1115.org

WSJ:

On the campaign trail, Gov. Palin has repeatedly attacked Sen. Obama on earmarks. “Our opponent has requested nearly one billion dollars in earmarks in three years. That’s about a million for every working day,” she said at a rally in Albuquerque, N.M.

Sen. Barack Obama requested a total of $860 million in earmarks in his Senate years, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. That doesn’t include $78 million for projects that were national in scope and had been requested by many lawmakers. Sen. Obama halted all earmark requests in fiscal 2009.

It is difficult to compare Sen. Obama’s earmark record with Gov. Palin’s — their states differ in size, for instance, and the two candidates play different roles in the process. But using the same calculation that the McCain campaign uses, the total amount of earmarked dollars divided by the number of working days while each held office (assuming a five-day workweek, every week, for both), Gov. Palin sought $980,000 per workday, compared with roughly $893,000 for Sen. Obama.

Mr. Bounds, the McCain campaign spokesman, called this an “apples and oranges comparison” because Sen. Obama sought more than Gov. Palin and because she cut earmark requests.

How lame is that? It’s fair to compute earmarks per working day for Obama, but it’s unfair to do it for Palin? Because Obama has been in office longer? And because Palin cut earmark requests? It’s a wonder he didn’t say “Because you can see Russia from Alaska.”

Tucker Bounds used to be able to do a lot better than that. Maybe he’s just exhausted by the demands his job has started to place upon him, now that the media has stopped universally worshiping at the altar of St. John of Sedona.

(Incidentally, this calculation was first performed by Alex Koppelman at Salon’s War Room on September 10. Although he came up slightly different numbers — I think his version is right, not the WSJ’s — Palin still beat Obama in terms of earmarks per working day.)

*** Update, 8:26 am ***

Spare some sympathy for Tucker Bounds. This morning he had his trousers removed by Fox News‘ Megyn Kelly, of all people.