Interestingly, all four candidates are from border states: McCain’s home state borders Mexico, Obama’s shares a border with Canada, and Biden’s Delaware is next to New Jersey.

From 1992-1996 when Palin served on the City Council of Wasilla, Obama was teaching part time at the University of Chicago Law School and working in private practice part time.

In 1996 when Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate, Palin was elected Mayor of Wasilla, AK.. Obama worked for legislation that would provide tax credits and subsidies to private devilopers of affordable housing. Tony Rezko received over $87 million in government funds to renovate and maintain affordable housing units, many of them in Obama’s disctrict. Many of these units lacked heat, had leaking roofs and were infested by rodents. Palin ran her small but growing city with a budget just under six million dollars and about 50 employees, and was reelected in 1999.

In 2003, Palin was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. When she uncovered corruption in the organization, and was unable to get Governor Murkowski to take action, she resigned in protest and filed charges again the offenders, taking on entrenched corruption in Alaskan politics, This fight led her to run against Gov. Murkowski in the primary, and then go on to become Alaska’s first female governor in 2006.

In 2004, Obama was elected to the US Senate. The developers who had received government funding as a result of legislation sponsored by Obama served on his campaign finance committee. Many of the buildings they had purchased with government funding were seized for code violations, or foreclosed, and the low-income residents were forced to find housing elsewhere. In 2008, Governor Palin worked with the legislature to provide Alaskans a $1200 rebate from state revenues, and successfully arranged for the development of the Transcanada Pipeline to transport natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 states.

Do the Democrats really want to talk about this?