Sarah Palin and the Plane the Plane - Big Surprise

I hope I can impose myself once more on your intelligence in allowing me to offer some trivia on the Airplane that threatens to ruin the career of a lowdown political hack named Sarah. Everyone knows of the peculiar woman unworthy of reknown and presumed guilty at every turn because her past is so obviously hokey.

It is difficult discussing so clever a person but please bear with me while I try.

I like ORIGINAL SOURCE documents as much as possible. So when I read claims on a Blog - or listen to talk shows - I listen to where they got their info from and go there to see for myself. I have tracked down the original story on the Jet plane and the sales events leading up to it here: ANCHORAGE NEWS - dated April 22, 2007:

Here's the link:

http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/background/story/20

I also read several websites to see how they framed the question of the plane just to see if they were being fair. As I suspected there were no surprises in the facts which seemed fairly straightforward and unbiased. They said - it was practical to begin with, didn't cost the government much money compared to its expenses, and that the former Governor didn't use it that much. They also said that the selling price was well below market and that Sarah lost the state approximately $400,000 - $600,000 on the deal. There was more but that's enough. We don't want to beat the poor girl up too bad.

So, I contacted a Private Jet sales company and asked what their commission was. Then I researched standard commission rates for Private Jet sales. The rates are 2%-6% (the usual fee is 4%) The smaller fee is for jets in the 20 million range. The higher for Jets in the 200k to 4 mill range.

I have never sold anything within 2 years of buying it for the same amount I paid. That is very rare. When you buy something and then sell it - you are no longer in the market and the price is affected. Furthermore, when you buy - you do not have to pay a commission - but when you sell you do. But a $600,000 loss - as the article said - WOWSER - that's Republican misconduct. Where's the Attorney General?

Ok, maybe I'm being too hard on the sweet woman from Wasilla. Let me lighten up and give her the benefit of the doubt. Let's see...

To list something on EBAY is very cheap - and if an item doesn't sell - you get almost all your fees back except a small listing fee. I have sold $10,000 this month on Ebay myself - I have a 100% feedback - and I have been on there since 1998. I normally wouldn't mention these things but we must set the bar pretty high. We at least have to appear as if we know what we are talking about! I do have integrity.

Ok, lets do some math. The former Governor paid 2.6 mill for the plane.

At the time of the first sale it was appraised at 2.45 mill.

Sarah ultimately sells the plane for 2.1.

The plane costs $62,000 per every three months to keep or $250,000 per year - even if it isn't used. She has one year to sell it and if she can't it's overpriced.

It was origimally listed for 2.5 so if it HAD sold on Ebay - no one would have complained and everyone would have eaten Moose.

But why EBAY? That sounds hokey.

So I just went to EBAY and went to Ebay Motors and made a listing for an aircraft asking for 2.4 million dollars in a fixed price sale. Wow - I didn't know. There is no charge for the listing. It's FREE!!!

If someone were to bid on my aircraft - I would have been charged $132.

According to the Newspaper - it was listed 4 times - and did not sell. But that's not uncommon - 85% of RESERVE auctions on EBAY DON'T sale. That's not the point. The point is that it costs nothing to try at that level of sale. Sounds frugal to me. And Sarah had attempted to sell the plane AT FULL APPRAISED MARKET VALUE. It wasn't a deal. You probably wouldn't have hurried to it either.

Alright - that thing made a lot of sense. Are women really that smart?

Had Sarah attempted to sell the Jet with a typical broker - the fee would have been approximately 4-5% of 2.5 mill which would have been - 100-$125,000.

After taking a shot on EBAY - a really sensible thing to do - Sarah negotiated a remarkable deal with a broker. She got an astonishing commission rate of ONLY 1.49% - and paid a measely commission of only $31,290. (the cost of keeping the plane for 6 weeks) {I wonder if the guy had to be quite about her secret baby to get the deal?)

I digress.

So what did the people of Alaska think before Progressives/Liberals/Democrats needed a villian? (Er, sorry - campaign issue)

Here's some quotes from the LOCAL paper.

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski bought the jet, which cost the state about $2.6 million, over the protests of the Legislature and used it to fly around the state, sometimes mixing campaign errands with government business.

{Maybe that's why Sarah beat him. He was tainted and so was the jet. So i went to Wikipedia - surely they know the former Governor meant well. Wiki don't lie! - Republicans lie like Moose)

From Wikipedia - look:

{{On March 4, 2008, Murkowski's former chief-of-staff, Jim Clark, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy after federal investigators discovered Clark had asked oil-field company Veco to illegally pay $68,550 on polls for Murkowski's failed 2006 re-election campaign. Murkowski, Clark's indictment noted, was the only candidate who supported an oil tax and gas pipeline plan that Veco backed}}

***Ooops - more newspaper quotes...

After he defied almost everyone to acquire it, the jet became a political albatross for Murkowski.

One of Sarah Palin's campaign promises was to sell the plane and she's been trying to unload it for months.

Heckmann suggested the asking price of $2,450,000, based on the current jet market.

The state's definitely not going to give this plane away. If that was the case, then they would have sold it on eBay Heckmann said. (the broker who sold 1800 planes before Sarah's)

Meanwhile, the state is stuck making quarterly payments of about $62,000 on the Westwind II. So is the state sick of dealing with this bird?

I don't know about anyone else Spencer said. You don't want to keep making payments on something you're not using. l'll be happy when it sells. I'll be a happy guy.

****

So - it was a campaign promise - and the people elected her to do it. She tried to sell it frugally but not cheap - she worked a great deal - and got the job done. So just exactly what was the complaint? Now please, just for mooseburgers - compare this FACTUAL story when nobody cared - to this story from a liberal paper 2 days ago when everybody needed to.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/20

Hey!!! have you heard what came out today? Sarah went to a mental clinic because the winters in Alaska are so long. I'll go check it out and let you know the real scoop.