Oh, this is too fascinating not to share!

[heidi]

It seems that Sarah Palin has been a member of the Alaska Independence Party.

ETA: Ah, not actually a member of the party in terms of her voter registration, but her husband was registered as a member of that party until 2002, and she has attended their events at least once and possibly more than that; she sent a message on video to their most recent meeting. /eta

Here's what their platform includes:

* A belief that "the vote for statehood was invalid because the people were not presented with the range of options available to them" and that "the federal government has since breached the contract for statehood on numerous occasions in over a dozen serious and substantial instances."
* A belief that there should be a vote on Alaskan secession.
* Remaining "steadfastly opposed to environmental regulations and actively promotes the private ownership and widespread development of Alaskan land."
* A platform which includes:

[A]mending the Constitution of the State of Alaska so as to re-establish the rights of all Alaskan residents to entry upon all public lands within the state, and to acquire private property interest there in, under fair and reasonable conditions. Such property interest shall include surface and sub-surface patent.

[F]oster a constitutional amendment abolishing and prohibiting all property taxes.

[S]eek[ing] the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska[.]

She also said the following in a 2006 questionaire of all the gubernatorial candidates:

Q: Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

PALIN: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance

As Daily Kos said, "when John McCain's grandfather graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906, the Pledge of Allegiance, as first written, was only fourteen years old. It would not be made the official pledge of the United States until 1942, six years after John McCain himself was born. When John McCain was born, the words "Under God" were not in the Pledge. They would not appear there until 1954, during McCain's senior year of high school."

Is John McCain a founding father now?

And let's not even get into the issue of how well abstinence-only "sex ed" worked for her daughter (who I sympathize with a thousand per cent for having to deal with this in the public eye, which she obviously never sought for herself).

So, a poll, title courtesy of Starship, of course.
[Poll #1252017]

Comments

[blackink.livejournal.com]

There's absolutely no evidence to say that she does in fact support a state's secession, only a welcoming message talking about competition between political parties (inferring she does not belong to the AIP) and valuing other ideals that the party holds. She also refers to upholding the Alaska Constitution, which only became operative after Alaska became a state and says nothing about secession. As for whether or not she was part of it, it's implied in her recorded message that she isn't: "I've always said that competition is so good, and that applies to political parties as well". She never acknowledges supporting secession - she's simply supporting certain values of a political party in an attempt at being civil and recognizing them as legitimate competition. There's nothing that says two different political parties can't agree on certain issues, and what those certain issues did not include is secession. This so-called video evidence has been completely blown out of proportion, and it's attack tactics all around. Given the laughable crap that the Daily Kos has come up with over the past few days (and quickly took down), it's pretty clear they're just a liberal blog pandering to tabloid rumors and not an unbiased and factual news site.

And as for the pledge bit, it sounded like a gaff to me and not something she necessary believes. Yeah, it sounds annoying taken out of context like that, but was it an off-the-cuff remark where politicians often gaff? Was she laughing when she said it? Was 'Under God' or any part of religion mentioned in regards to the Founding Fathers previously in the interview? Show me the whole interview and I'll give you my full opinion on that. But as it stands, to me personally, it doesn't seem any worse than Obama's refusal to wear a flag pin. Unremarkable and irrelevant to her politics. Everyone screws up - and if that's the best the democrats and media can come up with, then that's fantastic.

Also, the bit about Palin being a "heartbeat away from the Presidency" is such an annoying statement that I've been hearing way too much lately. John McCain might be older than the average candidate, but he's intelligent about his health and watches it closely. He also has some of the best medical help in the world. They're aware that he's at risk of a heart attack, and they're careful about it - but who says that Obama won't keel over tomorrow from a massive heart attack or stroke, or any other number of factors occurs? It's a scare-tactics statement, and a ridiculous one at that. And frankly, if Palin did become President because of McCain's untimely demise, then that wouldn't be half as bad as certain others gaining the presidency. I don't think she'd make a bad President at all.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

OK, this is weird, because I wrote an extensive reply to this and it seems to have been Eaten By LJ.So I will rewrite it (albeit with fewer links than it originally had - if you want more links for #2 especially, let me know).

1. The pledge bit was something she wrote in response to the Eagle Forum's questionaire back in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

2. The "heartbeat away from the presidency" is an aphorism that's been around at least since Reagan was shot - when I replied yesterday I linked to articles where it was mentioned in connection with Quayle, Gore, Cheney and Bush #1, as well as Biden. It has nothing to do with McCain's heart precisely - people have said it about every VP candidate in the last 20+ years. The one window I still had open was W's eulogy for Reagan. Just FYI.

3. Her husband was a member of the AIP, and she has attended their events. What would you think if Obama, let's say as a teenager, had attended a single meeting of a group that wanted a vote on the secession of Hawaii? Would you brush it off as easily as you're brushing off the Palins' participation in AIP activities? What do you think Lincoln would say about it?

4. DO you really think that her participation in Stevens' 527 - when McCain has spoken out against 527's - is not a campaign or governance issue? Do you really think that her acceptance of - and lobbying for - earmarks that are on McCain's list of earmarks that he considered problematic is not a campaign issue?

What is a campaign issue for you?