Posted on 11/14/2009 10:07:41 AM PST by iowamark
Top aides to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign hit back at Sarah Palin Friday, after news reports revealed that the former vice presidential nominee’s soon-to-be-released book extensively criticizes the campaign’s 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 campaign’s troubles on what he claimed was Palin’s 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 McCain’s 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 CBS’s Katie Couric that resulted in serious damage to the former Alaska governor’s 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 not—block 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.”
Palin’s 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 Palin’s account, and told POLITICO in an email that it does not line up with his memory of events.
Explaining the campaign’s 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.
lemme get this straight, a group of RINOs sides with the left again.....always newsworthy, isn’t it! NOT
My God, can you imagine what it would have been like between these two had they won?
All through the campaign, I kept asking my husband why McCain didn’t hire better campaign managers. I guess, as we now know, the ones he had were terrible. They threw Sarah to the wolves too early.
I agree with you Earthdweller, Sarah is “more explosive than radioactive”.
With these Schmidt-fer-brains running Mitt's campaign,
Sarah is a slam dunk for the nomination !
Nam Vet
When I was an aerospace engineer I had to brief McCain’s staff on some industry issues. They were a lot like their boss: highly opinionated, arrogant, and impolite with an “enemies list” of aerospace contractors that they abhorred. I was a bit taken aback, but our industry association DC staffers said that my impression was correct and accurate.
McCains camp makes me think of the closest thing to puke.
All liars and Obama minions.
BS! Obama was never subjected to the kind of interrogation Couric or Gibson threw at Palin. It was a gotcha game rather than finding out what sort of governor she was and why she was running for VP.
Looks like the McCain handlers were only interested in scoring points. They obviously never liked Palin. Whenever she did well, they seemed interested in bringing her down. Let's not forget that the negative leaks about Sarah came from their camp.
Funny how the media and the McCain people purposely ignore what is the the most substantive part of her book. Rush said that this is truly one of the most substantive policy books he has read, but we would never know this from the pre-release commentary by the media and of McCain's merry band of losers.
Now there's you problem. Just following your opponents will keep you following them.
I believe that Sarah Palin is not only a very inspirational leader, but also a highly intelligent woman and that she is laying the ground work to defeat this tactic in the future. I believe she will be successful and that ultimately all publicity from the media will eventually work in her favor. Even now, over a year after the election, an irrelevant bit player in the Palin media hit job, Levi Johnson is capable of drawing more media attention than Al Gore or John Kerry. To me that is a great indicator of the people's fascination with Sarah Palin.
Her book is going to be a huge success. She draws huge crowds whenever she speaks. The media is still all over her and the coverage is beginning to turn positive. She has become one of the leading critics of Cap and Tax, Obamacare and the Obama administration. Sarah Palin is stealing the spotlight from traditional Republican leadership. She is also not afraid to enlist the assistance and support of Conservative Commentators. This is all happening without billions of dollars being pumped into some type of leftist shadow campaign. Those who cannot see that she is the rising star at this time are deluding themselves. All she has to do is step in front of one of the huge tea party crowds and magic will happen.
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