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The Great Palin Panic of 2008 (McCain Aides: She Lost Control of Her Public Image) BARF
The Atlantic ^ | Monday, September 29, 2008 | Marc Ambinder

Posted on 09/29/2008 10:01:03 AM PDT by kristinn

Gov. Sarah Palin has lost control of her public image, several top-level McCain advisers said this weekend, and even a baseline performance in Thursday's debate with Joe Biden may be too late to recover it.

The decision to sequester Palin from the national political press corps was made with the assumption that the afterglow from her convention speech would last; a month later, even some Republicans are beginning to have a less favorable opinion of her.

Her knowledge of policy has seemed at times no more than inch deep, and even admirers have complained that her penchant for returning to talking points sounds artificial. Several times the campaign has had to clean up her remarks for her, such as on Saturday, when she hinted at a view of U.S.-Pakistani relations that was closer to Barack Obama's.

Aides questioned why CBS's Katie Couric was given a second interview with Palin after Palin's responses were ridiculed.

One McCain aide complained that too few surrogates are making the affirmative case for her -- she has defenders, to be sure, but they're sparse and they're generally defending her from specific charges. Aside from a single interview with Sean Hannity, she hasn't appeared on a single talk radio show, hasn't held a single conference call with conservative activists, nor she has participated in a telephone call with conservative bloggers. In turn, these conservatives have largely stopped rallying to her defense.

SNIP

Instead of unsheathing Palin, the strategy this week is to attack Joe Biden and try to drive a wedge between him and Obama, another McCain aide said.

(Excerpt) Read more at marcambinder.theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: catfight; palin; palinbashing; peckingparty; roughherup; theatlantic
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To: kristinn

Operation Demoralization proceeds apace, and Obama smiles.


21 posted on 09/29/2008 10:12:12 AM PDT by browardchad
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To: This Just In

“It’s called projecting, folks. Projecting.”

Or perhaps, projectile vomiting.


22 posted on 09/29/2008 10:12:25 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The Last Boy Scout)
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To: kristinn

Yeah right...she’s lost control of her image, conservatives aren’t behind her, and that’s why she drew 60,000 people to a central Florida rally.

If she’s so bad, the MSM should just let her be and then Obama will be assured a victory. You’d think if she’s this bad the MSM would want her on the ticket.


23 posted on 09/29/2008 10:12:37 AM PDT by Dawn531
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To: kristinn
This should be the new rallying cry -

Let Palin Be Palin!!!

CA....

24 posted on 09/29/2008 10:13:20 AM PDT by Chances Are (Whew! It seems I've at last found that silly grin!)
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To: kristinn
Throwing her in with Gibson, then Curic is required at some point, but now that she's been in the cesspool, she needs some recovery and clean up time.

It's time to put her on the talk radio circuit. She'll get the practice she needs and plenty of exposure to the conservative base, which should be good for lots of positive feedback. America needs to see her in a more friendly setting again without the ABCCBSNBCMSNBC lib goggles filtering her, so we can get back to hating the lib msm for attacking her like they have.

25 posted on 09/29/2008 10:13:38 AM PDT by GBA
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To: kristinn; wagglebee

The maggot infected bozo who wrote this pos posing as journalism must have been in the same gay hot tub training program as Jason Blair.

Marc Ambinder should stick to writing bs pushing how great the Gay life style/agenda is.

He has a long record of pushing such bs posing as journalism.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-hptb5&p=Marc%20Ambinder%20%20%2b%20gay&type=


26 posted on 09/29/2008 10:15:09 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( I do not want to know the type of person, who does not like Sarah !)
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To: kristinn

This is strategy.

The McCain camp is playing “rope a dope” with the media.

Sarah is going to walk all over Biden on Thursday night and the ‘Rats will never know what hit them.


27 posted on 09/29/2008 10:15:11 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: impeachedrapist

“The media is doing everything it can to trash her. And, based on many of the responses around here, I’d say they’re at least somewhat successful. “

The ‘force’ only works on the weak-minded.


