Immediate Reactions to Palin's Second Interview

These are just my immediate reactions. I've not done a lot of research yet, but I may save that for tomorrow (or some other time).

Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin what the McCain Administration would do differently from George W. Bush in terms of the economy. Her answer was: (1.) cut government spending, (2.) cut taxes, and (3.) have the government oversee lending companies.

(1.) is definitely different from what the Bush Administration has done, which is to increase federal domestic spending. But I wonder where McCain stands on some of the laws that did so. How about the pork-laden transportation bill? Or the corporate welfare-laden energy bill? Or that expensive prescription drug benefit? Unfortunately, Palin didn't provide a lot of specifics on how McCain would spend money differently from Bush.

(2.) is a worthy proposal. But does McCain propose reducing taxes further, or only making the Bush tax cuts permanent? Or maybe he wants to do both. Personally, I think that the middle class tax burden should go down further. And I wouldn't mind seeing a reduction in corporate taxes. I think I read somewhere that McCain supports further tax cuts.

(3.) is good too, especially since Bush on one occasion undermined states' rights to ensure that they didn't regulate the lending companies. I have a Washington Post article somewhere in my files that talks about this. I'm all for a free market, but it's good to have oversight to see that people are playing fair.

I didn't understand her answer on the Bridge to Nowhere. Charlie Gibson should have told her what he said yesterday: "there's a fog of words there," or something like that. To her credit, however, she wasn't afraid of the topic, since she brought it up.

There were other interesting things, such as ownership of guns being part of Alaska's culture, and her being part of that Title-whatever generation, which opened up sports to women. The title had a number, but I forget what it is. I remember reading Phyllis Schlafly's criticism of it.

Well, there's a lot to look up there! But those are my immediate reactions. My impression is somewhat the same as yesterday's: she sounds like she's spouting a bunch of cliches, until I think about what she's saying and realize that she makes sense.