Posted on 11/10/2008 1:47:10 PM PST by unspun
By now you’ve all heard the Fox News report last week that “unnamed” former McCain advisers leaked that Sarah Palin was confused about whether Africa was a continent, and which countries were in NAFTA. I was perfectly happy staying under the radar as an anonymous source for Fox News‘ Carl Cameron, but now that Palin has accused her accusers of being “unprofessional…jerks…cowards… taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news” and begun to cast doubt on the Fox News report, maybe she’s right to a certain extent. For those of us on the McCain campaign who thought that she acted like a rogue diva and lost John the election, maybe we DO have a responsibility to come out in public. But Sarah… careful what you ask for: some of us may have more to reveal.
So yes, to be clear, last week I was the one who leaked those things to a producer at Fox News who works with Cameron. Carl and his producers are good guys, and I don’t want them to have to worry about protecting their sources (and going through the wringer ala Judith Miller or Matt Cooper) on something like this.
As you know, I was one of the foreign policy advisers on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden. Did we outright give her a geography quiz when we started the prep? No, of course not. But yes, in the context of the prep, it slowly became apparent that her grasp of basic geo-political knowledge had major gaps. Could she have passed a multiple choice test about South Africa or NAFTA. Probably. But it was clear that she simply didn’t have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate. Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.
The real thing we had to constantly remind her was to never, ever compare herself in any way to Hillary Clinton, as she had at her announcement speech. We had it on good authority that Biden was prepping to unleash the inevitable line, “I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah, you’re no Hillary Clinton.” Alas, Biden would have been right.
Perhaps to kill two birds with one stone. First, discredit Sarah for actually opposing a communist takeover. and Second, to destroy Faux News for not verifying the information. This really has some serious O on it.
I'm glad you are a supporter of Sarah Palin, but, take care... that is the kind of drop-off of the GOP base that contributed to giving us Barack Obama vs. John McCain. It flys in the face of what Sarah Palin just worked her fingernails off trying to do for you and America.
No matter what’s going on, the fact remains that McCain hasn’t said anything yea or nay on the matter.
POS liar. The blogger.
Thanks for the ping!
It really came from John Gibson. He responds to emails during his show. He claims the source is not the hoaxer. I don't know if his son is covering for Cameron's incompetence or there is a real source inside the McCain campaign.I think Cameron is a lowlife snake for trying to destroy someone's character with unnamed sources. Palin has denied everything, so someone is lying. I believe Palin.
Extraodinary claims require extraordinary proof. Sarah is right, leaks from unnamed sources don't cut it.
Or did he make it up that he talked to Carl Cameron, which means we still don't know the source?
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