28 posted on 09/29/2008 10:15:33 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The Last Boy Scout)
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To: kristinn

She needs to gaze over at Joe and shout “Stand up Joe”, and then apologize saying, sorry, you’re such a runt I couldn’t tell if you were standing or sitting


29 posted on 09/29/2008 10:15:35 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: kristinn

I am nervous. Don’t get me wrong, I actually wish Palin was on top of the ticket, but I am fearful that the McCain camp. possibly in a near panic, has now started to throw Sarah Palin under the bus and point fingers at her as culprit for their woes. Bush Sr. did the exact same thing to Dan Quayle the moment the media tried to knock him down.

I fear we may be seeing the exact same thing. If things go south campaign operatives will start to use Palin as the excuse mule. I don’t trust these guys.

As another FR poster said so eloquently, “McCain will win because of Palin, or he will lose in spite of Palin”.

Let’s be honest here, although McCain did fine in the debate, he sure didn’t knock too many out of the park despite repeated opportunities against the junior senator!

I - heart - Palin!


30 posted on 09/29/2008 10:17:00 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: kristinn; holdonnow; doug from upland; Doctor Raoul

Just my 2 cents: I think Sarah should sit down with Brit Hume, Greta and/or O’Reilly. Maybe even Rush, Mark Levin and other radio talk show hosts... do the “friendly” interviews from now on, then (maybe) go back to the MSM interviews...


31 posted on 09/29/2008 10:17:25 AM PDT by nutmeg (Imagine Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama... appointing US Supreme Court justices)
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To: kristinn

The problem is that Sarah Palin is listening to the media trash her because she is a local polictician that is not very aware of national issues. I believe this also. Instead of pretending that the actually has real opinions or plans for national issues, she should just stick to what she knows and that is how to relate to everyday people. She should leave the heavy lifting to John McCain. Sarah Palin has AT LEAST 4 years to get brought up to speed on the rest of the world.


32 posted on 09/29/2008 10:18:13 AM PDT by LetsRok
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To: browardchad

There is truth here. The Gibson and Couric interviews have taken their toll. I was at the final Padres game this Sunday and spoke there with an old friend and his wife. They are not liberals. They will probably vote for McCain. However, their view of Sarah is decidedly negative and based almost entirely on the interviews.


33 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:00 AM PDT by p. henry
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To: kristinn
McCain is risking the CONSERVATIVE GROUNDSWELL he unleashed by picking CONSERVATIVE Palin who had a lifelong history of CONSERVATISM

I wonder if they can recognize what made her appealing? and how it gave him the lead (for once?)

And how his ‘bipartisan’ comments the last few days are MIND-NUMBINGLY frustrating to us CONSERVATIVES because all he ever gets when he reaches across the aisle is his hand bitten... Let her loose armed with the video of Bawney Fwank and let her do what she did with corruption in ALASKA!!!!

34 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:03 AM PDT by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help)
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To: wagglebee

Agree 100%


35 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:09 AM PDT by b9 ("Maybe you should revisit your assumption..." ~ Sarah Palin)
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To: svcw

Where did you see the raw footage of Palin’s interview with Couric? It should be made widely available. But any rate, I would like to see it. Thanks.


36 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:18 AM PDT by Crystal Cove
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To: kristinn

I’m sure Sean Hannity would make her his radio show cohost from now until the election ....

This is crap. If true (and there is ALWAYS doubt as we now hear and see press and media spewing bald lies ala Stalin, Lenin Marx) not even McCain aides are immune from loyalty deficiency disease


37 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:26 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: NTHockey
How many of you are willing to wait ANOTHER 22 years?

I am. I don't care what gender a candidate is. What difference does it make? Why should I care?

38 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:26 AM PDT by Huck (Olbermann's a sissy. Just like Chrissy.)
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To: svcw
If Couric does not call her governer in the next interview, Sarah should say:

Katie, it's GOVERNOR Palin. You wouldn't think of not using the proper title for Senator Obama or Biden, so I don't think it's too much to ask that you refer to a member of the opposition party properly. You should at least pretend to be an unbiased news reporter, regardless of the facts. Now let's move on.

39 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:47 AM PDT by drangundsturm
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To: Grampa Dave

Good call. Thanks for the heads-up!


40 posted on 09/29/2008 10:19:53 AM PDT by Obadiah
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