Posted on 11/14/2009 10:07:41 AM PST by iowamark
Top aides to Sen. John McCains presidential campaign hit back at Sarah Palin Friday, after news reports revealed that the former vice presidential nominees soon-to-be-released book extensively criticizes the campaigns press strategy with many of its hardest shots aimed squarely at campaign manager Steve Schmidt.
Schmidt, she writes, was grim-faced and cool, and tried to pin the campaigns troubles on what he claimed was Palins post-partum depression, and even went to so far as to try and dictate her diet.
According to excerpts published on the Huffington Post, Palin took in his rotund physique and noted that he used nicotine to keep his own cognitive connections humming along.
I'm a forty-four year old, healthy, athletic woman raising five kids and governing a large state, I thought as his words faded into a background buzz. Sir, I really don't know you yet. But you've told me how to dress, what to say, who to talk to, a lot of people not to talk to, who my heroes are supposed to be and we're still losing. Now you're going to tell me what to eat?
More generally, Palin uses the book to note the jaded aura of the "professional political caste" guiding McCain:
"But I did notice... funny things [about the handlers] that even Piper commented on such as tumbling out of the bus in a pack, lighting cigarettes as they went so it looked like a walking smoke cloud with legs."
Palin also faults Schmidt for his penchant for profanity, writing that he warned her just before the vice-presidential campaign that moderator Gwen Ifill is "going to f*** with you."
"I'm thinking, Why are you telling me this? Last minute... what's the point? And no more f-bombs around Piper, please?"
According to excerpts from copies obtained by media outlets, Palin charges that the staffers assigned to her by McCains team blocked her from speaking to the press aboard the campaign plane. And she asserts that former McCain communications aide Nicole Wallace pushed her to do a September 2008 interview with CBSs Katie Couric that resulted in serious damage to the former Alaska governors image.
Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press, Palin wrote, according to an excerpt that appeared Friday on the Drudge Report website. At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, [campaign aides] Tracey [Schmitt] or Tucker [Eskew] would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, No! Absolutely notblock her if she tries to go back.
The excerpt also described Wallace as having aggressively pushed for Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News because Katie really needed a career boost.
Palins tome also pins blame on the campaign for the decision to provide her and her family with a new $150,000 wardrobe, saying she was aghast at the price of the items provided. Writing about her speech at the Republican convention, she cracks, "The kids looked great even in a bunch of borrowed clothes."
Former McCain strategist John Weaver slammed Palin for using the book for petty and pathetic score-settling.
Sarah Palin reminds me of Jimmy Stewart in the movie 'Harvey,' complete with imaginary conversations. All books like these are revisionist and self-serving, by definition, Weaver wrote in an email to POLITICO. But the score-settling by someone who wants to be considered a serious national player is petty and pathetic.
The problem wasn't who her interview was with, the problem was her interview, he added. Couric asked no trick questions. This just seems to be an attempt to obscure as bad a performance since Roger Mudd asked Ted Kennedy that simple question.
Longtime McCain hand and former campaign manager Mark Salter offered a cooler response disputing Palins account, and told POLITICO in an email that it does not line up with his memory of events.
Explaining the campaigns decision to limit press access as Election Day drew closer, Salter said that after we had been criticized in the press for a lack of disciplined messaging earlier in the campaign when we provided frequent and unscheduled access to the candidate, we felt it necessary to adopt the same deliberativeness and discipline employed by our opponents and rely less on impromptu press conferences with our traveling press, and more on interviews arranged in advance so our candidates would have the same opportunity our opponents enjoyed to discuss and prepare for the interview.
Reflecting on the first set of interviews Palin did as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Salter said that the sit downs were discussed and agreed to by senior members of the campaign staff in consultation with the candidate and that Wallace did not choose either the journalists or the outlets Palin spoke to.
