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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

More Fucking Lies

posted by on September 16 at 16:22 PM

Jesus Christ!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, Alaska’s governor, say her state’s production of one-fifth of the country’s domestic energy supply is an important credential to put them in the White House. Their figure is inflated.

THE SPIN: Palin and the McCain campaign repeatedly have claimed her status as governor of an energy-producing state as a national security credential, most recently in the interview with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson. But Palin has been sloppy in how she states her argument that Alaska is a major player in the energy market.

In the interview, she claimed the state “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” McCain, too, has said Palin is “in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply.” More recently, Palin modified her claim to “20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas.”

THE FACTS: The statements are exaggerated, some wildly so, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The most recent figures show Alaska produced 3.4 percent of the nation’s total energy output in 2005. The state’s largest contribution to that figure was its oil production, which runs about 14 percent of the U.S. total. Alaska contributes about 2 percent of the nation’s natural gas production. It produces negligible amounts of coal and renewable energy, and has no nuclear energy.

RSS icon Comments

1

Lets not confuse lying with stupidity.

Posted by TheTruthHurts | September 16, 2008 4:34 PM
2


Alaskan Salmon are a major source of energy...well, it peps me up.

Zippity do...zippity de!

Posted by John Bailo | September 16, 2008 4:42 PM
3

Everyone knows that 3.4% + 14% + 2% = 19.4% which rounds up nicely to 20%.

Posted by Jesse | September 16, 2008 4:45 PM
4

Jesse--

That is fucking brilliant. I nearly choked laughing.

Posted by Jonathan Golob | September 16, 2008 4:46 PM
5

good points all of you.. but i still don't understand.. even if alaska DID produce 20% of the nation's energy output, how does that translate into Palin, as governor for a year or so, having any experience in national security??

Posted by jameyb | September 16, 2008 4:53 PM
6

I think the best focus here is that Palin and McCain think "energy" is interchangeable with "oil," a mindset that's fundamentally hopeless about renewable energy, engineering ingenuity, and the possibility of living in a modern world when the oil runs out.

Posted by Olive | September 16, 2008 4:58 PM
7

God, #5- haven't you been listening? She can wave at Putin while standing on the oil rig in her back yard.

Posted by W.T. Foxtrot | September 16, 2008 4:58 PM
8

And even if Alaska did produce 20% or 40% or 80% of our energy, and even if Palin was somehow the wizard behind making that happen, why the hell would you want an oil baron in charge of weaning the country off oil?

We tried having an "oil man" in the White House and look what that got us.

Posted by elenchos | September 16, 2008 5:31 PM
9

This assumes that people understand the difference between 20% and 1/20th (which, I know, is 5%, but don't forget the assumption above).

Posted by Ziggity | September 16, 2008 5:33 PM
10

88 percent of statistics are 44 percent made-up.

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber | September 16, 2008 5:45 PM
11

99.9 percent of Americans have lost during the past 8 years of high GDP growth.

But the top 0.1 percent got more than ever before.

Had Enough?

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 16, 2008 6:57 PM
12
Posted by stinkbug | September 16, 2008 9:06 PM
13

Hey they can lie all he wants, I am just glad that Mccain invented the Blackberry!

Posted by Fly-over Text | September 16, 2008 9:18 PM
14

Also, why has the media/people forgotten about this "fact":

"The fact is that she's coming out in the next couple of days with interviews with numerous people."
-McCain on Thursday, 9/11/08

Fact:
- Charlie Gibson (ABC) interviewed Palin on Thursday, 9/11/08 and Friday 9/12/08.
- Sean Hannity (FOX) interviews Palin on Wednesday 9/17/08
- Katie Couric (CBS) to spend two days "on the road" with Palin/McCain, with the interview to air Sept. 29th and 30th.

ugh.

Posted by stinkbug | September 16, 2008 9:53 PM
15

Palin's pipeline deal breaking apart a sweeetheart deal with oil cos. then opening it to competitive bids of five bidders leading to a Canadian company getting the go ahead on the pipeline -- then this resulting in oil. cartel saying they will build a second, competing pipeline -- all that's rather good, no?

And she went back to the oil companies and said screw you, you gotta pay Alaska citizens more in oil royalties. She raised taxes on oil companies, and handed out the proceeds to Alaskans.

Pretty good, huh? Like: exactly what we would want for the whole USA.

Seems rather than playing gotcha, which ain't working, the Democratic approach should be to say we're more Palin than Palin, what a great job she did for Alaska, now we want to the same deal for all Americans:

oil companies pay more tax to finance a $1500 check for every American.

Now what would Sarah say about that, hmm?

Make the election about the economic benefit to swing voters, duh. They do not care about the gaffe patrol. All Palin bashing heretofore is contemporaneous with McCain rising in the polls.

Posted by PC | September 16, 2008 10:08 PM
16

McCain rising in the polls

Um, have you been following all the recent tracking bounces? The post-convention bounce has slowly burned off. You might want to look at the numbers again.

Posted by stinkbug | September 16, 2008 11:20 PM
17

@15: Right and lord knows those oil companies would just take that on the chin and realize the loss, right? The shareholders would be OK with that, yes? They wouldn't raise prices in order to make that money back from the consumer at the pump, would they? No. Of course not.

Posted by Al | September 17, 2008 7:39 AM
18

how does this keep happening? why isn't anyone in the media holding her accountable for all of these exaggerated claims?

it's gotten completely out of control.

Posted by tiffany | September 17, 2008 8:31 AM

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