"We've now had a week of blaring headlines and one-liners about Sarah
Palin as the mavericky, pork-busting reformer from Alaska. But we seem
to be witnessing the first stirrings of a backlash and a dawning
realization that the 'Sarah Palin' we've heard so much about over the
last few days is a fraud of truly comical dimensions.

"The McCain camp has made her signature issue shutting down the Bridge
to Nowhere. But as The New Republic put it today
<http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/09/08/she-stopped-the-bridge...>
that's just "a naked lie." And pretty much the same thing has been
written today in Newsweek
<http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/08/politics-of-the-bridge...>,
the Washington Post
<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/08/claiming_the_maverick_brand...#more>,
the AP
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRIDGE_TO_NOWHERE_FACT_CHECK?SITE=TXHOU&SECTION...>,
the Wall Street Journal
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122090791901411709.html>. Yesterday
even Fox's Chris Wallace called out Rick Davis on it
<http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/tpmtv_sunday_show_roundup_bett.php>.

"On

earmarks she's an even bigger crock. On the trail with McCain they're
telling everyone that she's some kind of earmark slayer when actually,
when she was mayor and governor, in both offices, she requested and got
more earmarks than virtually any city or state in the country.

"Think about that. On the stump, not a single word that comes out of
her mouth -- or not a single word that the McCain folks put in her
mouth