Palin packs a punch at West High
By Bret Hayworth | Posted: Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sarah Palin arrives for a rally Saturday at West High School in Sioux City. (Staff photo by Jim Lee)
SIOUX CITY -- A Barack Obama presidency would bring tax increases and stifle the entrepreneurial spirit in America, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told supporters during a Saturday morning campaign stop at West High School.
In a speech heavy on tax policy talk and mentions of Joe the Plumber, Palin made her first visit to Sioux City since being picked as John McCain's running mate. An estimated 4,500 people heard the Alaska governor lay out philosophical differences on tax policy between the two major presidential candidates.
"Barack Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes," Palin said. In a well-received statement, she said, "We're Joe the Plumber, too, and we're in this together."
She frequently referenced the phrase "spread the wealth," referring to Obama's response earlier this month to the Ohio plumber who criticized the Democrat's tax proposals.
"Sen. Obama says he wants to spread the wealth. ... (Obama's running mate) Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic," Palin said.
She contended an Obama presidency would result in $1 trillion in new spending. When she asked where the money for that government growth would come from, and a man from the crowd yelled out, "From my kids' dinner plate!"
A considerable number of interjections came from the crowd. At one point, as Palin discussed Obama, a voice yelled out, "He's a socialist!" A few seconds later, "That's socialist!" was the assessment of a man describing an Obama position that Palin articulated.
Palin's stop in traditionally Republican Northwest Iowa came the day before a new Journal/Lee Enterprises poll shows Obama has extended his lead to 15 percentage points over McCain in Iowa, with Obama leading 54 percent to 39 percent.
An overflow crowd too big for the West High gymnasium was placed in adjacent rooms. Accompanied by her daughter Piper, Palin said she and McCain would enact real change in Washington while cleaning up the financial mess on Wall Street.
She also pledged that she and McCain would balance the federal budget within four years. The federal deficit is $431 billion. She didn't get into details about how they would achieve that deficit reduction or discuss Wall Street reform plans in her 28-minute speech.
Two hours later, former Iowa Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack, speaking at Sanford Community Center in Sioux City, took Palin to task for "negative attacks" on Obama. Vilsack said Palin misstated Obama's tax plans, which he said would give tax relief to 95 percent of America's working class.
"It will provide more tax relief for working families than Sen. McCain's tax proposals," Vilsack said.
In her speech, Palin also briefly mentioned "other missions" of the Republican presidential team, including government reform, helping families with special needs children, holding firm on the Iraq War and energy policy. To a big cheer, she spoke of the need for more domestic oil drilling.
"We'll drill here and we'll drill now," Palin said.
She also cited an "all of the above" energy expansion plan, mentioning oil, natural gas, biomass, biothermal and nuclear. She did not include ethanol, the corn-based fuel McCain has criticized.
Palin moved on from the city to campaign in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon. Today, McCain will campaign in Cedar Falls, home to the University of Northern Iowa.
Read more in Hayworth's Politically Speaking blog at www.siouxcityjournal.com/blogs
In a speech heavy on tax policy talk and mentions of Joe the Plumber, Palin made her first visit to Sioux City since being picked as John McCain's running mate. An estimated 4,500 people heard the Alaska governor lay out philosophical differences on tax policy between the two major presidential candidates.
"Barack Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes," Palin said. In a well-received statement, she said, "We're Joe the Plumber, too, and we're in this together."
She frequently referenced the phrase "spread the wealth," referring to Obama's response earlier this month to the Ohio plumber who criticized the Democrat's tax proposals.
"Sen. Obama says he wants to spread the wealth. ... (Obama's running mate) Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic," Palin said.
She contended an Obama presidency would result in $1 trillion in new spending. When she asked where the money for that government growth would come from, and a man from the crowd yelled out, "From my kids' dinner plate!"
A considerable number of interjections came from the crowd. At one point, as Palin discussed Obama, a voice yelled out, "He's a socialist!" A few seconds later, "That's socialist!" was the assessment of a man describing an Obama position that Palin articulated.
Palin's stop in traditionally Republican Northwest Iowa came the day before a new Journal/Lee Enterprises poll shows Obama has extended his lead to 15 percentage points over McCain in Iowa, with Obama leading 54 percent to 39 percent.
An overflow crowd too big for the West High gymnasium was placed in adjacent rooms. Accompanied by her daughter Piper, Palin said she and McCain would enact real change in Washington while cleaning up the financial mess on Wall Street.
She also pledged that she and McCain would balance the federal budget within four years. The federal deficit is $431 billion. She didn't get into details about how they would achieve that deficit reduction or discuss Wall Street reform plans in her 28-minute speech.
Two hours later, former Iowa Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack, speaking at Sanford Community Center in Sioux City, took Palin to task for "negative attacks" on Obama. Vilsack said Palin misstated Obama's tax plans, which he said would give tax relief to 95 percent of America's working class.
"It will provide more tax relief for working families than Sen. McCain's tax proposals," Vilsack said.
In her speech, Palin also briefly mentioned "other missions" of the Republican presidential team, including government reform, helping families with special needs children, holding firm on the Iraq War and energy policy. To a big cheer, she spoke of the need for more domestic oil drilling.
"We'll drill here and we'll drill now," Palin said.
She also cited an "all of the above" energy expansion plan, mentioning oil, natural gas, biomass, biothermal and nuclear. She did not include ethanol, the corn-based fuel McCain has criticized.
Palin moved on from the city to campaign in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon. Today, McCain will campaign in Cedar Falls, home to the University of Northern Iowa.
Read more in Hayworth's Politically Speaking blog at www.siouxcityjournal.com/blogs
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Bottom Line wrote on Nov 3, 2008 4:24 PM:
VegasRage wrote on Nov 2, 2008 3:39 PM:
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.
Recently he wrote an interesting and disconcerting piece on just how vulnerable the dollar is now. Our global standing is in jeopardy and the world looking to limit their exposure to the dollar.
World Tires of Rule by Dollar (copy and paste link - scroll down for story)
counterpunch.org/roberts10302008.html
I ask what do you think either candidate matters in this?
I suggest not much
Want another call? Google the "The Dirty Little Secret Everyone In Washington Knows" on YouTube, for a video on US. Comptroller General to the GAO, Davis Walker, on 60 Minutes covering the massive fiscal problem we have that is started January of this year.
It's really important America wakes up, quit worrying about the candidates. "
Joltin wrote on Nov 1, 2008 6:11 PM:
VegasRage wrote on Nov 1, 2008 5:45 PM:
I wish I had more space to type and a higher mountain to yell my wake up call from. If you want a glimpse, seriously copy and paste this link into your web browser
mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vCtmIO.95s6Y.asf
This is a Microsoft streaming media video of Bloombergs Rhonda Schaffler interviewing Peter Schiff detailing a little of what we are about to face. I have read and watched countless materials on this topic over the years, it's a great time if you invest properly but as I'm sure you know most Americans have not.
Economically neither party are going to make much difference now. If you want more details I'd be happy to provide. I will say having physical gold and silver in a safe for the worst case scenario is not a bad thing right now. "
Grammatrain wrote on Nov 1, 2008 4:01 PM: