Sarah Palin: Time to Actually Take Some Stands

August 23, 2006

On the morning of April 18, I sat in the Captain Cook lobby coffee shop with Sarah Palin comparing campaign trail notes. The evening before we had both attended a candidate's debate in Fairbanks at the University of Alaska, and over the previous weeks had attended a total of four major candidate forums together from Kodiak to Juneau.

As we talked about the campaign, she made a comment I'll never forget.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you spout off facts, figures and policies and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, does any of this really matter."

Four months later as I watched the primary results come slowly rolling in on the big board at election central last night, several questions were racing through my mind. How did John Binkley run such a textbook campaign and still get beat by 20 points? Why did Frank Murkowski jump into the race and then run one of the most lackluster campaigns that an incumbent ever ran?  

But more importantly, how did Sarah Palin get 50% of the vote against Binkley and Murkowski when for the last seven months she has actually said very little about the issues and answered even fewer questions?

The answer? Politics.

To some politics is supporting the most qualified candidate. To others like the late comedic great W.C Fields who said, "I never vote for anyone, I always vote against someone", voting is an exercise based on emotion.

There is no question that Palin capitalized on an anti-Murkowski sentiment. She was successful early on painting Binkley as one of the good old boys, Randy Ruedrich's errand boy if you will. She honed her image as the outsider, fighting valiantly for ethics and a return to the days of open and honest government. She said so much without saying anything of substance. And voters bought it.

For seven months I traveled the campaign trail with Sarah, and although her cry has been take a stand, never once have I heard her take a stand. Bring back the longevity bonus? How are you going to pay for it? Bring back municipal revenue sharing? How are you going to pay for it? Improve education? How? Improve public safety? How?

The fact is that everyone of these campaign promises takes one thing, money. And for the last seven months while railing about the liberal spending in Juneau, she has proposed over $100 million in new spending.  

Today is a new day.

With the primary behind us, there is no Randy Ruedrich to campaign against. No secret gas line negotiations to blast. No Frank Murkowski to call out. It's time for Sarah to actually start answering some hard questions and for the first time in this race, do more than say take a stand and actually take some. No more glittering generalities, no more bumper sticker sound bites and no more avoiding the tough questions that demand answers.

It's time for Sarah Palin to stand and tell Alaskans what specifically she will do as governor to address the complex issues that lay ahead and how she is going to pay for them.

Because after all, having a grasp of facts, figures and policies does matter.