Posted on 07/30/2009 4:58:18 PM PDT by WillT
From Sarah Palin's Facebook page:
As repeatedly stated to several in the media over the last week, former Governor Sarah Palin is not committed to attend the Simi Valley Republican Women’s event at the Reagan Library and in fact is not attending the event. Neither the Governor’s state staff nor SarahPAC has ever committed to attending this event or speaking at this event, and even requested that the Governor's name be removed from the invitation several weeks ago. The Governor has other work and commitments to take care of at that time. She looks forward to visiting her friends in California soon.
All event requests must be confirmed not by the invitee but rather through Meghan Stapleton with SarahPAC. Additionally, all invitations bearing the Governor’s name must be approved by her attorney before proceeding.
Thank you. Meghan Stapleton
Well to play the devil’s advocate, they did state this on their email about the event
“Again we appreciate your interest, however we are very protective of our organization, and of Governor Palin. While Governor Palin is slated to speak, the possibility does exist that she may not be able to attend, and reservations are non-refundable. No press passes or media passes will be issued.”
Which is exactly why I never paid the money to attend, because there is always a chance she could not make it, for whatever reason, but I do agree about ONE very important issue. Meg Stapleton is a wonderful person, I like her a lot, along with Kristan Cole, but I think Sarah has to find someone with more experience to help assist with all of these events that she gets invited to. This whole rumor could have ended a long time ago if Meg or someone else had issued a statement to the press saying she is not committed to attending and she will keep people posted, takes literally 2 seconds to do that. They are good people, wonderful people, but they have never dealt with someone as popular as Sarah Palin before, they need to bring in someone who is more knowledgeable about handling the press regarding stuff like this
Ahh Madistan... have fond memories of attending some shows up at the Alpine Valley facility.
I don’t mind social networking sites, but it just seems there would be a more dignified way of putting out a news release or .........
..dignified or professional way ... In either case this is very poor management on somebody[ies] part.
Oops, my bad—it IS connected to a Sarah Palin page—but is than the official page, or just a fan page?
She may just have to stop giving ‘maybe’ acceptances, as those associated with the Simi Valley Republicans and the Reagan Library may not be able to help but have hard feelings about it now. But I thought they would have learned this months ago—and have got a PR staff that edits and proofs their releases more carefully.
I’m one of her biggest backers on FR, but I’d really like to see stuff like this handled better.
Ahhhhh....so this is a case of a group taking the liberty of using Sarah’s name (to pump up the event)?
Seems rather sleezy for them to do this. I’d really be pissed if this event was open to the general public, mentioned Sarah’s name, sold tickets, then dropped this little bombshell on them at the last minute.
But if that’s the case, she should have put a stop to it immediately—not now.
She needs more experienced people around her, her friends, they seem like wonderful people, but they are her friends, not experienced at handling someone with Sarah’s popularity. I don’t think they are up for a job like this. They have to find people who have the experience to handle stuff like this
Agreed. I went through the disappointment of being a FredHead and I don’t want to see a similar pattern.
If she (or her staff never gave official word, and the committee just assumed, then it’s the committee’s fault.
Unless you got it writing....
Yeah, but in several news articles Simi Valley reps were quoted as saying they were “confident” or “sure” she would attend. Just another sleazy attempt to make money off Sarah Palin.
“It just seems kind of unprofessional - please note that I’m an avid fan of Sarah.”
I can’t begin to tell people how much she inspires me, but this kind of thing has to stop. This event was first mentioned by the media way back when she announced she was stepping down in early July.
It is a real release. I’ve been part of this FB page for months now. Nothing has changed.
If by leaving it hanging with not giving a definite answer and not correcting any unwarranted claims as soon as they were made, she’s hurt herself. Whether or not the committee overstepped isn’t really the issue, because she can’t go around letting PR issues fester and then try to pin the blame on someone else.
Yeah, I mean I don’t think they are bad people. I have family in Simi Valley, it is Reagan country over there, as Conservative as you can get. I think they got overly excited by someone telling them she will probably attend without hearing it from her. I always knew their comment of “She has not committed to this event but we are confident she is attending” What kind of BS is that, either she is attending or not. The whole thing sounded wishy washy from the start
I think you’re right. And again, this should have been squared away by now as it was problematic for her six months ago. She’s certainly got access to more polished and experienced people, and she needs to bring them in. Loyalty to staff is good, but not when it leads to propping up incompetence and letting her backers down.
Still, wouldn’t it be great if this story knocked HolyO’s beerfest off of Drudge’s headline? :-)
A very surprising statement, SB. If you read Meg's statement, I'm not sure what else they could have done, especially since Palin was still shackled to the governor's office with anklebiters everywhere.
-- Meg Stapleton said publicly she had not committed.
-- Meg communicated privately that the group needed to take Palin's name off the PR material. The group didn't do it.
The statement today about contacting her lawyer in the future when putting her name on anything is a CLEAR message that it needs to stop.
It’s possible, but the fact that her attorney must approve any invitation does sound like it involves her PAC somehow.
Problem is that I don’t think she has any PR people other than Meg, and Meg is not up to the job. Period.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.