Sarah Palin's husband, Todd Palin, under fire in Alaska, campaigns in Maine

We know Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin loves her First Dude. Still, we were a little surprised at how she went on about him during a rally in a hockey rink in Johnstown, Penn. She mentioned that she planned to attend an NHL game in Philadelphia on Saturday night and added:

"Sorry my husband won’t be there. He’ll be up in New Hampshire today and then Maine. I think you would like Todd. We need to bring him here so you can meet him. He’s a guy like many of you. He works with his hands, he works up in the North Slope oil fields, and he’s a world-champion snow-machine racer. And he’s a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union. Hard-working all-American guy, and I tell ya, he would feel right at home here."

A couple of hours later, we received an e-mail from the McCain campaign, offering "A little color from Todd Palin's event today on the trail."

More than 500 people showed up, said the campaign, when Palin visited Moosehead Trail Trading Post in Palmyra, Maine. They shook his hand, asked for autographs and posed for pictures.

Added Sarah Palin's spokeswoman Maria Comella:

"He spoke to the crowd about the importance of a McCain-Palin ticket and received loud cheers when he noted the McCain-Palin ticket had picked up the NRA endorsement."

Now, as noted elsewhere on this blog,  the campaign is a turning into a series of back-and-forths designed to win the upper hand in the battle for better PR.

So, on the day after a committee of the Alaska Legislature found that Todd Palin's pervasive influence in the Alaska governor's office made state employees uneasy, perhaps it's no shock that the campaign wants to let the world know about his efforts on behalf of the McCain-Palin ticket.

And that his wife, like most any candidate out there on the trail, wants the blue-collar, socially conservative voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania to know: He's just like them.

--Robin Abcarian

Photo credit: McCainPalin08

Comments

[mavisdarling]

So, Sarah is telling all these blue-collar dudes that they are vindictive, obsessive, unethical, harassing, power addicted MORONS?

Nice!

I would be very offended if I was one of those guys.

[NH]

Could there be anything more insignificant that this totally trumped up thing called 'troopergate'? It is the governor's purview to fire bad cops and we commend her for it. It was the UNION who asked for this investigation and thus the report was 'jaundiced'. The trooper himself, Mike Wooten, even SUPPORTS SARAH. He never lost his job and admits he was out of control. If Monhegan was fired, it was likely for something else. We didn't see you liberals get your knickers in a knot when Hillary spent $14M of our taxdollars to run her health care seminars in the White House did you? Did you object her interference in the Clinton presidency? Did you care about the baggage her husband carried with him from HIS days as governor of Arkansas where he ODed on cocaine?

Speaking of lack of judgment there is hardly room here for me to write about the sordid past of Barack Hussein Obama. Sarah Palin cannot be compared to him, as she rises so far above in both experience and honesty.

Let's see:

Funded by Nazi sympathizer and terrorist enablers Soros and Brzezinski (Soros broke the banks of several countries and is a convicted international criminal, ZB enabled the Iranian madman. Soros pretended to be Catholic and helped Hitler take possessions from Jews before sending them to the camps)

Admitted coke user as late as 1999

Racist ties to Wright, Farrakhan (who called him Messiah)
and sat in a racist church for 20 years

Radical ties to murders Ayers and Dohrn where he worked with and for Ayers on the Annenberg school 'reform' project where they infused political activism into the students using foundation money.

Lawyer for ACORN and CRA who caused the financial crisis - his job was to strongarm companies into giving loans to people who could not afford them, under the charge of 'racism'

Took money from criminal Tony Rezko and may even get arrested himself for this

Brother Odinga is detaining reporters in Kenya -- this is a guy who supports 'necklacing'

And possibly bi-sexual who had sex in the back of a limo with Larry Sinclair..

I could go on but you get the picture?

Sarah is an angel with wings compared to this CREEP!

[NH Fan]

NH,

You are right on.

However, I'm still voting for the half white guy.

Hockey moms rule!!!

[Alden Smith]

NH's response is typical of the rants we expect from the Republican party. The issue here is not about bashing Obama, or saying what an "angel" Sarah Palin is. It is about Todd Palin's interference in the government of the state of Alaska. There is no definition that I know of that says the husband of a governor can take it upon himself to step in and try to do his wife's bidding in a matter that has no business in government. And that is what this is all about. I, for one, will be very happy to see this election come to an end and have the radicals driving this election crawl back into the woodwork.

[IndependentForObama]

Sarah and Todd Palin remind me of an episode of Ma & Pa Kettle.

