[NYTIMES] Once Elected, Palin HIred Friends and Lashed Foes

Read up on how he rose to power, and how he put his friends in places because of loyalty to him over all else. People don't like to make this comparison because of what Hitler became, but there are massive similarities in the way Palin rewards people who think like her and quash those that don't.

Back on Topic.......

Don't you think she will get tired of being basically called stupid and lash out? She had built a nice fifedom up in Alaska, but that is all crumbling as the truth behind her politics gets dug up......

She certainly energized the party, but her policies and nepatism, and cronyism, and secrecy is going to eventually ruin her career.

DD

 

No, people don't like to make that comparison because the first association anyone has with Hitler is killing over 6 million jews, homosexuals, gypsies, etc. You are being willfully obtuse if you are trying to tell us that you picked Hitler over any other politician solely because of the way he promoted people and not because of any shock value to the name.

 

No doubt, I chose him for the shock value, but the comparisons are apt as to rise to power.

I was trying to think of another politician that rose to power and rewarded secrecy and drew a blank.

To me Palin is a return to McCarthyism and fear mongering......

DD

 

I was about to post that article. Its an interesting read and paints a decidedly mixed picture of Palin's term as mayor.

Some quotes:
[rquoter]
Since joining the Republican ticket, Palin has faced questions about whether she is qualified to be vice president or, if necessary, president. In response, the first-term Alaska governor and Sen. John McCain point to the executive qualifications she acquired as Wasilla mayor, a six-year stint from 1996 to 2002 that represents the bulk of her political experience.

Palin says her time as mayor taught her how to be a leader and grounded her in the real needs of voters, and her tenure revealed some of the qualities she would later display as governor: a striving ambition, a willingness to cut loose those perceived as disloyal and a populist brand of social and pro-growth conservatism.

But a visit to this former mining supply post 40 miles north of Anchorage shows the extent to which Palin's mayoralty was also defined by what it did not include. The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns, which limited Palin's exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.
....
Many of those in town were astonished to learn that Palin had been named McCain's running mate six years after leaving City Hall.

"I was happy in a way, because it is a new beginning for the country, but also I am very worried due to her lack of experience," said Darlene Langill, a self-described arch-conservative who served on the City Council during Palin's first year in office.

Duane Dvorak, the city planner when Palin took office, said the mayor's ambition had been plain to see, but added: "My sense is that this opportunity maybe came along before she was ready for it or thought it would come along."
....
Running against Stein (the previous mayor), Palin called for an end to his "tax-and-spend mentality" -- and introduced Wasilla to the kind of socially conservative campaigning that was taking hold across the nation. A national antiabortion-rights group sent cards to voters praising Palin, and her brochures said she was "endorsed by the NRA." After she won with 616 votes -- 58 percent of the total -- a local TV station referred to her as Wasilla's "first Christian mayor," even though Stein and his predecessors were also Christian.

Show of force
Palin took office as mayor in October 1996 with a show of force. She fired the museum director and demanded that the other department heads submit resignation letters, saying she would decide whether to accept them based on their loyalty, according to news reports at the time. She clashed with Police Chief Irl Stambaugh over his push for moving bar closing time from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. and for his opposition to state legislation to allow people to carry guns in banks and bars.

In notes that he took during a meeting in Palin's first week on the job, Stambaugh wrote that the new mayor told him "that the NRA didn't like me and that they wanted change," according to the Seattle Times, which reviewed the notes at a federal archive in Seattle
...
Although the town had a $4 million surplus, Palin cut the museum budget by $32,000, and the three older women who worked there quit instead of deciding which would have to go. But Palin dipped into the budget to create the deputy administrator slot, which some council members complained was at odds with her small-government stance. She told city officials not to talk to reporters.

A recall effort in early 1997 fizzled out, but hard feelings lingered. "Working in small towns, I had never seen someone come in and clean house like that in such a precipitous manner. It was pretty scary and emotional," said Dvorak, the city planner, who left after eight months.

Deuser, the former city attorney, said it was upsetting to hear the McCain campaign refer to Palin's takeover as a matter of getting rid of the "good ol' boy network."

"They were just good public servants who did a really admirable job and deserved better," said Deuser, who was replaced in 1997.
....
"Sarah always did and still does surround herself with people she gets along well with," she said. "They protect her, and that's what she needs. She has surrounded herself with people who would not allow others to disagree with Sarah. Either you were in favor of everything Sarah was doing or had a black mark by your name."

But things did run more smoothly from then on, and department directors whom Palin hired said she was good at delegating authority and letting them do their job. "She's a quick study," said Don Shiesl, who took over public works in 1998. "She's a heck of a public speaker and she works her magic on people. Give her four years, with some training, and she'll be up to snuff. She's not dumb, she'll be able to catch on to stuff real quick."
....
The town's coffers swelled as more stores moved in, letting Palin reap the political benefits of Stein's (Palin's predecessor had instituted a 2% sales tax that Palin campaigned against) sales tax and infrastructure upgrades. With her natural charisma putting voters at ease after the initial turbulence, she was reelected in 1999 to the $68,000-a-year job. The budget expanded by nearly half during Palin's tenure as she increased spending on police and public works but kept a lid on city planning and the library, and further reduced the property tax.

