The Corpus Callosum

One of the controversies about VP candidate Sarah Palin has to do with the sale of the gubernatorial jet.  She attempts to bolster her claim, that she is a fiscal conservative, by saying that she sold the State's jet, claiming it was an unnecessary expense.  She sold the 2.7 million dollar jet for 2.1 million.  She sold it to one of her campaign contributors.  Pretty good deal for the contributor.

Angry Bear describes the controversy.  This reminds me of two things, one trivial, the other potentially inflammatory.

In Michigan, in the 1990's, the governor was John Engler.  He made a show about selling the State's helicopter.  The previous governor (Blanchard) claimed that the helicopter had been needed to get around the State in a timely manner.  Engler sold it anyway.  But he later got pulled over twice, for having his chauffeur drive 90 MPH.  He did not get ticketed either time, because he claimed that he had to get to some important function.  Should have kept the helicopter.  That's the trivia.

The other thing it reminded me of is this story, regarding Duke Cunningham:

Cunningham, 63, sold his San Diego-area house in 2003 for $1.6 million to defense contractor Mitchell Wade, who then sold it for $700,000 less.

The transactions sparked allegations that the contractor had bought the house at the higher price as payback for Cunningham's pressing the Pentagon to award contracts to the defense contractor.

Cunningham is now in prison.  Incidentally, he is seeking a pardon from outgoing President Bush.

Was Palin's airplane sale a disguised sort of payback?  Don't know.  Was it a below-market price?   A report in the Chicago Tribune indicates that the final sale price was $300,000 less than the broker's asking price. 

It would be easier to believe that Palin was sincere if she had solid credentials as a fiscal conservative, and was not prone to theatrics.  But while mayor of Wasilla, she (reportedly) increased government spending by 33%.  The town had no debt when she took office, but was $22 million in debt when she left.  Much of this was for a sports complex.  The construction was not planned very well.   They began construction before the town had a clear title to the land.  As reported in the WSJ:

The misstep led to years of litigation and at least $1.3 million in extra costs for a small municipality with a small budget. What was to be Ms. Palin's legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.

Later, as governor of Alaska, she recommended the sale of bonds to pay for road projects, even though Alaska has a budget surplus.  Why borrow, when you have the cash?

What does one do with such reports about a controversial figure?  The innuendo about the airplane-as-payback likely cannot be proved.  The initial story about her financial management was checked by Snopes, but they only verified the authorship of the story, not the accuracy of the report.  However, the fact that the initial story meshes with the WSJ report does lend some credibility.

In the next couple of months, we will see an avalanche of similar items about all the candidates, their spouses, their kids, their dogs, hamsters, and the fleas on the hamsters.  We need to pay attention to these reports, but treat them with reasonable skepticism.