Barack Obama went after Sarah Palin's acceptance (initial) and rejection of the Bridge to Nowhere earmark in a stump speech on Saturday. Obama's point is she was for it before she was against it.
This is a good soundbite, and the Republicans beat John Kerry over the head with it on a crucial issue (his support for deposing Saddam Hussein), not on a tangential issue like an earmark over which Palin essentially had no say (Congress voted whether or not to fund the earmarks, a governor's input was irrelevant).
And Gov. Palin ultimately made the right decision, unlike Kerry (who flip-flopped the wrong way) and unlike Obama (who still claims he was right to oppose the surge in Iraq because "no one" could have anticipated its rousing success . . . except John McCain). As J.M. Keynes said "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
In other words, Gov. Palin has the capacity to smarten up, but Obama retains his level of stupid.
And Obama's level of stupid is unstinting. After all, he is doing two things wrong: (1) attacking a VP candidate after his own campaign chief said the campaign would not worry about Gov. Palin; (2) making an outrageously ridiculous comparison.
Why is the comparison so bad? Because through early March, Obama had requested $740,000,000 in earmarked spending requests such as "$1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois."
That's 740M since 2005 when Obama's Senate career began.
Since 1987, the start of McCain's Senate career, he has requested $0 in earmarks.
$740,000,000 for projects "linked to campaign donors" and local Illinois junk.
$0 for pet projects in Arizona.
Obama's starting a fight he cannot win on this issue. There's 740M of potential corruption on Obama's side of the ledger, a clean slate on McCain, and people compare the PRESIDENTIAL candidates, not the Dems' President to the Repubs' VP.
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