Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) has maintained a blistering attack on Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), doing everything but actually calling Obama a socialist outright. According to Palin, Obama’s ideas, associates and tax policies are socialist. Obama’s comments on redistributing wealth have received the heaviest criticism. The only logical conclusion, of course, is that Obama too must be a socialist. Is it possible that Palin isn’t in the best position to be casting such aspersions?
Alaska is sometimes described as America’s socialist state because of its collective ownership of resources, an arrangement that allows permanent residents to collect a dividend on the state’s oil royalties. Since coming into office in 2006, Palin has governed the state at a time of record oil prices, which means record dividend checks: this year some $3,200 for every Alaskan.
It may come as a surprise to learn that Palin is not immune to some of the socialist proclivities for which she has been attacking Senator Obama. Palin gave an interview to the New Yorker in September, 2008 wherein she confessed: “And Alaska—we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”
This meshes nicely with Palin’s “Alaska First” credo. One wonders though, if sharing the wealth is good enough for Alaska, isn’t it good enough for the rest of America?
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Alaska, Obama, Republican, Sarah Palin, Socialism
nice blog.
What will Sarah do now that oil has plummeted in price-per-barrel? How will she meet the state’s budget? Has she addressed this yet, or is she too busy doing interviews and (ghost) writing her book?