Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Sarah Palin's "Little Guy"

Palingates had a very interesting article yesterday regarding yet another Sarah Palin lie - Sarah Palin claimed the Palin brood hopped into the family motorhome and drove from Alaska to Los Angeles, California, to visit her daughter Bristol while she appeared on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, but as Palingates points out, the timing of everything just doesn't fit.  Palingates goes into details about the Palin's fictitious 3400 mile drive, but something else struck me as odd - in a speech made by Palin in San Diego on October 9th, Palin was fond using the phrase "little guy" to associate herself with the common man.

Sarah had used the two words - "little guy" - eleven times in her speech - if you use variants, the count is higher.  Again, check out Palingates for the scoop on that story as well as a full transcript.

"That’s not too much for the little guy to be asking," Palin said.  "Friends, this election is about the little guy, the working man. And that is what the tea party movement is all about too."

If you compare this language to Palin's motorhome comments from a couple days before, you can see why I have a problem with her statements:
"I tell Bristol, I am texting her and say 'Bristol'...and I wasn't kidding, I thought that this was a practical thing to do...'How about if Todd and I we load up all the kids in our motorhome and drive down, park on Rodeo Drive and we come to see you.' And I honestly didn't think that it was an unusual thing to suggest, that's what you do, a road trip. (...) But anyway, that's what we did, though, we parked a little bit further away from Rodeo Drive, and we got to watch Bristol."
Palin's mention was obviously intended to resonate with her audience to make her sound like a "little guy," after all, I have had family events hundreds and thousands of miles away on short notice where I had hopped into my car and drove straight through, but I found Palin's comments insulting.  I would like to ask Palin a couple of questions:
  • How many "little guys" own a motorhome?
  • How many "little guys" can afford the fuel economy of a motorhome (7-14 mpg), especially on a 3400 mile journey?
Motorhomes can cost between $50,000 and $500,000, with the average retail value around $120,000 - that is the pretty close to the cost of a "little guy's" home.  How many "little guys" have the expendable income to purchase a costly motorhome, as well as take off from work long enough to make such travel arrangements, and as I mention above, with the fuel economy of such a vehicle being in the mid-teens or lower, who could afford the gas?  If you look at the Palin's trip, averaging 10 miles per gallon with gas prices around $2.50, we are talking over $800 in fuel for just one way - that's $1,600 for a round trip, and that doesn't even take into consideration wear and tear.


The average household income of motorhome buyers is above $80,000 - much higher then the average income of the "little guy" - Wikipedia states that the average household income of an "average joe" is around $46,000.  If a "little guy" were to take a trip like the Palin's, it would be over 3% of their annual income - higher when you take into consideration additional costs of a "vacation," which according to AAA, the average costs of a family vacation is $1,600, so the Palin road trip is really pushing the limits of "little guy" feasability.

I wasn't offended when BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg used the phrase "small people," in part because English was his second language and because I knew he was a businessman attempting to use colloquial language to do some damage control for his corporation's huge disaster, but what is Palin's excuse?

Sounds as if Palin took a road trip from reality...
 

3 comments:

  1. Sarah was seen on a flight to LA with Piper and Trig when she was supposedly traveling on an RV with family. She had coffe with 2 little nips of Baileys at 8:30am, 20 minutes before landing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also wonder how many "Little Guys" can afford to take roughly 7-8 days off of work on what amounts to a spur of the moment decision. 6 days of travel time non-stop round trip (Todd and Sarah trading off driving duties) plus 1-2 days to watch the show. Curious when her "tweets" or whatever happened. Curious if she was able to bend time and reduce the trip to the several hour plane trip! But she'd probably say Todd knows these awesome shortcuts and their motorhome is pretty speedy.

    You know what the "Little Guy" would have done to see a family member perform live 3000+ miles away?


    Buy a cheap economy class round-trip ticket, stay at a friends house or average hotel (not the $15000 kind like her trip to endorse the Georgia candidate), and then fly back the same way she came after the event. Maybe extend the stay a couple days to get a discounted flight back.

    I wonder if she was campaigning around California this time as well. Maybe some PAC paid for this excursion too hmm?

    ReplyDelete
  3. HA! HA! THE WASILLA HILLBILLIES ARE TAKING

    A ROAD TRIP TO HOLLYWOOD. WOW! JUST ANOTHER

    DAY OF ENTERTAINMENT BY THE PALIN CIRCUS.

    MAMA BEAR SPEWING OUT "WORD SALADS" THAT

    ARE DRIPPING WITH LIES. IN DUMB AMERICA,

    THE PALIN FAMILY KEEPS US ENTERTAINED.

    THANKS MCSAME (McCain)FOR SHOVING YOUR

    SEX KITTEN (Sarah Palin) DOWN OUR THROATS.

    ReplyDelete

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