Below The Beltway

In the week or so since Sarah Palin has been in the public eye, there have been a lot of rumor swirling around about her.

One of the first that surfaced was the rumor that her fifth child Trig Palin was actually her daughters, a false rumor which led to the revelation that Bristol Palin was in fact currently five months pregnant. That story led to the rumor that she had cut state funding for teen mothers while Governor. Then, there was the rumor that she was a supporter of Pat Buchanan during his 1996 Presidential campaign. She was also rumored to have been supportive of advocating teaching creationism in public schools after she became Governor of Alaska, and having been a member of the Alaska Independence Party, which advocates secession from the United States. And, finally, there was the rumor that she had attempted to ban library books while Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

Well, much as they did with rumors about Barack Obama’s citizenship, the people at FactCheck.org have looked at these rumors have found them lacking:

We’ve been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

• Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.

• She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a “What if?” question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin’s first term.

• She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.

• Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska’s schools. She has said that students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of the evolution question, but she also said creationism “doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”

The details supporting their conclusions can be cited at the link and it’s fairly convincing.

There are, I think, good reasons to be skeptical about McCain’s choice of Palin as his Vice-Presidential running mate, but there’s no place in the debate for making stuff up.