwoman Lynette Clark tells the New York Times someone was feeding her "erroneous information" when he/she told her Sarah Palin had been a member of the AIP from 1994 to 1996.

So Governor Palin isn't a secessionist; she just likes having them around town.

Palin's Reverend Wright Moments

So Dr. Blanchard wants to play the Reverend Wright card again. O.K.

I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions.
—Joe Vogler, founder, Alaskan Independence Party

I am delighted to welcome you to the 2008 Alaskan Independence Party convention in the Golden Heart City, Fairbanks.
—Governor Sarah Palin, video address, 2008.03.24

The difference, my dear Dr. Blanchard, between Governor Palin's wacky friends and Senator Obama's erstwhile pastor Jeremiah Wright is that we have Senator Obama on record disavowing Rev. Wright's "damning" of America (although, as you'll recall from April, I'm not convinced Wright said anything that needed disavowing). Governor Palin, meanwhile, explicitly welcomes a party that disavows America and slaps America's institutions with the d-word. Governor Palin giggles at the b-word and worse insults on live radio, issues a half-hearted apology (after catching public heck) that misses the point, then essentially endorses the purveyors of that language by giving them a scoop interview the day Senator McCain picks her as his running mate. (Haven't seen Obama giving Wright any public interviews lately, have you?)

So, to review, by picking Palin, McCain has taken age, inexperience, foreign policy knowledge, fine oratory, and now Reverend Wright off the table as issues he can use against Obama. Bush and the Iraqi government have knocked the legs out from under McCain's argument that a timetable for troop withdrawal is a bad idea. History is killing McCain's argument that his Republican policies will be better for the economy than Obama's (a new analysis finds the economy consistently grows faster and more fairly under Democratic Presidents). Pretty soon all McCain-Palin will have left to run on is moose burgers and creationism. And at this point, nothing could be more ironic than a McCain campaign touting "intelligent design."

New campaign slogan: McCain-Palin: The Campaign to Nowhere.

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Update 08:22: ABC's Jake Tapper reports that Palin and her husband were members of the Alaskan Independence Party in 1994.

Update 12:00: Alaskan Independence Party Vice Chairman Dexter Clark confirms Palin's membership in the AIP and says she remains sympathetic to the party. Clark goes on to discuss the AIP's strategy of infiltrating major parties to achieve its secessionist goals. Hmm... calling for secession from the Union... how much does Palin love America?

[Sorry, long video download: comments on Palin at 6:00 -- at peril of losing context, I'll try to find a shorter version.]



Update 2008.09.04 14:37: Speaking of reverends, check out what Palin's former pastor Ed Kalnins preaches at Wasilla Assembly of God, where Palin got her theology for much of her adult life. Not that I'm criticizing the pastor... I wouldn't want to go to heck.