coming from an energy-producing state does not make one qualified in energy policy.

True. But more important that qualifications are priorities. And neither Bush nor Palin should in any way be associated with the promise to lower energy costs, regardless of how much they know about the subject.

When I was in Alaska two years ago I was struck by what a socialist place it was.

Basically, everyone in the state benefits from massive subsidies from the federal government and from taxes on the oil companies.

At the time, I thought Alaska would be in trouble soon because oil production was declining quickly. What has saved Alaska, over the short run, is the massive increase in oil prices.

Palin, to her credit, passed a windfall profits tax on the oil companies and increased state revenue.

However, this can't go on forever. Sooner or later, and drilling in ANWR doesn't change things much, Alaska will not produce enough oil to keep the Alaska welfare state running.

It is amazing that the most socialist state in the country is a safe Republican state.

Terrific observation, Neil.
Nice to see that you followed Steve from CBR.

Back to the topic - once again we can ask, is there anything truthful that comes out of the McCain campaign?

Well, maybe McCain & Palin's appearance schedules.

"And as has become obvious, coming from an energy-producing state does not make one qualified in energy policy."

Considering what Cheney/Bush have done over the past eight years, that should be painfully obvious. Oilmen are out for themselves, not the common good. Sarah Palin is proving to yet another oilman.

The straight talk express runs a path much like that of the Alaskan pipeline, which for all intents and purposes isnt straight.

I think it's true that Alaska has 20% of the total U.S. oil reserves. Perhaps that's where the 20% is coming from.

I have observed one thing that McCain really knows about.
Now that he is attempting to stop the Palin investigation in Alaska, I realize that is what he is good at. He managed to clamp down his wife's drug stealing case, also the Keating 5, also the POW/MIA papers, not to mention the sealing of most of the Abramoff papers.

That's what's so damn bizarre about this lie, Jim. It's totally unnecessary. I mean, it's a bogus point anyway, as Steve's post makes clear; the "factoid" is just a hook to hang the ludicrous argument upon. So, why not just use the real fact???

I don't think being critical of Palin is a winner. Slamming a woman that survived several years in a POW camp isn't going to work. Demeaning her intellect and business skills are also dubious strategies seeing as she was one of the original founders of Microsoft. As she once famously told Mikhail Gorbachev, "Those Democrats, they just don't get it!"

Rod Blagojevich is the governor of Illinois, Illinois grows a lot of corn, corn is used in a lot of food products, so Blagojevich is in-charge of (let's say) 20% of the nation's food supply. Wow, I'd say our governors have a little too much power.

Not only do these two NOT know anything...but no one who interviews/questions/writes about them (for the most part) knows it either. I saw these statistics on another blog days ago and yet has it been mentioned on our MSM...and even if it were it would be in passing with no emphasis...just this morining heard McShame again ginning up his "give us red meat" crowd with the Obama will raise your taxes in these awful times...but BIG JOHN will just move to yet another of his houses! My GOD, when does the STUPID STOP!!!

How do you know when McCain or Palin are lying and/or bullshitting?They're moving their mouths. Lying,obfuscation and just plain old bullshit are standard operating procedure for these people.

The only explanation that can justify Palin's claim to such extensive knowledge is that she and her hive-mate, McCain, have decided to take the collective knowledge and expertise of everyone---and declare it their own.

I knew I'd seen these two somewhere before! It was last year, during Tricks-or-Treats.

They were the McBORG....

We are witnessing the implosion of the Republican trickle down economic mantra first labeled "Reaganomics." The theory was bad in the early 80s and has led to worsened economic conditions today. McCain has nothing. His policies are the ones we are suffering under at this moment. His vessel is empty! Fiorina got it incomplete - John McCain can't only run a major American corporation, he can't even run a presidential campaign and get it right.

A vote for Obama is a vote for sanity! -Kevo

Sometime this afternoon McCain will say in his stump "My friends, my opponent claims the fundamentals of the economy are sound. I'm not sure which economy he is talking about as I could walk from here to Detroit and I wouldn't meet one person that thinks that way except for my opponent."

Scary moment the other day talking to a low info independent voter. I asked if he watched the convention. "Yes, One night I saw Hillary and that mayor guy speak at the Republican convention and I also saw McCain speaking at the democratic convention."

"Will you be voting?" I asked.

"Most definitely."

There's a small slice of of the electorate that is well represented by this guy.

Having listened to some Ron Paul videos this morning, I'm struck with these thoughts.

Lewis Black says - every four years it just gets worse!

Listening to Kucinich, Paul, Nader, and Barr, whether one agrees with them or not - at least they are trying to be intelligent and speak truthfully.

