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Palin
the shopaholic diva throws tantrums, blames advisors,
doesn't know Africa is a continent
[Why
Sarah Palin Will Never Be President: Lacks Intellect and
Curiosity]
|
It
turns out that Tina Fey and SNL were very kind to Sarah
Palin. As clueless as they made her look on SNL, the real
Palin is far more dimwitted, lacking in knowledge of basic
geography, treaties with other countries, combined with an
unwillingness to read and prepare.
We
have known this for a long time. You only had to
study the McCain campaign closely to understand that all
was not well between McCain's aides and Sarah Palin. With
the election over, Newsweek, Fox News, and others are
giving us detailed accounts from inside the McCain camp,
and it's not pretty.
When
Palin was told to go out and buy a few outfits for the
campaign, no one expected her to behave, as one McCain
aide put it, like a "Wasilla hillbilly"
ransacking Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.
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Sarah
Palin during John McCain's concession speech.
Strategist Steve Schmidt refused to let her speak at
the event.
[GO
TO: Sarah Palin's private concession speech
AND Conservatism's
Deep Crisis AND Conservative
Bloggers Lost in Obama Land] |
Fortunately,
a GOP supporter had offered to foot the bill for Palin's
clothes but he did not expect the charges of more than
$100,000 which appeared on his credit card.
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Palin,
who is from a humble background and not well paid as
Alaska governor, was like a kid in a candy store when let
loose in upscale Macy's, Bloomingdales, and Neiman Marcus.
She even spent $20,000 to $40,000 buying suits, shirts,
and ties for her husband Todd, all care of the GOP.
When
it was pointed out to her that spending $150,000 on
outfits and $20,000 on make up was not in keeping with her
image as a hockey mom and champion of working Americans,
she threw a tantrum so bad it made some of her staffers
cry.
When
advisor Nicole Wallace told Palin she needed to prepare
for the Katie Couric interviews, Palin did not want to,
believing that Couric would go easy on the "first woman to be a
Republican vice presidential candidate".
The
Couric interviews turned out to be a disaster and turning
point in the campaign. Palin was unable to answer even
basic questions. McCain thought Couric's questions were
perfectly fair. She asked only what a VP
candidate would be.
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Todd
Palin has an amusing non-role in the campaign. He's
a northern man of few words, unaccustomed to the
endless banter and chatter of campaign
professionals. Mark Salter, McCain's speechwriter
tried to strike up a conversation with him in a
hotel room.
"So
what's the difference between a snowmobile and a
snow machine, anyway?" Salter asked.
"They're the same thing." Todd replied.
"Right, so why not call it a snowmobile?"
Salter asked. "Because it's a snow
machine," was Todd's matter of fact reply.
McCain's
campaign chief Steve Schmidt and Salter later talked
about Todd. "So how about the Eskimo? Is he on
the level?" Schmidt asked. Salter just shrugged
and dragged on his cigarette.
Todd
later got into hot water when it became obvious
McCain-Palin were going to lose. He called sponsors
in Alaska, telling them to wait with their
contributions until 2012. |
expected
to know. There was nothing harsh or cruel about the
questions. There were no tricks, no attempts to make Palin
look foolish. She failed because of her inability to prep
and focus.
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Palin
exploded at her staff after the Couric sessions, demanding
to know why they hadn't warned her, and why they hadn't
tried to steer Couric towards softer questions. Palin was
furious that Couric gave her no opportunity to do what she
wanted to do, i.e. stick to memorized talking points and
slam Obama.
That
opportunity arose during the VP debate with Joe Biden.
Before the debate, Rush Limbaugh and other conservative
talk show hosts had neutralized moderator Gwen Ifill by
suggesting she was biased in favor of Obama because she
was planning a book about young African America
politicians.
As
a result, during the debate, Ifill did not dare ask Palin
follow-up questions, nor did she stop Palin from rambling
off point. At one point, Palin told Iffil and the audience
that she wouldn't answer questions if she didn't want to.
Palin's
performance was not stunning, but was passable. The Obama
team had instructed Joe
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PALIN
ANSWERS CRITICS
Palin,
speaking on her return to Alaska, slammed her critics
inside the McCain camp.
She
called her former campaign workers
"cowardly".
Responding
to accusations that she has a limited knowledge of
geography, she said: "That's cruel. It's
mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and
those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking
things out of context, and then tried to spread
something on national news. It's not fair and it's not
right."
Commenting
on the outfits that she obviously wore at the
Republican Convention and on the stump, she said:
"Those are the RNC's clothes. They're not my
clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything. I
never asked for anything more than maybe a Diet Dr
Pepper once in a while." |
Biden to go easy on Palin and
focus instead on John McCain. This must have irked Biden
who sensed that Palin did not have a clue on most issues. Biden
was right. During preparation for the debate with McCain
aides, Palin's ignorance was mind boggling. She did not
know that Africa is a continent rather than one country or
a collection of countries. She did not know that South
Africa is a country in its own right, rather than simply
the southern part of Africa. She had no idea which
countries were members of NAFTA. And she could not explain
the notion of "American exceptionalism". The SNL
quip about Palin needing to be thrown a lifeline was very
close to the truth.
These
are the reasons why Steve Schmidt, McCain's chief
strategist, decided to close Palin down, not allowing her
to meet the press, hold press conferences, or answer
questions off the cuff. He and McCain were terrified Palin
would come across as a blithering idiot. It is easy to say
now that the strategy backfired, but what would have
happened if Palin had shown the world she thought Africa
was one country?
What's
sad and embarrassing for McCain is that much of this was
hidden from him. His staffers decided not to tell him
about Palin's $150,000 shopping spree, thinking he might
be upset and angry at a time when he needed to focus all
his energy on the campaign.
The
choice of Palin was clearly disastrous for McCain. Over
the next few weeks, we will have more inside stories, some
more shocking that the ones published so far. [GO
TO Why Sarah Palin Will Not Be President In 2012 -- or
Ever] [Michelle
Malkin: Conservative Pay Per Click Pundit Lost in Obama
Land] |