[swing state bluesblog]

"Extremis malis extrema remedia" or, "extreme remedies for extreme ills," accurately describes the state of the McCain campaign right now. Terminally ill and on its last legs, its desperate strategists are going to the extreme, spewing out one lie after the next like a cat vomiting up hairballs.
Will Americans willingly 'drink the kool-aid' that McCain/palin are literally forcing down our throats? While "NH" who posted here certainly has, I hear a lot of gagging where I come from.

[Heather]

Dear NH,

I am all for calling a spade a spade. However, some of your information is lacking substance.

Obama was cleared of any wrongdoing with Rezco, just as McCain was cleared in the Keating Five Scandal. You do remember the savings and loan scandal, don't you?

The comparison is not between Palin and Obama. McCain is running for president, not Palin. You should be more willing to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

The Ayres ties? Well, Ayers is a prominent professor in Chicago. It has been proven their tie is, at best, limited to educational issues.

I believe you are doing yourself a great injustice by listening to the media.

Palin and her husband have affiliations with AIP. This is a party that is well known for wanting to secede from the United States.

I also believe there should be a separation in church and state. Palin has shown that many of her decisions and influence while in office, has been religion.

I am not willing to compare Palin to Obama, for the simple fact, the power they have will differ greatly, if elected. There is a reason Palin is running as the vice presidential nomination and not as top gun.

I will be interested in hearing more of what you have to say on these issues. I think debating between voters can be pleasant and informational to both sides.

[bob]

NH,

You are a simple minded jerk who is so far off the mark as to be insane. Sarah Palin is a disgrace and should be kicked off the ticket. You also need a good kick up the backside. You are a trash talking idiot!

[lou]

It is pitiful how Palin attacks Obama's past associations.
This comes from the Rhett Butler Palin family,who while a members of the Alaska Indepenedence party, adocated for the secession of Alaska. This isn't 1860 South Carolina. This is 2008. This election is about Judgement. If we want poor judgement, just keep Bush in office. Poor judgement in the Keating 5, Poor judgement in that watergate burglar G Gordon Liddy. Obviously McCain is of the ilk of government within the government. The very thing JFK warned about! McCain applauds Liddy. Calls this ex-con friend, after crapping on the constitution. Just like the Nazi's in ww2, I vas just following orders! Liddy, an ardent Hitler admirer calls McCain friend and likewise.Poor judgement in destroying 3 naval aircraft. Poor Judgment in choosing to primp out Hockey-mom Sarah Palin, because she's an attractive distraction that puts a pretty face on old poisonous ideas.
Poor judgement because he appears to be subconciously, looking for and rousing the right, wingnut, to commit some unspeakable act against Obama. He is disgustingly shamefull in his blatent grab for power. It should be no surprise this friendship with Liddy. If Palin was smart she would distance herself from this maniacal dinosaur, for her own political future.
McCain and Bush are so close in policy, they are one and the same. Hence, McCain/Bush. Which incidentally is a perfect anagram for Mabus. Ask Nostradamus.
http://www.squidoo.com/McCain_and_Gordon_Liddy

[lou]

It is pitiful how Palin attacks Obama's past associations.
This comes from the Rhett Butler Palin family,who while a members of the Alaska Indepenedence party, adocated for the secession of Alaska. This isn't 1860 South Carolina. This is 2008. This election is about Judgement. If we want poor judgement, just keep Bush in office. Poor judgement in the Keating 5, Poor judgement in that watergate burglar G Gordon Liddy. Obviously McCain is of the ilk of government within the government. The very thing JFK warned about! McCain applauds Liddy. Calls this ex-con friend, after crapping on the constitution. Just like the Nazi's in ww2, I vas just following orders! Liddy, an ardent Hitler admirer calls McCain friend and likewise.Poor judgement in destroying 3 naval aircraft. Poor Judgment in choosing to primp out Hockey-mom Sarah Palin, because she's an attractive distraction that puts a pretty face on old poisonous ideas.
Poor judgement because he appears to be subconciously, looking for and rousing the right, wingnut, to commit some unspeakable act against Obama. He is disgustingly shamefull in his blatent grab for power. It should be no surprise this friendship with Liddy. If Palin was smart she would distance herself from this maniacal dinosaur, for her own political future.
McCain and Bush are so close in policy, they are one and the same. Hence, McCain/Bush. Which incidentally is a perfect anagram for Mabus. Ask Nostradamus.
http://www.squidoo.com/McCain_and_Gordon_Liddy

[mark]

Todd-SCOOTER-Palin the hot headed dirty little henchman is getting NO CHANCE to share Vice Presidential powers.
In 23 days the entire Lower 48 will say "Sarah Who?"

[rob]

I always admired McCain, who was very funny on the Daily Show and Saturday Night LIve, but there's not a chance I'd vote for him now. There's a lot of great Republicans he could have chosen as a running-mate but he truckled to the idiot extremist wing, who's been in charge of the Presidency for the last 8 years and of Congress from 1994-2006, to such great result.

