The Vig

Support from other Americans and Alaskans is needed also to move forward with the proposed bridge between Revillagigedo and Gravina islands, she said. “People across the nation struggle with the idea of building a bridge because they’ve been under these misperceptions about the bridge and the purpose,” said Palin, who described the link as the Ketchikan areas potential for expansion and growth.
Ketchikan Daily News August 9, 2006

“Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer,” said Governor Palin. “Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island,” Governor Palin added. “Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened.” The Department of Transportation has approximately $36 million in federal funds that will become available for other projects with the shutdown of the Gravina Island bridge project. Governor Palin has directed Commissioner Leo von Scheben to review transportation projects statewide to prepare a list of possible uses for the funds, while the department also looks for a more affordable answer for Gravina Island access.
The governor’s official website. 9/21/2007

“She didn’t make the announcement here in Ketchikan. She didn’t alert local mayors that she’d made the decision. She didn’t notify Ketchikan’s Representative or Senator, or even the Congressional delegation, apparently, that a decision was made and an announcement was on its way. No, the effective end of three decades of effort towards a bridge was announced in a press release launched – perhaps coincidentally – early in the day to meet the East Coast media deadlines.”

Ketchikan Daily News Editorial, 10/11/07 - on Palin’s abrupt decisions to cancel the bridge funding by sending out a 5am press release to hit East Coast news cycles.

Fast forward to last night…

“I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere.  If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves.”

So now Alaskans never wanted the bridge?  Weird.  But she still took the money Congress had already given her.  Nice.  I wonder what that went toward instead.

She’d used that line a time or two over the weekend, but was shocked when she went back to it again last night.  The people of Alaska know what she said.  And they know that when the political winds shifted, so did she.

That speech last night scared the heck out of me because it was delivered well and with a smile.  But it’s a long time between now and election day.  You get the feeling that some of those images and quotes could come back to haunt them come mid-October.