Posted on 11/11/2008 7:08:12 PM PST by publius1
One of the more disconcerting leaks about Gov. Sarah Palin turned out to be true.
Matt Lauer interviewed Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska for “Today” on NBC. She also spoke with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News.
Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, arrived in Phoenix, Ariz., on election night hoping to deliver her own concession speech. “It was a great speech,” Ms. Palin told Matt Lauer on the “Today” show on Tuesday.
Aides to her running mate, Senator John McCain, told her it was not customary for the No. 2 to speak, she said. “But, you know, I thought, even if it was unprecedented, so what, you know?” Ms. Palin told Mr. Lauer. “Geez, let’s do something a little bit out of the box there.”
And now she is. Unleashed and not humbled, Ms. Palin is on a speed date with history, upending protocol as she goes. She put herself on full display, in interviews with NBC and Fox News before Mr. McCain had a chance to take a no-victory lap on “The Tonight Show.” And she has many more appearances scheduled throughout the week, including a star turn at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami on Thursday.
Ms. Palin could be turning to television to restore her tarnished image, jumpstart a 2012 presidential bid, or both. But so far, viewers have mostly witnessed some of the very traits — disarming candor and staggering presumption — that drove some McCain campaign aides to leak damaging accusations about her.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The news media has moved on to President-elect Barack Obama and his transition team as they try to get a grip on the perilous state of the economy. Ms. Palin’s interviews dragged the subject back to her campaign woes, and she lingered there, feeding curiosity but making no real effort to steer her questioners to the present.
Her demeanor is as positive and peppy as ever, but the criticism evidently took a toll. Even in her kitchen in Wasilla, Alaska, preparing dinner for the family and visiting reporters (moose chili for Greta Van Susteren, a haddock and salmon casserole for Mr. Lauer), Ms. Palin seemed frozen in the bubble of campaign past, fighting to make her case above the whispers of aides, handlers and media consultants.
When Mr. Lauer asked her if she minded not being allowed to give more interviews during the campaign, Ms. Palin said she would not delve into that kind of “inside baseball,” and then she stole a base. “I would have loved more opportunities to speak to the American people about what I’d like to see of — happen there with our country,” she said pointedly.
Ms. Palin used the term “Sarah-centric” to describe her campaign rallies, arguing that fans were responding to her more as a symbol than as a person. “But not me personally were those cheers for,” she said to Ms. Van Susteren in an interview shown Monday night on Fox News. “But it was just for the representation of a woman on the ticket, a mom, somebody who loves this country so much, somebody very, very committed to policies that I believe will progress this country in the right direction.”
At the moment, however, Ms. Palin’s message sounds highly “Sarah-centric.” On this redemption tour, Ms. Palin is the headliner and her former running mate is a historical footnote. Ms. Palin said she wanted to introduce Mr. McCain on election night in order to “brag him up,” as she put it, “and do what John McCain just can’t seem to do for himself, bless his heart.”
Ms. Palin denied, vehemently and in detail, that she had any role in requesting or obtaining the $150,000 wardrobe that she and her family acquired on the campaign trail. She addressed, sometimes unprompted, many other accusations that she described as “goofy,” including early rumors that she faked her pregnancy and that one of her daughters gave birth to her youngest son, Trig.
She blamed “bloggers in their parents’ basement just talking garbage,” as well as reporters who did not let her rebut their facts and campaign aides who trashed her anonymously. She did not allow that she ever stumbled or had difficulty getting up to speed on some issues.
Ms. Palin said her trust in the news media and Republican consultants had been shaken, but her determination and self-confidence appeared to be unscathed.
“I’m like, ‘O.K., God, if there is an open door for me somewhere’ — this is what I always pray — I’m like, ‘Don’t let me miss the open door,’ ” she told Ms. Van Susteren.
“And if there is an open door in ’12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”
***
Times is funny & getting funnier -- how was a speech approved by the campaign that she wanted to give "disconcerting"? Disconcerting to who?
Also, how about the planted axioms in a line like "she lingered there [in the campaign past], feeding curiosity but making no real effort to steer her questioners to the present." SHE lingered there? Didn't Matt & Greta do the asking? Jeepers.
And then, this phrase that takes the cake, "disarming candor and staggering presumption" -- and the judgment that this is what droce some McCain aides to leak damaging accusations about her. If the reporter was writing about someone else, say a Democrat, the line would have been that candor and courage were the traits that drew people to her and angered some mcCain aides, whose accusations she refuted.
The one phase I sort of liked was "redemption tour." It is, though not in the look-down-your-nose way that the writer means: Palin is taking her image back, doing it the only way that it's possible for a Republican to do it in national politics -- by herself.
What an ass this reporter is. What a star is Palin, who is being seen by a lot more people not than read this reporter.
Where is the Time Machine... I just can’t wait for 2012!
The Times wants her to roll over and take the beating. Keep her mouth shut and go away. That she is refuting bogus charges and using the opportunity to shine up her brand is wrong in their eyes.
Once again the media elite tries to look down their nose at this woman and fails. McCain’s people screwed up with her so badly they deserve never to work again on anything more than a school government campaign. The Republican base is going to rally around her and others like her more and more as they see the failures of the media’s chosen son.
I don’t care that she doesn’t know all the answers. Is she smart enough to appoint the right people in the jobs and kick their ass to the curb when needed? Can she develop some more gravitas on issues and stature so she can stand out like Maggie Thatcher did?
This entire vendetta against Sarah Palin on the part of McCain’s lose campaign is so petty, it befits Democrats, not Republicans. That’s exactly what is wrong with today’s GOP and their “leadership” if such can even be found.
If McCain’s campaign spent as much time running against Obama and the “9% Congress” as they spent fighting against Bush and backstabbing Sarah, they, amazingly, would have had a chance to win the election.
Of course, running against Congress and “his friends across the aisle” was the last thing on McCain’s mind... Losers of campaign remain losers after campaign, no matter how much they want to “spread the blame” and bestow the mantle on someone they chose for VP.
Well as McCain said on the Tonight Show, and here’s the video of his appearance...Don’t blame Palin. Not her fault.
Oh well. I guess if the media like the Times ever stop bashing her I will begin to worry.
this is the problem with ALL the MSM, in particular the Times. TWO of MC CAIN’s top speechwriters flew in a week before the campaign ended and worked on speeches for Palin (either concession or victory—they had 2)—and they took the time to practice them both. sheesh.....it’s not like it was even her idea.
Where and what is this “staggering presumption”?
And who cares about “protocol”, especially when it’s simply invented by the NYT?
The MOOSE IS LOOSE!!!!
I thought she went back to Alaska, not Dagobah.
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