What does Sarah Palin’s Scandal Mean?

Cody Talley did a great job describing the finding in the ethics investigation against Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. But, what does this mean for the McCain/Palin ticket and the Election?

How did McCain attempt to spin his way out of this mess? Luckily for us the McCain/Palin camp has released a statement on the ‘Troopergate’ Report. Meg Stapleton issued the following statement:

“Today’s report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country.”

Did you catch the spin? They have already vindicated themselves by claiming that the bipartisan report in which a unanimous decision of 12-0 found Sarah Palin guilty of abuse of power.

How did 12 people from different party backgrounds arrive at the same conclusion? I strongly disagree with the McCain/Palin camp’s approach that this is an inquisition led by Obama supporters. Justin Gardner adds, "The legislative committee that approved this report is composed of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats. That’s not just a bi-partisan inquiry, that’s HIGHLY skewed towards a conservative point of view."

Nonetheless, the implications are clear. There is no way that voters will be distracted by this and any support that Sarah Palin may have brought to the ticket has now vanished with this finding.

Sarah Palin can no longer claim to be a reformer or bring change to Washington when she has been practicing the same nonsense back in Alaska.

John McCain’s judgment is not looking any better either. How could a man trust a person he only met once in his life with the second most important position in our government? What made him think it was okay to select Palin even when this scandal loomed in the background?

Independent voters will be turned off by the McCain/Palin campaign. They will not buy into their “Change” claim. Unfortunately for John McCain he has lost any hope of regaining ground. There is no way that McCain can claim a media bias in this finding. There is no way that they can spin themselves out of this mess.

Even if Sarah Palin is redeemed, the damage is done and there is no undoing the negative press they will get. The good thing for McCain is that their base will see this as a rallying call to support Palin no matter what. They will blindly support Palin because in their eyes she is an angel.

The war has just started and with 24 days left, only time will tell how this scandal plays out. One thing is for sure … the Sarah Palin honeymoon is over.