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Palin and the Press
PALIN AND THE PRESS....Judging from his public statements shortly after he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain thought she had opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. She hadn't. He thought she had sold the state's executive jet on eBay and made a profit on it. On both counts, she didn't. He thought she had cut taxes as both mayor and governor. She hadn't. He apparently thought she had fully explained her part in pressuring the state police chief to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She hasn't. He thought she was an enemy of earmarks and federal pork. In fact, she was a pioneer of both. And now Marc Ambinder confirms that Palin is being kept deeply under wraps:
A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won't submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she's ready — and until she's comfortable — which might not be for a long while — the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media's complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: "Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters."
The McCain campaign is scared to death. They knew nothing about Palin before they announced her, they relied on a cursory vetting process that has turned out to be shot full of holes, they realize now that she has no settled views on any issue of national importance and could blurt out anything at any time, and they're terrified about what might crop up next. So they're keeping her in the deep freeze.
Will it work? I guess it's possible. If she does one or two friendly interviews it will prevent reporters from saying flatly that she "refuses to meet with the press," and the slightly more complicated explanation may be just complicated enough to keep voters from noticing what's going on. In a way, it's sort of a test of just how gullible the American public really is. Are they actually willing to vote for someone who's afraid to meet with Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, and Meet the Press? Will they accept a tissue-thin excuse about what big meanies they all are? We're about to find out.
Kevin wrote: "The McCain campaign is scared to death ... they realize now that she ... could blurt out anything at any time, and they're terrified about what might crop up next."
Based on this report, the McCain campaign should be afraid, very afraid, of what Sarah "Macaca" Palin might "blurt out":
"So Sambo beat the bitch!"
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat's primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
"It was kind of disgusting," Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the "lower 48" about life near the North Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, "But that's just Alaska."
Racial and ethnic slurs may be "just Alaska" and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N'-Fetch-It, "darkie musical" swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska's Aboriginal people as "Arctic Arabs" ? how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description ? as well as the more colourful "mukluks" along with the totally unimaginative "f**king Eskimo's," according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
The Sarah Palin time bomb is ticking, ticking, ticking.
Kevin: I analyzed how all the strands fit together in my post, The Palin Convention and the Culture War Option, written the night before Sarah Palin spoke.
Part of it involves keeping the press at bay..."double down on defiance by never letting her answer questions, except from friendly media figures who have joined your narrative; like Cheney with Fox. No meet the press at all. No interviews of Palin with the DC media elite? at all. De-legitimate the ask. Break with all 'access' expectations. Use surrogates and spokesmen, let them get mauled, then whip up resentment at their mistreatment. Answer questions at town halls and call that adequate..."
Kevin wrote: "The McCain campaign is scared to death ... they realize now that she ... could blurt out anything at any time, and they're terrified about what might crop up next."
Based on this report, the McCain campaign should be afraid, very afraid, of what Sarah "Macaca" Palin might "blurt out":
"So Sambo beat the bitch!"
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat's primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
"It was kind of disgusting," Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the "lower 48" about life near the North Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, "But that's just Alaska."
Racial and ethnic slurs may be "just Alaska" and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N'-Fetch-It, "darkie musical" swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska's Aboriginal people as "Arctic Arabs" ? how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description ? as well as the more colourful "mukluks" along with the totally unimaginative "f**king Eskimo's," according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
The Sarah Palin time bomb is ticking, ticking, ticking.
Kevin: I analyzed how all the strands fit together in my post, The Palin Convention and the Culture War Option, written the night before Sarah Palin spoke.
Part of it involves keeping the press at bay..."double down on defiance by never letting her answer questions, except from friendly media figures who have joined your narrative; like Cheney with Fox. No meet the press at all. No interviews of Palin with the DC media elite? at all. De-legitimate the ask. Break with all 'access' expectations. Use surrogates and spokesmen, let them get mauled, then whip up resentment at their mistreatment. Answer questions at town halls and call that adequate..."
The deep freeze strategy only assures that future press interactions will be dominated by mini scandals. The drip, drip, drip of revelations and evasions ...
She's in training. The longer she waits, the lower expectations will be. If she looks confident (and she's good at that) and avoids a major flub when she finally accepts an interview, they'll call it a home run.
