Reality Check: Sarah Palin's Claims

(CBS)  When John McCain introduced Gov. Sarah Palin, she not only was someone who shared his distaste for Congressional earmarks, all those direct, often hidden federal grants of tax dollars for local projects. She went on to claim she'd killed off one of the worst earmarks ever, a $233 million bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Gravina Island.

"I told Congress, 'thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge-to-nowhere," Palin said.

'No thanks' to that bridge? Here are the facts, as reported by CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. Congress killed off the earmark well before Gov. Palin formally abandoned it. And while the bridge is in fact a dead project, the state still kept the money — all $233 million in federal funds — for other transportation needs.

The record also shows that two years ago, Palin supported the bridge.

"It's not true that she was always opposed to the bridge. If you go back to the things that she said when we was running for governor, she was an advocate," said Bill Adair, who edits PolitiFact.org and is the Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times.

Just like John McCain, Palin claims she's ending the waste that comes from earmark spending.

"And I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress," she said.

Maybe she is against abusive earmarks, but she has not been against all earmarks.

The facts are: Under Gov. Palin, Alaska applied for $197 million of earmarks for the 2009 fiscal year. And when Palin was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, she was a champion of earmarks. In her second term, ending in 2004, Mayor Palin hired a well connected lobbying firm, with offices just outside Washington, which helped the town take in $11.9 million worth of earmarks.

"She used the system, she hired lobbyists with connections to the powerful members of Congress from her state, and she was able to obtain a lot of money," said TK Alexander of the non-profit tax watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The McCain campaign responds that Governor Palin, as mayor, was only "working within the current system to get funding for her city." But as governor, "knew the system didn't work, and ordered cutbacks in the state's requests."

Palin also faces a state investigation into why she fired the Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan - the allegation being she fired him for personal reasons, because Monegan refused to fire a state trooper, the ex-husband of Palin's sister.

Here are the facts: The state trooper in question made threats against the Governor's family, and was suspended from duty. But Governor Palin insists the firing of Commissoner Monegan was a completely separate issue, that Monegan was fired but for professional reasons related to the budget.

[shameonbush]

When Palin said that her son joined the army on 911 and will be sent to Iraq on 911, I can''t help but wonder if Palin knows that Iraq had NOTHING to do with 911. But like Bush and the whole Republican trip, Iraq is always brought up in the same sentence as 911. We are at war over blatant LIES. Why isn''t this investigated?

[lacolombe]

John McCain''s Vice President selection is "Pal(e)in" comparison to more qualified and experienced female politicians.

[rjstan1]

Watching this week all of the shots of those in the audience at the Republican Convention, I didn''t see people, but rather, little birdies looking up at their speakers, mouths open, naive, ignorant of the real issues, fooled by their own party into believing whatever is fed to them--true believers for sure. I''ve come up with a new nickname for the Republicans:
THE TWEET TWEETS.

[rachee1025]

I was a completely undecided voter until last night. How dare she even imply that a Community Worker is not important. Community workers are the people that help pick up the pieces when all hope is lost. Who do you think helped get New Orleans back in order? It is a selfless, giving, honorable position and I am humbled by the fact that someone would be so giving.
Not to mention her comment on the pilars at the Democratic convention. Seriously? This is not high school!! GO OBAMA!!!!

[semajwisdom]

First, allow me to say that I believe no ones personal life should ever come to play in politics unless; they are truly doing something inhumane as a rapist, pedophile, or selling drugs for example. Other than that, I totally disagree with the postings here by the supporters of Gov. Palin. Her belittling the sweat, tears, sacrifices, and hard work of community organizers to make a political point is saddening. Many of these groups, whether they are secular or faith-base perform their duties with minute resources and therefore in order to succeed must be ran like a well-oiled machine. This is the reason, they hire Executive Directors and give them power to make decisions that not only affect the day-to-day operation of the organization but that which directly affect the lives of those they are attempting to assist. That is exactly the job of a Mayor, over seeing the operations of a city.

[hertpride]

I''ll have to add, kudos to Omama for telling people to leave the family out of it. Too bad the leftist media will ignore that and hurt Obama''s cause.

Obama does have class, just not enough experience to be POTUS.

[hertpride]

Much the same from CBS as before. I wonder what kind of fake documents CBS will come up with this time?

Too bad Dan Rather won''t be there to cry after Obama gets defeated.

[nemcalija]

Palin did a good job of being the republican attack dog last night. Lets keep in mind that all dogs bark loud and mean when there behind there own fence. Lets see what happens when she steps on the other side of the fence and tangles with an opposing attack dog

[hertpride]

It''s a sad day when the leftists ignore Obama''s earmarks. That''s alright, they''ll pay for it, all of this trashing Palin will cost Obama the election. The liberals are the democrats worst enemy.

[hertpride]

So what? Obama asked for 750 million in earmarks since he''s been a junior senator.