I've got a question for Governor Palin.
More accurately, President Jed Bartlett has one. (You West Wing fanatics will know where I'm going with this.)
Anyway, below the fold is the question Joe Biden should pose for Sarah Palin in the Veep debate to highlight her hypocrisy on the earmark/small government issue. It's perfect!
"If federal earmarks are so terrible and government spending so bad....Can we have it back, please?"
I'll let the West Wing's Josiah Bartlett phrase my question for me (fast forward to about 1:50):
Sarah Palin, of course, hired a lobbyist to get her federal money while she was mayor of Wasilla. Her town of 6,500 received $27 million during her tenure as mayor. (That lobbyist did a good job!) Of course she lobbied for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. In fact, Alaska gets more federal dollars per resident than almost every other state in the nation! Proponent of smaller government, my ass. All of that adds up to a lot of money that could be spent on other worthy projects across the country if she doesn't want it.
How awesome would it be if Joe Biden went all Jeb Bartlett on Palin during the debate? If anything, she's even more vulnerable to this quip than Gov. Richie is in the video.
I would love to see her try to run for reelection as Governor of Alaska in two years if she swear off earmarks.
Yes, Governor Palin, can we have it back please? We'd like to invest that money in things like clean renewable energy, effective mass transit, paying down the national debt, making America's colleges and universities the best in the world, and in providing affordable healthcare to all Americans.