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Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

John McCain has asked his former campaign aides not to speak out against the charges Sarah Palin levels in her book, NBC news reports. This news comes after a number of former staffers anonymously blasted Palin's recount of the 2008 campaign. "John McCain offered her the opportunity of a lifetime, and during the campaign it seems that, for all of her mistakes, she is searching for people to blame," an aide said last week. "We don't need to go through this again." Even as NBC reported McCain's request, they included another swipe at her book from a former campaign aide....

“Going Rogue,” the title of Sarah Palin’s erratic new memoir, comes from a phrase used by a disgruntled McCain aide to describe her going off-message during the campaign: among other things, for breaking with the campaign over its media strategy, its decision to pull out of Michigan and for speaking out about reports that the Republican Party had spent more than $150,000 on fancy designer duds for her and her family. In fact, the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign...

Sarah Palin says she was blindsided by Katie Couric's devastating interviews last year because John McCain's aides lulled her into thinking the CBS anchorwoman was a fan. In Palin's new book, "Going Rogue," the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee reveals that her handlers talked up Couric as a working mom - just like her - who was struggling with low self-esteem and even lower ratings. Couric liked and admired her, advised campaign media honcho Nicolle Wallace. The interviews would be a nice favor. The scouting reports were so sympathetic, Palin writes, that that she almost began to "feel sorry" for...

The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family. Palin in book: McCain aides kept me 'bottled up'

<p>In her new book, according to the Associated Press, Sarah Palin alleges that the McCain campaign gave her a $500,000 bill to pay for the campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She also makes the charge that the McCain camp said they would have paid all the bills had they won, but since they lost, the bills were her responsibility.</p>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/02/GA2009110203745.html

Now, instead of being embroiled in the Democrat’s lose-lose health care mess (a debacle that she no doubt would have been smack dab in the middle of as Vice President or as a senator), she has mostly been isolated from the political misfortunes of the Democrats. Those political misfortunes could very well cost the Democrats dearly in 2010 and could force Obama out in 2012 unless he is able to recover quickly. If Hillary can make it through the next few years without making any major foreign policy gaffes, she can launch a political comeback and tout these years as...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A top adviser from John McCain's presidential campaign who has criticized Sarah Palin's odds as a 2012 presidential candidate defended Wednesday the decision to pick her as McCain's 2008 running mate. Steve Schmidt, who was chief strategist for the Republican's campaign during the 2008 election, said choosing Palin — then a little-known Alaska governor — helped the GOP gain ground against the Democrats and Barack Obama. "I believe to this day that had she not been picked as a vice presidential candidate, we would have never been ahead, not for one second, not for one minute,...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A top adviser from John McCain's presidential campaign who has criticized Sarah Palin's odds as a presidential candidate in 2012 is standing by the decision to pick her as McCain's running mate in the 2008 election. Steve Schmidt, who was chief strategist for McCain's presidential race, said Palin helped McCain as a running mate in the 2008 race. Schmidt earlier this month said that Palin would be a catastrophe for the GOP if she's the party's presidential nominee in 2012.

Former presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) acknowledged on CNN's State of the Union Sunday that tensions flared during his campaign between senior strategist Steve Schmidt and those allied with his running mate, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "With a high-pressure situation, there's always tensions that develop within campaigns," McCain said in a video excerpt posted online. "And there were clearly tensions between Steve Schmidt and people in the Palin camp." Schmidt has recently become a vocal public critic of Palin, predicting that a presidential run by her in 2012 would prove "catastrophic" for the Republican Party. McCain did not criticize Palin...

Michelle Obama put the final nail in the coffin in the idea of Hillary Clinton becoming her husband's vice-presidential nominee, according to a new book. Author Christopher Andersen reported that Mrs Obama favoured Joe Biden, the president's eventual choice. "Do you really want Bill and Hillary just down the hall from you in the White House?" she reportedly told her husband. "Could you live with that?" Mr Obama later thought of the masterstroke of appointing the woman he narrowly defeated as his secretary of state. According to the New York Daily News , Mrs Obama was "fascinated" by the choice...

Mayor Bloomberg said Tuesday he never thought he was on the short list to be Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate last year -- even though a new book claims he was one of the six finalists for the coveted slot. McCain's staff took Bloomberg's chances seriously, the book claims -- especially when they were told to set up a short podium for the still-secret vice-presidential candidate. "When I told them to lower it for someone who was 5-7, they thought it was Bloomberg," McCain aide Davis White says in "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary...

Sen. John McCain said he is saddened Sarah Palin has been the subject of "vicious attacks" but said his former GOP running mate has a promising future in the Republican Party. In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union," McCain said he believes Palin made the right decision by stepping down from her post as Alaska's governor 18 months before her first term was up and said he was upset that the ex-veep candidate continues to be the victim of searing criticism. "I respect Sarah Palin," McCain said in an interview that aired Sunday. "I appreciate her and her...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John McCain says he sees Sarah Palin continuing to play a major role in the future of the Republican Party. McCain says he respects the decision that his 2008 vice presidential running mate made to resign as Alaska governor. The Arizona senator says people make decisions based on what's best for them and for their families. And he says he thinks Palin "clearly" made the best decision. McCain says he thinks she will continue to be "a force" within the GOP. Palin intends to write a book and try to build a right-of-center coalition. Her long-term...

It’s just like the old Huey Lewis song from “Back to the Future” where the occasional doo-wop performer sings about going back in time. Because hearing John McCain this morning sticking up for Sarah Palin makes it feel like the 2008 campaign season again. It’s like McCain has morphed into Marty McFly. And Palin is perhaps, George McFly. And the media, maybe, is Biff. Then again, this analogy might be an abject failure. Regardless, McCain — appearing on CNN’s State of the Union said he was “…saddened by the fact that there are still such vicious attacks on her and...

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore, John McCain had this to say about Governor Palin: If the market crash was the low point, I ask him for his best memory from the campaign. “The high point, I think, was the convention, the selection of Sarah Palin, and the enthusiasm that was generated all over the country.” His fondness for Mrs. Palin and her family strikes me as from the heart; he believes she was a net asset for the ticket. “Let’s face it,” he says, “she galvanized our base in a way that I couldn’t. Everywhere...

John McCain is red in the face and hopping mad. I’m sitting in his office in the Senate Russell Office Building, and he’s just rushed in after delivering a speech on the Senate floor where he seethed about the earmarks in the Homeland Security Bill. “Can you believe they are putting $6 million of pork into Homeland Security?” he asks with his trademark clenched-fists. [...] He says he has worked to keep his relations with President Barack Obama “cordial,” but he pulls no punches criticizing the president’s economic policies. [...] He certainly was dealt a lousy hand. .....Why did he...

Voting rate dips as older whites stay home About 63.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters cast ballots in November WASHINGTON - For all the attention generated by Barack Obama's candidacy, the share of eligible voters who actually cast ballots in November declined for the first time in a dozen years. The reason: Older whites with little interest in backing either Barack Obama or John McCain stayed home. Census figures released Monday show about 63.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters, or 131.1 million people, voted last November. Although that represented an increase of 5 million voters — virtually all...

In a speech that has electrified the pro-life movement, Alaska governor and John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, touched on her own family’s personal pro-life decision. While 80 to 90 percent of pregnancies involving Down syndrome babies end in abortion, the Palin family chose life. “And in April, my husband Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical,” Palin said. “That's how it is with us,” the governor went on to say. “Our family has the same ups and downs as any...