Obama has some baggage that makes me a bit uneasy with his proposals and who he's telling us he is.

McCain and Palin aren't even trying to be intelligent or honest.

Are we screwed or what?

OT Steve - is there a way that you could look in to why any information from, on, or about Alaska's government, past, present, or future, is now coming from the republican campaign? It strikes me as very odd. We've seen governors running for Pres. or VP before but I don't remember the campaigns taking over the governance of the state the nominee was from. I think it might be interesting.

You're wrong.. when they say "energy" they mean "the people of Alaska". They are very energetic people.

Someone check whether the guy calculating energy supply from Alaska is the same guy calculating crowd size at McCain appearances.

I have a strong suspicion here...

America, is this the guy you want hiring Treasury officials?

The equating of energy to oil is pretty telling about how they feel about new energies.

Folowing up on a comment made in yesterday's open thread, I checked the blog "Alaska Real." http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/

In this great energy state, a small native village has been forced to effectively shut down and move -- because they can't pay the gas bill. The whole village. (It is also confirmed on the Anchorage Daily News website.)

[In an update, apparently the publicity got the gas company to negotiate a way for them to stay.]

And, btw, this blog is very much worth checking out, not only because it gives a different picture of how Palin is viewed by Alaskans and particularly Native Alaskans, but because at least one piece reminds me of why I am not just voting against McCain, but for Obama this year. The article is "Obama and McCain on Native Issues"
http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/2008/09/obama-and-mccain-on-native-issues.html

The whole article (and a later one called "What could Palin have done about it") are worth reading, but the key is this:

Through consultation, campaign time and basic common sense, Barack Obama has already begun to dig into the issues around Alaska, and Alaska Native issues.

After 44 years in Alaska, and marrying an Alaska Native man, Sarah Palin has yet to form any sort of opinion or plan, though in her campaign for governor, we did discover she "treasured" Alaska Native cultures. And while John McCain has only recently discovered Alaska voters matter, I can only imagine it will be too much to hope he will discover there are Alaska Native people that come with it.

Obama sent out this video for Alaskans, in which he addresses specific energy issues in Alaska, including Rural crisis. Although heartening, it is dismal to think out governor still has not addressed this. Well - she did line-item veto that energy overage funding in rural boroughs, so she does know the crisis exists...

I think I've reached a new level of frustration with the whole election today - that Ms. Palin is being heralded in the media and by Alaskans as a champion of Alaska, yet a man who has not yet been here (keeping our fingers crossed!) has been working harder to get to know Alaskan and Alaska Native issues, and beginning plans for them, than her. McCain is a non-equation for Alaska, and his running-mate won't pony up on Alaska Native issues - or much of any Alaska issues, really, except the high-profile ones.

(Emphasis mine -- and remember this is a state almost certain to go Republican, with only 3 electoral votes, but Obama has studied its problems, and the problems of a minority group only a small portion of the state. And this is not a 'Native American and Alaskan Native" page or video, he already has a separate page for Native Americans. This is just for Native Alaskans.

The campaign had been getting me to forget that Obama might be the most truly 'game-changing' President since FDR.

She's an ex pageant queen who named her son "Track", and McCain has anger management problems and no idea of what's going on - they're characters from Idiocracy! This looks to be a major step down from Bush and Cheney, and they're running neck and neck with Obama? God help us all.

Both McCain and Palin have disparaged and discouraged investment in wind and solar energy. This is not an accident.

Like Cheney and Bush, the basis of the Palin-McCain "energy policy" is to delay as long as possible the inevitable transition from an energy economy based on mining costly, destructive, increasingly scarce fossil fuels, to an energy economy based on harvesting free, clean, abundant, limitless wind and solar energy, in order to protect the trillion-dollar profits of their cronies and financial backers in the fossil fuel industries.

Government of, by and for ExxonMobil is not the change we need. It's more of the same.

I've been shocked recently to find out how much Alaska takes off the top for every barrel of oil produced there.

Just wondering if that would apply too to drilling in ANWAR. Anybody know? ANWAR is federal land, so either Alaska would get their $$ for that, too, which Americans in the "lower 48" {+Hawaii} should know before we are asked to support it, or Alaskans would not get their usual payout and someone needs to point that out to Sarah Barracuda and she if she would still want to drill in ANWAR if it didn't raise her monthly welfare check (and the monthly welfare check for each of her children and her dude, too).

"Palin, to her credit, passed a windfall profits tax on the oil companies and increased state revenue."

Yes, but what does the Alaska government do with the tax revenue? It does NOT spend it on infrastructure, it gives it directly to the populace. Each man, woman and child receives a check.

Now you can argue that's good, but it doesn't really help "build" the state.