Akeena Solar

The God Blog

Email | Print | Text - Text +

November 6, 2008 | 2:21 pm

Politico predicted McCain staffers would trash Palin

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo

Last night, a friend chastised me for being so credulous to as to believe Sarah Palin is really as dumb as some McCain staffers are now portraying her—i.e. unsure about what nations are in NAFTA or that Africa is a continent and not a country.

“Brad, Brad, Brad,” she wrote, “believing crazy sh—from anonymous sources that is ON ITS FACE clearly made-up?”

This went on and on, with her making relevant points and me being a bit irreverent. I told her she had a case, but that she’s in Washington and I haven’t been on a government beat in three years, so my agenda radar was a bit off in the aftermath of a horrible presidential campaign. Still, I wasn’t convinced that Palin knew Africa was a continent or, for that matter, what continent Russia belongs to. (That’s a trick question.)

“Did you see her on Katie Couric?” I asked. “I would seriously believe any combination of words could have come out of her mouth.”

Today, though, my friend sent me this story, which pretty much won me over completely. It’s from Politico’s inestimable Ben Smith, and it’s two weeks ahead of the curve:

Anger among Republicans who see Palin as a star and as a potential future leader has boiled over because, they say, they see other senior McCain aides preparing to blame her in the event he is defeated.

“These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,” a McCain insider said, referring to McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin’s campaign. Palin’s partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin’s avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News’ Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week.

“A number of Gov. Palin’s staff have not had her best interests at heart, and they have not had the campaign’s best interests at heart,” the McCain insider fumed, noting that Wallace left an executive job at CBS to join the campaign.

Wallace declined to engage publicly in the finger-pointing that has consumed the campaign in the final weeks.

“I am in awe of [Palin’s] strength under constant fire by the media,” she said in an e-mail. “If someone wants to throw me under the bus, my personal belief is that the most graceful thing to do is to lie there.”

In other words, don’t dismiss the claims. They could very well be true. But—like journalists should always do when quoting sources with agendas, and everyone has an agenda—they should be taken with a grain of salt.

Comment below, e-mail me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or follow me on Twitter. I recommend doing at least two of the three.

10 Comments — Leave your comment

Share this post: del.icio.us Favicondel.icio.us Digg FaviconDigg Facebook FaviconFacebook Google FaviconGoogle Reddit FaviconReddit StumbleUpon FaviconStumbleUpon Technorati FaviconTechnorati YahooMyWeb FaviconYahooMyWeb

COMMENTS

We welcome your feedback.

Privacy Policy

Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.

I think Sarah Palin is a brave, brilliant lady of
character, charm, integrity and righteousness.  I am so
heartbroken for McCain’s defeat in this pres. race but
they were the true winners for me. Thanks for this fair
news, I think the smear to Palin is unfair, just as bitter small people do when jealousy eats them alive.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem as Palin and I do!!
They hate her because she is a Bible believer from
Genesis to Maps! God bless America and God’s chosen.

Comment by Friend of God on 11/06/08 at 3:33 pm

Palin lied to the public from day. Even after her stories were debunked, she continued day after day uttering the same lies.  Her criticisms of Obama were wholly hypocritical considering her and her husband’s associations with secessionists.  She was a fraud and deserved defeat.

Comment by Marie in Tampa on 11/06/08 at 3:49 pm

Yackity yack Gog talks back! Ooops, sorry, talking in tongues again.

Comment by uvlight on 11/06/08 at 8:59 pm

the republican party had nothing to sell but fear and proven failed economic policies. fortunately for us all God showed us just in time with the dive in the market and most importantly picked bush to lie to the world thus opening our ears to truth. we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the republican party here. fear ain’t my only god but it is theirs. i’m a truth addict and shit i had a head rush with Obama. fear not for i am with thee.

Comment by ming on 11/06/08 at 9:08 pm

I hope that the statements made by McCain’s staff are not true, because if Palin does have a college degree and does not know that Africa is a not a country, that makes people like myself with a degree seem less educated. Sadly, I do believe she is that ignorant, which goes to show that a college degree is just a piece of paper.

Comment by Rich on 11/07/08 at 12:58 am

To believe the comments now surfacing about Sarah Palin disparages the intelligence of Alaska’s citizens as a whole. Many of you will be predisposed to believe that she is an idiot simply because you WANT her to be an idiot. But please consider this; Anonymous source = lack of accountability. If you speak the truth and do so with a clear conscience and for the greater good, why hide in the cloak of anonymity?

Comment by DOODER on 11/07/08 at 12:37 pm

I believe it is the sole aim of far left smear organizations like MOVEON.ORG and others to trash Palin as much as they can because they fear her power to communicate with the majority of America with her down-to-earth appeal.  To call her “dumb” is absolutely ludicrous.  She’s dumb as a fox and “they” know it!

Comment by John Suhr on 11/09/08 at 9:54 pm

“In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions to others.

Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them. “

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

Comment by The Web Guy on 11/09/08 at 10:48 pm

I responded to this point in detail in your entry entitled RIP: Sarah Palin’s political career

I won’t reproduce my comments here but you can follow the link. For now let’s just reproduce a relevant quote by Hemingway:

Hemingway said, and Henry Rollins quoted, “Critics are like those Generals who watch the battle from the hill above the field, and then come down to shoot the survivors.”

Comment by Ben Plonie on 11/12/08 at 12:01 am

Debra J. Saunders at SFGgate says it better: ... the view is of a campaign run by people who are so protective of their own precious backsides that they will sling all matter of mud ...

Comment by Ben Plonie on 11/12/08 at 12:07 am

Post a Comment

Name:  
Email:  
URL:  

Type the word you see below:

Comment:

About this Blog

Blog Home
About the Blogger(s)
Contact

RSS


Blog Archive