The Palin-Hoffman Credibility Gap

There’s been a lot of ink spilled the last few weeks about what turns people off about the “conservative” message carried by Doug Hoffman and Sarah Palin.

Here’s my beef in a nutshell.

When Palin was governor of Alaska, her state led the nation in the amount of porkbarrel spending and earmarks, which she now attacks.

Alaska also led the nation in the amount of Federal spending per capita, gobbling up nearly $2 for every $1 the state’s residents paid in taxes.

(Most “liberal” states, like New York, actually receive less money back in spending than we pay in taxes.)

Her state (where I lived most of my life) has never been a libertarian, moose-hunting frontier.

On the contrary. It is a place that symbolizes the kind of “rural socialism” that dominates much of small town America.

The same rural socialism is endemic here in the North Country, where 45% of the take-home pay is supplied by taxpayers — most of them living elsewhere.

Mr. Hoffman himself began his public career as CFO for the 1980 Olympic Games, which had to be bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

During the campaign I asked him repeatedly what Federal programs he would cut to reduce government spending in the district.

I thought it would be a chip shot. After all, reducing the Federal deficit was the cornerstone of the Hoffman campaign.

But he could cite only two examples: a schoolyard paving project in Lake Clear and the general concept of “earmarks.”

He declined to name a single major spending program (healthcare for the region’s elderly? stimulus money for rebuilding the Crown Point bridge?) that he would condemn or substantially reduce.

But the truth — as any serious person knows — is that smaller government is impossible without cutting three major programs: national defense and intelligence, social security, and medicare.

(Earmarks represent roughly 1% of the Federal budget.)

The irony is that there’s only one politician in New York (in the country?) who’s actually talking about making substantive cuts to government.

That’s Democratic governor David Paterson. And unlike Palin, he didn’t quit.

Until the conservative movement can develop a coherent and credible platform, one that goes beyond the “I want to give you your money back” slogans, the credibility gap will continue to grow.