Promise of ‘reform’ hard to swallow

Tom Wozniak, Henderson

Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate is the most cynical decision ever made by a national nominee. The Republicans are trying to present her as qualified largely because she can read a speech that she didn’t write.

As the two-year governor of a state with less than half the population of Clark County, of course she isn’t qualified to be president — but is useful to McCain as a distractive hood ornament to pander to Hillary Clinton supporters. In that speech Palin proved that she, like McCain, will do anything to get elected.

Washington has no monopoly on political hacks like Palin, and her claims of “reformer” ring hollow. She backed the “Bridge to Nowhere,” then, when Congress effectively killed it, kept the federal money (ours) for Alaska anyway. Her claim of “thanks but no thanks” is dishonest, and a moral governor would have returned the millions.

The Republicans’ trotting out of “reform” should by now be a laughable tactic, but they have played us for fools before. Accepting the 2000 nomination of his party, George W. Bush hooted: “Tonight, in this hall, we resolve to be not the party of repose, but of reform.”

We have seen what Republican “reform” means: tax breaks for the rich and obscene profits for Big Oil.

Actually, there is another passage from that same speech that applies perfectly to 2008:

“And now they come asking for another chance, another shot. Our answer? Not this time. Not this year.”