Newsmax Exclusive: Alaska's Joe Miller Declares
US Has 'Gone Bankrupt'
Wednesday, 25 Aug 2010 07:15 PM
By: David A. Patten
After driving incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of
defeat in Tuesday's Alaska primary, dark horse Senate candidate
Joe Miller attributed his surprise showing to the "sweat equity"
of volunteers and voters' recognition that the United States
already has gone bankrupt.
And he contends that the media's depiction of the race as a
Murkowski-Palin family feud was a "manufactured story."
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, the staunch fiscal
conservative laid out one of the key messages of his campaign:
that the nation has "gone bankrupt."
"The focal point for Alaskans is that the nation's gone bankrupt,"
Miller said. "And that the kind of entitlement mentality that has grown
up around us — basically the federal government having all the answers
and all the controls — is something that Alaskans out of their common
sense know just cannot continue."
Asked to support his contention that the federal government is
insolvent, Miller replied: "Well, when you have the Chinese buying less
debt, when you have a Chinese bond-rating agency lowing the credit
worthiness of our debt, when you have according to recent reports up to
as much as $130 trillion in future unfunded obligations, and well over
$13.3 trillion in absolute debt, nearing 100 percent debt-to-GDP, I
don't think there's any other way to describe it but bankrupt.
"That certainly is the average American's perspective. And I think it's
a common sense perspective," he said.
With 429 of Alaska's 438 precincts counted, Miller is leading Murkowski
by 1,960 votes. Miller won 45,909 votes, or 51 percent, to 43,949 for
Murkowski, which is 49 percent.
More than 7,600 absentee ballots remain to be counted, however.
The absentee ballot count is scheduled to begin Aug. 31. Some pundits
believe those votes will benefit Murkowski, because many of them were
cast prior to what appeared to be Miller's last-minute surge.
In his interview with Newsmax, Miller said it was more than just the
endorsement of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that made the difference.
But he conceded, "Obviously, her endorsement gave us national
prominence."
Miller cited the many other endorsements his campaign received,
including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Alaska Lt. Gov.
Loren Leman.
He added that his remarkably strong showing shows "average Alaskans of
all stripes [are] embracing the idea that government needs to be limited
by the Constitution, and recognizing that the era of the entitlement
state is over, and that Alaskans want to get control of their destiny,
control of their state. And I really believe that's what carried the day
ultimately in this race."
Miller bridled at what he called the "manufactured story" that the GOP
Senate primary represented a family feud between the Murkowski and Palin
clans.
In 2006, Palin defeated Lisa Murkowski's father, former Alaska Gov.
Frank Murkowski, in the GOP gubernatorial primary for Alaska. Palin ran
on a good-government platform, and went on to win the general election,
which ultimately propelled her onto the national political stage.
But Miller said the media's portrayal of the primary as a Hatfield-McCoy
showdown is "totally inaccurate." He attributed it to a "misperception"
among the national press corps.
"They don't understand things here in Alaska, and that's not a
surprise," Miller told Newsmax. "Again, this was a race that was run
well by both campaigns. Both campaigns earnestly worked toward the goal.
"But I can tell you from my perspective as a candidate, from what I
could see amongst volunteers, there was absolutely no personal animosity
or motivation in the work that was done on the campaign. I mean it was
completely about the direction we wanted to take the state and the
nation in.
"So again, I think it's kind of a manufactured story, if you will,"
Miller said. "It's what perhaps the national media wants to see, but
it's certainly is not what has motivated troops on the ground here in
Alaska."
According to Miller's website, he grew up in Kansas and relocated to
Alaska about 16 years ago. A Yale Law School grad, he graduated with
honors from West Point and went on to serve in the First Gulf War, where
he was awarded a Bronze Star. He practices law in Fairbanks.
Miller said he plans to reach out to Republicans who voted for
Murkowski, and build coalitions.
Asked by Newsmax to explain how his candidacy flew under the media
radar, Miller said: "I think it's a disconnect [in] the national media
to events in Alaska. We knew that this race was going to turn on the
volunteer network here. It's a small state population-wise, word of
mouth really does have an impact . . . but the sweat equity of the
volunteer network, as well as just the good, solid, common-sense ideas
of Alaskans.
"It's very difficult to, shall we say, mislead Alaskans," Miller told
Newsmax. "They want to get to the source, they want to get to the truth.
They understand that the nation is in crisis. They understand the state
has entered a new political era, that the country must do the same. So I
think it's a combination of not just the size population-wise, but also
the solid, common-sense approach that Alaskans have and the fact that
our message resonated strongly with that."
The winner of the GOP primary will square off against Sitka Mayor Scott
McAdams. Salon.com reports that McAdams had raised less than $10,000 for
his campaign as of June.
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