Sarah Palin 'Bridge To Nowhere' Video Montage

Sarah Palin's stump speeches have largely stuck to the same script (what the AP describes as "a greatest hits of her convention speech). However, one line that constantly shows up is that Palin said "thanks, but no thanks, to that 'bridge to nowhere.'" Palin's claim of opposing the 'bridge to nowhere' has proven to be a stretch, yet she keeps repeating the same line. Watch Palin use this exact line in seven different stump speeches since the end of the Republican Convention.

Comments

[KarenJW]

Sarah Palin fits in nicely with the re"thug"lican platform. LIE, LIE and then LIE some more! They have nothing positive to offer so they are trying to distract the American public from the issues of importance. And their m o is to lie and malign the only worthwhile candidate in this race, Senator Obama.

An Alaskan voter has the following to say about Sarah Palin:

As an Alaska voter, I know more than most of you about Sarah Palin and, frankly, I am horrified that he picked her.

The most accurate description of her is redneck.
She is a lifetime member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow indiscriminate hunting of
wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and bears.
She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial hunting of these predators from helicopters
> and airplanes, dollars that should have been spent, on Alaska's > failing school system.
We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the country.

She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has 'green' policies. The only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has > consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her home town of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything else that will unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy its environment.

[Lemmy]

Why let the facts get in the way of a good liberal rant?

As Amy Goldstein and Michael D. Shear observed in the August 30 Washington Post, Palin “has angered two of Alaska’s leading Republicans — Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young — by refusing to support their decades-long practice of securing federal money for the state, including Young’s effort to obtain $233 million for a structure dubbed the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ by critics because it would have connected a small town with an island populated with 50 people. In her short time in state office, she has repeatedly thwarted Stevens’s and Young’s interests and, at times, challenged their candidates — including their children.”

Obama and Biden had an excellent opportunity to do the right thing. Just seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina, Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) proposed to transfer $125 million from the notorious Bridge’s budget and instead devote it to rebuilding the Interstate 10 Twin Spans Bridge between New Orleans and St. Tammany’s Parish. The storm chopped up the bridge. Coburn’s amendment failed 15-82. Obama and Biden were among the “nays.” They and 80 other senators preferred to protect the earmarking tradition than to assist Katrina’s tempest-tossed citizens.

[Paisano]

Is everyone shocked that a republican constantly lies?????

[shered]

Thanks, but No Thanks Sarah.
Thanks, but no thanks to the same pork barrel politics, lobbyist and half truths.
Thanks, but no thanks for your brand of motherhood; vetoing a bill for a homeless shelter for pregnant teens and lightweight attempts for health care reform.
Thanks, but no thanks to the Republican’s exploitation of the 9/11 tragedy and fear tactics; to make Americans feel that somehow 9/11 was punishment for having a Democratic president for 8 years.
Thanks, but no thanks to the decency Gestapo tactics. Do we really need more dirty political campaigns?
Thanks, but no thanks to the Palin Puppet. Hasn’t America seen enough of Karl Rove’s puppet show over the last 8 years?
Thanks, but no thanks to more unemployment, more home foreclosures, more dependence on oil, more green house gases.
Thanks, but no thanks Sarah to the McCain/Palin ticket to nowhere….well, at best just to more of the same.

[Lemmy]

Why let the facts get in the way of a liberal rant?

As Amy Goldstein and Michael D. Shear observed in the August 30 Washington Post, Palin “has angered two of Alaska’s leading Republicans — Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young — by refusing to support their decades-long practice of securing federal money for the state, including Young’s effort to obtain $233 million for a structure dubbed the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ by critics because it would have connected a small town with an island populated with 50 people. In her short time in state office, she has repeatedly thwarted Stevens’s and Young’s interests and, at times, challenged their candidates — including their children.”

Obama and Biden had an excellent opportunity to do the right thing. Just seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina, Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) proposed to transfer $125 million from the notorious Bridge’s budget and instead devote it to rebuilding the Interstate 10 Twin Spans Bridge between New Orleans and St. Tammany’s Parish. The storm chopped up the bridge. Coburn’s amendment failed 15-82. Obama and Biden were among the “nays.” They and 80 other senators preferred to protect the earmarking tradition than to assist Katrina’s tempest-tossed citizens.

[iblis]

Governor Palin did stop the bridge to nowhere. Initially she supported the bridge, but on becoming Governor and understanding that the earmarks for her state created problems for the national budget, she changed positions and did in fact kill the bridge to nowhere. On the other hand the "spend like a drunken sailor," Senators Biden and Obama voted for the $223 million earmark for the bridge!!!!

[SailFree]

Wake up! Wake up little children. It's time to awake from that dream and realize you have nominated a nightmare.

[jdw1981]

She has no morals. Not only does she lie like a rug, she is an abysmal parent. Who would force a young girl who had been raped by a wino with HIV to undergo the ordeal of carrying her baby to term? Sarah Palin would. Horrible, despicable woman.

[Lemmy]

And you can spew that vitriol based on the lefty hate you read and post or have you actually sat down and spoken with her? I'm thinking the former.

[jdw1981]

That's her position, she's spelled it out plain as day. NO abortion under ANY circumstances, no matter how horrible or disturbing. That would include one of her own daughters getting raped by a wino with HIV. Nice mom, really a fine Christian.

