More Lies and Half-Truths from Palin
Posted on September 6th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Remember this line in her speech?
“That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.”
Huge applause.
Except that, well, it’s only kinda-sorta true. Palin did indeed put the jet up for auction on eBay, but it didn’t sell (as we were clearly supposed to think it did).
The state finally gave the plane to an aircraft broker, who sold it for $2.1 million—or $400, 000 less than the price the state wanted when it put the plane on eBay.
(And, coincidentally, the amount that Palin spent on an ad campaign trying to convince Alaskans to support shooting wolves from helicopters.)
What’s telling about this, I think, is that the line edges right up to the proximity of falsehood—in order to make a political point and generate applause.
In other words, it’s not so much the single instance that is disturbing, it’s the technique. How far can we push this without actually being dishonest?
It was a great line, yes. Absolutely worked. But to the extent that this is Palin’s modus operandi, will it hurt her credibility over the next few weeks?
3 Responses
9/6/2024 11:32 am
Rich,
That’s the deal-breaker. I’m sure she’ll just withdraw now.
9/6/2024 2:37 pm
Bristol’s off limits, of course. But who told her school that she had “mono”?
9/7/2024 12:13 pm
Here you go again, overreaching in your attacks on a lady politician. Your suggestion that this line was a lie, or a half-lie, or something approaching it, would make sense if the state had put the plane on ebay, failed to sell it and then continued to use it. As it is, she took rhetorical advantage of the fact that she “put it on ebay” in service of the main point, which is that she didn’t want to travel around in a luxury jet. Which is the only point. The details of the sale aren’t what she’s asserting; she’s asserting that she’s a no-nonsense, no-frills, cost-cutter. This may be false, looking broadly at her record; but what she said is perfectly fair — and good — speechmaking. I think you’re really working overtime to pound her (so to speak)….and I wonder why, just as I wondered why the gratuitous and vicious cynicism with which you hammered Hillary. Is there an issue here — or are you just being fair and balanced?