Sarah Palin is the only candidate this year who has run a cover-up. She won’t need any on-the-job training in the abuse of power.
Palin has it. McCain, Obama, and Biden don’t.
Why, none of the three men has ever even run a cover-up or stonewalled an investigation. No amount of legislative or military experience can make up for that.
Acting with the sort of decisiveness rarely seen in a mere legislator, Sarah Palin has already told three different stories about firing Walt Monegan as head of the state troopers, and not a single one of them has been true. That’s leadership.
The latest story is that she fired him because he wanted to put more effort into rape cases and she didn’t want him to. That’s creativity; no normal person, looking for an excuse, would have come up with that one.
Sarah Palin: a leader in the tradition of Dick Nixon, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush.
Ready to abuse power on Day One.
Update The cover-up seems to be costing her some popularity back home, especially since it’s being run by the McCain campaign. Alaskans don’t like being pushed around by outsiders.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman