In her convention speech on Wednesday, Sarah Palin wowed the delegates by telling them she had taken her predecessor’s taxpayer-funded luxury jet and sold it on eBay.
Oh, wait … she said she “put it on eBay.”
Big difference, as it turns out, because it didn’t sell, and she eventually turned it over to a private broker, who unloaded it at a loss. So on top of everything else, it appears that we also have to parse every word she says.
No such problem with John McCain, who bragged the other day that Palin “sold it on eBay — made a profit.” That’s just wrong.
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Robin Edgar
I kinda like Sarah Palin’s theme song. Come to think of it. . . Barracuda kinda fits the theme of this blog post! ;-)I know it’s a catchy tune and all. . . but did anyone at the Republican Party bother to listen to, or read, Barracuda’s lyrics before choosing it as the unofficial theme song for would-be Vice President Sarah Palin aka Sarah Barracuda?You lying so low in the weedsBet you gonna amBush meYou’d have me down on my kneesWouldn’t you, Barracuda?Back over Time when we were all trying for freeMet up with porpoise and meNo right no wrong you’re selling a Song – a namewhisper gameIf the real thing don’t do the trickYou better make up something quickYou gonna burn it out to the wickaren’t you, Barracuda?I had no idea Heart could be so prophetic. 😉
Nial Liszt
DK blogged-Sarah Palin wowed the delegates by telling them she had taken her predecessor’s taxpayer-funded luxury jet and sold it on eBay.Oh, wait … she said she “put it on eBay.”Big difference, as it turns out, because it didn’t sell, and she eventually turned it over to a private broker, who unloaded it at a loss. So on top of everything else, it appears that we also have to parse every word she says.You don’t have to parse, just present her words accurately. In your first sentence you write that she said “sold” {without quotes} when she clearly said “put on.” Also, when was the last used airplane transaction that did not involve a “loss”?Add in the weasel words “unloaded”, “turned it over” and “private broker” (do any states have public airplane brokers on the payroll?) and this is the most intellectually dishonest post that I have read by you (but I also Tivo Beat The Press).Now, on the other hand, McCain was “just wrong.”
O-FISH-L
What nial liszt just said.Dan, help is avaialble.
Gerard
Just keep up the attempts to puff the dinky into the significant.It is sure to put your guy over the top.
Dot Lane
Palin’s words were certainly well chosen enough to fool her running mate into thinking she’d sold an airplane on Ebay for a profit, which was kind of the point of her story, right? I’m also willing to bet that if you asked anyone on Wednesday night “Did Sarah Palin sell a state government owned airplane on Ebay?”, the answer would have overwhelmingly been “Yes.” Mission accomplished!It’s not quite so mavericky to dispose of surplus public property the way anyone else would, but Ebay? That’s so *cool*, especially if you’re stuck in 1999. Seriously, “puff the dinky into the significant” is an apt summation of what the GOP is trying to do with Palin’s entire career. I look forward to more deliberate naivete from Palin’s dinky puffers.
jvwalt
The fundamental point here is that Palin’s “accomplishments” are being stretched, exaggerated, and fabricated by herself and others, because her actual accomplishments are so few and far between — embarrassingly so, for a would-be Vice President. Palin’s words about the luxury jet were designed to mislead, whether or not they were actually true. McCain, on the other hand, lied outright. The capper to all this is the McCain campaign’s decision to wrap Palin in a protective bubble and keep her away from all but the most friendly of media. If she’s such a star, why does she need to be hidden away except for carefully-chosen photo-ops and speeches? Let her come out and shine! Prove the liberal media wrong! The truth of the matter is, she’s not even qualified to be a candidate for Vice President, much less to occupy that office.
tvoh
“unloaded it at a loss”We have to parse your words, Dan. If the jet was a sunk cost, it was a net gain in real terms even if they only got a dollar.Anyway, she would have done better on Craigslist.
Dan Kennedy
Tvoh: You would be correct except that McCain said she “made a profit.” Please try to pay attention. It makes everything easier.
