Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.
But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.
Where to begin? For starters, as the folks over at Powerline point out, the claim that the bridge goes to Wasilla is an out-and-out lie:
Note the location of Wasilla in the upper right portion of the map.
The Knik Arm Bridge is not, obviously, a "bridge to [Palin's] hometown of Wasilla," nor does it "link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents." Wasilla is many miles away from the proposed bridge, and, in fact, the quickest route from Wasilla to Anchorage may be the existing one, even if the proposed new bridge is built. The Associated Press just made up those inflammatory statements to try to prejudice you against Sarah Palin and to help the Obama campaign.
Here is the image with the proposed bridge on it:
Now, if you use Google maps to calculate driving distances from Wasilla you get the following results:
Wasilla to Achorage (city limits): 38.6 mi. (37 minute drive time)
Wasilla to Point MacKenzie Rd (where bridge will be built): 39.3 mi. (1 hour 26 minute drive time.)
Now, obviously, they could improve road access to the new bridge, but, even then, it will in no way lessen the distance from Wasilla to Anchorage. And, as anyone who has lived in a town next to a major river could tell you, if you have a choice between driving a route across a bridge or one that doesn't use a bridge, you'll take the land route every time as bridges invariably cause backups.
On this basis alone the AP story is demonstably false and ought to be retracted with an apology.
But the duplicity continues:
The governor initially championed the first so-called Bridge to Nowhere, which would have connected the southeastern Alaska town of Ketchikan to its airport on nearby Gravina Island. She later pulled the plug on the project after it became a national symbol of extravagant federal spending. [emphasis added]
Before, Palin was presented as not having objections to the Gravina bridge when she was campaigning for Governor; now the AP is presenting Palin as a driving force behind the legislation which is a distortion so far removed from the facts it is laughable.
Well, it would be laughable if it were not an attempt to smear one political party for the benefit of another.
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