Right now on CNN they have a small crowd with a bunch of cheerleaders leading them in synchronized responses.
They also have the microphone amps turned up to 11 to make the crowd seem bigger than it really is.
referring to a palin/mccain rally of course
Everyone knows that the primary duty of the VP is to hang out in an undisclosed location; she's just practicing, so she'll be ready.
Well at least she was Miss Congeniality. Oh wait. Maybe not.
In a way, it's sort of a test of just how gullible the American public really is.
The entire election is a test of the intelligence of the American public.
Every thinking person will be voting for Obama in November. The problem being, we're not a majority.
What prevents the networks from saying, "until she sits for an interview we decline to cover anything she does."
Palin's poll numbers are pretty good right now given the scandals and her lack of qualifications. The McCain camp is probably smart enough to know that the more the public learns about her the less they will like. So this strategy makes perfect sense.
Gullible and American Public in the same sentence? You jest!
I'm surprised that people are surprised by the campaign's efforts to hide Palin from the press. Is the campaign afraid that she has crazy, radical, and unpopular ideas, or maybe a a poor understanding of policy or the complexity of government? Maybe they're afraid she'll betray a deep lack of curiosity about governing, the world, history, and the responsibilities of an executive.
Let me introduce President Dick Cheney and his Vice President George Bush. This is the way that a modern Republican administration both campaigns AND governs.
Sounds like a good Daily Show theme... Where in the World is Sarah Palin?
but until she's ready
Really? They must be joking! The pit bull with lipstick must be ready to fight like a dog, no?
So - She'll be qualifed to step into the big shoes - soon?
It feels like we have a candidate from a foreign country, more qualifed to run one of those little countries in the UAE, or something.
the polling on Palin is a bit suspect though???... supposedly 33% of Americans knew who she was before she was picked? What 33% are they talking about? I guarantee you under 1% of Minnesotans knew who she was 2 weeks ago...
the best course of action for Dems is to ignore her,paying attention raises her standing, focus on McSame and his 90% Bush lovin voting record...
and with 6.1% unemployment and a record number of Americans either in foreclosure or late on mortgage payments and home prices still sinking toward a housing situation near the Great Depression benchmarks.... its time to go to the Bill Clinton playbook ala 1992. "It's the economy, stupid."
Kevin wrote: "The McCain campaign is scared to death ... they realize now that she ... could blurt out anything at any time, and they're terrified about what might crop up next."
Based on this report, the McCain campaign should be afraid, very afraid, of what Sarah "Macaca" Palin might "blurt out":
"So Sambo beat the bitch!"
This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat's primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.
"It was kind of disgusting," Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the "lower 48" about life near the North Pole.
Then, almost with a sigh, she added, "But that's just Alaska."
Racial and ethnic slurs may be "just Alaska" and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N'-Fetch-It, "darkie musical" swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska's Aboriginal people as "Arctic Arabs" how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description as well as the more colourful "mukluks" along with the totally unimaginative "f**king Eskimo's," according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
The Sarah Palin time bomb is ticking, ticking, ticking.
Maybe Caribou Barbie needed to gnaw on some bloody moose flesh after an unsatisfying week of bland Lower 48 slop.
ok, it's a test of my gullibility, but it's also a test of the Fourth Estate's--including your--responsibility to bitch and moan about this in your blog. And coming up with ideas as to how to do this and what to say doesn't seem too hard ...
(p.s. I do enjoy your work and have followed you here to MJ)
The question now has to be put to McCain. Why is she unwilling to be interviewed.
Why does she deserve a special treatment from the press?
Then he needs to be confronted with the contradictions in her resume.
Has everyone seen this? It's from the Anchorage Daily News regarding the status of the "troopergate" investigation:
Palin's lawyer has asked the Legislature to drop its investigation. He had the governor file an ethics complaint against herself, in a bid to turn the entire matter over to the state Personnel Board, which would hire an independent investigator.
No wonder they're attacking the media-- so they can try to get people to ignore stories like these.
Nope, nothing to see here, just move along.
This post reeks of sexism, Sexism, SEXISM! and the Republican Party is not going to stand for it! John McCain spent five years in a prison cell in Hanoi, so a woman of Sarah Palin's experience could one day be his wingman in the political skies, and he isn't going to sit idly by while you liberal, America hating queers, niggers, and bitches run her down like this.