[Shea4O]

May I ad that there was someone on TV this morning from Alaska that stated Sarah wanted all "rape" kits to be paid for by the VICTIM. WTF? This woman also indicated that Alaska is has the most rape and incest of any state in the US. What does that tell you? Palin is a "legend" in her own mine and we need to take this to the ground.....and get Obama and Biden elected. DONATE,...EVEN IF IT IS JUST $5.00 IT'S STILL A DONATION!

THIS IS SERIOUS!

[rollingdivision]

Is the Associated Press stupid? Here's an AP report published in the New York Times last Sept. 22:

"Gov. Sarah Palin ordered state transportation officials to abandon the ''bridge to nowhere'' project that became a nationwide symbol of federal pork-barrel spending. The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island. ''Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport,'' Ms. Palin, a Republican, said in a news release, ''but the $398 million bridge is not the answer.'' She directed the State Transportation Department to find the most ''fiscally responsible'' alternative for access to the airport."

[70sFez]

The bridge, a span from the city to Gravina Island, home to only a few dozen people, secured a $223 million earmark in 2005. The pricey designation raised a furor and critics, including McCain, used the bridge as an example of wasteful federal spending on politicians' pet projects.

"People are learning that she pandered to us by saying, I'm for this' ... and then when she found it was politically advantageous for her nationally, abruptly she starts using the very term that she said was insulting," Weinstein said.

National fury over the bridge caused Congress to remove the earmark designation, but Alaska was still granted an equivalent amount of transportation money to be used at its own discretion.

The state, however, never gave back any of the money that was originally earmarked for the Gravina Island bridge, said Weinstein and Elerding.

In fact, the Palin administration has spent "tens of millions of dollars" in federal funds to start building a road on Gravina Island that is supposed to link up to the yet-to-be-built bridge, Weinstein said.

"She said 'thanks but no thanks,' but they kept the money," said Elerding about her applause line.

Former state House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican who represented the Kenai Peninsula city of Homer, is also critical about Palin's reversal on the bridge issue.

[Gasparilla]

Except that she was totally in favor of it when it was going to be the federal government footing the bill. It was only when the state was going to have to pay for it that she became "fiscally responsible".

[Shea4O]

SHE TOOK THE MONEY AND KEPT IT AND PUT IT TOWARDS A ROAD TO NOWHERE!!!!

[mschaefer]

To have her repeat this over and over again is yet another Rovian tactic designed to make the issue moot. Constant repetition makes one not hear it after a while, and the repetition I refer to here is the REACTION to the statements she is making. After a while it will just fade into white noise, while giving them more time in the meantime to get something else set up. The republicans have played this masterfully by attacking the media last week, which makes the media this week look like they are proving the republican point last week. Also, by making the election NOT about issues right now, sets them up to make it about issues in the debates, although what those issues will be is not the issues we would like them to be.

[SeeDaddy]

mschaefer, good analysis. I wish more bloggers would engage in deep thought before posting, as you did .

[wadda]

me too;-)

Really, beyond the economy, the war, and our future, the secondary arguments are; these people are not who they say they are; they do not possess the skills/qualities to make the requisite change.

The bridge is iconic of the secondary arguments. It still needs to be stated, but should be held in perspective.

[ReportThis]

Your point is unclear. Are you suggesting that the media or the Obama campaign should give Palin a pass on her lies? And I think you've completely turned around the point of Rovian tactics -- which are predicated upon the idea that constant repetition of the LIE ultimately will mislead voters into believing it to be the truth. Example: Branding Kerry a Flip-flopper. That tactic succeeded because (i) Rove used it every time Kerry took a position, and (ii) neither the media nor the Kerry campaign refuted the Rove-lies promptly as they were made.

[mschaefer]

I do not think the Obama campaign should give her a pass, but I do think that we need to get a bigger picture on what is going on. I think that the "rovian" approach while absolutely repulsive and devoid of intelligent CONTENT, is very intelligent in its PROCESS. This approach seeks to get everyone talking about one particular thing to the exclusion of what really needs to be discussed. We talk about this thing Palin said and while it may be important, it is not nearly as important as the state of the economy, or the war in Iraq, ot the ineffectiveness of the healtcare system, or the unfairness of the tax code, etc. These big issues need to be addressed as completely and simply and often as possible, and every minute we mess around with Palin is another opportunity lost to address more important issues.

[pzdoff]

But.......­....but...­.......but­.........I­t's OK to lie if you're a christian.­..........­..be......­....be....­....becaus­e God forgives liars. What a f-----g hypocrite this woman is.

[Tropiholic]

she's only able to continue this lie because the press allows it

[Bushwillresign]

Seems like the most important factor for a good republican is the ability to lie. You would think honest republicans would tell her she shouldn't keep repeating the same lies again and again.

McCain / Palin - Thanks, but no thanks for the ticket to nowhere.

[Pulemerci]

She was for it before she was Governor. However, as Governor, she did have the project squashed which is a fact. I know it's unheard of for people (even political leaders to change their minds). Didn't Hillary vote to authorize force in Iraq? Didn't John Kerry vote for the war funding bill before he voted against it? I don't think this story has any legs, after all it was killed. If it wasn't and turned out to be pork paradise, then you have a story.

[MRb1000]

Read! I not worried about her. They hit John Edwards the will hit Palin! Can we say Hart.

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/_palin_family_shockers_what_sarahs_really_hiding/celebrity/65407

[MRb1000]

Hey she is lying and here is the proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfLDjmKfigw