Many here seem inclined to dismiss McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as Vice Presidential running mate out of hand.
"There's no way [GW Bush] can be taken seriously".
I heard that sentiment in 2000. It is not a sentiment I ascribe to and I think one should take every opponent seriously. I suggest we take a look at the record of Sarah Palin. So let's talk about one of Palin's big gubernatorial efforts...the Matanuska Maid Creamery fiasco.
NOTE: Substituted bracketed [GW Bush] for "this candidate" for clarity
In the mid-1930s a colony of 202 struggling midwestern farming families moved to the Matanuska Valley of Alaska to accept the 40-acre homesteads offered by the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation. The quickly set up the Matanuska Maid Creamery cooperative to process the dairy products produced by local farms. By 1940, Matanuska Maid was processing 7000 pounds of fresh milk daily and supply dairy products to Anchorage. In the mid-1980s the private operator went bankrupt and the state of Alaska took it over. By 2006, Matanuska Maid Creamery was processing 120,000 pound of Alaskan and Pacific Northwest dairy per day, albeit with steadily decreasing profitability.
Thus we come to the crisis of June 2007, when the Alaska Creamery Board decided to close down the Wasilla-based Matanuska Maid. Now Alaskan Governor and former Wasilla Mayor, Sarah Palin sprang in to action. Citing recent a recent infusion of state capital into the Creamery (that had yet to have been spent) and concern for local farmers, Palin replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation. Why? Because only the Board of Agriculture and Conservation can appoint members to the Alaska Creamery Board. Not surprisingly the Alaska Creamery Board was replaced by Palin's appointees and reversed the decision to close Matanuska Maid.
In July 2007, in an attempt to improve profitability, the Alaska Creamery Board also authorized a product price increase to be passed on down the line, despite thee being cheaper alternatives already on the market. Not surprisingly, and after a few accounting omissions were tallied, Matanuska Maid Creamery posted a large monthly loss.
By the end of August 2007, Palin's own gubernatorial dairy task force was talking about closure and the Creamery is now being converted into a heated self-storage facility.
UPDATE: During the scrubbing of Sarah Palin's wikipedia page, this tale was respun to make it look as if Palin actually endorsed the eventual closedown of the plant when in fact one could say she grudgingly acceded. Considering her intervention only bought the Creamery 2 months of deep red operation, one has to wonder if the whole things just wasn't a way to makes sure the $600,000 of state money was spent in Wasilla?