Hotline After Dark -- For Palin, Feeling Is Believing

"World News" (from Boston) led with the SCOTUS delaying sale of Chrysler. "Evening News" led with Pres. Obama pressing cabinet to speed stimulus spending. "Nightly News" led with the Air France investigation.

AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is back in the spotlight, particularly due to her recent interview with FNC's Sean Hannity.

Palin, on the current state of the economy: "The federal government is about $11 trillion in debt, and we're borrowing more to spend more. It defies any sensible economic policy that any of us ever learned going through college, defies economy practices and principles that tell you you've got to quit digging that hole when you are in that financial hole. ... America is digging a deeper hole, and how are we paying for this government largesse? We're borrowing from China."

More Palin: "And when you consider that now we own 60 percent of General Motors, or the U.S. government does, consider, but who is the U.S. government becoming more and more indebted to? It's China. So that leads you to have to ask, who really is going to own our car industry, then, in America?"

Hannity: "It does harken back a little to the campaign. Spread the wealth, patriotic duty."

Palin: "Kind of a 'we told you so'?"

Hannity: "Well, is that how you feel?"

Palin: "That's how I feel."

After the jump, more Palin, stimulus spending and the sale of Chrysler.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

Hannity: "Is this even more than you thought was going to be in terms of where the president would take the economy?"

Palin: "What's more than I thought would be is we're hearing a lot of good rhetoric. A lot of this is wrapped in good rhetoric, but we're not seeing those actions, and this many months into the new administration. Quite disappointed, quite frustrated with not seeing those actions to rein in spending, slow down the growth of government. ... Our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize, certainly that is so far from what the founders of our countries had in mind for us."

Hannity: "Socialism?"

Palin: "Well, that is where we are headed, and we have to be blunt enough and candid and honest enough with Americans to let them know that if we keep going down these roads ... that is where we would head."

Palin, on Obama: "Very nice man. I do think, though, that as more and more Americans are tuning in to the discussion on the value added tax. ... National sales tax is going to affect every single one of us and take away more opportunities and freedoms to grow."

Palin, asked if she misses the spotlight: "I love my time in Alaska. At the same time, though, I crave, not my voice, but other voices out there, being bold, being strong, letting Americans know that those who are concerned about the growth of government and about national security issues, they're not alone. ... We're wanting to take action to make sure that economically and physically that our home land is safe and secure."

Palin, asked if she's ready to announce anything about her future: "Heck no."

Palin, asked if she enjoyed the Yankees game with ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R): "That was a blast. ... It was fun. Everybody loved Rudy."

Hannity: "I heard you were pretty popular in New York."

Palin: "It was really cool. It was this once in a lifetime thing for us, spectacular facility, and all those happy faces in New York. We couldn't have asked for more" ("Hannity," 6/8).

THE NEED FOR SPEED

Meanwhile, Obama announced 6/8 that he is accelerating stimulus spending in the next three months and promised to save or create 600K jobs.

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: "This is a mathematical fantasia. ... Economics is the one social science that we imagine has real numbers, hard numbers that you can actually look at and believe. Apart from the fictional 8 percent, which ... was the number the administration said was unemployment that we would hit if we did not have this package -- and of course we're already at 9.5 percent and rising -- is the idea ... about the save and created jobs. That is a complete invention. That's based on nothing. ... It's an attempt to slap a number on to something as a way of making something appear empirical which is, at best, aspirational, and, at worst, cynical" ("Special Report," FNC, 6/8).

Interior Sec. Ken Salazar: "The president was very clear with Vice President Biden this morning, and that is that we have a plan where we're going to have up to 600,000 jobs that are going to be either created or saved over the next 100 days. ... We're confident that we're on the right track."

Salazar, asked what happens if Obama doesn't reach the 600K mark within three months: "The American people rightfully want us to have an economy that is robust and that is strong. And this president has spent more time on this issue perhaps than any other issue because he understands the importance of jobs for the American people. And that's why the plan that we have is robust. It has the entire cabinet engaged. It has the vice president, as its leader, working directly with the president so we make sure that we succeed" ("Ed Show," MSNBC, 6/8).

Ex-McCain spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer, on some saying not enough money has been spent: "It's more than that, because the economy is actually quite resilient. It's the question of, well, how many jobs could have been created under one set of policies vs. another? One thing that's of concern to me, frankly, is ... the numbers that are being quoted are 'jobs created or saved.' ... Only in Washington could you get away with that."

More Pfotenhauer: "That's like saying, if I spend significantly more money, but not as much as I wanted to, that's somehow a cut. Even if you give the administration and Congress credit for those 150,000 jobs ostensibly saved at the same time our unemployment rate went up to 9.4 percent, it still costs out at about $300,000 per job. I would rather cut them all a check for $200,000 and save the taxpayers some money" ("Situation Room," CNN, 6/8).

Weekly Standard's Hayes: "Remember back when the White House was pressing especially hard for passage of the stimulus bill? We heard that if the stimulus weren't passed and weren't passed quickly, we would be on the verge of economic collapse, catastrophe. They refused even to give members of Congress 48 hours to read the bill."

More Hayes: "And I think the most interesting number in light of that little bit of history that we have seen come out in the past week is that they spent only 5.5 percent of this vast sum, $787 billion. What were they doing? ... How is it that they can say with certainty that they will create the 600,000 new jobs, but they haven't been able to project how much money will be spent in the next 100 days?" ("Special Report," FNC, 6/8).

PUTTING ON THE BRAKES

And SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg temporarily delayed the pending sale of Chrysler assets to Fiat.

CNN's Borger: "iI's a setback. It may just be a temporary setback, we don't know, but also, this speaks to the questions of viability of Chrysler, because this Fiat deal was a very, very important part of GM and making GM viable. So, I think that ... this could be a real setback for the administration's plan" ("Situation Room," 6/8).

Wall Street Journal's Moore: "This was a blow to Obama. ... The winners are clearly the creditors who basically got the shaft from this deal. ... The little guy. ... Taxpayers were a winner here, too, because this puts a halt on going forward with the additional taxpayer dollars. The losers, clearly the unions. ... Tim Geithner and the Obama administration are very nervous today, I think" ("On the Record," FNC, 6/8).