Sarah Palin... Working Class Hero!

[Joanne98]

$1.2m struggle for working-class Palin

By Calvin Palmer

To all those ordinary people watching Sarah Palin’s performance in last night’s TV debate and marveling at how just like them she is, think again.

That folksy, doggone, darn it approach is quite engaging but it is all part of an act. Any commonality that she may have with ordinary voters disappears with the knowledge that her total assets amount to $1.2 million.

She is, of course, a lot closer to the ordinary voter than John McCain and maybe even Barack Obama. But she is far removed from her campaign image of a mother struggling to make ends meet like other American working-class families.

The Palin family income comfortably reached six figures last year. Sarah Palin’s salary as governor was $125,000. Her husband, Todd, earned $46,790 working part-time for BP, plus $46,265 from commercial fishing and $10,500 in Iron Dog snow machine race winnings.

Those figures do not include nearly $17,000 in per diem payments Palin received for 312 nights spent in her own home since she was elected governor or the $43,490 she has received to cover travel costs for her husband and children.

Like all Alaskans, each member of the Palin family also received $1,654 in state oil royalties.

Throw in a home worth $500,000, a float plane, two vacation retreats, commercial fishing rights worth $50,000 and the couple are worth somewhere near $1.2 million.

I betcha American families on the median income of $50,000 a year would like to struggle in the same way that the Palin family does. She doesn’t even have any credit card debt, while the average American household has $9,840 of credit card debt.

Palin also likes to present herself as someone who stands up to special interests and yet she is not averse to benefiting from her position of power.

When she was mayor of Wasilla, and how many times did that get dropped into last night’s debate, she raved about an “awesome facial” in a thank note to a local spa she had helped. She thanked a welding supply shop for the “gorgeous flowers” they sent her, along with fresh salmon to take home.

As mayor, she cast the tie-breaking vote to get a tax exemption on aircraft as an owner of a plane. She also asked city planning officials to waive violations of the building code so that she could sell her former house quickly. And when she built her present lakeside home in 2002, she was allowed to build it closer to the lake than regulations allow.

Isn’t that another form of corruption? She seemed very keen on ridding corruption from Wall Street in last night’s debate. Perhaps, she should get her own house in order before she goes on such a crusade.
By the end of this presidential campaign, Palin’s performances, and the emphasis is on performance, might even merit nomination for an Emmy award. As to the category, I will let you decide.


http://calvininjax.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/palins-struggling-american-family-myth/