The DNC should start one of those clocks the RNC loves so much. "Days since Palin spoke to the press"
It's tempting to get in a lather about Governor Sarah-in-Hiding, but the Obama campaign and everyone who hopes Senator Obama wins the presidential election should keep a 'laser focus' on McCain himself.
The out-of-touch, insulated, self-important, dependent-on-his-wealthy-wife candidate who can't talk knowledgably about almost any issue, who's at sea on things like health care and the economy -- he's the focus. The Palin pick is useful because McCain himself has now made his age and health an issue, but there's no need to belabor that point.
One key issue in this election is that McCain's agenda (insofar as he even grasps it himself) is a continuation and extension of the worst parts of the Bush policies on all important fronts. Bush-McCain 90% needs to repeated long after all of us are sick of hearing it.
The other issue is John McCain's judgment (or lack of it). Here, Palin is evidence, but need not be visible to serve that function -- indeed, the more sequestered she is, the better the point works. McCain's temper, lack of gravitas, anger issues are all on the table. The campaign should NOT be about these characteristics, primarily, it SHOULD be about issues...but whenever McCain proxies try to play the 'experience' card or (coming soon, I fear) the alien-stranger-(we're not saying African American, oh no)-card, then McCain's lack of judgment needs to get played back.
Pretty bad judgement; on the part of McCain & staff and on the choice for VP, who appears to be a fraud.
Isn't meeting the press a large part of spending time with the voters?
Two words come to mind: Total clusterfuck.
The key is to push the "afraid" taunt: Why is McCain afraid to let Palin talk to reporters? Why is the tough-talking Palin afraid to talk to anyone? It's just like Bush being afraid to take tough questions at pressers. No whining, remember, taunting, mocking laughing. And if she gives a puff interview, continue to taunt, and make them explain.
from the mccain campaign's point of view, the reason for palin to meet the press would be to reassure independents who are a) sick of republican incompetence and b) still have reservations about obama. (after her roll out at the RNC, she has the base GOP voters locked down and they're not going to be dissuaded by the drip, drip of alaska revelations.)
so, from the obama campaign's perspective, keeping her on ice suits them just fine: it keeps frozen the initial impressions the various slices of the electorate already has from this past week: christian love her, independents and dems think she's a lightweight.
All well and good, however, I think Ms. Huffington is correct. Palin is a distraction. John McCain is the one who needs to be called out on his lies, his flips, his positions, his support of BushCo, his tax cuts for the wealthy, his wife's $300,000 outfit, etc.
PITBULL WITH LIPSTICK TURNS OUT TO BE CHIHUAHUA ON CHEAP LIPGLOSS.
News at 10.
Look, last time I checked, "the press" was still owned by large corporations that have a lot of business before government and have a big stake in the outcome of the election. Expecting them to fight back is a bit much- Bush and Cheney have proved that point over and over. In pursuit of ratings & "me first" points they might raise some flack, but in the end they will roll over for their masters.
McCain/Palin: The Audacity of Nope
Will it work?
The last eight years, accelerated especially during this campaign so far suggests that it will. A large number of Americans appear to be either really stupid or politically indifferent.
27 days until the VP Debate! I suppose they could refuse to show up for that, too - "Biden will be mean to her - not fair"!
"...
the best course of action for Dems is to ignore her,paying attention raises her standing, focus on McSame and his 90% Bush lovin voting record...
... its time to go to the Bill Clinton playbook ala 1992. "It's the economy, stupid."
Posted by: leftymn on 09/05/08
---------
John McCain says he doesn't know how the American economy works. I'm certain people threatened with foreclosure would feel comforted by that. I'm sure people recently unemployed would love to hear that.
Barack Obama is a bright Harvard grad who actually will change things to improve the economy for everybody. Democrats showed they can do that during the Clinton years.
McCain offers us more Enron loopholes.
Obama supporter here. Please, Hillary, bail us out of this mess!
I'll make, like, three novenas. I'll light 100 vigils.
Move along, nothing to see here.
Did you know John McCain was a POW?
Rachel Maddow and E.J. Dionne had it right, comparing her (respectively) to Dan Quayle and Harriett Myers. Actually, Myers looks like freaking Oliver Wendall Holmes beside Palin. She's certain to crash and burn, and anyone who thinks she's the future of the GOP has taken leave of his/her senses.