McCain lacks judgement and experience, which in a 46 year old might be understandable, but in a 70+ year old is utterly unforgivable.

[James Stroud]

Amazing how all of these blind republicans can't see the fact that 8 Republicans and only 4 Democrats approved the investigator's findings. I'd be asking why Palin is so bad that even her own party is turning on her in her own state? More Republicans than Democrats hate her!

[Brnmar]

Sen McCains' supporters are getting totally out of hand.

A Christian minister who made the invocation at a Sen McCain rally today in Iowa, said that millions of non-Christians were praying for Sen Obama to win. He then asked G-d, "to guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their G-d is bigger than you."

This minister sounded like one of the religious zealots during the Crusades in the Middle Ages.

In reference to Congressman Lewis comment about the type of people attending Sen McCain/Gov Palins' rallies I say this:

Congressman Lewis was right in the midst of those hateful days in the 1960s. If he is reminded of those days when he see the kind of behaviour of some of the people who have been attending Sen McCain/Gov Palins' rallies; then he has a right to voice his opinion.

Sen Obama cannot tell Congressman Lewis what he can or cannot say. Mr Lewis is not part of Sen Obamas' campaign staff.

Read about Gov Palins' radical right-wing friends in Alaska. She sent them warm greetings earlier this year at their annual gathering.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_

[Roof]

NH..... It's nice to see, someone actually reads radical rag sites. Congrats!

However, McCain earned the title "Songbird", long ago. He confirmed his title during his acceptance speech, of course you probably overlooked his 'I BROKE". He's a traitor, that's why VETS are against this guy. He sold those guys out, that kept him alive. They were the real heroes.

McCain is joined at the hip with Liddy, a convicted felon.

Now carry on, with your baseless accusations. Keep flinging, because you got nothing sticking.

[Emily]

I know why she was talking him up--read the whole troopergate report. Todd Palin sounds like a creepy stalker, and she wanted to get some good PR out there about what a nice all-american guy he is...when he's not following people taking photographs and carrying out family vendettas, that is.

The whole family comes off as a redneck, backwoods, not-too-bright bunch. The Palins seem to have spent a lot of time harrassing Wooten. They could have better spent that time supervising their out of control teenagers and working on their own family values.

[tlsmith1963]

Todd Palin is creepy. He is always by Sarah's side. McCain's wife isn't always by his side. I guess Todd thinks he is running for VP, too.

[Hunner]

I am shocked that some of you believe Sarah Palin's actions were for a noble cause. We live in a democracy and you cannot matters into your own hands, regardless of your position. She violated the Code of Ethics. She was well aware of the code and swore upon taking the oath of office to abide by those rules. She most definitely should be penalized for having broken a Code that she swore to uphold. Shame on those of you who try to make excuses for her behavior. Wrong is wrong!! He brother-in-law was wrong for what he did, but she abused her power and over-stepped when she used her position for personal matters.

[Hunner]

It is time for us all to demand a focus on the economy. While voters are ranting and raving about race, troopergate, etc., the stock market continues to report record low numbers. We are in trouble and if we do not force the politicians to focus on the real issues, we are going to feel the pain of what is happening with the economy for years to come. I do not trust McCain, because he has the most experience, but he has not focused on the issues. He made this campaign about character, so much so that it has affected his own character standing.

I say it's time for us voters to demand answers so that we know what we are getting ourselves into. Out of the candidates, the one with the least experience provides the most answers.

[Pop]

Who is this John McCain anyway?

[Elizabeth Conley]

Liberals betray their hateful agenda every time they pretend outrage over the trumped up "Troopergate". It's ridiculous that having a politician in the family should make anyone that much more vulnerable to an abusive, out of control state trooper. "If you've got a politician in the family, then you're fair game for law enforcement officers gone bad." Is that the message, Loopy Left? What exactly to you stand for, anyway? Hypothetically speaking, "What Would Jefferson Do?" I'd love to hear your spin on that question.

Liberals are total loons, and "Troopergate" proves it.

[Paul]

I think the Christian conservatives are hypocrites. Jesus asks for people to forgive others, even enemies, sins but the CC's never forgive the sins of those they don't like. It seems to me that George Bush was a horrible alcoholic and cocaine addict. The CC's forgive and forget that so why are they so reluctant to forgive Barack Obama anything. They should remember that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

[hottopics]

John McCain what in the world were you thinking? I hate the fact that I even know of her. I say we take her off the endangered list and lock her up in a mental ward and let's hope she never takes you off the endangered list Senator McCain - you better watch your back.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/10/bush-to-palin-b.html