Nicolle Wallace, along with others, was tasked with helping the Governor prepare for some of her interviews. She did not decide which interview requests the candidates would accept. Nor was she tasked with securing the candidates agreement, Salter said.
Those decisions were made by campaign management in consultation with the candidates. Campaign management and the candidates agreed to multi-segment interviews so the Governor would maintain a presence in the media while she was in debate prep, he added. And to the best of my knowledge, any interviews the Governor had with the individuals she referred to were approved and arranged by the campaign management with her agreement.
Palin did not respond to a request for comment.
You know, if I were the average member of senior staff on that campaign, I think I’d probably consider the virtues of keeping my mouth shut and leaving politics for something I could be usefully employed in. Whatever that might be.
Unfortunately Palin is too radioactive to be a viable candidate in 2012. Not that I wish that but it just is.
I love Sarah’s observations. The way she thinks about things. The rest of it? Meh, I don’t care what those campaign losers have to say.
According to her book sales...she is more explosive than radioactive.
In this instance, I think it's time to bomb the Rinos.
Another, “I like Sarah, but...” post? These happen on every thread about Sarah. If ya’ll don’t like her, why not just admit you support someone else? I don’t understand it.
I can see it coming. The McCain losers are going to sell millions of Sarah’s books for her in the near future. LOL
If he used the f word in front of my 6 year old, me or my wife would have slapped him!
Last year before Sarah had her first press interviews as the VP candidate, it was known that Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric would get the first ones. Many of us here commented - before the interviews took place - how stupid it was of the McCain campaign to give those two the first interviews, long interviews which they could edit down as they saw fit.
That was a monumentally stupid campaign decision. I have to admit that it bothers me that Sarah could ever have thought that Couric would be a friendly interview, but it was beyond obvious that those two should not have had the first interviews, and should not have been long lengthy interviews to edit down. It almost sounds like Sarah was set up, as anyone should have know how those interviews would be conducted.
My Gawd, even if you hated this womans’ guts and opposed all her positions, how can a person *not* respect how she has held up and indeed shined against the relentless attacks from each and every quarter, including her former alleged campaign staff? They ran arguably the most incompetent campaign in recent memory and these weasel slimebags have an obvious agenda to preserve their political careers against a record of abject and utter failure. She added ten points to McCain’s numbers and without her we would be looking at an absolute blowout electoral margin.
Who benefits most from Sanford meltdown? Californian (that's right) Mitt Romney
"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"
"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"
"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"
"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"
"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"
McCain, in this instance, is doing the smart thing. His presidential bid aides however, are simply being themselves. That is to say petty boors who feel they must blame everyone else but themselves for losing the election to a two-bit neighborhood organizer from Chicago.
And it looks like Schmidt has latched on to another loser—Romney. Frankly, I doubt Romney will survive a GOP presidential primary—even if Palin does not choose to run as a Pubbie. His time has come and gone. Moreover, the results of the state run health care he’s foisted on Massachusettes is the poster child for a failed state-run program.
Perhaps Sarah is taking the ‘high ground’, but I don’t understand why she keeps making statements like this from today. We need some REAL straight talk for a change.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2385626/posts
“.....and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain.”
From The Vitamin Press |
These people are deluded or evil. No doubt, they proved they are absolutely incompetent - like the guy who hired them and lost an election to a Marxist with no background! Instead of making Obama their opponent, they made Palin their opponent!
One cure for this malady is a national party based on ideas and passion; dedicated not to trying to convince people to like them, but to playing smash-mouth, kick-ass-and-take-no-prisoners politics.
When a Democrat lies, don't complain, or say he's being "misleading": call him a lying dirtbag - in public. When a Democrat accuses you of wanting to starve children or throw granny into the street - call a news conference and have a truckload of manure sitting there. Then, tell the news media that you wanted to debate your opponent, but he declined, so you did the next best thing and brought a sampling of his ideas. You gotta think outside of the box, people. Have fun, stop whining and start winning.
ping
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