Further buttressing the budget were the earmarks Palin sought for the town after hiring a Washington lobbyist for $38,000 a year. The town secured $27 million in all, including $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs and $15 million for a rail project.
...
Some in town had for years pressed the city for a new space for the cramped library. Palin, who calls herself a "typical hockey mom," instead focused on building a sports complex with an NHL-size rink. In 2002, by a 20-vote margin, voters approved a $14.7 million bond to be financed by a half-cent sales tax hike.

Palin had forged ahead with the project despite a lingering legal dispute over whether the city had ownership of the land. A judge had initially ruled in the city's favor, but it later lost on appeal and had to pay $1.3 million more for the land.

"The only accomplishment of note was the building of the sports complex . . . and it was bungled," said Deuser, the former city attorney. Keller, the new mayor, defended Palin, saying she had relied on legal advice in proceeding with the project.
[/rquoter]

So while there were those who praised her job there were others who also very uneasy about her actions and even some in Wasilia itself that feel her experience is a problem. While she is acknowledged to be smart and very charismatic her term as Mayor also shows how she may be prone to cronyism benefitted from some hard decisions made by her predecessor and while criticising federal earmarks still sought to benefit from them.

 

The comparison is apt in a limited regard but as other posters are noting you are ignoring all the other associations that come to mind. If you are going to draw a comparison regarding cronyism there are many many examples of cronyism, the current Admin comes to mind. The problem with your comparison is that you are both comparing Palin to Hitler in terms that both hired cronies ignoring that Hitler's rise to power also had to do with a lot of other things. While they both hired cronies it is a stretch to make such a comparison when there is so much other baggage.

At most this is an extremely limited comparison and one that doesn't do much to advance the argument, actually it hurts your argument, as it comes off as needlessly hyperbolic.

 

Fair enough, I get your point. I still think she would be horrible for this country with her extermist views, which again is very...uh....never mind.

DD

 

Yep!!

via TPM --

The New York Times and The Washington Post are both out today with profiles of Sarah Palin, and they are must-reads. The total picture that emerges of Palin is very clear: She is a megalomaniacal, vindictive right-winger who serially uses her offices for her own personal benefit, to harass political opponents, and to pursue personal vendettas against people she dislikes.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/election_central_sunday_roundu_30.php

Sound familiar?

 

This all seems irrelevant to me. I don't know why everyone is focusing on Palin as the biggest a**hole (vindictive narcissistic )on the republican ticket. To me its McCain by a million miles.

but then again, I don't know if that makes them all that different from any other politician either.

 

Well it does call into question McCain’s judgment. Does he want to protect America or does he want to win an election? To me the answer is clear.

 

I can hear it now....

You meanies.....leave poor Ms Palin alone, this is all just smear tactics.

Hopefully enough independents will see that she is an extremist nut job and come around.

DD

 

She can't be that bad. She's a mother of five. That equals VP potential right?

I do love how they throw that out in the media. Funny how none of the males are described by how they've spread their seed.

Back on topic. This is interesting and even a little disturbing how she went about things in power. At worst its a ruthless and almost totalitarian type style. At very best its micromanaging. Either way, it doesn't look good.

 

I think in our rush to bash Sexy Sarah we are all forgetting that she built an ice rink in Wasilla.

That ice rink stands as a monument and lasting legacy of her unblinking chutzpah in the face of Russian hegemony.

When the Russians look across the Bering Strait and see that ice rink, they will think twice before mixing it up with the Palinizer.

 

I was talking about Palin to my wife, and we kept coming back to "clever, ruthless, incurious about the world, and how could John McCain pick this person??"

 

Going back to the original article I just want to say what's wrong with Cronyism? IT's served us so well for the past 8 years. Didn't it work out great during Katrina when a Bush crony was heading FEMA?

Palin continues to show that she has the right stuff. She can see Russia from her state. Maybe she did really add lobbyists to make Alaska a bigger special interest and maybe she's not really the small government champion she's made out to be. Maybe she didn't really cut the Governor's chef from state payrolls. Maybe she didn't really sell the jet on ebay for a profit. Who cares? As long as she hires high school friends to important government jobs, then we'll all be OK.

Oh yeah. You know how I know she's good? She has family values. Her unwed teenage daughter did get impregnated by a goon who's myspace talked about shooting stuff with guns, kicking ass, how he didn't want any babies. Those are the kinds of family values that let me know Gov. Palin's got what it takes.

If Only Obama's family had a black teenage daughter who was pregnant by a black male who talked about shooting sh** up and kicking ass while not wanting any babies. I mean the right wing would love Obama for that.

 

The Russkies are still smarting after the Miracle on Ice.

 

well played.....

 

lol. That surely makes the Wasilla Ice Rink of Miracles the first target on Putin's quest for world domination.

Clearly the Palinator's far-sighted world view and foreign policy perspective led her to build this modern monument of American superiority.

Every lipstick-wearing pit bull across America should be proud of the Palinator.

The Russians quake in fear of opening Palindora's Box.

 

Since it skates just as well forward or backward, I think they call the Wasilia rink the Palindrome.