The longer she waits, the lower expectations will be.
Why would that be? Presumably, the longer she spends at the feet of Henry Higgins, the more she'll blow everyone away when she finally deigns to meet with the press. Expectations can only rise. In any event, I have no doubt that her inevitable sitdown with the press corps, to whatever extent they allow such a thing to happen, will receive uniformly high marks. The McCain folks are just gaming everyone's expectations, and I maintain that we're stupid to play along. (Remember the MSM's glowing review of Bush after his debates with Gore, simply because managed not to fall on his face?)
I'll repeat what I've said in other threads -- Palin is a sideshow to all interested parties. She's designed to distract the Republican base from the fact that McCain's at the top of the ticket, and she's distracting liberals from that very same fact, as well. It makes absolutely no sense to obsess over her, as many of us seem to be doing. The point is McCain's burning desire to repeat the mistakes of the last eight years ad nauseaum, making the rest of us live out the role of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Wake up, folks. Palin ain't the point -- or the problem.
GHWB won the Presidency with Dan Quayle as his running mate ... but then Sarah Palin is female, which makes for more attention, and billed as the anti-Hilary, which makes for even more. She is unqualified and inexperienced to a potentially disastrous degree, lacks circumspection, and stands behind a candidate who would serve to the age of 78 if elected. Compared with the other ticket on offer, there are negatives in there that no amount of flag-waving can cover.
Seems to me that the debates will be pretty telling in the polls.
My quiet little blog has been flooded with hits by people inquiring about Sarah Palin and the education cuts - I'd reprinted something I saw on Mud flats and Daily Kos. I got two angry debunkers right away. What do they call those minions they pay to sit around and comment on blogs? THere's a term. Anyway. The activity is unusual and makes me wonder. I never get those people visiting my place.
I wonder if there really is a groundswell of support for her, or if the Wurlitzer is trying to generate a fake movement and shape perceptions thereby.
Yes Kevin, you are "correct" but we must remember how many voters don't care about such things, all those low-information voters, gripers against minority identity politics who love it for themselves, "who may be struggling economically, detest President Bush and oppose the Iraq war -- but still may vote based on a visceral sense of which candidate respects their way of life." (LA Times)
To think that such people can determine the fate of the nation - it will take a great effort to keep McBushlin from getting to the top, no complacency can be allowed.
There are Republicans who also think she's a lightweight. They just aren't saying it for attribution, or when they know the mikes are on.
Kevin, they are scared so that is why they keep saying "Please throw me into that briar patch."
We'll see how the debate goes but I wouldn't count on her collapsing. It is amazing to see Obama comparing his experience to hers. That shows how rattled he is.
I have seen so many mean and idiotic comments and posts around from Palinites that I don't even know if MG's post is real or parody.
Wait till her myspace and youporn vids show up.
I would think there would be a real problem with any serious press interview. You said you were against the bridge, but here is a recording saying otherwise ... Do you think you lied? And several other questions about thinks the party would rather nor air before the election. At this point, I think trying to avoid a serious press interview is there only hope. And I think it just might work.
Seriously though, the Democrats got to change the frame. The Republicans always set the frame. The current frame, is who is more like the common average Joe Sixpack. The Democrats cannot win in this frame. Elitism, is more about Obama, and Biden having well developed thinking skills, whereas McCain/Palin think and talk like ordinary uneducated folks. We have to change the frame. Howabout something like this:
It is about having a chief executive smart enough to play geopolitical chess against the likes of Vladimir Putin. Gee Putin must be drooling over the prospects of playing this game against McCain. He makes Bush seem like a genius, and look how easy he was to checkmate in Georgia.
Then we got energy. Again our friend Putin, just loves drill, drill, drill: so convinced is he that we won't find enough to matter, but will be distracted from alternatives. Expensive oil, and gas, is the thing that will power the Russian empire ahead of the US. Expensive energy, and tricking the US into a new cold war, will bankrupt the Americans, and by default the the Russians as the defacto hyperpower.
It is all about selecting a favorable frame. The frame determines the mental battlefield. The battlefield for the hordes of low information voters must be a frame that is favorable to the Democrats. The Republicans are masters at this game. The Democrats better get good real fast, or this election (and probably our democracy) will be lost!