Palin Repeats "Bridge To Nowhere" Falsehood Again Despite Intense Criticism

Speaking in Lebanon, Ohio today, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin repeated her frequently debunked lie on the "bridge to nowhere," which originated in her speech to the Republican National Convention last Wednesday. As the crowd cheered, Palin (falsely) recounted how she told the U.S. Congress "thanks but no thanks" for the project that has become a symbol of wasteful government spending.

Virtually every media outlet -- from the Wall Street Journal to FactCheck.org -- that has investigated the claim has found it to be a wholesale fiction. Though Palin did abandon her onetime support for the bridge after winning Alaska's governorship, she did so only after federal dollars dried up. Moreover, she kept the federal funds already given to Alaska.

Yet Palin still continues to use the line in each and every stump speech. In response, the Obama campaign is turning to humor. "On the same day that dozens of news organizations have exposed Governor Palin's phony Bridge to Nowhere claim as a 'naked lie,' she and John McCain continue to repeat the claim in their stump speeches. Maybe tomorrow she'll tell us she sold it on eBay," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

The eBay dig is a reference to another tall tale from the McCain-Palin campaign -- the idea that the governor sold a luxury jet online. Palin herself has scrupulously avoided saying outright that she sold the plane on eBay -- merely saying that she "put" it on eBay. But McCain himself strayed into the realm of untruth last week by claiming that Palin not only "sold it" through the online auction site, but also did so "at a profit." In fact, the eBay auction was a failure, and Alaska had to sell the plane offline, at a $600,000 loss.

Comments

[Teamster]

Good morning team

This should still be story line # 1 A bridge to *nowhere " take a comprehensive evaluation.

Define Political ?

Political , I Will build a bridge for you ?

[erleigh]

A woman conspired with a guy to rub a bank. When police came, the woman helped police arrested the other guy. The woman now became a heroine and got to keep all the money she and her conspirator stole from the bank.

[iblis]

In the end, Palin's vote killed the bridge to nowhere, but the two Senators on the Democratic party ticket voted for the bridge to nowhere!!!!!

[joeblue8]

It is almost unbearable that this "religious women" Palin opens her mouth and out comes lie after lie, half truth and claims that she was against the bridge to nowhere. She was only opposed after Congress stopped most of the funding and than she kept 500 Million for Alaska. She said "thanks but no thanks" and kept the Money?

Shameless Republicans!

[xhibi]

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/876/mccainpalinannanicoleny1.jpg

This picture reminds me of the fact that McCain married Cindy for money and connections and she married McCain for power. Not it has come full circle I guess with Palin "marrying" McCain for power as well.

[Truth4Voters]

Sarah Palin,
Didn't your Pentecostal Minister ever teach you that LYING IS A SIN?

[KiwisCanFly]

WAKE UP.

The problem is that this isn't really a lie.

She gets away with it becos it is a distortion of the truth.

Just like the "put it on Ebay". A distortion. She never actually said she sold it on Ebay. McCain did though.

She implies things. But u can't stick it to her. Similar to the Troopergate scandal.

This is her method.

By playing into it u are just making her look authentic and smeared.

When anti-Palin allegations are exposed on tv (where most people get their info) it appears that she is being victimised!

Stick to the actual lies.

The GOP touting her virtues of being a fiscal conservative, the B/S reform agent, the so-called great executive experience.

There is plenty there to stick it to Palin and expose the GOP as liars. More of the same.

McCain lacking judgment and not up to the seriousness of the CIC.

[mikey683]

Both Joe Biden and Barak Obama voted for the bridge to nowhere.

[jay1975]

Stop going with facts. The left are so scared of Palin that they will make their own look bad and not even realize it. Obama/Biden=weak, untested, unproven, unexperienced candidate and an old D.C. insider. Change you can be scared of.

[ThermoChemist]

Mikey, you and jay (below) seem to be missing the point. This is NOT about "the vote" -- or who voted for what, or when. Heck, EVERY Senator in Congress could have voted FOR the "Bridge to Nowhere" and it is STILL irrelevant to the currently perceived controversy (and the subject of this article).

IMHO, it's about Palin, and McCain, repeatedly claiming falsehoods (um, misleading statements?) about being against the bridge / earmark -- as if she was against it from the very start..!!! She was FOR the bridge before she was against it. Not only that, she took the money for something that she was supposedly "against".

- She is being exposed as a LIAR (um, exaggerator?). [she's not even bothering to say that she "mis-spoke" like H. Clinton did. LOL]
- She is being exposed as a HYPOCRITE. She is somehow AGAINST earmarks but is still willing to take money FROM such earmarks..­!!!

[Deaninphilly]

Forgive me if I'm wrong on this ( I know I'm not), but wasn't it just the other day that A said we need to stop focusing on this nonsense and go after Mc A $ $ ? I do believe so, yet she continues to have one after the other story on this woman.

[rzan1]

Doesn't Sarah know that Jesus doesn't like liars.

[Phil123]

Again! The libs repeat the "Bridge to Nowhere Lie" lie.

[PTAPittbull]

"thanks "lower 48" for the 300 million we will do gods work with that"
"remote native tribe of Alaska we are working on the road to nowhere"
the bridge 2 nowhere will be done at the end of my 2nd term as president of the rapture were everybody will flock to Alaska in the last days.."

that shirt palin was wearing had 999 on it
im scared

[keepacoolhead]

Falsehood, stretching the truth? A lie is a lie and who tells it is a liar.

[Phenomenal1]

Rule #13 of the Right Wing: Repetition makes it true.

[tresstine]

You're right that repeating a lie over and over for Palin and McCain begins to sound
like the truth to them. When Palin performed her 'selling the governor's plane on
Ebay shtick' today, McCain exclaimed "Yeah and she sold it at a profit"!! McCain is
beginning to believe their own lies. He is a pathetic old man. But Palin is young
and solidly Christian.­..is she permitted to lie in the Lord's cause to elect them?

Who will call them out? Distorted exaggerations and blatant lies are now glossed
over by reporters and journalists. What has happened to honest, accountable
reporting? Does the media care so little about their own country to allow such
gross misleading information to be printed as fact?

[dougboney]

i'm just wondering, does sarah palin consider lying a sin? or does she just ask god to forgive her every time she does it........

[rzan1]

She is an evangelical Christian who has been "saved," so she can lie, murder, rape, etc. etc. and it's OK because she has been forgiven in advance. What a load.