Robin Edgar
“McCain, on the other hand, lied outright.”Not if he was mislead into believing that Gov. Palin had actually sold the plane on eBay for a profit. . .
Gerard
Congratulations. This one has made number 48 on the Palin Rumor Page:”Yes, she did put the Governors plane on eBay. No, that’s not how it was finally sold. Yes, McCain did say it wrong. Bad McCain.”http://explorations.chasrmartin.com/2008/09/06/palin-rumors/Elsewhere, the New York Times issues a correction on another Palin rumor that this page was “jest askin'” about last week sometime: Correction: September 5, 2008 An article on Tuesday about concerns over Senator John McCain’s background check of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, his choice of running mate, misstated the history of her political party affiliation. As The Times has since reported, she has been a registered Republican since 1982; she was not for a couple of years in the 1990s a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, which advocates a vote on whether her state should secede.
Dan Kennedy
Robin: That’s right. We’ve got to give McCain that much. Wonder if it bothers him that he was misled into saying such a thing?
jvwalt
Okay, so let’s say McCain was misled by faulty intelligence. Which gives him plausible deniability. So… Palin said something designed to mislead. McCain said something that was absolutely untrue, but he wasn’t technically “lying” because because somebody misinformed him. If you use the narrowest, most legalistic definition of “lying.” (I guess it depends on what your definition of “is” is.) Calvin Trillin once wrote of a particularly conniving politician that his campaign slogan should be “Never Been Indicted.” In this case, McCain-Palin could run on “Stretching, Fudging, Misleading, Misinformed — But Not Actually Lying.” What paragons of virtue they are.
Gerard
You keep working on this sort of tiny scale, you’ll need to rename the site “Media Backyard.”
acf
Okay, so let’s say McCain was misled by faulty intelligenceIsn’t that the excuse Bush used to explain away his decision to invade Iraq; faulty intelligence? At what point do any of these folks just say “It’s my fault, I screwed up’?
jhall
This belongs in the “who cares” file.
tvoh
Dan,The title of your post is “Sarah Palin’s tall eBay tale”not John McCain’s.I’m trying to pay attention at the all Palin all the time blog, but you don’t make it easy.
Gerard
Here’s one for you Dan:”Did you hear that Todd Palin’s former business partner tried to get his divorce records sealed? “Get on it! Track it down.Or maybe an exploration of the deeper meaning of Barracuda, the Palin Theme Song:You lying so low in the weedsI bet you gonna ambush me You’d have me down on my kneesNow wouldn’t you, Barracuda?And yes we know that a couple of Heart singers don’t like it being used.
mike_b1
Why would Palin say she "put" it on eBay unless 1) the intended perception was that it sold that way and/or 2) she wanted to get some free advertising for McCain suckup Meg Whitman's company>I thought McCain was about straight talk (even if the boobs at the GOP convention held those signs upside down). Doesn't sound straight to me.
Robin Edgar
Gerard,You forgot to capitalize the ‘B’ in amBush. . . ;-)No worries, so did I at first.J.V. Walt,I suggest that you look up the meaning of the word lie in a good dictionary. I was by no means using the narrowest, most legalistic definition of “lying.” It is generally accepted that one has to be aware that one is telling a falsehood in order to be lying. That is why I generally do parse my words and accuse people who may or may not be lying, but are definitely not telling the truth, of telling “falsehoods” rather than “lies.” Yes I am aware that some dictionary’s don’t do a good job of making that distinction but it is an important none none-the-less.
Nial Liszt
Phil 101 syllogism:They are all politicians,Their lips are moving,Then _ _ _
Dot Lane
‘You keep working on this sort of tiny scale, you’ll need to rename the site “Media Backyard.”One has to wonder why Gerard hangs out here if this is such a media backwater. Or is it case of a small pond making his dinky look big? It’s unfortunate for Palin that her tiny accomplishments make her tiny lies and misleading statements appear that much larger, although we’re still stuck measuring her on a tiny scale.
Chus
This is what I think: Sarah Palin’s E-Mail Hacked
ng2000
Valuable resource of ebay news summaries: http://www.ng2000.com/fw.php?tp=ebay